Welcome And The Real Question

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All right, welcome back. Today we'll be going through Proverbs chapter 11, verses 7 through 8. And we're going to call this title today Today's Grace for Today's Trouble. And it's going to be about the strong man, the divine swap, and grace that arrives just in time. Alright, now listen, I want to be straight with you from the start. This episode is going to get a little personal because these two verses stirs up something in me I think a lot of people in the Christian realm carry around, but no one talks about openly. It is a question that sounds theological on the surface, but it is really about fear underneath. And this is a question. Does God actually deliver the righteous? Or is that just something that we say until reality proves otherwise? I want to deal with that honestly today. No smooth church answers, no skipping over the hard parts, just what scripture actually says and what I've watched played out over a lifetime of walking with God through real pressure.

The Strong Man’s Fragile Hope

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So let's begin with verse seven The Hope of the Strongman Proverbs eleven seven says When a wicked man dies his expectations will perish, and the hope of strong men perishes. That phrase, the hope of strong men is what I want to sit with for a minute. Solomon is not just talking about people who do evil things. He's talking about a specific kind of person, the man who has built his life on his own strength, his own money, his mental sharpness, his network, his physical capability, his ability to outwork and outthink every problem that comes his direction. And when that man dies, all of it collapses. Every dollar, every plan, every advantage he leverage is gone. Now pair that with Job eight, thirteen and fourteen, because Bildad gave us one of the most vivid pictures in all scriptures what this actually looks like. It says So are the paths of all who forgot God, and the hope of the godless will perish, whose confidence is fragile and whose trust is a spider's web. A spider's web. To the spider, that web is a masterpiece. It took everything he had, it is his home, his security, his entire survival system. From his view it looks strong and beautiful, but one brush from a human hand and the whole thing is gone. That is the strong man's life, impressive from the inside, fragile against eternity. And notice the root problem Job names. Not that these people became criminals, not they were violent, or obviously wicked. They forgot God. This is how subtle it is. You do not decide one morning to stop depending on him. You just get capable, you get successful, the skills grow, the capacity grows, and slowly the daily dependence fades. You start trusting the web without even noticing the shift. This is something I have had to personally keep a check on myself. When I first started building my business, I needed God to show me every step. I was desperate. But as the skills developed and the business matured, I made sure to watch my attitude, because there is a subtle and dangerous difference between looking back and saying God built this through me and looking at what I built and thinking I have got this now. I learned this from the story of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar. For some reason that story really stuck with me all these years. Now Proverbs ten twenty eight draws a contrast clearly. The hope of the righteous is gladness, but the expectation of the wicked perishes. Two people, both looking forward to something. One ends in gladness, the other hits a dead end. The difference is not talent, not effort, not even the size of what they built. The difference is the anchor. The strong man's trap is not becoming evil, it is gradually forgetting the source, and when he dies, the hope he built on that shifting ground perishes with them.

The Divine Swap Of Proverbs 11

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Now let's roll into verse eight, the divine swap, I call it. This says the righteous is delivered from trouble, but the wicked takes his place. Now this is where it gets real. On the surface, this verse sounds clean and simple. Walk right, get delivered. But when you start thinking hard about it, a problem surfaces, and I'm going to be honest about what the problem came from in my own life. I grew up in a church tradition where the picture of the Christian life was basically this hang tough, never deny Christ, because persecution is coming and the enemy is going to make your life as miserable as he can until you die. And if Satan didn't ruin your day, God would, because he was just waiting to put pain on you because he did something he wasn't happy with. Then life ends with God waiting at the finish line with sad eyes, but because of Jesus, he lets you into heaven. While Satan, on the other hand, ran the playing field, giving nonbelievers prosperity and the fun on this earth. Christians were essentially just targets. Now growing up, we personally knew and were close to Richard Wombrandt, the man who wrote Tortured for Christ. I have read those testimonies, and I still give to that ministry. The suffering is real. Christians around the world are being imprisoned, tortured, and killed for their faith. And I was taught to live in fear that any moment that was going to happen to me. So how does that line up with the righteous is delivered from trouble? That tension created a hook in my brain for years, and I want to unhook it today for whoever else is carrying this weight by sharing what the Lord has taught me over the years.

Who Holds Authority Over Evil

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This is a theology, the theology that went wrong. The worldview as I was raised in amidst a massive shift in authority. Before the resurrection, the enemy had a real leverage. But look at what Jesus declared right before he ascended. All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. That's found in Matthew twenty eight eighteen. All authority, not some, not future, all right now on earth. The devil is not the ruler of this planet. He is a defeated insurgent operating on property that belongs to the king, King Jesus. If you are raised to believe that the enemy has complete control, you will live like a refugee instead of like a citizen of the kingdom with real covenant rights. And here is something even more foundational. When Satan wanted to touch Job, he cannot just do it, he had to go before God and ask permission. God set rigid limits. The enemy was on a leash. Jesus told Peter the same thing. He said, Simon Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. Demanded permission, did not take it. There is a chain of authority above the enemy, and he knows it. And in Revelation, Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades, not the devil. Christ does. The enemy does not write the last chapter of your life. He never has, he never will. The one who holds the keys is the one who holds you. What deliverance actually looks

