All right, you can set your hymnals aside. I'm actually gonna sing this morning before I preach a hymn that was written by Ron Hamilton. Ron Hamilton is also known as affectionately Patch the Pirate. He lost his eye to cancer back when he was, I think, a college student. and God has used him with a children's ministry, different CDs and things that they put out, different stories about fictitious character Patch the Pirate. But Patch the Pirate wrote this hymn about his dad. if I'm not mistaken. And the title is, I Saw Jesus in You. And on Father's Day here, and for mothers as well, this is what we hope to hear our kids say someday, as they think about us, is that they saw Christ in us. When I enter heaven's glory and I see my Savior's face, I will offer Him ten thousand years of praise. Then I'll find that special one In his life, I saw God's Son. And through tears of joy, with trembling lips, these words I'll say, I saw Jesus in you. I saw Jesus in you. I could hear his voice in the words you said. I saw Jesus in you. In your eyes, I saw his care. I could see his love was there. You were faithful, and I saw Jesus in you. When I stand before my Father To receive my life's reward And my soul is bathed in God's eternal day When this race on earth is run And God sees the works I've done More than anything I long to hear my father say I saw Jesus in you. I saw Jesus in you. I could hear his voice in the words you said. I saw Jesus in you. In your eyes I saw his care. I could see his love was there. You were faithful and I saw Jesus in you. You were faithful and I saw Jesus in you. All right, the little ones can be dismissed. They go with Mrs. Shore to their class. Six, five, four, three, two, and one can head out with her to your class and they'll be fine. And the rest of us can open our Bibles to the book of Proverbs. And there's a lot of scripture that we're gonna look at this morning as we go along. And just for sake of You know, on Father's Day, it's a good day to be thankful for your parents, right? Be thankful for your father. And I'm very thankful that God gave me a godly father. I grew up, as you know, in a Baptist minister's home. I grew up with a Christian family. And one of the blessings of that is a dad that loves Jesus Christ and put God first, and a dad that has godly counsel. When I go to my dad for advice, I knew that I was getting from him not just what he thought, but what God thought. And my dad's had a big impact in my life because of his godliness, because he does love the Lord. I remember back after my He was my freshman year in college. My dad and I were out golfing together and I was just talking to my dad on the way out to golf because it was getting time to go back to college and I didn't know what I was going to major in. I had been a humanities major, general studies type major where for me it wasn't That wasn't going to be my long-term major. It was just general enough that it would kind of go into anything. And I needed to narrow things down. I was praying about God's will as far as ministry and kind of scared thinking God might call me to ministry, but not knowing for sure. And I talked with my dad and dad just suggested I be a Bible major my sophomore year because it wouldn't be wasted. And it was a really great year, because I followed my dad's advice. And it was after my sophomore year, a guy called me to preach, and then the Bible major went right into what I eventually graduated with. pastoral studies degree. But I'm thankful for a dad that even today I can pick up the phone if I've got something I'm concerned about. Even as we voted as a church to constitute recently, I was able to talk to my dad and say, Dad, what do you think about this decision? What should I do? And I've got a dad I can go to get advice. And that's great. We come to the word of God and to the book of Proverbs We have a book that is written by a father to give advice to his son. In Proverbs chapter 1 beginning at verse 1 it says, the Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. Here in chapter 4 verse 1, it says, And when he says forsaking not my law, it's kind of like saying the law of Moses. You can say the law of Solomon. It was God's law, but it was the law that they followed, right? Godly dads followed this. King David followed God's law. King Solomon followed God's law. So Solomon with authority says to us and to his sons, forsaken at my law. Verse three of chapter four, for I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also and said to me, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments and live. Can you sense from these verses, and I think this would be a key part of the book of Proverbs, as to why did Solomon write this book? Can you see why he's writing it? He's writing it to his sons. My son, my son, I was my father's son. He taught me also, he said, let thine heart retain my words, keep my commandments in life. He said, as a son, my father, King David, said, keep my commandments and live. And as a dad, now I plead with you, my sons, keep my commandments and live. This is a book