Sermon: The Faithful Way of Life

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If you would open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs, Old Testament, Proverbs chapter 4.

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We're in our series Wisdom from Above. We're working through the book of Proverbs.

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We're in chapter 4 today. Chapter 4, verse 1, hear now the word of the living and the true

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God. Hear, O sons, a father's instruction and be attentive that you may gain insight.

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For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me,

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Let your heart hold fast my words. Keep my commandments and live.

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Get wisdom. Get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

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Do not forsake her and she will keep you. Love her and she will guard you.

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The beginning of wisdom is this. Get wisdom. And whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly and she will exalt you.

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She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland.

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She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Hear, my son, and accept my words that the years of your life may be many.

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I've taught you the way of wisdom. I've led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered.

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And if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction. Do not let go.

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Guard her, for she's your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of the evil.

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Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they've done wrong.

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They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

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But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

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The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble.

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My son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings.

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Let them not escape from your sight. Keep them within your heart for they are life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh.

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Keep your heart with vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

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Put away from you crooked speech and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you.

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Ponder the path of your feet, then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left.

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Turn your foot away from evil. Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray together.

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Lord, this is your word. You've spoken. This is your revelation to us.

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You're the Creator. You're God. We are just creatures. Lord, you know our frame.

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You know our weaknesses. You know our own brokenness. And so we ask,

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God, as your people, we come today as your sheep. Please feed us. Speak by your

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Spirit. Get the teacher, the minister, the pastor out of the way. Let these be the words from above.

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Your words. Guide. Teach. Protect. Heal us. Renew us.

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Be glorified in how you transform us. In Jesus' name, amen. So chapter 4 is actually really interesting to me because chapter 4 is sort of recapitulating, going over again, what's already been said in the previous chapters, but it comes with new emphasis, new instruction, more narrow focus in terms of details of the path of the wicked.

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But what's interesting here about, as you look in the first number of chapters of the book of Proverbs, is that the

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Proverbs, the wisdom from above, this skillful wisdom, this skillful divine wisdom, the application of God's truth,

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God's knowledge, it comes to us in a really unique and I think such a powerful, beautiful way that actually confronts much of what we see out there in the world with the lost and those who don't know

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Christ. There's something here in terms of how this is framed as divine wisdom coming from a father to a son.

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This is coming from the parents to the children. And I think it's so important because, and we're going to get into this a little bit today, what's being said to our world today is that you don't really need the parents.

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That order that God created at the beginning of creation where he makes male and female, they become one,

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God says, be fruitful and multiply, that first beautiful, glorious order and institution, the world today looks in at that revelation and says, not necessary.

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That order, that sphere, that unit is not even really necessary.

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You don't have to have a father and a mother. You don't have to have the instruction of a parent.

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Maybe the community, the neighbors, the community will actually take over that responsibility of raising up these image bearers of God.

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Maybe we just give them to the public school system where they can be discipled by them. Maybe we should give teachers actually the same authority in a child's life to give them doctrine, to teach them.

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We're facing that today because ultimately there's a revolt against the pillars, a revolt against the foundation that God has spoken to us about.

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And I think it's amazing because all of this wisdom, this divine wisdom from God in the book of Proverbs initially comes to us as the instruction of a father to a son.

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It's a powerful thing to think about in terms of how God views this impartation of divine wisdom is it comes first in this glorious place, this sphere, this unit that God had created, the family itself, mother and father, father to son.

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And we want to today in Western culture throw off God's own order in every way.

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Think about it in terms of foundations. What wisdom comes to us as in Scripture is something that comes from father to son, right?

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Father to son. Hear my instruction. Be attentive. Incline your ear to it.

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Don't forget it. Don't swerve off the path. That's where it comes. But we have today to face a total attack on the foundations of the created order itself.

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We say no need for that sphere of mother and father and parent to child.

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No need of that wisdom relationship and that nurturing relationship. As a matter of fact, let's go to that created order where God creates that sphere, that beautiful sphere upon which he builds everything else and let's attack even more of it.

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Let's say that we're not creatures. Let's say that there is no God. Let's say that actually all of us are just cosmic accidents.

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Let's say that we can do what the deceiver was coming in to say and that is no good and evil for ourselves.

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Determine it for ourselves. We'll be our own little sovereigns in this world.

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And you know what? This whole thing of God creating male and female, is that really important?

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What if we could just create ourselves? What if because we're the sovereigns and there is no creator, creation distinction, there is no

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God, what if we can be the self -determiners? We will say what gender we are.

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We'll say what is harmonious sexuality. We will say because we are the sovereigns.

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But it's amazing. As wisdom comes, in the first part of the book of divine wisdom, it comes with instruction, and this can't be missed, that comes from a father to a son.

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It is a parent relationship of the impartation of God's truth. God creates the family and then

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God actually gives the family that role of imparting the knowledge of God to the children and raising them up to point them to divine wisdom and to divinity itself,

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God himself. That's where this comes from. That's where it starts. This is the way that God made the world.

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He made the world in such a way as to have mothers and fathers loving, caring for, raising up image bearers, pointing them to God and giving them

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God's truth and giving them God's wisdom. And so much, I want to just say this and move on, so much of what is divine wisdom, skillful application of God's truth,

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God's truth comes in and then there's skills to apply it. So much of it is not simply taught.

