Redeem the Time

Well, I think the senior lunches and the senior activities that we have in church are very special. I think that, you know, I've heard it said and I heard it in the outside ones that seniors and the senior citizens in the world were the survivors. And when you think about what our senior citizens have been through just in life, it is quite a panorama that they've seen. From the Great Depression through World War II, through the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and seeing all the increase in technology gives them a perspective on life that some of the younger people just don't have. You probably get emails every once in a while, I got one just yesterday, about the Green Movement and talking about how everyone is into the Green Movement. And it was reflecting back to 30 years ago what the Green Movement was like. And, you know, there was no Green Movement because people did the things that they're asking people to do today. And so we see things go in life, and the senior citizens and the world and the church have seen these things happen, have a good perspective, and they're a very good resource in our church. You know, the church certainly also, they're a very good resource. They're survivors, people who have served God for 50, 40, 30, 20 years or more. They've been through a lot. They've seen changes, or they've seen problems in the church. They've weathered them all. And here today, all of you are to be commended because you're still here. You've endured. You're still following God, still serving Him, and still here, and you're a blessing to all of us. You know, when I think back to senior citizens, there's an image that comes in my mind. And I was, it comes, I think it's probably the earliest recollection I have. I was four years old, and I remember my grandfather on my father's side. He was, he had immigrated from Eastern Europe, so he didn't speak any English. So I don't remember any conversations with him, but I remember my dad taking me over to his house, and we would go there periodically. And I remember him a very old man, because he was 85 at that time. He died that year when I was four. Just sitting in the chair, and we would go visit him. And it would be kind of quiet. My dad would talk to him, but I could just feel kind of a reverence, a respect, and an awe of the man. Maybe it's because we couldn't communicate, and maybe because of the way it was the demeanor that my dad had for him. But I remember his face. It was a face just full of experience and hard work. When he had come over, he worked in the steel mills, and then they migrated to Northwest Indiana and worked in the steel mills there. And here was an old man who we don't have any pictures of, but I have a picture in my mind that has lasted. And when I think about that, him, it's kind of a connection to the past and a heritage. And it's the same thing with my grandparents on my mother's side. They were almost the opposite of him. They had been in America forever, 100 percent English, farming background, and worked on the farm. Good work ethic. But you know, those connections that we have to the past in our heritage ground us. They help us know who we are, and they settle us, in a way. Turn with me over to Psalm 90.

This psalm was written by Moses, the only psalm attributed by Moses, or two Moses in the psalms.

And verse 1 of Psalm 90 says, Lord, you've been our dwelling place in all generations, before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

Here's Moses. In the scope of things, looking at our little lives that last 70, 80, 90, maybe sometimes more than that years. But Moses is setting the stage for us. Here's God who has lasted forever, never had a beginning, and never will have an end. When we think of heritage, and when we think of connecting to something, and we can think about our grandparents, think about the seniors that we know and have met in life, here's someone, a God, the God, that we can connect to, and have a connection to eternity.

Moses is setting the stage here. Here's a God that goes and lasts throughout eternity. In verse 3, he says, you turn man to destruction, and say, return, O children of men. What it means here that men die. God puts them here, they die, and they return.

O children of men, and some translations even add the words to dust. We're here for just a little while. But while we're here for a little while, there's a lot that we can pack into life, and there's a connection to eternity that we can develop. For a thousand years, verse 4, in your sight or like yesterday, when it's passed, and like a watch in the night. You carry them away like a flood.

They're like a sleep. In the morning, they're like grass, which grows up. In the morning, it flourishes and grows up. In the evening, it's cut down and withers. Our life, just short. There, one morning and gone the next night. God, who sees a thousand years, is one day.

We're here for just a short time. But in that time, there's a lot of living that we pack into it. And those of us, we don't have to be in our 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, I don't think, to realize how fast time flies, do we? You know, I look back over my life and I can remember just waiting to turn 10. Boy, how great it would be to turn 10 and write two digits in your age when they ask for that.