that is full of advice. And I think on Father's Day here, it's appropriate that we look at a father's advice. And young people, I want you to really listen in this message because a lot of this is for you. It benefits all of us this morning, but it's written specifically from King Solomon to his children that were growing up, his sons, challenging them to be what they ought to be for God the Father. So it's a good father state subject from a good father. And all of this also comes from the great father, doesn't it? Our God. And so we pray that the Lord had blessed us this morning. I'm going to pray now and ask him to do just that. Let's pray. Father, we're thankful for the opportunity to look at your word this morning. Father, this is some Father's Day advice from a father. May the spirit of God take it and put it deeply into our hearts. There's people out and about today at the minors and Lord, may we have a good testimony before them, but we pray also that they would not be a distraction to our service today. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would have his way in every heart. Father, I pray that the authority of the Word of God would be just loosed by you. Father, I pray that we'd see it as clearly as can be. And Father, you'd help me as I speak. And Lord, give us ears to hear. And may you be glorified in this Father's day to speak to us as our loving Heavenly Fathers. In Christ's name I pray. Amen. The first bit of advice I mentioned as we read this passage as we started, I could write a message on this topic from the whole book of Proverbs, but we'd be here too long and I don't think anyone would want to stay that long. And so we're going to go through about chapter 5 and just picking out the part where Solomon says, my son this, my son this. And so he begins in chapter 1 verse 10, he's to challenge his sons to flee evil companions. Okay, bad friends, he says, flee them, run from them, get away from them. And you might ask the question, well, how do I know who an evil companion is? How do I identify? How do I identify them? How do I recognize them? Or how do I evaluate if I've got bad friends or bad company? Well, first of all, they'll encourage you to sin with them, okay? That's a bad companion. Somebody that encourages you to sin with them. He says in verse 10, my son, If sinners entice thee, consent thou not. If they say, come with us. They're saying, we got something good going on here, come with us. If sinners entice you, these aren't good people, these are bad people. And what they're doing is not lawful, it's unlawful. It's against God, it could be against the law of the land. And they're saying, come with us, and they might say things like, hey, this is fun to taste. They come up to you, you're a young person, and they say, Have you ever tasted alcohol? It tastes really good. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. They'll say, have you ever looked at pornography? It looks really good. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. They'll say, have you ever listened to this kind of music? It sounds good. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. They say, this is a fun place to go. You've never been here before, and we want to take you there. Again, my son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. You know, peer pressure. It can be a good thing if it's positive peer pressure. But a lot of times, sadly, it's bad peer pressure. It's not easy as a young person growing up. Other people are doing things, they're experiencing things, and they say it's fine. Don't worry, it's not. But they'll try to tempt you to do it by saying it is fine. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not. And you might be here this morning thinking, ah, pure pressure, I can stand up to that, no big deal. Try this. Get on a lift, a full lift, everybody's facing one way, and stand and face the other way. And see how long you can last, right? It's a little awkward, isn't it? Why? Because everybody else is going the other way. Why do you want to be the one person that is out of place, the one person that's doing something different? And frankly, as a Christian young person growing up, as you seek to please God, you're going to be the one person that's going the other way and it's not easy. It's gonna take courage and you're gonna have to realize that God's with you as you seek to do it. But don't give in. You gotta go against bad peer pressure. They're gonna encourage you to sin with them. How else do I identify them? Well, they're the people that seek to benefit by hurting others. They seek to benefit by hurting others. They say, let us lay weight for blood. Let us lurk, privilege for the innocent without cause. Lurking is like hiding in the shadows, right? It's like sneaking up on somebody, and they're actively seeking to take advantage of somebody. Let us lurk privily for the innocent without cause. There's no reason for this. It's not that they've done something. It's not warfare. It's that we're seeking to benefit or prey off the innocent. Verse 12, let us