Still Waters Church
The Foundation for a Healthy Home
How can you have a healthy marriage? How can you have healthy parenting? We'll just go and talk about that for about the next eight weeks. And so I hope you'll make sure that you are here every week and invite somebody to come and be with you. We're going to talk about the ingredients that you need to have a healthy home. Now the book of Proverbs gives us wisdom that we need to build strong and wise families. I want you to read this verse with me. Proverbs 24 verse 3, it says it takes wisdom to have a good family. And it takes understanding to make it strong. Can y'all see that on the screen? Okay, let's read that if you've got your phone or if you can see it on the screen. Proverbs 24 verse 3, let's everybody read it out loud together because this is our foundation of what we're going to be talking about over the next several weeks. Ready? It takes wisdom to have a good family and it takes understanding to make it strong. Now, God promises to give us wisdom if we'll come to Him. And so we're going to be talking about that over the next several weeks. We're going to be talking to people that are married and people that aren't married. We're going to talk to people that have kids or grandkids and those that don't. We're going to talk about people that have money and those that are broke. In other words, we're going to talk about everybody. All right, we're going to talk to you, all right? And so what we're going to be talking about over the next several weeks is worship. How incredibly important that is in your life. We're going to talk about marriage, we're going to talk about parenting. Can I get an amen right there? All right. Anybody been to the store lately? All right. You ever been in with somebody that has the kid that doesn't want to, but look, relax for everyone that's had kids, we know what that's like, okay? And we also want you to know that if you want to blap them upside the head, we ain't telling anybody. All right, so if you've had kids, you know, they're once while they need to be blapped upside the head. Okay. Some of you are looking at me in horror as if I'm abusive toward kids and I'm not, I promise you. But we're going to talk about parenting. We're going to talk about money management. What does the Bible say about that? We're going to talk about communication, but wouldn't it be great if you knew how to communicate with somebody with each other? Maybe your boss, your spouse, your kids, man, once they get a certain age, it gets kind of hard to communicate with them, doesn't it? Okay. We're going to talk about communication. We're going to talk about your work life. We're going to talk about your attitude. What does the Bible say that is necessary to have a strong home? We're going to build healthy homes and so to build a healthy is successful home or life. The question then is where do you start? Well, we don't start with what we read in a magazine. We don't start with what we see on TikTok. We don't start with what some influencer tells us we should do. Rather, we start with what the word of God says. If you want to know how to build a healthy home, you've got to find out what God says. And I believe what he says is a whole lot more important than what any talk show host is going to say. So what does the Bible say? The key ingredient is the starting point. The foundation for building a good life, a healthy home, and the right kind of family. Where do you start? What do you do? Well, there's a key ingredient that we're going to read repeatedly throughout the book of Proverbs and it's this, the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord. Now what is that? I'm going to explain that in a moment. But as you know that the fear of the Lord is mentioned 14 times in the book of Proverbs. The Bible says if you'll have the fear of the Lord, you're going to have success. If you have the fear of the Lord in your life, you're going to be blessed. If you have the fear of the Lord, you'll walk a straight path. You'll have a better life. You'll have a smoother life. So the fear of the Lord is incredibly important. And so we're going to tell you what that is. Now, because the foundation of the fear of the Lord, as we're going to see, is wisdom. When the book of Proverbs talks about wisdom a lot, let me give you the four different definitions of what wisdom is from the book of Proverbs. The number one is what we would call practical wisdom or common sense. Isn't common sense sometimes very uncommon nowadays? I mean, the fact is one of the ways that you know that you have wisdom from God is if you got some common sense. I mean, if you can speak truth, if you can recognize what is true and what is false, what is good, what is evil, sometimes just common sense. If you want to be great, if you and I could have common sense, would it be good to be able to have common sense when you first got married or when you first have kids? Kim and I have three children. Our oldest daughter is Brittany, and when she was born, she was our first child. She was the first grandchild on both sides. So you can imagine we made a lot over her. She was the first grandchild on my side of the family, the first grandchild on Kim's side of the family, our first child. Man, we didn't have any common sense when it came to raising a baby. It was all brand new to us, and even