607. Richard Potter Shares His Personal Testimony (#2 - 9/27/2022) - July 30, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs. In prayer, Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today.

[00:00:27] I pray that you give everyone listening ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 30, beginning in verse 1. The words of a Guru, the Son of Jaki, His utterance.

[00:00:48] This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and you Cal. Surely I am more stupid than any man, and do not have the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One.

[00:01:05] Who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His name and what is His Son's name if you know?

[00:01:24] Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in Him. Do not add to His words, list He review you and you be found a liar.

[00:01:37] Two things I request of you, deprive me not before I die, remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with a food, a lot to me.

[00:01:54] Lest I be full and deny you and say who is the Lord? Or, less I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God. Do not malign a servant to His master,

[00:02:10] lest He curse you and you be found guilty. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes. Yet

[00:02:25] is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation, O, how lofty are their eyes and their eyelids are lifted up. There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose

[00:02:41] fangs are like knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men. The leech has two daughters, give and give. There are three things that are never satisfied.

[00:02:58] Four never say enough. The grave, the bear in womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water and the fire never says enough. The eye that mocks his father and scorns obedience to his mother,

[00:03:15] the ravens of the valley will pick it out and the young eagles will eat it. There are three things which are too wonderful for me. The S4 which I do not understand

[00:03:29] the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea and the way of a man with a virgin. This is the way of an adulterous woman.

[00:03:45] She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wickedness. For three things the earth is perturbed. Yes, for four it cannot bear up. For a servant when he reigns a fool when he is filled

[00:04:02] with food, a hateful woman when she is married and a maid servant who succeeds her mistress. There are four things which are little on the earth but they are exceedingly wise. The ants

[00:04:17] are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the craigs. The locusts have no king, yet they all advance

[00:04:33] in ranks. The spider skillfully grasps with its hands and it is in king's palaces. There are three things which are majestic in pace. Yes, for which are stately in walk, a lion which is mighty

[00:04:51] among beasts and does not turn away from any. A greyhound, a male goat also and a king whose troops are with him. If you have been foolish in exulting yourself or if you have devised evil

[00:05:09] put your hand on your mouth for as the churning of milk produces butter and ringing the nose produces blood. So the forcing of wrath produces strife. Friends today I have a special guest with

[00:05:26] me he is returning for his second time and I have Richard Potter who is my brother in law and I would invite you to go back to episode number one 28. That's all the way back on September 27

[00:05:43] of 2022 and listen to our previous podcast. Richard, thank you for coming back. I really appreciate it. Well thanks, Bill. Thanks for having me. You know it's been fun and you know we're in Branson right now

[00:05:59] and it's we're going to talk about that in a little bit but you know we just read proper 30 and I like these little individual things where they have three or four verses and talk about

[00:06:11] the importance of things and Richard which of these verses spoke to you today that you'd like to share. Well I think actually verses a nine kind of jump at me today about not having too much

[00:06:25] or not having too little basically I think God's telling us not to Kevin not to be lazy. Well those are two important things you know it's very easy to think about material things

[00:06:38] Richard but one of the things I found this week when we're here with family and a chance to share time together is you know material things just really aren't all that important. It's people

[00:06:50] that we have in our lives that really are important to us. What are your thoughts on that? Well I think you I think this one of God's ways of saying that he doesn't want us to be poor

[00:07:07] you know and there are circumstances where you just can't overcome poverty but there are also circumstances where you become poor just because you're lazy. I'm thinking saying telling us that

[00:07:20] he doesn't want us to be lazy. He wants us to get up. He gives us abilities to do things and he wants us to be out and you know go out and be able to take care of ourselves and our families.