swallow them up alive as the grave and whole as those that go down into a pit. You know, wickedness takes advantage of and exploits weakness. It's really sad. You know, I just briefly saw an article and saw a picture of a car that had been driven into a crowd, apparently on purpose. Three or four people died. Those people are innocent. Those people have nothing, you know, to defend themselves, nothing to defend themselves from any vehicle, right? All right, I saw also in the news about this young man that shot those people in Charleston. Oh, is he brave? Is he courageous? That's so courageous, you know, to walk into a church with grandparents and children. and pull out a gun and to shoot unarmed people. Oh, that takes courage. No, it's preying on the innocent. Saw that another man, he was armed with a gun, stole 200,000 pounds of watches. Again, what bravery? No, what preying upon the innocent. That's sad, isn't it? Somebody that just is so vile and so wicked that they go against the innocents. Think about babies that are killed in the womb. What's more innocent than a baby in his mother's womb and to have a doctor reach in and to terminate that life in a very cruel way? Wickedness preys on innocence. You know, young people, you ought to stand up for those who are vulnerable. In your school, if other kids are picking on somebody that maybe they're handicapped, maybe they're a little bit slower, maybe they're not as coordinated as other people, you ought to be the last person to jump on board of that. And you ought to be the person that stands up and says, you know, you don't need to make fun of this person. You got to be the person that befriends that person. A bully's not like that. A bully is just like these people. They prey on the innocent. So they're going to seek to benefit by hurting others. My son, flee evil companions. They encourage you to sin. They seek to benefit by hurting others. And they will encourage you with promises of satisfaction. Listen to what they say. We shall find all precious substance. Oh, it sounds good, doesn't it? I mean, nothing is held back. There's everything of value. It's available to you. We offer you everything, all precious substance. We shall fill our houses. It's an overabundance, isn't it? I mean, it's not just like we're going to get a little bit of pocket money. I mean, we are going to be rich beyond our wildest dreams. You know, we're going to have everything. Nothing is going to be held back. It's going to be overflowing abundance cast in thy lot among us. Then it says, let us all have one purse. Now this is kind of stupid to me because you think if somebody's a thief, do you really want to put your money with their money? It's not too bright, but they say, well, it's going to be all one purse. Everybody's going to put in, it's going to be share and share alike. And it sounds so good. Satisfaction. I know of a pastor's son. He was a friend of mine when I was growing up. He was a bit younger than me. I was better friends with his brother. But this young man, actually his two brothers, I think it was a younger son that I'm thinking of, but this boy, pastor's son, for whatever reason decided to rob a convenience store with some friends of his, a petrol station. They took, I think they were armed, and they were driving back and forth by the place, getting ready to rob it, but somebody had tipped off the police. You know, instead of getting wealth, you know what he got? He got, I don't know how much, but he got years in prison. So he's promised all these things, ah, satisfaction, wealth, money, it's gonna be great, it's gonna be such a rush. No, it wasn't. It's wasted years. Satan is gonna promise you things, and he's gonna make it look good, and it's not gonna be for your benefit, it's gonna be for your destruction. My son, sinners entice thee, consent thou not. So what's his advice? He says in verse 15, my son, walk not thou in the way with them. Don't walk with them. You know, young person, you ought not to have friends that are wicked friends. Don't walk in the way with them. Refrain thy foot from their path. They're walking this way, don't go that way. Don't go down that route, don't go down to that place, because that's a place of destruction. So it's just like my mom said, and actually it was my mom, not my dad, that I remember saying this. I'm sure my dad said it as well, but it just stands out to me in my mind, is when I went to college, my mom said, choose good friends. You know what I did when I went to college, by God's grace? Chose good friends. Do you know what the Bible says in Proverbs 13, 20? He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Do you know, I can tell your future by the friends you keep. If you've got bad friends, evil companions, corrupt good manners, the Bible says, but a wise man or a companion of wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. You know, parents, we need to keep this in mind as well. Who are our companions? Who are our friends? Who are we associated with? Because the Bible says we're going to be just like them. And so