though billions and billions and billions of people have been born before, to us this was the greatest event in the history of the world. And I can remember when Kim and I first had Brittany that everything in our house, everything in our cars, everything in our lives had to be disinfected. Now, I don't know if you've ever experienced that with a first child, but my wife, I think, would spray me down when I came in, you know, to the house. And so we didn't have a lot of common sense when it came to having this first child. But the time we had our third child, Brooke, okay, when she was born, literally we went from spraying everything down. I remember, and I'm not making this up, I walked into the kitchen one day and Kim was getting on the Brooks. She was just a little toddler, a little baby still. She had found a roach on the floor and had it in her mouth. Was Kim freaking out? Was she disinfecting anything? No! She was getting broke into trouble for putting a brooch in her mouth. We didn't have much common sense, okay? Here's the point. When you follow God's Word, you can have common sense. You can know right from wrong. You can know the right decision to make. Another way of defining wisdom in the book of Proverbs is what we would call perspective. It's intellectual wisdom, but you have perspective on life. It takes wisdom to have a strong family. That's what it says, okay? And once you get biblical wisdom, you've got perspective. When you have perspective, you're not going to freak out over everything. When you have perspective, you realize that God is still in control, no matter what. When you have perspective, it gives you peace in your life, okay? We want perspective. The third way of looking at wisdom is moral wisdom or knowing right from wrong. But wouldn't that be good to have in our culture today? People that would know the difference between right and wrong. Well, you can know what's right and what's wrong. And we're not talking about political opinions and we're not talking about things of that. But you can know scripturally and morally right from wrong. And then the fourth way of defining wisdom is spiritual wisdom. You would call that insight for living or if you will, knowing the will of God. Now wouldn't it be great if you could know the will of God for your life? Wouldn't it be great if you were deciding, you were thinking about making a career change? You were thinking about getting a different job. Wouldn't it be great if you knew God's will? Or maybe you're thinking of starting a business. And you've been thinking about it for a long time. Maybe you've been praying about it. Wouldn't it be great to be able to know God's will for your life? Maybe you're single and you're wanting to get married. You're wanting a relationship. Wouldn't it be great to know, ladies, if you're finding Mr. Right or just Mr. Right now? All right? There's a difference. Some people get so impatient that they're just looking for Mr. Right now, not Mr. Right. But you can know the will of God. Okay. So, Proverbs 1-7, and this is really our foundational verse for today, it says, "Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, fearing God. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but," and notice how he flips it on its ear here, "fools despise wisdom and discipline." In some translations, that word discipline reads instructions. So, don't think of it as in, you know, God the colossal killjoy in the sky that's got the big stick and wanting to whap you upside the head. That's not what this word means. It means to give you instructions. You ever order something that looked great, maybe you ordered it on Amazon, and you get it. And maybe it was like a cabinet. Okay? The reason I used that is because I just ordered one of these, and it looked fantastic. It looked so easy to put together. And oh my goodness, it was not very easy to put together. But I must confess that my great temptation when I get things like that, then say, some assembly required, okay, never has a bigger life in the history of the world, okay, some assembly required. Are you kidding me? Okay? You have to have an engineering degree to put together some of this stuff. But part of my problem, okay, if I can be honest, part of my problem is, I don't like reading the instruction manual. I get, okay, I've got 14 screws, and I've got these pins, and I've got these wheels, and I've got this and that and this and that. I can figure this out. And what inevitably happens is that I don't have instructions, well, actually I do, but I still pay attention to them. And in the same way, God is saying for you and me that there is a key component. You want to figure out how to live life. You want instructions on how to be successful in Christian living, how to be successful as a husband or a wife, how to be successful as a parent, how to be successful with your money, how to have common sense, how to have insight, how to know the will of God, there is one key component, and this is what we're talking about today, the fear of the Lord. So if you want to know how to build the right foundation for a healthy home, for a healthy life, you've got to figure out this one thing and what it means and how you do it. So I want you to understand that when the Bible talks about the fear of the Lord, it's talking about a reverential awe, not this, you know, I'm nervous