R1625 When All Is Said and Done, PT.1

When all is said and done, that's the topic today with Dr. Don Wilton on this edition of the Encouraging Word Broadcast. We'll head to Proverbs chapter 3 in just a moment, but know that we're here for you, connecting online right now at www.tewonline.org with a new book called The Loneliness Solution.

It's online at www.tewonline.org. Now, Dr. Don Wilton. You know, I don't know why I get this question, but every now and again, people ask me what it's like to be just a little older. I know some of you have never had that question. You know, it's an interesting question. Our kids and our grandkids ask those questions. Well, when all is said and done, it's jolly good. You know, I suppose the older you get, when all is said and done, you come to the point where you realise that some things just don't really matter like they used to, right?

Oh, and did I tell you about that pain I suddenly got in my hip this morning and, you know, well, those are all relative. But when all is said and done, you just come to appreciate some things. Not that you haven't always appreciate them, but you really do.

I just appreciate you and I just love you today. And I thank God for you and I pray the Lord's blessings upon you, upon each one of us. You know, God has given to us wonderful people over the years.

He really has. And the Lord blesses us with the lives of people. You know, sometimes you look back over life and you say, well, you know, I did well in business and I was able to accomplish this investment or do that. Yep, all of that's very important.

You know, I was glad I bought this house or I was glad that I went to this university and got a degree. I was glad that I, you know, all of those things are very important. But, you know, people, God puts people, precious people in our pathways and we have so many of them, don't we?

You know, see, I'll get into trouble here. You know, you just look at these incredible people over the years, many of whom are still with us, who bless us. You bless us. One of those people that blessed our lives everywhere in the world was Dr. Billy Graham. It's not that Mr. Graham was any different to any of us, but the Lord used him in our lives in a very special way. And it was an amazing thing that he became a member of First Baptist Church. He was a member of this church, this man that, you know, was friend and counselor and pastor to America and millions of people around the world.

I've seen that firsthand. You know, I'll never forget in 1993 when I preached my first message in this pulpit, went back to my office and my telephone rang. And on the line was this voice said, this is Billy Graham.

And I'm not going to go into details, but I said, yeah, you know, I had one of those, but the wheels fell off. And something said to me, this certainly sounds like Dr. Billy Graham to me, and it was. And he was just calling to welcome me.

Just say welcome. And he and Miss Ruth had been watching us on television. And then that word, would you in any way be able to find the time to run up to Montreat and visit with me?

It's amazing how I adjusted my schedule the next day. I was still full of boxes and I was brand new and how the Lord just developed a friendship between us. For 10 years, I never told anybody. I didn't say one word to anybody that I was visiting with Dr. Billy Graham until he made that announcement.

His life so, back in those days, I mean, he was everywhere, all over the place. Countries and visiting with the Queen and the presidents and the phone would never stop ringing and the impact for Christ. He asked to become a member of this church back in 2005 and the joy of this congregation as we stood and just thank the Lord.

I'm reminding you of that. Anybody got any reason why God would have chosen this people, this church for an hour like that, for a person like that? Who would be very unhappy with me if he heard me saying anything about him that even mentioned status or greatness because he was so humble. Well, I've been asked a lot to write a book and I resisted that. I'll be honest with you.

What can I say? And I respect him too much and a lot of our weekly conversations were so confidential. The two of us on Saturday afternoons mostly so didn't interfere with my ministry.

And sitting, talking, laughing, playing with the dogs, eating barbecue, sharing life. He was so humble that if you'd been a fly on the wall, you would really have thought that I was the important person. I'm telling you, everything was backwards with him. Just go figure that out. How does that work? When all is said and done. How are you doing by the way?

How am I doing? I saw the most famous people in the world with him. Never talked about it. It didn't matter how famous or how lowly they were in life's echelon. Whoever the other person was, was the most important person in the conversation with Mr. Graham.

He was so humble and everything pointed to Jesus. Well I did. A major publishing company approached me and so last year I began the process.

I just got the first copy a week or so ago. Saturdays with Billy. Guess who wrote the foreword?

Dr. Charles Stanley. Another incredible man. All is said and done. There are people in our lives. Now, again, we're being revisited. Our phones are ringing off the hook from bookseller companies and people and television wanting to interview.

This is three years later. People want to know this high mark, this Jesus person, this humility. How do you relate to one another? How do you speak to one another? How do you behave? How do you turn and say Lord Jesus just use me?

How do you do that? Why? What's important in life? This is not a biography, they're wonderful biographies, not even a little bit.

This is just a whole lot of chapters with photographs, my personal pictures and others just two friends. Somebody said to me one time, how do you describe this? I said I don't know but you have a picture of two people. One, a nobody who thought he was a somebody. Talking to a somebody who thought he was a nobody. I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Proverbs in chapter three.

You know, out of this experience, I asked myself the question. And you and I ask each other the question when all is said and done, what would you say to your sons and daughters are the most essential things in life? So if you could sit one of your grandkids down right now and they looked at you and said, grandmother, can you tell me what are the top most essential things that I need to do, be aware of in life? What would you say to them?

