Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. Today we will be going over Proverb 27. I will then key in on verse 27: Like a bird that wanders from its nest Is a man who wanders from his place. Friends, we are to avoid places where we will be tempted (especially places from temptation that have caused us problems in the past). An example of this is found in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 15, verses 11-24. I will read these verses in their entirety. Many of us are familiar with this story. It is the story of the Prodigal son. The younger son becomes disillusioned with his life and asks his father for his portion of the inheritance in advance. The father happily gives it to him. The younger son goes off to a foreign country and squanders all of his money on prodigal living (meaning a life of destruction - sexual immorality, drugs, alcohol, etc). He runs out of money and ends up feeding the pigs. He finally comes to his senses, and decides to return home. Three things we can learn from this story are: 1. Temptations will come (John 10:10a). No matter where we are at in our journey, Satan will come and try to meddle in our business. He will do everything he can to distract us of what God has called us to do. 2. He came to himself. Friends, with our busy lives, it is very easy for us to get off the course that God has called us to be on. Whether it is working at our job, volunteering for things (we really don't have time to volunteer for), it is very easy to get distracted from the course we should be on. 3. God is faithful - 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT) tells us that, when temptations come, God will allow us a way to escape. But friends, we can help ourself. We can do our part by avoiding places that have caused us temptation in the past: (i.e. a bar if you have had problems in the past with unfaithfulness, or problems with alcohol). I will then refer back to verse 8 of Proverb 27 and remind everyone to "stay in your lane." Do your part in avoiding temptation and you will not have to rely on 1 Corint 10:13 to overcome that temptation.