eating my fingernails because I'm afraid that God's going to hurt me, not that kind of fear, but the idea there is simply put as clearly and easily as I can define it for you as this, is to worship God. It is a reverential awe, it is a worship of who God actually is. So we can say it this way, success begins with worship, in fact, that's pretty good. Say that with me, success begins with worship. Let me say it another way, and this is a little more pointed. This is for those watching online and those in the room, success begins on Sundays. Oh my, you say you're cutting a little close here. I realize I'm talking to the choir, you're actually here, okay? So I get it, give yourself a hand, all right, for being here today. But the idea here is simply this, that success begins with your worshiping God. That's where it begins, that is the foundation. I think you could say it this way, and you've heard me say this before. What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. There are some people that don't believe that God really cares or loves, or even if He exists. In the book of Hebrews, it tells us that you got to believe that He is faith in God. It says you believe that He is, that's the starting point. You believe that God exists and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. See your picture of God formulates every decision that you make in life. If you've got this picture of God that He is a loving God, that He is sovereign, that He is in control, and that when you trust Him, everything's going to be okay. Not that we don't make good decisions, not that we don't have responsibility to do our part or to do our work, but when you begin to believe that God actually has a plan for your life, it makes everything better. Then you're not so nervous about everything. Then you don't freak out over every little thing that happens, why? Because you believe that God exists, but He also is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. So what you believe about God is the most important thing about you. You want to have a strong family. You want to have a healthy family. You want to have a healthy career. You want to have healthy finances. You want to have healthy parenting, healthy kids. Where does it start? Well it begins with worshiping God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning the Bible says. You see the truth is, if you know something is important to your success and you don't do it, what would we call that? Foolish, if I know that something is vital to my success and I just don't do it, well who do I have to blame myself? How can I be angry at God because if He says that this is the way to wisdom, this is the way to success, then you have no one to blame but yourself. When I was 10 years old, many of you know I've told lots of stories about growing up on my grandpa's farm and working on that when I was a kid. But when I was 10 years old, I was one day out on the farm with my 16 year old uncle. He was only about 5 or 6 years older than I was. And so obviously as a 10 year old, he was 16, I thought he was the coolest person on the planet. And I would do whatever he said, okay, whatever he said. And we were out close to the pasture and in the pasture behind this electric fence, you know what an electric fence is, okay, it kept a 2,000 pound bull inside, that's how strong that electric current was in that fence. A little thin wire that kept a 2,000 pound mean as a hornet bull, okay. I mean he was nobody's friend, all right. And my uncle's out there and I'm thinking that life is great because I get to hang out with my uncle who I thought was so cool at the time. I look back on him like, yeah, he wasn't that cool but nevertheless at 10 years old, I thought he was the coolest person on the planet. And he told me he said, Richie, you need to grab that fence. And I'm like, what? And he's like, no, it won't hurt. Grab that electric fence. And I'm like, no. And he said, why are you a Fradycat? And I didn't want to be a Fradycat, okay. So I did what was unwise, of course, because my uncle challenged me to this and as a 10 year old boy, I reached out and grabbed an electric fence that was strong enough to keep a 2,000 pound bull that had a bad attitude inside that fence. Now the truth is, that was not wise. It shocked me, okay, I know, shocking, right, I said no pun intended, right. But what I did was reject wisdom. I rejected wisdom and I acted foolishly. And as a result, I got the result of my decision. Did you know in the same way God tells us that when you reject God's wisdom, that's called foolishness. Oh, sometimes it goes against our desire. Sometimes it goes against our will. Sometimes we think we know better, but the truth is, God says, you want success. It begins with worship, worshiping God. Well, what does that mean? Well, let me just give you a couple of things that worship really means. And this I think will help you worship means seeing God for who he really is. That's what worship is. You see God for who he is, Proverbs chapter 2, verses 1 through 5, listen what this says. My child, listen to what I say, and treasure my commands. Tune your ears to wisdom. You ever tune your ears out? We do, don't we? That's a tune your ears to wisdom. Don't try to own understanding, cry out for insight and ask for understanding. You know what you're saying? You can ask God. You can