Verse by verse teaching - Proverbs 11:16 "Strength Among the Weak"

Amen. Proverbs chapter 11 verse 16. The tile of the message tonight is "Strength Among the Weak." So I'd like to begin our study tonight by asking you to do an exercise with me. I want to say a certain word to you. When I say that word, if you're willing to, I'd like to see a hand and see what comes to your mind, what you think of when I say this word. You ready? The word is "strength." What comes to your mind? Power. Power? OK. Well, if you could visualize strength, what would it look like to you? Anybody? What comes to mind? Nobody has any idea. Yes, sir. OK. Someone's finally... I knew that had to be in y'all's minds. Brother Shepherd. All right, go ahead. Strength. Yeah, yeah. That's a good one. Did you have one, Ms. Ellis? OK. Anybody? OK. All right. I don't know if anyone's seen anything online or not. Let me check real quick. Lifting weights, Chris Johnson said. That's good, Chris. Thank you. And those are things that we would normally think of when we think of strength. But tonight, the verse tonight, it actually takes us a little different direction. And all the answers we got were right. They were good answers. But sometimes when we think of strength, we don't always know where strength comes from. It doesn't always come from big muscles. It doesn't always come from internal prowess or resolve or something like that. A lot of times, strength, as God said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And so there's our strength that we think of when we have that very human response that we just got. We naturally think of human strength because that's what we know. But then there's this other kind of strength that we're going to find out tonight is actually found in weakness. And so it says here, as we look here at this powerful verse that's full of wisdom tonight, it draws our attention to, if you look within verse 16, it draws our attention to a gracious woman. When I said, what do you think of when you think of strength? Nobody said, I think of a gracious woman. That's the first thing that comes to mind. And it wouldn't have been what came to my mind either. But when you think of a gracious woman, you'd better recognize the word gracious by how the word is mainly translated in the Scriptures. The vast majority of the time, this word is translated either favor or grace. And I'm going to tell you how it's used most of the time. And when I tell you, you're going to recognize it. We're reading in the Bible and we're reading this story. Two people are come together and you know how their customs, their manners were there in the Old Testament. One person comes to another and says, if I have found grace in that eyes, or if I have found favor in that eyes, that is this word here. And when you see them saying, if I have found grace or favor in your eyes, again, almost every time is translated that way and it's used in some form like that. But when they say, if I found favor in your eyes or grace in your eyes, they'll say, then do this thing for me or permit this for me. Allow me to do one thing or the other. In Genesis chapter 30, for example, in verse 27, Genesis chapter 30, verse 27, it says, "And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in that eyes, Terry, for I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake." So Laban wanted Jacob to tarry or stay with him. If he found favor in his eyes, then do this for me. Stay here with me. Stay on a little bit longer. Another example is when Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That may be the most famous place where this word is used. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And in each case, the person who finds the grace, because when Laban said, if I found grace in your eyes, if Jacob stays on with Laban, then Laban found that grace. He found that favor. Well, Noah had or found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And so when you're thinking of that, in each case, the person who finds the grace or finds the favor in the eyes of the other person, in Noah's case, is the Lord. They're receiving some kind of kindness from that person. They're receiving some kind of help or benefit from that person in whose eyes they were favored. If Laban is favored in my eyes, I'll stay on with him like he asked. If Noah is favored in my eyes, then God says, I am going to spare him from the coming destruction. How beautiful when we think of how we found grace in the eyes of the Lord, too. How do we find favor in God's eyes? They're God's son. But in each case, the person finding the grace in the eyes of the other person is receiving that help, that kindness in whose eyes they're favored. So if I find grace in Brother Shepherd's eyes, and he gives me the help, the favor or the kindness that I need, if I say, Brother Shepherd, if I found grace in your eyes, would you do this or that for me? If I find grace in his eyes and he does those things that I need, those things that I request, then I find grace in Brother