[00:07:34] But at the same time once you become successful it's pretty easy to meet over home with the idea that you have to go out and be successful and that takes up all your time takes it

[00:07:47] takes away from your family and their loved ones and you can also become greedy. So he wants us to be successful so that we can help those that fall into hard times but at the same time we need to be

[00:08:01] wise about our success. Well you know you bring up some good points and I think you're actually you know you're right on target and you usually are. You know I had you on back in September

[00:08:15] when basically when I first started this podcast and you know Richard I just have so much respect and admiration for the way you live your life and you know we talked earlier in your previous

[00:08:27] podcast about being married 50 years and you had just reached that threshold and now it's been 51 years and we talked about how successful you've been in that and of course you gave credit to your wife

[00:08:40] and that's one thing I like about you is that you're humble. So if you would speak a little bit about that to the audience because I know some people listening today have an issue with humbling

[00:08:54] themselves. What are your thoughts on that? You know I think that I don't know about humbling but you need to give credit to your spouse and understand that your spouse also has opinions and that what you think is not always necessarily the only way or the right way

[00:09:23] you have to be willing to listen and to possibly change the way you're thinking and just you know just try to get along. You know you bring up a good point and Richard Judy and I

[00:09:38] have just finished Caris Bible College and one of the things I've learned is that I'm not always right and a matter of fact I've found out that a lot of times I'm not right and that in itself

[00:09:52] is really eye-opening and it's healthy if you develop that attitude to believe that people other than you actually have a better way of thinking but you know what I like to do Richard you know we

[00:10:08] talked about your kids and the fact that you have successful kids and their families I kind of like to focus a little bit on grandkids today you know you have four wonderful grandkids and what

[00:10:20] I'd like for you to do is just go ahead and open up and share a little bit about your grandkids and how important they are to you and how important it is that you try to happen impact on their life.

[00:10:33] Well, God has blessed us tremendously with a son and a daughter that had just been purely fabulous kids you know I can't say they haven't ever given us a little bit of trouble

[00:10:49] but at the same time they look their parents and think I can't say that they haven't given us a little bit of trouble so but they got each have two kids a son and a daughter and they are just absolutely

[00:11:01] wonderful God has blessed us with good health it's just been so much fun to watch them grow up the only problem is that they grow up too quick and it's just been a real blessing in our lives

[00:11:19] I am extremely proud of all four of our grandkids and all four of our kids and and a son and a daughter and just once again it's just a total blessing

[00:11:36] you know I want to I want to ask you this question and you know you may not want to hear this but you know you have a grandson who just graduated from high school as do I my daughter my granddaughter

[00:11:48] just graduated from high school and does that have any impact at all on you the fact that they're graduating from high school and now moving on to college and it kind of makes us feel like a little

[00:12:01] bit older and I think you know how I feel about getting old I don't believe in getting old but I feel that as you grow into this stage of life that you have a lot more wisdom to disperse

[00:12:18] upon this so you know as far as your grandson is there anything in particular that you're planning on instilling in him now that he is older and now it's going to be really purposeful I think

[00:12:33] on your part to really have an impact on his life well the problem now is he's moved away in gone to college and so we won't see him as much and so he really need to be an influence

[00:12:46] in your kids lives and in your grandkids lives at a young age because they're going to grow up me adults just like us and they're going to go off and do their own lives and you know do their own

[00:12:58] things so your real chance to be you know influence in their lives is when they're young just like your kids when they're young once they grow up they're pretty well set in their ways and

[00:13:16] what you taught them as kids if you keep them in the water you take them to church you are good influence to them and hopefully they have a good friends and they will even if

[00:13:32] they stray you know you keep your prayers going and hopefully they will come back to what you taught and that goes back to proper 226 which talks about training up a child in the way they should

[00:13:47] go and when they're old they will not depart from it and Richard your kids and grandkids have displayed that you know when I see them I see the way they are they're firmly grounded and I think

[00:14:00] a lot of that has to do with their parents and a lot of that has to do with how well you taught them so once again I will compliment you on the job you've done you know but moving forward

[00:14:13] I know now that you and your wife are spending more time traveling and if you would just share with the audience how important you feel traveling is drawing you together as a couple and just

