Haste Makes Waste

Haste Makes Waste

All right, let's take our Bibles and turn to Proverbs 14, verse 29, this evening. It's here in verse 29 that we read, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. We read that again, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

Of course, not too long ago we finished looking at the sins of the spirit and one of those sins of the spirit that we mentioned was anger, wasn't it? Anger, and anger is not a good thing in us. Well, we can be angry with sin, yes, but even in that, anger is not very far from violent behavior or from the lack of self-control in the way that we respond to things. You know, we certainly should hate sin, right? We should hate sin, but how do we fight it? We can't fight the devil in our own strength; the way that we must turn it into prayer, right? We have to pray that God will give us the victory. We can't overcome him if the weapons of our warfare are carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. And so tonight we read that he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, but he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly.

I had a good conversation with my brother-in-law yesterday and some of the things we talked about were along these lines. It's interesting that the word hasty here means in a hurry or something that's done quickly or in a rush where we're hasty, right? We're just, usually when you do something in that way, you're not under control, right? You're not doing it in a controlled manner; you're shooting from the hip, we might say. You're kind of wild in the way that you're doing it. That could be physically speaking, even a runner has to be under control. They have to, when they're running, they can't just be flailing their arms. I think Paul talked about beating the air, you know, running in a controlled fashion, running with a purpose, and running according to what you've got. If you're a good runner, as you see them sprinting, they're not flailing their arms all over the place. They've got their eye fixed on the finish line ahead of them, and they have very tight, minimal movements, keeping their movements all pointed in that same direction, not the arm going over here and so on and so forth.

But he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. Hasty of spirit. We were speaking about the sins of the spirit, like I said. What is this hasty of spirit? We use the word sometimes, quick-tempered, don't we? Someone is quick-tempered. And when we are quick-tempered in our spirits, we exalt foolishness and folly. We become absurd in the things that we say and do sometimes when we are hasty in our spirit. We might not, under normal circumstances, have said something that we say when we're hasty in spirit. We might say, if certain people were in the room, we wouldn't have said those things because maybe somebody else would have called us down and said, hey, you shouldn't talk like that.

But you know, God is always there, isn't that something? I was taught from a child, and certainly as a Christian, I'm talking God's word. You know that God, you know what is the saying, be careful little mouths what you say, for the Father above is looking down in love. He sees everything we say. He sees where we go. He sees what we do. Folly. He that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. The devil loves it when we are hasty in our spirit. People that aren't even necessarily Christians know the little phrase, haste makes waste, right? Haste makes waste. You can be running a hundred miles a minute, not getting anything done. I'm sure that, you know, really keen on the job with the siding and everything, you could be running back and forth from the truck all the time, or other people, you know, different ones of you, and not even being efficient. You just look like you're doing something, but you're not accomplishing anything.

I know that when I used to help my dad with some of the side work, I was the gopher, you know. He didn't want to have to do all that running back and forth to the truck; he'd tell me what to go get, and I'd go get it and bring it back. That made it more efficient for him, right? On the job, and I found that to be true just working on things around the house. If I have kids here, go grab this, hey, you go do this, and that kind of thing, and that'll help me out. It saves a lot of time; it's more efficient. Well, when we see the hasty in spirit here, we see that it exalts folly.

Let's look in James 1:19. What does it say here in James 1:19? In verse 19, we see James is talking about the trial of our faith, isn't he? He's talking about the testing of our faith that's to work patience in us. But in verse 19, he says, wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. Oh, that's the sin of the spirit, isn't it? If we're quick to wrath, no, we just, he that is slow to wrath, our text in Proverbs 14:29, he that is slow to wrath is of great understanding, is wisdom, right? He is a man of wisdom and understanding, a woman of wisdom and understanding that is slow to wrath.

We must understand that when God puts us through tests, and that's usually in the trial, in the trouble, in the fire, when our spirits get riled up, right? When our spirit, we become hasty in spirit a lot of times when the pressure is on, right? Not when everything's going well, but when we get under the heat and the pressure. And then that spirit can rise up, you know, that quick temper can rise up, can't it? And so we must be careful about that. We must be careful to remember that the wrath of man, James says, worketh not the righteousness of God. The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

Look with me in Ecclesiastes 7, though. Ecclesiastes 7, verse number 8. It's there that Solomon says in verse 8, better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry, he says, for anger resteth in the bosom of fools. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry. He that is hasty in his spirit to be angry is foolish. And we just saw that a moment ago, he that is hasty of spirit exalteth folly. He doesn't exalt God, that's for sure; he doesn't exalt the grace and the wisdom of the Lord in his life.