How do you put this into terminology? What is the most important thing? So I came up with eight. This is my list. Okay, can we all agree to that? This is my list. So you're going to, for everyone I say, you're going to say, oh, you missed it on that one. You've got to add this. Here's my list.

And not in order of priority. Number one, good health. Just take care of yourself.

Get to the Nautilus fitness center as fast as you can. Work out. Eat right. Take care of your body. Your body's the, you know, God's given us a spirit and a horse and we spend our lives killing the horse. It's a fact of life. Just take care of yourself.

Do what you need. Good health. Good one there.

Good health. I'm not, and tell your kids that. We don't tell our kids that. We don't teach our kids that.

So when they get to the age of 35, 40, they've just, it hasn't been important because they thought it was never, why would a young person think that's important for crying in a bucket? Number two, wise investments. Use money wisely. So into that little essential would come things like be careful about getting into debt. Watch what comes in and what goes out. Watch out for credit cards.

Watch out for the trap here in America. Every store you go to, they'll say email and like a bunch of idiots, you give it to them. So your email is just nothing but the store. You've got to know everything.

They go, why do you need to know everything in every store? And then here's the best one. Now listen, you get our credit card, you get 10% off. And you all fall for it like a bunch of suckers. And it's not the 10% you get off. You've just got another credit card.

Did they tell you about the 300% you pay on the other side? You know how many people spend more money paying off credit card debt than anything else? So under that word wise investment, teach your essential. Number three, here's an essential for life. Unmarred relationships.

Work hard on relationships. Unmarred, unscarred. Listen, scars happen. Skid marks take place. Fractures. People get out of lining up the casualties of other people in your life.

Unmarred relationships. This is jolly hard work, folks, because most of everybody, everybody else is a dipstick. Raise your hand. Everybody else is wrong. I mean, how could anybody else be as magnificent as me? I'm just saying that publicly.

Nobody can do it better than us, me, I. And we've all got opinions, so relationships. I mean, they're people who come to church that sit on the other side because the other person's sitting on the other side. Marred relationships.

Unmarred. Okay, number four, number four, wise counsel. Seek wise counsel. People God has put with us, moms and dads and teachers and leaders and coaches that are wise people, man.

It's been my experience, even as pastor of a church, I'm the senior pastor of the church. I mean, I could never have done a quarter of this without the wise counsel of so many of you. Just wise counsel, man.

And you'd have to figure that out. You know. You know who's coming to you with a whole lot of dribble with an agenda. You know who the ministers of discouragement are. They're always ministers of discouragement.

It's their sole God-given responsibility to always come break down, tear down, point fingers, criticize. That's not wise counsel. I'm talking about, look at, look next to you.

They're probably sitting next to you right now. Wise counsel. Teach your kids. Number five, controlled tongue. This tongue. Watch your mouth, man. Control your tongue. Stop yapping like that and gossiping, tearing down. If you don't have something good to say, don't say it. Control your tongue. Teach your children to control their tongue. That little instrument can sink a ship.

It can cause the ship to veer off and run onto the rocks. Number six, here's a big one. This is what I'd say. This is me.

It's not your list. Have a forgiving spirit. You are going to go through life with wrongs being done. You've got to have a forgiving spirit.

That's the hardest thing. Jesus said, forgive me just as I forgive others. A forgiving spirit. Only God can do that. If you don't forgive people. Let me tell you guys, if you don't learn by God's grace to forgive that person who's hurt you, yes, you will carry that chunk of metal in your heart the whole time.

You want to get set free from somebody, from something? That's the hardest thing to do. Number seven, humble attitude. It's so hard to be humble when you're perfect in every way. And all of us are. Humble attitude. And number eight, just love Jesus.

So there's my eight. So when all is said and done, you know, we can talk about our moms and dads and so many people when all is said and done. That's what I'm speaking to you about today. I mean, we've got a lot to do, folks.

We've got to earn money and help our families and play ball and get educated and all of these things. But when all is said and done, this is what God's word says in Proverbs chapter 3, and I'm going to read it to you. One of the most often quoted verses of scripture, Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6.

Here it is. When all is said and done, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. And he will make your paths straight.

Isn't that fantastic? I'm not going to, you don't even have to turn there, but in Judges chapter 18, we find the day-nights are wanting to go and settle in a land. They've got this mission. They want to go and settle in a land. And in Judges chapter 18 verse 5 and 6, then they said to him, please inquire of God to learn whether our journey will be successful.

Watch the answer. The priest answered them, go in peace. Your journey has the Lord's approval. When all is said and done, friends, your journey, our journey has God's approval when all is said and done, when we do it God's way. You're listening to Dr. Don Wilton, our teacher here on The Encouraging Word, and we'll be back with more of when all is said and done in just a moment. But if you haven't heard all of this message or perhaps even parts that we've not been able to share on the air, you can listen to it completely on our website at www.tewonline.org. We have a myriad of resources that you can listen to, download, perhaps share with a friend. It's all there at www.tewonline.org. I hope you'll visit us today.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's teaching with Dr. Don Wilton. When we just do it God's way, so let's look at this. What does God invite us to do? Three things. Number one, to trust him, trust in the Lord.

