Mar | 13 | The Wisdom of Not Doing The Dirty On Your Own Doorstep

Dream Word – CONSIDER

Proverbs 11:29He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart. NKJV

The Wisdom of Not Doing The Dirty On Your Own Doorstep

For the N’th time, I shall be flying across the pond once more in a couple of days time. I tend to fly the cheapest way, which usually means flying at the most unusual of times. Being mostly then cramped and cranky, I suppose, the only thing I look forward to are the ‘In-Flight Movies.’ Interestingly, it just so happens that the first in- flight movie ever shown, had its title based upon our text for tonight. In 1960, the first class passengers of Trans-World Airlines viewed this very first ever ‘In-Flight Movie,’ and it was of course called, ‘Inherit The Wind.’

‘Inherit the Wind’ was the movie of the Broadway play based on the famous watershed event of the creation and evolution debate called the ‘Scopes Trial,’ the beginnings of which was the Butler Act, which just so happened was today in 1925, debated in the Tennessee senate. The Butler Act proposed a law, ‘forbidding public school teachers to deny the literal Biblical account of man’s origin and to teach in its place the evolution of man from lower orders of animals.’ Both the play and film grossly misrepresented the facts and the character of the people it portrayed, but triumphed primarily in its attack against the ‘Fascism of McCarthyism.’

Our text for tonight says the wise of heart does not trouble his own house, and those that do are fools, who in turn shall see their inheritance dissolve into nothing, only to then feed on air and become a servant to the wise and generous untroublers! Be sure, if you bring trouble into your house where once there was peace, you shall be degraded by that trouble! Whether that trouble is financial mismanagement, relational unfaithfulness, dishonour of mouth and action, unsociable-ness, a lack of affability, a niggardly withholding of necessities, or any other withholding of that which is due or any other kind of duplicitous dealings, it is mismanagement, it is trouble and it shall disinherit you and reduce you to the position of a poverty stricken servant. Be careful then that you never degrade your own doorstep.

Simeon and Levi, roiled the waters of Jacob’s family when they murdered the men of Shechem. Achan, troubled the house of Israel to their death, when taking the forbidden and accursed thing. Saul troubled the land, with his misplaced and fleshly zeal and friends, we must all beware of the misplaced zeal for our own selves, which castigates those who would be blessed by us and be a blessing to us.

Father are you troubling your children? Wife, are you troubling your husband? Brother, are you troubling your sister? Son, are you troubling your father? Quiet now, for I hear the sound of a clanging mission bell and see the future race of tumbleweeds, rolling through your streets. The Butler Act roiled a nation’s waters and it’s still reeling from it today and should Christ tarry, should the waters settle, the bottom of the pond will no doubt look a very poorer place. Be careful then that you never degrade your own doorstep.

Listen: - "But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants."' Luke 15:17-19 NKJV.

Pray:- Lord, I have troubled my own spiritual house and my own family house. Rightly O Lord I should inherit the wind, yet Lord I cry to You tonight that You would make me a greater son and restore both me and to mine, those years which I have allowed the Locusts to eat. In Jesus name I pray, amen.