I heard New Haven is one of the most exciting things for any of us who have been in the
New Haven area for a while.
To see the body of Christ come together across churches to serve our city in love is truly
an amazing thing.
And so, if you're around or if you can make plans to be here, I want to encourage you
to sign up and be a part of that.
Every time I drive home with my kids after school, I have to drive through my neighborhood.
Every time I drive through my neighborhood, I look at my neighbor's lawns, and I notice
the one that isn't mowed.
Well, they're renters.
And I live in a neighborhood that has mostly single-family homes, and lots of people have
lived there for a long time.
And many of them take great pride in having beautiful lawns.
And as I approach 161 Colony Road, I am struck by the paucity of actual greenery in my front
yard.
And I'm ashamed.
And it's actually pushed me to think, do I need to hire one of those services and spend
money to make my lawn really good?
It's made me wonder if I need to go and have some conversation with a lawn guru to figure
out how to have a beautiful lawn so that my neighbors won't be embarrassed by me.
In my worst moments, I'm afraid I'm going to get a notice that I'm diminishing the property
values in our neighborhood and that I need to get my act together and finally reseed the
hole that was an oil tank once in my front yard.
Peer pressure is a terrible thing.
And I've never had a neighbor come up and say anything about my lawn, but I still feel
it.
To keep up, to perform, to not disappoint, to be part of the neighborhood feels like I need
to have a beautiful lawn.
We feel this pressure in all sorts of ways in our life.
That's obviously a fairly trivial one.
But as I was thinking about our series in Proverbs and looking online, I found a remarkable
story that I want to spend a few minutes telling you this morning.
I found it on NPR.
It's about a man named Toby Groves.
Toby's story begins when he was 20 years old.
He was home visiting his family.
He looked out his back window and saw his father collapsed on the lawn in his backyard.
And he thought, what is this?
He thought he was having a heart attack.
He rushed out and found his dad clutching a newspaper report.
And on the front page was a report of Toby's older brother being indicted for fraud.
Toby that day promised his father that he would never do anything like that.
So then he finished college and went off into business and after a few years began his own
mortgage loan company.
He was successful for a decade.
His business grew.
It diversified.
He got very busy.
He found out to his dismay after going over some paperwork that in fact his company was $240,000 in the hole.
To try and fix it, he filled out a loan application that falsely reported his income as $300,000 a year.
This is what he said.
There wasn't much of a thought process, he said.
I felt like at that point that was a small price to pay.
Almost like the cost of doing business.
You know, things are going to happen.
I just need to do whatever I needed to do to fix that.
It wasn't like, well, I didn't think I was going to be losing money forever or anything like that.
As the weeks went on, he discovered, in fact, his company was more in the hole than he ever realized.
He'd already mortgaged his house.
He didn't have any more money, but he needed to save his business.
The easiest way to do this to cover the mounting losses was to get more loans.
And so he took out a series of entirely false loans.
Loans on houses that didn't exist.
Borrowers.
Creating a false loan, however, on a house that doesn't exist requires a lot of work.
You need paperwork.
You need to manufacture from thin air borrowers and homes and paperwork to go with it.
And he needed help, so he called his staff in.
And one by one, he'd explained the situation to them and said,
Will you help me?
I understand if you won't, but will you help me?
And it wasn't just his employees.
I mean, we, he said, I mean, we had assistants from other companies to pull this off.
To make it look like a real person closed on a real house, Toby needed a title company to sign off on the fake documents that his staff had generated.
And he would go to these external companies and say, it was like, here's what happened.
Here's the only way I know how to fix it.
If you can help me, great.
If you won't, I understand.
And nobody said, maybe we'll think about this.
Within a few minutes, it was, yes, I'll help you.
And so, from one little lie on a loan application grew this huge pattern of falsehood and of deceit.
And he realized that it had developed into a massive bank fraud involving millions of dollars.
It drove several companies out of business, resulted in the loss of many jobs.
And in the middle of it, he started, it started to occur to him, this is not going to stop.
I'm not fixing anything.
And it became ultra clear that everything I had been taught, I was going against.
He started to drink every day.
And he would wonder, how do I end this?
How do I get out of this?
So, when in 2006, two FBI agents showed up at his door, he quickly confessed to everything.
And he said he was relieved.
Two years later, he was sentenced by the same judge who had sentenced his brother.