flee evil companions. You know, that's good advice. And it would do us well to take it to heart. So Solomon sets his sons down and says, you know, first of all, sons, flee evil companions. But then the second bit of advice he gives is to seek God. Seek God. Work hard at knowing God. He says in chapter two, verses one and two, my son, if thou will receive my words, and by the way, whose words are they? They're his words, but they're also God's words. My son, receive my words, hide my commandments with thee, again, God's commandments, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding. Work hard at knowing God, take in the things of God's word. You know, some of you have probably realized, and I know my kids have, knowledge doesn't come easy. It comes easier to some people than others, but it's not easy, is it? It would be very few Young people that just say, you know, I just love school. It's so easy, right? Especially the older you get and the higher up you get in your education, the more you realize, you know, it's hard to learn, isn't it? But Solomon's saying, you know, work at it. Work at it. You know, if someone goes to the uni Who's more likely to succeed? Somebody that parties and just never does any work? Or somebody that applies himself, is diligent, and actually takes time to study? Person that studies, right? How are you gonna succeed as a Christian without knowing this book? And so Solomon's challenging his son and saying, you know what? Work hard at knowing God. It's gonna take work. It's gonna take effort. And then he says, cry out for knowledge of God. Verse three. It says, yea, if thou cryest after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding. You know, again, it's probably not you, academically, that does this, but back in the day, you know there, and it was before Mr. Alex stayed here. Back in the day, they used to work, and actually, Mr. Alex grew up working. But not like 60 years before Mr. Allen, where young people, maybe in their minds from the time they were you guys' age, they would work full days and they wouldn't get the education that you get today. Joe, we're spoiled with education today. We have something called Google. You know, and if you don't know something, you just Google it and you get the information that you need. But you know, back in the day, books were valuable. If you had a book that had knowledge, had information, I mean, it was extremely valuable. And there were some young people, believe it or not, that would even go to bed at night and they'd weep because they desired knowledge, but they couldn't get it. They would cry after it and yearn for it, you know, and that's what Psalm is saying to us, you know, cry after knowledge for God, desire knowledge for God. My sons really seek God, seek God. cry after knowledge. When's the last time you cried out to God to ask Him, you know, God, I'd like to know you better. I really, I want to walk more closely with you. Help me to know you. Cry out for knowledge of God. Then invest everything for knowledge of God. Verse four says, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasure. Wouldn't you love to kick her rock, pick it up, and it's pure silver? Or even better, gold, right? Or you're out walking through a field and you trip on something and you look down and it's the corner of a chest. You're going to get pretty excited, you know, digging out a treasure chest, seeing what's on the inside. Pretty excited about that, right? You know, as you seek after treasure, we enjoy agate hunting. It's kind of like treasure hunting. They're semi-precious stones. And when we really begin to find them, it's hard to stop. It's hard to stop and eat, it's hard to stop and leave, because there's value, there's value, and there's something about us that just desires that value. And Solomon says to his boys, he says, look, I want you to seek after God like you're seeking after treasure. Don't give up easily. Don't stop and say, well, I haven't got it yet, so I guess that's it, you know, I'm not gonna find it. No, he says, seek, seek. Seek after God. Invest everything you've got and take the time to seek God. Why? Because verse five, then shall thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. Then you're gonna know God. Then you're gonna understand God. It's not for those that are passive. You know what passive means? Passive is like being in a football game and sitting on the ground. Are you going to win the game by sitting there and watching everybody play passively? No, you're going to win the game if you get actively involved. And God is saying, you know what? Passivity is never going to find God. Activity is going to find God. It's going to be getting in the Word of God. It's going to be investing and working at it and putting everything you can into it. Then you're going to get it. Why are so many people like these bowlers here today? And I know they're here for a good reason as they raise money for the charity for the Galilees. But why are they bowling on Sunday? Why are other people shopping on Sunday? Why is all this