[00:14:28] experiencing life and the things life has to offer well I don't know that traveling is all that important I know that we enjoy traveling we enjoy being together you know we we have a little

[00:14:45] farm in Oklahoma that we just absolutely love and enjoy being there so when we travel we're away for a while we get home sick we want to get back to the house and work in the garden and whatever

[00:14:58] we need to do you know feed animals and so we don't really enjoy traveling as much as we enjoy life together wow you know you really hit the nail on the head there you know I talked earlier

[00:15:14] about how little material things really are in the whole essence of things you know many people experience tragedies in life and lose everything you know when a hurricane or tornado or what

[00:15:29] have you but you know I feel that being blessed is so important and Richard I'm going to go to John's Gospel chapter 10 verse 10 where it says the thief comes but to steal to kill and to

[00:15:45] destroy but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly so my question to you is do you feel that you are living that abundant life and if you do which I think you do how would you

[00:16:01] describe that to people listening today and what might people do to have that abundant life well you know again I and I don't know that God has blessed me more than others but I do know that I have been blessed

[00:16:19] my God I have totally 100% satisfied with the life God has given me that's not to say that there are difficulties but God has given me the ability to not dwell on the difficulties just to work through

[00:16:37] them because I know that there's peace on the other side and I just thank God every day for the life that He has blessed me with. Wow Richard that's really good I'm going to go over a

[00:16:52] scripture here in Matthew chapter 16 and this is where Jesus is instructing His disciples but in chapter 16 verses 24 through 27 it says if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself and take up

[00:17:11] his cross and follow me for whoever desires to save His life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it for what prophet is it to a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own

[00:17:27] soul or what will a man give in exchange for his soul for the son of man will come in the glory of his father with his angels and then he will reward each according to his works.

[00:17:43] Richard if you would share with the audience what that passage of scripture means to you. Well I think basically the scriptures telling you that God has given you a mission on earth while over here and the desires of your heart are what He has placed there.

[00:18:10] And I honestly I thank God that He has not given me a desire to be a preacher or a missionary or anything like that but I do think He has given me the desire to just live a good godly life

[00:18:28] and try to be a positive influence to those around me. You know you really hit a good point I'm going to go to Psalm 37 4 which says delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires

[00:18:44] of your heart. You know Richard I think as we draw closer to God and I know that you're a solid man of God and I know that you read scripture you're very familiar with it and how important is it for you

[00:18:58] to read the Bible on a regular basis to just kind of re-remu your life because life comes at us hard and there's a lot of things in this world that aren't the way they should be and a lot

[00:19:13] of times we just need to get into the Word of God. How important is that to you? Well you know well quite honestly I'm reading the Bible all my life has been you know pounded into me I grew up as a

[00:19:27] Christian when I was a child I mean my parents were good Christians I've gone to church all my life and I've always been instructed to you know read the Bible read the Bible on three years I read the Bible

[00:19:41] and really it's kind of I mean it's not like reading a book and having a story to follow but is extremely interesting once you get into it and since you have started your podcast you've

[00:19:56] got made to reading the Proverbs every day and so I started doing that and quite honestly that has opened that the Bible to me it has you know I started out reading the Proverbs every day and

[00:20:12] then I got into another book in the Bible along with the Proverbs of the day and now in the beginning and I've never been a good student I've never been you know I'm in school I'm right at

[00:20:26] through but now I'm starting to actually research the different stories in the Bible and the books in the Bible and who belong to who and it's really really become quite interesting and I think

[00:20:41] it's open up a lot of biblical knowledge to me. Wow that's so good and thank you for that compliment and that really is a testament to me that what I'm doing is is paying dividends and you know

[00:20:57] I just want to reiterate to the audience that this is not about me this podcast at all and the Holy Spirit has instructed me to do this podcast and in my eyes Richard I'm simply being

