TRUNEWS with Rick Wiles - Morning Manna - September 22, 2025 - Proverbs 12:8-13 Wisdom, Work, and the Witness of Words

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

In today’s Morning Manna, we reflect on Proverbs 12:8–13, where Solomon teaches that true honor comes from wisdom, not self-promotion, and that even humble sufficiency surpasses empty pride. We’re reminded that righteousness extends mercy—even to animals—while diligence in work brings satisfaction and life. These verses also warn against envying the traps of the wicked, showing instead that the righteous, rooted in God, bear lasting fruit. Finally, we see how speech can ensnare the wicked but deliver the just, proving that words carry eternal consequences. Teachers: Rick Wiles and Doc BurkhartYou can partner with us by visiting FaithandValues.com, calling 1-800-576-2116, or by mail at PO Box 399 Vero Beach, FL 32961.MEGA FIRE reveals the ancient recurring cycles of war and economic collapse that have shaped history for 600 years. These patterns predict America is now entering its most dangerous period since World War II. Get your copy today!www.megafire.worldGet high-quality emergency preparedness food today from American Reserves!www.AmericanReserves.comIt’s the Final Day! The day Jesus Christ bursts into our dimension of time, space, and matter. Now available in eBook and audio formats! Order Final Day from Amazon today!www.Amazon.com/Final-DayApple users, you can download the audio version on Apple Books!www.books.apple.com/final-dayPurchase the 4-part DVD set or start streaming Sacrificing Liberty today.www.Sacrificingliberty.com

Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Morning Manna on a Monday. I hope you had a great weekend and delighted that you're here to study the Word of God with us. We are working our way through the book of Proverbs. And last week we started Proverbs chapter 12. Today, we will pick up in our studies in chapter 12, verses 8 through 13. let's pray invite the holy spirit and then doc will read the word father god almighty god thank you for this day thank you for life father thank you for your son and for your word and for your spirit

father we need you we need your son we need your spirit we need your word and so father your sons and daughters are gathered from around the world for the next one hour to be taught by the Holy Spirit the truth that is in your word because you are truth in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. And good morning everyone. Welcome to Morning Manor, the live edition here, 8 a.m. Eastern weekdays here on faith and values.com. And of course, you can always watch repeats of this on various social media platforms and here on faith and values.com as well. Today, we are continuing our study in Proverbs chapter 12, and we're going to pick back up at verse 8 today, reading verses 8 through 13. So if you've got your Bibles, read along with me. And as I often say, if you want to hear God

speaking to you, read the word of God out loud. You'll be surprised what you will hear when God speaks to you from his word. So read along with me, if you will. I'm reading from the King James. verse 8. A man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised. He that is despised and hath a servant is better than he that honours himself and lacketh bread. A righteous man regarded the life of his beast, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread, but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding there's a lot in that verse i can't wait to get to that one verse 12 the wicked desires the net of evil men but the root of the righteous yieldeth fruit the wicked verse 13 is

snared by the transgression of his lips but the just shall come out of trouble god bless the reading of his word today praise god remember these proverbs were written by Solomon, who was the wisest human who ever lived. That's what Jesus said. That's right. So let's find out what Solomon knew. Verse eight, a man shall be commended according to his wisdom, but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.

As to class, what is the definition? of perverse. Do we know it by now? We're in the 12th chapter of Proverbs. Perverse means twisted, bent away from the truth. There's something wrong with the thinking. It's twisted, it's bent. Here's truth, and it's bent away from the truth. Get that in your mind, something that's twisted and bent away from what is right. what is truthful so a man shall be commended according to his wisdom we've learned in proverbs that true wisdom is rooted in the fear of the Lord yes and so this proverb is telling us that wisdom is the measure of honor it's not wealth it's not power position it's godly wisdom and our wisdom governs our words

our actions, our choices and over a lifetime it earns respect in the eyes of others so a wise man or woman benefits a society and so that person's life

