All right, am I the only one who could not see anything but Charlie Brown when you're watching that video? Okay, monster's ink with the music, yeah, and the door, yeah, I see that. I feel like I could safely tell you that now so you won't be distracted for the next four weeks as we go through this series. This is our last Sunday in the Asking for Direction series. My name is Kevin and I get to serve as one of the pastors here and I love this series is we try to look for what God is doing and how we can jump alongside of that and be a part of what He is doing in amazing, amazing ways and man, God is moving through Bridgewater in awesome ways through you people because you're following Christ, you're following His directions and saying yes, where He needs you to say yes and we're turning away from foolish things and that's exactly what we're going to be talking about this morning. But we've been in kind of bouncing around through the book of Proverbs over the last few weeks talking about wisdom because Solomon, the King of Israel, King Solomon literally wrote the book on wisdom and one of the things that he wrote in Proverbs 12 verse 4, he said, "A worthy wife is a crown for her husband and I am blessed to have an awesome wife who declared October in our family to be Hike-tober. So every week on my day off, we've been going on a hike and enjoying just some time outside because one of our goals as a family this year is to have a thousand outside hours and we could potentially come close to that at the end of October through the help of Hike-tober. But it's just been an awesome time for our family to connect and to enjoy each other and enjoy. What is probably the greatest season to hike in? Can I get an amen on that? As my daughter likes to say, it will just rain leaves in October. We get the color changes and it's just gorgeous. But this Friday we went out to Hickory Run State Park. Anybody been down there to Boulder Field? Yeah, so that's my three kids over on the left there and this massive, I don't know, half mile, three quarter mile field of just open boulders. This is probably the shortest hike that we'll do this year but one of the hardest as well. And it was just so fun to watch my kids traverse these boulders and they're in age order there which was perfect, line them up intentionally that way or perhaps just the length of their legs got them that way. But it was just so fun to watch my kids traverse this field and no, we're going to start at the bottom end and we're going to work all the way to the top. And they crossed all of those boulders all on their own. But it was just so cool to see how they navigated it differently. My middle son, my middle child hunter was super methodical about it. You could watch him look down, plot out five or six steps and then take them very carefully and then look up and make sure he was still going in the right direction. My youngest on the other hand, some of you are already laughing because you have young guests or are a young guest. There was one point where his brother and sister were far ahead of him because they have longer legs. We were trying to get to a tree on the far side and so they're heading off this way and I see Jackson taking his steps and I'm like, bud, where are you going? He's like, I'm going to Dem. I'm going to my brother and sister. I'm like, dude, you're going the wrong way. Because if we don't pay attention to what has our attention, we're going to end up drifting off in pass and we're going to end up in places that we don't want to be. We talked about in the very first week that whatever has your attention, I'm sorry, that your direction, not your intention will determine your destination. It doesn't matter if you decide I'm going to Dem, if your direction is taking you in the wrong way, you're going to follow a bad path and it's going to lead you somewhere you never wanted to be before. The truth is whatever has your attention will determine your direction. Sometimes we can get stuck just like Jackson following this path that's right in front of me because it's easy and convenient and I don't want to look up to see where it's actually taking me. But what Solomon did as he wrote the book of Proverbs was he set out and said, "I want my kids to lead an amazing life. I want them to have everything that I've been blessed with and then some. I want to give them the wisdom that God has given me, pass that along to them so they've got to jump start in life." Because Solomon, for all of his flaws, was a pretty good father in some regards. And I hope that my kids can take the teachings that I've given them, most importantly they can take God's word and stand on the shoulders of giants who have come before them. And as human beings, as Christians, we should have a jump start if we'll just listen to the wisdom of those who have come before us. That's why we see technological innovations and we see all of these amazing things happen. We see world records get broken every time an Olympic happens, right? How does this happen? Because we have coaches, we have people to guide us in the right direction. We set a goal and we make a plan to get to that goal. And that's what Solomon was doing is he wrote the book of Proverbs was, "Hey, guys, wisdom is the goal. Let's chase after wisdom. Here's the plan so you can follow it." And in Proverbs chapter 4, he lays it out this way and says, "Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Don't