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It is taught. You can't neglect that. It must be taught. It's taught here, father to son.

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Here, incline your ear. Don't turn away. It is taught, but a lot of it is actually caught.

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It's caught. Our children are catching this divine wisdom because they're seeing that life of God, that divine wisdom come from mom and dad into the world and they're catching it.

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They're hearing it and they're catching it. They're seeing the fruit of it. It is taught and it is caught.

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So many children, of course, can have the teaching of divine wisdom and then ultimately despise it.

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Why? Because they hear it from mom and dad, but they don't what? See it.

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They hear it. They don't see it. It looks like pure hypocrisy. This is something you say you believe, dad, but you don't seem to really believe it because you don't actually practice it.

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Now, moms and dads are going to fail because we're sinners being sanctified. Amen and hallelujah to that. But in terms of what our children should see from us, the instruction of a father to a son is, of course, verbal, but it's also something that they actually have to see, has to be visualized right in front of them.

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And so we need both those things. But notice how this does this. I want to prove it to you and show you from the Word. If you're in 4 right now, just turn back to chapter 1.

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After Proverbs starts in chapter 1, verse 7, where it says,

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The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. In chapter 1, verse 8, it says this,

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Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

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Well, that's countercultural there, isn't it? Acknowledging there's a father, acknowledging there's a mother, and somehow they have the duty, the responsibility to actually instruct and to raise up.

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But that's how divine wisdom comes into the world. It comes into the world, father, mother, to son, to daughter, to child.

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So hear, what's the call first? The beginning of wisdom is this. It's the fear of the Lord. Fools despise wisdom and correction.

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And so it comes in with a plea. Hear! Hear! My son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

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And then there's a promise of blessing. For they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

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Chapter 2, verse 1. It does it again. Here's the start of it. My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart.

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So you have it already now. We have ear and heart. Listen. Incline your ear. Turn your heart to the side.

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Fall in love with it. Chapter 2, verse 1 is receive. So you have hear.

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You have receive. And then chapter 3, verses 1 through 2, it says my son, do not forget my teaching.

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Hear. Receive. Don't forget. Don't forget. Don't forget my teaching.

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But let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

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In chapter 4, verses 1 through 5, it says hear, oh sons, a father's instruction and be attentive that you may gain insight.

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For I give you good precepts. Do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father tender, the only one on the side of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words.

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Keep my commandments and live. Get wisdom. Get insight. Do not forget and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

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That's how it comes into the world. So clearly divine wisdom laid down, this wisdom from above, is coming in first and foremost father to son relationship.

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Mother to son. Mother to child. That's the way of the world. That's where wisdom is supposed to be imparted.

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That's where it actually begins. And we live of course in a time that wants to throw off God's order and God's commands and says this isn't even necessary.

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And you know what's amazing about it is that you see so much in the first four chapters. We've spent so much time here in the first four chapters talking about different paths.

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The paths of the upright, the path of the wicked, the destination of the wicked, the honor of the upright and the dishonor of the wicked.

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We've talked about where those paths lead. There is light and there is darkness. We've seen all of that.

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And so we could throw this all off. We could say there's no need for creator, creation, distinction.

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We could say there's no need for that order and that beautiful thing that God has created of mother, father, and child.

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We could say it and we could say we'll go our own way. We'll build our own world, build our own way.

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And the truth is that path is easy. Jesus talks about that. That door is easy to get through and that path is broad.

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There's plenty of space on it. And yes, there's a lot of people on that with you when you choose that route.

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But along the way are the consequences of turning aside from God's own ways.

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You see that today. There are 18 .4 million children.

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One in every four children in the United States that are without a biological or a step or an adoptive father at home.

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And it's amazing because you could just simply quote scripture. Hey, if you throw off the mother -father, if you throw off that order and you say

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I'll revolt against the foundations of the world that God instituted, I'll throw it off, and you reject

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God's wisdom, you have to recognize that scripture can just simply be quoted.

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This is the path. This is the destination. Here are the consequences. But you can throw it off and what you're going to see is the actual consequences that are available to anybody, for anybody to see.

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These children, one in four, who do not have this order in the home to impart God's wisdom have a four times, four times greater risk of poverty.

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You don't have the dad in the home. You revolt against God's order.

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Well, then you have to reap the consequences. You can reject scripture and God's wisdom all you want, but you're going to feel it.

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It's coming for you. You'll feel it. You'll get the consequences, and you're seeing them today. You could just quote scripture and get these statistics prospectively or you can just read them yourselves and see what's going on in the world today.

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Because we revolt against God's order, children who have no father in the home, that order is done away with, are more likely to have very serious behavior problems.

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There are two times, this I found very interesting, two times greater risk of infant mortality if you take the father out of the home.

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Homes without fathers have a two times greater risk of infant mortality. You are far more likely to go to prison without that order, without the father in the home, that father speaking to the son.

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You are far more likely to commit crime when you have no father speaking to the son saying, hear, incline, receive, treasure up.

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Seven times more likely to become pregnant as a teen. Far more likely to face abuse and neglect.

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Far more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. Two times more likely to suffer obesity and two times more likely to drop out of school.

