689. God Will Give you the Desires of Your Heart - November 21, 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 open everyone's ears to hear and heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:38] This is Proverbs 21, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:42] The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord. Like the rivers of water, he turns it wherever he wishes.

[00:00:51] Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

[00:00:58] To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

[00:01:05] A haughty look, a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are sin.

[00:01:12] The plans of the diligent lead surely to plenty, but those of everyone who is hasty surely to poverty.

[00:01:20] Getting treasures by a lying tongue is the fleeting fantasy of those who seek death.

[00:01:28] The violence of the wicked will destroy them, because they refuse to do justice.

[00:01:35] The way of a guilty man is perverse, but as for the pure, his work is right.

[00:01:42] Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

[00:01:51] The soul of the wicked desires evil. His neighbor finds no favor in his eyes.

[00:01:59] When the scoffer is punished, the simple is made wise.

[00:02:03] But when the wise is instructed, he receives knowledge.

[00:02:08] The righteous God wisely considers the house of the wicked,

[00:02:14] overthrowing the wicked for their wickedness.

[00:02:17] Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard.

[00:02:25] A gift in secret pacifies anger, and a bribe behind the back strong wrath.

[00:02:33] It is a joy for the just to do justice, but destruction will come to the workers of iniquity.

[00:02:41] A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.

[00:02:49] He who loves pleasure will be a poor man.

[00:02:52] He who loves wine and oil will not be rich.

[00:02:56] The wicked shall be a ransom for the righteous, and the unfaithful for the upright.

[00:03:04] Better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman.

[00:03:10] There is desirable treasure and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man squanders it.

[00:03:19] He who follows righteousness and mercy finds life, righteousness, and honor.

[00:03:27] A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold.

[00:03:34] Whoever guards his mouth and tongue keeps his soul from troubles.

[00:03:40] A proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name, he acts with arrogant pride.

[00:03:48] The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

[00:03:55] He covets greedily all day long, but the righteous gives and does not spare.

[00:04:02] The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination.

[00:04:06] How much more when he brings it with wicked intent.

[00:04:11] A false witness shall perish, but the man who hears him will speak endlessly.

[00:04:19] A wicked man hardens his face, but as for the upright, he establishes his way.

[00:04:27] There is no wisdom or understanding or counsel against the Lord.

[00:04:34] The horse is prepared for the day of battle, but deliverance is of the Lord.

[00:04:41] Now friends, today I am going to look at three verses from Proverbs 21.

[00:04:49] I'm going to begin with verse 2.

[00:04:52] It says,

[00:04:54] Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

[00:05:03] Friends, this is such an important concept.

[00:05:07] Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

[00:05:16] Now friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible, and I'd like to read the commentary

[00:05:23] in my Bible it has for this verse.

[00:05:26] A person's own defense of his life, manner, or way may convince himself, but the final evaluation belongs to God.

[00:05:40] I want you to think about that.

[00:05:43] And friends, so many people in America today, and not only in America, but probably a number of countries throughout the world,

[00:05:51] a lot of people don't think about God in their daily lives.

[00:05:57] They don't seek him in prayer.

[00:06:00] They don't ask him what it is that they should do when they have a situation come up and they need answers.

[00:06:08] And they simply rely on themselves.

[00:06:12] And this verse speaks of that.

[00:06:15] It says,

[00:06:16] In our own eyes, every way of man is right.

[00:06:19] And a lot of times we think so highly of ourselves that we think that everything that we come up with will indeed be great, will work out.

[00:06:32] And the reality is, a lot of people have better ideas than we do.

[00:06:37] A lot of people have a lot more to offer than we do.

[00:06:43] Now I don't want people to belittle themselves and think, well, I don't have anything to offer.

[00:06:49] That's the wrong way to look at it too.

[00:06:52] But friends, we need to be able to evaluate ourselves correctly.

[00:06:59] And I like the second part of this verse.

[00:07:02] And it says, but the Lord weighs the hearts.

[00:07:05] And that is so valuable.

[00:07:07] Because a lot of times I talk to people and they say, well, you know, I don't really read scripture all that much.

[00:07:12] A lot of times people have told me they don't get that much out of scripture.

