So this morning, Ed was in 2 Corinthians 3, and do you remember, he ended on that future-looking, forward-looking, hopeful aspect of us growing from glory to glory, from one level of glory to the next level of glory. And tonight, we have a passage from Proverbs 4, it's one of my favorites, which talks about the path of the righteous being like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. So what we will find is, not only is the image very similar, The idea, very similar, but it really is talking about the same subject. So, Proverbs 4, verses 10 through 19. Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I have taught you the way of wisdom. I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction, do not let go. Guard her, for she is your life. Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it, do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on, for they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. In a previous life, or previous season of life. I don't believe in reincarnation. In a previous season of life, I was a manager of a retail store. It was a retail paint store. And one of the things that frustrated me, was difficult for me being a retail manager, was the monthly financial cycle. What I mean is, About the middle of each month, we would have a big meeting and we would go over all the reports of all of the stats. And by that time, when you go over the reports of the stats, you're looking at the previous month. We just got everything tabulated. We're looking at the previous month. And we're halfway through the current month. And so you're both looking back and looking forward. it's over and over and over again, and every time you're comparing the numbers to the previous month before that, and everything is about, did it get better, did it get better, did it increase? If you keep on increasing, at some point you've gotta have a correction, and then everything else is forgotten, because your sales went down 2% last month, what's wrong? And it wasn't just the pressure to constantly increase sales, that got me, it was the sense of where is this going? Is there an end to this? Is there, in theological terms, is there an eschatology to this retail business? Do we have any end goal? Is this our goal, just to keep growing, keep growing to infinity? until we can't, until we just bust or fall down, fatigued, give up. It's very important to have a sense of anticipation, to have a sense of you're going forward and you're going somewhere. If you don't have that, you begin to wonder why are you going anywhere? This passage that we looked at talks about ways and paths. Verse 11 talks about the way of wisdom. Verse 14, the path of the wicked and the way of evil. It's contrasting two directions, two paths where you are going somewhere. You're going forward. You're headed to a destination. What is that? What is that destination? Well, life and light, life and light. Verse 10, that the years of your life may be many. Verse 18, the light of dawn brighter and brighter until full day. Light and life go together just like darkness and death go together. In some ways, we don't really need to fill out these images. We understand these images. We know that darkness is bad. Luke, come over to the dark side. We know what that means. We know that it's death. We know that light is coming out of the dark grave, out of the dark tomb, out of the cave. But light is not just being alive. Light is about living. Daylight, the noontime, the time of the sun is up and things are happening is the time when people are working, doing, enjoying. Night is when they should be sleeping, which is, of course, a picture, a little picture, a temporary picture of death. Now, light and life, okay, is that all we can say? Here I wanna add a little foundational interpretive principle, a foundational interpretive principle for this passage. Christ is our wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. Colossians 2, 3, from our Colossians series, in him, in Christ, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Now, we tend to hear this and say, yes, okay, Christ is our wisdom. As wisdom is described in the Old Testament, it's fulfilled in Christ. But then we go back into the Old Testament, something like Proverbs, and we tend to then Again, read it as if we can understand wisdom apart from Christ, as if this can describe just good ways of acting, a good way to do things, the right way to figure out life. It's more than that. It's more purely Christ. Look at verses 10 and 11 again. I'm gonna paraphrase verses 10 and 11. First of all, it says, or look at 11 and 12. I have taught you the way of wisdom. I have led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And if you run, you will not stumble. Let me paraphrase that. You've received from me the way of wisdom. You've received it. Now walk in that. Let's paraphrase a little bit more. Just as you received wisdom, so walk in it. Now let's hear Colossians. Just as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. You could paraphrase verses 11 and 12 that way, and I would say you would be correct. You would be correct. This is saying the same thing. As you've received wisdom, which we know now is Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As you've received him, so walk in him. As you've received this instruction, as you've received this savior, so walk in him. Jesus, went into the darkness of our sin and death and came out, came forth in his resurrection at dawn in the light of day to the light