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We can keep going. You can keep going. But we can go into the inner cities. We can go into the places where there is this epidemic of fatherlessness.

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No father saying, incline your ear to my teaching, son. You could go there, see the fatherlessness, and you could see all the consequences.

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You could see the economic devastation. You could see the poverty. You could see the hunger. You could see the drugs.

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You could see the alcohol. You could see the violence. But the amazing thing is this, it's precisely what the book of wisdom says.

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You could walk into any number of these cities that's been totally destroyed through humanistic thought, secular thinking, unbelieving thought, throwing off God's wisdom.

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You could walk into any of these cities and you could read the first five chapters of the book of Proverbs and say, this is exactly what it said would happen.

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It's precisely what happens when you try to throw off God's ways, God's truth, and God's wisdom.

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Father to son, incline your ear, incline your heart, receive this teaching.

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Don't turn aside from it. Treasure it up within you. There's the call. Father to son, wisdom son, wisdom daughter, receive this truth from God.

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And this, of course, is thematic throughout the entire Bible. You would expect it to be so because this is a divine revelation.

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You're gonna see that consistency. You know this one. Go to Ephesians, New Testament. Ephesians chapter six.

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This is a famous one. This is like every child's first life verse. Mom and dad, make sure this one's buried, right?

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Ephesians chapter six, verse one. It says, children, obey your parents in the

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Lord for this is right. And here's the quotation. Honor your father and mother.

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What's that from? The Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20, verse 12.

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And it says this. This is the first commandment with a promise. In other words, it's the first commandment that God gave in the

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Decalogue that came with the promise of blessing. And you see it again in the book of Proverbs in those first few chapters.

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You see exactly that. Here's the promise of life. Here's the promise of blessing. Here's the promise of peace with obedience to the

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Father's instruction. It says that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.

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So this again is thematic. And I just want to speak to the kids in the room right now.

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This is the benefit of having, by the way, a family -integrated church is I can assume the same things that Paul assumes here in Ephesians six.

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And that's that the children are in the room under the hearing of the word with the parents. Amen? Yes, okay.

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Kids, there is a natural tendency that we have as sinners to revolt against the instruction and the wisdom of our parents.

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There's a natural tendency. Mom and Dad have been given the duty by God to point you to God, that you would know

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Him, that you would know His gospel, that you would know His wisdom. They've been given that duty and instruction.

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And let's face it, they blow it a lot. Amen, kids? You're all afraid to yell at me.

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Hey, you can say Pastor Jeff gave you permission, right? Okay, look, we all understand your mom and dad are saved by Jesus.

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They're not perfect. But the words that they're giving to you are not their words.

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They're words from God. Obedience to my mother and my father's instruction that is from God is actually obedience to God.

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Obeying my mother and my father is actually obeying God because God put them in the place to give me

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His truth, to point me to Him and to give me His wisdom. But there's this natural tendency as sinners that we have to sin against God's law.

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Now that happens with husbands too. Husbands not loving their wives the way that they're called to. There's a natural tendency because of our own sin to revolt against that command to love my wife, to treat her as a weaker vessel, to lay my life down for her like Christ lays

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His life down for the church. There's a natural tendency with wives to resist the command to submit to your husbands and everything.

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Amen, ladies? No, I'm just joking. I'm just gonna get all of us.

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You get my point. All of us, because we're still being sanctified, because we're sinners, we revolt at times with sinful hearts against God's order, against God's ways, against God's wisdom, against God's truth.

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Now if you know Christ, your heart is grieved over that. God's Spirit convicts you of your sin. You're being formed and renewed into the image of Christ.

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All of that. But kids, you have to recognize something and be willing to repent of it and put it to death.

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When my mother and my father are giving me truth and they're giving me commands that are actually commands that God has given,

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I have to recognize my own sinful tendency to want to revolt against the authority of mom and dad.

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However, what's the promise that God gives to us with our parents when they give wisdom from God and God's instruction?

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What's the promise? Long life? Blessing? A record of honor?

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All of that is there from God. And so we have to recognize that these are God's words and not ours, moms and dads.

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And so when mom and dad are imparting divine wisdom, recognize that's the way God made the world.

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You and I come into this world as little ignorant, fallible sinners. And God places above us in Christian homes mothers and fathers who love

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God and impart God's truth, God's way, and God's wisdom. To obey mom and dad is to obey

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God when they're giving the very words of God. So recognize that when

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God's wisdom is coming in, book of Proverbs, it's coming by way of father and mother to child.

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That's how God gives this course. It is wisdom from above that comes from mom and dad.

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And so the call is receive it, incline your ear, incline your heart, treasure it up, lay hold of this tree of life.

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That's the call. Now, back to chapter 4. In chapter 4, you see the command in the first nine chapters, sorry, nine verses.

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The command is the same as was given before. It's the same. It's repeated in a new way.

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The inclination of your heart, holding fast to these commandments, pursue that wisdom, get the insight.

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But look, it says this again, that constant reminder, do not forget.

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Don't forget, verse 5. Don't forget, because as sinners we have a tendency to forget. Do not turn aside, don't turn away from the words of my mouth.

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Do not forsake her. There she is again, personified as a woman. Don't forsake her and she'll keep you.