draws common Commendation, not condensation, commendation, to be commended. Yes. We saw it yesterday, if you watched the very long memorial to Charlie Kirk. Here's a young man that lived only 31 years. And yet, Doc, his life brought the who's who of the U.S. government to his memorial service. Yes. the majority of the of the cabinet was there you had the president you had the vice president

i mean then this was this was a very big deal and you know rick we we talk about cycles a lot and and uh that you know segues into your latest book megafire which everyone ought to get and by the way we've had a lot of comments from people earlier today saying they've received the book and they're loving it but uh these cycles that are in place one of the things to be watching for is a spiritual renewal among the alpha generation. And this could be one of those trigger events that sets the stage for a spiritual renewal. So now, that spiritual renewal, as Rick has mentioned, may not necessarily fall on Christian lines. It could fall along different lines.

But it is telling that this event has sparked a... a fresh movement among young people um and this could be a you know kind of that uh i hate to use the word fulfillment but a follow through on the uh what is supposed to be the spiritual renewal that will pop up in the late 2030s and the 2040s um literally it is his his death is a turning point yes and that's something the the lord spoke to me about On the day he died, I heard the Lord say, this day will be a turning point in America. I don't want to spend too much time on the memorial service, but in my lifetime, and I'm 72 years old, I never saw an event that had so many high-level U.S. government officials not only in attendance, but giving glory to Jesus Christ. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confess Christ

Secretary of War Pete Hegset confessed Christ Vice President J.D. Vance confessed Christ Robert F. Kennedy Secretary of Health, Human Services, Confess Christ. And you know, Kennedy said

that the only reason why he was serving and Donald Trump's cabinet was because of Charlie Kirk. Yes. Think about that. That's the kind of influence this young man had. But a man shall be commended according to his wisdom. Yes. That's a perfect example of it.

So, you know, I pondered this yesterday. What made Charlie Kirk so wise and influential in 31 years? What was it? What was it about his nature? Was he born with this destiny? Was he, was it his upbringing? What was it? I don't know.

I don't know the answer. But I marveled yesterday looking at a coliseum with, I don't know, 80, 90,000 people in it. And the President of the United States, the vice president, the cabinet, a who's who list of dignitaries from various segments of society and and so there was something in Charlie Kirk this passion for truth and I would say that's what it was he had a passion for truth he was hungry for truth and he

pursued it when you had the president of Hillsdale College there announcing we're going to we're going to bestow a doctorate degree on him. He never went to college. He never went to college. Never went to college. And yet the president of a major college

came to his funeral to say we're going to give him a doctorate degree. The president of the United States said we're going to give him the nation's highest award, medal of freedom. How do you do that in 31 years? He's really lived an amazing life.

So being commended comes not only from men and women, but ultimately it comes from God who honors our faithfulness. So there was something in Charlie Kirk that God was pleased about, honored, raised him up, and then removed him,

allowed him to be removed which is how do you explain it the only thing I can say is Charlie Kirk's death will have a greater impact on souls than his life and that's the way you got to leave it

that's it with God leave it with God so even the ungodly are often compelled to admire integrity and prudence. Yesterday's event certainly silenced a lot of his enemies. They didn't dare make any comments.

So reputation flows from godly character, not self-promotion. We're in an age of self-promotion. but it's your character that promotes you God God will lift you up himself he will promote you but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised

and here's that word perverse it doesn't mean perverted it means crooked twisted bent a perverse heart brings shame and contempt because it's twisted away bent away from truth a person with a perverse heart their deceit and schemes may give them short-term advantages but long-term it ultimately leads to disgrace because even the world will turn on them

yes they'll eat their own and the world has no mercy at all a perverse heart perverts judgment corrupts motives defiles relationships so despised here refers not only to social but also to divine rejection. That is a scary concept. Divine rejection. That you reach a point that the Lord rejects you. Let's see what Alexander McLaren said. A life guided by wisdom wins honor for men cannot help but see