Says his only comfort was that his father was not alive to see him break the promise that he had made.
Peer pressure.
Peer pressure allowed this to happen.
Tobey made one misstep.
But then he had to pull in all these other people.
Come join me with this.
It's the only way we're going to make it through.
We all face it.
Sometimes it's in little ways, like my lawn.
Sometimes it's in gargantuan ways.
Like housing fraud.
Sometimes it's for those of you who are in high school.
You can only tell me what the truth is.
When your friends are smoking weed in the back of the bus.
Or sending around images on your cell phone.
Why aren't you joining in?
Come on.
Be part of it.
When you log on to your Pinterest account.
And post yet another thing to shame those who don't meet up.
When you're at work or the social equivalent.
Or at the water cooler.
Which doesn't exist anymore, right?
But the social equivalent is social media, right?
We don't have water coolers anymore.
But we just throw things out on social media.
And the jokes.
About the more awkward.
About the outsiders.
How often do we fail?
How often do we follow the crowd?
Into places where we lose our way.
That's what our passage is about this morning.
If you want to turn with me in your Bible to page 527.
We're in Proverbs chapter 1.
We're continuing our series that Pastor Nick kicked off this last week.
And we're going to be doing this all summer.
To look through the book of Proverbs.
To see what it is that God has to say to us.
About that.
Proverbs 1 starting in verse 8 is where we're going to be.
Let's read that together.
Proverbs chapter 1 verse 8.
Hear my son your father's instructions.
And forsake not your mother's teaching.
For they are graceful garland for your head.
And pendants for your neck.
My son if sinners entice you do not consent.
If they say come with us.
Let us come with us.
Let us lie in wait for blood.
Let us ambush the innocent without reason.
Like Sheol let us swallow them alive.
And whole like those who go down to the pit.
We shall find all precious goods.
We shall fill our houses with plunder.
Throw in your lot among us.
We will all have one purse.
My son do not walk in the way with them.
Hold back your foot from their path.
For their feet run to evil.
And they make haste to shed blood.
For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird.
But these men lie in wait for their own blood.
They set an ambush for their own lives.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain.
It takes away the life of its possessors.
Wisdom cries aloud in the street.
In the market she raises her voice.
At the head of the noisy streets she cries out.
At the entrance of the city gates she speaks.
How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?
How long will scoffers delight in their scoffering?
And fools hate knowledge.
If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you.
I will make my words known to you.
Because I have called and you refuse to listen.
I have stretched out my hand.
And no one is heeded.
Because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof.
I also will laugh at your calamity.
I will mock when the terror strikes you.
When terror strikes you like a storm.
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind.
When distress and anguish come upon you.
Then they will call upon me.
But I will not answer.
They will seek me diligently.
But they will not find me.
Because they hated knowledge.
And did not choose the fear of the Lord.
And would have none of my counsel.
And despised all my reproof.
Therefore, they shall eat of the fruit of their way.
And have their fill of their own devices.
For the simple are killed by their turning away.
And the complacency of fools destroys them.
But whoever listens to me will dwell secure.
And will be at ease without dread of disaster.
Will you pray with me?
Lord, we come to you humbly this morning.
Lord, for even as we read this passage.
We recognize the danger.
That our hearts may turn away from you.
And from your word.
That we will not listen to your voice.
But that we will allow other voices to speak to us.
Lord, and that we will follow ways.
That lead to death.
Lord, we ask for your mercy this morning.
Lord, to open our ears.
Lord, to give us, Lord, the courage.
Lord, and the strength.
And the ability to turn back to you.
To hear your reproof.
And to turn back to you.
And to receive from you wisdom.
Lord, may we, as we sit under this word.
Lord, may we hear the voice of your Holy Spirit.
Convicting us.
Or turning us.
Reminding us.
Reminding us that ultimately, Lord, what we have in Christ.
Is all that we need.
Lord, I ask for your help this morning.
Lord, use me.
My words.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
How do we face the temptation to go down another path?
And the call of those around us to follow it.
Our passage has two sections.
And in these sections, we hear the voices of characters that will actually continue throughout the whole book of Proverbs.
We hear the voice of the Father.
In fact, the Father and the Mother are joined together.
In the first section, the voice of the Father saying, instructing His Son.
And the second voice is the voice of the woman wisdom.
