688. Where Will you Spend Eternity? November 20, 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.

[00:00:21] Let's open in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:37] This is Proverbs 20, beginning in verse 1.

[00:01:08] The lazy man will not plow because of winter. He will beg during harvest and have nothing.

[00:01:16] Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.

[00:01:24] Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, but who can find a faithful man?

[00:01:31] The righteous man walks in his integrity. His children are blessed after him.

[00:01:39] A king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.

[00:01:46] Who can say, I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin.

[00:01:53] Diverse weights and diverse measures. They are both alike, an abomination to the Lord.

[00:02:02] Even a child is known by his deeds, whether what he does is pure and right.

[00:02:09] The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.

[00:02:15] Do not love sleep, lest you come to poverty. Open your eyes and you will be satisfied with bread.

[00:02:24] It is good for nothing, cries the buyer, but when he has gone his way, then he boasts.

[00:02:31] There is gold and a multitude of rubies, but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.

[00:02:39] Take the garment of one who is surety for a stranger, and hold it as a pledge when it is for a seductress.

[00:02:48] Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

[00:02:58] Plans are established by counsel. By wise counsel wage war.

[00:03:04] He who goes about as a tailbearer reveals secrets.

[00:03:10] Therefore, do not associate with one who flatters with his lips.

[00:03:16] Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in deep darkness.

[00:03:23] An inheritance gained hastily at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.

[00:03:30] Do not say, I will recompense evil.

[00:03:35] Wait for the Lord, and he will save you.

[00:03:38] Divers' waits are an abomination to the Lord, and dishonest scales are not good.

[00:03:45] A man's steps are of the Lord.

[00:03:49] How, then, can a man understand his own way?

[00:03:53] It is a snare for a man to devote rashly something as holy, and afterward to reconsider his vows.

[00:04:03] A wise king sits out the wicked, and brings the threshing wheel over them.

[00:04:10] The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.

[00:04:17] Mercy and truth preserve the king, and by loving kindness he upholds his throne.

[00:04:26] The glory of young men is their strength, and the splendor of old men is their gray head.

[00:04:35] Blows that hurt cleanse away evil, as do stripes the inner depths of the heart.

[00:04:44] Friends, today, what I would like to do is go over three separate verses of Proverbs 20.

[00:04:52] And the first one I'd like to go over is verse 1.

[00:04:56] And Proverbs 20, verse 1, says this.

[00:05:01] Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

[00:05:10] So, friends, my first point of today's lesson is whoever is led astray by alcohol is not wise.

[00:05:21] Now, what I'd like to do is go over this just a little bit.

[00:05:26] It says wine is a mocker.

[00:05:29] Now, what exactly does that mean?

[00:05:32] And it says in my commentary, and friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible,

[00:05:39] and it says this chapter begins with a warning against the abuse of wine or excessive drinking.

[00:05:50] A wise person takes this danger seriously.

[00:05:55] There is no wisdom in drunkenness, only brawling and confusion.

[00:06:02] And friends, let's go to Proverbs 23, and I want to kind of highlight this and bring this into greater depth.

[00:06:11] In verses 29 through 35 of Proverbs 23, it says,

[00:06:32] And friends, they are talking about someone who has been drinking here.

[00:06:39] Those who linger long at the wine, those who go in search of mixed wine,

[00:06:46] Do not look on the wine when it is red,

[00:06:50] When it sparkles in the cup,

[00:06:53] When it swirls around smoothly.

[00:06:56] At the last, it bites like a serpent,

[00:07:00] And stings like a viper.

[00:07:02] Your eyes will see strange things,

[00:07:05] And your heart will utter perverse things.

[00:07:09] Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea,

[00:07:15] Or like one who lies at the top of the mast,

[00:07:18] Saying,

[00:07:19] They have struck me, but I was not hurt.

[00:07:22] They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.

[00:07:25] When shall I awake that I may seek another drink?

[00:07:31] Now, friends, this is basically the process of beginning to drink,

[00:07:38] And then getting to the point where you have had so much alcohol,

[00:07:43] That you lose your senses.

[00:07:46] You're not even aware of where you're at.

[00:07:49] And that is the warning of verse 1.

[00:07:53] One more time,

[00:07:54] Wine is a mocker,

[00:07:56] Strong drink is a brawler,

[00:07:58] And whoever is led astray by it,

[00:08:02] Is not wise.

[00:08:04] So, friends, alcohol can lead to an addiction.

[00:08:10] It's a little bit like nicotine and smoking.

[00:08:13] If you get in a habit of doing it,

[00:08:17] It may and probably will be very hard to stop and not do it anymore.

[00:08:25] That's why a lot of parents will tell their kids,

[00:08:29] Don't even try alcohol.

[00:08:32] Don't even try smoking.

[00:08:35] Don't even try drugs.

[00:08:38] Because it doesn't take much to get addicted to it.

[00:08:44] Now, let me go over the second verse I'd like to do.