worth but the twisted heart however it may mask itself at last is unmasked and despised yes first nine he that is despised and hath a servant is better than he that honereth himself and lack lack spread and notice so we went from in verse 8 at the end the perverse heart is despised and then it gives verse 9 and he that is despised says something more about this despised person too good point doc so it shows you the the progression to be despised and then what happens once you're despised right the world english bible says better is he who is little known right and has a servant than he who honors himself and lacks bread so there's two different words here there's one word for despised up in verse eight but it's a different word in verse nine the english

translators when they translated this they translate the words the same but they're really two different words with two different meanings do you know the meanings of each one yeah like you said in verse 9, it's lightly despised, whereas up in verse 8, it's greatly despised. So the idea here in verse 9 is not being despicable as a result of a perverse heart, but being despised as in being humbled in the world around. The Septuagint translation says, better is a man in dishonor serving himself than one honoring himself and wanting bread

he that is despised and hath a servant so despised one who's considered insignificant disregarded held in low esteem by others? See, it's not hate it. It's not somebody being held in contempt. This is someone that basically people don't pay attention to.

They're insignificant. They're held in low esteem by others. So the picture is of a a modest man who does not seek reputation and yet has sufficiency in life. Having a servant meant an honest level of provision, a marker of stability. So it's better to be disregarded by men, yet sustained. by God, than to chase admiration with emptiness. Yes.

God's measure is faithfulness, not outward show. The Lord values faithfulness, diligence, loyalty, devotion, long term. Remember we studied in some of the previous chapters of Proverbs. God observes the ways of men and women, meaning over their lifetime. Not one particular event, not one particular instance, but the way of a person over their lifetime. And he makes his judgments, his decisions based on the composite picture of that person's life. So faithfulness and diligence. These are important traits in a person that pleases the Lord.

The humble live with peace. And they're spared the anxiety of pretense. Amen. I feel sorry for people who. are thinking about how to impress other people. They're not ashamed. The humble are not ashamed of their

lowliness. They're satisfied. So the verse says he that is despise and hath a servant is better than he that honoreth himself and lack of bread.

Again, despise here is not hate it. Doc said there were two words that King James translated it as despised, but they're different words. In this verse, it's talking about somebody that doesn't have a lot of recognition. So the scripture is saying,

it's better to be, I hate using the word nobody, it's better to be insignificant, not seen, not have, held in great esteem, you know, not a lot of recognition. It's better than the person who honors himself and then doesn't have food to eat. In other words, the social influencers on the Internet and social media, hey, I've got a million followers. I don't have any food in house.

but I got a million followers. I got to keep this going. Someday I'm going to have food. You know, how many of these social influencers are flat broke? Just think about that, Doc. How many of them in their real life are just flat broke? Yeah. And they pretend to be wealthy.

That's what gets me. That's what this is talking about. They'll have the fancy purse or they'll have the latest gadget or whatever it might be, giving the appearance that they're successful, that they're wealthy. But really, in many cases, they're broke. They're scrounging for pennies. This honors himself, boasting, pretending to have status, parading outward greatness. seeking reputation at the expense of reality

what it means is honor gained by self promotion without the basics of life is vanity a person who projects his or her outer appearance projects success but inwardly realistically they're impoverished materially and spiritually and it's vanity and I think there's a lot of people especially on TikTok who are frantically every day trying to gain world success as an influencer on TikTok

and they don't have enough money to pay their rent I actually know one I personally know one and it's sad and you know you just wonder how long are you going to keep doing this how long are you going to be driven

by this insatiable desire to be famous and influential and rich and yet you can't pay your rent you can't pay your bills you can't buy food so pretension eventually leads to ruin and honor game by boasting

hides the lack in the person's life and eventually will bring shame to that person see true honor cannot be self-proclaimed it's got to be earned and you have to be promoted by the lord it's self-promoted self-honor is a is a double disgrace because there's hunger in the body and pride in the soul the double loss Charles Bridges, born 1794, said humility with competency is better than vain glory with want. Let us be content with God's provision and not seek to honor ourselves. Alexander McLaren, the first president of the World Baptist Alliance, said,