[00:07:16] And I think whenever somebody tells me they don't get very much out of scripture is because they aren't praying to God for revelation before they read a passage of scripture.

[00:07:32] They're not asking God to make it clear to them what they are going to read.

[00:07:39] And once they've read something, exactly what it means for them.

[00:07:44] And that's because people rely on themselves.

[00:07:49] So I'm going to go to Psalm 37, 4, because this is such a powerful verse.

[00:07:55] And it says, delight yourself, therefore, in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

[00:08:04] And friends, I often used to think about this verse.

[00:08:08] And I think when you first become a Christian, a lot of times we think of this verse and things that we want.

[00:08:16] You know, like, you know, the million dollar mansion, you know, the 50, the $75,000 car, you know, the perfect spouse, you know, what we want.

[00:08:28] And I don't believe that's what that verse is referring to at all.

[00:08:33] I believe what that verse is, that if we truly desire to have a meaningful relationship with God, that our desires should become identical or in line with what his desires for our life are.

[00:08:52] And I hope that makes sense, because I don't really want what I want that much anymore.

[00:09:00] I really want in my life what God has in store for me, what he would like for me to do.

[00:09:07] Now, the other two verses that I want to talk about before I talk a little bit in detail about what's going on with this podcast right now are verses 9 and 19.

[00:09:18] And they are very, very similar.

[00:09:20] Verse 9 says,

[00:09:30] And listen to verse 19.

[00:09:32] Better to dwell in the wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman.

[00:09:39] So these verses are a little bit compatible, but what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for verse 9.

[00:09:47] It says,

[00:10:15] Now, let's look at these two verses.

[00:10:19] Better to dwell in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a contentious woman.

[00:10:26] Friend, whenever I hear the word contentious, I think of the word strife.

[00:10:32] I think of lack of peace.

[00:10:37] I think of lack of peace.

[00:10:37] And when I think of the home, it should be a place of shelter.

[00:10:42] It should be a place of peace.

[00:10:46] It should be a place where you're comfortable and you can be relaxed and you can be yourself.

[00:10:54] Now, let's look at verse 19.

[00:10:56] It carries it a step further.

[00:10:58] This one says better to dwell in the wilderness.

[00:11:01] So we're no longer living on top of a roof and the wife is below us.

[00:11:06] Here, it's actually saying in the wilderness far from the home with a contentious and angry woman.

[00:11:15] So now we have added the word angry.

[00:11:20] And I want you to think about this.

[00:11:22] Now, this is talking about a woman, but we very easily could be talking about a man.

[00:11:27] Men can be contentious as well.

[00:11:29] Men can get angry as well.

[00:11:31] So let's forget about the gender here.

[00:11:35] And let's just think about the concept that the author Solomon is trying to get across to us.

[00:11:42] And the fact is that if we're going to have a peaceful life, we need to avoid strife at all costs.

[00:11:51] So my first point of the day was God will give you the desires of your heart.

[00:11:57] The second one is avoid strife to the best of your ability.

[00:12:04] Now, what I'd like to do is just talk a few moments about what's going on on this podcast.

[00:12:10] Now, way back in March of 2022, when the Lord told me to begin this podcast,

[00:12:18] I had no idea what a podcast was, but I was obedient to the Lord.

[00:12:23] And I am still being obedient to the Lord.

[00:12:27] Here we are as we are doing episode number 689 today.

[00:12:33] So I have been faithful.

[00:12:35] I have almost been doing this for two years and eight months now.

[00:12:40] And in the course of this podcast, the majority of the time,

[00:12:45] God has intervened and told me either in a vision at night or when I'm dreaming at night

[00:12:52] or when I'm working out in the yard and communing with him.

[00:12:56] And he told me in advance what he wants me to be doing next.

[00:13:01] In other words, I want you to do the gospel of Matthew.

[00:13:04] I want you to do the book of Jonah.

[00:13:06] I want you to do the gospel of Luke.

[00:13:09] I want you to do the book of James.

[00:13:11] And a lot of times, two or three weeks in advance, I knew exactly what was coming up.

[00:13:18] And for the first time, God has not done that with me.

[00:13:23] And I'm at a point right now where I'm taking it day by day by day.

