Let me go ahead and open a word of prayer and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, as we just come before you this Sunday worship, we want to just thank you for bringing everyone here safely. We pray for those who are traveling right now that you would protect them along the way and just help us understand your word and apply it and grow to be more conformed to the image of your son. and help us not only to receive the wisdom, but to apply in our lives. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, we are on roughly page 195-ish. We're kicking off verses 20 through 27, give or take a page in there. And this is the last part of chapter four. And then we'll get into chapter five, obviously, next. This is a pretty amazing chapter, part of the chapter as well. So let me just go ahead and read that from that page where we have the structure so you can see the parallelism. My son, Solomon once again is talking to his boys. Give attention to my words. Incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you. A little typo there. And let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or left. Remove your foot from evil. And so you can see this, once again, this injunction, these calls by Solomon to listen to the word and obey it. This is just a colorful way of describing it. And for a quick review, just kind of where we're at in this chapter. So verses, you know, verse 10 was, the word of God must be heard and received. That's where it begins. There's a faithful pattern, verse 11, the Word of God must be taught and lived, right? And then it's fortified passageway, the Word of God will give you freedom and liberty. There's a fervent perseverance, the Word of God requires passion and priority. We'll see that even today in 2 Peter 1, 5 through 11. The faithless path, the way the sinners is, wickedness and violence, and the final purpose, the Word of God reveals redemption and retribution. So that's all been leading up to this. And then we have the Father's plea. The way of God requires holy you, all of you, and a holy you. And that's really the idea here between verses 20 and 27. All right, we got a little, also in the Hebrew, I don't know if you can see this, this is kind of interesting. So in the Hebrew, there's these little markers that appear sometimes. And there's this one called lo, and when it's used in this way, express is an absolute and permanent prohibition. For example, Genesis 2.17, but of the tree of the knowledge and of good and evil, lo, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. So when we see that lo, that's an intense way, totally prohibited. And then there's al, express is an immediate and specific prohibition. Then there's this thing called the justive which is a milder command than imperative But a strong wish and strong desire and then there's the strong imperative a clear direct command just a little Hebrew fun So give attention that's a command Do not let them there's the low like a prohibitive and then there's that depart which is in that that justive so strong do not let them depart from your eyes just to give you a kind of perspective. Keep your heart with diligence, that's a strong command. Put away a strong command. Put from you perverse lips a strong command. Let your eyes look straight ahead. There's that command, but a softer command. And your eyelids look, there's that softer command. Ponder is a command. And then here it is, do not turn. So you get that double strong prohibitive with a softer imperative to the right or left. And then there's a command, remove your foot. So this whole text is just one command after another. All right, let me jump ahead. We're going to play Name That Tune. You ready? Here we go. All right, what's that tune? That's right. Technically, it's called Be Careful Little Eyes. Who knows? But you know the familiar kid song, right? When our kids were little, boy, we went through a lot of those little Bible songs. What was it? We songs? Is that what it's called, Steph? Yeah, those were amazing. And David, you still remember those? Nope, totally forgot. You can see how helpful it was. But in the song, as you can see on the text there, the lyrics, you can see this whole person, the whole person's involved. Eyes what you see, ears what you hear, tongue what you say, hands what you do, feet where you go, heart whom you trust, mind what you think. That's Proverbs. That's the whole Bible. That's how the Lord wants us to have every part of us focused on him and his word. And of course, the chorus is, for the father up above is looking down in love, so be careful. And there's the omniscience and sovereignty of God. And to kind of help you understand the holy and the holy, so here's you, and there's the heart is really the mind in Hebrew, and you have to remember that. It's not the seat of emotions, but it is the seat of affection in which your mind has focused on that. And that's always at the center. And that drives everything. It drives what you say, what you do, what you see, what you hear. And we're always balancing that holiness with all of us. And hopefully that'll be helpful. And on a side note, there's an interesting structure on this particular text. It's what we call a chiastic structure, as I've shared before. In other words, everything's in parallel moving towards the middle, and the middle is the main thing that's being emphasized. So you can see, pay attention to my words, incline your ear, goes to verse 26, 27, ponder the path of your feet, and all your ways will be established. Do not turn to the right or left or move your foot from evil. So that's what it means to give attention and incline your ear so you have the input and then the output or the information in the application. Then you have pair up 21 through 25. Do not let them apart from your eyes. Keep them in the mystery of your heart. And that's parallel. Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. OK? That's pretty cool. And then 22 and 24 are parallel. They are life through those who find them and health to all their flesh. Put away from your deceitful mouth and perverse lips from you. Because a deceitful mouth and perverse lips would take away your life and health. But then right there in the center, is the whole issue. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. And today's message, I'm always amazed how you can be in two separate books and they just aligns, because literally today's passage from Peter is apply all diligence. And it is this sevenfold character of what it looks like. And so there you go. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Any questions on that? Pretty amazing, huh? And so by looking at the word this way, you can see all these elements and different ways of reinforcing the truth. You guys ever heard this expression? Garbage in, garbage out. Yeah. And that's us. We have to be careful in what we bring into the mind, because it does affect our heart. And here's a little cartoon. I'm not going to remind you again, Harold. Now go get the garbage and bring it in here. Of course, it's a fly, I think. All right. And one more, fun for it. I never got his name, but he sure cleaned up this town. A little garbage man there. All right. So Gigo should be not garbage in, garbage out, but God in and God out. That's the idea. And so we want to watch for that. So there's the in part. Son, give attention to my words and climb my saints. Don't let them depart. Keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life. And there's the out. This is what transforms. As we bring God and his word into our life, it should have a transformative impact on our life. And so here's the hearing, and then the feet. My son, give attention to my words and cline your ears to my saying. Twenty times in the book of Proverbs my son is referenced. Bring yourself to the source of God's word. That's the idea. Let's see here. Let me see if I've got the, yeah. So look at this word, give attention. Like I said, it's a command. It's pay attention, be alert. And this is hard. It's the idea of you're actually engaging, meditating, thinking. It's not just, yeah, I hear you, I hear you. But it's a curiosity. It's a desire to know. And this incline means to bend or stretch. You're actually making an effort. In practical terms, this is open up your Bible. And I'm sure you've had this experience. You're reading the Bible, and then five minutes later, you're like, what did I read? Right? That's when we're kind of disengaged. That's why I found Precept years ago when I got introduced to it by Stephanie. It really changed everything in my study, because I was just reading the Bible and then reading some commentaries. But when I learned the inductive method of circling, you know, person, place, things, five W's and Y, who, what, where, when, why, and how, and all that, I slowed down, and I began to interact. And then suddenly, things would spring off the page. And so studying doesn't have to be super intense, but it does require a purpose, intentional reading through with a purpose. And then expression. Mark Antony from Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. That's the idea here, is they need attention. Okay, let's see, I kind of lost, I think I'm a little bit ahead of myself on this. Yeah, so give attention, there we go. I included feet in this section because you must use your feet to bring yourself close enough to here and also because of the parallelism. really, really important. So it's not just hearing, but you're bringing your feet, you're bringing your whole body in the word. And the implication is if you can't agree on the source of wisdom and truth, there will be problems. And I think a great example of this is Paul. when he was talking to the Corinthians, which was a very gifted church, but a very messed up church. They were immature. They tolerated sin. Some things were just, they were insensitive to weaker Christians, and they didn't separate themselves from the world. They were a worldly church. So Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 6.14, do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Bilal? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. For God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them. Be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, said the Lord Almighty. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear or reverence of God. So this is the picture of. turning from the world and sin, turning to the Father and the Word, and putting off sin, putting on righteousness, repenting over the sin, and changing, making those decisions to be more faithful to the Lord. That's the idea of this moving your feet and so forth. Here's another one. The Gray Stokes, that's Tarzan and Jane there, at marriage counseling. Lord of the Jungle? Lord of the Jungle? Ha! You couldn't make the Lord of the Compost Pile. Oh, great. Here we go with his little chest-pounding routine. Griga boondaloo, Tarzan boondaloo. Griga griga. Anyway, that's not the kind of relationship we're supposed to have between husband and wife. Listening can be difficult, right? Especially when, like I said, there's confusion over what is being said and understood. So it all begins first with just, can we hear? And this is why it's so important to have our ears open and have the word at the center. of our conversation, let it be the truth and the substance. Any thoughts on