We'll be in Proverbs chapter 4 again today. Proverbs chapter 4. Welcome to the ones in the back. Thank you all for coming in. This lesson is directed toward young men, so I'm glad we've got some young men here. Proverbs chapter 4. I want to start reading in verse 7 and read through verse 19, and that'll be our focus today. Before I read, for those who've been here, not every single Sunday, but regularly we've been looking at the book of Proverbs, and there is a beauty and what God is doing. Brother John didn't know what I was going to preach today, and I didn't know exactly what he was going to teach, and I think you'll see there's some parallels that come out. It blessed my heart sitting in there this morning. And before we read, I want to remind us, do you all remember the three main reasons we're studying the Word of God? I've repeated it maybe a dozen times. What's the first one? To know Him better. Amen. That's the main reason, to better know God. Everything in this Bible, if you use it to fight a battle, if you use it to win arguments or whatever, the main reason is to know God better. Don't lose sight of that. Does anybody remember the second reason? And these are reasons that I feel like God put in my heart. It's not spelled out somewhere else. Anybody remember the second reason I had? To better know ourselves. Scripture tells us, you think you know yourself, look into Scripture. I'm paraphrasing. James says, look into the perfect law of liberty, don't be a forgetful hearer. You want to see what you're really like? Look at this mirror. So the first point, know God better. Second point, know ourselves better and how we relate to Him. What He wants for our life. And then the third point is to understand the world, to know the world better, and how we're supposed to live in it. That's really our whole life. God, ourselves, and the people around us. This study of scripture, this is not just because I don't know what else to preach, or it's not just because, or it's not at all because of that, it's not because we're just trying to get more information. I want to reiterate, as we study Proverbs methodically, it is for those three purposes. To know God better, to know who we really are better, and to know what we're supposed to do about it. So verse 7, I'll read through 19. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom. And whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Hear, my son, and accept my words, that the years of your life may be many. I've taught you in the way of wisdom. I've led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run, you will not stumble. Keep hold of instruction, do not let her go. Guard her, for she is your life." Do not enter the path of the wicked. Do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it. Do not go on it. Turn away from it and pass on. For they cannot sleep unless they've done wrong. They're robbed of sleep unless they've made someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness. They drink the wine of violence. But the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until full day. The way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble." Verse 7, we covered this a little bit last week, but we can't overemphasize the simplicity of this. And many times we think God wants us to do something, we overcomplicate it. Listen. One of the chief ends of man or woman, of us living, is to get wisdom. And Solomon is telling his son, get wisdom. Period. Just get it. Get it! And he says, with all your getting, get understanding. Brothers and sisters, it's really that simple. If you want to be wise, get wisdom. Don't try to become something. Get wisdom. Don't try to transform yourself. Get wisdom. If you want to have the blessings that accompany a wisely lived life, get wisdom. A lot of people we misunderstand and we try to appropriate to ourselves the benefits of a certain lifestyle without having that true, authentic relationship based on an actual understanding. This is what he's telling, get wisdom. Don't just do what I tell you. He's telling his son it's important. And those of you who are parents, there's an element that you want your children to do what you say, but deeper than that, you want them to know what's right. It's not, your word's not perfect, right? But God's word is. And we, especially as your children grow into adulthood, you may not know exactly what's best for them. But if you have trained them in the way of wisdom, and if you've taught them to get wisdom, and they continue in that path, God will guide them. He's trying to set His Son up for success. And God, He's put it in my heart that through Him we might set this congregation up for success. And these young people, and success is not a dirty, greedy word about capitalism and the patriarchy to be ashamed of. Success is godly. Success means getting what you were supposed to, the results you were supposed to. God wants us to get godly results out of our lives. How do we get wisdom? I just said it's really simple. Just get wisdom. How do you get it? How do you actually get it? I want you to think about that, I may not