Episode Transcript
Proverbs chapter 12, verse 14 tonight.
Proverbs chapter 12 and verse 14, the title of the message tonight is "A Full Heart."
"A Full Heart."
Rebecca, I like seeing your drawing the fruit of the mouth.
I was thinking I'm going to come up with a really difficult sermon title one day and see if she can draw a picture of that.
Well, look here tonight in Proverbs 12, verse 14.
Starts off by saying, "A man shall be satisfied."
"A man shall be satisfied."
And that's literally saying that a man shall be full.
Full.
When I eat, I like to eat until I'm full.
Tammy fixed some wonderful...
What kind of soup would you call that, Tammy?
Beef and cabbage soup.
I never had any kind of soup like it.
But it was good and I had some pepper sauce.
Man, I was putting that pepper sauce on there and some homemade cornbread and I ate until I was full.
There's nothing like it.
It feels good to eat a wonderful meal until my hunger is completely satisfied.
You ever gone to a restaurant, paid really good money for a meal, and you leave hungry, has that ever happened to anybody?
It just didn't fill you up.
And that's just not a good feeling at all.
I don't like it.
When God has blessed you with a hearty appetite, you don't want to leave hungry, you want to leave full.
And that is the idea behind this word "satisfied" is to have like a full belly or to be full.
In Exodus chapter 16 verse 8, Moses told the children of Israel, "The Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full."
And that's the same Hebrew word translated "satisfied" tonight.
The Lord wants His people to be full.
David didn't say, "My cup's running empty."
He said, "My cup's running over."
Now in the Bible, an appetite is a symbol of a strong desire.
Okay?
Because all of us can relate to being hungry.
And when you're hungry, you know, "Man, if I'm working on a sermon or on my book at home, if I'm hungry, my fingers quit typing on that typewriter.
I got to go search, and if Tammy doesn't have anything, she'll see me, I'll start opening the refrigerator, and she'll start trying to suggest stuff for me to eat.
No, that's not going to do it.
I'm hungry, and there's got to be something specific, and I'm not going to be happy until I get that craving satisfied."
And so in the Bible, that idea of being hungry for food is used as a metaphor for strong desires for something else.
Like, for example, Jesus said, "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be," what?
"Filled."
See how that matches in with our text tonight.
He didn't say, "They'll get a little bit of righteousness."
No, they'll be filled.
God created a man, God created a woman to be satisfied.
He created us to be full.
And the only way to be full is if you have a capacity to be filled.
The only way to be satisfied is if you have a capacity to have a longing, to have a craving met to its complete fullness.
David had his met to its complete fullness, and then some.
That's how come he said, "My cup runs over."
He had the capacity to be full, God filled it, and then God gave him more than what he expected.
In the book of Ephesians, the Bible puts it this way, that God would give us more than we could ask or think.
Or the Apostle Paul words it this way, "Exceedingly and abundantly," right?
Above all that we can ask or think, but it's exceeding.
And so I thank God for that.
God wants you to be full.
God gives people hungers for things other than food.
And our hunger for food is just an illustration of those other things.
And if there's one thing that we should all hunger for, if there's one thing that God wants to fill us with, it's the goodness of God.
The goodness of God.
Solomon said, "A man shall be satisfied," look back in your text now, with what?
Not with bread, not with water, not with wine, but with good.
With good.
And boy, this is one of my favorite words in the Bible.
The Hebrew word translated "good" here, can anyone guess?
"Tobe," who said it?
There you go, Benjamin.
There you go, "Tobe."
"Tobe," one of my favorite words in the Bible.
Now remember, "Tobe" is how God created the world.
And "Tobe" is how God created us.
He created us "Tobe."
He created everything "Tobe."
In six days of creation, when God made something, the Bible said, "He saw that it was 'Tobe,'" which is translated "good."
He saw that it was good.
And so, God satisfies, He fills a man with good.
God created a world that was "Tobe."
God created a man that was "Tobe."
And then God put the man in an environment that was filled with "Tobe."
"Tobe" is God's order.
"Tobe" is God's blessing.
"Tobe" is God's grace.
"Tobe" means "good," and that means "Tobe" is literally "good" for you.
God wants you to be filled with everything that's good for you.
And He wants you to be empty of everything that's bad for you.
That's really the Bible in a nutshell, isn't it?
That's the Bible in a nutshell.
"Tobe" is the blessing of God for the desires of man.
And that's the problem with sin.
Sin got our cravings out of whack.
So that we crave things that aren't "Tobe" for us.
God wants us to be filled with the goodness and the grace of His love for us.
And a man can be filled with God's goodness...
Look back at your text now.
"...by the fruit."