God's wisdom.
Personified.
Speaking to us.
And as we hear these two voices, they're laying forth to us that there are actually two ways to live.
There is the way of the wise and there is the way of the fool.
Two paths to walk.
And in particular, He's pointing out the way that peer pressure can push us down one path.
And in fact, this passage is primarily a warning.
It is a warning to not follow the voice of the crowd on the path of foolishness.
But instead, to hear another voice speaking to us.
So, let's look at them.
We're going to look at them just walking through the passage a little bit so we can hear what they're saying.
And then we're going to try to connect it with our own lives.
So, first, verses 8 through 19, we have the Father's voice.
He starts with a positive introduction.
Hear, my son, your father's instruction.
Forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
He says there's another way for you to go that is beautiful.
It adorns you with an attractiveness that is lovely.
Then verse 10 is in some ways the heart of the Father's counsel.
My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
Then He goes on to explain why.
First, He unpacks what that enticement might look like.
Verses 11 through 14.
What does the peer pressure look like to follow the way of foolishness?
When you read through this, right?
Come with us.
Let us lie in wait for blood.
Let us ambush the innocent without reason.
I wonder if you sit there and think what I thought and what Ray Orland reminded me of,
which is rarely does it feel like that.
Rarely does someone say, hey, let's go shoot people for fun.
Let's go lay waste to our neighbor's yard.
Doesn't that sound like a good idea?
Let's do that.
Rarely does it sound like that.
Why?
Well, because in the warp and woof of our life, in the day-to-day, moment-by-moment decisions,
we lose sight of the big picture.
And then suddenly something pops up in front of us.
And it's something that we want.
It's something we desire.
It's something that we long for.
And it may even be a right desire for those things.
But as that pops up, then there is a voice.
There is a way for us to achieve those things that is all wrong.
And in that moment, we have lost sight that that's true.
What is the appeal?
As you look at these verses in 11 through 14, I think there are a couple of things that are underlying this appeal of the sinners that entice us.
First is the appeal to belong.
Verse 11 says, come with us.
Let us do this together.
Verse 14, throw your lot in with us.
Friends, you know how intoxicating it is to be invited in?
To be a part of the in crowd?
To be a part of whoever the power brokers are, whoever you want to be in with?
Say, come on in.
Come be a part of us.
It's pretty easy in high school when the cool people say, hey, come with us.
We're going to go hang out after school.
Isn't it?
It's pretty powerful when if you're the guy who sits at the end of the bench on the sports team and the captain comes and says, hey, come with us.
We're going to go after school.
There's something powerful there and there's something right.
There's something right about wanting to belong.
But it can be so easily an enticement, can't it?
My research this week, it's fascinating to do research on gangs.
Do you know what the biggest pull of gangs is?
You belong to a family.
According to the things that I read.
I don't have a lot of experience with it, but the enticement is come.
Be a part of us.
And that becomes a family that you'll live for and die for.
We can become so blind in that invitation to belong.
Think about Toby's employees.
We like you.
We want you to succeed.
Sure, we'll help you out.
Even the external vendors that had to help him.
Yeah, we can do that for you.
Sure.
Some of that was probably self-interest.
But some of that might have just been relationship.
Second appeal is the appeal to power.
You see this in verse 11, the second half.
Let us ambush the innocent without reason.
In verse 12, do you see what these images are saying?
We are going to completely overwhelm them.
We are going to swallow them up like hell itself.
There's a blatant power move here.
A blatant move to say, doesn't it feel good when you can be in control and do to others?
Some of you have been on the wrong end of bullying.
And you've felt the pain of people who love that kind of power.
You've seen people who wield it.
And you've felt the consequences of it.
Some of you have probably been a part of it.
Even when you didn't set out to be.
How many of you guys have seen Mean Girls?
Lindsay Lohan?
It's not a very pleasant movie.
It's a powerful story though, isn't it?
Katie shows up.
New kid at school.
Homeschooled.
Lived in Africa.
Showed up in a California school.
And finds that there's this group who rules the roost.
And they do it by wielding their power of scorn and of disdain.
Of setting standards and making everyone else fall short of it.
And they wield this power to great destruction in the lives of other people.
And Katie gets sucked up with it.
Even though she's been warned by her friends, don't do it.
She gets sucked into it.
She finds herself doing the very things that she hated.