But that's the purpose of our existence, to in our spirits, in our body and our spirit, glorify Him, right? To glorify the One who has created and redeemed us in our spirit and in our body. And so that's what Paul tells the Corinthians. The fool does not realize, or if he does, he doesn't care what his quick temper, what the repercussions of that are. He doesn't care how it hurts other people. He certainly doesn't care how it hurts God, and we who bear the name of Christ, of all people, we ought to be careful about our spirits, right? We ought to be careful about how we handle our spirits.

But the man who's hasty, the man who is hasty to be angry, is one who will lash out with words. I see that we're living in times where people, they have a shorter and shorter fuse, it seems like. They're not hesitant at all to lash out. And even, I know I probably repeat myself, but even pull a gun on each other. I mean, this is just the world we're living in. Over things that are, I mean, nothing's worth shooting somebody else over in anger. I'm just saying, but even over things that are not even consequential, not even of real monetary value, just the pride. You're not going to cross me. You're not going to cut me off in traffic. You're not going to do this.

And when we're living in the middle of that, I think in Noah's day, the Scripture says as it was in Noah's day, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. As we get closer to the Lord's return, the violence is going to fill the earth more and more. We're going to, but we need to be especially careful that we don't let that rub off on us. And that we don't let that, and I know that it is easy for us to be influenced by that. If we're not in the Word of God and in prayer, we can, that will affect us, that will. But we're not to be hasty in our spirit to be angry. Well, that means don't lash out. Don't retaliate. Don't blow up. Be slow to wrath. Be swift to hear. Be slow to speak.

If you look with me also, if you'll turn over to Proverbs 25 and verse 28, this is in our spirit in Proverbs 25, verse 28. It says there, he that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls. Well, what is a city without walls? What's the problem with a city without walls? It's defenseless. Exactly. And anybody can just come in and do what they want. There's nothing to slow it down, so to speak. Anything can become an emergency in a moment because there's no time to respond. There's no walls and towers and all of these kinds of things to defend against it.

Well, in the same way in our spirits as Christians, if we have no control over our own spirits by putting on the armor of Christ, the armor of God, then we will have a short fuse. We will be defenseless against those thoughts and the prodding of Satan and the workers of, when the trial and the pressure comes. We'll just cave into it, right? We'll give into that impulse to just be hasty in our spirits, and we'll exalt folly instead of exalting the Lord.

But look in Proverbs 16, verse 32, what does it say there? Proverbs 16, verse 32 says, on the contrary, he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty. He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city. I think that would be a good verse. It applies to men and women, boys and girls alike, but if we're talking about manliness, that would be a good verse to talk about, what does it mean to truly be manly, right? The idea a lot of times in our culture that we live in is a man's got to get out there and shake the bushes and beat some people down, you know, and prove he's got muscles. No, this is saying here that the man who can't control, or the man that rules his spirit, is better than the one that takes a city. The one that might be a physical conqueror, but he has no control over his spirit. That's not God's idea. That's not God's depiction of what true control is, no, and true might, but he that is slow to anger is better than the mighty.

So these are thoughts, and this is our spirit. Our spirit is that part of us that manifests itself in a variety of forms, of course, as we said not too long ago. It manifests itself in words and in actions, reactions to things, but it is our spirit. And we must be careful not to be hasty in our spirits. We must be careful that what our motivation is. What is our motivation? Are we motivated by pride or the desire to get even, you know, I'm going to get in the last word. I'm going to prove myself. Jesus Christ didn't please His own self. He lived to please the Father, didn't He? He lived for the glory of the Father.