Waiting for the driver's license was eternity. I mean, will the 16th birthday ever get here? Will the 21st birthday ever get here? And I thought it was kind of neat to turn 30, 40. It wasn't so wild about the last decade, but those first ones were fine. Now I kind of wish time would slow down a lot and turn back the clock. But you know, I know that we all go through that. When we grow up, it just seems like things will never get here.

Will we ever get married? Will that baby ever be born the ninth month that your wife is carrying him or her? But it goes fast. It goes fast. Nine years ago, the last sibling, I guess, of my dad's family died. And once we were at that funeral, it wasn't too long after my dad had died. And for years, you know, you go to family reunions and you see the older people and you think of them and they kind of set the tone.

They kind of are there. They're the ones who put together the reunions. They're the ones who make everything happen. And when she died, one of my cousins, you know, came up and she goes, you know what? Now we're the older generation. And I thought, boy, you're right. All these kids, most of whom I don't know because we don't have the family reunions, now they're looking at us as the next generation to die off.

It's kind of daunting when you think about those things and realize how fast time flies. And yet, while we're living it, it seems like, seems like at times, that it takes a while. Verse 10 of Psalm 90. Today's of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they're 80 years, yet their boast is only labor and sorrow, for it's soon cut off when we fly away. We die. Turn to dust that just blows away in the wind. Some people have been blessed to live more than 80 years, but all in all it's a short time.

And there's a lot of people in the world who might look at their lives as they get older and say, what was it all about? What am I here for? Why was I born? What did it all mean?

You know, one of those people that asked that question was Solomon. Turn with me back to Ecclesiastes. Solomon, you'll remember, was the wisest man who ever lived. When he asked, when God asked him what he wanted, he wanted wisdom to rule and to lead the people well, and God gave it to him. And because of that, God gave him many other things as well. Solomon, somewhere along the line, lost his way, and as he was finding coming near the end of his life, the commentaries indicate Ecclesiastes was written in his old age, he surmises it this way. Let's begin in verse 1 of Ecclesiastes 2. I said in my heart, come now, I'll test you with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure, but surely this also was vanity. We'll just use the word futility, where vanity is in here, because that's really what it means. Vanity has a different connotation in our culture today. So I said, you know what, I'm going to test my life with mirth. I'm just going to be happy and pursue the things of pleasure. And he says, but surely this was futility. There was something missing in just pursuing mirth. I said of laughter, verse 2, madness, and of mirth, what does it accomplish? It might have brought me some momentary pleasure, but it really had no meaning in the scope of things. I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my hearth with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives.

I made my works great. I built myself houses, planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. He led a pretty active life, didn't he? All these things he was accomplishing, and he's listing them all for as he goes through life, and all these works he did, and all these things he did, building to a conclusion. Verse 8, I gathered for myself silver and gold in the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.

Solomon had it all. We can look at that and say, wow, what a list of accomplishments! What a life well-lived, we might say, just looking at this physical list of things. Whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart rejoiced in all my labor, and this was my reward from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done, and on the labor in which I had toiled. And indeed, all was utility, and grasping for the wind, there was no profit under the sun. He did it all. He did all those things. And you know what? In those things that are there, there's nothing wrong per se in any one of the things that he did. We go about our lives. We work. We build. We acquire things. We do the things of life.

Solomon did that, and Solomon did that more than any of us will ever have the opportunity to do. But at the end of his life, all he could come up with was, what did it all mean?

Maybe it filled a moment, but in the end it was just futile. There was something missing. There was no tie to eternity. There was nothing that would take me from this life out into any further future at all. Solomon was a wise man. Solomon used the gifts that God had, the physical gifts that God had given him opportunities, but he missed something big. He had no tie outside of this physical life, and at the end of his life all he could say was, it was all futile.