Using gossip and slander to destroy people's lives.
How easily do we, once we find ourselves a part of the in-group,
not see that the ways that we're walking are actually joining in
with this kind of exercise of power and abuse.
For those of you who live on the street in New Haven a little more,
this may be even more real.
Come on.
Be a part of it.
You're going to survive with us.
But it's going to take something.
You're going to get to rule the roost.
But it may lead you to some terrible things in the process.
Toby used his power in this way.
Didn't he?
He's the CEO of his company.
Hey, this is the only way we can do it.
This is the only way we can get out of it.
But you can help us do that.
I can give you the power so that we can succeed and get out of this together.
Third thing.
Belonging, power, and then gain.
You see this in verse 13.
We will find all precious goods.
We shall fill our houses with plunder.
One of the reasons why we follow the crowd is because we're going to get what we want.
Right?
Those of you who are in academia, do you ever feel this pressure?
This is what the department does.
This is how we work.
These are the things that we value.
You're going to be a part of the team or not.
If you do, you'll get good recommendations.
If you do, yeah, we'll support you.
We'll give you connections.
We'll even invite you into those conversations in the back of the academic conferences where you actually talk to the people who can really make deals and make life happen for you.
Am I too far off the mark?
Don't think so.
To get gain from these things, whether it be social capital, whether it be physical reward.
The voice of the sinners entices, entices to follow a path of destruction for others, for your own sake.
And it's striking, right?
Toby said, if you do this, we won't go under.
We'll survive.
If you help me with this, I think we can get out of this.
It was a foolish promise.
It wasn't true.
But it motivated others to help him with it.
And just one final note.
Verse 14, we will all have one purse.
I think this is ironic.
Because how many people actually share powers?
This is part of the lesson of Mean Girls, right?
If you get in, then you fight with one another for the power in the middle of it.
If you get gain, what do you end up doing?
You've seen the Italian job, right?
You end up shooting each other over who gets the loot.
And over and over and over again.
When you follow the ways of the sinners in this, it is not, the outcome is not good.
And I think you see that in verses 15 through 19, because the Father's voice comes back in.
The warning.
He says,
My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Hold your foot back from these paths.
He's saying,
They're saying,
Go this way.
And I want to encourage you and warn you,
Don't go that way.
Why?
Verses 16 to 19.
Because they run to evil and they make haste to shed blood.
Verse 17 is an image of bird catchers.
What they do is they lay a net out.
And then they wait for a bird to come into where the net is.
And then they snatch the net quickly.
And that's what captures it.
And he's saying,
If you do that right in front of the bird,
The bird's going to know the net is there.
He's never going to walk into it.
But these sinners are so foolish that they're laying their net right before their own eyes
for their own destruction.
Why would you want to go with them?
Don't walk that way.
It will end badly.
Verse 19.
Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain.
Takes away the life of the possessors.
Part of what the Father's voice is saying is,
Do you understand?
Following in the footsteps of your peers as they entice you is of great danger.
It is a path that leads to your destruction.
You think it promises all of these good things.
But in fact, it will not give you what you want.
Or it will give you what you want at the cost of your own soul and your own life.
You may, in the short run, if you choose this short-sighted calculus, gain what you want.
But in the end, you will rue that day.
Just like Toby, who found himself at the end, caught in the net, unable to get out of it, stuck, and relieved that he would finally go to jail.
What kind of a life is that?
This is what the Father is warning his son.
And he has said, there is another way.
There is a beautiful garland.
But it is a counter-cultural way.
It is not walking in these paths.
There is another path to walk of our instruction.
Of the way of wisdom.
And he doesn't explicate it.
He doesn't talk about it.
He just says, there is another way to go.
But you have to be ready to walk away from the crowd.
To walk away from what others are saying.
And friends, isn't this right?
That this is what God's people are meant to be.
We are called to do it.
To live life differently.
Because we know God.
Because he has shown us a different way.
That does not lead to destruction.
And it is not a way that we can easily do on our own.
Oh, there are times when we will have to make that stand.
Our single stand.
And say, I will not go that way.
Even though everyone else will.
But friends, from my experience, over time.
We all are eroded in our conviction and our steadfastness.
We are all.
We grow weary on our own.
And this is why.
The countercultural movement that God has called his people into.
Is not an individualistic one.
But a community.