[00:21:12] obedient and in first Samuel chapter 16 it says obedience is better than sacrifice God wants us to be intimately involved with him he wants us to know him on an intimate basis and I truly believe Richard

[00:21:31] the only way we can really become that way is to delve into the Word of God and really get to know and thank you for that testimony because that's what I try to get across on this podcast

[00:21:45] almost on a daily basis is the importance of reading scripture because I believe that if you do that on a regular basis your life will change and it will begin to improve it can't help but improve

[00:22:01] but Richard I know that many people I would say most people do not live and abundant life like John 1010 told us earlier what are your thoughts on that and what do you feel is hindering people from being that way? Self-homes?

[00:22:26] The old technology and they're all these conveniences that might live so much easier today I think are a hindrance to us being in the Word and now I mean it just takes that as almost time it's

[00:22:43] so easy to set down and start getting into yourself you know television for years took up a lot of time but I think that was nothing compared to what computers and cell phones did.

[00:22:56] You know you really hit it on the head again you know a lot of times even people six seven years old had their own cell phones now and frankly I disagree with that if I were a parent

[00:23:08] today I would not give my child a six year old a cell phone I don't think they really need to do that but a lot of times Richard people are just so focused like you say on other things but I really

[00:23:22] believe that that verse that says be still and know that I am God. Richard I think people are not king in on God and as a result of that many people are not really living the Christian life

[00:23:40] they're being drawn into what the world in general is doing and we're not supposed to be doing that so what do you think we can do to change that? Well there's a battle going on you know

[00:23:57] in revelations your revelations and falling to earth and sweeping the third of the stars from the sky I believe I don't think that that's in the future I think that's in the past

[00:24:14] that's when God cast Satan out of heaven and the stars have fell from the sky or the demons that have fell from heaven with him and there's a battle going on here on earth between God and

[00:24:29] Satan for humankind that's why God created human to give you know he's a adjust God he does not tell you what you have to do he gives you the choice and that's what he's done with Satan

[00:24:43] he cast him out he did not destroy him completely he gave him off to him he had his own kingdom and now that battle is gone for you know Satan's kingdom and God's kingdom and it's our

[00:24:57] choice he's given us the choice do we want to go with Satan we want to go with God if you will like that choice to go with God your life is going to be a lot better no matter how attractive

[00:25:09] the life is in a sinful nature around Satan's side it's not going to turn out good and that so it's your choice you know you really hit the nail and they had one more time and that

[00:25:25] that reminds me of my favorite verse in the book of Romans chapter eight verse six which says to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace so what does

[00:25:40] that verse mean to you Richard because I believe that you live life with life and peace how important to stop well I try to live a good Christian life on human now like a lot of mistakes and I

[00:25:57] daily have to ask God forgive me for this that another but I honestly believe that if you live your life on physical principles that your life is going to go a lot smoother things you

[00:26:11] gotta turn out you're not gonna have a guilty conscience that hey God is gonna bless you you know David he might mistake he was blessed by God tremendously but he made mistakes and he suffered the

[00:26:23] consequences let's say way in our lives as we do different things it's our choice we you know we may get away with something but there's consequences to our actions to our decisions and eventually

[00:26:39] we will pay for those con and we will you know suffer those consequences do it our man you know and that's such a good point because I know that when you look at some of the important

[00:26:52] people in the Bible like he said King David and King David committed murder and adultery and his son Solomon also disobeyed God and ended up with 700 wives and 300 concubines even though God told him do not insner yourself with four and women he went totally against what God

[00:27:13] says but Richard one of the things that I really like about the Bible is that the Bible shows us that every person is human even Abraham made mistakes Abraham made mistakes by calling his

[00:27:29] his wife his sister two different times and and going to that extent and you said there in fact that's not a very good way to be and he did that just to save his own skin because he thought

[00:27:42] that he might be killed for that so Richard how promising is that to you knowing that even the people in the Bible that we sit there and learn and study show us that they were human and we are