All I did was work. All I did was accumulate. And he looked at his life and knew that soon he would just be leaving it all behind. What a wasted life Solomon led. What a wasted life because he knew better. He had that tie to eternity that you and I have. As we look to God, and as we follow God, and as we realize that nothing we do in life really has full meaning or purpose if it doesn't have God in the picture and if it's not done with him as the primary source or the primary motivation for what we do. Solomon had that opportunity, but Solomon threw it all away and focused primarily and let the physical become his God rather than keeping the God at the forefront of everything he did. And so he wasted a lot of time. You know, a lot of times on Fridays they're really busy for me. And I find myself thinking as I look at everything that needs to get done before the Sabbath, if I had just not done this on Tuesday, if I had done this instead, my Friday would go a lot better. And I think back on time that, you know, white count is things I just wasted. Do you ever do that and think if I had just taken the time then I wouldn't be so swamped today? And, you know, we have a lot of time wasters in our lives. I mean, TV, Internet, we can spend hours surfing the net, can't we? Just looking for something. And there's all these neat little games that are on the Internet that can, you know, you sit and take a break for five minutes and all of a sudden an hour has passed and you think, what have I done?

But besides just those things, there's other things that we can waste our time on as well. When we have pursuits that are totally for self as opposed to part of a bigger picture.

You know, I heard a story and I'm going to repeat it the way I heard it.

And it references heaven and hell in it, so don't think that I believe in heaven and hell, but I'm just using this as an example, okay? There was a story about this has to do with wasting time.

There's a story that there were three demons who were looking to see how they could destroy the church. And one demon came and he said, you know what, here's how we can destroy the church. We can take away, and he said, heaven, and if people believe there is no reward for what they do, the church will collapse. The other demon said, well, no, that won't work. People, that won't collapse the church. What we'll do is make them believe there is no devil and there is no punishment for what they do. And if they believe there's no punishment or no consequences of what they do, the church will collapse because of that.

The third one came in and said, no, that won't work either. What we'll do is have people, we'll have people believe there's no hurry. There's no rush to anything they do. And as the three looked around, they agreed, that would be the way to collapse a church. That would be the way to collapse a Christian who is living. Make him believe he has all the time in the world, that there is no sense of urgency, that he has all the time to do whatever he wants.

And in our lives, just like Solomon, we can waste a lot of time doing the things of life, doing the things that we need to do to live that are okay to do. But at the end of Solomon's life, he looked at it and he said, I wasted it. I wasted it. You know the conclusion of Ecclesiastes? He said, fear God and keep his commandments. Had Solomon kept that at the forefront of what he was doing all of his life, then all those things that he had done, he would have accomplished, they would have been fine. And at the end of his life, he would have known he would have done it, in a context of serving God rather than himself, in the context of connecting to eternity rather than just connecting to the present. As we go through our life, whether we're five years old, ten years old, forty, fifty, seventy, or ninety, throughout our life, no matter how old we are, we can never lose or forget that sense of connection that we have to have to God, that everything we do, everything we do, is in concert with him and as we follow him, even the physical things of life. Let's go back to Psalm 90.

Psalm 90 and verse 12.

So, after Moses goes through the introduction of how temporary our life is, how eternal God is, and how we go through the activities of life, and if that's all we have to show for it, how pitiful that is, he says in verse 12, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Teach us to number our days. Help us to be aware of the time. Help us to be aware of what we're doing all the time as we serve God, as we walk with him. Not to let days, weeks, months, or even years or a lifetime pass, but to always recognize and always remember the connection that we have to God. Help us to connect to that, that he, God, they give us a heart of wisdom. Because wisdom doesn't come just at the time we're 10, 15, 20, 25, 30. It's a progressive thing that we learn over a lifetime. And as we do the things of life, like Solomon did, like we all do, if we do them in the context of following God with him as our only God and our only priority, or our priority, then he'll give us a heart of wisdom. Turn with me back to Ephesians 5.

Ephesians 5 in verse 15.

Moses said, teach us, God, how to number our days, to be aware of what we're doing. Paul says in verse 15 of Ephesians 5, see then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Redeeming the time.

Not throwing away time. Do you remember the movie? I don't know how long ago this movie was out. Dead Poet Society. Does that ring a bell with anyone? Remember the Latin phrase that was in that that? Carpe diem. Seize the day. Remember how the teacher went around and would say, carpe diem. Seize the day. Make something of this day. Don't lose it. Don't waste it. Don't wake up at the end of whatever period of time you're in and say, what did I do with that time?