Shepherd's eyes, and Brother Shepherd is being gracious to me. See how that works? Finding grace, that's objective to me, you see. I'm the object of his grace, but he is gracious. He has to be gracious before I can receive that grace. God was gracious to Noah. Jacob was gracious to Laban. So a gracious woman, we're back to our text, a gracious woman is someone who ministers to people, someone who shows them kindness, someone who assists them in their needs, giving them what they need. Romans 16, verse 6 tells us of a gracious woman. The Apostle Paul said, "Greet Mary, who bestowed much labor on us." Here's Paul. Those apostles, disciples, they had lots of needs. They were needy people. They have lots of demands. They're coming and going, they're preaching, they're laboring, they don't always have time to do things. They're constantly handling the spiritual, and they don't always have time to minister to their carnal needs. And so there were women like Mary, if they go to a certain place, who says, "You know, I see this man has some needs here, and his helpers have some needs. I'll fix food for them. I'll provide lodging for them." I think of that woman that put up, was it Elijah? Put him up in the little house, the little apartment. And she was a gracious woman. And so here's Mary. He said that she's bestowed much labor on us. She was a gracious woman. She saw a need, and she labored to minister unto them, that she could help them minister unto others. There are women here at our church who are gracious women. They take food to people when they're down. They come up here to church, and they help clean or serve or work or whatever they can do, so they can be a blessing to others. They could be self-indulging, but instead of being self-indulging, they're self-sacrificing. Several women in our church come to mind right now, and several women period just come to mind right now that I'm thinking of, that I won't name, but they're gracious women. You know, I receive small monthly, I guess you would say, probably, little donations to the Know I'm Saved website online, or someone will come up to me and just hand me something. And there's not many, but there's some. Some have been doing it for a long time. The vast majority are women. They're women. And in my heart, I think I know what they're thinking. I can't do what he's doing, but I can help make sure he can do it. And those are gracious women. Some I've never mentioned their names, and I don't want to. Gracious, I've got one that every now and then, it's a man, though. He's a gracious man. Every now and then, he didn't have much to give. Every now and then, I get five dollars, and he's overseas. I get five dollars. I think, "How precious!" Like the widow's might. But you don't have to be a woman to be gracious, because remember, God was gracious to Noah. But the whole thing about a gracious woman here tonight is to show us that graciousness can come from weakness. And we'll find in a minute that graciousness is strength, and graciousness being found in a woman is strength among the weak. It's a very, very beautiful thing. The woman who anointed Jesus' feet, that was a gracious woman. Queen Esther was a gracious woman. Ruth was a gracious woman. And the Bible says that a gracious woman, if you look back at your text tonight, retaineth favor. Retaineth favor. The woman who serves others retains favor. Not the woman who's trying to get ahead in life. There's a lot of women trying to get ahead in life. All they think about is advancing the women's agenda. I don't want to advance the women's agenda. I want to advance God's agenda. I don't want to advance the male agenda. Men and women, none of us should have any agenda but God's agenda. What's God's agenda? Let's advance the kingdom. That's it. But not the woman who's trying to get ahead in life, not the woman who's trying to break the glass ceilings, not the woman who reaches the top of her business and begins to oversee other people, but the woman who serves others retains honor. Here's the kingdom truth for you tonight. You can be highly acclaimed and lowly esteemed. You can be highly acclaimed and lowly esteemed. Honor is to be esteemed. It's to be treasured inside someone's heart. It's better to be honored in the heart than to be flattered by the lips. Would you agree with that? Better to be honored in the heart than to be flattered by the lips. There's a lot of people out here. They work their way up to a certain position. And everybody flatters them because they think they can do something for them. I want to flatter this person. Maybe I'll get a favor from this person sometime or whatever. But down in the heart, they don't respect them. They don't honor them. A woman who is gracious, not ambitious, but gracious, she retains honor. She enjoys respect. She enjoys true admiration in people's heart. She enjoys the honor that God bestows upon her. She has love, commendation, and favor returned to her. I tell you, you have all the wealth and flattery you want to in the world. But