First of all, I should mention for those of you who are here for the first time, I am stepping in and subbing in for our senior pastor, Jason Parker, who's preaching in Blaine, Minnesota today and speaking at a conference. We're lifting him up. I think he speaks three times today. So today I'll be of filling in for you. So to start, I think we need to practice. So I'll give you a couple of commands. First command, eyes on me. Look at me, please. I would like to see all your eyes looking at me. All right, in just a second, I'm going to give you another command, which is look around, which means just to look everywhere. OK, ready? Eyes on me. Eyes on me. I see you. Look around. Don't look at me. All right, look at me. New command. Look ahead. I want you to set your eyes in front of you. Don't look at me. Just look straight ahead. Look at nothing else. Do not be distracted. OK? Ready? Look ahead. Pretty good, pretty good. Not everyone's there. Almost there. Okay, now you got it. All right, look at me. Good, okay, we practiced. I think you're ready. Those of you who read ahead to where we're going today know what I'm, maybe know what I'm doing, probably not. All right, Proverbs chapter four is where we're going. Verse, verses 23 through 27. That will be our text for today. And to look at Proverbs, let's look at the whole of Proverbs. And perhaps the most straightforward way to look at the whole of Proverbs is to look right at the beginning, Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, we kind of have a strong thematic statement. Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Right, so the fear of the Lord. In other words, the fear of Yahweh. The fear of Yahweh is the beginning of knowledge. It's important, note this is not fear of a random generic God. This is fear of the God of Israel, the God of Isaac, God of Abraham. This is a fear of someone specific. We know then that what fear of Yahweh means for his people, and this fear initiates something. It initiates a quest for knowledge and wisdom and instruction. So we understand these proverbs are given to a specific people in a specific covenant context. They are not connectionless nuggets floating in heavy gravy. They are a collection of Proverbs, in a sense, teaching skill in the art of godly living, godly living that honors the Lord. A partner companion to Proverbs is the law, the law delivered in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, where you might consider the specifics of a book like, I don't know, Leviticus maybe, dealing in detailed legal language of sacrifices, feasts, wisdom covering specific situations. Proverbs comes in and supplements this guidance with instruction on how to live and act and how to demonstrate redemption as God's covenant people in day-to-day life and in personal character. It does this in contrast to the specific guidance of the law, through the more generally applied poetic wisdom and principles of a father teaching a son. Proverbs then also will, for us, look forward. And we must understand and interpret and view, consume these words of wisdom in light of Christ. We're told in Colossians chapter two, verse three, Christ is in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Christ is the fulfillment of this poetry. He embodies wisdom. We know that he is the truth. Treasures that are described in terms of insight and understanding, the prizes, which are valued like silver, result in the fear of the Lord and the knowledge of God. And that is what Christ has come to do, to reveal that treasure, to show its worth, to show the way in which we will obtain the treasure. As we see in Proverbs chapter two, verse six, the Lord gives wisdom from his mouth come knowledge and understanding And ultimately, he'll give that knowledge and understanding through knowledge of who Jesus is. Now, where we're narrowing it in, look at chapters one through nine, just even as a section. First nine chapters of Proverbs are poems of wisdom that extend over several verses. And this section, again, is urging the student, urging the son to pursue wisdom. The Proverbs proper, the memorable, quite often pithy statements, begin in earnest in chapter 10. And the Proverbs often work, as we know, by making a comparison, and then by leaving it to the reader how the Proverb might apply in a variety of situations, some of which are informed by customary conventions. So then, within that first nine chapters, we have chapter four, where we're We're narrowing in. When we get to chapter 4, we're right in the middle of a set of appeals that the father is making to the son. And perhaps you can imagine if you've received or given fatherly instruction, personal, intimate connection, the relational nature of this sharing, this teaching. Look at verse 1 of chapter 4. In Proverbs chapter 4, verse 1, it says, Here, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight. 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 side of my mother, he taught me and said to me, let your heart hold fast my words, keep my commandments, and live. Father is exercising good care for his son, urging him in verse five to get wisdom, to get insight. So then jumping down a little bit in chapter four, verse 20, he's gonna begin a new section of a new appeal about the heart of wisdom. Let's read there beginning in verse 20 of chapter four. It says, my son, be attentive to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. 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. Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. 