This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.
On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. A daily program powered by the Truth Network, where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. Well, welcome to Truth Talk Live. I'm Duane Carson. Date the Word is my ministry, and we're here with you today to convey the truth that will change your life.
Thanks for listening. Question, how important is it to learn the principles from the book of Proverbs? How important is it for you that are fathers out there, mothers out there, to be learning Proverbs so that you can teach your children? That's what we're going to talk about today because there are things that our children need to be learning so that they can be equipped to live life.
More than making a living, they're able to make a life. If you've got some thoughts on the book of Proverbs today, we're at 1-866-348-7884. Love for you to give us a call. I've got a special guest in the studio with us today. It's my very own son, Clayton Carson.
He's the youngest of the four children I have. Clayton, welcome to Truth Talk Live. Absolutely. It's great to be on here. I'm a Ph.D. student at Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary. I work for a group called the Conservative Baptist Network, and I write over at textdriven.com and as well as at theradicalbaptist.substack.com. I'm excited to be on here with my first teacher, my dad, who has been teaching me Proverbs since probably before I could even think. Well, we were trying to do that.
That's true. Clayton is very involved right now with ministry. We're very proud of him.
He's got his seminary degree, working on his Ph.D. When we come to the book of Proverbs, and I'm thinking everything's okay, we're in a thunderstorm here in Winston-Salem, and the lights just went out, but hopefully you're still able to hear us. Proverbs, this is the book of wisdom, and this is what we want our children to get, and one of the reasons for that is Proverbs 23 15 says, We're going to talk about that phrase, my son, but my son, if your heart is wise, my heart will rejoice. Indeed, I myself, yes, my innermost being will rejoice when your lips speak right things, when you are filled with wisdom. I got to tell you, I have no greater joy. This is what John wrote. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, and so it is absolutely essential that we, as parents, grandparents, are learning the book of Proverbs so we can teach our children and grandchildren wisdom. Hey, we've got Bucksman from Ohio. Bucksman, welcome to Truth Talk Live.
How you doing? So well, Pastor Carson, and I just love this book. I'm so glad you're highlighting it on a Friday even, and yes, I love how it's referred to as the book of wisdom. And here, I don't know if you've ever noticed this, Pastor Carson, but I noticed this a few years back about all the wisdom books. If you take any given Bible, any given hard copy Bible, close it in your palms, and then put your thumbs down on the pages as they're shut, and put them as centralized in that little inch or inch and a half of pages that it is, and then open it up, you know, separate it as close as you can with both even sides. Usually, not all the time, guys, usually opens up to the book of Proverbs.
Isn't that cool? That it's right in the center, right in the heart, if you will, Pastor Carson, of our textbooks, our curriculum textbooks. And, you know, the wisest man that we will ever come across is a man by the name of Solomon. And he was so wise because he understood he wasn't wise.
And he, when given the opportunity to ask God for anything, oh my word, what would you ask God if he would say, ask me for anything? He said, give me wisdom. And so then that book falls right open to Proverbs because that's where he imparted all this wisdom that he had learned.
And one of the reasons I'm bringing this topic up today, Bucksman, is today is August the 2nd. Well, we're one day behind, but I believe the greatest advice I could ever give a person after telling them you need to accept Jesus as Savior, get wisdom. And the way to do that is read one chapter a day out of the book of Proverbs. And I have been giving that advice now for 40 years because I forget exactly who the first person was to give it to me. But I was told, if you want your life to be transformed, one of the things you need to do, and wasn't the only thing, but one of the things you need to do is read one chapter a day out of the book of Proverbs.
Yesterday was August the 1st. There's 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs, 31 days in the month of August. And so one of the great tips is read one chapter a day from the book of Proverbs. Bucksman, have you done that process?
I have. And Pastor Carson, you are my hero, brother. That is so wise a counsel that you received. And here's the really cool thing to talk live is as long as we can read English, most of us speak English and we have an English written Bible.