the world's honor often goes with hunger but a despised man with enough is truly better wow pretension is misery humility with sufficiency is peace William are not born 1808 leader in the Scotland free church better to have little

and be despised than to live in the pomp of pretension and want substance outweighs shadow praise god yes substance outweighs shadow first ten a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel Aramaic Peshita. The righteous one is aware of the soul of his animal and the evil

withhold their compassions. Animals have souls. It says so in Job and if you go with the Paschita translation, which is Aramaic, which was the language that Jesus spoke, it says

the righteous man or woman is aware of the soul of his animals yes and is it interesting that even in the mosaic law that there was there are numerous verses that talk about the care of animals

yes it was a law that's right so uh Job, let's see, what verse is it? I always forget the verse that says that God holds as a soul of every creature. I want to say Job 10, 12, but I'm not sure off the top of my mind right now.

12. 10. 12. 10. Yes, sir. I don't have. Okay. Can you read it? Yes, I can. King James, for those that are taking notes, in whose hand, talking about God, and whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. It's in God's hand. The soul of every living thing. It's in God's hand. The soul of every living thing. It's in God's hand. The soul of every. living thing so anything that's alive therefore has a soul look to me you look in the eyes of an animal don't tell me there's no soul there there's a living creature there they look at you with feelings you can see it You can feel it. Animals don't have to be born again because they never sinned. Has a whole other teaching, all right? I'll save it for another day.

One of these days, I'm going to write a book about it. I've been desiring to do it for a long, long time. So the Septuagin says, a righteous man has pity for the lives of his cattle, but the bowels of the ungodly are unmerciful. Let's start with a righteous man, regardeth the life of his beast. So what is showing us here is that righteousness is holistic.

It even extends to the care of animals. Regardeth. A righteous man or woman regard, the life of his animals it means that he or she knows considers cares for the needs of the animals in their in their life um you know all animals if if they're if they're on your property in your house on your property they they are dependent if they're you know i'm not talking about wild animals how they know how to take care of themselves but dogs and cats and whatever animal you have as a pet and if you're a farmer or a rancher

you have you have horses and cattle and sheep and goats and donkeys and oxen they depend on their owner and what's the trade off there well the trade-off is the bible tells us that animals are our teachers and our instructors how do i know that because proverbs we read earlier go to the aunt thou sluggard consider her ways and be wise so the aunt wasn't was is teaching us something and all animals are teaching us something that's the trade-off we get not just bacon but we get we get instruction that's why i call my dog fudge my my compassion trainer. He teaches me compassion, patience. And so, you know, so animals can be instructed to us. There's a, there's a trade-off there. That's why we should respect, because none

did the mosaic law put a priority on the care of animals under our domain, but then Proverbs teaches us that the purpose for these animals in our lives is to teach us, to instruct us, because sometimes they're the only teachers that we'll listen to I have to confess doc I'm kind to every animal except cockroaches well they even their instructors Rick I understand but I treat them as as trespassers I do too and so lesson you're trespassing you're trespassing and trespassers shall be shot okay or stepped on but you know what the cockroaches teach us is perseverance because man it's hard to kill all of them that's right that's right um i mean it takes effort to get rid of all

them all but you know i even care i even pick up spiders and take spiders outside and put them out in in in the yard i do too i don't kill a spider no no no spiders i don't kill you know i just pick them up and take them out um i don't do that with cockroaches i don't like cockroaches um But anything else, and then the animals on the outside, I mean, obviously, anybody in this class knows, I feed ducks, I feed rabbi, I feed all the animals that are around my home, take care of them, and, you know, I don't have a dog anymore, but when I did, you know, he was my buddy. So what, what do animal, how, what is it about the way you treat an animal? that speaks about who you are as a person. The way we treat, obviously, people, how you treat your family, your coworkers,

your employees, your neighbors, strangers. Strangers, it reveals your character. So, you know, Doc, you know, this, often when I conduct an employment interview, one of my last questions is, do you like dogs?