And Paul says, redeem the time. Look at your life. Number your days. Be aware of where you are, and make every day count, because what we've been called to and what we are living for is something so far greater than anything we will ever accomplish physically in this life. It's right and okay to do those things. God opens doors for us to have careers, to have families, to build houses, to do the things of life. That's all fine and good. Do it and do it with your might. But absolutely never forget the connection to God. Never forget that there's something bigger and far beyond anything we're doing in this life. Something that connects you to eternity, just like Moses set the tone back in Psalm 90 and in verse 1. Solomon forgot it. And at the end of his life, Solomon was a very sorry man. None of us should ever, or we should be praying, that none of us would ever wake up at the end of our lives and say, what did we do with it? What did we do with the truth that we were called to? How did we let all this time go by? God has called us to something great, and he expects something of us, and we need to give and put our attention and time into it. Redeem the time. Let's go back to Proverbs.

As we're living and as you look back in your life, each stage of your life, you can begin to see God developing in you a heart of wisdom. It comes from life experiences. It comes from seeing the things that go on around us and understanding them in the context of God's law, his plan, and his purpose. And as we move from decade to decade, that heart of wisdom continues to increase, and so we gain wisdom. In Proverbs 4, verse 1, this is a proverb that Solomon wrote to his children, but let's read it in the context that we're all children, because we are all children. And let's read this no matter what age we are as God our Father talking to us. Here, my children, the instruction of a father, and give attention to no understanding. For I give you good doctrine. Don't forsake my law. When I, verse 3, was my father, son, tender, and the only one on the side of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, let your heart retain my words, keep my commands, and live. Get wisdom. Get understanding. Don't forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Don't forsake her, and she'll preserve you. Love her, and she will keep you. Wisdom is the principle thing. Therefore, get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

Get wisdom. Get understanding. Every phase of your life, whether you're 10 or whether you're 90, we never stop getting wisdom. We never stop getting understanding. We never stop getting knowledge. God will continue to work and put those in our minds and in our hearts and give us those lessons until the day we die. It never stops. It continues and continues.

Turn with me back to Proverbs 3, just one chapter back.

Proverbs 3 and verse 13. You know, well, let's refresh our minds on where we get wisdom or how we get wisdom, how we get understanding. Happy, verse 13, is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. Happy are those people fulfilled in their life, not like Solomon, who had a lot, but we can't say Solomon was happy. Happy is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver and her gain than fine gold.

Solomon speaks to us and says the same thing. What we would get from being tied to God and what he gives us is far better than the physical that we will achieve. She's more precious than rubies and all these all the things you may desire can't compare with her. Length of days is in her right hand and in her left hand riches in honor. Who can want more than that? Length of days, riches in honor, her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace. She's a tree of life to those who take hold of her and happy are all who retain her. Sounds like that wisdom, get understanding, is a good thing for God to tell us and a good thing for us to pursue and help him or let him put wisdom and understanding in our lives. Now let's turn to Psalm 111 verse 10 and see the source of those things. Psalm 111 verse 10.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You know that verse no matter how long you've been attending church, you've heard that verse several times. Want wisdom? It begins with fearing God. It begins with fearing Him and then following Him and walking with Him and adopting His way of life, letting Him lead us every day of it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and a good understanding of all those who do His commandments. Want understanding? Live by His law. Live His way of life. When we're young, when we're middle-aged, and when we're old, it never stops. It never ends. All the days of our life follow Him. Get understanding, get wisdom, and get knowledge.

And you know where knowledge comes from? The Word of God. Peter says in 2 Peter 3, 18, grow in the grace and knowledge of your Savior Jesus Christ. Every day, seizing the day, redeeming the time, not wasting it, doing all the things of life just like God would have us do, but always connecting to Him and always doing it in the context of His will and letting Him develop in us that heart of wisdom over the time we live. From the time we're young till the time we're old, a heart of wisdom that will last for eternity if we live His way of life and if we follow Him. Let's go back to Proverbs 4.

Proverbs 4 verse 20.

My son, if he goes on to this chapter, give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Don't let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.