We can ourselves hear and receive God's wisdom straight from his mouth to our ears on how to grow like his son Christ. That is so good. Pastor Carson. Yes, sir. Hey, Bucksman, we're going to be headed to a break, but I wanted to tell you a thought. And Clayton and I, when we come back from break, are going to dive into this a little bit. What do you what would you think about this idea that Proverbs is really a commentary on the Ten Commandments?
Proverbs is a commentary of the Ten Commandments on the Ten Commandments. Let me think about. Yeah, well, we'll we'll we're headed to a break. We'll be right back. This is Truth Talk Live. You're listening to the Truth Network and Truth Network dot com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live. I'm Dwayne Carson.
I've got with me today my son, Clayton Carson. We're talking about the importance of the Book of Proverbs. The importance of Proverbs for a parent to be learning, because in the Book of Proverbs, we're going to find a phrase.
Twenty some times, if you put a couple of things with it, it'd be about thirty five times. We're in the book. This writer, Solomon, is going to say, my son, my children, my son here, my son.
Listen, my children pay attention. And so this is a book, the Book of Proverbs, that is really the lessons of a father to his son. And it really starts in Chapter four, where it talks about how Solomon was taught much of what he's giving from David. He said he was a son, said that his father's need learning.
And now he's passing it on. Solomon was a discipler. And as we're looking at the importance of teaching the truth, I just want to challenge you out there, be thinking about reading one chapter a day in the month of August, reading one chapter a day of the Book of Proverbs. It's not that hard to do every morning, open up Proverbs, whatever the date is, and read it. Proverbs Chapter one is going to have in there my son about three different times where the where Solomon said, I've got to get your attention. There's things I need you to know.
And the big one is for him to be teachable. Clayton, you mentioned from the very beginning, it seemed like I was trying to teach you Proverbs. Talk to us about some of the things you've learned from the Book of Proverbs from your mom and your dad. Yeah, well, the first thing is straight out of Proverbs of trust, not your own understanding, but seek the Lord's wisdom. I think that's one that's kind of been an influential aspect of my life of when we think about preaching.
I have nothing to offer anyone. All I can ever give anyone is the word of God. And so Proverbs, the more that's in you and how I've been raised and taught and the more I'm in scripture, more in Proverbs, what comes out of me than is Proverbs when someone asks for advice or anything like that. And we think about that of like people need advice.
They need help. And we're going to give them worldly experience. No, we're going to give Proverbs.
We're going to give that advice because here we have. I don't know how you guys would define wisdom, but I define wisdom. This is heavenly insight for earthly living. If you've got a thought now about Proverbs one eight six six three four eight seven eight eight four.
Give us a call. I just want to remind you that with my ministry of date the word, you can you can download the app date the word. And there you can see the verse for the day. Today's verse is Deuteronomy eight two. And and you shall remember the Lord your God. He led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness to humble you and to test you to know what was in your heart, to know whether you would keep his commandments or not. And here Moses is writing from the Lord. Remember the Lord, how God worked in your life. And he says, remember the reason for the trial. The reason we have these trials we're going through is so God can see where we are.
It's like a coach. I got to put you out there in the field, hit the ball to you and see if you can really field it. All right. I will try to see where you're at.
And then what do we need to do to improve? But then there's also you see where you're at. So we do a daily devotion that you can sign up for.
But go to the app, download the app. One of the things Clayton is helping me on is with date the word. We're launching a massive campaign called March three sixteen. Clayton, tell them a little bit about March three sixteen.
Yeah, March three sixteen. It comes out of my dad's idea of three sixteen is John three sixteen. And what we want to see is people preach and teach three sixteen John three sixteen on three sixteen twenty twenty five. But not just to say we did that, but to create a movement of personal evangelism. We will we preach John three sixteen on March three sixteen of March sixteen.
That's the greatest message there is. Well, it's also a Sunday. It's also a Sunday.