that? Comments? Pretty straightforward. Let's go to the next one and let's look at the eyes. Proverbs 4.21, do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. This is the idea of bringing God's word to the center of your mind. You know, every week I've got to prepare a message. And it's inevitable that throughout the week I'll come to a text that will strike a chord with me. You know, either it'll be an experience of my past, like, oh yeah, or it'll be a truth that I need to apply today. There's just a variety of things or challenges by the text. And that always happens as a byproduct of just studying and recognizing that I have to understand this and apply it. So it's it's that weekly feeding of God's Word and hopefully you in your week your devotions You're growing in the same kind of way. All right some key words Do not let them that's God's Word depart. There's that justive Less strong than a direct command, but still a command. This means don't let it escape someone's sight That probably should be SIGHT. Let me fix that I think a little typo here happened But that's the idea. Escape someone's sight. Yeah, didn't miss that one for sure. Okay. Keep. Samurai. It's another command. Guard and watch over. We see this over and over. And of course, the heart is your mind. It's your will. It's your thinking. It's your affections. And then implication is learn and bring the word into your thoughts for reflection, meditation, and application. And I want to put a little stress here on this reflection meditation. Sometimes, some commands are so straightforward, it's like, do not steal. Okay, that doesn't require much thinking. But some commands take a little more time to think about, to understand maybe how you apply it, maybe what it fully understands, what are the real ramifications, what it may really look like. Those are things that you want to do. Don't just rush right away to application. Think about it. The idea is, here's a great verse that kind of reinforces this, I desired to do thy will, oh my God, and the law in the midst of my heart. There's Psalm 48. Psalm 1914, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight. Oh Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. So the idea is that you're reading the word and you're having this kind of conversation with the Lord, understanding and thinking, asking the Lord to help you understand it and apply it. And of course, the new covenant, which we are blessed to be in, I will give you a new heart. and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh." And this is the amazing gift of the New Testament. A new heart, not a heart of stone, and the permanent dwelling of the Holy Spirit. How in the world would we live today if it wasn't for the Holy Spirit dwelling in you? I don't know how they do it. This gives me a little more perspective on the Old Testament saints, right? They didn't have the permanent indwelling Holy Spirit, which makes it even more amazing, but they did, well, let me say it this way. It wasn't permanent, but the Holy Spirit did come on them for a season, for gifts, for purposes, and that allowed them to walk faithfully in the Lord as well. Today, we would say 2 Timothy 2 15, be diligent to present yourself a proof to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And this is the challenge again. Notice that diligence. There's a work involved and there's an application, an understanding and applying. So at the end of the day, it's meditating, it's memorizing, it's moving, right? How is your life being transformed? A good test is, who are you today and what were you like a year ago? Have you improved? Have you learned some things along the way? And are you applying those? And can people see it, not just you? The Lord knows, but you want to be changing in such a way that other people see it. OK, questions. Ready for the next one? Yes, Dennis. Yeah. Yeah. And just don't forget, the Lord is recording everything we think, say, and do up in a library. There's a whole encyclopedia on everything. And I wonder if we could see those books right now, if we read it, go, how can you be so stupid? You know, and I think the irony is that we have more gifting, more gifts, more knowledge, and yet we still screw up too, which is, what's our excuse? Michael. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is pretty amazing. Or even Enoch, right? Walked with God and he was no more. He was so obedient, so faithful, the Lord took him. And, yeah, yeah. Now he may have had, I mean, God may have given them some help, may have given them a spirit to do those things. And the text is silent on that matter. So, but no, not permanent indwelling for sure. Okay, let's go to the next one, which is the mouth. And for they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. receive God's word and be saved. All right, so life, we're talking physical in this text, but implied eternal. Health normally refers to healing, but in the case of repentance, the ravages of sin begin to heal. This is particularly relevant to Israel under the covenant. Remember, if they sin, God would bring judgment to them. For New Testament believers, our chastening for sin ends with our repentance. Proverbs 6.15 says, therefore, as calamity shall come suddenly, suddenly he shall be broken without remedy. Picture of a sinner receiving the consequences. But Proverbs 16.24, pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones. Another picture of the word and repentance. Repentance and faith is implied here as one hears And that should be, and believes. Another typo here. All right. So this is the healing that comes, right? When we acknowledge our sin, right? We confess it to the Lord, and then we take steps to