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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day 306 here at the Bible Department. Today we are looking at Proverbs, chapters 13, 14, and 15. And if you can't tell, I love the book of Proverbs. I love wisdom. I think that there is such great benefit to just leading a life of wisdom. So I've been really, really, really enjoying our journey through the Book of Proverbs. I'm gonna try to actually give you my top 10 today. All right? So no intense context clues. Obviously, the book of Proverbs just doesn't work that way. There are not really like a historical moment where we can attach these sayings of the wise. I may try to give you some, just some context for maybe wisdom literature in general or the Book of Proverbs in general tomorrow or the next day. But for today, I really do want to get through my nerdy nuggets, aka Dr. Manny's top 10 verses of the day. Like TRL style. I'm so old I just said TRL. Anybody? If you remember what TRL is, like, let me know in the comments if you're watching this on YouTube, if you know what TRL means, tell me, like, what it stands for. What does the T mean? What does the R mean? What does the L mean? And put that in the comments and. And prove that you're a millennial. Okay, let's see. Let's see. Cam is Gen Z. He's in the studio with me. You know what TRL is? He doesn't know. Cam doesn't know what TRL is. Cause he's too young. So TRL, okay? So you know, TRL was the top 10 music videos of the day, okay? And if you know what it stands for, put it in the comments. But 106 and park, baby. We're gonna do top 10 Dr. Manny's top 10 Bible verses from Proverbs chapters 13 and 15 today. And we're gonna get through all 10. Okay. Okay. We tried to do this yesterday. I think we only got through like six or seven, but today we going to actually get through 10. All right, starting at number one. And these are no, in no particular order. The order is I'm going to start at, you know, the Earliest verse in chapter 13 and go to the last verse of chapter 15. So it's not an actual top 10 in terms of, like, popularity or how much I like them, just in order of how they appear in Scripture. Okay, so Proverbs chapter 13, verse 3. And it says this. All. These are. These are just my favorites, as I did the reading today. Proverbs 13:3. Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin. It's funny, because I think that the enemy loves to attack you at the point of your greatest strength. And so I would say probably my greatest weakness for years was. Was my tongue. You know, just having a sharp tongue. That's also my greatest gift. So if there's anybody out there who. Your greatest gift and your greatest weakness kind of go hand in hand, you're not alone. That doesn't make you weird. That actually is quite normal for the enemy to want to neutralize your strength with a corresponding weakness. Okay, so Pastor Robert Madue. Okay, My pastor in Dallas really, really helped me with this one. He said, Manny, he said, man, a serial killer and a surgeon are both using a knife to cut people. But he said, a serial killer is obviously, you know, ruining that person's life and is going to kill them and going to go to jail. You know, if they're caught forever, it's going to go to prison forever. But a surgeon is actually going to get asked to do it again and again and again because it's not the cut that brings. That brings death. It's the ability to use the tool. And he said, words cut and words cut. And every time you use your words, you're either going to be a serial killer or you're going to be a surgeon. And he's like, I want you to just get surgical with your words. And he really helped me and another person in my life, Pastor Jimmy Rollins. Remember him saying to me, you've been trying to be filtered your whole life. You don't need to be filtered. You need to be tactful. And I just began, in the last, probably two to three years, really, you know, realizing the power of words and the power of using precise words and the power of not just saying it out of passion, but really doing the hard work to define words and to use the right words and to be tactful, to be surgical and not just be loose or flippant or careless with words. And I would say that if you. If I just examine my own leadership style, you know, in my early 20s, my late 20s, my early 30s, I would have said I was a passionate leader. I was an energetic leader. I was a lot of the things that I am now. But I was also a leader who lacked hair, precision, and tact when it came to words. And so Proverbs 13:3, speaking my language, those who guard their lips preserve their lives. That there's something about speech and talking that's, that's completely connected with the quality of your life, okay? And. But those who speak rashly will come to ruin. Sometimes you just got to be quiet. Sometimes you just got to say nothing until you are in a position where you can be tactful. Sometimes we're trying to be tactful, but you're angry or you're offended or you're too emotional. And so honestly, if there's something that's just added great value to my life and has kept me from ruining relationships over the last couple years, it's been Proverbs chapter 13, verse 3. And the two leaders in my life that have really made the this verse come to life, it's Pastor Robert Madu, Pastor Jimmy Rollins. So shout out to them. They're amazing. All right, number two, Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 10. Man, this one's good. Says this, where there is strife, there is pride. Oh, that is good. Where there is strife, there's pride. If you have strife with another person, somebody's lacking humility in this equation. And actually, one of the things that I've learned as a leader is the