of an indestructible life that will never end, that shines with the glory of God. Revelation 21, 23 says, And the city, the city which is us, the church, the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb. He is the light for us, and he is the life. He is The wisdom, he is the source, he's the destination, he's everything about this passage. So walking in wisdom, as we understand it from this passage, walking in wisdom, we can understand it is living out of your union with Christ. That's what walking in wisdom, the way of wisdom is. This means also that when we hear the way of evil, the way of the wicked, we don't need to hear it as describing some other foolish person that we can look upon and disdain, but we understand it as our sinful nature, what was natural to us in our sin. And it is that which we are called to forsake as we walk in union with Christ. putting off the flesh and putting on Him. This is what we will continue to learn as we go back to Colossians in a couple weeks. Going forward is living out of our union with Christ and our destination is His life, His righteousness, Him. And He is the path itself. Going forward was actually the first point of this sermon, and the remaining points are going to also start with the letter F. Going forward, second point, what fuels you? What fuels you? What excites you? What robs you of sleep? Verse 16, they cannot sleep unless they have done wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they have made someone stumble. What robs you of sleep? I remember in my youth, a time when I knew that my father and some of the other men of the church were gonna take me and my friends fishing. It's one of those fishing trips when you get up in the middle of the night, at least what a small boy thinks is the middle of the night. And the goal is to get out into this little metal boat, out into the middle of the lake before it's light. So you get up early enough that you have to drive to the lake, get in, get all your fishing gear in there, get the worms, all this stuff, and get out there. And you're in the middle of the lake, when it's dark. I was so excited to do this that I could not sleep, could not get to sleep. It excited me. Another time I remember that I could not sleep, the next day I was going to be taking an all-day exam. I've done that a few times in my life. I wouldn't recommend it. It's one of those exams that starts at eight a.m. and ends at four. I had one that was that way for two and a half days. And I knew I needed sleep. I knew I have to get sleep because I have to be able to concentrate. I can't believe what I'm gonna do tomorrow and I need to sleep. So just sleep. And I couldn't sleep. Those two things are the kind of things that rob us of sleep. Things that we're really excited about and things that we're really distressed about. They rob our sleep. The wicked are robbed of sleep unless they can cause someone stumble. Robbed of sleep unless they have figured out how to do wrong. This is what we are being saved from. I think all of us, if we're honest, remember what it is like to lay awake at night plotting some sin opportunity. How will I find that thing that I know I'm not supposed to find in a way that will make sure I am not caught doing it? How will I say the right words to crush that person that I am angry at? How eloquent can I be in the way that I refute him or her? I've been there. I think many of you have been there. Robbed of sleep unless we can do wrong. This is what we're being saved out of. This is the way of the flesh. This is not the way of Christ. What kept Jesus up at night? Well, first of all, what excited him? Mark 1.35. and rising very early in the morning while it was still dark, just like my fishing trip, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. And we know from the Gospels that he did this often. He did this often. When everyone else was sleeping, he was not sleeping. He was praying. Oh, to know what he prayed for. What do you think he prayed for? Well, again, in my time as retail manager, there were times when I would get in my head a vision for what I wanted to do with the store. They didn't tell me a vision. They just told me a monthly cycle. So I wanted a vision. Where can I go with this? How can I innovate? How can we make this the best store in the world? I would get excited about that and I would lay awake at night working through those plans. I remember one plan I had I was gonna make in the showroom. I wanted to construct a room that would be cozy and homey with furniture and a beautiful, you know, a wall, like a real room and call it a design center and we could have the color chips in there and whatnot and people would come in and our staff that were good designers could sit with them and help them not just pick paint, but learn how to decorate their house. And I described my vision to my boss and told him where the walls would need to go. And he said to me, can't you just build a wall with five gallon buckets of paint? I just said, I guess you don't have that vision, do you? You don't get it. I used to stay awake thinking about that. Jesus, I believe, when he's praying in the middle of the night, he's praying about the vision that he is excited for. He is excited about the plans that he and his father have to innovate. Innovate, which means to do something new. His plans to rescue us, to fix this broken world and us broken sinners and to give us new life and to recreate this world. He's excited about that. And he can't sleep because he