answer it directly, but there's some elements that this segment of Scripture spells out. He says, get wisdom, and then he tells him specific things that apply to getting wisdom. And when we go verse by verse through here, I think we'll see that sometimes we go about it the wrong way. We're too focused on the information and not focused enough on who we are and whose we are. and where we are and where we're going. He tells his son to get wisdom and then he talks about those things. To get wisdom, we have to walk in the right path, go to the right places, be around the right people, expose yourself to the right information. And that might, that terminology, it might make somebody uncomfortable, like, it's not really about right and wrong, we're right and they're wrong. Did you know the Hebrew translation that Jonathan got me to get, in this passage where it says, the path of the wicked, that one says, the path of the wrong. It tries to be a more accurate representation of Hebrew, and they translate it, instead of the wicked, the wrong. I don't know if we understand, wickedness is not just like sin or dirty or something, it's wrong. It's wicked because it's wrong. You know what the opposite of straight is? Crooked. The opposite of straight is anything that's not crooked. The opposite of right, Jesus is right. Anything that's not in Him is not right. And therefore it's wicked. Therefore it's the wrong. And I think we miss sometimes these subtle truths of Scripture. We have to walk in the right path. A couple of verses that came to my heart, you can look further ahead in Proverbs 22, verse 3, the prudence see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep on going and pay the penalty. And I'm going to get into this, especially for the young people today, the path you're on is just as important as the things you're putting in, the decisions you make and what you believe. The path. And Proverbs 22, 24 says this, don't make friends with a hot-tempered person. King James says, an angry man. Have no fellowship with an angry man. Don't make friends with a hot-tempered person. Don't associate with one who is easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared. And I'm going to get to this in the message with the Lord's help, but I want you to understand, we rely on willpower for things that we were never supposed to rely on willpower for. I don't think my little brother would mind me mentioning this. We're six years apart. I was in 10th grade, 10th or 11th grade, so he was probably around 10. And we had a neighbor who was very troubled. He was mostly deaf, mostly blind, autistic, and on a lot of medication, and violent, and had really terrible behavior. We loved him. We loved him. But at one point, a doctor with a neurological background told my mom, if your son keeps playing with him, he will learn his ways. And my brother, who had none of those troubles, none of those challenges that boy had, started behaving. He started throwing what we call crazy fits, just, I mean, just acting, he just acted crazy. learned his ways. Now he outgrew it, but it was a hard season, wasn't it? And that doctor had wisdom. And here's what I'm telling you, that doctor knew something that can be applied spiritually. God is trying to teach us. Solomon's trying to teach his sons. There's things you're relying on yourself to uphold yourself through. You think you can be strong enough. You think you can have enough resolve. You think you can remember not to give in. God never meant for you to be around those people and those things. Your willpower is limited. And if you put yourself in paths and situations and around people, eventually you're going to succumb. This is simple, but it's not taught much anymore. You can't go wherever you want, be around whoever you want and do whatever you want without consequences. This is why... I don't want to get away from scripture, but I want you to understand this practically. The greatest determiner of whether a person is economically successful in life is their zip code. Who they're around. Not the color of their skin, not whatever these things we might think. It has something to do with whether it's a two-parent household or a one-parent household, but people tend to go to certain zip codes if they have a household that's complete. The greatest determiner of your success in life is who you're around. Now, I'm not telling you something that scientists just discovered. All they're doing is finding out what Solomon was teaching his sons. Be around the right people. Don't make friends with a hot-tempered person. Angry people rub off on you. I want to give one more practical example to prove this. Have you all been on social media lately? I can't get on there without getting mad, angry, miserable, annoyed, frustrated, because everybody on there is hot-tempered. It's terrible. And I don't know how not to let it rub off on me. Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should just avoid that path. A couple more points before we go verse by verse. Let your questions... This is about how you get wisdom. Let your questions be prompted by wisdom and in pursuit of wisdom. You know, there's things you could ask that aren't wise. I've heard people say, no such thing as a stupid question. There's unwise questions. There's foolish questions. I think, you know, the point they're trying to make with a statement like that is if you're sincerely trying to find truth, you know, don't feel bad about it, and in that way I agree. But, it's clear in Scripture, there is unwise paths to go down. Not all questions are wise. And we need to, to use biblical language, have enough wisdom to desist, to step back from these things when they're not necessary and not helpful. The more you pursue wisdom, the more you will be equipped for wise questions and further understanding of wisdom. Some of y'all are old enough that you've experienced that. I remember a pivotal moment in my life. The Lord called me to preach young. I was serious young. I almost died when I was young. And that grows you up in a hurry. I mean really. And then I suffered for a lot of years with a really terrible health condition. It makes you serious. I didn't have time for foolishness. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody. But when you've literally almost died, you realize you don't have time for foolishness. And even so, Man, I wasn't as wise as I needed to be or wanted to be. There's a certain degree, you just have to live before you gain some wisdom. I've been preaching for 7 or 8 years and I remember a very clear moment, I was 27, where God was showing me some things and I said to myself, I didn't even know how to think. I mean, I can't express to you, and this is what I'm telling you with this, the more wisdom you're exposed to, the more God will transform even the kind of questions you're able to ask. To where you're not living a reflexive life based on societal expectations or peer pressure or conformity of other people, you're doing what pleases God because you know how to with His help. That's the point of this. Let me make this even more clear, or clearer. Don't do the things a wise person wouldn't do. If you want to be wise, don't do things that foolish people do. Don't. You know, I had friends sometimes when I was younger, that would do things that seemed like harmless fun to them. Toilet paper in people's houses, or knocking over mailboxes, or throwing plastic forks in somebody's yard. Kids do that kind of stuff. I did not want to. It was foolish. Was it wrong? I don't know, but it was foolish. And again, this isn't about me, but don't go around foolishness. It doesn't mean you can't have fun. It doesn't mean you can't have fun. Don't do things a wise person wouldn't do. Don't go places a wise person wouldn't go. There's places, child of God, that you shouldn't be. You just shouldn't be there. You ever see some of these tragedies that happen on the news or to people, and they say, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don't be in the wrong place. Don't be there. Now, are there exceptions? Yeah, but let's don't make exceptions the rule. The standard is, go where you should, be around who you should, talk to who you should. Don't think you can withstand something that God didn't call you. So you say, well, Jesus ate and drank with sinners. Are you Jesus? Are you Jesus? Well, we're called to be like Christ. How good are you doing at that? I'm not angry, I'm trying to emphasize. We think we can do things that God's not even asking us to do. And this is a passion, because young people, you're going to suffer in ways that aren't necessary if you don't listen. This is Solomon, who God gave wisdom that was above anybody else's wisdom, who still made foolish decisions. And part of his intentional instruction to his sons is, don't be like me. Be like me in the ways that I've pursued God, but don't do the... You get into chapter 5 and 6, he talks about how women can corrupt you, ungodly women. Same thing, ungodly men, be careful! That's what he's saying. How do you think he knew to say that these pagan wives can turn your heart away? Because he had his heart turned away. He's saying, be careful. Be careful. It's not all harmless, and you can't withstand. You know, we used to have built into our culture practical wisdom. Like one bad apple spools the bunch. We don't even know what that means anymore. But maybe, have you gotten a bag of apples lately and if there's one that got smushed, the side of it is rotten? If you don't get that out of there and clean the other apples, they will be infected and they will become rotten. They don't rejuvenate or restore the rotten apple. They're not strong enough for that. In fact, nothing can do it, except God. I've never seen Him miraculously restore a rotten apple. We expect Him to do things He never meant to do. Now, I want to make this clear too. This comes up later in the chapter. There is a difference in how wise children of God are supposed to live versus the foolish and wicked people of the world. Right's not the same thing as wrong. Light is not the same thing as darkness. You're not supposed to blend in. And if you do, something's wrong. Doesn't mean you should try to be weird. I don't