Keep your heart. Some translations say, guard your heart. The heart of wisdom that God is developing in you as you live and as you grow. We know the heart in the Bible refers to the very essence of a man. What we feel, what we believe. He says, write your law. He'll write His law on our hearts. Jesus Christ said that we speak from what is in our heart. It's the essence of who we are. And God says that He's developing our heart. And as we're gaining that heart of wisdom, as we move from year to year and decade to decade, as we're doing the things of life, and as we're remembering and keeping Him as the priority in our lives, guard your heart.

We live in a society where we guard a lot of things, don't we? I have an alarm on my house. I have an alarm on my car. Some of you may have safes in your house. We have safe deposit boxes at banks. We guard a lot of things, those precious things of life, don't we?

What about our hearts? What alarm do we have on our hearts?

The most precious thing God is giving us is a heart of wisdom. But what do we do with that?

Do we let anything just come in and take away what our heart, what God has developed? Or do we guard it?

The way we would guard, or with the same intent and the same fervor, we would guard our physical belongings. Do we have a lock on it? Or do we let people come in, or ideas come in, or causes come in, or other things come in that would take away some of the things that God has developed in us?

You know, Solomon, let someone steal his heart, or let something steal his heart. God gave him wisdom. He had more wisdom than anyone, and God gave him the riches, and the wealth, and the honor to go along with it. But somewhere along the line, Solomon let it all go. What God was ready to develop in him got stolen away. When you look at Solomon's life, the first several years of it, he dedicated to building God's house. Seven years he dedicated building God's house, and through that time you can see he was pleasing God. His work was physical, but his work was designed to please God and to do the things that he wanted. And when that temple was dedicated, you can see God's great pleasure with what Solomon had done. He came in, he filled the temple with glory. It was a job well done, and God said he would dwell with his people in that temple. Very good, Solomon. But then if you read in the accounts in 1 Kings, he spent 13 years building his house. And he did that thing, and it was fine for him to do that. But somewhere along in those other years where he was defocused on what he was building for God, something stole something from his heart. And little by little he let things in that took away what God was planting there. Turn with me over to 1 Kings 11.

1 Kings 11, verse 1. This is after the time that he completed building God's house and his house.

And we see what Solomon did. And this is in contrast to some of the specific things that God told Israel and the men of Israel not to do. 1 Kings 11, verse 1. King Solomon loved many foreign women, as well as the daughter of Pharaoh. Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. 2 From the nations of whom the Lord had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor they with you. Surely they will turn away your hearts after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. God said, guard your heart.

Don't, in this case, marry someone who's going to give your heart to someone who's going to take you away from God. We can marry our hearts to something other than spouses, though, can't we? Whether we're men or women. We can marry our hearts and give our hearts to causes that may be right on the surface, but all of a sudden they take more and more of our time and take us away from the prayer, the Bible study, or even attending Sabbath services. 3 We can find an idea, or someone can give us an idea of something, and we can let that enter into our heart. And even though the stuff of our heart would set off alarms, no, that's not exactly the way it says in God's Word. We might let it into our heart. We might let it into our mind and rattle around there. And pretty soon part of our heart is gone. Part of what God has developed and been developing, that heart of wisdom over our lifetime, is gone. Anything that takes us away from God, that takes a priority, or that takes away part of what He's developed in us, is something that can steal away. Guard your hearts, God said. Guard them. Let Him build it, but put a lock on it. Filter everything through His Word. Filter everything through Him and His Holy Spirit. And don't let something come in that can begin to erode what He's building in you and take you right away from the meaning and fulfillment of life, the very same thing that happened to Solomon. And at the end of his life, the very end of his life, after all those wasted years, he came back to what was really important. He would have still done all those things, still would have built all the houses, still would have explored all the things that he did, still would have accumulated wealth, still would have met the Queen of Sheba if he had just kept God in the forefront and kept the guard on his heart and realized what he was doing. At the end of his life, the story could have been so much different. The story of our lives will be different. We're still here. We still have guards on our heart. But you know, there's things that can come in when we're 20. Things that can come in when we're 30, 40, 50. There can be things that come in and take our heart when we're 80 or 90. There's never a time to stop guarding your heart. Never a time that we can rest on our laurels and say, I'm done, I've made it. That time only comes when we die in the faith and God takes our physical life. You know, David was a man after God's own heart.