if you're not honored, you're not really loved inside someone's heart, you're a very lonely human being. You're a very poor human being. Now, I want you to pay very close attention here tonight to what the word says. It doesn't say she receives honor. It says that the gracious woman retains honor. There's a difference, isn't there? Naturally, to retain it, you first had to have received it. But there's one thing to receive honor. There's another thing to retain honor. A lot of people receive honor, and they can't retain it. But this woman here, Solomon says, "She not only gets it, but she keeps it." She keeps that honor. Honor's a great thing, but it's easier to get honor than it is to keep it. You can get honor easily, but you can lose it just as easy. How many times have we seen people receive great honor in the past, only to watch them receive great shame and scorn in the end? You know what just popped in my head? That woman, who was the head of the NAACP in whatever county she was in, and they loved that woman, and they found out she wasn't even black. She's putting makeup on and doing her hair and all that stuff. Anyone remember that? Yeah. What happened to her honor? Gone, just like that. Just like that. Just like that. She couldn't retain it. Why, she wasn't a gracious woman. We see it all the time. Bill Cosby. He retained great honor for men, only to wind up in prison receiving scorn. Joshua Duggar from the eight, 19 kids in counting show, he received great honor, only to later bring great shame upon himself and his family. He couldn't retain it. Bill had money and fame. Josh had fame and honor for the time. But neither the money nor the fame, nor the honor of men could retain that honor. They couldn't keep it. Solomon says a gracious woman retains honor. Look back in your text now. And strong men retain riches. A gracious woman retains honor. In strong men retain riches. Strong here means fearful. It means powerful, tyrannical. In every single time this word is used in the Bible, with the exception of one, and it's kind of used that way then. I'll explain that in a moment. But in every single time this word is used in the Bible, it's speaking of a tyrant. It's speaking of a nation that comes in and destroys, like an enemy. One time this word is attributed to God, but it's attributed to God in the sense that he comes in like an enemy and destroys our enemy. You see? He becomes the enemy of our enemy. But in this sense, it's all about being a tyrant, being a powerful enemy. And men like that, tyrants, Vikings, you know, whatever you want to call them, those kind of people, they retain riches. You get the riches, you better be strong to keep the riches. You got to fight the wars. You got to keep the military up for someone comes and strips you of what you have. Strong men can retain riches by their tyrannical rule, at least for a while, at least until they get weak. And brute force, they can defend and safeguard the riches that they obtain. But notice that Solomon didn't say that strong men retain honor. You can be as muscular, you can be as muscular as Brother Shepherd. You can be as Viking-like as whoever. As mean and tough and strong as you want. But that won't get you honor. You can have someone fear you without honoring you, without making you in their hearts a very important great thing. Strong men don't have the strength to hang on to honor. Isn't that amazing? Here's this gracious woman, the weakest in the flesh, and she can hold on her and hang on to it. And then here's the tyrant with the Viking helmet and the, or whatever, the armament that he has and the weaponry that he has and the mindset, the brilliant military mindset he has, he can't retain honor. But the woman can. Solomon didn't say strong men retain honor, he said they retain riches. It's easier to keep your riches than it is to keep your honor. You see that? Far easier to keep your riches than it is to keep your honor. Strong men will come closer to keeping their riches than they ever would keeping their honor. George Soros has managed to retain his riches, right? He's a strong man, maybe not physically, but he's a strong man strategically. And he has managed to keep and retain his riches, but he has no honor from any honorable person. You know what he has? A lot of dishonor, a lot of it. The most powerful men in the world, they can hang on to money easier than they can hang on to the respect of their fellow man, easier than they can hang on or gain the respect of God. So with that said, it takes greater strength to retain honor than it does to retain riches. Because honor is harder to obtain, it's even harder to retain, therefore it takes greater strength to retain honor than it does riches. And that means a gracious woman in her weakness is stronger than a tyrant in his strength. I should have labeled that a kingdom truth. That is a kingdom truth. I'm going to say it again. Here's a kingdom truth that's not written down for you. A gracious woman in her weakness is stronger than a tyrant