[00:08:48] And that is verse 13.

[00:08:51] It says,

[00:08:52] Do not love sleep,

[00:08:54] Lest you come to poverty.

[00:08:56] Open your eyes,

[00:08:58] And you will be satisfied with bread.

[00:09:00] Now, these two parts of the verse are a little bit interesting.

[00:09:07] So, anyway, let's look at the commentary.

[00:09:10] Sleep is a gift from God that restores a person's energy and vitality.

[00:09:18] So, in other words, sleep is necessary for everyone in this life.

[00:09:25] You need to get sleep every single day.

[00:09:29] It restores your energy and vitality.

[00:09:34] But there is a flip side to that.

[00:09:36] And that is,

[00:09:38] Yet sleep can also be a matter of excess and laziness.

[00:09:43] Hard work is necessary to make a living.

[00:09:47] Laziness leads only to poverty.

[00:09:51] So, friends, the point they're trying to make here is,

[00:09:54] Yes, it is important that we sleep,

[00:09:57] But not to the extent that you sit and lay in your bed for hour after hour after hour,

[00:10:07] And are too lazy to get up and go seek a job if you don't have one.

[00:10:16] So, friends, it's kind of like the flip side of a coin.

[00:10:20] And before I go into a short lesson today,

[00:10:23] What I'd like to do is go over verse 29.

[00:10:26] And it says,

[00:10:27] The glory of young men is their strength,

[00:10:30] And the splendor of old men is their gray head.

[00:10:35] Now, listen to the commentary for this.

[00:10:38] I find this fascinating.

[00:10:40] Each stage of life has its own advantages.

[00:10:44] The young have their youth and vigor.

[00:10:48] The aged have their wisdom.

[00:10:51] Now, friends, what I'd like to do is demonstrate an example of this in my life.

[00:10:57] Every once in a while, my oldest grandson, he's 17,

[00:11:02] He and I will go out and play a round of golf.

[00:11:05] Now, as a 17-year-old, needless to say,

[00:11:09] His body is younger and more limber than mine is.

[00:11:12] And he's gotten to the point where he can now hit the golf ball further than I can.

[00:11:18] Because he has such a freeness in his swing,

[00:11:22] And he can generate more power in his swing than I can.

[00:11:28] On the other hand, I have been playing golf for over 40 years.

[00:11:35] And so I know the nuances of the game.

[00:11:39] And if I'm under a tree or something,

[00:11:42] I know how I can get out of that tree at least many times,

[00:11:47] Not all the time.

[00:11:49] And I can get out safely.

[00:11:51] And I can end up still making a par or a bogey on that hole.

[00:11:56] And sometimes he doesn't have that experience

[00:11:59] Because he hasn't been playing golf all that long.

[00:12:03] So I have the advantage of having played for a long time

[00:12:07] And learning the game and the nuances of the game.

[00:12:11] And he is new.

[00:12:12] And yet he can hit the ball further than I can

[00:12:15] Because he has more energy.

[00:12:17] And power.

[00:12:19] And friends, that's how much of life is.

[00:12:22] So what I'd like to do is just take a few moments

[00:12:25] And talk about some of the things that are going on in the world today.

[00:12:30] Now as I am recording this today,

[00:12:33] It is actually the 6th of November.

[00:12:37] I always do these two weeks in advance.

[00:12:40] So this is going to air on the 20th of November.

[00:12:44] But as I am doing this,

[00:12:46] The election for the President of the United States happened yesterday.

[00:12:53] And many thousands of people have been praying for a certain outcome of this election.

[00:13:02] Now I am thrilled with what happened with the election yesterday.

[00:13:08] Because our former president, President Trump has been re-elected.

[00:13:15] And because of that, I know many thousands of prayers have been answered.

[00:13:20] Our country has been in a mess.

[00:13:24] It has been in a downward spiral the last four years

[00:13:28] Because of poor leadership at the top of our country.

[00:13:34] And now, beginning in January, when he is going to be re-inaugurated and take over our country again,

[00:13:44] Many, many things are going to happen.

[00:13:47] And one of the things that are going to happen is that the United States

[00:13:51] Will automatically become a respected country again

[00:13:57] Because people know who Donald Trump is.

[00:14:02] And they know that he is a man that needs to be respected.

[00:14:07] And other countries are not going to be able to trample or take advantage of the United States anymore.

[00:14:15] Now, that's all I'm going to say on that topic.

[00:14:18] Because there may be some people listening that did not want that outcome to occur.

[00:14:23] And if that displeases you, so be it.

[00:14:28] You know, one thing about it, whenever you have an election,

[00:14:32] There are going to be some people that are happy.

[00:14:34] Other people are not going to be happy.

[00:14:37] That's what makes America great.

[00:14:39] That's what makes America diverse.

[00:14:42] Is different people have different thoughts and want different things.

[00:14:46] Now, let me show you another example today.