This is a fascinating study.
We can be filled with God's goodness by the fruit.
Now, fruit not only fills the belly, but fruit also fills the heart.
Which is the principal idea in this passage that we're studying tonight.
Food can satisfy the belly, but our heart is what needs to be filled the most.
Because it's where our innermost longings are.
The heart is where we are filled with peace.
Filled with joy.
Filled with purpose.
Filled with excitement.
Filled with wonder.
Filled with knowledge.
Filled with thankfulness.
Filled with praise to God.
I was on my way to Tyler yesterday morning for work.
And I could not sleep the night before.
And if you already go back and look when I sent you my sermon notes on here to the tech team.
It was past 4 a.m.
I had not slept a wink.
And I just could not sleep.
I got up, I went to my study, I said, "Well, if I'm going to be miserable, I might as well be doing something good with it."
So I went in there, I finished my sermon, sent off the notes, wrote a man back on the email that wrote in for a question to be answered.
And I got in bed and asleep, maybe around 4.30, 4.45.
And then woke up an hour and twenty, hour and thirty minutes later.
I have to go to work on that.
And man, I was miserable.
I was fighting sleep.
I felt horrible on the way to work.
And I saw the sunrise.
And suddenly the Lord started to remind me of who He was.
And I felt miserable physically.
But I started just praising God.
And I'll tell you, being miserable physically is one thing.
But if your heart is filled with Tob, man, there's nothing like it.
There's nothing like that inward tranquility.
That peace that passes on us and that exciting joy that you have on the inside.
That's where God wants to fill us.
Esau learned the hard way that you can fill the belly and a few hours later, that's gone.
But man, what's filled us?
The goodness of God.
It's just always there.
It sticks to your ribs, doesn't it?
I mean, you don't get rid of the grace of God.
And so we can be filled by fruit.
Fruit fills the heart.
Filled with praise.
All of those things are Tob.
Now the fruit that grows on trees, that's what can fill your belly.
But that kind of fruit can't fill your heart with all the wonderful things we just mentioned.
So there is physical fruit like the kind that grows on trees or grows out in your garden or grows out in the field.
But there's also spiritual fruit.
And that doesn't grow on trees.
That fruit, tonight, it grows on people.
Just like Rebecca's picture that she drew in the notes.
It grows on people.
Physical fruit has all kinds of nutrition in it.
Man, I was looking at it, "Nutrition on a sweet potato."
I never met a sweet potato I didn't like.
And boy, it's just filled with nutrition.
But physical fruit has all kinds of nutrition in it.
But spiritual fruit has all kinds of Tob in it.
It does.
Spiritual fruit has all kinds of Tob in it.
Vitamins are good for the body, but Tob is good for the soul.
Now where does a man find spiritual fruit?
You can't get it down at Lowe's.
Can't go plant it in your backyard.
Where does a man find the spiritual fruit that can fill his heart with Tob?
Well, tonight, you can find spiritual fruit in lots of places.
But tonight, he's talking about a couple of places.
And one, if you look back in your text, it says here, "of his mouth."
Of his mouth.
When we are yielded to God's Spirit, our mouth becomes a branch that bears fruit.
Isn't that neat?
When we're yielded to God's Spirit, all of our body becomes instruments of God's righteousness.
It all becomes branches.
But through those branches, as God works through us, that's fruit.
That's spiritual fruit.
God working through us.
But at this time, Solomon is talking about God speaking through us.
You see?
And so, our mouth becomes a branch that bears fruit for other people to eat.
And encouragement, wisdom, sound advice, biblical advice, rebuke when needed, instruction of righteousness, the gospel of Jesus Christ, all of those things are the fruit of the mouth.
And that's just a few things.
And thank God that God causes that fruit to grow on the lips of his servants.
And when people eat this fruit, they're filled with tov, they're filled with good.
As you're being filled with good tonight.
As I'm up here expounding God's Word and showing you what it means, then what's happening is through your ears, as you're listening, and your mind is grasping, then your spirit is chewing and swallowing the fruit that's coming from my lips that comes from God's Spirit from His Word.
It's a wonderful thing.
And you're being filled with good, and you being filled with good causes me to be filled with good.
For Solomon says a man is filled with tov by the fruit of his mouth.
Now, how can we eat the fruit of our own mouths?
Is that when you encourage yourself?
You know, Sister Elizabeth's all stressed out, and she goes, "You can do it, Elizabeth.
Oh, praise the Lord.
I just filled myself with tov."
No, that's not how it works.
That's not how it works.
How can we eat the fruit of our own mouths?
Well, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6, Paul told Timothy, "If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished, nourished up in the words of faith and of doctrine whereunto thou hast attained."