pray. You can ask God for wisdom and He says He'll give it to you, search for them as you would for silver, seek them like hidden treasures, and then get this, then you will understand. Then you will understand what it means to fear the Lord. And you will gain knowledge of God. You know what he's saying? That through the Word of God, you are able to see who God really is. You want to get a bigger picture of God, see what Scripture says. You want to get a bigger picture of God, get your eyes off of the problems around you and on to the God who is greater than the problem. When you begin to see God for who He really is, it changes everything. Everything. And I must say, there's some practical things to do. One of the things, reading the Bible, praying, and you say, "Well, I'm kind of busy. Well, do what I do." You know, and it's not the only time that I read the Bible, and technically I'm not reading, I'm listening to it. I take this phone, and every time I get in my car to go somewhere, I open up the Bible app, and I just put it in where I am, and it reads it to me while I'm driving. Now, you don't need to try to actually look at the screen when you're driving, okay, that's dangerous, all right? But you know what I do? And I say this to challenge you, okay, because the truth is, every year, and I have done this for several years, and I'm not talking about the time that I study, I'm not talking about the time that I do devotions or whatever. Did you know that every year, at least one time, I listen to the entire Bible just simply while I'm driving? Don't tell me you can't get the Word of God into you. You want to be able to see God for who He really is? It is as simple and as easy as when you get in your car, and by the way, it's free. And you turn it on rather than listening to, you know, whatever, and whatever music you like, that's cool, that's fine. My dad loves bluegrass. I'm not a big fan of bluegrass, okay? I'm more a fan of '80s hairband rock, okay? That's me, heavy metal, you know, deaf leopard, Guns N' Roses, can I get an amen from somebody, okay? Anybody else grow up in the '80s, all right? But it doesn't really matter. I don't care what music you listen to, but the point is this, you can either listen to talk radio or music that, nothing wrong with listening to music, but if all you're doing is listening to stuff that entertains you rather than something that builds you, you're missing out. See God for who He really is. Number two, worship means submitting to God in humility and faith. When you worship God, you can't come into His presence with pride, thinking that you know it all, thinking that you have the answers. Listen to Proverbs 3, 5 to 8, I love this, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Anybody ever try to tell God what to do? Anybody ever try to let God know that He was too late or too early or too short or too? Don't depend on your own understanding, that's what He's saying. Don't lean on your own understanding in all your ways that can knowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. And I love the word picture here of a smooth path, a smooth walkway, or you can choose to walk off a cliff, your choice. But He says when you acknowledge God, He says, "Don't be wise in your own eyes, but fear the Lord." There's that phrase again, "fearing God, worshiping Him." Turn away from evil. When you do that, it will be healing to your flesh. Now, once again, you can believe what you want, I believe the word of God is inspired by God, I believe it's God's word for us, and I believe it's true, every bit of it, I believe it. Let me tell you, did you know, and we don't have to have scientific surveys or studies to prove the word of God, but did you know that when you have this kind of peace, it's actually beneficial to your health? God says it. We believe it. We know that it's true. He says, "When you do this, when you worship Him, it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones." Anybody ever just get weary, you ever just get tired of what all is going on around us in the world today? Anybody ever just get tired of politics? I mean, I'm not going to talk about that, but the fact is sometimes I'm like, "Dear God, please, give us a monarchy, so we don't have to do this anymore." That's probably a bad idea. But the truth is, here's what he says, and you do not need to miss this. When you have your eyes on Him, it's going to be refreshing to your bones. You want peace? You want to know how to make it through when your neighbors are going to vote differently than you do? You want to know how to be happy, no matter who wins next month in the election, fear of the Lord, worship Him. What does it do? It gives you perspective. Helps you see, helps you understand, worship means trusting God with every part of your life. That's what this foundation is. Proverbs 14, 26, 27, "In the fear of the Lord, one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge." The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that one may turn away from the snares of death. Do you get the idea that your life would be better and stronger and wiser and healthier if you worship God? Success begins on Sunday. What you believe about God is the most important thing about you. It means rejecting the philosophy of the world and holy, trusting in God. I know that's not pithy and you can't probably