David made some horrid mistakes in his life. There was a time in his life where he allowed some things to come into a heart that should have known better. What a fantastic beginning he had. The faith that he had were in his youth and the strength that he had and the faith primarily that he had in God. He was able to go out and do what the rest of the men of Israel wouldn't. Face Goliath and slay him. Enormous faith. But as the years went by in David's life, he began to rust a little bit. He began to take a few vacations. Maybe he didn't redeem the days and loud days and weeks to get past him. And something happened to him as well. Go with me back to reverse in 2 Samuel here. 2 Samuel 11.

And verse 1, it happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Raba. But David remained in Jerusalem. David took a little break.

David didn't need to go to war that time. Someone else would do the warring for him, and he would stay back. Take a little respite. Not do the things that he had done all his life and feel that he didn't need to be part of that battle. And you know what happened to David, as you read through the verses of chapter 11 here. He went up on his roof. He saw Bathsheba bathing.

Didn't guard his heart. But he let that picture and he let that desire come in and take away. Take away what God had been developing. Take away the things that he had done in his life that would have built faith in that relationship to God.

And he went out and did something horrible. Committed adultery and it led to murder.

He didn't redeem every day. He didn't seize every day. He thought he could take a break. We could never take a break. We could never take a day off. Satan is always looking to see how he can separate you and me from God. He's always looking for a way to see how he can come in and enter our heart. And whatever it takes to move us away from God and to take that heart and put a little bit of disease in it, that's what he wants to do. To David's credit, when it was brought to his attention by Nathan, he immediately saw what went on and he immediately went and repented and gave his heart back to God.

There will be times in our lives when we let days pass, when we let things slide. And if you look closely at your life when those things happen, you can begin to see thoughts come in your mind that weren't there in years past. When you see thoughts and old habits reemerging, that's a very good sign, very good sign, that you've let something into your heart that's caused some disease in it and the heart isn't as strong as it was. That's the time you go. You go back to God, you go back and you redeem the time. You seize the day. You do the things, you repent, and you ask God to heal your heart and to continue growing it. Growing in you a heart of wisdom.

We're never exempt. Heart disease can happen to anyone at any time. But we have the things of health, and we know how to preserve that heart. We know how to keep it. And it won't be us who keeps it. It'll be God who keeps it. Turn with me back to Proverbs 5.

Proverbs 5 is a chapter you all know. Let's just read through it in the context of whatever age we are. Again, let's read through these things. And as we read about the sin that's here, let's not focus in on just that sin. Because God, of course, is, again, physical adultery, but He is strongly against spiritual adultery as well. How many times in the Bible does He talk about spiritual adultery? Giving our heart to someone else, not remaining true to the one who we've entered into a covenant with. No different than physical adultery, where we betray that covenant. God is very concerned that we keep our covenant with Him, and we stay true to Him and faithful to Him, and not give our heart to someone else or allow ourselves to be tempted and led away. Chapter 5, verse 1. My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Lend your ear to my understanding that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil. But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood. Solomon fell prey to this desire, but Solomon fell prey to many other desires, too. It doesn't have to be just a sexual desire. Anything that takes our heart away from God and His purpose is spiritual adultery. Any time we allow something else to come in and take a piece of our heart, and that we listen to and that we want and that we commit to, is committing the same act that this young man does here in this chapter. Verse 5. Her feet go down to death. That's the end of the action for this young man and the end of any time we allow a disease to enter into our heart. Her feet go down to death. Her steps lay hold of hell. Lest you ponder her path of life, her ways are unstable. You don't know them. That isn't how you were raised. That isn't what you've been taught. That's not the knowledge that you've gained over the years and decades or months that you've been following God, that you've been living His Word, reading His Word, and He's been working with you. Therefore hear me now, my children, and don't depart from the words of my mouth. Remove your way far from her. Don't go near the door of her house. Guard your heart, is what He's saying. You might be tempted. You might hear those things. Put the alarm on. Let the alarm bell that's going off in your head say, No, I'm not walking over there. That's not what I've been taught. That's not the wisdom that God's been teaching me. That's not the understanding that I have from walking His way of life. That's not the knowledge that I read in the Bible.

