Proverbs 18:8

The Dainty Morsels of a Whisperer

0:02 Verse 8, the words of a whisperer's dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts. There's a picture of someone bringing a lovely spread of hors d'oeuvres. My wife and I can't get over this. It was the most amusing thing recently happened in our trip out to the Midwest.

0:20 The people at Anderson were very kind to provide for us a lovely night and evening, afternoon and evening and a night in a downtown motel in Indianapolis between the Southern and the Mid-America. There were conferences recently, and they knew it was our 35th anniversary that weekend, and they told me to take her out to eat at a lovely restaurant in the area, and I found this elegant, I think it's a four-star restaurant, because the concierge at the hotel said, I shouldn't tell you this. And I said, look, it's our 35th anniversary. I kind of whispered, you know, I want to do something special.

An Elegant Dining Experience and a Lonely Hors D'oeuvre

0:52 She said, well, I shouldn't tell you this, but nothing special enough in our hotel. Here's where you go. So she gave me the name of this elegant restaurant, and it was elegant. They were all prepared.

1:02 They were all prepared for us, fresh-cut flowers on the table. When we came, it was sort of a U-shaped booth. They pulled the table out for us, brought it back in, opened up the napkins for us, spread it on our lap. I mean, it was, it just, and the first thing they did is I saw the waiter coming out with plates, biggest symbols, two plates.

1:26 Now, I kid you not, if my wife were here, she'd bear witness. I know my tendency to rhetorical exaggeration, and I'm restraining it. I mean, huge. Huge dinner plates.

1:36 And they're sitting right smack in the middle with this one little hors d'oeuvre. And the waiter, serious, solemn as the day of judgment, explained what it was. It was such and such a cracker with a little, looked like an impoverished dachau shrimp. It had been starved a while, and some kind of special elegant sauce on it.

2:03 But here was this one little hors d'oeuvre sitting in the middle. It looked so lonely. It's that huge plate. And we tried very elegantly to take it with our fingers and nibble on it and then have the plate taken away.

Connecting the Illustration to the Text: Dainty Morsels

2:16 Well, what's the purpose of all of that? Well, look at the text, verse 8. Dainty morsels. That was a dainty morsel served up elegantly.

2:27 And I tell you, it went, I was hungry by then. So, I mean, it went down into the innermost parts. It wasn't floating on the top at the end of a large meal like an after-dinner mint. I mean, I was hungry.

2:40 Out comes this big plate, and I thought, good, here comes an appetizer. And there was that little hors d'oeuvre. Dainty morsel. But it went down into the innermost parts.

The Deep Penetration of Whispered Words

2:50 Now, look at the text. The words of a whisperer's dainty morsels. They go down to the innermost part.

3:00 Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. Ah, it's not true. The words whispered. You're on the end.

3:10 You see, I'm your friend.

3:14 You're somebody special.

The Moral Innocence and Devastating Influence of Whispering

3:22 Where are kids going to learn the horrible, devastating influence of whispering? Passing on information that others have no right to know. Passing it on with no good intent. With no noble intent.

3:36 Where are they going to learn it? They're going to learn it from you, or they won't learn it at all. We must teach them that whispering in that sense is never morally innocent. It goes down into the depths of the soul.

The Devil's Use of Forgotten Whispers

3:49 And how many a time? A man or a woman who's spent 20 years building up moral and ethical credibility and someone came along and whispered a little word that went down into someone's innermost part and it was utterly forgotten until, in a moral crisis, when that person had reason to want to resist or reject that person's friendship or influence, what happened? That dainty morsel was brought up by the devil. Devilish, gastrointestinal operations by which those morsels can then be brought up.

4:28 Oh yes, I remember what somebody told me. Aha.

Accountability for Whisperers and Parents

4:34 Not a thing they saw. Not a thing observed. 10, 15, 20 years of blameless walk and it's swept away by the cursed influence of the words of a whisperer. And though the whisperer will be held accountable, so will you be held accountable.

4:51 You never taught your child how wicked it was. You let them whisper about their siblings, whisper concerning their friends. Parents, what an awesome task to teach our children the righteous use of their tongues.