A community of people.
Where we have fathers like this.
Reminding us and warning us.
Of these things.
And where we have peers who are helping us in the moment.
To see.
The lie.
In the enticement.
To hear the warning.
Of the end.
To reinforce this then.
The second voice comes in.
Starting in verse 20.
The voice of the woman wisdom.
And she's a public voice.
If the first half is a private warning.
Within the familial patterns of home.
This is now the public voice.
In the street.
In the places where.
In the marketplace of ideas.
And in the crossroads of the populace.
And she is crying out as well.
She is crying out similarly.
A warning.
A warning that those.
Who reject the way of wisdom.
Will end up destroyed.
Let's look at it.
Verses 20 through 22.
She cries out in verse 22.
She says.
How long.
O simple ones.
Will you love being simple.
How long.
Will the scoffers delight in their scoffing.
And the fools hate knowledge.
She calls out three different kinds.
A simple one.
It's not someone who just is.
Simple.
In the sense of they don't know very much.
A simple here.
Is a simpleton.
Someone who is willingly.
Ignorant.
Of good.
And right.
And true.
Things.
Someone who chooses not to know.
Someone who chooses not to think about it too much.
Because it might be too inconvenient.
The scoffer.
Is one who consciously rejects wisdom.
I think I know better.
I'm going to go my own way.
I don't need you.
And the scoffer not only rejects wisdom for themselves.
But they heap scorn.
And derision.
On wisdom.
Friends.
Is this not what memes are?
Maybe there's a good use of a meme in social media.
But honestly.
Is this not what most of it is used for?
To make fun of people.
To shame them.
Maybe there are times when there are things that are worth being exposed to.
And foolish.
And that would be a good use of it.
But friends.
Let us be very careful.
That we do not allow the use of this.
To make our hearts proud.
And to reject wisdom.
And to sit.
In a place of scorning others.
This is a place of danger.
Scoffers do not invite honest interaction.
Humble discussion.
And disagreement.
Instead.
They close down arguments.
With dismissive.
Comments.
And they see.
The wise.
As naive.
As idealistic.
Overly principled.
And they tend to shame them.
So wisdom calls these people out.
And says.
Do you see them?
Verse 24 and 25.
She calls on.
She continues on.
She says.
I called to you.
I offered to you.
Here is wisdom.
Walk in this way.
And you rejected it.
You refused it.
Look at the words in 24 and 25.
You refused it.
No one has heeded it.
You ignored it.
You would have none.
Of my reproof.
The pride here is to say.
I don't need your voice.
I can do it myself.
I want to go my own way.
Don't tell me something contrary.
That's frustrating.
This is what we do with our one year olds.
And our two year olds.
Isn't it?
We begin to teach them.
That there is wisdom.
Outside of them.
That's important.
Don't touch that.
It's going to burn you.
Don't run into the street.
You're going to die.
We begin as parents.
To instill in this.
Hopefully from the very beginning.
This is true.
And what we see.
Is that in our hearts.
There is this pattern.
Consistently of wanting to resist that.
And rebel it.
Against it.
To refuse to listen.
And to do our own things.
And it is a remarkable thing.
As you keep on going down.
Verse 29 and 30.
They hated knowledge.
And they did not choose the fear of the Lord.
Nick talked about this last week.
That the fear of the Lord.
Is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom.
An understanding.
That there is a God in heaven.
Who has created the world.
For us.
For our good.
And that as we live in it.
We will display his glory.
As we live according to the way.
It was supposed to work.
And so our fear.
Is a reverent awe.
Of our creator.
Who tells us.
This is the way.
That you are supposed to live.
In this world.
And yet again.
How often we choose.
To go our own way.
And do our own thing.
And she warns us.
Wisdom does.
In verse 28.
They will call upon me.
And I will not answer.
They will seek me diligently.
But they will not find me.
Friends.
There are times.
When we have walked.
So far along.
The path.
Of foolishness.
That.
It feels like.
Wisdom has nothing to say to us.
There are times when.
Our hearts.
Get so hardened.
And our ears.
Get so stopped up.
That we can't hear it anymore.
When we are there.
We are in grave danger.
This is what wisdom.
Is telling us.
When we reach that point.
We are those who hate.
Wisdom.
And hate truth.
And in fact.
We hate God.
When we act this way.
We are those who hate.