And a lot of people need to hear that next year. March the 16th is a Sunday. So we're calling on pastors all over the world. Consider preaching your best John three sixteen message.
Easter is April the 20th. So this gives people opportunity in March. And pastors, an opportunity for you to call people your people to invite people to church to hear God's greatest message of all time to mankind. And Clayton, you're thinking of this as becoming a movement. It's a movement of evangelism. What what we have to see is a culture and a natural aspect of evangelism. We're not going to see people come to know Christ by one day. Be an emphasis on evangelism. We are going to see people come to know Christ and see our nations and our countries and the world change by every day going out and evangelizing.
So this is the point of this isn't to have one day of evangelism, but have a one day of emphasis to create a great movement where evangelism is the normal outcome of the Christian life. And when we think about who a wise person is, Proverbs Chapter 11, verse 30 says that he who wins souls is wise. So if we're going to be teaching their children how to be wise, we've got to be teaching them how to be soul winners.
It's Adrian Rogers quotes. We will evangelize or we will fossilize. It's not just that's not just about churches, that's families. If you're not out evangelizing with your wife and children, your family will fossilize. If you're not teaching your children how to share their faith at their school, they will fossilize. It's the heartbeat of the Christian is preaching the gospel.
And if you're not doing that, your heart has stopped. Now, when you said preaching the gospel, we might want to say sharing the gospel because we do think pastors do the preaching. But every one of us should be sharing the gospel. And one of the easiest verses to ever share with someone.
And you don't have to just wait till March 16th to do it. But it's John 3 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoso believes him should not perish. Why do we have to tell them?
Because people are perishing. That's in the book of Proverbs as well, that there is an eternity. And we've got to be ready when we die, prepared to meet God. And we want to do that by not having our own righteousness, but having his righteousness. We're sinners.
We need someone to give us a new nature. So we're soul winners. So put that on your calendar, pastor.
Start thinking about March 16, 2025, preaching John 3 16. Now we're going to be headed to a break. And for some of you, this will be all that you're going to be hearing today from us.
We wish you a wonderful weekend for the rest. Please come back as we continue. We're talking about Proverbs, the importance of teaching my son the principles that will bring life to him, to her. We want our children to enjoy the abundant life.
And teaching Proverbs will help them be wise. We'll be back in just a moment. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. Welcome back to Truth Talk Live.
I'm Duane Carson, datetheword.com. That's our ministry. We'd love for you to check that out. But we're thrilled to be here today on Truth Talk Live talking about the truth that comes from the Book of Proverbs. And it's August the 2nd. And we're challenging you to make a commitment to read one chapter a day. This month of August, 31 days, where you would then read through the Book of Proverbs, reading all 31 chapters. And each chapter is loaded with nuggets of wisdom. It's a treasure chest of wisdom. Wisdom, heavenly insight for earthly living.
It's going to give you comparisons so that you can know if you do this, this is what you can expect as the outcome. One of the things I've tried to convey to my children early on in life is what I believe is the greatest principle of life. Galatians chapter 6 verse 7. Whatsoever a person sows, that will they also reap. Clayton, you remember me teaching that principle. Proverbs is going to let you know what's going to grow. Proverbs is going to let you know what's going to grow. Now, I made a statement earlier that I think Proverbs in many ways becomes a commentary on the Ten Commandments.
Especially those commandments that relate to humans. Because you can't miss through the Book of Proverbs the call to honor your parents. Right off the bat, listen to your parents. Pay attention to what they have to say.
How many times does Solomon say to his son, I need you to hear me closely, I need you to listen to me. There are things that I know they're going to harm you. And when you have a son or daughter that's going to respect their parent, they're going to listen to their parent.
That's going to keep them out of a lot of trouble. You think about the sin of adultery. How many times in the Book of Proverbs are you going to find, not the warning not to commit adultery, but how to stay away from committing adultery. It is so important to be at the right places with the right people. Proverbs 1 conveys that, Proverbs 7, this guy goes out where there is temptation and he can't resist.