going on? It's like nobody fears God anymore. Nobody knows God. You know why? The world stops seeking after God. They're gonna be damned, they're gonna spend eternity in hell. Someday they're gonna look back and say, oh, what did God, I had sought God. It'll be too late. But it's not for us. You know, young person, grow up, you can do it right. You can say, this book's more important than sports. Right? This book is more important. more important than anything, it's priceless. Because this is the way you find God. And so his advice, again, dad's advice, don't go with evil companions, but then seek God. Seek God. And then he says to them, remember God's law. Remember God's law. He says, verse one of chapter three, my son, forget not my law. You know, they're boys. Are the boys gonna be boys forever? No. Someday they're gonna grow up, and sadly, someday they could grow up, they could move away and say, I don't want anything to do with what my dad had, and so I'm gonna reject that, and I'm just gonna seek my own way. There's a boy in the Bible that did that, we call him the prodigal son, right? He goes, I want my inheritance, I want to live it up, and he goes, and he wrecks his life by riotous living, and he finds himself in a pig farm, feeding the pigs. And he's looking at what the pigs are eating and saying, that's better to eat than what I've got to eat. I'm going to go back to my dad. But he could have saved himself all the hassle if he would have just remembered his father's law and stuck with it, stayed with it, not cast it off. My son, forget not my law. And then obey God's law. But let thine heart keep my commandments. You know, not just, he didn't just say, remember this book. He said, obey this book. Try this, you know, go 80 in a 70. And I'm not really recommending you do that. I recommend you not do that. I recommend you go 70. But say you're going 80 in a 70 and a policeman pulls you over and the policeman comes up and you say to him, officer, officer, I don't know why you pulled me over. I know the speed limit is 70. Does he care about your knowledge? No. What's he care about? Your actions, right? You know this morning, God doesn't care how much you know about this book. He cares about what? How much you obey this book. If you just know everything there is to know about this book and you never apply it, it is pointless. It's valueless. And so Solomon is not just saying, I want you to have a head knowledge about God. He's saying, I want you to have an applied knowledge about God. And if you do, you'll live long and prosper. Verse two. for length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Length of days, long life, peace. Do you want that? Raise your hand if you want that. My hands up, length of days, long life, peace. That's great. How many people don't have that? We hear about young people that die sadly. We hear about people that their whole life is just awful. They have no peace and the Bible says that. There's no peace, saith the Lord to the wicked. Long life and peace. Scientists seek to find it. life and peace. But can I say this morning, the answer is not found in science. Doctors try to find it. They think, oh, long life and peace. Let's solve this and let's get better quality of life and things. And yeah, they can do a little bit, but it's not there. It's not medicine. They think, oh, it's education. And so people give themselves the knowledge, long life and peace. You know, it's not education. Where is it? I can say authoritatively this morning, I can hold this book up and I can say, I can promise you this morning, long life and peace. But you have to have wanted enough to get it. It's there. It's in this book. It's obeying God. It's following God's law. All it costs is a bit of obedience, but you gotta pay the price. Remember God's law. And then, Solomon, again, with his sons, he'd sit his sons down and he'd say, sons, I got something else I wanna share with you. Submit to God's chastening. Submit to God's chastening. This is a father's advice. Appreciate God's chastening. Chapter three, verse 11, he says, my son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. Don't get upset when God says, You know, are there some young people that need more discipline than others? You know, there are. We can feel bad for them at times. They're like, hey, I just wish you'd obey. It's sad that, you know, a young person has to get disciplined so many times. But you know, if they just yield their heart and not get angry at, ah, I'm so, I don't like it when I get in trouble and get mom and dad to do this and all that. Okay, if instead they respond and they say, you know what? I need to learn from this. I need to apply this to my life. I wanna do what's right. You know what they're gonna find out? That the same person, mom or dad or teacher or whatever, that was having such a difficult time with that, is gonna be the greatest blessing to them. Because the Bible says in Proverbs 13, three, rulers or authority are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Did you know that? Have you ever seen a