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Love her, she'll guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom! And whatever you get, get insight.

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Prize her highly, she'll exalt you. She'll honor you if you embrace her. And here it is again, wisdom beautifies us.

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She will place on your head a graceful garland. She'll bestow on you a beautiful crown.

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This isn't stuff that's just practical on the outside, out there in the world with paths of peace and light and righteousness.

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It's stuff that actually beautifies you. When you lay hold of this tree of wisdom, this tree of life,

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God makes you beautiful. He gives you this legacy of honor. But in chapter 4, verse 10, come with me here.

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In chapter 4, verse 10, just to verse 19, look at this.

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It says, Hear my son and accept my words that the years of your life may be many. Hey, where'd you read that?

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Decalogue, where'd you read that? Ephesians chapter 6, where'd you read that? Throughout the book of Proverbs, that promise of if you stay on this path of wisdom, it is life and blessing, literally years of life and blessing.

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I've taught you the way of wisdom. I've led you in it. Here it is. The paths of uprightness.

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When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble.

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Keep hold of instruction. Do not let it go. Guard her, for she's your life.

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Do not enter, here it is, the path of the wicked. And do not walk in the way of the evil.

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Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on.

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For they cannot sleep unless they've done wrong. They're robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

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For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of day, which shines brighter and brighter until full day.

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The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble.

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Look at how it describes the wicked there. They eat the bread of wickedness.

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They sustain, listen, they sustain themselves with wickedness.

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Like we eat food, but Luke's the worst. If you don't feed Luke at particular times of the day, he becomes the wicked.

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Just kidding. Cheryl knows, she's smiling right now. Luke is on a very regimented food schedule.

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You know when Luke needs to eat because he just starts to sort of like like the robot sort of like loses the power and the energy.

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You see it in his eyes and everything else. Like he needs food at certain times of the day to sustain him. You've got to get him some protein, make sure you have some snacks for Luke.

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Traveling, on minister trips is important. You've got to make sure you have the right snacks in his bag and all that stuff because he needs food to sustain him.

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But this actually says they eat the bread of wickedness. They sustain themselves with wickedness.

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That's how they actually carry on. That gives them energy. They sustain themselves with the bread of wickedness.

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And look at this. And drink the wine of violence. They are intoxicated by violence.

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But notice what it says. You've got a path of the upright. The way of the wicked.

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Scripture does this. It's again, it's a constant theme. Throughout scripture is the constant theme.

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You see it in the book of Proverbs. You see it throughout the Psalms. You see it in the teaching of Jesus, in the teaching of the apostles.

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This emphasis upon the path, the way. What do you want? The path of the way.

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It's interesting because just in the book of Proverbs, take a look. If you go back to chapter one, move over to chapter one to the left.

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Chapter one, verses 10 through 15. Look at how it starts.

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My son, if sinners entice you, verse 10 of chapter one, do not consent. If they succumb with us, let us lie in wait for blood.

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Let us ambush the innocent without reason. Let Sheol, let us, like Sheol, let us swallow them alive and whole like those who go down to the pits.

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We shall find all precious goods. We shall fill our houses with plunder. Throw in your lot among us.

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We will all have one purse. My son, do not walk in the way with them.

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There it is again. The way with them. Hold back your foot, here it is, from their paths.

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You know, you could look at something like this and you could say, what is this archaic nonsense?

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These words written thousands of years ago by a bunch of goat herders kicking rocks around in the desert.

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Like who needs these words today? These words actually were very important and true just about what, two years ago, a year ago, where this whole nation and many cities across the nation was up in flames.

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People having their stores broken into. People being violated. People being raped. People being murdered without cause.

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Literally, people going out into the cities saying, this is our moment. This is our moment where we can actually get a bunch of stuff.

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We'll do it together. We'll run into these stores together. We'll collect everything. We'll have one purse together.

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We'll lie in wait for people without cause. We'll destroy strangers.

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So you can look at these words and say, all this talk about the path of the wicked, this darkness, all these violence, all these are archaic words, archaic words that would have saved a lot of people just two years ago.

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Just two years ago. These are the words of God. And isn't it amazing? Humanity hasn't changed much in thousands of years.

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Same problems of sin. Same inward problems. Same lack of wisdom. You see it.

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So that was chapter one. Now just look over at chapter two. Again, it was a recapitulation. Going over it again.

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Chapter two, verse six. Look at verse 12.

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You're seeing a theme, a divine theme, about the way and the path.

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Chapter three, verse 23. Chapter six, verse 23.

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Chapter 12, verse 28. So we can keep going with this, but you're seeing this theme in Scripture of the path of the wicked, the path of the upright, the way of the wicked, the way of the upright.

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You see it everywhere. You can look also, let's go to Psalm. Psalm 119.

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This one many of you already know. Psalm 119. Let's go ahead and read the whole chapter.

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Look at all those theology nerds. You knew. Longest chapter in the

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Bible. Psalm 119, 105. You already know this.

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Most of you don't even have to actually go there. Your word is a lamp to my feet and what? And a light to my path.

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It's everywhere. It's throughout the Bible. This emphasis upon the path or the way of the upright and the wicked.