Sexual temptation is so strong and now he's being led down a road like an oxen to be killed. Proverbs talks about, Clayton, the importance of not stealing and how does it do that? It teaches you how to work hard. Instead of stealing, you have a work ethic. When we think about dealing with temptation, one of the things that a wise person will do, Proverbs 14, 16 says, A wise person fears and departs from evil, but a fool rages on and is self-confident.
They just put themselves right in places where they're prone to fall. As we were coming here, Clayton, you were talking about how you've been studying the Lord's Prayer. Give us some thoughts there about where Jesus said, lead to pray, lead us not into temptation. What Jesus says in the model prayer, as we call it in Luke 11, he says, call on God to lead us not into temptation. The phrase there isn't don't lead us into sin, but don't even lead us into temptation. What that's about is our heart desire should actually be not just that we wouldn't sin, but that we wouldn't even desire to be tempted to it.
We want God to change us so much that not only are we saying, God, I don't want to get unnecessarily angry in traffic, but we're actually saying, God, I want it to where I don't even think about it. I don't want to think about even the chance to commit adultery. I don't even want to be in a situation that's close to it. I want my life to be so changed that my desires don't even allow me to be tempted by sin. So many times people ask the question, how close can I get to something? It's not how close, it's how far you can stay away from it.
And that's the idea. I want to be so close to being like Christ, which is I'm called to be holy. So I don't want to be even near those kind of temptations. Lord, help my mind to be so transformed, I'm thinking about always doing that which is pleasing to you. When we think about some of the things Solomon wanted to teach his son, one of those things was that they would be teachable. And parents listening to this, I got to tell you, one of the first lessons you have to teach is how to be teachable. When I was coaching Little League Baseball, I would always say we have to first learn how to be listeners.
I can't coach you if you are not listening, and this is how you're going to listen. We would teach those kind of principles. Over and over in the book of Proverbs, Solomon is going to say to his son, my son here, my son receive, my son pay attention, my son keep.
He wants him to be involved in learning. And then one of the things that he wanted to convey to him was the importance of not consenting to sinners when they are enticing them. One of the principles I tried to convey to you, Clayton, and to your three siblings is it's important to be with the right people at the right places. My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. You're with the wrong people. A wise person walks with wise people. A companion of fools will be destroyed. My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your foot from their path. Having been ahead of school, so many times I could tell why someone messed up by just asking one of two questions. Who were you with? Where were you?
What were you doing at that place, and what were you doing with those people? So parents, again, all this is coming from the book of Proverbs that you can then use to help develop your child so that they can walk in the paths of righteousness. Clayton, give us some other thoughts of things that your mom or your dad may have taught you from the book of Proverbs that help you to have a godly life. Well, the biggest thing that Proverbs teaches is the source of wisdom. The source of wisdom is the fear of God. I think one of the things that we miss, and especially in my generation, is there's been a lack of desire for wisdom. It's, I want to go have fun. I want to do other stuff.
Why does it matter? And what we're actually saying about ourselves is, I don't want to be wise. And then what we're saying further then is, I don't want to fear God. And so the first thing of just the beginning of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge is fearing God.
And what that means is, we go to the feet of God, not to the feet of any man. There's no person who can give us any type of wisdom that's helpful to us. Only God can. Anything is you as a parent. The only thing you can give is scripture.
Anything else will do harm to your children. You have to give them the Bible. And Proverbs is a great source for that. So the source of wisdom, the fear of the Lord.
Does that mean I'm afraid of God? In some senses there's an aspect of, we have an understanding that He is mighty and He is greater. But really it's this concept more of reverence. Of we're recognizing that He's God and we're not. A lot of us don't think that way. We do think we're God. We may acknowledge that God is God, but we don't acknowledge that we're not. And it's not enough to have just one.