When Gator, my golden retriever was here, I had Gator in my office for the job interviews. Yes. I wanted to see how the person react. Yes. I would watch to see how the

person reacted to Gator. Gator was as kind and loving of a dog as you could ever find. And if I saw people pushing him away, or if he was a nuisance to them, I thought, do I really want that person here on my staff? They don't even like this dog. This dog's trying to be kind. And this person doesn't even like the dog. They don't like me. And you know, or Gator, And there were times where Gator didn't like the person either. That's right. Remember that one, I forget who it was that we were interviewing where Gator was just pacing back and forth the whole time. That's right.

And it's like, you know, it was really unusual. And so he was, he was, he was unsettled by the presence of somebody. Right. But it's that old saying in Texas, love me and love my dog. Yes. Okay. And so if you don't, if you don't, if you don't love, love my dog, you're probably not going to love me either. Okay. And if you miss, if you mistreat

animals, you're probably going to be a mean person to be around. And I'm not going to enjoy working with you. So I watch how people treat animals. If, okay, there's different, different levels. Some people are just extremely kind. They love animals. They take care of them. Others are are indifferent. They're not mean. They're not nice. They're just indifferent. And then you have people who are mean.

They're mean animals. Oh. I don't even want to go there. I can't tell you how many turtles are alive because I stopped and got them off the road. I won't do it on I-95. I'm sorry, Turtle. If you were on I-95, you're on your own. You're going to go meet your maker because I'm not, I'm not getting out of the car and walking on I-95.

I'll pray for you, but I'm not getting out of the car. And we recently here in Vero Beach, we recently had a tragedy four or five months ago where a gentleman got out of his car on I-95 tried to rescue a turtle and got hit by a car. Yeah. So, but if it's, if it's a road without a lot of traffic, I'll go out there. and pick up the turtle and although there was one I think it was last year doc on the road where I live should have one lane road just hardly any traffic is a snapping turtle every time I tried to pick him up he he tried his best to bite me I did it about three or four times and I said okay buddy you're on your own I try to help you you are on your own okay

you know if a pickup truck comes down this road you bite it okay um but i did my best how do you treat animals it says a lot about you do you feed them when when the winter is hard if you're in an area when winter is hard are you putting out any seed anything for the birds to eat are you putting anything outside for the wildlife to eat? You know, I just, I had a raccoon in my yard. I named her Roxy. And she had two little raccoons, you know. But she lived in the big oak tree in front of our house.

I could just go out to the oak tree and just look up and go, hey, Roxy, and she would pop her head out of the hole and come running down the tree trunk and stand at my feet to be fed. You know, I just like animals. And I like people who like animals. And so there's a, God watches how you treat animals. Amen.

And but the tender mercies of the, listen to this, but the tender mercies of the, wicked or cruel. How can tender mercies be cruel? It means that even when the wicked person thinks he or she is being nice to an animal, it's actually cruel. So the wicked, the wicked's version of mercy is still cruelty. The wicked person's best actions are corrupted. Man, that's a hard heart. What the wicked person calls kindness is actually harsh in practice. So wicked people lack compassion.

And even when they seem to be merciful, it's usually tainted and driven by selfishness, self-interest. Um, their quote, tender mercies is a mask of the hardness of their heart. They can't show true pity. They're disconnected from God's kindness and mercy. They're disconnected from God. How can they be connected to his creatures? Right.

so there's hypocrisy here you can have somebody boasting how how good they were to their animals and yet the truth is they're cruel they're not kind that even what they think is kindness is cruelty uh charles bridges born 1794 mercy is the spirit of righteousness shown even to the beast but cruelty is the very spirit of wickedness its most tender acts are but refined barbarity oh man

refined barbarity Alexander McLaren a good man's compassion is wide enough to embrace the lowest of creatures a bad man's mercy is but cruelty in disguise so twisted mercy is cruelty yes william are not scotland a righteous man's mercy flows downward to the brute

the wicked's mercy when it is tenderest still has cruelty in it the heart makes the difference verse 11 he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding i like this verse yeah so world english bible says he who tells his land shall have plenty of bread but he who chases fantasies is void of understanding you got it yes pashita aramaic pashita he that cultivates the soil will be filled with bread and he that runs after futility is devoid of reason now the Septuagin is a long translation he that tills his own land shall be satisfied with bread but they that pursue vanities are void of understanding he that enjoys himself in banquets of wine shall leave dishonor in his own strongholds Wow.