put that on a shirt, but it's true. Worship means rejecting the philosophy of this world. This idea that God isn't in control or that we are just random accidents, that God doesn't have a plan. Get that nonsense, trust in the Lord when you do what happens. He said, "You've got a refuge. You're going to turn away from the snares of death." Proverbs 9, 10, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy one is insight." Worshiping God, it's the beginning of your wisdom. You want success, you want a healthy home, you want a healthy job life, you want healthy finances, whatever it is. Where does it begin? Does it begin with Dave Ramsey? No. Begins with fear of the Lord, begins with worshiping God. God says, "When you worship Him, you'll get wisdom, wisdom." And when we do that, then he says, "We get insight." You get insight for living. Wouldn't it be great if you could make the right decision, the right choice, not occasionally, like every once in a while, like people win the lottery every once in a while, okay? But every time, wouldn't it be great if you said, "You know what? I am not perfect, but I am going to make the wise choice, and I know how to do it every single time. I put God first in my life. I worship Him, and He gives me wisdom." I know some of you are looking at me like, "You're out of your mind." And that may be true, okay, but that has nothing to do with the truth of what we're talking about today, okay? And so, what do we learn from this? What insight and wisdom do we gain from fearing the Lord? Well, I just want to give you some practical things. You learn about the importance of faithfully attending church. Those of you watching online, be faithful. Those of you in the room, be faithful. It's important. You learn the importance of faithfully reading the Bible and praying. How can you know God if you don't ever read His love letter to you? How can you know how to have wisdom if you don't ever seek God's wisdom? Read the Bible, pray. We learn the importance of faithfully serving God by serving others. Do you know, I know somebody who thinks I'm out of my mind, and the truth is I may be, but there is no doubt that we have a group of people that serve here at this church. And I'm so proud of you. And we talk about that a lot. We have a lot of people, in fact, we have more people that do serve in some capacity than most churches do. Why is that percentage-wise? Simply because we understand that you serve God by serving others. What the Scripture tells us, how can you serve God whom you can't see if you don't help your neighbor whom you can see? We serve God by serving others. We learn the importance of fellowship with other believers. Do you know that one of the most important things about church is Christian fellowship? By that, I don't mean just eating nachos and talking about football, okay? By fellowship, that comes from a Greek word kuina nia, kuina nia. You know what the word, the technical meaning of the word is? It means to come alongside of somebody. Did you know that fellowship is just that? You're coming alongside of somebody. Somebody's coming alongside of you. He says in Ecclesiastes, how can two walk together unless they be agreed? When one falls, the other will help them up. And that's the picture of Christian fellowship. That's really one of the most important reasons why you should come to church. Look, I know some people claim they can get all the fellowship they need on social media. I have to call BS on that, okay? Now I know as a pastor, I probably should say that, but that's what it is, okay? This idea that you can get all the social interaction that you need on social media, that's wrong, okay? Once again, talking about being able to recognize right from wrong, truth from falsehood, yeah. God created you. God created you to be able to have fellowship with other people. Now, doesn't mean everybody has to be married, doesn't mean that everybody has to be in that kind of relationship. What it does mean, you need some relationships, you need other human beings in your life. And by the way, I know some people get more aggravated than others at people and their behavior. I tend to get really aggravated sometimes with people's behavior. But God didn't say love the people that please you. He didn't say love the people that you like or those that agree with you. In fact, sometimes he puts people who are like sandpaper in our life to see if we're really going to love the way God tells us to. So we are to learn the importance of fellowship with other believers, and then we're to learn the importance of participation with your family. And I would encourage you to say this, bring your family. Bring your family. I'll close with this illustration. In the book of Exodus, we read about the Israelites being delivered from Egyptian slavery. And if you've read that before, you know that God sent ten plagues. You remember that? Maybe if you were in Sunday school as a kid, you learned about the plagues, okay? And the first one was the water turned to blood, and I won't go through all of them. But there were three times of these ten plagues. There were three times that Pharaoh was so frustrated, so upset that he agreed to let the Israelites go. That's why God was sending those ten plagues, by the way, so that Pharaoh wouldn't let them go so they could go worship God. But he made three