Fruit nourishes us.
It nourishes the people who hear it.
It nourishes the people who bear that fruit.
So the people who hear us, they get nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine, and we are nourished up thereby, receiving the reward of God's grace to us for our faithfulness.
Every time I feed you, I'm being fed as well.
Every time.
Every time that ministers minister God's goodness with the the words of our mouth, then God returns that goodness to us in some form, both by enjoying the study ourselves of God's Word, but also by feeding on the fruit that's born from it.
Now, if you'll remember back in the book of Genesis about fruit, and what you learned about physical fruit, that's always true for spiritual fruit.
And what do we learn about fruit in the book of Genesis?
God created that fruit to have what inside of it?
Huh?
Seed.
And what does that seed bear?
It bears fruit after its kind, doesn't it?
Whose seed is it itself to bear fruit after its kind?
So, as I'm teaching you God's Word, or say you are going up to another brother or sister in Christ, or to another person, let's say you're sharing the gospel with someone, let's say you're coming alongside of someone, and you're encouraging someone, you're having a word of prayer with someone, as a brother or sister in Christ, and they are enjoying the fruit of your lips.
Well, whatever fruit is born by the Holy Spirit, it has seed in itself that bears fruit after its kind.
It's a beautiful thing.
So, you don't only bear fruit, but by bearing fruit you're sowing seed.
And so, as they eat that fruit, what's going to happen is, that will end up bearing back fruit to your account.
Now, I'll give you a very practical illustration of this.
When I'm exercising during the week, and I'm listening to Brother Doug, and oh, Brother Doug's grown so much in his teaching and preaching abilities.
God's just so blessed him.
And I can tell he studies.
He's just not up there mumbling and yelling and trying to get people's attention.
He studies.
He's a careful student of the Bible.
And as I'm listening to his study, and I'm able to enjoy feeding on his study.
And you know what's happening?
Well, by God's grace, I got to lead Brother Doug to Christ with the gospel.
That was the fruit of my lips.
Do you know what that fruit's doing now?
Well, it's bearing seed after its kind.
And so, here I am now feeding on the fruit that first got planted into him.
And now, it's returned back to me.
Here I am getting blessed by it.
What a blessing that is.
What an amazing blessing that is.
But, anytime you are edifying your brother or sister in Christ, you just know.
I'm not talking about flattery.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about a person filled with God's Spirit.
And they are speaking words of God to that person who needs to hear it at that time.
Even if it is a sincere, "I'm going to pray for you."
Even if that's all it is.
In your touching that person's heart, in giving that person what they needed to hear, God's going to make sure that that fruit abounds back to you.
It may not come back in the same form, but it's going to come back in the same way that you gave it.
And you're going to be...
That blessing's always going to return to you.
Every time.
Suppose you share the gospel with someone, they become a believer.
You're then going to feed on that fruit that comes from their conversion.
They go out and they win someone else to Christ.
Look at that.
They go out, they help someone do something.
Look at that.
That's fruit abounding to your account.
You'll be rewarded by God for your faithfulness.
You'll be filled with joy by the conversion that takes place.
You'll be partaker of their Christian life.
And suppose you offer words of encouragement to someone in a difficult time.
God's going to make sure that the love and the grace that you showed that person is going to be returned to you as well.
What does the Bible say?
"He has mercy on those that do..."
What?
"...show mercy."
Now what is that?
Mercy is a spiritual gift.
That is the fruit of your hands, the fruit of your lips, the fruit of your whatever.
However you're showing that mercy.
He that has mercy will be shown mercy.
That's that seed in itself that bears fruit after its kind.
You sow that mercy and then you reap that mercy back.
You sow that encouragement, you reap that encouragement back.
So we'll be filled with good by the fruit of our mouths.
Look back in your text and not just the fruit of your mouth and the recompense.
The recompense.
Now that's not going to a new topic here.
It's enlarging upon what we just talked about.
Recompense means the pay that's due for the work that's done.
Recompense.
Particularly the work that's done.
If you look back in your text now of a man's hands.
So now we go from a man's mouth filling him with good to a man's hands that is filling him with good.
Again it's the same principle that whatever instrument of our body that we yield to God that God works through.
That's Tobe.
That's God working his good, his Tobe through you.
So you can speak words of encouragement.
You can do works also that encourage.
You can do works also that help that show mercy and kindness and goodness or whatever you whatever that person needs at that kind.
So there is a recompense of a man's hand that Bible says, look back in your text, shall be rendered.
In other words, whatever you work God's going to pay for.
God always pays his servants well.
We're talking about the recompense of a man's hands.
We're not talking about you going out and working for Dallin the General.