That was a long explanation. Yeah. I never read that one before in a Septuagint. The he that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread. So what is to till? That's a farming term, a gardening term. If you're tilling your garden, if you're tilling your field, you are showing steady work at preparing the soil

encouraging growth of the plants you're watering you're weeding you're tilling there's labor it's patient labor over time Yes. And the promise is sufficiency. Bread comes from diligence. In this case, bread represents the necessities of life. The money to pay your bills, the food you need to eat, the energy you need to keep your house warm, the fuel in your cart tank.

This is the bread. diligence produces sufficiency faithfulness in daily duties brings stability just show up show up on time every day right

just get out of bed and go to work and be diligent be faithful you will have enough the most humble work is honorable God blesses diligence you know I try I don't get to always be out

at the end of my driveway dog when the garbage truck comes by but when I'm out there and it's a truck stops at my drive I tell those young men, hey, I want to thank you for the work you do. I want you to know how much I appreciate this. Thank you so much that you're here taking care of this.

Because they're thinking, I'm working on a garbage truck. You're right. They need to hear somebody saying, I really appreciate you. See, it's honorable work. They got up and they went to work. let them go a month not coming to your house and see how much you appreciate them that's right if they go and strike for a month you'll appreciate them

so this is not promising this is not praising wealth and riches it's it's promising sufficiency having not based on faithfulness yes yes faithfulness will get you sufficiency there's some other things you got to do to obtain wealth but faithfulness will will deliver sufficiency so it's a rebuke to idleness it says that neglecting work will result in want in poverty and insufficiency. And I said earlier about tilling.

Tilling is a gardening term or farming term. Cultivating the garden, the land. But what we are doing right now in this morning Manna class is tilling. We are doing spiritual tilling. We're cultivating our hearts to produce fruit. you're spending one hour five days a week killing and the word says you will receive sufficient bread and jesus is the bread of life and you will be satisfied so labor is a god-given calling an honest work secures his blessing it's a promise do honest work be diligent be faithful god will bless you

right it's not your employer who blesses you it's god god will speak to your employer if your employer won't listen god will open up a door someplace else to bless you but it's god who blesses you but he that follow a vain person's is void of understanding. A vain person is someone chasing empty dreams, silliness, idle talkers, worthless company. To follow such people is to forsake diligence. You're spending time pursuing fantasies instead of pursuing honest work. It says they're void of understanding. They lacked wisdom.

They lack discernment. They lack discipline, discretion. They despise humble labor. They're looking for shortcuts, schemes. And this kind of thinking will lead to poverty. An association with these kind of people will corrupt your character. Now, spiritually, this is a warning against chasing false teachers with empty doctrines. And the Internet is full of them.

It's just full of them. Yeah. There's no lack of supply on that, is there? No, there isn't. Give somebody a mobile phone and a YouTube or TikTok account and suddenly they're a commentator. But they didn't pay the price

that Matthew Henry paid in the 1600s. Henry said industry will certainly be the support of families. Those who neglect their business to follow idle company are void of understanding. Charles Bridges said the tiller of land is a picture of diligence rewarded, but to follow vain persons is the path of ruin, showing contempt of God's appointed way. Alexander McLaurin, the contrast is between steady toil and chasing illusions. Faithfulness wins bread, vanity,

brings emptiness. Yes. William are not. Bread comes by tilling. Vanity yields nothing. Folly prefers the dream to the duty. What wisdom tills and is satisfied. Robert Horton,

Congregational Church of England, the proverb presses the lesson that diligence secures sufficiency while following vanity is followed. folly it applies to the farm and to the soul all right so now verse 12 the wicked desire the net of evil men but the root of the righteous yielded fruit uh pashita heramaic pashita the evil one lust to do evil and the root of the righteous one will sprout out.