change. That's the key. It's not enough to say you're sorry. It's to say, this is what I'm gonna do to change so that this doesn't happen again. And there's healing that comes from that. There's a relief of the burden. Romans 10 8 through 14. What does it say now? This is of course repentance in faith. The word is near you. It's in your mouth It's in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach that if you confess with your mouth Lord Jesus The Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead You will be saved for with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation for the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame for there is no distinction between between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. And for whoever calls on his name, the Lord shall be saved." Now this is a picture of repentance unto salvation. You're changing your mind about who Jesus is. You're changing your mind about who you are. You're now a sinner needing redemption. And then you're confessing that, and then you're believing, you're trusting, you're trusting now in the personal work of Jesus, and no longer trusting in your so-called self-righteousness. That's repentance unto salvation. But that pattern should continue unto sanctification, repentance unto sanctification. So as you see sin in your life, the Word of God says that's sin, you acknowledge it, you confess it, and then you say, all right, that's what I have to put off, what do I need to put on? What's the opposite? What is the biblical truth I need to apply in my life? And of course, the key here is how should they call on him whom they've not believed, and how should they believe in him whom they've not heard, and how should they hear without a preacher? So salvation comes to the word of God, sanctification comes to the word of God. Dennis. No. There's a whole bunch of people that do believe that. They believe repentance is a work of man, But it's not. Jesus started literally his ministry by saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And at the end, he said, repent. Repentance is a change of mind, but also a change of direction. And some try to separate those. You can't. It is, because think about it. Why come to Christ if you don't have a change of mind of who He is, but also your relationship to Him? You were not thinking He was the Savior. You weren't thinking you had to go through Him to be saved. So it's not enough to intellectually understand that. You now have to trust in Him. and follow him and submit. As he said, if you want to be my disciple, you have to deny yourself, carry your cross, follow me. All those things are pictures of repentance. And that's, for what it's worth, the book that MacArthur wrote years ago, The Gospel According to Jesus, is what started this huge firestorm that repentance is not part of the gospel. It is. Derek? Didn't Paul say repent and believe? Yeah, it's both. It is both. But I mean, in that order. It usually is usually repentance comes before Yeah because you have to you have to turn first from and then turn to and that's the picture of repentance you're turning from and turning to and without repentance there can't be change right because then what are you doing you're just ignoring the root problem and You're just kind of covering and that doesn't work. So Very true. Yeah. Yeah. You can. You can start to think that I'm OK, that God accepts me as the way I am. And he does accept you. But there is an understanding here. Once you repent and believe, then you can, then you're in the relationship. You have your children. You're adopted. But there is always an expectation that you'll grow. Paul talks about the Corinthians being babes, right? Only able to handle milk when they should handle meat. Tom? Yeah? Yeah. And you bring out a really good, important point from the passage you quoted, I think, from Colossians, and that is, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. But the next passage is, but it's God in work in you and through you. And that's the amazing thing. Getting saved is a complete work of God. You're in the middle of the ocean, you're drowning, you can't swim to the shore, you can only tread water for so long. Unless someone literally grabs you and rescues you, you will drown. That's salvation. It's complete work of God. But sanctification is a cooperation with God. You're submitting to the Word. You're yielding to His ways. And that takes an effort, as you're going to see in today's passage in 2 Peter. It's a huge effort. It's a maximum effort. Derek. And he's praying to God to save him. Oh, yeah. And God sends a raft for him, but he didn't take it because God wasn't the one that was pulling him out. Yeah. Sent a helicopter. He sent a rescue team. And then he dies, right? And he gets to heaven. He says, God, why didn't you save me? He says, I sent a helicopter. I sent a boat. I sent a raft. And this sometimes happens to us, right? We don't recognize the providential hand and help of God. And that's a sad thing when we get where we're expecting something when he's right in front of us. Yeah, we are sheep. Great, good conversation, good thoughts. All right, so let's talk about the heart. This is where we apply God's word. It really is, if you think about it, it's a change of mind, a change of thinking. This is the hardest thing for all of us. We have convictions. We grew up in a family. Our parents influenced us. Our environment influenced us. Our friends influenced us. Bad company corrupts good morals, right? We have lessons, experiences, and we start to do, we start to lock in convictions. And it's so hard sometimes to break free from wrong thinking because it seems so right and so