And when the Lord saved us, He saved us that we might, that Christ might be seen in us, as we sing tonight, that it wouldn't be us, but it would be Christ to be seen in us. But look in Proverbs 21, verse 5, we see haste in another area. In Proverbs 21, verse number 5, we read, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. It's when we are hasty rather than diligent, the Bible contrasts diligence with slothfulness. It contrasts it here with haste. Sometimes the slothful man is hasty because he puts off things and procrastinates, and he's lazy, and then he says, oh, well, I got to hurry up and do this because, you know, I wasn't diligent, right? Like the grasshopper, fiddled the summer away, right? And then, but where were the ants? The ants were busily about their work in Aesop's fable, and then when the winter came, that's kind of late to be preparing then, right?

The thoughts of the diligent, how we think is important, our spirit's important, how we think is important. We see here a contrast between those who meditate day and night in God's Word and those who make snap decisions. I think we ought to do this because I haven't even invested any thought about what would God want me to do. I'm just going to do this, you know, I'll win. I'm going to do this. And you know, some of us, some of us are more that way than others. We have different personalities. Some people don't tend to put a lot of forethought into things, just naturally speaking. I'm not even talking about in our spiritual walk, but for those that, and then there's some that may overthink it but not be thinking God's thoughts, right? Kind of trying to reason through it in our own thinking, well, let's make sure I can work all of this out, though. Sometimes you may think that this is going to work a certain way, God completely changes those plans. So I'm not talking about just overthinking it either and trying to reason through it. I have a tendency to do that sometimes, to think through it, but I got to make sure I'm thinking biblically about it and not thinking in a way that pleases God, not just trying to work it out in my own way.

Looking at Psalm 1, Psalm 1 verse 1, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, abundance, but of everyone that is hasty only to want. But Psalm 1 says in verse number 1, let's read that. You know it, we probably don't even have to look at it. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law doth he meditate day and night. He thinks on God, he thinks on His Word, he chews on it, you know, and he shall be like a tree, right? Planted by the rivers of water. This is not an instant success sort of thing. This is steady growth, right? This is putting down roots and growing upward with fruit, putting down roots in God's Word as we think on it, we meditate on it, we grow in that Word.

But he shall be like that tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Maybe I've shared something, I share gardening examples from time to time. What a blessing it was this past year. We have one of our trees in our yard, a plum tree. Well, we have a couple plum trees, but we planted a plum tree. I guess it's been five, will this be five years this year? This will be four years anyway. Well, this past year, the fourth year, we finally got, well, let me back up. The previous year we got one plum that made it. I mean, there were several on there to start with, but only one made it to maturity. And this past year, I think it was 60 or 61, something like that, plums that we got on that tree. It just exploded in growth, but it wasn't by accident because that tree each year, its roots have been going deeper and deeper and becoming more established. And that's kind of like our thoughts, isn't it? Our thoughts, our meditations in God's Word, and the fruit that comes out in our daily life is not accidental, is it? It comes from, like we read here tonight, it comes from a walk with the Lord, and our thoughts, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness.

Well, we're hoping for an even, we don't know what will happen. I mean, we could have a late frost and not get any, but we're hoping that that plenteousness will get more and more plenteous with that plum tree, right? Because they sure are good. They're yummy. But of everyone that is hasty only to want. Let's not be like the grasshopper in our meditation on God's Word. Let's not go light on meditation in God's Word and say, well, kind of skim over this, and we'll hurry on to do these other things or fill our minds with all these other things. No, let's let it simmer. Let God's Word simmer. Let's let it brew. Let it soak in. Let it become saturated. Let the Word of God take root, the blessed man has roots as he delights in God's Word and meditates in that law day and night.

Well, James talks about this. Looking at James 1, James chapter 1, verse 25. We're doing a good bit of back and forth between Proverbs and James, aren't we? James chapter 1, verse 25. It's over there in verse 25, James 1. We see this, before I read verse 25, let me remind you what he had just been talking about. He'd been talking about not only being hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word, right? Because if we're just hearers and we're not doers, we're looking at our face in the glass. Do you go to the mirror in the morning, you say, or you go, I don't know, you've been working out in the yard, and you get ready to go to the store. You say, well, let me go look and see. I need to clean up a little bit. And so you look in the mirror. You're going to wash your face, and you say, oh, my face is dirty. I guess I'll go into the store now, you know, and you don't do anything about what you see in the mirror, and you leave the same way you were. What was the point of looking in the mirror, right? What was the point of seeing yourself in the mirror?