Septuagint, the desires of the ungodly are evil, but the roots of the godly are firmly set. Okay, so let's start with the wicked desire, desireth the net of evil men. That's the way the King James puts it, the wicked desireth the net of evil men. So what does the net mean? the tools the methods the way that they ensnare and catch their prey their schemes and devices

so what that means is that the wicked are observing other wicked people and how they operate in their wickedness there you go doc they learn from one another bingo you got it that's it the wicked desires the net of the evil men they admire other evil people yeah and they envy them and they study them

and they they adopt their ways so it's not only wealth of other wicked people that they envy but they envy their tricks their schemes or plots how did you do that yeah how did you pull that off and and they they want to emulate them so they they imitate fraud and deception and deceit so instead of fearing god they covet sinful success they're not satisfied with bread from honest labor but they lost after wealth that's achieved through corruption. Spiritally, they're trapped. They're trapped by their own traps. But the root of the righteous yields fruit.

Look at the difference. The wicked desires the net of evil men, the method that they use to entrap other people. But the root of the righteous yields fruit. It's not a method, not a trap. It's the root. So the righteous are planted and rooted in God. So the root represents stability,

nourishment it's connected to the source of life right and it's no coincidence that Jesus himself is described as the root of Jesse yes the root and so for me this

second half of this verse is not just our personal root and how we're rooted but who is our root is Christ our root So that's what it says to me So the root is not the source of life In a tree

The root is tapping into the source of life And so your root The root of the righteous yields fruit Your roots need to go down deep And draw nourishment from Christ from Christ and so when your life is rooted in the Lord

it naturally yields fruit it produces blessings it receives blessings and it produces blessings so the wicket the wickets have their net they have their nets

and their schemes and their plots and they get temporary gain but the righteous have fruit that is eternal let's see John Gill born 1697 the wicked covet the net the gain and the ways of evil men but the righteous being rooted in Christ and in grace yield fruit to God and man Alexander McLaren the net of evil men is coveted but it is emptiness the root of the righteous is unseen yet fruitful desire versus reality envy versus endurance the evil men their nets people pursue them they covet they desire those nets

but they come up empty but the root you don't see the roots of a tree the roots are unseen and yet the tree is fruitful we am not the wicked's eye is on the net the righteous strength is in the root fruit comes not by craft but by life within

and verse 13 our last one for today the wicked is snared by the transgression of his lips but the just shall come out of trouble now think about this they're snared how are they sneered what is a snare it's a trap

so they seek the net, which is a trap, a snare, and then they get trapped by a snare. Yes. The Aramaic Pashita says the evil one is called in the evil of his lips and the righteous escapes from trouble. The Septuagin says, for the sin of his lips, a sinner falls into snare, but a righteous man escapes from them. He who looks, he whose looks are gentle

shall be pitied but he that contends in the gates will afflict souls so the wicked is sneered by the transgression of his lips what this says is that perverse speech twisted been away from truth crooked is a trap the liar the slander the braggart all of them are caught by their own words

they're hung by their tongue the wicked use their words as weapons but they become snares that bind the speaker It is one thing to tell people Watch your mouth

Watch your tongue, don't slander, don't curse, don't judge Don't lie about people, don't defame them, Don't say bad things about them That's not nice. It's one thing to say, that's just not nice. But it goes beyond it. It's not only not nice it will come back and bite you.