[00:14:49] My wife and I had an appointment today at the heart doctor.

[00:14:55] And when we go to the heart doctor, it's about an hour and 20 minutes away.

[00:15:00] That's pretty inconvenient.

[00:15:02] We live in a small rural community.

[00:15:06] And there are not all that many doctors that are in our area.

[00:15:11] So we had to go to the large city of Tampa.

[00:15:15] It's about an hour and 20 minutes.

[00:15:17] We were planning on going in and seeing the doctor and heading back home.

[00:15:23] And that did not happen today.

[00:15:25] And what happened today was that my wife went in.

[00:15:31] And because we had stayed up late this morning watching the returns of the election last night,

[00:15:38] We actually didn't go to bed this morning until 3 a.m.

[00:15:43] That is when President Trump gave his acceptance speech and being thankful that he had been reelected.

[00:15:53] And so I wanted to watch that.

[00:15:55] And so we only had about four hours sleep.

[00:15:58] So because of that, my wife had a little issue.

[00:16:02] And she has something going on sometimes with her heart where her heart speeds up a little bit.

[00:16:10] And so we went to the doctor.

[00:16:12] And the doctor was not happy with what he saw.

[00:16:14] And he actually ended up going to the hospital.

[00:16:18] And they actually admitted her.

[00:16:21] And she wasn't expecting that.

[00:16:23] I wasn't expecting that.

[00:16:26] And I was hoping that we would be able to go home right away.

[00:16:29] I was hoping that we'd eventually be able to go home after an hour or two or three.

[00:16:34] And they said, we're going to keep her overnight.

[00:16:36] And I said, okay, you know, whatever.

[00:16:41] The fact is, I know she was tired.

[00:16:43] She didn't get much sleep last night.

[00:16:45] But friends, what I'm trying to say is that sometimes life throws you curveballs.

[00:16:52] Sometimes it does.

[00:16:54] And sometimes in life, things don't go the way that you're planning on them going.

[00:17:01] And how are you going to react to that?

[00:17:04] And, you know, I did not really.

[00:17:08] I wasn't very happy.

[00:17:09] I wasn't because we had plans for today.

[00:17:12] And we also have plans for tomorrow.

[00:17:14] And those plans are going to be all messed up.

[00:17:18] Because, you know, she's in the hospital now.

[00:17:21] And more than likely, some of the plans that we had made, I may have to do tomorrow.

[00:17:27] And so I'll go, you know, visit her in the morning.

[00:17:31] And hopefully things are okay.

[00:17:32] And, you know, we can go about our business.

[00:17:34] And I can take her home with me.

[00:17:37] But friends, that's what life is all about.

[00:17:40] You just don't know what's going to happen.

[00:17:42] And things happen.

[00:17:44] And, you know, are you going to be bitter when things don't go the way you want them to be?

[00:17:51] Are you going to be satisfied when things don't happen the way that you want them to?

[00:17:58] So, really, what I'm thinking about today is if you listening today, everyone listening today, if you were to die today, you know, like I said, I was planning on taking my wife back home with me today.

[00:18:18] I was wanting her to be with me.

[00:18:21] I want her to be with me now.

[00:18:23] And yet, she's not.

[00:18:25] She's at the hospital.

[00:18:27] But there wasn't an extra bed in the hospital.

[00:18:29] I was tired.

[00:18:30] I had only slept four hours.

[00:18:32] And I said, I'm going to go home.

[00:18:35] And that's what she wanted me to do.

[00:18:37] She knew I needed my rest.

[00:18:38] And it will give her an opportunity as soon as I'm going.

[00:18:42] She can just lay down and go to sleep and rest as well.

[00:18:45] So, it's the best thing that I came home.

[00:18:49] But, friends, do you know if you were to die today, are you certain of where you would spend eternity?

[00:18:59] Now, I know that is kind of an oddball question.

[00:19:04] But in reality, it's a very serious question that we need to really ponder.

[00:19:11] Now, I'd like to venture and say that everyone listening today is a Christian.

[00:19:17] I would like to think that everyone has already received Jesus into their heart and asked them and said the sinner's prayer.

[00:19:25] But there may be one person listening today, and that's not the case.

[00:19:30] And you were on the fence.

[00:19:32] And you've heard about this guy, Jesus.

[00:19:34] You've often wondered what it would be like and how your life might change if you received him as your Lord and Savior.

[00:19:41] So, friends, that's my call to action today.

[00:19:44] Have you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

[00:19:48] And if there's anyone listening today and you're a little bit tempted,

[00:19:52] you want to say that sinner's prayer, you want to find out what this is all about,

[00:19:58] I ask that you repeat a simple prayer after me right now.

[00:20:01] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.

[00:20:06] I ask that you come into my heart.

[00:20:09] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:20:13] Friends, that's all you have to do.

[00:20:15] It's as simple as that.

[00:20:29] Friends, please join me again tomorrow as we further explore wisdom today.