more humbly I can be, or the more humble I can be, or the more humbly I can speak or present myself in any conversation, the more that I decrease the likelihood of there being strife on the team. Anytime there's strife, there's pride. And here's how I see pride manifesting itself. A lot of times, people thinking their way is the right way or their way is the only way to do things. And so their ideas, they start to hold their ideas not open handed, but close handed. That's pride. You are valuing your perspective and your opinion so highly that nobody can tell you that that's not the right way to do it. That's just your way to do it. Humility says there's tons of ways to do it. I'm not married to the way that we do it. I'm just married to the destination, man. I'm married to us getting it done. And people who want to go fast, go alone. People who want to go far, take a team. And it's going to take a lot of hum to Die to the way that you may want to do things or to stop believing that you have the best ideas all the time. Because where there is strife, there is pride. So anytime there's, you know, just, ah, this, you know, this relationship's kind of taking a lot of effort. Somebody's operating in pride. Somebody, somebody. You want to know what humility says? I could be wrong. Hey, man, my way's not the only way to do it. My way's not the only way to see it. When there is strife, there is pride. And here's what's also pride, okay? When there's disagreement and somebody just goes, all right, let's do it your way. Yeah, let's do it your way. And they just like, so those are two extremes. One, fighting to do it your way is pride. Completely giving up and just. And just, you know, letting the other person do it their way is pride. You want to know what takes? Humility, Compromise, negotiating. You know what takes. You know what it takes? Humility. You know, meeting in the middle. Hey, how can we. In what way can we collaborate with each other? All right. Oh, gosh. It's not looking like I'm gonna be able to get through 10. Okay. But wisdom is found in those who take advice. Okay, so where there's strife, there's pride. But wisdom is found in those who take advice. Family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold, literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. All right, number three. Proverbs 13, verse 11. Proverbs 13, verse 11. Dishonest money dwindles away. But whoever gathers money little by little, makes it grow little by little. Little by little, how do you become wealthy? Little by little, dishonest money dwindles away. You know, it's funny. I had a friend back in Boston who was a drug dealer for years. And I was like, did you, like, get wealthy? He was like, dude, no, I never made a lot of money. He's just like, like dishonest. Money just dwindles away. He's like, it's, it's, we act like that's, it's good money, but it's not. Let me tell you, get rich quick schemes will take all your money. You're essentially just playing the lottery. It's poverty mentality. Little by little, little by little, little by little, okay? But whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow. Okay? Slow and steady wins the race. Okay? Proverbs 13, verse 20, number four. Proverbs 13, verse 20 says this. Walk with the wise and become wise. Walk with the wise and become wise. You want to know how you're going to become wise? Find a wise person and get around them. That's how you get wise. Find wise people. Walk with the wise and become wise. Okay. Somebody asked me one time, why did you move all the way to Dallas, Texas, from North Carolina? I said, to walk with Pastor Robert Madu, to be wise. Like, I saw him as someone who was wise. And the Bible says that wisdom is worth selling everything you've got. So I sold my house in North Carolina. I moved halfway across the country. I. I invested resources to be around someone that I thought was a wealth of wisdom, a well of knowledge. Okay. And I got no regrets. The garden feels a lot like Social Dallas. And my ministry style is reflected in the church that I came from. And so the three years that I spent with Pastor Robert and Pastor Taylor at social, Invaluable. But I decided not just to fly in a couple times a year to preach, not just to show up at the conference. No, no, no. To walk with the wise. To walk with the wise. To get to his house at 5 o' clock in the morning and go to Barry's boot camp. Oh, God, I hate Barry's boot camp. But that's what it means to walk with the wise. It means that you put yourself in proximity to leaders. Now we have this twisted. We think that wise people are going to come find us and come disciple us. So ridiculous. No, if you want wisdom, you go find a wise person and go walk with them. No one who's wise is thinking about you. Nobody. They got stuff to do. They're busy. They're busy leading and they're busy flourishing and they're busy parenting and they're busy. Okay? So Pastor Robert wasn't going to come find me, discover me, mentor me, No, I needed to go be around him. It doesn't say, the wise will come walk with you so that you can become wise. No, it says, walk with the wise and become wise. And we got a whole generation that just complains. Nobody's discipling me. Nobody. Nobody. Yeah, nobody. Okay, cool. You know, even on our launch team right now, I had a couple of the guys, they're like, hey, I would love to spend some time with you. And I'm like, hey, you do know that there's a 5:00am prayer that happens every Tuesday and every Thursday, right? 5:00 clock in the morning, every Tuesday, every Thursday on Zoom. I'm there. So how you missing the 5am prayer then? Asking me to do coffee? