Read Proverbs 23:29 & 30  This talks about a subject that you are way too young to even think about. Drinking alcohol and wine.  The dangerous ingredient in beer and wine and liquor is alcohol.  When a fruity juice like grape juice is not refrigerated, and it sits outside in the open, it ferments.  When the juice ferments, bacteria is actually causing it to rot and turn into alcohol.  Alcohol is the dangerous part of the drink.  Our first verse tells us that bad things happen to someone, who in the next verse drinks wine.  What happens to them?  They have trouble.  They pick arguments with their friends and fight.  They can't talk clearly.  When they drink alcohol, they pass out and wake up the next morning with cuts and bruises on their bodies.  But they don't even know where the bruises came from.  That doesn't sound like very much fun.  So why do people drink alcohol?  Well alcohol makes their brain feel fuzzy.  They like the buzzing feeling in their heads.  But there are many more troubles that come after that feeling.  Another problem with alcohol is that it is addictive.  Addictive means that something in our brain makes us want to do it over and over again.  Someone may like the warm feeling that first comes with drinking alcohol, but they don't like the terrible other things that come along after the warm feeling is gone.  Solomon knows what happens if just begin with a taste of alcohol.  We get trapped.  We want more and more. But verse 31 has the solution:  just never take the first drink of alcohol.  I like what Solomon says about alcohol in verse 32.  He says that it bites you like a snake!  Leave it alone!  Stay away from it! 

Read Proverbs 23:17 & 18  Our first verse talks about the word envy.  What does envy mean?  Envy means to wish that you could be like someone else or that you could have the things like someone else.  You wish that you could have talent like someone or be able to play baseball like them.  There is nothing wrong about being like someone else, but envy means that you wish you could have what they have.  A person envy's someone else,s new bicycle, and then they steal it.  Envy begins as a jealous thought, but soon leads to bigger sins.  When we look at sinners and are envious of them, we soon want to become like them.  We want to sin.  Notice that Solomon says that envy is in the heart.  Envy is way down inside of us.  And when we want to be like sinners, we are headed down a dangerous pathway.  The second half of the first verse says that instead of envying a sinner, we should consider what ultimately happen to a sinner.  What ultimately happens to a sinner - what happens when they die?  That is told to us in the second verse, verse 18. When sinners die, they are cut off from heaven and home with God.  Sinners live a life that looks exciting, but the sinner is headed down the path to destruction.  And when we consider the sinner's end, well we surely don't want that, do we?  We want a home in heaven when we die. So, when we are envious of a sinner's great life, remember where they will end up.  Always go with God.  You will never be sorry that you did.  I'm not!

Read Proverbs 23:13 & 14  Oh no!  Here we go again with verses about correction!  It seems like every other verse in Proverbs is about fools and spankings.  Why do you think that is?  I think Solomon is worried that his son might be thought of as a fool if he doesn't listen to his father.  I think Solomon is worried that his son might not correct his son, Solomon's grandson.  So am I saying that I want my sons and son-in-law's to spank my grandchildren?  Well . . . that is a difficult situation.  If it takes spanking for my grandchildren to grow up and be good adults and love God,  I suppose spankings are necessary.  But I want my sons and son-in-law's to spank my grandchildren when I am not there to see it happen.  If I don't see the spanking take place, it is not painful to me -but it is for you!  Actually, spankings should not be done in public.  Spankings should not be done at church or out at a store.  Spankings should not be done in front of other people.  Spankings should be done in the bathroom or in the bedroom.  The purpose of spanking is not embarrassment.  The purpose for spanking is correction.  If you do not listen to your parents, they must get your attention by spanking you.  They do it because they want you to turn out to be a fine adult.  They love you and look past today and look into the future.  The future when you will be a polite, self-controlled adult.

Read Proverbs 23:12  Solomon talks about two things in our verse: instruction and knowledge.  What do you think is the difference between instruction and knowledge?  Knowledge means that you know some things, but instruction means that someone else is teaching you something about some things.  For example, knowledge is you knowing how to play the game of baseball but instruction is a coach who knows all about playing baseball teaching you how to play baseball.  Instruction needs two people: a teacher and a student.  One person who knows how to teach and another person who is willing to listen to that teacher.  But Solomon says two more things about instruction and knowledge: he says that we should apply our hearts to instruction and apply our ears to the words of knowledge.  Apply means to really work at something.  Solomon wisely tells us to really work at having a good attitude about listening to a teacher.  Our hearts means that we want to listen, and our ears mean that we pay attention and listen to what is being taught.  If we want to learn and we are attentive and listen, we will learn.  Remember, God gave us two ears and only one mouth.  Do you remember why?  So that we could listen twice as much as we talk.  And that is good advice.