like wearing religious t-shirts. You know? It makes me uncomfortable. Not because I care about what they think, but because it feels inauthentic to me. I'm not saying you shouldn't. I don't need to wear on a t-shirt something that's supposed to emanate from my heart. That's just how I feel. So I'm not telling you to cause friction or cause conflict. I'm saying when you walk with Jesus, what did He say? Let's quote Him and not Brother Josh's opinion. Think not to say, I've come to bring peace. I've not come to bring peace but a sword. For every household will be divided against itself. Husbands against their sons, mothers against their daughters. That's what Jesus said. I'm paraphrasing it. Now, his purpose wasn't division, but he's saying light naturally separates everything that's not in the light. That's the separation, the difference. And as we're taught in John chapter 3, men came to darkness because they hate the light. But everyone who loves the light came to the light that their deeds might be exposed. That's the point, by the way, of what we're studying in Proverbs. To expose to us our deeds and help us walk in light and not in darkness. Not in the way of the wrong, but in the way of the right. And who's right? Jesus. Oh, brothers and sisters, we're never going to be right. We can just have more of Him. Be more in Him. Light and darkness are as different as can be. That's largely what this section of Proverbs is about. I want to make sure we see that. I want to reiterate this as well because we see this here. A lot of Christians rely on our willpower, our emotional condition, our effort to try to maintain a Christian lifestyle or sanctification. In other words, we're real excited about God when we're real excited about God. Have you seen that? When there's like a fervor and energy in a group of people or a congregation. We've gone through that here a couple of times. Sometimes people come for the excitement, stay for the excitement, and when the excitement fades, they evaporate. I'm not criticizing any particular people, but we've seen that. And then there's people who are hungry for God. I want something more, whether I'm excited or not. Lord, I need you to feed me. This morning, I don't feel excited. There's not a sense of excitement. There's peace, it's calm. And God is meaning to feed us with His Word right now, to teach us things that maybe you need to digest, that I need to digest, that we need to dwell on. Because the point of coming to church is not just so we get excited and go do something. Because excitement fades. Excitement is a human emotion. God doesn't use excitement to do what He does. He doesn't need excitement. That's a human thing. You know what God is? Steadfast. Doesn't mean you can't be excited. It's part of the joy of life. But He doesn't want you to rely on that. Alright, those are some things the Lord put on my heart. Let's look at some of these verses a little more in depth. Thank you for your patience. I've said that this style of preaching is uncomfortable for my flesh. I like to get up excited and make you excited. It's harder for me to teach, but this is what God has put on me. So pray for me. And pray that He'll continue to use it for His purpose and His congregation. We already dwelt on verse 7, get wisdom. Verse 8, prize her highly. He's talking about wisdom. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland and will bestow on you a beautiful crown. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we're tempted to justify ourselves, to vindicate ourselves, to make sure that somebody knows that we're right, or we're the right kind, or we get it, or we're in the right path. Solomon's telling his son, you don't have to do any of that. And God is reminding us today, we don't have to do that. We don't have to worry about our position or our posture among other people. He says, seek wisdom. Seek her. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. She'll honor you if you embrace her. You want to be honored? Seek wisdom. Some people need to be honored and they're resentful if they're not. Have you noticed that? Have you ever been around an older person who's lived a long time and they don't understand why people don't ask for their advice? And it's everybody else's fault. All those people are too foolish to ask me for my advice. You know what I'm talking about? Maybe there's something on the other end too. Maybe they need it too much. I've witnessed that. And I'm being careful because I value my elders. I don't want to diminish any, but be careful. Even at an advanced age, you don't have to lift yourself up. God will take care of that. We shouldn't ever have to tell anybody else what we think of ourselves in that way. I can help you. I have experience. I'm here. I've lived. Why don't you... Solomon's telling his son, that's not wise. And can I be very clear? Some of you have unnecessarily abrasive relationships with your children or your in-laws because you've tried to elevate yourself. Because you think it's your job because of your years on earth. Solomon says don't do that. That's not wise. He says seek wisdom with everything in your heart. And it's implied that people who can benefit from your wisdom will come to you because wisdom is going to elevate you. The beginning of wisdom is this, get wisdom, whatever you get, get insight, prize her highly. Brothers and sisters, do we prize wisdom highly? I mean, above everything else. Are we more interested in wisdom or more interested in how we feel about our own opinion? This is a convicting question. Prize her highly and she will exalt you. Does that sound familiar? Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever exalts himself will be abased. Those are the words of Jesus. In the middle of a series of instructions to religious experts. That's the context of Jesus' words. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever exalts himself will be abased. He doesn't apply an age limit to it. No matter how old you are, you don't have to exalt yourself. And no matter how young you are, Paul, the scripture addresses the other side of that. He told young Timothy, let no man despise your youth. In other words, don't worry about how young you are. If God's called you, He'll equip you. Pursue wisdom. We're going to see in a few minutes what wisdom really is about. We don't have to worry about how or if or when. In what way we might be exalted in the opinions of others, we just need to pursue wisdom and the rest will work out. You know what that reminds me of? Seek ye first. The kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these other things will be added to you. Brothers and sisters, this is in my heart. Do we want God or do we just want His stuff? I heard somebody pray that beautiful prayer meeting night we had. He said, teach us to seek your face and not just your hand. Do you get it? That's what we're talking about. I don't just want the benefit of wisdom, I want wisdom. That's what Solomon is saying. I want for you, my son, to be wise. Everything else will work out. We live in a culture where everybody is trying to have the visual representation of what they hope to experience instead of just experiencing what they're trying to experience. The visual, it happens. The outcome happens automatically if this is authentic. You know? She'll praise on your head, ninth verse. Well, say this again, eighth verse. She will honor you if you embrace her. Do we embrace wisdom? I think even those of us who are sometimes trying to pursue wisdom, I pursue it in sort of a disconnected way. Information. Not like a spiritual hunger. When you go to the self-help bookshelf at the store, I've told you all before, I have a lot of those books. But the only way they're really beneficial is to the extent that there's a spiritual truth, an embracing. Do we pursue wisdom like we pursue food that we actually need? A lot of us don't understand what it means to pursue something because we've never really been hungry. We come to church, we're here three hours and we say, I'm starving. Oh no, you're not. You're not starving for a few weeks. Really. And so, sometimes we don't know what it's like to crave something. I mean, to need it. That's how we're supposed to pursue wisdom. Lord, I'm hungry. Not just for wisdom, I'm hungry for You. And some of us have tasted that at times. God wants us to live in that. And we can't do it without Him. 9th verse, she'll place on your head a graceful garland. If you exalt wisdom, if you prize her highly, if you pursue her, if you embrace her, she'll place on your head a graceful garland. She'll bestow on you a beautiful crown. We saw a picture of that yesterday. The bride walked up the aisle. My sweet little daughter said, why does she have a tent over her head? Everybody noticed, and I said it's called a veil. I'll explain it to you later. It's graceful. There's a beauty. Y'all know it represents something. But a graceful garland, this makes me think, this is maybe not exactly what it means, but it makes me think of a little girl running through a field in a sundress with flowers braided through her hair. A graceful garland. There's purity and there's beauty. He's saying if you pursue wisdom, there's going to be something about you that people are aware of. There is a mark upon God's children who are in Christ. Not everybody who's saved has the mark of God on them. Scripture clearly teaches those who are in Christ, and He's saying, you walk in the path of wisdom. That's what He's talking about. There's going to be a difference. It will be an adorning wreath. It will be an adorning crown. She will bestow on you a beautiful crown. The other translation I mentioned to you, the way it reads, it says, shield you. She will shield you with an adorning crown. You know what? A crown of righteousness is supposed to shield you from the wickedness. That's the point. It's good for you. It's not for your ego. It's not for your vanity. It's for your health. That's what wisdom gives you. Now, a little bit of a transition here. Hear my son. Again, he's getting his attention. Listen, hear, and accept. How many times do we hear what somebody's saying, but not internalize it, not accept it, not let it change us? Jesus taught