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There is light and there is darkness. And this is interesting because I think this is always relevant, it's always true, but in the modern age, if you're living in the city or living in town today because of all the amazing advancements that ultimately

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Christianity and Christian thought has brought into the world by way of science and technology, not many of us have to deal with that deep, deep darkness.

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There's always some light somewhere. Lamp posts, lights at home, lights around the neighborhood, lights, street lights, lights in the grocery store parking lot.

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There's just light always. Even in the darkness of night, there's light all around us.

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And so we don't have to deal with this deep darkness very much. I remember a couple of years ago

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I was bringing my son back from school in Moscow, Idaho.

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He was coming back down and so Carmen and I went up together.

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I drove the U -Haul and it was like a 20 -some -odd foot U -Haul and Carmen drove behind me with my son following us in the

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U -Haul and there was this snowstorm when we were coming back. So we're driving back from Idaho. We had to go, because of the snowstorm, to Oregon, back to Idaho again, down through Utah, through Nevada, and then back into Arizona.

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So the first day we were driving like 14, 15 hours total. And I'm driving this massive truck through a snowstorm in some parts of the drive.

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But as we started to get into Utah, it started to get really dark. And interestingly,

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Utah, if you go to Salt Lake City, like Draper, Sandy, Mormons make some amazing neighborhoods and communities.

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They really are organized, beautiful, and all that. But I think someone forgot to tell the

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Mormons when they were building Salt Lake City that they might like some lights on the freeway. And so we're coming into Utah, coming into Salt Lake, and this is actually the same time that my daughter

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Imogen was giving birth to Eve. So I'm driving in this massive truck and there's a snowstorm in now

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Salt Lake. It's nighttime, and for some reason they forgot to put lights on the road coming from north to south into Salt Lake.

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The road is completely covered in snow. I can't see in front of myself. It is pitch darkness outside, and there are no lights.

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Even the lights coming from my truck are not really penetrating. I'm on the phone with my daughter

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Saylor. She's in the hospital room while my daughter is giving birth. There's major problems with the birth.

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They're calling a code blue for Eve and a code blue for Imogen. So it's a horrifying experience where I am in deep darkness driving this massive truck.

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I cannot see the path in front of me at all, and I'm terrified now because something really is going wrong with the birth of my granddaughter.

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And that moment will stick in my mind forever because it was very emotional and it was very scary, but I do remember that I felt like I was driving in pitch darkness.

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I could see nothing. I literally could not see the path in front of me. And so at one point

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I'm saying to Saylor, Is everything okay? I can't hear anything. What's going on? And all of a sudden a car comes and it swerves, and I almost flew off the road because I didn't realize that the road was actually turning, the freeway was turning, because it was just deep, deep darkness, and I had no idea where I was.

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I had to swerve. I feel like I almost lost complete control of the truck. There was no lights.

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Barely seeing in front of me, it was like driving in pitch darkness. We don't experience that a lot, but there's so much emphasis here in the book of Proverbs on exactly that theme.

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This way is lit. I like that.

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The young people are like, All right, I'm in. It is lit that way too, but it's lit in terms of light.

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And that's what Proverbs says there. If you look, look at what it says, chapter 4, in verse 18.

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God is giving to you this path of life. He's saying this is where there's light. This is where you're going to see.

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This is where there is blessing. This is where there is long life, length of days. This is where there is this record of honor.

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This other path, you can choose it. You can step onto that path, and when you're on it, there is deep darkness.

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There is violence. There is dishonor. There is destruction on that path.

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But notice how God puts wisdom. There's a path of uprightness, and a path of wickedness, and a path of darkness.

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In 4 .18 -19, you see it vividly, clearly. And I reflect on this.

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I remember when I was the chaplain at the hospital. You guys have heard me talk about this before.

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Every day, new people were coming in. It's a very, very popular hospital, especially for Christian parents whose children had gone into drug and alcohol addiction, because if you

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Google searched at the time a Christian rehab hospital, there was maybe two or three that would come up, and this was the popular one.

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So people were being flown in constantly. They'd come get checked in. They were on detox medication. And so I would walk through the hallways daily.

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I would do counseling. I would do chapel. I would do all the sessions for those that were on the

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Christian track. But I'd walk through the hallways, and I'd see new faces constantly, every day.

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Somebody new. And I would do my best to make sure I got an opportunity to witness to or minister to every person.

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There were people who were very hostile to me because there was a secular program there as well. They said, I want nothing to do with you.

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But for the people that I could talk to, one of the things that became very clear very, very early on is that the person in front of me right now at this moment could very well be dead in their garage tomorrow.

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That was the thing that hit me so quickly. The first six months of being a pastor, many of our deacons here that were there were with Apologia Church at that time,

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Pastor Luke, my family knows. I went through a period of very deep and dark depression, sadness, for about six months.

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I mean, deep, deep sadness. I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was depressed.

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I would just start crying because I was feeling the weight of all of this every day.

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People's paths that they were on, they're sitting in front of me, and they're describing it to me. So I have to listen every day and minister to people who are in the worst of the worst of the worst of situations.

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I'm also ministering to one person one day, and I'm pleading with her. Please stay.

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Just stay another day. Talk to me some more. Let me tell you about Christ and how God can save you and He can free you.