[00:27:57] how revealing is that to you and how does that make you feel? Well he used me oh I think that there's a purpose in him showing the downside of the heroes of the Bible and to show that he is

[00:28:18] of forgiving God but at the same time there are rules that we have to live by that you know can again you might have consequences we can make choices in our lives he gives a choice to make

[00:28:32] but you know if we make the good choices then we're blessed if we make the bad choices there's Carson you know that's so good and and you know you brought up King David and I'm gonna go to King

[00:28:45] David because I just said he committed murder and he committed adultery and yet David was known as a man after God's own heart and David repented and for those of you not aware of this when

[00:29:00] he wrote Psalm 51 Psalm 51 is David's plea to God for repentance and going over the mistakes that he had made and he asked God basically to forgive him and that's the reason why I believe that God

[00:29:18] always had a heart for David but my encouragement to anyone listening today is God has a heart for everyone of you as well we all make mistakes God knows that he knows we make mistakes and our

[00:29:35] part is to honor God and ask him for forgiveness whenever we fall into sin or temptation and that we can overcome but really Richard it all boils down to Proverbs 3 verse 5 it says trust in the Lord

[00:29:53] with all your heart we are not to lean on our own understanding so Richard before we close I'd like for you just to make a couple comments about now that you've celebrated 51 years of marriage what are your thoughts about marriage and what would you encourage young couples today

[00:30:13] the importance of marriage and treating your spouse as though she is a queen. Well you're gonna make your own bed so to speak you know it's how you treat your spouse as the consequences you're

[00:30:32] gonna pay for the waste years fund so you know if you want to have a loving carrying spouse give everything you can to be a loving carrying spouse yourself I mean it's a 50 50 deal

[00:30:47] so I know my wife and I we've got a lot more years behind us than we got ahead of us so it's been a lot of fun we've really enjoyed life and there's been ups and downs but

[00:31:05] we have tried and learned over the years not to go to bed without apologizing for some actions we've taken because if you do it can last for a long time but if you just make up a little bit

[00:31:24] right there and before you go to sleep then chances are the little argument your having is going to be over in the morning. Wow that's such a good point Richard once again you lean on scripture

[00:31:36] because it says do not go to bed with your anger once again I'm not quite sure where that is I know that's in there but if you would Richard just just just spend a moment or two talking

[00:31:50] with people who may not yet have made that decision to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and then after you do that go ahead and close us in prayer and lead people in the sinner's prayer.

[00:32:03] Well, her first short time and there are things a lot of things that can draw you away from God's love but our eternity is a long time and the only thing that God asks is that you believe in him

[00:32:30] that he went to the cross, went to the cross for our sins and he died in heroes and after the third day and all we have to do is acknowledge the fact that he is the Lord of our life

[00:32:44] and that he did make the sacrifice for our sins and he now sets it to the right hand of the Father and it's that it's at us to make that decision there's no strings attached there's no payment

[00:33:02] so if anybody's listening today that has not said the sinner's prayer and that's one of the ways that God has said that our the way that God has said that you can count on me so if you repeat

[00:33:14] after me then you can believe in your heart that you have received Jesus or wouldn't we pray that you would then and that I have sand against you Lord I know that you have died from my sand

[00:33:29] I know that you have gone to the grave or do you have ascended to heaven you've now set by the right hand of God and that you are there to forgive me my sins or not just pray that you would be with me

[00:33:43] and we love you in Jesus name. If anyone said that prayer today do me a favor go on to my web page wisdom today be k dot com let me know you said that prayer and I'd like to welcome you to the

[00:33:58] family of God Richard one more time I'd like to thank you for coming on I really appreciate it and I know that you've been a blessing to me and to the audience as well now may the Lord bless you and

[00:34:10] keep you the Lord make it stay shine upon you and be gracious to you the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace friends please join me again tomorrow as we further explore wisdom today