Read Proverbs 23:10  Do you remember what a landmark is from a couple of days ago?  Proverbs 22:29 says that we should not remove a landmark.  In our verse today, Solomon goes on to say that when we remove the old landmarks, there is trouble ahead.  If we remove the old property landmarks, no one knows where their property ends and where someone else’s property begins.  But sneaky people like other people to not know where their property ends or begins.  The sneaky land owner just acts like his property goes further than it really does. They like to make their back yard bigger and bigger while their neighbor’s back yard is getting smaller and smaller.  But they need a landmark to mark where their property ends and where their neighbor’s property begins.  In Solomon’s day, a sneaky neighbor would remove the property landmark so that no one knew exactly where the property line had been.  Then this sneaky neighbor would just take more and more of his neighbor’s land.  No one knew for sure, because the sneaky neighbor had removed the land mark.  He had just got away with stealing a little bit of his neighbor’s land.  But the sneaky neighbor had forgotten one thing.  God was watching.  God saw what he had done.  Are you like the sneaky neighbor?  If a toy doesn’t belong to you, do you write your name on it and then claim that it is yours.  Remember, God is watching.  If you and your brother or sister get some candy at the store and you eat all of your candy up, do you then pretend that the candy lying on the table is your candy?  Remember, God is watching.  He sees everything that you do.  Do the right thing.  Don’t be like the sneaky neighbor and remove the old landmarks.  Be fair with everyone that you know.  You will be happy and God will be pleased.

Read Proverbs 23:9  Our verse for today tells us that we are wasting our time if we try to talk with someone who is a fool.  Do you remember what a fool is?  A fool is someone who will not listen to anyone else.  They will not listen to someone who is trying to keep them from making a big mistake.  A fool is someone who thinks that they are always right.  They think that they always know what is best to do.  A fool always thinks that they are smarter than everyone else.  And what does Solomon say about a fool?  He says that the fool hates the good words that you might say.  So, if someone doesn’t listen to a wiser, older person, what does Solomon say that they are?  He says that they are a fool.  They will not listen.  Don’t waste your time trying to help them.

Read Proverbs 22:29  Solomon is giving us some good advice in this verse.  If you are diligent, you will go far in this world.  But what does diligent mean?  A diligent person is someone who finishes the job.  When their mother gives them a job to do, a diligent child will get to it right away.  They won’t put it off and try to get out of the work – they will just do it – and do it as best as they can.  A diligent person doesn’t whine or try to get out of work – they like to see that a job is finished and finished well.  Here in our verse Solomon says that someone who is diligent will not go unnoticed.  A diligent person will get promoted by their boss.  If they are a salesman, they will make many sales and get many awards.  If they are a carpenter, they will do fine work, and everyone will want their work.  If they bake cakes, everyone will want one of their cakes for their birthday party.  Solomon says that a diligent person will not work for ordinary people, they will work for the best!  Solomon says that they will work for the king!  We should really do our best because we really do work for a king.  Who is the King who we work for?  That’s right, God is our king, and we should do our best for Him!

Read Proverbs 22:28  The key phrase in our verse for today is ancient landmarks.  You probably know what ancient means, but what do you think a landmark is?  A landmark is something that helps you remember the place where something important happened.  Most of the time a landmark is marking the spot where something important happened long, long ago.  Often you will see big markers that tell about a pioneer who used to live on that particular spot many years ago.  If you follow Memorial Drive (Highway 31) all the way down to where it goes into interstate 65, you will see a landmark dedicated to Casper Mansker.  Casper Mansker was a long hunter who was the first white man to come into the Nashville area.  He used to live in Virginia, one of the thirteen original colonies.  After moving over the mountains into the Tennessee area, he went hunting into the Cumberland River area, which is now called Nashville.  Casper Mansker would take his gun, some horses and supplies, and go out hunting for long periods of time.  He would return with his pack horses piled high with the skins from the animals that he had shot.  He would trade the skins for supplies like gunpowder and food.  Casper Mansker soon learned the wilderness country as well as the Indians who lived there.  It is good to remember the brave men, like Casper Mansker, who explored our country.  We remember them by setting up landmarks.  We also need to remember the times long ago when God blessed us and did special things for us and our families.  These are the landmarks that Solomon is talking about in our verse.  Can you think of special blessings in your family that you should remember as landmarks?  I remember the day when each of my grandchildren came into our family.  Those were wonderful days and great landmarks that I like to remember!

Read Proverbs 22:22, 23 Verse 22 talks about the poor.  What two things does our verse say not to do about a poor person?  The first is pretty clear: We should not take advantage of a poor person just because he is poor.  The other thing that we should not do to a poor person is not quite as clear: the second half of verse 22 says that we should not "oppress the afflicted in the gate".  Let's look at these three words.  Oppress means to be mean to someone.  If we pester our sister, we are oppressing our sister.  If we talk our brother into doing our chores that we are supposed to do, we are oppressing our brother.  The next word is afflicted.  Afflicted means to do mean things to someone else.  When we oppress our sister, we are afflicting them.  It is like putting bothersome things on them.  It is like making them do more and more work.  Then the last word is a phrase.  A phrase is a group of words.  A preposition is a word, but a prepositional phrase is a group of words.  This phrase is in the gate.  Back in Bible times, there were no courthouses.  The place where all of the judgements between two people took place was at the city gate.  So the phrase in the gate actually means in court.  God tells us here in verse 22 that we should not drag a poor person into court.  The reason we shouldn't is that they don't have the money to hire a lawyer to defend themselves.  If they don't have a lawyer, we would be taking advantage of the poor person.  Now that we've seen three things that we should not do, verse 23 tells us two bad things that will happen to us if we ignore the warnings: First, it says that God will take up for the poor.  If God is on the side of the poor, and we go against the poor, We are going against God.  And that isn't very smart!  The the second part of verse 23 says that God will spoil those who spoil the poor.  That means that if we take advantage of the poor, God will take advantage of us!  If we bother the poor, God will bother us!  If we are kind to the poor, God will be kind to us.  If we are mean to the poor, God will punish us.  God takes up for the poor.