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If you leave, I would say, if you leave, you're going to die. You're going to die.

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And I could think of all their faces right now. I could think of the beautiful young girl.

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She didn't even... It didn't even look normal. She was this young, young...

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She looked like maybe she was 17. She wasn't. She was probably 19 or 20. She was this beautiful young woman, big, old, pregnant belly.

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I mean, she's in a drug rehab with this... She looked like she was about to pop. Beautiful, big belly, and she's struggling with thinking to go back to use.

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And I'm talking to her about, if you take that road, if you take that path, you're going to die.

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You're going to die. And sure enough, she got out. And it was two days later, they found her dead with a needle in her arm.

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I stood over the dead bodies of people that I was pleading with that very week.

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I was pleading with them, turn to Christ. Don't go this way. Don't take that path.

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There is not anything there that you are looking for. Everything you are looking for as an image -bearer of God is in Christ.

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Life, peace, joy, blessing, forgiveness, all your shame, all your condemnation gone in Christ.

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Come with me. Come talk to me. Let me tell you who Christ is. And then, by the end of the week,

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I'm standing over their dead body, speaking to their families and their friends.

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I had this constant story. Don't go that way. Come to Christ. He's the way, the truth, and the life.

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He's the way. Don't go that way. I remember this young woman sitting in a chair.

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She'd been there for almost 30 days. And she was doing so well, I thought. I thought maybe she had turned to Christ.

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And by the very end, I remember that they said, Pastor Jeff, you've got to get in here. She's thinking about leaving right now.

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And so I see her in a chair, and she looks up at me, and you can tell she's just done. She's made the commitment. She's going that direction.

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She's going to follow that way. She's going down that path. And I pled with her. I said, Do not do this.

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Stay. Let me talk to you. Let me minister to you. Don't go that way. I promise it's not going to deliver what it says it will.

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Don't go down that path. You're going to die. And then

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I remember two days later, I found her laying on a sidewalk in Tempe, just dirty, dehydrated, starving, and of course, not happy.

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Totally broken. I would scoop people up off the street who took that path.

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I saw people saved from it in Christ and restored. Some of you guys are still here today who were saved by Christ and put on that narrow path.

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And I also, again, did the funerals of many of those people who didn't come on the way, the path of righteousness.

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I would hear about people in front of me who were raised in solid homes.

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Even with Christian parents. Never really converted. Never followed

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Christ. And when they got away from home, they revolted. They revolted against what their parents told them.

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They revolted against Christ. And I could hear the stories of these young women raised in good homes under the hearing of the

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Word of God, but never turned to Christ. They turned aside to a different path. It seemed pleasurable at first.

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It seemed good at first. And then not very long into it they were selling their bodies for more drugs.

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Can you imagine being raised in a Christian home under the hearing of the Gospel itself, under the teaching of the

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Word of God, and then being in the most disgusting circumstances where strangers are paying you money to use your body so that you can get more drugs?

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I remember having a conversation with a man who was raised in a good home, solid home, in a normal neighborhood, a good community.

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And he decided to go down this path of drugs and alcohol that had increased. It started with the low -level stuff, and it got worse, and then he got with the violent crowd.

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He was on that path with all that perverseness and all that wickedness, and on that path he linked up with a group of guys that were selling drugs, and it turns out they were selling for the cartel.

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So he's in front of me, and his hands are shaking. His hands are shaking.

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He's barely able to catch his breath, and he's totally traumatized. This guy that came from this great home and great neighborhood, he turned on a different path, and he told me that he was shaking and he was traumatized because he knew that he had to get off that path.

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He knew he needed to come to Christ because he had just watched the cartel throw his best friend into a wood chipper in front of him.

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As an example of don't mess up again, that path of violence, that path of darkness, that story is as old as the hills.

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It could be told for days, but Scripture emphasizes, emphasizes this.

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There are two paths. The upright, the way of life, and the path of darkness, wickedness, and violence.

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One has honor, and one is a path of destruction and dishonor. And it's interesting because we tend to think on the path of wickedness, the path of darkness, we tend to think not with wisdom, not with eyes of wisdom and life.

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We think on that path of wickedness and darkness in a way that is not future oriented.

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Right? It's one of the things that plagues this particular generation that we're ministering to, is not only the revolt against the order and the foundations itself, but we have people that live moment by moment.

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We want the immediate stimuli. We want the immediate moment of pleasure. Feed me the pleasure.

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Let me feel it now. We're not future oriented. We want the pleasure now.

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We are not considering the end or the future. We are just on the path, and it is like one of those little electrical things that never work at the airport, you know, the people movers, right?

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You're on that path and it's just moving you along. You don't have to do anything on it. You are on it and it's moving you along.

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Not future oriented. But scripture makes it clear. There is a way of life.

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A path of righteousness. A path of wisdom. And isn't it a beautiful thing that when

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Christ, who is the very wisdom of God, comes into the world, He, the wisdom of God, says in John 14, 6,

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I am the what? Way. The truth and the life.

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Christ, the wisdom of God, calls Himself the way.

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He is the way. Go to your New Testament quickly. Acts chapter 9.

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Look at this. So you can see again, this is thematic. You see it in terms of how the

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Christians were identified in the first century. This theme of the path of righteousness, the way of wisdom, is so deeply rooted into God's revelation.