I wonder.
What are the voices.
That are loudest in your life.
When you are making a decision.
Whose counsel do you listen to?
Who speaks with a kind of authority.
To you.
About how you ought to live.
Is it your own reason?
Is it your peers?
Is it your parents?
Is it the powers that be.
Whether it be.
The academy.
Or your boss.
Or your administrator.
What are the voices.
That help you know.
What's right and wrong.
Do you know who they are?
Do you know what to listen to?
How open are you.
To wisdom.
How open are you.
To the voice of the Lord.
Speaking to you.
Saying this is the way.
Walk in it.
Even when it would cost you.
Much.
In the eyes of your peers.
Do you recognize.
How much you need it.
Do you understand.
How quickly.
You become a fool.
Without it.
Are you willing.
To receive.
Warnings.
Words that challenge.
How you're thinking.
About something.
To be called.
To take unpopular stances.
And walk in.
Countercultural ways.
The woman wisdom.
Will go on.
In the passages.
That go on.
We'll see that.
Right in the.
Chapter two.
She will tell you.
All the good reasons.
Why you should walk in wisdom.
And there are many.
There is a good.
Other way.
But that's not my passage.
This morning.
Which is why I'm not spending.
That much time talking about it.
Because my passage.
This morning.
Is all about the warning.
And my desires.
For each of you.
From high school.
To retiree.
Whatever your stage of life.
And whatever.
To recognize.
That there are these forces.
That are around you.
That are pushing you.
And pulling you.
These voices.
That are saying.
Come with us.
Let's do this.
And to recognize.
The danger.
Of listening.
To the wrong voices.
And choosing.
The wrong ways.
Wisdom says.
Verses.
Twenty six.
And twenty seven.
The consequences.
Of the foolish ways.
Is I will let you reap.
What you sow.
And it is a whirlwind.
You will experience.
Distress.
And anguish.
There are times.
When God.
Graciously.
Seems to say.
If that's really.
What you want.
I will let you have it.
So you can see.
How foolish.
And empty.
It is.
But it is a bitter.
Lesson to learn.
And wisdom says.
You don't have to walk.
That way.
There is a word of hope.
That wisdom gives us.
In verse twenty three.
Look with me in it.
But if you turn.
At my reproof.
Behold.
I will pour out.
My spirit to you.
And I will make my words.
Known to you.
There is another path.
God will come.
And he will speak to you.
And he will guide you.
He will give you.
His very spirit.
And his very words.
This is the word of promise.
And of hope.
That parallels.
What the father said.
If you heed our instructions.
They will lead you to places.
Of beauty.
And of attractiveness.
But overall.
At the end of the day.
As we read this passage.
We find ourselves left.
With the question.
Two paths.
Two ways to live.
And the two greatest voices.
In the book of Proverbs.
Giving us encouragement.
And instruction.
Here give us warning.
There is a path of foolishness.
That follows your peers.
Into destruction.
That allows their voice.
To entice you.
That these things.
Hold forth to you.
Things that you want.
And promises.
That they can deliver it for you.
But they can't.
The warning is.
Don't go that way.
There is a different way.
A way of wisdom.
And we will explore that.
As we continue.
In these series.
But friends.
As we close.
I want to.
Locate this challenge.
This decision.
This two ways.
This.
Whose voices are you listening to?
I want to make sure.
That we couch it.
In the bigger picture.
Of the biblical storyline.
And what God.
Is saying to us.
About a better way.
There are two things.
I want to say about it.
First of all.
Is that.
In all of those.
False promises.
Of the sinners.
They're actually.
Offering things.
That.
In.
Proper places.
Are good.
You want to belong.
You want to have power.
You want to gain.
Good things.
Friends.
The path of wisdom.
Is the path of Jesus Christ.
You want to belong.
Because God has made you.
To belong to him.
To be his.
Sons and daughters.
And to be a part of.
His.
Family.
And Jesus Christ.
Came.
And he died on the cross.
And he rose again.
To claim us.
As his own.
To win us.
Back from.
The other path.
So that God.
Can look at all.
Who have placed their faith.
In Christ.
And say.
You are mine.
You are my son.
You are my daughter.
You belong to me.
And I will never.
Let you go.
And so there is a better belonging.
That we find in Christ.
There is a greater power.
That he promises.
That when the Holy Spirit.