But here in James 1:25, he says, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continueth therein? There's the language of diligence, right? Being diligent, being persistent, continuing to look into the law of liberty. He, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. He's reading, studying, she's reading, studying, she's meditating on what she's reading, he's reading. And then that individual, I believe, through meditating on that Word, doesn't forget what they've read, but then they say, Lord, help me to put this into practice today, tomorrow, in my marriage, in my home with my children, on my job, with my neighbors, wherever I am, help me to apply practically what I'm reading on this page. I want it to be worked out in my life, you know, keep my heart with all diligence, out of it are the issues of life. And so, by Word, if I hide it in my heart, right, so that I might not sin against Thee.

And so in the thoughts of the diligent, there is plenty, abundance. And so this person, not being a forgetful hearer, instead, a doer, James says, of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. Not might. He shall be blessed in his deed. If we think on God's Word and not just glaze over it. I know this, that's what God's Word says. Let me read a little passage, okay, I'm going to go on about my, I got better things, I'm going to go on about my day. No, it's meditate therein. Let it dwell in you richly, then you'll be blessed in your deed.

Looking at Proverbs 29, though, we see there as well, in Proverbs 29, verse 20, what it says there. Proverbs 29, and verse 20 says, seest thou a man that is hasty in his words? A man that is hasty in his words, there is more hope of a fool than of him. So our spirit, our thoughts, our words, hasty, not good in any of those contexts, right? It's not good to be, we say, quick, but quick-tongued, right? It's not good. It's not good to have a sharp and a quick tongue. And the Bible says that a soft answer turneth away wrath, right? This doesn't mean you have to be a pushover, or a doormat, no, but we are to be gentle and reasonable and have moderation toward all men, right? A man that's hasty in his words, there's more hope of a fool than of him is what we're reading here.

And then Proverbs 10, verse 19, also Proverbs 10, verse 19 says, in the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin, there's no lack of sin where there's a, you know, an abundance of just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, running the mouth nonstop, but he that refraineth his lips is wise. In the multitude of words, why do we need to think and be slow to speak, right? Why do we need to do that? It's because if we're quick to speak and slow to think on God's Word, then there's going to be things, even if we didn't intend it to be that way, there's going to be things that are just coming out of our mouth on a continual basis that are not exalting the Lord, they're exalting folly, they're exalting, they're just absurd, you know, they're things that are not going to minister grace to the hearers most likely, just because that's the way it works.

So there's no lack. Kind of like we say, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. I'm not going to lack. Well, if we're running off at the mouth all the time, there's probably not going to be any lack of things that we say that are going to not be edifying. So he that refraineth his lips is wise, that doesn't mean we shouldn't speak. It just means that we need to be careful about how we speak, right? That we would minister grace. There's no lack of sin where there's gossip, there's no lack of sin where there's argumentation, there's no lack of sin where we say things before we think about them. That's another thing. Probably you were taught at some point growing up, think before you speak. Think before you speak.

Look at Ecclesiastes chapter 5. You know, even in a marriage, I can think of a number of times where I've had to go back and say, honey, I'm sorry. I spoke too quickly, and I was upset. I mean, I was upset about this, and I shouldn't have said it the way that I said it. And you know, thank God for forgiveness and for making those things right. But when we speak before we think, look in Ecclesiastes 5:2, be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thy heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon earth, therefore let thy words be few. Don't make so many big, even promises to God. Be careful even when you're speaking to God.

And so he says in verse 6, you know, I mean, we can vow a lot of things, and then we don't perform the vow, right? We can say things before God and be hasty to say them. You know, it sounds good, but do we really mean it? Do we really mean what we're saying? And in verse 6, he says, suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin. Neither say thou before the angel or the messenger that it was an error. Wherefore should God be angry at thy voice and destroy the work of thy hands? Well, this passage is talking about vowing to the Lord and not paying, right? It's talking about that. So say what you mean and mean what you say, right? Say what you mean and mean what you say when we let our mouth run ahead of our minds, or we don't take time to just, you know, it's amazing how praying over something before you go and say something you feel like in a moment, if you stop and say, Lord, help me say the right thing. Sometimes you end up not saying a lot of things you were thinking about saying, you know, it just, your words get fewer all day, your words get fewer.

