Good morning. Welcome to Bridgewater. So glad you decided to join us this morning. My name is Kurt. I'm one of the pastors here. And we've been going through this series. Pastor Kevin started us on it last week and that's called asking for directions. How many of you like to ask for directions? Raise your hand. All right, a couple of you would like to ask for directions. How many don't like to ask for directions? For some reason wives lift their husbands hands up. It's interesting. So last week, Kevin introduced us to this series and he explained that direction, not intention, determines destination. And if we want to end somewhere good on purpose, then we need to follow Jesus. So many years ago, I was driving down Interstate 80 from going from Ohio over here to Northeast Pennsylvania, to Baptist Bible College where I attended college. And there was a severe snowstorm. And I'm driving in this snowstorm and my intent was I am going to get there. And I had my little 1990 Chevy Cavalier. And I'm on the freeway and I was bound and determined to get to where I needed to go. I thought there's no big deal to do this drive. I like actually to drive in the snow. I saw trucks, semi-trucks fly by me and then end up in the median. And then I just continued to drive and I got near the Lamar area and I started to try and drive up that mountain on that highway. And as much as I had the intention of making it, I didn't take into account the quality of my car and the severity of the storm. So what ended up happening was I started to fishtail and then I started to actually plow the road with my car and I thought maybe that was a moment where I needed to stop and turn around and stay at a hotel. And that's what I ended up doing. But the reality was I wanted to get from point A to point B. My goal, I had intentions on getting back to school that day, that night, and it did not happen. Now I could will all I want to make it happen. I could have the best intentions. But if I had simply decided to wait and leave the next morning, that would have been wise. And I would have gotten from point A to point B without any trouble. This morning we're going to talk about how foresight is better than hindsight. You've heard the phrase and perhaps you've said it, how many have ever said this, hindsight is twenty-twenty, right? We've lived it. We say that because if we only knew, if we could only have predicted what was going to happen, we could avoid the problem altogether. Have you ever said to yourself, what was I thinking, right? hindsight is driven by guilt and shame. Oftentimes we ruminate over and over in our minds about past regrets. We do that should of would or could of thinking. If I only made this decision differently, if I only didn't say that thing, the reality is we cannot control what has already happened. So this morning, you, while everybody in here, either drove or walked or maybe even rode a bike, I don't know, but everyone took a route to get here this morning. You came in, you had conversations with people, right? Or maybe you avoided people, I'm not sure. But you had conversations with people and then you sat down and now you're listening to me. Now, you can't do anything about all that that happened. You can't go back and say, you know what, I wish I took mile road instead of route six here this morning. You can't do that, right? Because you can't change anything that happened in the past. It's done with. And whether good or bad, it's the past. We cannot change the route that we already took. You cannot will yourself to have changed the course in the past, but we can learn from mistakes and we can plan to have foresight. Because foresight is better than hindsight. Let's read Proverbs 27 verse 12. "A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." See, a prudent person is someone who shows care and thought for the future. They make a concentrated effort to look down the path so that they can be prepared. You see, foresight is about wisdom and preparation. I remember a time when I played football back in high school, and yes, believe it or not, I played football. We prepared for a game and we fought against a good team. We'd done good preparation, we found ourselves down 21 to 6 in the fourth quarter. And we stuck together and our preparation paid off as we came back and we won 22 to 21. We're like, "Yeah, this is great." Right? Well, let me tell you what happened after that. I'm going to share this video with you first. This is one thing that happened. I say the difference between first and second is clear intention. Well, that's exactly what the Black Knights had heading into tomorrow night's game against Cardinal. All right. So, this was my football team in high school as you see the old tape. So you hear now this reporter talking about good intention, about clear intention. Well, intention did not matter because we were so caught up in the excitement of our previous win and the attention we got from the news channel that even to the point where they're like, "We're going to send the news helicopter out to your game for your second game." Right? We're like, "No way." I understand my school that I went to in Ohio, my entire high school would fit in one grade at Tumkinic. So you got to get that picture of how small of a school. So we were super excited and we got all this attention and what happened was our pride blinded us in our preparations and as much as we believed we could win, it was not enough because we weren't prepared for the next game. We were favored to win and we got destroyed 42 to 13 for all of Northeast Ohio to watch in the helicopter. All right. So sometimes our pride can get in the way of preparation. We think to ourselves, "I have nothing to worry about. I got this." And we think just by willing ourselves into having good intention, that will lead us down the path that we desire. I think about this related to marriage. A couple might come for premarital counseling and they might be like, "Oh, we know what it takes to be married. We know what requires communication. We got this. No big deal. It won't be a problem." But then they don't look down the road and anticipate conflict. They don't learn conflict resolution. They don't learn to trust God when their partner sins against them. Or maybe they're shocked and they retaliate. They blame their partner. They blame God because pride was in the way of looking down the path and being prepared, knowing that conflict will happen no matter what they do. When was the last time you examined your path? When was the last time you examined your daily routine, your decisions with money, with relationships, with entertainment or food, whether it be your behavior or the behavior of others? This happens in relationships all the time. If someone that you are dating berates you verbally, puts you down and calls you names, whether your face or through text message and then acts all apologetic, this is a red flag. If someone loved bombs you and you feel all flattered, he or she is giving you so much attention and in the moment you don't do what he or she wants, they're yelling and screaming at you and saying hurtful words. That is a red flag. When a salesman is trying to sell you something and they won't give you the total price, all right? I've had that happen. I'm trying to buy a car and they're going over the details and like, we can get you out the door at 250 a month, isn't that great? 