We have to have both. So this relationship of being a wise person is going to start with a relationship with God. He gets placed at the right place so that He is the Lord of our lives. And that happens by us receiving the Lord Jesus as our Savior. And if you're listening today and you've never been born again, that's where it starts. You put your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's the fear of the Lord. The book of Ecclesiastes, another book of wisdom, Solomon shared, I tried everything under the sun.
I'm out there trying to see what will bring satisfaction. And all of a sudden he's singing the song, I can't get no satisfaction. Well, he can't because the things of the world do not satisfy. And then he makes a conclusion. And that's why you have to read the entire book of Ecclesiastes. As challenging as it is, as he keeps saying things are vanity, he finally comes to a conclusion and says, Fear God, keep His commandments. And parents, that's part of what we are to teach. We're to teach our children to have a reverence and an awe for God.
And that will lead to obedience. Hey, this is Truth Talk Live. We're going to be back in just a moment for our last segment. Thanks for listening. Give us a call at 1-866-348-7884 with your thoughts on the book of Proverbs. Well, we welcome you back to Truth Talk Live.
Duane Carson here in the studio today with my son Clayton Carson. And we're talking about Proverbs because it's the beginning of a new month. August has started and I love giving the challenge. And I'm passionate about this. I'm passionate about Proverbs because this is the treasure chest of wisdom. And we want you to buy into reading one chapter a day out of the book of Proverbs.
We've got a lot of people who listen whose children will be headed back to school. And, you know, if you're in the Word of God, you can be more intelligent than your teachers. And that comes from the book of Psalms. Psalms 119, 97 says, Oh, how I love your law.
It is my meditation all the day. You, through your commandments, make me listen to this now, wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I want to be able to handle those temptations that come from those who want to harm me. I can be wiser than my enemies. And then verse 99, I have more understanding than all my teachers. I even have Bible professors tell me, you can be smarter than me if you just get to know the word better, get to know the word. And part of being a wise person, Jesus said, if you hear what I teach and then you do them, I will liken you into a wise man.
It's more than just learning that you got to live it. What happens if you get into the book of Proverbs? If you're reading through Proverbs, what might you expect? We're going to highlight a few things and I'll draw some things from Clayton on things he may have learned as we went along. One of those, Clayton, is a wise person chooses his friends carefully.
How does that impact you? Well, I just pulled up Proverbs 14 and it says in Proverbs 14, 7, leave the presence of a fool or you will not discern words of knowledge. Just being around a foolish person makes you foolish. Now, Proverbs also talks about the times when we have to be around the foolish person, but it's a one way relationship. When we have to be around foolish people, we're giving them scripture, we're pouring into them, but it never comes back to us. You got to be a Daniel.
You still want to be an influencer. You want to be light, but you've got to be strong and not allow them to influence you, but you become the influencer. Proverbs 12, 26, I gave this to a gentleman just the other day. It was his birthday verse.
He said his birthday was December 26. I said, well, you got a great verse. Proverbs 12, 26, the righteous should choose his friends carefully for the way of the wicked leads them astray. Parents, you want to have that Proverbs 12, 26 verse circled and memorized.
Have them learn this because, again, who you associate with is so important. I think we've already mentioned Proverbs 13, 20. He who walks with the wise men will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed. When we think about being a wise person, you got to have wise people around us.
Here's another one. A wise person respects and obeys God's restrictions. How does that one impact you, Clayton? I immediately think of Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is all about how I love your law. Our relationship to what God commands us to do should not be, oh, I hate these rules, but I just do them because I have to.
No, it's good for us. The restrictions of God is true freedom. That's what wisdom teaches us. Wisdom teaches us that good restrictions, right restrictions, make it to where we're happy and safe in life. You quoted Dr. Adrian Rogers there a little bit ago.