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That when Christ comes as the very wisdom of God, He calls Himself the way. And the early

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Christians, in Acts chapter 9, verses 1 through 2, read this.

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But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogue of Damascus, synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

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Isn't that amazing? So like, you know, Apologia Church, the name of our church, came because we were first Apologia Christian Ministries, we had an outreach in Apologetics Ministry early on, and Apologia, Apologia, Greek word,

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Peter uses it, reason defense, it's a courtroom kind of word, where you give a reason defense for your arguments, reason defense for your faith, so we thought, good name of a church, that'll work, that expresses like what we do, and what we're about.

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You've got 1st Baptist, 2nd Baptist, 1st Presbyterian, whatever, you've got all these names of churches, you've got

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The Rock, you've got Cornerstone, you've got names of churches, like where are you from, who are you with, I'm Cornerstone, I'm The Rock, right?

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You've got all that stuff. Early Christians, the name over their building, in a way, the name over them was

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Followers of the Way. That is such a strong theme in wisdom, and in righteousness, that the early

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Christians were identified as those who follow the way.

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Look again at Acts 19. Acts 19. This is how they branded themselves.

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Acts 19, verse 9. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way, before the congregation, he withdrew with them and took the disciples with them.

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Look again at Acts 19, 23. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way.

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Acts 22, verse 4. I persecuted this way to the death, binding and delivering to prison both men and women.

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24, 14. But this I confess to you, that according to the way, which they call a sect,

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I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the law and written in the prophets.

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There's Paul the Theonomist. And you see it again in Acts 24, 22.

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But this theme of the path and the way was an identification of the early

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Christian church. They followed the wisdom of God, Jesus Christ.

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They followed the way. They were followers of the way. The sect was known as the way.

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The followers of the way. It was thematic. It was understood. There's a path of righteousness. There's a path of life.

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There's a path of unrighteousness, wickedness and death. That is darkness. This is light.

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Jesus is the way. 2 Peter chapter 2. I want you to see the apostle preaching this same story.

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2 Peter chapter 2 verse 2. After talking about these false prophets, he says, and many will follow their sensuality and because of them, the way of truth will be blasphemed.

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And then again in 221. He says, for it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them.

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Romans chapter 3. Just so you can see that this is something that is taught throughout the scriptures.

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Romans chapter 3. In that moment where the apostle Paul pulls together this collage of verses from the

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Old Testament revelation and speak about our condition. Notice how he speaks about the universal condition of fallen humanity.

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This is everybody, it's you and me outside of Jesus. This is how we're described.

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Chapter 3 verse 10. As it is written, none is righteous, no one understands, no one seeks for God.

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All have turned aside. Together they've become worthless. No one does good, not even one.

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The throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

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Their feet are swift to shed blood. Sound familiar? In their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. Hey, that sounds like the book of Proverbs.

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First five chapters, doesn't it? The way of peace they have not known.

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There is no fear of God before their eyes. Hey, what's the beginning of wisdom? The fear of the

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Lord is the beginning of, there you go. It's all there and Paul's describing this path of ruin and misery, the way of peace and finally the teaching of Jesus.

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You know this one well. Matthew chapter 7. The Lord Jesus in the most famous sermon in the history of mankind will always be

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Matthew 7 13. The Lord Jesus the wisdom of God says this.

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Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way easy that leads to destruction and those who enter by it are many.

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For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life and those who find it are few.

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Isn't it amazing that when wisdom is incarnate wisdom gives that same distinction between this path and that path.

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I'm going to talk for just a moment about the simplicity of the broad way. It's easy to get in.

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That path is wide. There's lots of space on it and lots of people coming with you. And it has a destination though.

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It's not only a dark path and you don't even know over what you're stumbling but it leads to death,

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Jesus says. And there's this other way. There's this other path. It's a narrow gate.

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It has a narrow opening. You have to squeeze through that one. You can't bring your stuff.

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You gotta leave behind your sin. You gotta leave behind your own self -righteousness. You really gotta squeeze through this narrow opening naked.

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And when you get through there, this path is narrow but here's the amazing thing. Wisdom teaches us that path is lit up.

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It's light. You can see while you're on it. And it has a destination. It has a goal to it.

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A goal to it. It leads to life, Jesus says. So which way are you on?

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Which path are you on? Scripture does this constantly. It just gives you these distinctions between like you're either dead or you're alive spiritually.

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You're either in Christ or you are in Adam. You're either on the path that leads to death or you're on the path that leads to life and righteousness.

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It's either dishonor or it's honor. That contrast couldn't be clearer in Scripture and in Proverbs chapter 4 verses 14 through 17 we get now the character of the way of the wicked.

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If you're on that path the character of the wicked is described.

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They don't sleep unless they've done wrong. They're robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble.

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They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. Verse 19 the way of the wicked is like deep darkness.

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They don't even know over what they stumble. But notice what wisdom from above calls us to in terms of how to turn away.

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Verses 14 through 15 it says do not enter the path of the wicked.

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Don't even enter it. Do not walk in the way of the evil. What's it say?

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Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on.