needs to talk to his father and pray and say, let's do this. I wanna see this. I wanna see that. I wanna see my bride beautifully prepared. That was exciting to him. If you are in Christ, increasingly this will excite you. Increasingly this is the kind of thing that will rob you of sleep. So what kept Jesus awake by distressing him? In Gethsemane, he prayed while the disciples could not fight off sleep. was impossible for them to not sleep, and it was impossible for him to sleep. And he was distressed and lost sleep, not because of a kind of a faithless anxiety, oh, what am I gonna do? How is this gonna work out? Is anybody in control of this situation? Not that. For him, it was an expression of the love of God. that powered that great sacrifice. See, his was a love that was greater than sleep. And he knew what he was going to go through in order to fulfill those plans that he was so excited about. And this too, he lost sleep over. And if you are in him, you will sometimes lose sleep in that way as well. You will lose sleep in distress. over a friend who is lost, over a situation where you see sin wreaking havoc, you will lose sleep and it will not be the sleep of distress, it will not be the lack of sleep, the sleeplessness of anxiety and fear, it will be the anxiety of love, the sleeplessness of love. Thirdly, what feeds you? What feeds you? Verse 17, for they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. I know you are trained well to see connections and you see bread and wine and I know, I hope I know where your minds go. Yes, that is exactly where you should go. And yet, let's work this out. Bread and wine first are just a staple of life. They're about normal everyday meals. It's about where you go to get strength. It's about what keeps you growing. You eat to grow. What does this tell us about our sin? First of all, the way of wickedness. Well, sin is self-appetizing. That's a word I've made up, self-appetizing. And I mean, it creates a hunger for itself. It seeks to keep you coming back for more. It's a bit like carb craving. You know what a carb craving is, right? Carbohydrates. You eat carbohydrates. If you eat carbohydrates, you want more carbohydrates. And if you try to stop, your body says, where are the carbs? Give me the carbs. That's the way sin works. This is why you have trouble with the same sins over and over again, because it is self appetizing. Sin creates momentum. It shapes you. You are what you eat, you know. You are what you eat. And if you are feeding on sin, sin is going to start making you think that's what you are. What fed Jesus? In John 4, you know the story, he has arrived at a well in Samaria and he is hungry and he's thirsty. He sends his disciples to get food and then he has a long conversation with a Samaritan woman and the disciples come back and he says, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Wow, Jesus fed on righteousness. He fed on doing the will of the Father and accomplishing His work. That is what gave Him growth. That's what sustained Him. That's what made Him what He was. Oh, how we need this kind of feeding, how we need this kind of righteousness, how we need His righteousness. Now, feeding, food, eating, it doesn't work like Popeye and spinach, right? I don't know if any of you have ever watched it, but Popeye would get into a difficult situation, and he would somehow open up a can of spinach, put that, all has to happen is that spinach goes in his mouth, and like the Hulk, maybe some of you know that, Boom, boom, boom, his muscles start bursting out and he's a superman right then. Almost instantaneously. Food does not work that way. Food takes a long time to have its effect. It's cumulative, it's regular, it's slow. Did you ever try a diet? Deb was thinking about trying a gluten-free diet and consulted with a friend, and her friend, who has some knowledge about these things, says, just want you to know, don't just do this short term and expect to see the results. Do this for, I forget how long, you know, this many weeks and you might feel results, but then when you get to the three-month time, you get even better results. And if you get to the six-month time, you should have even better results. And the longer you do this diet, the more benefit you will have. That's what drives us crazy about diets. It's not immediate. I don't think Jesus experienced at the well when he said, I have food you know nothing about. I don't think it was a Popeye and spinach experience. It wasn't that he was at the well feeling physical hunger and physical thirst and He did some good deed and all of a sudden he physically felt invigorated, strong and not hungry anymore. I think he was still physically hungry and still thirsty. But Jesus was feeding every day on doing the will of his father. It's what his meal was from the day he was young. And so he was growing up on a steady diet of obedience. And on a steady diet of obedience, he grew spiritually strong. And so he was so strong spiritually that honestly, a few more hours of physical discomfort meant nothing to him. Because who he was was someone who fed on obeying the Father and honoring him. Our spiritual feeding on Christ is similar. It must be regular, it is long-term, it is cumulative, it grows. Now you remember last week, I said, the Spirit is not a fruit of self-control, but self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Meaning you don't get the Spirit by spiritual disciplines pursuing the Spirit. you have discipline because you have the