true. And I remember when I first got saved, I just basically said, I've been wrong about everything. And I said, OK, the only thing that's true in this life is the Word of God. That I'm going to trust. And that's helped me, because when I'm forced to choose between what the Bible says and what I think is true, I have to say, all right, I must be wrong. The Bible's right. But I better make sure I'm interpreting the Bible right, because that's the other caveat, right? You think something's true. Like I thought for years, Noah, when it said 120 years, then the flood would come, I thought, oh, that's why we all lived to 120 years old. No, that's not what it meant. That meant 120 years when the flood would come. So we can have wrong thinking that needs our mind corrected. But it's our heart, it's our mind. Keep it with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Everything comes through the heart. our mind, our thinking, and from there, we make decisions. It's hard to read the word of God without your past coming up and confronting you, right? And saying, oh, I disobeyed there, or ooh, that I did obey there, okay. That's what the word of God does in our life. It stirs things up. And the idea is don't, I mean, if it stirs something up and you need to confess your sin, confess it for sure. move forward knowing that you've been forgiven and make the changes. But sometimes the word of God can serve good memories. Hey, I was faithful in that. Thank you, Lord. Because you want to balance those things out. So you have to apply God's word. Some key words, keep, master, it's a command, holding on, protect, can mean guard one's way, protect your mind. So you think, so you are. Vigilance is implied here. Proverbs 16, 17, the highway of the upright. is to depart from evil. He who keeps, shamre, life, his way preserves. There's that naster, his soul preserves, to keep. In Hebrew, the word order is different. He who guards his soul guards his way. Very interesting. You start from within. Let me get this right, and then that will guard as I move through life. Very interesting word order there. Continuing on, diligence is like a sentinel, custody. A guard of a prison. That's the idea of diligence. And the next one is issues of life. Fountainhead, spring of life. It's the starting point that goes out. At the end of the day, it really is all about the heart. Yes, we got a little snow pitcher here. I don't know how he did that. That was pretty cool. So there you go. Christmas theme there, or snowy scene there. Okay, this is, as I said, the center of the chiasm structure. This transition reveals the hinge by which we live our Christian walk. We transition from in to out, from receiving God's word to applying God's word. And so, how is your hinge? Is it rusted? Is it squeaky when it moves? Does it even move at all? Or is it a well-oiled hinge? The door opens well. Psalm 119, your word I've hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you. Do you see the hinge here? It's not just enough to know it. This is the problem is it's so much easier and quicker to know the Bible than it is to apply the Bible. This is the problem with seminary students, myself included. You spend three years, or five in my case, feeding, just your head's getting bigger and bigger and all this knowledge, but you haven't applied it yet. And so you're not exactly sanctified quite yet. Yes, Tom. Oh yeah, great example. Yeah, experience helps you. And the Word of God is meant to be applied. It's never been meant to just sit idle. It's always meant to be applied, and it's in the applying that two things happen. You now take the information and you now have a deeper understanding, but it also helps you grow closer to the Lord because now you're understanding the Lord and his wisdom and why he says what he says. And this is a challenge, James 1, 14, 15, but each one is tempted. when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death. So you have on the one hand the heart that fulfills the lustful desires, and that brings death. Or it's the heart that loves life and the Lord and his word, and that brings life and ultimately eternal life. I think that's pointing to Holy. So put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you. From within, your heart speaks. So protect your speech. This is why words hurt so much. Because we know that the expression sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. It's such a lie. I remember going to summer school and just sitting there playing on the playground and someone threw a rock at my head. Sticks and stones do hurt, but words, man, they hurt much more, right? Because you can mend a broken bone, but a broken heart is much more difficult. It does. It does. The word put, haser, command, it means to abolish, to seize, to depart. Deceitful, falsehood, perversion, mouth is opening. Put is heart check or heart kick. Send far away, avoid, perverse, crooked rather than straight, lips is language. So negative application, this is the put off. Psalm is saying don't even open your mouth. Don't give a foothold for falsehood. Don't even say a word. In fact, take those words and send them away far away. Look at what the psalmist says. This is all throughout the Bible. Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. We all could use this one, right? Derek. They'll walk back. Yeah. Yeah. That's setting a guard over your mouth. Tom? Oh, just testifying. Amen to that. On the boards, I know what he means. Yeah. Yeah. And that's the challenge in all our lives, isn't it? We get, especially with the ones we know the best and love the most, the most people we're most familiar with, we can just feel it's an open door to say whatever we want to say. The truth is it's the exact opposite. The ones we love the most are the ones we should be most guarded. You ever notice the scriptures? You never see the Lord anywhere in the scriptures like, I mean, he does express his anger, righteous. He does label wicked, right? But you don't see him name-calling in the sense like men. It's like a very fascinating thing when you actually step back and look. And you see him dealing with men as they are. And when he does name call, it's a righteous label that's being applied to help them see their unrighteous character. It's interesting. A good man, Luke 6, 4, 5, out of the good treasure of his heart, brings forth good. An evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. And of course, James nails it. If anyone among you thinks he's religious, You could say, if anyone among you thinks you're a Christian and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. And then Paul and Colossians, but now you yourselves are to put off all these. And now think of these words and combine them, or these words, combine them with speech that's attached to it. Anger, right? Anger is just not something that just sits there. It expresses itself in word and deed. Wrath. Malice, and here's the word, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Boy, the Bible just seems to know us pretty well, doesn't it? Okay. And then holy. Oh yeah, I think those arrows are backwards. They should have been pointing to the eyes and pointing to the mouth. Got it flipped. Let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you. In other words, be careful what you fix your gaze upon. Now unfortunately, I don't know if this is going to work. I think when I put it on the slide, do I know how to do this? Yeah. You can't see anything, it's broken. But somehow when I converted the image, It loses the 3d effect, but there's actually like an image. I remember those about 20 years ago the 3d posters I think there was a Seinfeld episode on it, but anyway there is there was something there, but the color Broke it so sorry, but it's fix your eyes your gaze intently and and then you'll see, right? That's the idea. Positive application, here's the put on. Solomon stresses the need to keep your gaze upon the right path, the right way, and the right things. This is why we'd be starting off in the morning with prayer and Bible reading, just get those reminders in there. It's not by accident, Proverbs is a 30 day, 31 for the wife, the godly wife being the 31, a proverb a day, going through the cycles of the moon. So he looked this way and that way, and when he saw no one, this is Moses, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. He looked left, he looked right, but he did not look up. For we're the Lord. Another example of sight, the lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. I love that beautiful connection that when we're loving the Lord and serving the Lord and reading his word and applying it, there's light in us. And people can see that. They know. Maybe you've had that experience or maybe you've bumped into someone where you're like, you don't know them, but you're like, I bet you they're a believer just because of the light that comes from them. Here's the early microscope. It's a mammoth. Kind of obvious. All right. Let's be honest. What we should and should not be gauging upon should be obvious like this example. That's the idea. OK. All right. This should be feet, but it's going the wrong way. Ponder. You know what? I know I did it that way. In other words, take this and apply it. That's why it's looking outward. Ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or the left. Remove your foot from evil. So what you've got to do here is you have to make a determination, a decision. Where will you go, and how will you live? And this requires a little bit of planning, a little bit of thoughtfulness, some intentionality behind it. Some of the key words here are ponder, command, to weigh out. It also means to make level in the way of preparing. Be established, prepared, directed, set in a proper order and placement. There's an order to things. Do not turn. Again, there's that subtle command being used as an idiom for don't be deceived or enticed. That's always a tricky part. Enticed has this aspect of covetedness in there, tapping into maybe some desires. And remove is a command. That means retreat, depart, desist, turn away, and maybe even run away. I shared this story, I was telling, my wife remembers this, I'm at an airport, I was working, traveling, and I'm walking down the runway and I see people and smile, you know, just I'm friendly. And so I end up getting a coffee and I turn around and there's this lady that I had just smiled at and she's at a table doing this, like come and sit down and I'm like, I'm like, Joseph, like, I'm out of here, man. I got to catch a flight. And I immediately called my wife and said, you wouldn't believe what just happened. That's sometimes what you have to do. You just don't know what other people are doing and thinking and how you can get caught up in that. Application here. Solomon is challenging his sons and us to think before we act, consider options, and choose thoughtfully and intentionally the best course of godly and wise action. And sometimes that means to resist or even run in the other direction. This is one of the difference between my wife and I. I'm like, I can make a decision so quick. and my wife can take her time. And the worst is when we both have to make a decision together, because it's never fast enough for me, and it's always too fast for her. And so we always have to work through those decisions. I don't know, maybe we're the only couple that