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Turn away. Pass on. Don't go on to it. Don't walk in it. Don't enter. So wisdom from God that comes from Father to Son pleads with the child and this of course is our

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Heavenly Father pleading to us. Incline your ear. Hear it. Incline your heart.

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Receive it. Treasure it up within you. Lay hold of it. And when this path is set before us as creatures, as image bearers of God there is a path of uprightness and light and life as a destination and another path of violence, deep darkness and a destination of death.

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And scripture says this, ready? In terms of the paths, when you and I are presented with the paths and you will be every single day, moment by moment when the path is presented wisdom from above,

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God's word to us is what? Don't go on it.

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Turn aside from it. Don't enter it. Turn aside. You're called in scripture to flee, to put things to death.

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But the call is to stay focused on that path of wisdom. To stay focused on that path of uprightness.

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And the glorious thing of staying focused on this path is that when your eyes are set forward on the path, you're looking down a path that you know at the very end of it leads where?

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Life. To life. And scripture says don't step on that path.

01:00:01

Turn aside from it. So how do you practically work this out brothers and sisters in a day like today? Where you and I are being fed, fed, fed, bombarded, bombarded with constant access to paths of violence, paths of evil, paths of darkness.

01:00:19

Scripture says porn? Don't set foot.

01:00:24

Turn away. Because the moment you step on that path, what is there?

01:00:33

Deep darkness. Where does it end? Destruction. It will always end in destruction.

01:00:42

It never gives you what it promises you. Idols can't satisfy real spiritual needs.

01:00:48

Amen? So what does scripture call you to? Put it to death. It calls sexual immorality idolatry.

01:00:55

It is false worship of a foreign God. But scripture says here's this path of darkness.

01:01:01

Here's the path of the adulterous. The call is turn aside. Don't go on to it.

01:01:07

Keep focused on that path of uprightness and righteousness. Stay on the one where there is honor, life, days, peace, blessing, prosperity,

01:01:19

God. On this path there is darkness. So scripture says here's the path presented.

01:01:25

When you leave church tonight, you open your phone and you're scrolling and enter the video.

01:01:31

Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. It bombards you with here's the path.

01:01:36

Come. Here's the path. Come. Come my way. You know you read

01:01:42

Proverbs and you hear about this adulterous woman sort of like enticing the man like come with me. My husband's away.

01:01:47

Come with me. Come with me. She's pulling pulling and you think man, what a harlot, right?

01:01:53

And then you open Facebook. Am I right guys? Am I telling tales?

01:02:01

Nope. Here it is. Here's the path. Scripture says turn your eyes aside.

01:02:06

Flee from it. Don't walk on that path. Do not enter it. There's wisdom.

01:02:12

Don't enter. The adulterous, the adulterer, don't set foot. Turn away.

01:02:19

Don't play with it. The violent, don't set foot. The call in God's wisdom is turn away.

01:02:25

The slanderer, don't set foot. Turn away. It's perfectly appropriate if you're in a room of even professing believers who are engaging in gossip and slander to stand up and say

01:02:37

I love you all and the Lord loves you but I'm out. I'm not walking on that path.

01:02:43

I won't walk on that path and you shouldn't walk on this path either. Turn aside from it.

01:02:49

Don't walk on it. That's the call. Don't let your foot enter into that door and that path.

01:02:55

That's the call. Gossip. Don't set foot. Turn away. The path of the sluggard and the lazy.

01:03:05

It's all over Proverbs, right? The lazy, the sluggard, the undisciplined, the person who just wants to hang out in bed all day, the person who doesn't want to accomplish anything, they don't want to invest, they don't want to do any of those things.

01:03:17

Scripture says don't enter that path. And today it is so easy today. Isn't it easy today?

01:03:23

I grant there are people that hit hard times. I grant there are people who hit hard times and they experience financial distress and great difficulties.

01:03:33

We want to care for those people but let's be honest. Let's be honest. The great majority of the people that you and I see on the street corners asking for money or the ones who have had lives devastated financially are typically people who what?

01:03:50

They don't want to work. There are people that do. But we recognize that the sluggard has a destination.

01:03:59

If you live a life of undisciplined work or lack of work, it will end somewhere.

01:04:07

One of the things I've tried to instill into my sons, my son, is to turn aside from being somebody who's lazy.

01:04:18

A person who never invests. I've tried to describe to my children they need to be future oriented.

01:04:25

To think, and I was just having this conversation with my son just a little while back. I was saying think of your life in terms of a timeline.

01:04:33

There is a future you setting out there someday. Everything you will be and everything that you will have then is based upon the deposits that you're making today.

01:04:48

So I try to tell my sons, I say you need to be the kind of man today that suffers, that labors, that works, that accomplishes because you are putting deposits into your future self.

01:05:00

Then is where you will reap the rewards. That's future orientation. That's as a father speaking to a son trying to attack the sin of laziness.

01:05:11

That path of being a sluggard. What scriptures say? God's wisdom is this.

01:05:16

There is a path of uprightness and life and blessing and honor. And there is a path of wickedness and darkness and destruction.

01:05:23

And God says don't set your foot on this. Turn aside. God give us the strength to do so.

01:05:29

Let's pray. God I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today. Allow your people to remember what you've said and you've taught from your truth.

01:05:40

We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Now we come to the table. This is where the