Your own words will come back and bite you. Giving false testimony, lying about somebody, swearing, false testimony is swearing that something is true about a person that's not true. False testimony, rash speech, deceit, slander, it backfires. words create enemies it stirs conflict it provokes judgment you go back and you look at what the septuagin says he whose looks are gentle shall be pitied but he that contends in the gates will afflict souls this is what I'm talking about

that these words that create strife conflict and they rebound on the person who's spewing them out right so the wicked man or woman's tongue becomes his own prison his own poison and he or she can't escape

the consequences of the words that they spoke it's not a simple one time you blurt out something you regret that you said it I'm talking about a lifetime it's your way of talking it's just your way you just you just

you meet people who are just naturally set on negativity whatever topic you bring up they just go negative on every single thing amen hey isn't that a nice ice cream cone yeah but it's running down your hand and dripping

yes it's like why do you say that okay why not just say that looks wonderful everything they see is negative Their mouths are just set towards negativity And it rebounds on them And they don't understand why But the just shall come out of trouble Just because you're righteous

Doesn't mean you don't have trouble In fact, you'll have trouble But here's what you have that the wicked don't have you have the guarantee you'll come out of it. Amen. The wicked get caught in, when they get in trouble, they've caused their own trouble.

But the righteous are delivered from trouble. It's God who delivers the righteous. If somebody is lying about you, slandering you, defaming you, be still. Don't have any anger in your heart towards that person, and just know at the right time God is going to deal with that person. So the righteous may find themselves in difficulty, but they're not trapped. They will be rescued, and the rescuer will be the Lord himself.

Amen. Let's see, John Gill said, the wicked by lying, perjury, blasphemy. and slander and snare themselves bring ruin upon themselves but the righteous speaking truth and acting uprightly are preserved Alexander McLaren words are seeds in the wicket they yield snares in the righteous they yield deliverance we are not a man may dig a pit with his tongue and fall into it but he who speaks truth finds it in the latter he who speaks truth finds in it a ladder to climb out of trouble. Isn't it interesting, dog?

Yeah, I like that. Or Nazis, yeah, hey, the wicked man digs a pit with his tongue and falls into it. But a righteous man who falls into a pit, his tongue creates a ladder so he can crawl out of it. that's really a fascinating view okay well that's it for today all right great lesson today so

I hope everyone learned a lot from this today words and faithfulness and this is really what I really like about our daily Bible studies here is it teaches us that daily faithfulness to the word creates a harvest in our was, whether it's just showing up. Sometimes I know some of you tune in, maybe you had a bad start

to the day, whatever it might be, but you showed up, not knowing if you'd get anything at all. And yet, you're here every single day. Usually anywhere between three and four hundred people are with us live, not counting the people who watch or listen to this later on in the recorded version, but you're faithful to it. We appreciate it so very, very, very much that you're here. and that we're able to share the fellowship of word together with you. We're very grateful to that. And so it gives us purpose, gives us a sense of fulfillment as well, knowing that our efforts and preparing a meal for you

and sharing that meal with you, that you are faithful to show up. Even if you don't like kale, you keep showing up. So praise God. Hey, I want to remind everybody over my shoulder here, this side, you see Rick's book, Megafire. And I want to encourage you to get your copy of Megafire today. Go to megafire.world. That's all one word, megafire.

Dot world. World is the internet extension. www. www.migifier. Dot, and I want to encourage you that if you have not placed an order for it, please go ahead and do it. A number of people before we got started in our live set class session today, saying that they had received their books.

Thursday and Friday of last week, so they're showing up in people's mailboxes, and so, and the response has been extremely positive, right? Just want to encourage you in that, people are learning a lot, and so it's, this is a good thing. So if you've not gone to megafire.world yet in order your copy, or copies of Megafire, I encourage you to do so today. Amen. Amen. And I'd like to know when you read the book what stood out the most. What did you learn the most? What surprised you? What was your aha moment? I'd like to know the highlights of the book. That helps me as an author to know what topics and what stories and so forth. really perked you up and said, that's amazing. That was an eye-opener for me. Well, Doc, tomorrow, our lesson will be verses 14 through 18.

All right. So make note of that, folks. And we will be back here tomorrow, tomorrow being Tuesday. And we appreciate your faithfulness as well. Be sure to share this message with others, if you're so able to on either various social media platforms or invite them to the live Bible study each morning, 8 a.m. Eastern time here on faith and values.com. God bless you. We love you, and we'll see you on the Tuesday edition of Morning Men. All right. Goodbye, everybody.