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. Ponder the path of your feet and all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil. All right, so we're gonna spend most of our time here starting in verse 23, kind of in the middle there of that appeal. But let's look first at how When we follow this set of instructions, our whole self is involved. Our whole body. Verse 23 says, to keep our hearts. And then verse 24 says, put away crooked speech. In other words, utilize your mouth. Verse 25 reminds us to let our eyes look forward. Verse 26 is pondering the paths of our feet. And all together, these five verses come together to form a comprehensive urging, a laying out of this quest, as we've called it, to control every part of you and direct everything that you have, everything that you are, towards growing in wisdom. The heart, of course, is the totality of the inward self. Verse 23 mentions this, that's what it's talking about. It's the instrument of our thoughts, the center of our will. It's the bedrock of all knowledge of who God is, and it is to be closely guarded. Perhaps in addition, as we're reading through there in those verses, your heart echoes to the New Testament as well. As we look at something like verse 23, we might be reminded of Jesus speaking in Luke chapter 6, verse 45, when he says, the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. It's really even a sense, an amplification of what verse 23 is saying, a description of our hearts producing things of great value. And then again in John chapter 4, verses 13 and 14, where Jesus is speaking to the woman of Samaria. And he says, everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. Water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. The fulfillment of these verses The 23 through 27 again is found in Christ, the true source, the living waters wherein life is found. So these connections to the words of Jesus remind us that where this heart of vigilance and our whole body and our whole self involved in this quest for wisdom, where will it lead? It will lead to ultimately redemption in Christ. Okay, so we've got some positive instructions given to us. As we look at those, we can't help maybe ask, why the urgency? Why is this so critical? Why all the imperatives? Why is this so important? And I think as we look, we'll take another look here through verse 23 through 27, and we'll see that there are some warnings in here. There are some warnings that are explicit and there are some that are implicit. So look at verse 23 again. Why would we need to keep our hearts with vigilance? Keeping, we could think of keeping as protecting or guarding. Why must we guard it and guard it vigilantly? Well, something must be out there. Something must be intending to do harm. There are threats here. Verse 24 says, to put away from you crooked speech. Why? What will crooked speech do to me? Why does the proximity matter? Why does the distance concern me? We're gonna come back to verse 25, so let me jump over that for now, but verse 26 also gives us a little of those potential consequences. Pondering, or perhaps another way to describe that word there in verse 26, would be to make level. Clearing the path for our feet leads to sure paths and ways. Without it, there is no confidence. And so, When if I don't follow this, if I don't clear those paths, if I don't clear those ways, I will stumble and trip and fall. And then in verse 27, swerving to the right or left, keeping our foot away from evil because apparently evil is nearby. And there's only one path to avoid it. And so kind of common to the structure of Proverbs where we're given instruction, we're given motivation for obeying, and then the potential consequences for disobedience are delivered. Let's look at some of those potential consequences of entering into This is called the ways of the wicked. Even if we just jump to chapter one, and I'll summarize it for you. Here's what happens to those who enter into the wicked paths. The wicked will be swallowed by death. endure poverty, suffer violence, they'll be the source of their own downfall, they will be their own deathly demise, they will be mocked, they will suffer calamity, distress will be dumped upon them, there will be no one to help them, they will reap what they sow, they will suffer death and destruction, they cannot sleep, they endure violence, they walk in darkness, in ignorance they stumble and fall, without wisdom they do not even have life. I would chuck those up into the dire category of warnings, right? Significant consequences for us if we do not walk in these ways, if we do not follow these commands in verses 23 through 27. So now, okay, we're tightening the microscope and we're going even further onto verse 25. Verse 25. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Let's compare that to what's described in verse 14, the description of the evil path. Verse 14, do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of the evil. Instead, we have a straightened gaze. We are looking ahead. Undoubtedly, this is connected to walking the path that's going to come right after this in verse 26 and 27, pondering that path, clearing the way, not swerving left or right. So we compare this to even as well, verses 18 and 19 of chapter 4, the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. Verse 19, the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. So we have this imagery of a path. Where the value of wisdom, the value of heeding these warnings is explained. Evil and wickedness described as dark, jagged, rocky paths, you walk it and you're likely liable to fall and lose hope, to despair. Wisdom and righteousness is the path that has a lot of light on it. We can see, we know where we're going. So in harmony with verses 18 and 19, the father in verse 25 is advising his son. He says, son, look directly forward, keep your gaze straight ahead. A wise person refuses to be distracted from his goal. He is on task. He also avoids the temptation from what comes from the example of evil peoples, such as what we read in verses 14 and 15. So what's the danger here? What's inherent to this command? What's the consequences of not following it? When we don't do what is described, what's happening? Part of that answer, again, is in those verses we just read in verse 15. Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on. We must turn away from it and pass on because when we don't, what we are doing is turning our eyes away. We do not see the path that is lighted. We are stepping away from it. And we are looking to this new path, this path of darkness and evil. The question, I think, that we'll spend most of our time here talking this morning is what's going to turn our eyes away from that? What's going to turn our eyes away from this path, which leads to all these wonderful things of wisdom, truth, knowledge of the Lord, and the entering into the path of darkness is going to cause all of these dire consequences. So the word I'm giving you for today's contemplation is distraction. And I believe at least one important part of the warning and the admonition in verse 25, as well as this whole section, is to warn against distractions. Even in verse 14, the phrase of, do not enter into the path of the wicked, where the word enter means something like go towards, moved in this direction, is suggestive of this. So how do we define this? Simple definition of distraction would be an attraction. Something that has that force of attraction that takes something away from its original focus to something else. Something that diverts. It changes the path. It takes a different route. There's road construction and we have to take an exit and go around. It causes you to enter another path where you were looking straight ahead, you are now turned and looking at something else. In our family, when we talk about distractions, there's a few stories that come up, but there's one specific story that comes up where we had one child who was very young and was playing basketball. And they couldn't have been too old playing basketball at this point because they were just really coming into that time of their life where they were really enjoying reading. This child was a voracious reader, read everything that they could get their hands on. The problem was that those two things weren't mixing really well because while both teams were running up and down the court, passing, playing, defending, this child was standing center court and reading signs on the wall, oblivious to anything happening on the court because there were words there to read. So he would just stand, watching, reading. Usually he'd start running, he'd catch a glimpse of some letters or words, and then he would stop, and he would start reading. He was, in all the truest sense of the word, distracted. He'd been brought under the spell of reading's destructive power. It wasn't the last time either. This is what a distraction does, right? It diverts us from the purpose. The purpose is to play basketball, win the game, in this case, we are reading the cafeteria menu, right? Now, distractions are not new to us as the church. Despite the fact that this word is a newer word, 15th century word, distractions are not a new concept. In the whole of scripture, we see many examples of distractions. And let me give you a quick overview. In Samuel's day, the people were distracted by a form of government they saw in neighboring nations and they clamored for a king. Israel was distracted generation after generation by the perceived prosperity of its neighbors, It made them wonder if maybe bail is better, right? Envy led to distraction, and distraction led to walking the path of darkness. Amos denounced those who were so distracted by prosperity and self-indulgence that they could no longer see the needs of the poor, and Haggai preached to people who were so preoccupied with paneling their own homes, they had forgotten about the fact that the temple was in ruins. Hebrew prophets, I think, were, in a sense, sent to be distraction breakers, trying to remind Israel of the first love that they had departed from. And, of course, in Genesis, Adam and Eve in the garden with the Lord literally walking in their midst, the Almighty present with them, and they were distracted by the promises of an intruder. Paul's time, of course, in the New Testament had plenty of this going on as well. Look at Acts chapter 17, verse 21. It says, now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new. The novelty of the day consumed these people. How strange, unusual. We don't have anything like that. We know it's not strange. We know it's not unusual. It's promised to be this way in the future. 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 3, for the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. The distractions are manifest through scripture, through that history, history of people, and it's manifest in our world today. So, Of course, we ask, how do these distractions appear today in the world of the believer? Well, I think there's an essence of distraction that we can all relate to and have experienced where the essence of distraction is that it seeks our attention at all times, even when we're happy, maybe especially when we're happy. Think about this line of appeal. You have a favorite, call it a favorite product, tube of toothpaste. You love that tube of toothpaste. It's kept your teeth clean, cavity free, makes those visits to the dentist pleasurable. You really enjoy the tube of toothpaste. Works well, you're satisfied. But wait, have you tried the new version of the toothpaste? How can you be satisfied with the old tube of toothpaste when we have the new tube of toothpaste? It's minty fresh. I don't know. Are you really satisfied? How can you be really satisfied when there's something new you haven't even tried yet? Does this sound like a familiar line of appeal? I think so. Our society regularly worships the gods of novelty. And as one writer put it, the altar of the new is a poor place to bow. Let's just take a couple of examples in terms of defining what the rocky path looks like in our culture. And let's look at, I'm picking easy ones here, okay, low bars. Let's look at entertainment and entertainment as distraction. Think about the vastness of the entertainment opportunities that are arrayed before you as someone who lives here, existing in Colorado Springs in 2022. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you have a few options. You have a few choices, right? I like this summary of the choices that are available to us from Jay Callas, he says, in talking about preaching in the current age. He says, it's as if some evil genie has decided to drive us mad by spreading before us more than we want, more than we can imagine, certainly more than we can contain, and then cursed us with an inability to really enjoy any of it because we won't focus long enough on any one thing to savor its flavor. Our desires have become larger than we can manage, even as we are stimulated to consume more. The greatest technological advances of our day, it seems, would be tools to help you manage a larger playlist and machine-based algorithms to suggest what TV show you will like. These are the moon landing of 2022. Because how else will I find what I need? There's so much to choose from, right? It reminds me of a phrase. I'm old enough to know that some of the phrases I was taught don't relate to current times, but maybe you've heard the phrase, his eyes were bigger than his stomach, right? His desire, his wants were more than he can even consume. The desire is great and much greater even than the ability to rightly consume it. Okay, so how about we just in passing touch the definitive symbol of our day of distraction which would be One of these. That was interesting. There's actually almost 11 billion active cellular connections in our world. There's only, there's not even 8 billion people yet. Interesting math for there. A couple other data points I thought were just fascinating. Among 18 to 24 year olds, 80% say that they sleep with their phones next to their head and 15% of Americans say they use their cell phone in the shower. So do this test for me. Have you ever run out of your house and forgotten something and had to turn back and go get it? Like unlock the door, go in the house, search for it, find it. What's on that list that would make you turn around and go back? Would it be your keys, your coat, your Bible? A small child? Depends on the child. I don't know. Maybe your cell phone? I mean, I need the cell phone. I mean, the car might break down. I could get stranded. I might get a text. Also, my Snapchat streak is really long right now. I might get bored later at the doctor's office and my neighbor has got a TikTok channel that I really need to observe. It's about his puppy. Really cute puppies. Okay. You say, rightfully so. Come on. You're just picking on these things. Easy targets. I have a cell phone right here. I watch entertainment. You would be right. And yet we must say, even from this instruction from Proverbs, that there is potential danger in those things. If I step into the imaginary spiritual furniture store of life, this furniture store is full of choices, sofas, futons, recliners, maybe one of those giant L-shaped sectionals that you have to have a barn to actually fit it into. I might ask myself which lazy boy, which sofa I can cast myself down on at the end of the day. And it could be entertainment. It could be a cell phone. But it could be my work. It could be my family. It could be food. It could be what I own, what I buy, what I drive, what's on my Amazon wish list. There are a lot of selections available. Will it be my schedule? Will it be my voting record? Will it be what people say about me? It's a big store. and my body will enjoy reclining on almost any of them, at least at first. The question is, where will my heart try to find rest? Where will I find comfort and what will I love? The answer to this question of why does any of this matter, Does it matter what I watch? Does it matter what I look at? Does it matter how I spend my time? Does it matter what I desire? Does it matter where my feet take me? Oh yeah, it does. Because it tells us, in Proverbs here, by mentioning these specific things I'm trying to draw out, not just listing things that people in our society spend their time on, I'm talking about the avenues and pathways to our affections. The roadways that go right to our heart, that determine our loves. These are these pathways that we are to set a watchtower on. Otherwise, we enter into the rocky path. We will worship what we eat. We will worship what we read, what we see, what we wear, where we go, and what we have in our pocket. We'll worship all of it. That's how we were made. Our hearts, which should be vigilantly keeping watch, are like super rare earth magnets. And anything metallic comes by, there's an attraction, right? We're drawn to every new love that's in the vicinity, and that gravity of attraction is invisible and yet inevitable. Our hearts are drawn in every direction, and our eyes lead us there. Look at Proverbs chapter 17, verse 20. A man of crooked heart does not discover good, and one with a dishonest tongue falls into calamity. This is what our eyes are tempted to find. Matthew chapter 6, 22, we connect those two thoughts. It says the eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light. And if it isn't, you're stumbling along on a path of darkness. We should be allowing the word of God and its instruction to be the center of our vision. We're reminded of this earlier in Proverbs in chapter seven, verse two, it says, keep my commandments and live. Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. How's that for a target? But we know that once our eyes are indulged, once they're engaged, Once they've locked onto the target, they'll never be satisfied. Proverbs 27 20, the second part says, Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied and never satisfied are the eyes of man. As one writer put it, there is a peculiar blasphemy in saying to the Christ, I have too much on my mind to crowd in thoughts of you. But we let our minds and hearts be full of everything but the love of Christ and all that it means for us. So we who are like sheep apt to wander, eyes looking everywhere for anything that we can love and worship, what are we to do? Our wise father gives us instruction, which is intended to counter this. He says, let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. To continue this visual metaphor, we might say our direction equals our destination. Where we're looking, that's where we're going. That's where our feet in verses 26 and 27 will follow us to. So we must, as Job did, make a covenant with our eyes. We must be still and know that I am God, the Lord is God. Let me give you, this is by way of application as we finish up here, let me give you a couple pictures. They're kind of just images to have in your head that relate and extend the metaphor that Proverbs is giving us. Okay, so there are two pictures of eyes that look ahead, all right? First picture. Have any of you ever been over to the Air Force Academy around, say, May or June? This is the time when new students arrive on campus. I call them students. They're referred to as basics because they're going through basic training. So you can imagine this basic standing in his uniform. He has his arms at his side. He is at attention. His eyes are caged forward. That's the actual term. His eyes must be caged forward. If, by some happenstance, the basic's eyes are not caged forward, then a friendly associate, usually an upperclassman, will come and give encouragement to return their eyes to a caged forward position. It might be a little more direct than that. They may ask helpful questions like, are you going into real estate? Do you plan to buy this building that you are gazing at in every corner? I don't think so. Perhaps you should return your eyes to the caged forward position. That kind of instruction is not always the instruction you want when you are basic. You really don't want that kind of attention. And really, to really flesh out the picture, the basic is here and you can imagine four big burly guys about an inch and a half from his face in a very loud voice giving very direct encouragement to make sure your eyes are caged forward at all times. Because you as a basic do not have permission to look up or look around or look at the building. So the picture here of our basic, his eyes caged forward, why? For safety. Because there is danger when I start to go like this, I go like this, and I go like this, right? My eyes are caged forward. This is to preserve, for us, as we think about that picture, it's an action to preserve our life. If there are things which threaten to distract you from living a life that rests in the promises of God, a life that finds its joy and fulfillment in the love that Christ has shown us, perhaps the advice is to get rid of them. and you know what they are. You must be ruthless. You must be devoted. You must be diligent because the second you look away, there's going to be an upperclassman there to help you. If the place you plug your phone in is a distraction, move your phone. If the apps you have on your phone are a distraction, uninstall them. If the phone in general is a distraction, I have a really old baseball bat you can borrow. This is for your life. Now, hopefully you see in this equation, the root of the evil or root of the danger is not the Android in my pocket, it's the heart that's in my chest that looks to love everything. But in the diligent wisdom that the father is giving to me, he says, be careful. Keep your eyes straight ahead. Remove those distractions. Second picture. Imagine, imagination caps on again, imagine a young man. He is standing at the end of a very long hallway. The hallway is full of people, and the people are moving. They're bustling. They're going every which direction. But the young man has his eyes focused all the way down at the very end of the hallway where it turns to a corner, and people are coming out from behind that corner and then walking down the path. And he's looking for someone. He's looking for his beloved. Right? That face of the one that he loves. He knows that with her schedule, she's coming right around the corner, right around this time. So there is nothing that is going to distract him. People are bustling and pushing up against him. It doesn't matter. He's focused right on that corner just to see her face when it emerges. And then when he sees it, Well, there's nothing that could take his eyes off of her. Why? Why can he not be distracted from this picture? It's because he loves her. He loves her. And that love is the fulfillment of all his desires. Everything that he wants is found in his beloved. He doesn't need to look anywhere else. Other women walking by have no interest for him. He's focused, he's locked in. He sees her and he waits for her to return his gaze. So my encouragement and I think extension to us from this section of Proverbs is please, please do not entertain other lovers. Do not look away from your beloved. Do not substitute the bridegroom for a cheap alternative, right? Perhaps in doing this, we start with just a few simple questions when we're evaluating choices that we're making. Maybe we start with, what am I loving when I do this? And does this thing, this choice I'm making, cause me to love Christ more? Maybe those are just a couple questions to use. As a final thought, I ask you to compare Proverbs chapter 4, verse 25, you can look there again, to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2. 25 again, let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Compare this to Hebrews chapter 12. which says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. This is where our gaze must remain, and from Christ we must never be distracted. even in light of our love for Christ and our desire to seek His wisdom, seek Him as the truth. I invite you to give a confession of your faith in the Lord. You'll find it in the bulletin here. Let's say it all together. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. Jesus is Lord.