Dr. Rogers there in Memphis, and you're at Mid-America Seminary, Great Seminary. Dr. Rogers would make a statement, when God tells you don't do something, he's saying don't hurt yourself. If he says do something, he said you're opening up yourself now for God's blessings. Put yourself in a place for God's blessings. Don't do the things that will hurt you. A wise person is going to put in place God's restrictions so they're not going to be harmed. Another thing you might want to be paying attention to as you're going through the book of Proverbs is it's going to remind you of the brevity of life. Teach us to number our days. Teach us to number our days that we may have a heart of wisdom, and part of Proverbs, you'll find it talks about there is going to come a day when we're going to end up dying.
It's going to be over. My cousin, his birthday would have been today. He would have been 99. He died at 98 back in May.
He lived a long life, but even his long life was a brief life. It goes by so fast, but he told me and he told others, he said, always be ready even if it isn't today. Be ready because you'd never know when you're going to be called home.
He was ready to go home. Clayton, this may have been one of those we preached a lot. A wise person receives and responds to corrections and rebukes correctly. How do you handle being corrected?
Absolutely. I think you think even the Lord's discipline. He loves those he disciplines. The first thing, if you don't ever feel discipline for wrong from the Lord, that means you're not his child. If there's no conviction of sin, so responding rightly to discipline and correction, the first thing is we actually love it because that means we're being loved by God from it. Proverbs 3, verse 11, My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor detest his correction. For whom the Lord loves he corrects, just as a father of the son in whom he delights. And I delighted in my four children.
I was determined that they were going to know I loved them, and I delighted in them, so I stepped in and corrected. It takes discipline to do discipline, but then you do that, but listen, it takes discipline to also receive discipline. And here's God saying, I'm going to step into your life, and I'm going to say, don't keep going that way. Here's a parent that steps into your life and says, don't keep doing that. A teacher, a coach, am I going to respond correctly? Am I going to receive the rebukes? Am I going to receive those corrections so that I can be a better person? One of the reasons you're going to want to be in Proverbs, parents especially, and then getting your son, your daughter in Proverbs, is to understand this part of correction. It kind of goes back to not only being corrected, but am I teachable?
It really lies there, doesn't it? I need to be teachable. Proverbs 14, six, a scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, but knowledge is easy to one who has understanding. If you're scoffing and you're laughing and hating on the person who's trying to teach you, you'll never learn. But the one who has understanding will receive it quickly. Proverbs teaches us how to deal with conflicts.
And one of the ways that will teach you to deal with conflicts is by telling you to be slow in your judgment. When I walked out of the house today, you may have seen me, Clay. What did I grab? You grabbed a quarter.
I grabbed a quarter. Why? Because? It has two sides, just like every story. Every story has two sides to it. You don't want to jump to conclusions. Proverbs 18, 13, the first one to plead his cause seems right until his neighbor comes and examines him.
Hang on, just because you hurt one side doesn't mean you've hurt the whole side. So you want to be patient, make sure you're getting all the facts. And again, when we jump to conclusions is when we end up in lots of conflict. There is a component of, as we're trying to get along with one another, is to understand one another. Stephen Covey wrote a great book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and one of the things he taught was seek first to understand before seeking to be understood. And Proverbs talks about how we're to listen to the other person, see where they're coming from.
Proverbs, it's a book that is absolutely loaded with heavenly insight, friends, for earthly living. And I want to just give one more time, challenge you, think about what you can do to get more wisdom into your life by reading just one chapter a day during this month of August, 31 days each day, open up God's Word to Proverbs, whatever the date is, read it. Even if you miss a day, that's okay, then read Proverbs 4, read Proverbs 10. Whatever the date is on the calendar, you read it. You're going to get all kind of insights about people.
I read this before I came in today, Chuck Swindoll said you'll learn about 180 different types of people in the Book of Proverbs. Now, as we wrap up Truth Talk Live on this Friday, August the 2nd, Sunday is coming, and I want you to be at a local church Sunday. It's so important. Go with your family, worship the Lord, hear the Word taught. I hope you have a most wonderful weekend. This is Duane Carson with Date the Word, and this is Truth Talk Live. The Lord bless you, and the Lord keep you.