250 a month out the door and I'm like, yeah, but how much is it? But out the door 250 a month and they would not tell me how much the car was, it drove me crazy, right? But that's a red flag. They're not giving you the information that you need to make a wise decision that could lead you down a wrong path. If let's say someone has this new diet scheme out there, they promise you, you know what, you can lose weight with no work. Just take this pill or follow these simple instructions and give me $500 and you're good to go. You don't have to worry about a thing, right? Don't buy it. It's a red flag. It's not going to lead you down a path that helps you or how about the promotion from work that promises you a ton more money and you have kids at home, but it means you won't be home for most of the month. That may be a red flag. Reminds me of that old song, "Gats in the Cradle in the Silver Spoon." I know that song, right? That's what it's talking about. That's the way all the time there, okay, so, and maybe it's a red flag for an affair. You might say, "It's only harmless flirting. Besides, I deserve to feel good about myself and he or she helps me feel that way." This is a red flag and it leads to guilt and shame of the hindsight being 2020, which leads to our first point and that is pay attention to the red flags you see along the way. If you're going to follow the path, you need to pay attention to the red flags that you see along the way. I'm going to read Proverbs 27, 12 again, "A prudent person for sees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." So ultimately, we have two options here. We take precautions, right? We listen to these red flags or we go blindly on. We don't pay any attention, we just go blindly on and then we have two outcomes. We either get out of the way of harm or we suffer the consequences. The first option is described by the prudent person. The prudent person looks down the path. They see the red flags and they don't ignore them. He doesn't say, "I'll be fine. I know others have had problems with it, but I can handle it. I'll be the exception, not the rule." The prudent person says, "This could be trouble. I care about my future. I want to make a change, so he or she takes precautions, precautions in dating, precautions with friends, precautions in financial decisions." Notice the second option. The simpleton goes blindly on. The foolish person looks down at the path and he says, "Send it." He says, "Send it. I'll be fine. It's no big deal." So what? There's dangers. What's life with our little bit of danger? And rather than expressing wisdom, thinking a plan through to the end and paying attention to the red flags, they go blindly on. Slowly into a relationship with red flags, blindly into financial decisions that seem risky. Now the text doesn't tell us the outcome of the prudent person here, but the implication is that things go well. They will move toward desired goals as they continue to look down the path. On the other hand, the foolish person suffers the consequences. Leads us to our next point. Don't coast down the path of least resistance. So you're going to watch out for the red flags and don't coast down the path of least resistance. We all have this tendency. We barrel through life looking for the easiest path. The one that provides more comfort and ease. I see this all the time in dating relationships. There's so much excitement about how one feels in the moment that sometimes there's no preparation made for down the road. There have been some that refuse marriage counseling because we don't need it. We have a great relationship. There's this misconception that because I feel good right now and there are no problems right now, therefore there'll be no problems in the future. It's a proverbial putting the head in the sand. My mind is made up. Don't confuse me with the facts. Let's just charge forward with the relationship decision, a financial decision, or just a decision to have fun with no boundaries, and then suddenly we are left with guilt and shame. And we wish we had taken the harder path to make a budget, to evaluate our relationship, to evaluate our thought life. We explain it more here in these next two passages. First of all, Hebrews 12, verse 11, says, "No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening. It's painful, but afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way." So no discipline is enjoyable. Nobody likes it. Nobody likes having to be disciplined or nobody likes to actually apply discipline in their own life, right? But it says that afterwards there will be a peaceful harvest of right living. How do you feel when something's hard and you work through it and you do the right thing? How does that feel? Right? That feels good, doesn't it? It feels good to do the right thing even when it's hard, and there's a sense of peace that you gain from that. Then in 1 Timothy 4, 7, and 8, it says, "Don't waste time arguing over godless ideas and old wives' tales. Instead train yourself to be godly." Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and the life to come. What these passages are saying is that anything worthwhile takes hard work. No one likes the work that it takes, for example, to become a sit or to become an athlete to perform in the Olympics or in sports. They get up at 4 or 5 in the morning and they run, and they run, and that's crazy, right? Like, who does that, right? So they get up and they go because why? Because they look down the path. If I'm going to reach this goal, then this is what I need to do. But it's even more important in our spiritual lives. Do we approach our lives that way, getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning? I'm going to spend, you know what? This life is hard, and I want to follow after Jesus. I need to get up early so I can devote my day to him by spending an hour in his word and prayer. Do we have that kind of commitment that we would have to make the Olympics or some professional sport? It takes spiritual work and commitment in order to pursue the godliness that most of us say that we desire. How much time do we waste arguing over things that essentially don't matter? Or matter very little given eternal perspective? If you and I are charging down the easiest path, the easiest one that we find that can lead to destructive consequences, but because it's often the easiest to do the wrong thing, to react badly to others, to attack them rather than to show the kindness and the love and be committed to following Jesus the way he calls us to. So, it leads us to our application point, which is this, tell yourself, "I won't be the exception, I'll be the rule." Tell yourself, "I won't be the exception, I will be the rule." Are you charging down this easy path and it can be easy? And you say the negative consequences of Proverbs 27, 12, they don't apply to me. You might say that you will be the exception, but the principle of the path remains. The path you're heading down will lead you to a destination, but it will not be the destination you want just because you desire to be so. It will be ultimately where the decision that you make leads you. You can want to go in a certain direction, but if your decisions don't lead you there, you're not going to get there. I think about this as it relates to my children. I have a son in college and I have a son in high school. And there are many days I'm tired and I want to veg out. Or there are days when I get home and there are other demands, phone calls, text messages, things coming at me that I focus on instead of my son, in particular, this is something recent, my son Ezekiel. I came home from work one day and I walked in the door and there were all these demands and of course my wife's dog was jumping and jumping. And of course if you have a dog, you know this, that they don't leave you alone until you give them attention. And so here I am, the dog's jumping and jumping. I hug the dog because he's not going to leave me alone until I do. So I give him all the attention and then I go and deal with what I need to deal with. And then my son is looking for my attention and I sort of give him this half hug and I'm distracted by other things and I'm not paying attention to him. But you know in that moment he needed me and I found out later because we had a conversation later about some things that we needed to talk about because he was seeking my wisdom on some things. But I went and I hugged the dog but didn't hug my own child, right? So there's things that we might choose the easy path and not do the things that we need to do. This was my older son who's in college, now one of the famous things that he would do is that it'd be 11 o'clock at night and he would say to me, I'm tired, you know myself, I'm tired, I want to go to bed and he would inevitably, I'm about to go to bed, dad, yes. And he would want to talk about the deepest theological life issues at 11 o'clock at night and my brain is saying go to bed. But no, like those are the moments, those are the decisions, that's the path that you take because I can have this intention, right? I can have this intention, I want my children to live for Jesus. I want them to have character and integrity. But if I don't make those decisions in those moments then all they are are intentions because I'm not going down the path by having those conversations when they come up because when do those things come up on our own timetable, right? Those opportunities to pour into the lives of others, they don't come up on our own timetable, we're doing other things, right? I mean the same goes for my wife too. Like I need to take advantage of those opportunities to love my wife the way that she needs to be loved. And so why do we do this? Because time is limited. We need to live today in a wise way. And Ephesians chapter 5 says this, verses 15 to 17. So be careful how you live, don't live like fools but like those who are wise. Make most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don't act thoughtlessly but understand what the Lord wants you to do. So live in a wise way, understand that the decisions that we make don't just walk through life randomly. Be intentional about it because that's going to lead you down a path. Don't just coast, be aware of the red flags, don't coast through life. Think about the decisions that you make and are these decisions leading me towards Jesus? Are they leading other people towards Jesus? I think on Sunday mornings we talk about people that have given their life to Jesus. We celebrate it, right? But the reason why that's happened, we heard in that story this morning is that other people in that family came around and they asked questions and they encouraged and they shared the gospel and invited to church, all these things are intentional decisions that are made to see more people come to know Jesus. So we can want these things to happen but if we don't think through it and look ahead on the path, it's not just going to happen because we want it to happen. We need to make the decisions to bring it in that direction. So I'd ask and invite you to pray. If you were here last week you received a key chain that had the theme of our series in Proverbs 27.12 on it. If you didn't get one, there's some back at the Welcome Center on your way out. I encourage you to pray this over your finances, your family and that prayer exists, something along these lines. Lord, help me to see the problems that are headed my way long before they get here. Please give me the courage to get out of my, out of the way and make a wise decision. I urge you to pray that today because wise people look as far down the road as possible because what I choose today determines what I experience tomorrow. Let's pray. Terribly, Father, we thank you for this day, God. We thank you for your word and the guidance that it gives us. I pray, Lord, that you would help us. We desperately need your help, Lord, and I just pray that you would give us that guidance, that we would be committed, that we would be disciplined to spend that time with you, Lord, so that we can be ready and we can be prepared, Lord, to see what the red flags are, Lord, and that, God, we wouldn't just coast through life, but we would be intentional about our walk with you and how we love others. Thank you for your love for us. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]