Comes and dwells within us.
We now have an internal power.
Where God himself.
Dwelling within us.
Ignites and empowers.
The very life.
That God has given us in Christ.
This new life.
So that we can actually walk.
In a way of wisdom.
Without these powers.
We are in fact.
According to scriptures.
Slaves to sin.
We will always.
Unerringly.
End up choosing.
Paths of foolishness.
But God.
In Christ.
Has given us a different way.
And the Holy Spirit.
Will give us power.
To live that different way.
And finally.
We long for gain.
Because we were made for heaven.
We were made for God.
And his kingdom.
We were made to be a part of him.
And his righteousness.
And Christ comes.
And book of Ephesians says.
That God has blessed us.
With every spiritual blessing.
In the heavenly realms.
And first Peter reminds us.
That in Christ.
We have an inheritance.
In heaven.
That is unfading.
Undefiled.
And kept in heaven.
For you.
We have the riches.
Of being.
Co-heirs with Christ.
Of the kingdom of God.
And we will sit.
With Christ.
And enjoy.
All the riches.
Of the greatest kingdom.
That ever has been.
Or will be.
And in Christ.
God invites his people.
To come.
Into the storehouse.
And say.
Yes.
This is where I can find it.
And friends.
This is the power.
That when.
The social media joke.
Runs across your Twitter feed.
For you.
Rather than jumping in.
And joining in.
For you to refrain.
Or for you to engage.
Helpfully.
When your high school friends.
Say.
Come and do this.
When you can see.
Christ and his kingdom.
You say.
No.
I think I'll go.
A different way today.
Thanks.
When Toby.
Saw that his company.
Was in trouble.
How different it would have been.
If he had cried out to the Lord.
And said.
Lord.
I don't know what to do.
Help me.
Help me do this.
In a way that is right.
But friends.
It's not just.
That in Jesus.
We find something better.
And so we can make a better decision.
Although that is true.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Does not choose well.
And live.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
Is that we have a heavenly father.
Who knows that we are fools.
Who knows that we will make these choices.
And that he has sent his son.
Jesus Christ.
To reap the whirlwind of our foolishness.
He went to the cross.
So that.
The life.
That foolishness would take from us.
Would instead be given back to us.
Jesus Christ.
Offers himself up in our place.
Taking on the consequences.
Of our choosing the path of foolishness.
So that we might be freed from it.
So that we might instead receive from him.
A new life.
And the forgiveness of sins.
And finally.
Something different.
So that in this new life.
We might be able finally to choose.
Well.
Independence on the Holy Spirit.
Knowing that he who has saved us.
Has grasped hold of us.
And will not let us go.
And that he will lead us.
And as we see that.
We are able to live a different life.
And walk the path of wisdom.
We who know the ways of the kingdom.
That have lasted over time.
We who know.
The spirit at work within us.
We who know the body of Christ.
Coming alongside of us.
And pointing to us.
Saying this is the way.
And we who have the word of God.
That is a lamp to our feet.
And a guide to our path.
This is what we have in Christ.
This is what Christ has done for us.
And as we do this.
Then we can heed this warning.
And respond.
Lord have mercy on us.
And save us from our foolishness.
That we might walk in wisdom.
And so show your glory.
Let's pray.
Amen.
Lord we thank you this morning.
For this warning.
And Lord we are sobered.
Holy Spirit I pray that you would help us.
Lord see the foolish ways that we have chosen.
And the ways that we walk.
In them even now.
Lord we pray for your Holy Spirit.
To open our eyes.
To see the end.
Lord to see the false promises.
And to see.
Lord the foolishness.
And the destruction that comes.
From walking in these ways.
Lord we pray that you will bring us.
Conviction of sin.
And Lord repentance.
Lord we pray that you would remind us.
That Christ died.
Lord for our sins.
For our foolishness.
And Lord in that.
That we might have courage.
And strength.
Lord to turn from them.
And to turn to you.
To turn to you.
The found of all wisdom.
To turn to you.
The source of our life.
And Lord to walk in the way of wisdom.
To walk in the way of your kingdom.
To walk in the way of Christ.
Lord thank you that.
Though this is a great warning.
Lord there is a great promise as well.
That there is another way.
And that in it.
It will lead to life everlasting.
We pray these things in Jesus name.
Amen.
Thank you.