caveats, and I want you to see this. The first time he said you can go, just don't go too far. They were saying, hey, I need to go out of the land and sacrifice to our God. And he goes, oh, you can go, just don't leave the land of Egypt. The second time he told them that they could go, he said you can go, but just don't take your family with you. Don't take your wife. Don't take your kids. You can go. That's fine. But don't expect them to go. And then the third time, and this was a big one, he said you can go, just can't take your money with you. Can't take your possessions with you. And you know that the devil is still fighting that battle today. He tells us today when it comes time to worship him, when it comes time to live for God. He says you can do it, but don't go too far. I mean, after all, you shouldn't have to expect to do this all the time, should you? I mean, come on now. You can do it. Just don't be a fanatic. Don't be radical about it. You can go. Just don't take your family. Don't make sure that your kids are there. I mean, after all, you don't want to force it down their throats, do you? You can go. Just don't take your family. You can go, but just don't let your possessions get involved. Don't get so committed that you say, God, I'm going to put you first in every part of my life, my family, my time, and even my money. And yet, the Lord repeatedly told Pharaoh, let my people go. Let my people go. Let my people go. And you know what God expected from the Israelites? He expected a radical, total, and complete commitment. Too far in some people's eyes, and not gods. Oh, you don't need to worry about your family. I mean, this is personal, by the way, right? Not in God's eyes. Oh, you can go, but just don't make that kind of crazy commitment where it actually involves your lifestyle and your possessions, because if you do, that might be considered radical. And I believe that what God is looking for, for people that want to be successful, that people that want to have a healthy family, you know what he's looking for? He's not looking for toe dippers. He's not looking for people like it was when the first time I would go swimming during the summer of the water, it was always cold. You remember that? If you grew up in the mountains, you know. I mean, sometimes you go swimming and it's just to be so cold. And what would you do? Oh, you dipped your toe in. Oh, so cold, get up to your ankles, get up to your knees, get up to your waist. Finally, again, it was miserable to do that. You want to learn the best thing to do? What's the cannibal? First, go all in. And what God is calling you and me to do is that, go all in. You want a healthy family? Go all in. You want healthy finances? Go all in. You want to please God with your life? Go all in. And God honors and blesses those that go all in. Heavenly Father, help us to be all in kind of people. Help us to realize that the way to have success. We got to build it on the foundation of our worship. We got to see you for who you are. We got to realize that success begins on Sunday. We got to realize that what we believe about you is the most important thing about us. And help us to see you for us in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Today, if you are watching online or if you're in the room and you don't know Christ, maybe you're just toe-dipping around Christianity. Can I encourage you to go all in? Just how do I do that? Well, you start by committing your life to Christ, receiving Him. And you do that by admitting to God that, yes, you need forgiveness. You need a Savior. And you say to Him, Lord, I want you to save me. I want to give my life to you. I realize that I can't earn my way in. I'm not good enough. But I'm trusting in Jesus. If you'll say that online, check down at the bottom of the screen and I realize most of you watch on Facebook. You watch this live on Facebook and there may not be a way to do that. But on the church online app, you can go less or at the very least, email us. Let us know that you prayed to receive Christ today. If in the room today, take that next step card, drop it into the offering in just a second here, okay? If you're interested in joining the church or you're interested in serving or taking your next step, we offer those ways to do that. If you offer it every month, you can find out what your next step is and we do that the last Sunday of the month and I encourage you to be a part of that. Ushers, would you come? How can you give today? Well, you can give like 95% of our people give either online, it's still Waterstar Online or you can give through the church center app or you can give by texting the number 84321. Now, if you want to give to help in the hurricane relief, you can write a check or cash or you can do that online or on text or in the church center app. Just make sure that you mark on their hope, okay? We'll know what that's for, everything that comes in for hope in the next couple of weeks, we will do that, okay? It'll go toward that, so we'll give you just a second. Now, we are going to have a brief meeting afterwards, it's an important meeting, and I think something that you want to hear, you don't want to miss it. We are going to dismiss though and we're going to shut down the live stream, thank you all for joining us on the live stream for all those of you that did, but we're going to turn that