Proverbs 18:4

The point: Teach children that speaking wisdom requires paying the price of cultivating a deep and refreshing supply of wisdom.

The imagery from Proverbs 18:4 is explained as representing a wise man's speech, which is deep, pure, clean, wholesome, healing, and refreshing, unlike a shallow stream.

Chapter 18, verse 4, the words of a man's mouth are as deep waters, the wellspring of wisdom is as a flowing brook. Very briefly, what's the imagery there? Where you have a wise man, he's got more than a shallow stream that just sparkles. You can take your ladle and dip beyond six inches and come up with something pure and clean and wholesome.

0:00 - 0:26 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My parents were not fed by my letter grade. And they said to me, son, this represents what God gave you. This represents what you're becoming in your character.

Martin recounts his grammar school report card, which had both a letter grade (A, B, C) and a number (1, 2, 3, 4) representing effort and character, to illustrate how his parents valued diligence over innate ability.

So I'm repeating it not because I'm getting old and senile, because you need to hear it. In our report card. In our school, all through grammar school, at two marks, you had your A, your B, your C, and then you had next to it a 1, 2, 3, or 4. This represented effort and character revealed in the way you dealt with your subject.

1:21 - 1:46 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My parents were not fed by my letter grade. And they said to me, son, this represents what God gave you. This represents what you're becoming in your character.

Coming home with an A2 or A3 meant trouble because his parents were not feeding their pride but focused on his character and effort, not just the letter grade.

You want to know something? If I came home with an A2 or an A3, I was a big bad couple. Why? Because my parents were not feeding their pride.

1:46 - 1:58 Read in full sermon

Driving home: My parents were not fed by my letter grade. And they said to me, son, this represents what God gave you. This represents what you're becoming in your character.

Coming home with a C1 (C with maximum effort) resulted in praise and encouragement, demonstrating his parents' emphasis on effort and character development.

If I came home with a C1, I was praised. I was encouraged. But if I came home with an A2, I was in trouble.

2:10 - 2:19 Read in full sermon