This is God's way. Now we've given all the other and then some, you know, invest wisely and forgive people, all that, but when all is said and done, God tells us to do two, three things. Number one is to trust him.

What does that mean? It means, first of all, to have firm belief in him. Just believe God. That means trust him.

Say, you are God. I've got firm belief in you. Number two, have confident hope from him.

When you firmly, completely believe in him, you have confidence in your hope that you get from him. And trust in the third instance means that you totally lean on him. And that word there, lean, I think there's a song, lean on me. Lean on me.

I love that word. It carries with it that wonderful idea that as I go through life, I have my Jesus to kind of lean my weary body on, to hold on to, to go to. And I just trust him because he's just solid, man.

He's God. This, I'm not leaning on the stock market here. I'm not leaning on my body even though I take good care of it and I try. My body is still my body.

It's dying. It's flesh. I'm going to do everything I can to forgive the person that hurt me, but oh, that's so jolly hard to do. But when I lean, when I trust him, I'm like putting everything on to the one that will never give way.

It's beautiful. The first thing he says is to trust him. That's the first invitation.

That's why we're invited to join the journey. Second, to acknowledge him. Now acknowledging him is different from trusting him. Why does Jesus, why does this passage say trust in the Lord with all your heart?

Lean not onto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. What does that mean? Well, amongst many other things, it means accepting his position. To acknowledge God means you accept him. It means you've got to remove the B-U-T, but accepting, well, on this occasion, me, us.

No, no, no. You acknowledge him, you accept the sovereign God that you trust. You know, someone said, put it like, God said it, that settles it. That's acknowledging him. It's not like God, you know, this is what God says, hey, wake up America, this is not the time at which he lived back then. He's changed his mind by now. And doesn't he get it?

We are more advanced today. And so God keeps on morphing his position on morality. You know, he's changing his mind about marriage being between one man and one woman. He changed his mind about that.

He's not current. Oh, he's changed his mind about abortion. He's changed his mind. It's okay under, you know, it just, if you just don't want a baby, we'll then just get rid of it.

That's fine. He changed his mind about life. To acknowledge God means to accept his position and then to recognize his ability. He's God. If you acknowledge him, you not only accept his position as God, he's supreme. He's sovereign in every way. He's the almighty God.

There is none like him. It's in him, him that we live and move and have our being. And in so doing, we recognize his ability to do everything that he says he will do without exception. Is there an amen?

Everything! It's a powerful truth to know that what God says he's going to do, he will do. As those were amening in the congregation, I pray that you and I would agree that we would voice that amen, but also realize that when God does his part, he also waits for us to do our part. He'll not force himself on us. Have you said yes to Jesus Christ?

My grandfather would say he's a gentleman. I'm not going to force his way. I pray you'd open your heart, not just to what you've heard Dr. Wilton preaching from the pulpit these last few minutes, but as he steps into the studio and shares his heart with you right now. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ?

I'm so happy to hear that. Why don't you pray this prayer with me today? Dear God, I know that you love me very, very much, and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died on a cross so that I might be forgiven of my sin. Today, I repent of my sin. I confess my sin to you, and I invite you to come into my heart and into my life, I pray. In Jesus' name I pray. If you prayed that prayer, let me be the first one to welcome you to the family of God.

This is wonderful. I hope that you know how much I'm going to be praying for you and how very important this is for me. Call us so that we can talk to you and connect you in the right place so you can begin this wonderful journey.

Welcome. Welcome to the family of God and welcome back. For those that have been praying with Dr. Wilton in these last few moments, or maybe you're ready to pray right now, give us a call. Let us speak with you and pray with you at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673. We'd love to put resources in your hands that will help you grow in your faith as you come to understand how much God loves you, and he's using even this broadcast to communicate that to you. In the next few minutes, Dr. Wilton is going to share with you about a fresh new book that's coming out about a relationship he had for the last 25 years with Dr. Billy Graham. The book's not out yet, but you can take a peek right now at www.tewonline.org.

And this is a book that I pray you'll consider getting as soon as it comes out. On our new website, you can reserve a copy of Dr. Wilton's brand new book, Saturdays with Billy. In Saturdays with Billy, Pastor Don shares heartwarming stories of his times with Mr. Graham. Just as Billy's words changed Don's life, they can change our lives today.

A testament to a man who leaned on God's grace into eternity. Discover their powerful friendship at www.tewonline.org. There's so much more on our website, not only about that book, but other resources available that will help you grow in your life. We are committed to encourage you. I pray that you've signed up for the daily encouraging word devotional from Dr. Wilton. You can do that online right now at www.tewonline.org. And you'll have it in your email box within 48 hours. To get online, sign up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Wilton at www.tewonline.org. That's www.tewonline.org.