We're talking about you going out and working for Jesus.
And you're going out and by the Holy Spirit you are laboring for the Lord and the work of your hands is going to be recompensed.
It's going to be paid back.
It's going to be rendered.
Look back in your text unto him.
I love this.
He didn't say the the recompense of a man's hand shall be rendered and stop there.
He said the recompense of a man's hand shall be rendered unto him as we are filled with good by the fruit of our mouths.
So we are filled by the fruit of our hands.
The work we do for God.
Someone says, well I'm not a good speaker, but you know what?
You can be a good worker.
You can be a good worker.
But we're filled with good by the work of our hands.
That work we do for God, whether we're ministering to others by the work of our hands or whether we're ministering to meet our own needs in faith to God to supply those needs, whatever it is, we will be compensated by the Lord.
Let me tell you, with God no checks get lost in the mail.
No checks ever get sent to the wrong party.
They always get recompensed unto him.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 58, "Therefore my beloved brethren, be you steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord."
Your labor is not in vain if that labor is in the Lord.
You're working for God.
God pays well.
God pays on time.
He may not pay quickly, but he's always going to pay timely.
He's going to pay it when you need it.
He's going to pay it when it comes due.
And your labor is not going to be in vain.
He will recompense the work of your hands.
We don't always get paid right away with the Lord, but we always get paid on time.
And that's what matters.
Not only that, but with God the right people always get paid.
He says unto him.
The right people will receive the right reward for the work that's done for God's kingdom.
Let me tell you, there's the devil, he's got all kinds of ways of twisting things up with people.
He can get inside your head.
You can be working for the Lord, and the devil can say, "Well, you know, be careful with this.
You don't want someone else to get credit for what you just did there.
You don't want someone else, you know, get credit for that.
You don't need to make sure you get credit for that.
You want to make sure you get recognized for that."
Or what have you.
You never have to worry about the wrong person getting compensated when you're serving the Lord.
God knows, and God will make sure that the reward gets in the right person's hands.
I love how the apostle Paul thought when he said, "Some people do things not sincerely supposing to add to my bonds.
Some I do it out of love."
He said, "What then?
Every way, whether in pretense or truth, I rejoice."
You know, what he was saying is, "I don't care.
That's between them and God.
All that matters to me is the Lord Jesus is being preached, and I'm rejoicing in it."
Some people were trying to steal the spotlight from Paul.
I'll tell you what, they may have gotten the spotlight, but they didn't get the reward that Paul got.
Someone may take your spotlight, but by the grace of God, nobody will take your reward.
Remember that the next time the devil tries to fight you.
I was at another church years ago, pastoring this church, and I got up one day and or came home, excuse me, I came home one day from work, and there was a brand new coat of asphalt on the parking lot.
It looked really nice.
Well, I hadn't been pastoring there very long.
I thought, "Well, maybe they have like a routine contract or something with a company to come out and do that."
I didn't know.
And so the next Sunday, I preached and did my thing.
I did Sunday school.
We had a great service, and on the way out, we had visitors that day, and I'm shaking the visitor's hand, introducing myself, and telling them how glad they were there.
Well, right in front of those visitors, one of our deacons comes up and chews me out for not publicly mentioning him for having paid for that asphalt during the church service.
Well, whoever the visitor was probably thought, "I'm not going back here."
And I said, "Brother so-and-so, is that you?"
"Well, that looks nice.
I didn't know.
No one told me."
"Hey, I could have at least got some recognition."
Well, you know, that's looking for the spotlight.
Now, I didn't say the man's name because he later apologized to me, and that's gone.
But just as an example, that's looking for the spotlight.
Let me tell you, you serve the Lord, you may not get the spotlight, but you will get the reward.
You know who needs the spotlight?
He does.
That's all that matters.
Don't let the devil get your head twisted in that.
The right people receive the right reward.
That's done for God's kingdom.
The scripture says, "The work of our hands shall be rendered unto us."
With that, we'll go ahead and close tonight, and Lord willing, we'll take back up next Lord's Day with the next verse.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious Word.
We pray again for every prayer request that was mentioned tonight.
We thank you for these simple, practical truths tonight, dear Lord.
And we pray that our mouths, our hands, our hearts, every instrument of our body, Lord, we yield to you tonight.
Fill us, Lord, with your Holy Spirit as we go about this week, dear God.
And Lord, bear your fruit through us, Lord.
We're your servants.
Love through us, encourage through us, serve through us, hug through us, show mercy and grace and kindness through us, Lord.
We ask it in Jesus' wonderful name.
Let us serve you.
Let us put our hands to work that they may be filled with your good.
In Jesus' name, amen.