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not here to accommodate you. You want, you want wisdom? Come. Come be in my world. You want wisdom? Come get around me. I'm not the one with something to lose here. You're the one with something to lose here. So I'm not going to chase you to give you wisdom. If you want wisdom, you better wake your happy hips up at 4:45 in the morning and jump on that Zoom call at 5am because you can't complain about the wisdom you don't got when wise people are giving you an opportunity to be around. But it's at an inconvenient time. Also, in my entire ministry career, I always make things at 5 o' clock in the morning to make it inconvenient on purpose. Cause it's a test. Cause everything's a test. When I first met Jesse Summers, he asked if I could mentor him. And I said, Yep, sure. Starbucks, 6am And I told dozens of people, Starbucks, 6am that's back when I was still drinking Starbucks. I know I've repented from my sins. I, I, I saw the light. No more Starbucks. We don't do Starbucks no more. But back 10 years ago, doing Starbucks, Starbucks, 6am and you wouldn't believe the amount of guys I told that to who never showed up to Starbucks at 6am But I said it to Jesse, and guess what he did? He showed up to Starbucks at 6am because he understood that if I walk with the wise, I'll become wise. And I've watched that man become wise. Why? Because he decided to sacrifice to put skin in the game, to wake himself up and to walk with the wise. No leader is going to put stuff on the bottom shelf for you. Nobody. Great leaders that have something to offer is going to put it up on the top shelf. All the way up on the top shelf. If I wanted time with Pastor Robert, I knew, hey, if I get to his house by 4:30, I could jump in his car while he drives to Barry's boot camp. And I hated Barry's and I hated waking up that early. But guess what? If I'm going to walk with the wise, then that means I'm going to cold plunge. That means I'm going to get in the sauna, and that means I'm going to do a bunch of stuff I don't really want to do. But no great leader makes their pearls accessible. You don't put pearls on the bottom shelf. And wisdom is never going to go on sale. So you got to ask the question, am I doing what's actually required to gain wisdom from somebody? All right. Golly, we only get four number five Proverbs, chapter 13, verse 24. Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. All right, this verse gets taken out of context a lot. Okay? Sparing the rod doesn't mean that I don't physically spank my children, okay? I actually think that a lot of pastors get into trouble by advising people or not advising people to discipline their children with. With physical, you know, with a pop or a wooden spoon or whatever. I actually think the heart of the verse has nothing to do with whether or not physical discipline is godly or not godly. I think that's a personal call. You make that judgment for yourself. I don't think it's any pastor's business to tell you how to discipline your child. But I will say this. There's a difference between punishment and discipline, punishment and discipline. And when there is sufficient discipline, you don't need punishment. What is punishment? Punishment is what happens after someone lacks discipline. Discipline is what happens to prevent punishment from ever needing to take place. So basketball practice, soccer practice is where discipline happened. Did that happen after the game or before the game? Before the game. We always had practice before the game to get in shape for the game. Okay? The discipline happens before the game to get in shape for the game. Now, there are a couple of games where we lost so bad, we were so undisciplined that our coach took us right back to our gym at 9 o' clock at night, 10 o' clock at night, and made us run laps, made us run lines. That's punishment. Okay? Or somebody was disrespectful. Or somebody wasn't dressed appropriately and we had to do laps. That was punishment that happens after the game when you drop the ball because you failed to be disciplined before the game in preparation for the game. And a lot of times we think that God is in the punishment business, but God's not in the punishment business. He's really in the discipline business. He wants to discipline you with fasting, discipline you with prayer, discipline you with reading the word. He wants to discipline you with so that you don't actually fail in moments of trial, testing or temptation, okay? So that there doesn't need to be punishment. So I actually think that the heart of God, the heart of this verse, the heart of a parent, should be, I want to discipline my child so that there aren't scenarios where I need to punish them. And discipline is not just about physically spanking them. Discipline is about training them, teaching them, correcting them, offering wisdom to them, guiding them, and depositing in them. And not just about, you know. You know, my dentist always tells me, the more preventative care we do, the more we don't have to, you know, do stuff to rescue your teeth once they're jacked, but we can actually prevent your teeth from even getting cavities in the first place. Oh, gosh. We only made it to five. All right, rapid fire. I'll do the last five. Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 23, says this. All hard work brings a profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. What's that mean? Talk is cheap, bro. Stop talking. Get to work. Okay. Proverbs, chapter 14, verse 23. All hard work brings profit, but mere talk leads only to poverty. Stop talking about that idea. Start doing something. This is a waste of time. Talking about stuff. You ain't got no plans on doing nothing. Stop talking. Just stop it. Stop it. Actually, scientists have found out that the more you talk about your goals, it actually, when you talk about your goals with other people, it releases a chemical in your brain where you start to feel a reward from just talking about it. And the reality is that the less you talk about it and just be about it, let people see the fruit of your labor. Don't talk about your goals. I'm gonna get in shape. Yo, watch, man. I'm gonna get in shape. Be quiet. Go get to the gym. Stop all that talking, all that yapping. You could be at the gym. You could be you. You could be bench pressing instead of yapping. Go, go throw some weights. Go, go, go. Be about it. Don't talk about it, be about it. All right. Proverbs 14:31. Rapid fire. Rapid fire. Rapid fire. Whoever oppresses the poor, shows contempt for their maker. But whoever is kind to the needy honors God. Self explanatory. God cares for the poor. God cares about how we treat the poor. God says that if we oppress the poor, we show contempt for their Maker. So God identifies with the poor, says, no, no, no, I'm their maker, I'm their God, okay? And whoever is kind of the poor honors me. So we want to make sure that we, we honor the poor, that we care for the poor, that we don't oppress them. That's a good verse, man, because obviously Proverbs is going to be, you know, Proverbs is all about you being wealthy. But in your pursuit of wealth, please don't oppress the poor and dishonor the poor, because that would be actually creating a curse for your own life. You'd be showing contempt for God and not honoring the Lord. Okay, Rapid fire, rapid fire, rapid fire. Proverbs, chapter 15:16 says this. Better a little with the fear of the Lord than great wealth with turmoil. Oh, there's a lot of you right now. It'd be better for you to have less money. First of all, you're in debt, you've overextended. You know what I'm saying? Your overhead's too, you know, too big. It'd be better. It'd be better, okay? Because real blessing comes with not, not. There's a difference between hard work and turmoil. If it's causing turmoil, then it's not from God. Okay? The rapid fire, rapid fire. 1522 says this. Plans fail for lack of counsel. But with many advisors, they succeed. I am a collaborative leader, which means I'm a collaborative decision maker. I like to get a multitude of counsel. I ask about a dozen people about everything before I really make decisions. And there are some people who just like, trust their gut and they just, you know, and I, I'm just not that kind of a leader. I, I don't think that, I don't think that's a good way to lead. I think that there is with many advisors, you know, plans actually succeed. So before we signed a contract for the House of Blues, I called Pastor Robert, man, I called, I, I, I called Pastor Matt back in Boston, my home church. I, I asked my wife, I asked our team, I, I asked the Lord, you know, safety in a multitude of counsel. Okay. I'm shocked as to how many people just make decisions by themselves and then they only come to their pastor once things go left and it's a dumpster fire. But it's like, your pastor could have saved you from that being a dumpster fire. I'm shocked as to how many people just show up like, hey, this is who I'm dating. It's like, you didn't want to get advice before you, like, locked it in with that person. Or they show up like, I proposed, and I'm like, oh, fantastic. Maybe if you had asked some wise people what they thought, we could have saved you from proposing because this person isn't a good person to marry. But hey, man, do you. Sounds good. Last one. Okay, 15, verse 27. It says this. The greedy bring ruin to their households, but the one who hates bribes will live again. The issue is not wealth, but it is greed. And Proverbs is going to go after greed. All right, what's our top of truth for the day? Our timeless truth comes out of Proverbs 15:8 says this. The Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. I wrote in my notes, legalism, where everybody says the Old Testament is legalistic, where legalism, where Proverbs 15, verse 8, says, the Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, legalism would mean, well, I could do wrong. And as long as I offer a lamb or a goat or a bull on the altar of sacrifice, it'll atone for my sins. And even God in the Old Testament is smarter than that. He's like, nah, I detest the sacrifice of the wicked because I'm after your heart. So legalism, where this idea that the Old Testament is legalistic is wild. That's crazy. That's not a biblically accurate statement. Says the Lord detests the sacrifice of the wicked, but the prayer of the upright pleases him. Okay, that you could actually do less than the person who's offering a sacrifice, because a sacrifice costs money. A prayer costs nothing. But as long as your heart postures in the right place, then you've done more in terms of your relationship with the Lord than by offering a sacrifice. So God's not very legalistic. God knows how to judge the thoughts and the attitudes of the heart. And that's not just true for the proverbs or the author of that proverb. That is true for me. That is true for you. That's a timeless truth. And all of the proverbs that I shared are actually timeless truths. And I love the book of proverbs. I wish the whole Bible was this simple. Anyway, all right, tomorrow we got day 307. We actually got through all 10 of those. I can't believe we did it. We did the last five. Kind of rapid fire, but I like it. Okay, day 307 tomorrow we got Proverbs 16 to 18. Cannot wait to dive into three more chapters of Proverbs with you. Same time, same place. I'll be here. The only question is, will you? If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. I love you regardless of if you're on a streak or not. Love you, love you, love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.