I am amazed at how persuasive infomercials can be. The area that they work best in is when they are selling something that you have an interest in. I am interested in losing weight. I find it amazing when I see an infomercial about an exercise machine or some special formula that will lose weight while I am watching the Celtics sitting on the couch.
But the wakeup call comes when news programs give an expose on what works and what doesn’t. You find out quickly that some people out there don’t care about you, they want your money. But when they talk, it sure sounds like they are for you. They give you all the benefits, they will break the price into 5 monthly payments. All they want to do is help you.
What is even more amazing is that they reach into our wallets and help us give willingly to their retirement accounts and vacation funds. We pay.
The truth is many of us can be fooled by other people. The saying, “You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time” is true, but sometimes we are the ones who are fooled some of the time.
This is tragic, but what is even worse is when we see all the red lights screaming at us, the yellow lights telling us to slow down and we ignore them.
Some of you older people here have stories to tell in this. You met a man or a woman. Your mother, your father, your brother and sister, your best friend, you teachers, your neighbors all told you, “Don’t get involved with this person.” You ignored them all and thought, “I’ll change them. The person is not as bad as everyone says.” And you have a story that will tell us, “I should have listened.”
Someone might tell about a “friend” who wanted your financial help to get on his feet. The friend might have had an alcohol problem or been unable to ever keep a job. You knew it was a bad idea to help the person, but something inside you said, “Take a chance.” You did and your story of regret, of broken friendship, would move this audience.
Why do we ignore all the warning signs?
Pride might be one reason. We don’t want anyone else telling us what to do.
Love is blind, so I have been told. When people first meet they can be on good behavior or overlook the glaring faults in others. Love can be blind.
Inexperience is another. It might be that you paid in some way for a quick education. You learned at the school of hard knocks how gullible you were.
But at the core of all of that is that you wanted something for yourself. You were looking for love, a good thing, but looking for love in all the wrong places. You wanted to support your family, but sinful people took advantage of your greed to lead you astray.
Look at Proverbs 23.
“6 Do not eat the food of a stingy man, do not crave his delicacies; 7 for he is the kind of man who is always thinking about the cost. “Eat and drink,” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. 8 You will vomit up the little you have eaten and will have wasted your compliments.” (NIV)
“6 Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee. 8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.” (KJV)
In this text we have a man with an evil eye. The KJV is better on this. But what is evil about his eye?
If you could look deep into this man’s eyes and see what is in his heart you would discover that his words do not match his true feelings.
He says to you, “Eat and drink.” Those are his words. But what is he thinking? The word “thinking” has the idea of making a calculation. He is counting how much food you take, how many bits you have, how often you refill your glass.
And what are you doing? Eating a little. Saying nice things to this person, like, “thank you” and “this is a great meal.” Totally unaware of what is happening inside the head of the person with the evil eye. But he is counting. He is thinking in his heart much different than what is coming out of his mouth.
And what is the benefit for you? I don’t know exactly how to take this vomit part. One commentator said it was because you would eat so much. But the text says that you are not eating very much at all. Is it that the person’s disposition will make you sick? It is that the tradeoff of the good food that quickly goes out of you is not worth the long-term effect on the relationship? And your praise for his generosity and cooking skills are lost on this person. They are still counting how much you made. Wasted time and effort are what is in store here.
I believe the proverb assumes that you know this person’s character. The warning signs are there. If not, how else could you know to avoid taking him up on his offer to eat?
But you ignore the warning signs and go ahead anyway. Why? Because this person has something you want. Pizza. Veal parmesan. Barbecued steak. Chocolate cake and ice cream.
We have had problems in our country with the internet. People come on and talk to our young boys and girls. They will tell them they are 15 or 21 when many of these men are in their 40’s, 50’s 60’s and even 70’s. The TV, parents, magazine articles, our youth pastor and others say, “Don’t connect with people you don’t know. Don’t give out personal information to anyone that you don’t know.” But you do. You reference Palermo or China, Erskine Academy, and other things that seem innocent. And you are ignoring all the warning signs. I say to you, “Get smart!”
But this includes elderly. People will call and ask for bank information. You have to give it or your account will close. You have been warned, but you might ignore them because you don’t want to hurt the feelings of the person on the telephone. Don’t ignore the warning signs. “Get smart.”
Underlying all of this warning is a spiritual issue. Satan wants to defeat you. He wants you to get into hurtful relationships. He wants you to be consumed with the loss of your retirement, bank account… He is the father of lies and what this man in proverbs was doing was lying. He said one thing, but his heart showed another.
Not only that, but ignoring the warning signs is often ignoring God. He has brought people around you who love you. Their warning may be God’s warning. The person you are dealing with may be openly breaking God’s law. They have no respect for Jesus. God has spoken to your heart. Are you listening?
You know how to tell a person’s heart? Look at their treasure. What do they value. The only way you can know that is to listen to what people say, what they do and what they have said and done in the past. The best way to know a person’s future is to look at their past. People rarely change.
But some of you have. You were the one with the evil eye. Your heart and your words were not in sync. But you saw your sin and came to the Savior. He changed your heart. Things that were foreign to you in the past you now embrace.
You know what the church would love to hear? That there is someone here who has heard the warnings. You heard them loud and clear. And you have been ignoring the warnings. But this morning, when the word of God was broken to you, a light went on. It was a big red light. And instead of ignoring it, you would say to the church, I am stopping. I am stopping this relationship. I am stopping this action. I am stopping this move. I am stopping this sin.
The angels in heaven will clap. God above will rejoice. And Jesus will know his death on the cross was not in vain.
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