There are some things you shouldn’t talk about at church.

Steve Brown:
There are some things you shouldn’t talk about at church. Let’s talk about them, on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Key Life exists to communicate that the deepest message of Jesus in the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. Because life’s hard for everyone, grace is for all of us. Our host is seminary professor and author, Steve Brown.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you’re just joining us, we’re studying the Book of Proverbs, and you have to study Proverbs in a way that’s different of the study from the study of other books in the Bible. When you study a book, mostly, probably with the exception of Jeremiah, who could have used an editor. But most of the books, you do line upon line and precept upon precept, looking at the truths of God in an organized, outlined way. But you can’t do that with the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs is different, it covers a multitude of subjects, it comes from a multitude of places. And it’s wisdom to make Christians street-smart. And so, we’re spending time looking at a number of the subjects and we’re organizing it around subjects as we go through the Book of Proverbs. By the way, I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon, and that you had a really good week-end. Let’s pray, and then we’ll study. Father, we come into your presence so glad that you have written down your word and your wisdom, and you’ve given it to your people. You’ve told us that that’s the way we’re ought to live. That’s the best way. That is your way, and we praise you for that. It’s sometimes family secrets that we have the truth. Sometimes it is a place of great safety, of love, of acceptance, of forgiveness, and we thank you. But if you hadn’t done that, you’re still God. You’re the sovereign Creator, Ruler, and Sustainer of everything. You’re big, and you’re in charge, and you’re worthy of our worship. Father, you know everybody who’s listening to this broadcast and you know the hard places. Come alongside, don’t let any of us walk in the dark alone. But Father, you also know the times that are good when there’s laughter and joy and we’re having a party. Father, remind us that you blend your laughter with ours. We praise you and we thank you. And as always, we pray for the one who teaches on this broadcast, forgive him his sins cause there are many. We would see Jesus and Him only and we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen. Alright, let’s look at some things, this is the second and the fifth chapter of Proverbs, that’s long, so I’m not going to read it to you, but I trust that you’ll get your Bible out sometime today or tomorrow and spend some time reading those Proverbs. I have friends who read a chapter of Proverbs every morning. And it’s probably a good practice. So, check this out, but in Proverbs 2 and 5, it’s about sex, that’s what it’s about. It’s about sex. I used to tell my students when I was teaching preaching, if they’re drifting, if you’re losing them, if they look like they’re going to sleep, stop in the middle of your sermon and say “Sex”, and they’ll all wake up quickly. And the students would laugh, and I would laugh. One of my students said he went home and told his pastor what I had said. And the next Sunday morning, in the middle of his sermon, he stopped and he said, “Sex”. And then he said, Jimmy said that he had a professor who said that if I would do what I just did, you would wake up. And that professor was right. Because there’s certain subjects you just don’t bring up. I literally had a lady come to me one time when I was preaching on that subject. And she said, you went too far this morning. I said, how do you mean? She says, you know. And I say, and I said, no, I’m not sure. What is it? And she literally spelled it, S E X. You know, that’s neurotic. As a matter of fact, if you read the Bible, the Bible deals with everything. And the Bible is very earthy. It goes places that seem improper. It says things that they, you want to say, I don’t believe I would have said that. It has records of our heroes doing stuff about which they should be ashamed. And as you read through the Bible, and I do, I’ve been teaching it longer than a lot of you have been alive, I found out that God is the God of everything. He’s the God of every subject, of every place, of every existential reality in our lives, and He addresses those things, and addresses those things clearly in His Word. And when we don’t, we pay a price for it. I honestly believe that a lot that’s going on with young people in our time about human sexuality is happening because those subjects were not addressed honestly by their parents or by their preacher or by their Sunday school teacher. We need to talk about these particular things. Now, there’s nothing surprising in what goes on in the second and fifth chapter of Proverbs, but I just wanted to remind you that it’s talking about sexual matters and it says what you would expect should be said about sexual matters. Be careful. Some things are right, some things are wrong. Some things, sexually, are destructive, some are affirmative. And you have to be very careful if you’re going to be street-smart. And so, that’s pretty much, I don’t need to go into details, and it’s not because I’m afraid to go into details. I believe what I just taught you, but you know what those details are, and the Bible is very clear about them. There’s something sexually that Christians ought not do, and there’s something sexually that God has given to Christians as a gift, and he says, dare I say it, have fun. Within the context of marriage, in the context of, you know, there were years when I would have three lectures for the couples that were getting married in my church. By the way, recently, the daughter of the president of Key Life, Emily, whom I love and everybody at Key Life loves a lot, got married. And I met with them and talked to them, but I was thinking about back in the days when I was a pastor. I did a lecture on sex, a lecture on money, and a lecture on the Biblical doctrine of marriage. And in each of those sessions, we would sit and talk about some of the subjects and some of the things that I’ve said. I gave up giving the lecture on money because, well, I wasn’t doing that well with it myself. And then I gave up on the lecture on sex because I realized the couple knew more about sex than I did. And then I decided that I’m not giving up on the lecture on the Biblical doctrine of marriage because I can speak with authority, because I’m speaking words that were given to me by God himself. But God also gives some words on sexual matters. And our culture is in trouble because we’ve ignored the owner’s manual in the area of human sexuality. All right, enough said. God talks about forbidden subjects, subjects that sometimes we think are improper. Nothing in terms of discussion is improper with God. If I were teaching on prayer, I would say, He’s your best friend, He knows your sin, He understands every struggle that you’re facing, every fear that you know. He knows all of it. So, talk to him about it and be honest. Now, I don’t have time to do it right now, but we’re going to be doing this tomorrow. We’re going to start looking at what in Proverbs seems to be quite sexist. There are some sections in Proverbs, where if you read them and think about them, you think, you know, you couldn’t say this today without being thrown in jail. Some negative stuff about women, but you need to know that in the Book of Proverbs, some of the most wonderful, some of the most praiseworthy, some of the most amazing good things are said about women. About men, too. We’re a mix, aren’t we? The Bible’s clear about that, too. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thanks Steve. That was Steve Brown. And today we resumed our tour through the Book of Proverbs. It’s a series we’re calling Street-Smart Christians. And specifically our text today was Proverbs chapters two and five. More from Proverbs tomorrow, hope you will join us then. Well, as Steve touched on, Proverbs is nothing if not honest and practical. And that’s actually one of the things I like about Steve’s writing. For example, in his article called, Just Stop It and You’ll Laugh More, he talks about how Jesus’ laughter and tragedy go together. And that if you really want to chill out, there are some things you have to stop. You’ll find that piece in the latest digital edition of Key Life Magazine. Check it out for free at keylife.org/magazines and if you haven’t read our 2023 print magazine yet, time is running out, to claim your copy, just call us now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE that’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also e-mail [email protected] to ask for the magazine, to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, just ask for your free copy of Key Life Magazine. And finally, if you value the work of Key Life, would you support that work through your giving? You can charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. Or pick up your phone and text Key Life to 28950 and then follow the instructions. And listen, as always, if you can’t give, all good, but please do pray for us, would you? We appreciate it. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and CCCC in Canada. And as always, we are a listener supported production of Key Life Network.