that. Whosoever shall hear these sayings of mine, I will like it to him unto a wise man who built his house on a rock. We talked about that in our Bible study period. The rains descended, the floods came, the wind blew, it beat upon that house. Fell not, but the one built on the sand collapsed. Great was the fall of it. This is what is taught here. He's saying there's information everywhere. God is speaking. It occurred to me as we were praying this morning. A lot of times we pray, Lord come be with us. come Holy Spirit, or we say things, Jesus was there, God met with us. And there was just a subtle impression from the Lord, what we really need to pray for is ourselves to be changed, because God is always here. He says, I don't change. He's always present. And what we need is to be changed so that we might experience what is real, the reality. It's not wrong to say, come be among us, Lord, I pray that. But when I'm praying that, what I'm really saying is, change me in a way that I can perceive you better. Change me. Forgive me. Wash me. Clean me. It's about me transforming. God's already Himself. He doesn't need to change. It's beautiful. Hear, my son, and accept my words. A wise person listens to truth, considers it, maybe they compare it to their frame of reference, their body of knowledge, maybe they even talk to some people. But then once they realize it's true, they eat it. They internalize it. They digest it and they let it change them. Just like the food you eat literally changes what your body is made of, it actually does. Your body is full of tiny little machines, little building, little... It's amazing. It's more complex than anything we can understand. And those things are built. The molecules inside of you are made from what you put in. The way we approach life, how we think, what we see is comprised of what we've put in over and over and over. That's why God has to open our eyes. There's some truths you can't see. Because you don't have enough wisdom. And I don't mean that to me, too. That's why when I was 27, I didn't know how to think before now. Not that I know how to think all of a sudden, but there was an awareness of, like I was a child. There wasn't an understanding. There was a lack of wisdom. That's what we need. Now, why do we want to hear? Why does Solomon want his son to both hear and accept his words? This is the promise. This is the if-then, that the years of your life may be many. Again, I want to emphasize, I've been preaching this. I think some of us have internalized that God is happy if your life is a struggle and you don't have much money and you don't live too long. That's not what Scripture teaches. Solomon says, I want you to listen that you might live. God told Moses, tell the people, keep my commandments that you might live. And he told Adam and Eve, sin brings death. I'm not saying we can live forever on this earth because we're all born into a sinful situation. But some people's lives are unnecessarily shortened because of a lifetime of unwise decisions. They are. He's saying, listen to my words that your life, you may have many years of life. Eleventh verse, I've taught you the way of wisdom. Oh, this is so deep, so important. He says, I've taught you the way of wisdom. He didn't just say, I've told you things I want you to believe. You know, our whole educational system, that's not even an accurate word, but that's what they call it, schools that the kids go to. The whole system, you all research this if you're not aware, some of you are. It's built on a oppression training model, military training, to condition you with particular information so that there will be a predictable and conditioned response. Solomon is saying, I don't just want you to say the right words. I'm not just expecting you to regurgitate particular information. That's why children of God even from the same household, may end up in sort of different places, may be doing sort of different things, but if God's in it, that's where they should be. He's saying, I've taught you the way of wisdom. That's what I meant earlier. I don't just want my children to know the right responses. I want them to know how to approach life, because I'm not always going to be around. I want them to know how to think. and in so doing that they might understand God better. He says, I've led you. Brothers and sisters, this is what discipleship is, which we're called to, going to all nations, baptizing them, training them, discipling them. That's what Jesus said. He says, I've led you. How many parents have you heard say, or maybe you've said it in the past, I heard it growing up, not from my mama, from my dad, do as I say, not as I do. Oh, that's ungodly. It's not only ungodly, it's foolish. And it's lazy. And it's immature. Solomon says, I have led you in the paths of... You know what leading somebody? Take them by the hand, follow me. Step where I step. Go where I go. Listen to what I... There's some responsibility to that. A lot of us shirk responsibility and even preachers they'll say, I'm just a sinner and I'm just a sinner too. But we should be people that other people can copy, can