Spirit. This is not a contradiction here. This is just saying that we progressively grow as we feed regularly on Christ. This calls for patience and persistence. And I think this can be an encouragement to us. We should not be discouraged at the slowness of our growth. Feeding on Christ is feeding on Christ. It shapes us, it makes us what we are. And we're not in charge of this. We're not the ones who have to decide to make this happen. Jesus provided for this. Just like when you were a child, when you were an infant, you didn't go to the grocery store, plan all your meals and pick up everything that you needed and put them together. Someone else did. Well, he does this for us. He gave us the weekly calendar. He ordained that we would have one day every week to come together. He gave preachers and teachers. He gave His Word. He ordained that preachers and teachers would feed you with it. He gave us the sacrament. And I love that we do it regularly because it's the way we feed on Christ. He is the one who is feeding you regularly. And in Him, you will grow strong. You will grow strong. That is the way of wisdom, the way of Christ. He's in charge. You can look forward to being strong spiritually. so that when suffering is brought to you in the way of Christ and the way of love, it's worth it because you are one who is shaped by your obedience and your love for the Father. Finally, what frustrates you? What frustrates you? Verse 12, verse 16, verse 19, they all talk about stumbling. They all repeat the word stumbling. Now, it's one of the, One of the maxims of life that things go wrong, they just go wrong. It's frustrating. You know the bumper sticker, things happen and all the varieties of that bumper sticker. It's true, life is full of disappointments and regrets. This is, by the way, an extra motivation to leave behind the way of wickedness. When it says the way of wickedness is like deep darkness, they do not know over what they stumble. It's one thing to be blind. It's another thing to be blind to your blindness. To be blind and not even know that you're blind. To be stumbling and have no idea of what caused you to trip. As John says, some of the Pharisees near Jesus heard him say these things and said to him, are we also blind? And Jesus said to them, if you were blind, you would have no guilt. But now that you say we see, your guilt remains. That is horrible and terrifying to stumble through life constantly knowing that you're failing and not even able to understand what is wrong. But we have verse 12. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. And when you run, you will not stumble. You will not stumble. Now let's get out of the metaphor. Let's say what this is really saying. It means this, no matter the circumstance or challenge, daily frustrations, major crises, whatever it is, there is no barrier, there's no barrier to your navigating that situation in the direction of Christlikeness. I was studying this passage, afternoon this week, and got a call from Deb, there's a bolt in the tire of the car. I was a little frustrated, because I wanted to make progress on the sermon. I think I'm gonna have to take care of that. Okay, I'll take the car in, I'll take the car in. So I got in the car, driving to Flynn's. And I said a little prayer. Lord, you know we just did this work, this work, and this work. I would please let this be in the middle of the tire where they can repair it and not have to replace it, because we'll probably have to replace two, maybe even more. I just don't want this expense right now. And I get to Flynn, go in there, start studying this passage. I'm looking at this, trying to figure out this. You will not stumble. The salesperson, Mr. Wiedemeyer, that hole was a little too big. I don't think we can fill it. And I've been trying to convince you that you need new tires for three years now, I can see on your chart. You need to buy four tires. Okay. And then I looked back down at my phone where I was taking these notes. You will not stumble. You will not be hampered. And it suddenly hit me. At this moment, If my goal is to get out of this situation without another hit to my car budget, I will be hampered. But if my goal is growing in Christlikeness, there is no reason that I can't move forward in the midst of this. In the midst of this frustration, He is giving me an opportunity to move forward in Christlikeness. And it suddenly hit me. There is no exception to that. No exception. This is relatively minor. It could be much, much worse. And if it were much worse, the same thing would be true. There is no hindrance, there's no reason, if I am walking in Christ, that I can't expect that He is using this, even this, to make me more like Him. Hallelujah. It was that real and that practical. It filled me with joy. I wanted to dance in the, you know, thank you, Four New Tires, I love you. That's true. It's true for all of us. But it's true in as much as we are walking in the way of wisdom, in as much as, just as we received Christ Jesus the Lord, we are walking in Him. Our souls will be fed by Him, our hearts will be fueled by Him, and there will be nothing that will frustrate us as we move forward to His likeness, His glory, and joy, and life, and light forevermore. Pray with me. Lord Jesus, thank You for this truth. Thank You that You are the light of the city, that You are the wisdom, You are the way, You are the path. Thank you for all that you have done for us. Continue to feed us and shape us into your image. In Jesus' name, amen.