Lest you give your honor, he says, don't go near the door of her house. Lest you give your honor to others. This woman in this case was just looking to take from this young man, the same as ideas, causes, doubt, or whatever else may come our way that would take us away from God. Lest you give your honor to others and your years to the cruel one. Lest aliens be filled with your wealth and your labors go to the house of a foreigner. Don't let someone else steal your crown, what it says in the New Testament. Keep your crown. Guard your heart. Keep getting wisdom. Keep getting understanding. Keep getting knowledge. Keep letting God develop in you, the heart of wisdom, no matter what age you are until the day you die.

Don't let, he says in verse 10, aliens be filled with your wealth, your labors go to the house of a foreigner, and you mourn at last when your flesh and your body are consumed.

It's kind of like Solomon did at the end of his days. Then you say, verse 12, how I've hated instruction and how my heart despised correction. I didn't listen to those alarm bells. I didn't want to hear it. I wanted to do my own thing. It was too enticing the things that I had heard. I hated instruction. I despised correction. I haven't obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me. I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation. What a sad picture of this young man, who was headed down the right path, who had all the opportunities of life. He had all the potential that God was opening up to him. And yet, somewhere along the line, him in his early age, but it can happen to us at any stage in life. If we don't guard our heart, if we don't keep our eye on God, if we don't have him as our only God, as it says in Deuteronomy 5, and no other gods besides him, if we don't guard our heart and if we let things come in that would change the way we think, change the direction that he's taking us and the path we follow, it can be a very sad story, just like the story of this young man, just like the story of Solomon.

Don't ever let your life become a sad story. And if you ever see it going down that path, do what David did. Go back and repent and ask God to heal the disease in your heart and ask him to continue to grow you and to develop you and to gain or to develop in you a heart of wisdom. Turn over to chapter 6, verse 20.

My son, chapter 6, verse 20, keep your father's command. Don't forsake the law of your mother. Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. When you roam, they will lead you. When you sleep, they will keep you. And when you awake, they will speak with you.

That's what's written on your heart. That's what you're doing every day. Letting God lead you. Letting His word lead you. For the commandment, verse 23, is a lamp and the law of light.

Reproofs of instruction are the way of life. And then he goes on to say why we've covered some of that already. Guard your heart.

Back to a couple chapters in chapter 4.

Put away from you a deceitful mouth. Put perverse lips far from you. Let your eyes look straight ahead. And your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet. Think about what you're doing. Pray about what you're doing. See the end of what the path that you're turning onto is. If you decide you're going to venture off of that straight path, ponder the path of your feet.

Think about it and ask God to help you see the results of the actions you're taking. And let all your ways be established. Don't turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. Keep moving forward. Remember when Ephesians 1, the Bible study, before creatures, living creatures, they always moved forward. They never veered to the left or right. They always moved forward. And God is looking for us to do the same thing. Keep moving forward. Let Him develop your heart. Build your house on the rock and on the foundation of His Word.

And so we're all, at various times in our life, that God is working that in us.

Some younger, some middle-aged, some of us seniors.

God's building wisdom in us and a heart of wisdom.

And it's a tremendous resource to have our older senior citizens with us. Because the years that you've been in the church, the years that you've served God, we know that there's a heart of wisdom there that we can all learn from.

All of us are working toward that same thing.

It's very good for a church to have people of all ages, and as part of all that, part of what God has built in us, He's given us all each other as a resource. Turn with me back to Titus. Titus 2.

Titus 2. In verse 1.

Paul writing to Titus here, instruction for the church he was in.

And he tells Titus in verse 1 of chapter 2, As for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine.

Make sure they know the words of God, the way of life of God. Teach them from the Bible.

And then he says, let the older men be sober.

Let them be self-controlled. Let their knowledge settle them. And may they be calm in the church, sober. May they be reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, and in patience.

And as we look around, we see people that are that way, who have been seasoned over their years in the church, who have been through good times and bad times, who have had a guard on their heart, and after all this time, they're still here, still following God, still in tune to His will, and still focused straight ahead, where He's leading us.