teacher or a parent say, Ah, stop that when you're doing what's good, when you're doing what's right. You know, it's like, that good attitude, I want you to get that smile off your face. You know, I want you to be angry. You know, doesn't happen, does it? Why? Because rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. You got the bad work, you got the anger, you got the ungodliness, and mom and dad or teacher are going to say, hey, stop that. But you know what? Will thou then not be afraid of the power? Do you want to stop being terrorized by the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise in the same. If you do what's right, mom and dad will come along and say, hey, that's great, you're doing a good job. You know, well done. A teacher will come along and say, hey, I'm so proud of you, you have changed. You're not a burden anymore to me, you're a blessing. I'm so glad you're in my class. Why? Because rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. You know, and this morning, God loves you, and your parents do too, but God loves you and will do the tough things for your benefit. Do you know that? God loves you so much that no matter how tough it is, he'll take you right through it to get you to a place that's better than where you're at. He loves you that much. Verse 12, for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father to son in whom he delighted. God's chasing just as a reminder, you know, look, I love you. I'm not gonna let you go that way. This is really tough what I'm taking you through, but I'm gonna take you through this because it's gonna bring you to something better if you'll respond to me, if you'll yield to me. If not, the Bible says, see that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed. Remember Thursday night, we're looking at Eli and his sons. Eli's sons, they were absolutely rebellious and their father didn't restrain them, right? But God did, and he did it in a way that they could never be disobedient again. He killed them because of their disobedience. Okay, God's serious about sin. And so, the dad's advice, knowing that, dad's advice is, look, when God chastens you, respond. Don't harden your neck against God. When God's disciplining you, respond to his discipline. And so, submit to God's chasing, but then he also says to them, follow after wisdom. Dad's advice, follow after wisdom, because wisdom is incredibly valuable. Chapter three, verse 21, he says, my son, let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. Keep sound wisdom and discretion. He said, I want you to follow something in your life and never get away from it. Follow after sound wisdom and discretion. I want them to be your guide. I want them to lead you. You know, Mount Everest has been in the news recently, Nepal, right? We've seen it because of the earthquake. But when the earthquake took place, a lot of people on Mount Everest died because of the landslips and the avalanches that took place, right? But when that happened, there were also a lot of people that were saved by Sherpa guides that were wise. They'd been that way before. They'd been through similar experiences or things like that. They knew what to do when an avalanche takes place. They were yelling out commands, you know, dig your ice pick and get down on the ground. You know, telling them what to do as best they could to help them save their lives. You know, there's gonna be times in life where everything's kind of crashing down around us. And we're novices when it comes to life. We don't know what to do, but wisdom, we'll never get it wrong because wisdom's from God, and we can have a guide that is always with us that'll help us to do what's right and to succeed. We've already mentioned the verse this morning. If any of you lack wisdom, let in what? Ask of God. You know what, young people, I challenge you, starting today, to every day ask God for wisdom. God, give me wisdom how to be a good student. God, give me wisdom how to be a good child. God, give me wisdom how to follow after you. God, give me wisdom about what you want me to do with my life. Let wisdom be your guide. Why? Because it's like in grace. Verse 22 says, so shall they be life unto thy soul and grace to thy name. Life and grace. You ever heard the phrase gracious living? Gracious living, it means you're wealthy and you got everything you need and you're just having gracious living. You know what, this is Bible gracious living. You're gonna have grace, you're gonna have life if you follow wisdom. It's guidance and stability, verse 23. Then shall thou walk in the way safely and thy foot shall not stumble. Just like that earthquake took place, and ropes were destroyed, and the way down was destroyed, and the way up was destroyed, but there are some guides that were able to reestablish those roots. Just like that, life's like that. It gets all contorted, it gets all twisted, and there's things going on, it's kind of chaos, but if we follow wisdom, what's the word of God say? Then shall thou walk in the way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. You