model their lives after. That's what we're called to. Amen. Not just your pastor, not just your deacons, not just your elders. We as God's people should be people that other people can look to and say, I want to follow in their steps because their life is better than mine. He says, I've led you. Where did I lead you? I led you in paths of uprightness, paths of righteousness. When you walk, your step will not be hampered. You know hampered? It makes me think of my kids have, I don't know if they still do, I don't know if kids still play, but when I was a kid, there were things like sack races and you tie a rope between your feet and then you, that's hampered. hampered. You can only move so much if your feet are shackled. He's saying if you don't embrace wisdom, your feet are going to be hampered. And he says that your step will not be hampered and if you run, you will not stumble. Have you watched any of these races lately? When a runner is full speed and they stumble? It's a big deal. Oh, they fall, they skin up, their skin's just peeled off from... It's bad. Did you know you don't have to stumble? A lot of us have accepted a particular way of living that's not necessary. Oh, boys will be boys. You ever heard that or said that? No, it's okay, it's okay. I have a son, and I have a daughter, and they're different. But I'm not going to condition my son that he should behave in an unwise way. Because it won't be good for him. It doesn't matter if you're a male or female. It's not wise to go down this path and to just assume that your life should be full of stumbling. Yeah, we're going to sin. Yes, we're going to fall. But don't expect it. Pursue wisdom. And when you do stumble and when you do fall, get right back on the right path as soon as possible. That's wisdom. I've taught you the way of wisdom. I've led you in the paths of uprightness. When you walk, your step won't be hampered. If you run, you will not stumble. Then he says, keep hold of instruction. Don't let go. Remember, this is poetry. We miss some of it in English. But he's saying, I'm telling you instruction, I'm giving you information, truth, wisdom, hold on to it. Again, how many times are we forgetful hearers? I am. Maybe y'all aren't. I have sometimes preached in the power and demonstration of the Spirit, the anointing of the presence of God, and seen Him moving. And then somebody asked me on Monday what I preached and I can't remember. It's still in here somewhere. But I've let go of it to some degree. He's saying don't. When God gives you a life lesson of wisdom, hang on to it. Remember it. That's why there's these visual representation in Hebrew religious clothing. Put it between your forehead, on your wrist, in your tassels of your garments, on the doorposts of your house, on your walls. God says surround yourself with wisdom. You know why? You're not strong enough if you don't. When you walk, your step won't be hampered. If you run, you will not stumble. Thirteenth verse, keep hold of instruction. Do not let her go. Guard her, for she is your life. Oh, there's power in that. Guard her, for she is your life. Now, I'm going to spend a few more minutes and dwell on these verses, and this is serious, and I might seem harsh. But I want to try to get the truth across. Fourteenth verse, do not enter the path of the wicked. This is where I said sometimes, in fact often, we think that we can be strong enough and God never meant for us to be. He just meant for us to not be there. Solomon's telling his son, don't go in the path of the wicked. Not... Make sure you don't do what they're doing. Don't even go where they're walking. Don't walk in the way of the evil, the wrong. He says avoid it, do not go on it. He's repeated himself three times in three different ways and then again a fourth time. Turn away from it and pass on. What is he saying? You're going to be going down paths in life. There's going to be opportunities to go over here. Don't! Don't do it. And if you happen to take one step, turn around and get off of it. As soon as you realize you're on the wrong path, get off. Don't just try to withstand. Don't just try to hold on. You know, Joseph gave us a visual representation of how God expects us to interact with the wrong path. You think he wasn't tempted by that woman, that rich woman? Oh, he was. He ran. He ran so fast that she pulled his top layer of clothing off, and she used that to try to entrap him, but God upheld him in the right time. See, he didn't have to process and think through, oh no, if I leave my coat behind, she might use it against me. I need to stay and get my jacket. I need to be politically correct. I don't need to offend my boss's wife. I might not have a job anymore. All these things that we do that God never meant for us to do, He just means us to get out of there. Don't be in an ungodly path. Don't participate. And when you're close, run. This is what he's telling his son. Why? Because Solomon knows from personal experience that there's things your willpower will not enable you to withstand. He knows. He had hundreds of women. I'm not going to say anything about that. I'm