Deliverance Through Fire Not Around It

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like? Now here's where I think we have to be honest about something. Deliverance does not always mean God keeps you out of the fire. Sometimes he brings you through it. And the difference matters. Daniel was delivered from the lions. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked through the furnace without even the smell of smoke, but they went in first. They stood inside the fire before God moved, and every single time the wicked who set the trap ended up in it. Haman built the gallows, he ended up on them. The men who threw the Hebrews in the furnace were consumed by it. The men who accused Daniel were thrown into the very den they designed for him. That is the pattern behind verse eight in Proverbs. The righteous is delivered, and the wicked takes his place. Not because the righteous man never enters a storm, but because the storm does not have the final word over his life. And then what about the martyrs, though, Ed? Stefan was stoned, James was executed, Paul was eventually beheaded. The childhood theology I grew up with said, see, the devil has final authority. But scripture frames it entirely different. Revelation twelve eleven says the believers overcame the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. They overcame even in death, because the enemy used his maximum power, the threat of death itself, and it completely failed to make them bow. When your enemy's greatest weapon cannot break you, you are the one with the authority, not him. Paul says in first Corinthians fifteen that the last enemy to be abolished is death. He calls it an enemy, not a door, not a promotion, an enemy, but an enemy that has already been defeated. Death is no longer the victor. And Paul himself said in Second Timothy three eleven, out of them all the Lord delivered me. He was not viewing himself as a helpless victim waiting for the axe. He expected deliverance in the middle of the fight, and he got it again and again until his work was finished. Now there is also a distinction worth making between God's ordinary covenant pattern and the specific sovereign calling of martyrdom. The covenant pattern, sow integrity, walk in righteousness, God protects and delivers, this is the baseline for everyday life. It is what Proverbs is describing. Martyrdom is something different. It's a specific calling given to specific people at a specific moment in history for a global witness. It is not the standard operating procedure for a cash flow problem, a broken boat, or a debt that makes your head feel like it's going to explode. So stop looking at your financial storm through the lens of a prison dungeon. That is just a marketplace storm. And you have a covenant promise attached to your life that says the righteous is delivered, not at the deathbed, but in the living. Here's some living proof. Let's talk about Wombrandt. Think about Richard Wombrandt himself. He was locked in a Roman cell twelve feet underground for years, beaten to the bone. The communist guards thought they were the rulers with all the power. They were certain they had one. But where is the communist regime today? It collapsed into the heap of history. Wombrandt locked out of prison, wrote a book that shook the Western world, founded a global ministry, and died peacefully at an old age. God executed Proverb Proverbs eleven eight in real time here. The righteous was delivered from trouble. The wicked took his place. Not a single bullet fired, not a single sworn drawn, just the sovereign reign of God outliving and outprospering every tyrant that came against his servant. One Brahmin even said he survived by looking at his torturers not as they were, but as they would be, a future apostle Paul. That is how the kingdom actually works. The end game is not us rising up with physical swords to deliver justice. No, the end game is God transforming enemies or removing them entirely. Our job is to keep walking in wisdom and executing the assignment we were given.

Three Stages Of Spiritual Maturity

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Look, there are three stages, so where are you right now? Let's connect verse seven to something I've been thinking through that I believe is one of the most important frameworks for understanding the Christian life because a strong man trap does not hit everyone the same. It depends on where you are in your journey. John the Apostle divided believers into three groups in John verse two. I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven for his name's sake. I'm writing to you fathers because you know him who was who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. Three stages, three different kinds of phases. The little children are praised for knowing the Father. The first season of faith is a love affair. You are completely dependent. You pray and things happen. God shows up in a way that feels miraculous because you have no other resource. He carries you. The young men are praised for strength and overcoming. God gives a vision and expects you to go execute it. He sharpens your skills, grows your capacity, entrusts you with more and more. This is where most of Proverbs lives diligence, stewardships, multiplication. This is the stage where the strong man's strap is most seductive. Because things are working, capacity is growing, and the very success God produced in you can slowly become the thing that pulls your anchor off of him. But notice what the Father are prayed for, our praise for, not strength, not accomplishment. It says they know him who has been from the beginning. The deepest praise goes to the one who simply know God, not what they built, not what they overcame, who they know. That is the third stage, not doing less, being more rooted. The skills are still there, the wisdom is still there, but the foundation is unmistakable and unshakable. And here is what the third stage looks like in practice. Think about Jacob at the end of his life in Genesis forty eight and forty nine. He was blind, bedridden, dying. He cannot herd sheep or swing a sword, but he sits up in the bed, crosses his arms, and prophesies over his sons. He releases the destiny of nations from a deathbed. His physical weakness forced him to operate entirely from spiritual authority. Or Paul, near the end, not planning new churches anymore, but writing letters from prison that shaped the theology of the entire Western world, his influence grew while his physical freedom shrank. And Psalm seventy one eighteen says assembly, and even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to all who are to come. He does not pray for another conquest. He prays to keep a transmission line open. This is the Father's calling, not producing through your own strength anymore, passing on the knowledge of God to the generation coming behind you. And honestly, that is exactly what this podcast is. It's not a stage two hustle, it's a stage three transmission, taking decades of walking through real fire and distilling it so that the next generation knows how to hear God's voice and keep moving. The strong man's hope perishes because he never graduated past the young man's stage. He kept trusting the web. The father's hope endures because as the outer tools fade, the knowledge of God's only gets deeper and more valuable to those coming behind him.

