509. Living With Trust (#3) March 14, 2024

[00:00:00] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast

[00:00:12] we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank

[00:00:24] you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you give everyone ears

[00:00:29] to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this

[00:00:35] in Jesus' name, Amen. This is Proverbs 14, beginning in verse 1. The wise woman builds

[00:00:44] her house but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. He who walks in his uprightness

[00:00:52] fears the Lord but he who is perverse in his ways despises him. In the mouth of a fool

[00:01:01] is a rod of pride but the lips of the wise will preserve them where no oxen are the trough

[00:01:09] is clean but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. A faithful witness does not lie

[00:01:19] but a false witness will utter lies. A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it but knowledge

[00:01:28] is easy to him who understands. Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive

[00:01:36] in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way but

[00:01:44] the folly of fools is deceit. Fools mock at sin but among the upright there is favor. The

[00:01:55] heart knows its own bitterness and a stranger does not share its joy. The house of the wicked

[00:02:03] will be overthrown but the tent of the upright will flourish. There is a way that seems right

[00:02:11] to a man but its end is the way of death. Even in laughter the heart may sorrow and the end

[00:02:20] of mirth may be grief. The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways but a good man

[00:02:29] will be satisfied from above. The simple believes every word but the prudent considers well his steps

[00:02:40] a wise man fears and departs from evil but a fool rages and is self-confident. A quick tempered man

[00:02:52] acts foolishly and a man of wicked intentions is hated. The simple inherit folly but the prudent

[00:03:02] are crowned with knowledge. The evil will bow before the good and the wicked at the gates of the

[00:03:10] righteous. The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor but the rich has many friends. He who

[00:03:19] despises his neighbor sins but he who has mercy on the poor happy is he. Do they not go astray

[00:03:29] who devise evil but mercy and truth belong to those who devise good? In all labor there is profit

[00:03:39] but idle chatter leads only to poverty. The crown of the wise is their riches but the foolishness

[00:03:48] of fools is folly. A true witness delivers souls but a deceitful witness speaks lies.

[00:03:59] In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence and his children will have a place of refuge.

[00:04:07] The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the snares of death.

[00:04:15] In a multitude of people is a king's honor but in the lack of people is the downfall of a prince.

[00:04:25] He who is slow to wrath has great understanding but he who is impulsive exalts folly. A sound heart

[00:04:35] is life to the body but envy is rottenness to the bones. He who oppresses the poor

[00:04:43] reproaches his maker that he who honors him has mercy on the needy. The wicked is banished

[00:04:53] in his wickedness but the righteous has a refuge in his death. Wisdom rests in the heart of him

[00:05:02] who has understanding but what is in the heart of fools is made known. Righteousness exalts a nation

[00:05:12] but sin is a reproach to any people. The king's favor is toured a wise servant but his wrath is against

[00:05:22] him who causes shame. Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 1 and

[00:05:30] Proverbs 14 verse 1 tells us this the wise woman builds her house but the foolish pulls it down

[00:05:41] with her hands. Friends we have been on a study this week on the word trust and my foundational

[00:05:51] verse is found in Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6 and those verses tell us to trust in the Lord with all

[00:06:00] your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall direct

[00:06:09] your paths. And the foundational verse basically is telling us that we should not put our trust

[00:06:18] in ourselves but we should put our trust in Jesus. He is the one who came to earth and died on

[00:06:28] across and we also talked about Matthew chapter 6 now I went over verses 25 through 34 but what

[00:06:39] I'd like to do today is just go over the verse that many people know and that's the 33rd verse

[00:06:47] and that says seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be

[00:06:56] added unto you. And friends the promise there is that God knows what it is we have need of even

[00:07:02] before we ask he knows what we have need of and he will see to it that our needs are met.

[00:07:11] Friends there may be some of you listening today that did not get a chance to listen to either

[00:07:16] Monday or Wednesday's podcast so what I'd like to do is just simply restate the verses that we

[00:07:26] also have gone over and if you write them down you can seek these out on your own. But James

[00:07:34] chapter 1 verses 2 through 8. Psalm 56 verses 3 through 4. Mark's Gospel chapter 11 verses 22 through 24.

[00:07:50] Psalm chapter 13 verse 5 and Isaiah chapter 26 verse 34. Now on Monday's podcast I also went over a

[00:08:03] statement and I said that a lot of times when people receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior

[00:08:10] that they are not sure exactly what that is going to entail. So a lot of times change is difficult

[00:08:19] for many people. They can be in a church service, they can hear the word preached and they feel

[00:08:27] a connection with God and they feel remorse for how they have lived their life or are currently

[00:08:35] living their life and it brings them to tears and they want and realize they need to make a change

[00:08:44] but they are not willing to give up every single thing that they know is not right

[00:08:52] and that is called a stronghold. And what I'd like to do is go over what a stronghold is

[00:09:01] and if we go to the book of 2 Corinthians I'm going to begin in chapter 10 and these first six

[00:09:11] verses are entitled The Spiritual War because friends we are in a spiritual battle. Satan is real,

[00:09:23] he will come after us and attack anybody who does not know the word of God is not well-versed

[00:09:32] in Scripture and he will begin talking to you and he will tell you lies but let's begin

[00:09:41] 2 Corinthians chapter 10 beginning in verse 1. Now I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the

[00:09:52] weakness and gentleness of Christ who in presence am lowly among you but being absent and bold toward

[00:10:04] you but I beg you that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to

[00:10:15] be bold against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh for though we walk