Verse 3, the older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given them much wine, teachers of good things, that they admonish the young women to love their husbands and to love their children.

And you see a pattern here of the older working with the younger, to help them understand the things of life, to help them keep their path straight, to ponder the way of their feet.

And admonishing them, He goes on in verse 5, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

Follow the principles that God has called you to. Live the way of life He's called you to. In Proverbs 19 verse 20, it says, you know, to the younger people, listen. Seek out. Seek out, counsel.

If things aren't going right, look to some of the people in your church family who have stayed the course, who have survived, who have done the things that, and probably in many cases, face the same things that you're facing.

Likewise, it says in verse 6, and this would be an admonition to the older men, exhort the young men to be sober-minded. In all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works. In doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

Do the right thing. Follow the course.

If things seem confusing, if you're not sure, always take it to God. But don't be afraid to seek out counsel, because there's many wise in the church who are older who will be able to lead you to those paths, because just like God, they're interested. That your heart doesn't get diseased. That your heart doesn't decay. And that your heart doesn't die.

Back in Proverbs 20, verse 29, says, The glory of young men is their strength.

Now, that is the case, isn't it? When we're young, there's things that we are passionate about that we want to do. And you know what? That is good. God ordained that. He built that into us. Solomon had a passion for exploring. He had a passion for building. He had a passion for gaining knowledge. Nothing wrong with those things. God gives us the strength. And we have our young age to do some of those things. But Solomon forgot God. He let those things take over. So in your young age, yes, enjoy young age. But don't ever forget God. Don't ever forget your calling and your true potential and your link to eternity that you will never find in the world, that you will never find in the pursuit of physical things.

It says, The splendor of old men is their gray head because they've been survivors. And don't look at me because this is, I hope, premature. You know, it's one of those things I was talking about earlier. I said, you know, you couldn't wait for to turn 21 and all the stuff. When I got my first gray hair, I thought, how cool is that? And I thought, oh, it'll be nice to have gray hair. Had no idea that in a few years it would go that way. So I'm talking about genuine gray hair that was then earned by years. The splendor of old men is their gray head. They've survived. They've done the things of life. They're still here, but not one of us has made it yet.

Not one of us has made it yet.

I hope, pray that we all keep letting God develop in us a heart of wisdom until the day we die.

Don't ever let your guard down. Don't ever let time be wasted. Don't ever let things come in to decay that heart that God is building in you. Let's go back to Psalm 90 and finish up where we started. Psalm 90.

We finished in verse—we last left Psalm 90 in verse 12, and it says there, Moses tells us, teach us to number our days. Help us to redeem the time that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Return, O Lord. How long? And have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us early.

With your mercy.

Solomon, at the end of his life, didn't find any satisfaction or fulfillment in it. Moses says, satisfy us early with your mercy. Let us know you and let us walk with you. You want satisfaction and fulfillment and everything in life to be good? Walk with God. Satisfy us early with your mercy that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us. As we look back and we see the trials we've been through that weren't so pleasant when we went through them, but we look back and we say, you know, we see what you were working. We see that you were building in us a heart of wisdom. We know how to deal with those things now. We see what your purpose was, and now we look back on it. And as Paul says so many times in the New Testament, let us be glad for those days of trial because God is working a purpose. Let us be glad according to the days in which you have afflicted us, the years in which we have seen evil. Let your work appear to your servants and your glory to their children, and let the beauty of the Lord, our God, be upon us and establish the work of our hands for us. Yes, let him establish the work of our hands.

If we do that, if we do that, we will survive. We will survive and endure to the end. All of you who are out there, who are senior citizens, we thank you for your years of service, we commend you for your years of loyalty to God. We're happy to have you here with us, and we're happy to have you here this day. Keep on, every one of us, enduring to the end.

Let me make one more announcement that I overlooked when I started, because it's a very happy announcement. I don't normally do this. This afternoon, later, after the banquet here that we're going to have, is going to be a very special occasion. Later on today, Mr. Robert McLean will be baptized into the family of God. So take the time to congratulate him. It's a very important day and a great day for all of us and for God in heaven, too.