Daily Grace For Daily Trouble

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Look, grace for today, the cure for the fear. Now let me bring everything together into the one truth that I think resolves the fear underneath all of this. When Paul had a thorn in his fret flesh, whatever it was, he went to God three times and asked for it to be removed, and this is what he heard. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. My grace is sufficient for you. Not here's a plan for the next ten years, not here's how to resolve it, just what I give you today is enough. Jesus taught the same thing in the Sermon of the Mount. So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. That's in Matthew six thirty four. And in Deuteronomy thirty three twenty five it says As your days so shall your strength be, not as your fears, not as your worst case scenario. As your days come, the strength comes with them. God fed Israel in the wilderness with manna every morning, but he gave a strict rule, only gather enough for today. If you try to hoard tomorrow's portion, it rotted by morning. That was not just a food policy, that was God training his people to trust one day at a time. You cannot pre stock tomorrow's grace any more than Israel can pre stock mana. And in Lamentations three twenty two and three and twenty three it says His mercies are new every morning. New every morning, not recycled from last year, not drawn from a reserve you fill up decades in the future. No, they're fresh daily to match today's needs. Here's the practical application I want to take out of today's podcast. God does not give you tomorrow's grace today because he's not asking you to obey tomorrow today. He gives today's word, today's grace, today's strength, and today's assignment. When tomorrow becomes today, his grace will already be there waiting. In other words, don't get all hung up what the future holds. You don't know, but you do know today. So what did God ask of you for today? What talents do you possess today? Act in this realm. The current life or the current real life realm with the grace of faith God and you have together. Your fear of the future is real because you don't have the faith from God for that, because you are not designed to carry it, but you can handle today. The strong man tries to secure every possible future with today's strength. He builds the web large enough to cover every scenario, and Proverbs says that web will not hold. The righteous man hears the voice for today's steps, takes it, trusts God with what he cannot see yet, and walks in the daily confidence that the one who delivered Daniel, who outlived communism through Wombrand, and who raised Jesus from the dead, that God has not changed and is not surprised by what is in front of you today. Cory Tim Boone's father answered this better than most theologian. When Miss Boone was young and terrified she would not have courage to face persecution, her father asked her, When we take the train, when do I give you the ticket? Three weeks before or right before we step onto the train? She said right before we get on the train. Then her father said, Exactly. Your heavenly Father works the same way. You do not need the strength for the trial right now. When the time comes, God will hand it to you. This is not just a nice story. This is biblical. God gives us daily bread. He does not give forty years of bread today, and the person who keeps trying to pre solve every future crisis with today's mental and spiritual resources is going to exhaust themselves and miss the actual assignment God has for him right now. So let me land on

Warning And Promise Then Closing

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this. Verse seven is a warning. When a man builds his life on his own strength, his money, his intelligence, his network, his ability to outwork every problem, he is building a spider web. It looks impressive from the inside, but the moment eternity brushes up against it, it collapses instantly. The hope of a strong man perishes because they were trusting something that was always temporary. Verse eight is a promise. The righteous man, the man anchored to God, walking in integrity, not perfect, but generally trusting the one who holds the keys. That man is delivered. Not always immediately, not always visibly, not always the way he expected, but the trap does not consume him. And more often than not, the very trouble designed to take him out ends up swallowing the ones who said it. This is not a theology invented to make Christians feel better. That is the observable pattern of God across thousands of years of history, from Mordecai to Daniel to Paul to Richard Wombrand. The righteous get delivered, the wicked takes his place. And between the warning and the promise there is one daily practice that holds everything together. Hear his voice today. Take today's steps. Leave tomorrow's deliverance in his hands. The same voice that has led this far is not going to go silent on you tomorrow. He gave enough light for you to for every step you have taken. He will give enough light for the next one. Look, the hope of the strong man perishes because it was built on what he could control. The hope of the righteous endures because it is anchored to the one who controls everything, and he holds the keys. That is the promise of Proverbs eleven verse seven through eight. And it is still true for today. Alright, that was another one I was totally excited about. So we'll pick up next time in Proverbs eleven starting in verse nine. But before we go, don't forget, and I even got a copy to show you on the thing. Get this book if you can't hear God's voice. God, why will you not talk to me? By Edward L. Carpenter. It'll save you a lot of time of just staring at the wall, thinking you can't hear the Lord's voice. He had me write it for you. Love you all, and until next time, God bless.