[00:13:30] Now, tomorrow is Friday.

[00:13:33] And I have been on a study of the Ten Commandments.

[00:13:36] And that is going to continue tomorrow.

[00:13:38] So I know what's going to be coming on tomorrow.

[00:13:41] I will be going over the Ninth Commandment tomorrow.

[00:13:44] And I would highly encourage anyone who is listening today to check that out.

[00:13:49] Because this is the one where it says,

[00:13:52] you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

[00:13:56] And I'm going to go into great detail about how that can impact your life

[00:14:02] and how it can impact your life very negatively.

[00:14:05] So I hope you tune into that.

[00:14:08] But right now, the point, and my third point I want to get across to you,

[00:14:14] is be patient when waiting on the Lord.

[00:14:19] Be patient when waiting on the Lord.

[00:14:23] And right now, I am perfectly content doing what I'm doing.

[00:14:31] Because now you guys know what it is like for someone who is relying on God.

[00:14:40] What do they do?

[00:14:42] And I am relying on God.

[00:14:45] The good thing about it is, is God has made it very clear to me that he is trusting me.

[00:14:54] And he knows that I have been trustworthy and faithful to him by doing what he has asked me to do.

[00:15:04] Now, I recently spent 10 weeks on a study of the minor prophet Hosea.

[00:15:10] That was a very difficult teaching.

[00:15:14] And it's a lot of times, it's something that people really don't want to hear.

[00:15:21] Because the entire story of Hosea is about a man,

[00:15:27] a prophet, who basically told people that you're doing the wrong thing.

[00:15:35] And he kept bringing a message to them, turn to God.

[00:15:40] Go back to God.

[00:15:41] And people weren't listening to him.

[00:15:43] They were ignoring him.

[00:15:45] And friends, I am not ignoring God here.

[00:15:48] But what he's told me to do is just go with the flow.

[00:15:52] Go with your gut feeling.

[00:15:53] And so what I'm doing is sharing a little bit of my testimony.

[00:15:56] And what I'm hoping that this podcast will do is hopefully alleviate the anxiety that some of you listening today may have in your life.

[00:16:09] When you're uncertain about what to do moving forward.

[00:16:13] Am I okay in my job?

[00:16:15] Should I look for another one?

[00:16:16] Am I really where I'm supposed to be?

[00:16:19] And are my relationships good?

[00:16:22] Everything has to be looked at and scrutinized.

[00:16:29] And if you're not happy with some area of your life, you may need to make changes.

[00:16:34] And ordinarily, I would suggest that if you feel that changes in your life are necessary,

[00:16:42] that God is a part of that decision.

[00:16:45] That you'll seek and turn to him and ask him,

[00:16:50] God, is there anything in my life that I need to change?

[00:16:55] Is there anything I need to get rid of?

[00:16:58] And if there is, please bring it to my attention.

[00:17:03] And when I go back to Psalm 37 4,

[00:17:06] I just want to go back to this one more time.

[00:17:08] And it says,

[00:17:10] delight yourself, therefore, in the Lord.

[00:17:15] And he will give you the desires of your heart.

[00:17:19] And friends, my prayer to God is,

[00:17:22] Father God, I want my life to bring glory to you.

[00:17:28] I want to align my desires to match your desires for me.

[00:17:38] I want you to think about that.

[00:17:40] And that would be my call to action for today's lesson.

[00:17:46] Ask God to align your desires

[00:17:53] to meet and to match the desires that he has for you.

[00:18:00] I hope you'll do that.

[00:18:02] Friends, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone

[00:18:06] an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:18:10] If there's anyone listening today

[00:18:12] and you've never taken that very important step,

[00:18:15] I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:18:18] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner.

[00:18:23] And in need of a Savior,

[00:18:24] I ask you to come into my heart.

[00:18:27] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:18:30] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:18:34] The Lord make his face shine upon you

[00:18:37] and be gracious to you.

[00:18:39] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you

[00:18:42] and give you peace.

[00:18:44] Friends, tomorrow, as I mentioned earlier,

[00:18:47] I will be going over the ninth commandment.

[00:18:50] Please join me as we further explore wisdom today.