can walk, yesterday we walked, we had fun, we went up to Peebles, or down to Peebles, and walked up to Kneelpath Castle, Kneepath Castle. And it's beautiful down there along the river, if you walk that. Just gorgeous. But you know, you're walking over some rocky, treacherous path a bit. Not too bad, but it's a bit rough. And you can trip very easily. And it's like that in life. I mean, it's easy to trip, but not with wisdom. And I notice, you know, if my son's got my hand, he's not gonna fall, right? It's the same with us. When we walk with God, we have his wisdom. And so he says, follow after wisdom. Then, He says in chapter four, he says, guard your heart, guard your heart. My son, chapter four, verse 20, attend to my words, incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes. Keep them in the midst of thine heart, for they are life unto those that find them and health to all their flesh. Then he says, keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Do you know your heart is the central control for your life? It makes the decisions where you go, it makes the decisions what you do, it makes the decisions who you love and everything. God says, through Solomon, guard it. Be very careful about it. You know, when we flew, if you've ever flown in a plane, the cockpit door is locked nowadays. Maybe, I don't think it always has been, but nowadays it is. Why? Because of terrorism. You don't want a bad person getting in the cockpit. Like, how many of you would like to fly and have them give tours of the cockpit while you're flying? That's fine, whoever wants to come in, just come on in. In fact, give you a shot at the controls. You can have a seat and you can... It'd be a fun ride, wouldn't it? Who do you want in charge of your airplane? The pilot. You don't want anybody but him to touch it because he alone has the ability to guide you to where you need to go. You know what? In the control room of your heart, there's only one person you ought to want in there. It is God. You gotta guard your heart and say, no, this is, the Bible says that, you're not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which you have of God. Guard your heart. The Satan's gonna seek to get into our heart. How does he seek to get in? You're not gonna let a terrorist into the cockpit of a plane. What is Satan gonna seek to do? He's gonna say, listen to this music, watch this on the telly, go with these kind of friends, think this way. What's he doing? He's trying to get into the control room. You know what he's gonna do? He's gonna crash a plane. That's the only reason he wants in. Satan doesn't want in to give you a fun ride. He wants to get in to crash your plane. And so guard your heart with all diligence. And then the last thing, this would be more to the boys than to our girls this morning. But he'd say to us, as men as well, avoid the wicked woman. And again, this book is a book written to young men by a godly father that had a concern to protect them in their life. And he knew that one of the greatest dangers to them as they grew up in this world is that a woman would turn their heart away from God. And so he says to them, first of all, listen to me on this, my son. Listen to me on this. Chapter five, verse one. He said, my son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding, that thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. And Solomon's saying, I really want your ear on this, my son. My son, listen to me on this. Sadly, Solomon's gonna fail because he multiplied wives. He had wives that were idolaters, and they turned his heart away from God. But he's warning his sons about wicked women. Even Solomon's father had failed in this regard. King David, a man after God's own heart, sinned with Bathsheba. He looked on this woman. He lusted after her. He took her as his wife before, and with her husband alive, and then he killed her husband. David sinned greatly in this regard. You know, it would be far better for David's family to have never gone through the bitterness that they went through because of David's sexual sin. He's sinned against God in taking this woman. And yet, in God's mercy, Solomon is the next king, the son of that relationship, and is in the lineage of the king of kings, his lord. And so God's merciful, and yet the warning to these sons, this is a great danger. And so he says, give me your ear on this. I want you to listen to this. He says, it seems sweet, but it will end in bitterness. Verse three and four. For the lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil, but her end is bitter as wormwood and sharp as a two-edged sword. Don't be deceived. Especially young men. You're getting older. We've got some coming into teen years. Guard your heart. Guard what you see. Guard what you think about. Because the wicked woman has cast down, the Bible says, many strong men have been slain by her. I've already listed some great men. And history is full of examples of great men that were destroyed by wicked women. Think about Job. Job, a righteous man, but even Job had to guard his