Proverbs 23:25-35

how much time I spend on Facebook and YouTube and things like that. I just don't want my life to be sucked away. And so I purposely constrain that. One of the ways I do that is by making sure that I put screen time on my phone, on my computer. Speaking of computer, let me go ahead and jump on there real quick and make sure that everybody is live there. Wonderful.
So one of the things I have to do with my computer and with my phone is Apple has a screen time thing and so Olivia has a passcode on my phone and on my MacBook. I choose the limits and I don't want to be on Facebook for more than an hour a day and that includes coffee and devotions and work, responding to messages, stuff like that. There's just only a certain amount of numbers and a certain amount of time in the day. Sorry, and so I couldn't get on this morning because Screen time was messing up and Olivia was at workout. So so I Should have checked before she left. I didn't so anyways, we're catching this late today, but that's okay because there's always time for God's Word Let's go ahead and have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you that though we know it's not healthy for us to spend hours upon hours on the screen, we know that you feed our souls when we come to your word. We know that things can be done redemptively to buy back the time that we might honor you and bring you glory. We pray now that as we look to your word that you would teach us. We pray that we would know where to look and find comfort for our souls.
In Jesus' name, amen. Here we go. Proverbs chapter 23. We'll finish off the chapter today. Verse 25. Let your father and your mother be glad and let her who bore you rejoice. This is speaking about a father and a mother who have a righteous son. That's what verse 24 is talking about. And so we should seek to honor our father and our mothers by doing what we know is pleasing to God. Verse 26 through 28 is a section there. Let's read that together. My son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways.
For a harlot is a deep pit and a seductress is a narrow well. She also lies in wait as for a victim and increases the unfaithful among men. What's he saying? He's saying, hey boy, hey son, come on. Give me your heart. Listen up. Give me your eyes. Attention on me. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me in the eye, son. I got something extremely important to tell you. If you go after a harlot, if you go for a prostitute, if you go for a woman of hire, if you're looking at the screen for pornography, if you're going after that adulterous woman, son, I'm telling you, it's a pit. Look at me, son. Give me your heart. I'm telling you here.
If you're going after illicit sexual desires, you are going to find yourself in a place of shame and of pain. Don't do it, son. It's a narrow pit. You're not going to get out. You're going to get stuck in there. And unless somebody comes and rescues you, you're going to have problems. This is what the king is telling to his prince son. But then he has more wisdom to say here. Verse 29 and following has a pretty stark instruction for us. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
Those who linger long at the wine. Those who go in search of mixed wine. Do not look on the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it swirls around smoothly. At last it bites like a serpent. and it stings like a viper. Your eyes will see strange things and your heart will utter perverse things. Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea or like one who lies at the top of the mass saying, they have struck me, but I was not hurt. They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When I shall awake, that I may seek another drink. Don't be a drunkard. This is again, the king telling his son, he's saying, hey boy, listen up. You want to have redness of eyes. You want to have woe in your life. You want to have tiredness. You want to have troubles. You want to have brokenness. You want all this stuff. Go ahead and chase after wine. But son, I'm telling you, you're going to look like a fool. You're going to look like a tottering person on the mast of a ship. You're not gonna have balance in your life. You're gonna be enticed by something that promised you all this pleasure, but it's gonna give you pain instead.
Now, I'm not a teetotaler. I'm just gonna be honest with you because God commanded that the Levites were to drink wine, and so I think that God can't command sin, and so I don't think drinking in and of itself is a sin. Actually, Paul tells Timothy that there's a medicinal use for it. Take a little wine for your stomach, But there is an overindulgence in alcohol and in our society today. It's gotten a lot better. Just a note, some people, you know, poo-poo on the prohibition movement, and I think it went way too far.
But if, I remember going to the Heinz History Center, and I'm a history nerd, I can't help it. I love history, and I was at this museum in Pittsburgh, and it was a prohibition exhibit, and I went, and on this wall from the top to the bottom were all these whiskey jars, and it was handles. And if you have drank before, you know what a handle of whiskey would look like. It was 96 and a quarter handles of whiskey per year for the average American.
There was a problem being given over. Now there's cultural reasons for that and sanitary reasons and et cetera, but it was a problem. I've read far too much history to know about drunken husbands taking their kids blankets off their beds. to go buy more booze and their family freezes in the cold. There's woe for you if you're given over to wine. I remember talking with a man and sitting on his porch and his family had left him, his children had disowned him, they wanted nothing to do with him, as his hands constantly tremored and he said, I can't stop drinking, I will die. The thing we might run to to find freedom and pleasure ends up enslaving. So, don't be a drunkard. Don't go that way. It leads to destruction.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for giving us practical wisdom. We thank you that you have given us Jesus Christ. who loosens the shackles of the chains of sin and of addiction. Lord, we pray that we would follow after you and we would bring honor to you, our Father, by following in your paths. Keep us from the waywardness of this world. Our hearts desire it. It's built into our nature. Lord, since the fall, you know we are so prone to wander. Lord, please watch over us this day. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you. May you walk in the ways of Jesus Christ. May you love him with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. And I'll see you on Monday. Bye.