I've never seen that when I've stopped and prayed about a situation, even if in the passion of the moment you felt like saying something, I've never seen where, yeah, you get this peace of heart where the Lord says, yeah, you should say that and more. That's not how that works. Let thy words be few, right? We tend to say more than we should. Well, looking at Psalm 31, Psalm 31 verse 22, it's there. The psalmist makes this observation, I said in my haste, verse 22, for I said in my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes. We saw this morning, we see how we mentioned how Job, before the Sunday school hour, we saw how he said he came to the understanding, He knows the way that I take, when He hath tried me, I shall come forth, but there were times it had been better if I hadn't been born, you know, even the psalmist said at one point, surely I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. What that was the thought and based on how he felt at that moment, but it didn't actually happen, did it?

Here, here we see that he says, I said in my haste, I'm cut off before thine eyes, but it wasn't true. Nevertheless, thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee. Based on my feelings, it feels like God, my circumstances are so great. I don't see how God is hearing my prayer. How God can answer prayer in the middle of this very difficult situation. Sometimes when we get in the middle of difficult situations, we have a tendency not to think straight, that's why we need to meditate in His Word, right? And let His Word inform our thinking and our praying.

Looking at Psalm 116 verse 11, we must conclude here in a moment, but Psalm 116 verse 11, the psalmist says here, verse 11, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Have you ever said something like, you can't trust anybody? You can't trust anybody. Well, it's true that we shouldn't trust anybody like we trust God because even the most well-intentioned people will fail at some point, but I said, all men are liars. Well, that's not true. That's not true, but sometimes we're tempted to say things, go to extremes like a pendulum, you know, go to the extreme when the pressure is on, but we must be careful in the way that we think of our circumstances, in the way that we think of others. Slow to wrath, slow to speak, swift to hear, swift to hear.

Of all times when we were under pressure, we need to be hearing God's Word. I know some of these brethren that, you know, the distance, the ones that had to leave a church, you know about, they had to leave, and I can see how God's blessing those that are, you know, even though they've had to leave the situation they were in, I don't see a bitterness in them. I see that they are filling their hearts and minds with God's Word. I'm sure they've had moments, I know human beings, but you know, the temptation is to be angry or to become bitter, but when God's Word dwells in us richly, it diffuses that, doesn't it? When God's Word, when we're hiding God's Word in our heart, when we're hiding God's Word in our heart, we're meditating on Him. He's good no matter what people do to us. He's good all the time to us.

And so sometimes God brings us through those hardships to, well, He really always does, doesn't He? To purify our faith and help us draw closer to Him. Maybe, maybe we can't trust somebody that we used to think we could trust, right? Or that they were going to do what they said they were going to do. Maybe that falls through. But Jesus never fails. Earthly friends may fail, but He never fails. So let's, we never have an excuse to be hasty in our spirit. We never have an excuse to be hasty in our thoughts, in our speech, in prejudging a situation based on how we feel in that moment. You know, I just feel like God has forgotten about me here in this situation, or I feel like all men are liars, or I feel like, and we tend to go to those extremes. But the Lord is not changed. The Lord is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And may we see that He is, as the hymn says, every joy or trial falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the Son of love. And we can trust Him wholly and find Him to be true. Every day with Jesus, sweeter than the day before. Every day with Jesus, I love Him more and more. He saves and keeps me, and He's the one I'm waiting for. Every day with Jesus, sweeter than the day before. May we find that to be true this week. And we can only find that to be more and more true as we say, Lord, help me to be slow to speak, slow to wrath, swift to hear.

Let's pray. Father, thank You for these brothers and sisters who've gathered this evening. We're glad for the good service and the time You gave us this morning. We're looking forward to what You have in store for us this week. We don't know what all, we know certain things that are planned, but plans can change, Lord, and yet, no matter what happens, we know You already know the way that we take. We know You've already appointed the trials and tests and blessings for us this week. And so help us to just take each step with this attitude that we've spoken of tonight, that we would be slow to wrath. We would be slow to speak. We would be swift to hear what it is that You want us to learn through these things. We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.