in his strength. And ladies, I hope that's an encouragement to you tonight. Now here's a kingdom truth I have written down. The poor and gracious are stronger than the rich and powerful. The poor and gracious are stronger than the rich and powerful. Righteous honor, it's better than earthly wealth. The Bible says in Proverbs 21, verse 1, "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver and gold." So honor is not only harder to retain, but it's far more valuable than the riches themselves. It's the better choice every time. Excuse me for the sound effects there. Earlier this week, I think it was Monday, Sunday night, maybe Sunday night or Monday, I received a precious voice message from one of our church members. And to keep from puffing that person up and robbing the purity of the message, I'll keep it between us and God. But the person sent a voice message to me, thanking me and Brother Shepherd for being faithful to teach God's word. And I sent a copy of it to Brother Shepherd to copy the voice message. And I wrote on there, "This is gold, brother. This is gold. Absolute gold." And that message was priceless to me. I literally would not trade that message for all the money in the world. I wouldn't. Last week, on the 11th floor of our building, there was a pair of sunglasses sitting on the water fountain in the hall, public water fountain, a pair of sunglasses just sitting there. Monday, when I went back to work, the sunglasses were gone, and there was a handwritten note in its place saying, "To the nice person who picked my glasses up, saw my glasses, picked them up and put them here where I would see them. Thank you." No glasses meant so much to this person. And so they left a nice note there for the person that saw them so they wouldn't get stepped on, didn't know where to take them to, and thought, "Well, maybe they'll be coming back to look for them, and I'll set them up here and they'll see them." And so the person was happy to see the glasses there, knew somebody thought, somebody cared outside themselves, set it up there, and they went back and wrote a nice hand note. And I just sat there and I read it, and I mused on it for a while. And one person got the nice glasses in the end, the other person got the nice note. And I promise you, the person who got the honor from the note gained more than the joy they would have gotten had they took the glasses. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. And the nice thing is not everybody can choose great riches. Not everybody can choose it. I can't just say, "You know what? I'm going to choose great riches." Well, good luck there. Hasn't worked out yet. But you can't just choose to be rich. But it says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. You know what? Everyone in here can choose a good name. Everybody in here can choose honor by being gracious, by being plugged into the gospel of Jesus Christ and then letting the grace that you've received then become graciousness to others. And as you found favor in God's eyes through Christ, let them find favor in your eyes through Christ. And be gracious to them. You'll have honor before God and men in that sense, at least honorable ones. Those who are gracious to others in the name of Christ shall retain the riches of the blessing of Christ. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 10. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 10 says, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which he have showed toward his name, that you have ministered to the saints and do minister." You be a gracious woman. Be a gracious man. I've been walking around at work today as I've meditated on this. In my response to people and trying to do things to people think be a gracious man, Richard. Be a gracious man. And when you are, God's not unrighteous to forget that graciousness. No, he won't forget your work. He won't forget your labor of love. I've seen people come up here and do things, not wanting any money, not wanting anything in return, just to help people, just to help the church. Someone trimmed the hedges out here. I got some jereminis. They're not getting anything for that. I hope. No, I'm kidding. But they're not getting anything for that. But you know what? God's not unrighteous to forget it if it's a work and labor of love. And you do it in his name, for his honor, for his glory, and for his saints. Seek to be gracious and you will be truly wealthy and truly strong. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word. Thank you, God, for this topic tonight of graciousness. Thank you, Lord, first of all, that we found grace from a gracious God. Help us, Lord, now to be gracious to others as you've been gracious toward us. In Jesus' precious name we pray and we love you. I pray for Bible Bill as he's getting older and more feeble. I pray that you'll help him as he is being a gracious man. And I know you won't forget it. God bless him and God bless this project. And let it be a labor of love unto you. In Jesus' name, amen.