heart from the wicked woman. He says in Job 31.1, I made a covenant with mine eyes. Why then should I think upon a maid? He said, I have covenanted with my eyes that I'm not going to lust after ungodly women. Even Joseph, again a godly man, faced temptation by a wicked woman, Genesis 39.9. He said to that woman that was trying to get him to commit adultery, there's none greater in this house than I, neither hath he, my master, kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And so, very appropriately, the wisest man says to his sons, look, this is one of the greatest dangers you'll face. About six years ago, I was at Dr. Ed Nelson's house in Colorado, and his nephew was there. We had devotions together. And as we were having devotions, It was the passage he opened up to, I think it was the same verses as we've just read, and he said, you know, one of the greatest dangers that you guys will face is this. One of the greatest dangers that we face as men is wicked women and lusting and turning our heart away from God. So we need to be on guard. And so how appropriate that a father looks to his son and says, son, I want to help you with purity. I want you to be guarded against impurity. You know, I'm thankful this morning we opened up the book of Proverbs and we've got not just the godly father's advice to his sons, but we have the advice of the God, the father for us as his sons. No matter how old we are, we can benefit from this passage on Father's Day. And we can as young ladies and as women as well. There's a lot of practical advice here. And so chapter 4, 10 and 11, Solomon again says, In the years of thy life shall be many. I have taught thee in the way of wisdom. I have led thee in right paths. And he's saying, I've sent it out there before you. I've charted the good course, but you need to follow this. Now, for application's sake, where are you at this morning? If you've got evil companions, you know you do. You've got friends that are the wrong kind of friends. Do you know what you need to do? According to the Bible, you need to flee them. Don't go with them. If you don't heed that this morning, there's real danger. And that's why a godly father would sit down with his son and say, son, these aren't the kind of friends you should keep. These are bad friends. And then he would challenge us this morning to seek God. Because nobody's ever found God by passivity. They've only found God by activity. They've sought after God. So seek God. Then he'd say to us again this morning, remember God's law. Remember it and obey it. Don't just know it, but do it. And then submit to God's chasing. There's gonna be times where you can rebel against God, and God's disciplined you harshly, and you could turn your back against God. But if you'll respond correctly and yield, then there's blessing. Then he challenges us to follow after wisdom. Let wisdom be your guide. Everywhere in life, everything you do, let him guide you. Then he says, guard your heart. Don't let anybody into the control room of your life, because Satan, when he gets in there, and that's the main person you're trying to keep out, Satan gets in there, it's to crash you. It's not for your benefit, he's not going to give you a great ride, he's going to destroy you. Always. and then avoid the wicked woman because she is the way to destruction. And so guard your heart and guard it from that wicked woman as well. So may God help us this morning. A father's advice, I think appropriate for Father's Day. Certainly the message that God put on my heart to share with us this morning. But a lot of good stuff here. And I would encourage you this, to do this, all young people, but especially young men. I challenge you, today is the 21st, right? And today read Proverbs 21. Tomorrow read Proverbs 22. Just follow the days of the month. Are there 31 days this month? What month are we in? There's only 30. All right, so you get to June 30th, read two. 30 and 31. Normally, most months have 31 days, and you could read one proverb a day. And then on the first, read the first and then keep following like that until you get to the 20th, and you have read through the Book of Proverbs. And it's written for young men. That's a good way to do your devotions. I did that all through my high school years. I read one proverb a day, and I read five psalms a day. And five Psalms a day, you can read through the book of Psalms in a month as well. And save Psalm 119 for the 31st day. And read on the 31st day. Otherwise, just 1-5 the first day, 6-10 the next day. And you can read through the whole book of Psalms and Proverbs in a month. Alright, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness to us today. Thank you for the Word of God. May it take deep root in our hearts. I pray the Spirit of God will put the fear of God in us, give us grace to be godly. Lord, this is good counsel this morning from the wisest man. And Father, it's not just good in that sense. It is Bible. It is from you. And may the Spirit of God apply it to our hearts today. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.