has that issue. All right, here's a question. This is circa 300 BC. The first barbarian invader reaches the Great Wall of China. Where did that come from? Didn't think about how high the wall was, and he ran right into it. So what happens when you do not ponder the path? This is what happens. You crash into the wall. So review and summary, bring yourself to the source of God's wisdom. This is something that you want to make a habit of. All right, I got to make a decision. So often we just assume. James kind of pointed out when he's like, hey, you rich, you're going to go make some money, go make a plan. You don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. I think so often we are so quick to make a decision without actually considering God's word on it. I wonder what life would be like if we took a little more time and just filtered every decision through the word of God. Okay, is there a specific verse, a principle, a command that would be applicable here? Bring God's word to the center of your mind. Receive God's word and be saved, verse 22. Apply God's word. And from within your heart speaks, protect your speech, be careful what you fix your gaze upon, and determine where you will go and how you will live. This is Solomon loving his sons, warning them. And again, as we know how this turned out, his two sons, well, they really didn't take Solomon's advice. But you see the center of all of this, we're engaging with the Lord, we're engaging with his word, and we're building our life upon that. And that's all that Solomon's saying is, hey, wisdom from above, not wisdom from below. Thoughts, questions, Derek? Yeah, and there's lots of temptations in the world like this billboards and so forth and It takes a disciplined mind and it requires prayer And it requires prevention looking away. Yeah, and each of us has different temptations for different things Maybe something else and the internet as much as it's great is a huge There's a reason why it's called the net because it traps and we have to guard ourselves from those things Roger Yeah. Yeah. Well, in the context of that, let me go to that passage. There is, let me just look at the context. All right, so this would certainly be in the biggest picture. And that is 1412. It's certainly, if you look at 11, gives us some context, even 10, the heart knows bitterness. Stranger does not share its joy. The house of the wicked will be destroyed. The tent of the upright will flourish. We're looking at these final destinations. So in this case, there is a way which seemed right to a man. This is the way of religious life apart from Christ, but that end is death. And so this is speaking in the grand scheme of things. You think you can save yourself through your own self-righteousness? That's going to end badly for you, end in death. But you can take the principle of there and bring that into smaller decisions. This seems like the right thing to do, but this is not going to end well. So a classic example, I get an email, right? And I can respond one or two ways from this hurtful email. I can respond right now and vent and make a record of how I feel and be embarrassed humiliated once this goes public, or maybe I can restrain myself and not respond. And so there's a small little death, if I could say that, in principle, but this is speaking of salvation ultimately. There's a way in which a man will pursue eternal life on his own terms apart from God, and that will end with eternal death. So that's the main verse, but the principle can be applied. That's certainly one application of that, because without realizing how bad you are before a holy God, and what's the problem, the decision there? You're measuring yourself against another person, which you can always find someone worse than you. Problem is, is God measures you by his standard, perfect holiness, his righteousness. And in that case, everyone falls short. No, he doesn't. He grades on the cross. Tom. What you were saying made me think of when God says that my ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. How arrogant we must be, how deceived and ignorant we must be as the creator to think that we know as much as the creator. But why do we make the mistake? But why don't you take the answer right away? Well, and recognize the flesh, right? We want to fulfill those desires of the flesh. And that's why in Galatians you have this incredible contrast, the deeds of the flesh versus the fruit of the spirit. And that's why At the end of the day, we don't grow because we give in too soon to the temptation like James describes. And that's the challenge. And that's why I think life, God gives us a whole life. That's why he shows us how we start off as a baby. We mature, right, to an adult. There's a process involved. And God is gracious, patient with us, but he is still holy and he has his limits. But the key is, like I said, I'd rather learn from other mistakes than my own, but it doesn't always work that way. Any other thoughts? All right, let me go ahead and close in prayer and then we'll get ready for the worship service. Heavenly Father, what a great discussion and reminder. Thank you for the words of Solomon and this whole idea of guarding our hearts. Our eyes, our ears, our mouth, our hands, our feet, all of it is the direction that we pursue. And we wanna be pursuing you and your word. Help us to not be prideful and lustful, but to confess those sins and turn from those sins. Meditate on your word and be instructed and yielded to it. And we ask to do this. We can't do this without your help, without your spirit. So thank you for your word and your spirit that helps us. In Christ's name we pray, amen. All right, we'll resume service.