trying to be wise. But it messed him up. He was worse for it. He didn't need to go through that. And there were consequences trying to keep his son from going down these paths. Now, why is it so important to avoid the way of evil, the path of evil, the way of the wicked? He's told in four different ways. This is why. They, the wicked, the wrong, they cannot sleep unless they've done wrong. You say, well, I don't know, that doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make sense, unless you're wicked. But we see it on the news every day. We see it in politics every day. There's spiritual wickedness in high places. There are people, I'm like, why can't you just leave us alone and let us live with the agendas they're pushing that don't even make sense? This is why. They can't sleep until they've done evil. They can't sleep until they've done wrong. That's why you need to avoid them. They'll rub off on you. That's right. No rest for the wicked. They just need more, more, more. Suffering. Misery loves company. Have you ever heard that expression? That's what their lives produce. Misery loves company. They cannot sleep unless they've done wrong. They're robbed of sleep unless they've made someone stumble. This is horrible. But there are people who live this way. And, you know, I never understood. I used to try to relate to certain people, try to have civil discussions, try to have logical... No, there are people who are this. If you're not able to sleep until you harm someone else, we can't have a civil discussion about anything that matters. We don't have the same worldview, the same foundation, the same values. You see? What are we supposed to do? Avoid them. Avoid the path. Seek wisdom. They're robbed of sleep unless they've made someone stumble. They eat the bread of wickedness. They drink the wine of violence. Wickedness and violence are like what sustains them. They take it in like water and food, wine and bread. It's terrible. That's why you need to avoid the path. That's why we don't go in the way. This is why. Let me make this really simple, especially for the young people. Foolishness is not no big deal. This is what it leads to. That's why it matters. Now, I'm going to conclude with these two beautiful verses, 18 and 19. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn which shines brighter and brighter till the full day. King James says it shines more and more until the perfect day. You know what that picture is? It's the transforming, ever-increasing luminescence of Jesus Christ. The more we look at Him, the more we become like Him. The more we look in His light, the more we see light. That's what He's talking about. The path of the righteous is like the dawn. There's a little bit of light in the morning. It's a soft light. It's a tender light. It's gentle. Kind of like how when the Lord first saved you. There's more and more light. More and more glory. More and more purpose. The more light there is, the more you see the reality of the world around you. The more need you see, it's not all easy. With more glory comes more awareness, more responsibility. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day. And I don't want us to miss this. He's not just saying righteous people. He's saying the path they're on is like this. Their path. God has a path for us that we're supposed to go down. And a lot of the suffering problems and divisions and pain in our life is because we strayed from His path. And then people want to blame Him. I don't know why God let this or that happen. He did it. You made some bad decisions. Now if you go back to His path and back to Him, He'll redeem it. He'll heal you. He'll restore. It's what He does. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter the full day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness. They do not know over what they stumble. That's the world we're in. People should be able, once again, this is not something we do to ourselves. If we could get a song ready, Sister Jodi, I'm about finished. There's a difference in light and darkness. There's a difference in the path of the righteous and the path of the wicked. We shouldn't be afraid for the difference to be perceived. I want to say this before I conclude. It doesn't mean you're unkind or unchristian if somebody notices you're not like them and it makes them uncomfortable. That's actually how it's supposed to be. You don't put yourself in that position. We don't esteem ourselves, we pursue God and it just ends up that way. One final point, I want to make sure this is clear. When he says, pursue wisdom, hold on to wisdom, seek wisdom, Wisdom is just a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. He says, I've given you the way of wisdom, I've led you in the way of righteousness. Jesus said, I am the way. Do you understand this? Everything we're studying in Proverbs is a glimpse of what Jesus was going to give us and gave us when He came. He's the way. And so, all through here, when we talk about pursuing wisdom, we're really talking about pursuing Jesus. He's the way, the truth, and the life. God bless you. That's the message.