[00:10:26] in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh and this is where people are confused

[00:10:37] beginning in verse 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling

[00:10:48] down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against

[00:10:59] the knowledge of God bringing every thought in the captivity to the obedience of Christ and being

[00:11:08] ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Now friends Paul who is the

[00:11:18] author of this letter to the church in Corinth refers to the term stronghold and what Paul is

[00:11:28] referring to strongholds are lies that the devil has ingrained so deeply in your mind and in your

[00:11:38] belief system that they now exert power over certain areas of your life and these can be very

[00:11:48] hard to get rid of they really can and Satan is determined to keep you bound by those strongholds

[00:12:01] but we need to break those chains and whenever he comes after us and he starts speaking in your ear

[00:12:11] and telling you lies you need to get rid of him. You need to say no I'm not going to do this anymore

[00:12:20] I'm tired of you no no no and whatever he's telling you to do what you've done in the past over

[00:12:29] and over and over again and has kept you bound for all of these years you simply say no and have that

[00:12:38] thought go out of your mind go out one ear and out the other ear and put those thoughts aside.

[00:12:48] Now I'd like to go over three additional verses today the first one is found in some 40 verse 4

[00:12:57] blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust who does not turn to the proud to those who go

[00:13:07] astray after a lie and friends this is what I just got done talking about. Satan is going to come

[00:13:16] and lie to you and many people fall for that lie and those people are usually prideful and let's

[00:13:28] read this again blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust who does not turn to the proud

[00:13:37] and friends I used to be that type of person. I used to have a lot of pride before I bowed my

[00:13:48] knee before Jesus and invited him to come into my heart. I used to think that I was the person who

[00:13:57] had those answers. I didn't want to confide in anybody. I didn't ask anybody for help. I would do

[00:14:04] things on my own and make decisions on my own and many times it ended up that things got in my way

[00:14:14] and things did not turn out well. Let's look at another verse found in the epistle of first John

[00:14:22] chapter 4 verse 18 there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with

[00:14:36] punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. And friends on Monday and Wednesday's

[00:14:45] podcast I talked about fear and how a lot of people walk and live their lives being fearful,

[00:14:55] having fear of this happening or this happening. And friends we are not to walk with fear but if

[00:15:04] we have fear one thing we can do is to begin loving people and I love this promise there is no fear

[00:15:16] in love. Begin the process of loving people it begins with yourself, love yourself then you love

[00:15:28] God and then you begin to love other people but we have to feel comfortable with who we are.

[00:15:36] And let's go over one other verse in Joshua chapter 1 verse 9 it says have I not commanded you

[00:15:47] be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the Lord your God will be

[00:15:57] with you wherever you go. Now friends many of you may not know this story but Joshua was second

[00:16:06] in command under Moses he had followed Moses he had been through the wilderness with him and he was

[00:16:15] basically a soldier he basically did the battles of Moses and he was with Moses and when Moses died

[00:16:27] God came to Joshua and said as I was with Moses now I will be with you. And Joshua had a big task to take on

[00:16:41] the children of Israel had been wandering in the desert for 40 years and the people who originally

[00:16:48] came out of the land of Israel most of them died in the wilderness it was not until many of them had

[00:16:58] children only the children were able to enter into the promised land. I want you to think about that

[00:17:06] and that was Joe Joshua's responsibility is to lead the people of Israel into the promised land

[00:17:16] that God had promised Moses that they would be able to enter into. Friends before we close let's go

[00:17:25] back to our verse of the day and we are in Proverbs 14 and the first verse tells us this the wise

[00:17:33] woman builds her house but the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Now friends I want you

[00:17:43] to picture this I want you to picture someone who is wise a wise woman who she builds her house

[00:17:52] on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ. She is adamant in leading her children in the way they should go

[00:18:05] she is showing them and teaching them scriptures and the way of God she is leading and hopefully

[00:18:12] guiding her husband to be the husband that God would want him to be. A foolish woman on the other

[00:18:22] hand will tear that down with her own hands she will not look to God she will look in herself and as a

[00:18:33] result the whole household will not do well. Friends my call to action a day is pretty simple what

[00:18:42] I'd like for you to do is just ask yourself this one question where are you putting your trust

[00:18:53] is it in yourself is it in your spouse is it in your best friend or people that you hang out with

[00:19:04] or are you putting your trust in God or his son Jesus a very important question that we need to

[00:19:16] decide which direction we're going to head in the future as well as today. The suggested

[00:19:26] scripture reading to reread our proverb of the day, proverb 14 and hopefully to meditate on these

[00:19:35] 11 passages of scripture that we've been going over this week meditate on them get to know them

[00:19:43] understand the word trust and where we should have our trust. Friends I will never end a podcast

[00:19:54] without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their lord and savior if there's

[00:20:00] anyone listening today and you've never taken that step I invite you to repeat a simple prayer

[00:20:06] after me right now. Jesus I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a savior I ask that you come

[00:20:16] into my heart I make you my lord and savior and friends by what Jesus did on the cross that is all

[00:20:25] you need to do it's like we're crying out for help and he is there for anyone who says that simple

[00:20:35] prayer he will come into your heart but friends that's just the first step what you need to do is

[00:20:42] get yourself a Bible begin reading it you also need to take the next step and find a good church

[00:20:50] that preaches out of the word of God where you can meet like-minded individuals and you can become

[00:20:59] a family in the family of God. Now may the Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make us stay

[00:21:08] shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace

[00:21:17] friends please join me again tomorrow as we close out the week with wisdom today