be looking down at every single next step. Sometimes we just need to look ahead and then we can plan our course. Look straight ahead and fix your eyes on what's before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet and stay on that safe path. Know where you're going and stay on that path. Don't get sidetracked. Keep your feet from following evil. And sometimes we get so sidetracked, so easily sidetracked by something new and shiny and loud and exciting. And we start following that for a minute and realize, "Oh, I want it to be there, but I'm not because my intention of getting where I want to be is not going to determine where I get. It's my direction. And if I don't change my direction, I'm going to end up in a place that I never wanted to be, that I never expected to be. And that's why as we drive along the road, you probably encountered some of these things in your life called guard rails. Anybody been on a road that should have had guard rails and didn't? We were on one of those last night and I'm like, "Oh boy, I wish I had a guard rail here." Because even though a guard rail may take up a little bit of that space on your road, it gives you that sense of security and, "Hey, I'm not going to fall over a cliff today." That was not on my plan. We have those guard rails in life and that was wise to put these things up because we can get trapped and caught by these things that catch our attention like the beautiful mountains in the distance, the color of the trees changing and all these amazing things and we drift in the wrong direction. And long before guard rails were invented, we had blinders on horses to keep them from getting distracted from the things that are around them. And just like that, we need blinders and guard rails in our lives to help us stay on the right path. And that's what God's Word gives us. And the question that I want to challenge all of you with this morning is, "What has my attention?" What has my attention right now? If I look at your checkbook, if I look at your, nobody's using a checkbook anymore, right? If you look at your online bank statements, your credit card statements, you look at your calendar and you look at how you're spending your time, the things that you're talking about, what actually has your attention? But the better question is, what should have my attention? Because if we're going to say, I follow Jesus, I trust in him as my leader and forgiver, then I should be following his guidance, shouldn't I? Instead of being swayed around by the things that are on the news or getting distracted by things that shouldn't have my attention. But what should have my attention? And that's where Solomon is going to take us this morning, as we look into Proverbs 7, is, "Hey, let's pay attention to the things that should have our attention, the things that deserve our attention." And he writes to his sons, "Follow my advice, my son. Always treasure my commands. Obey my commands and live. Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes." I love how he just escalates this with each line. "Obey and live. Guard my instructions as you guard your own eyes." If I'm going to throw something at you, what's your initial instinct going to be? Oh, let me protect my feet. No, I'm going to protect my face and my eyes. I want to guard my eyes from what's wrong, from what's going to hurt them. And Solomon is telling his sons, "Obey these instructions, treat them and guard them as if they're your own life." And the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy, "My word, your word, God is life." In these pages, we have life and life to the fullest. That's what God wants for each and every one of us. He doesn't want to be just some cosmic killjoy who wants to keep you from having fun. He knows what is best for your life. And he's given us instructions to follow. It's when we stray from those instructions and get distracted by the flashy new, exciting, enticing things over here that we fall away from his path. So we need to guard his instructions as we guard our own lives. Solomon continues on and says, "Tie them on your fingers as a reminder. Write them deep within your own hearts." And I love, it sounds silly. Okay, we're going to tie something on my finger to remind me of something really important. Should it be crazy if we just all went around with reminders of a promise on our finger? But that's exactly what God's word calls us to, is remind yourself daily, and I hope for those of you that are aware on one of these fancy rings, that it is a reminder of a commitment that you've made to somebody who caught your attention a long time ago, to somebody who is hopefully still catching your attention today. Because we can all have our attention caught by different things in our lives, and we want to make sure that our attention is directed in the right place. Because as much as I may say that I love my wife, it's not going to look like it unless I'm paying attention to her, unless I'm giving her the time of day and asking her how her life is, what's going on. If she doesn't have my attention, something else will. And my attention as a husband and as a father should be to lead my family well. And we're going to do that by following God's word. And this whole concept of tying these reminders on your body, it goes back to an ancient Jewish text known as the Shema. And this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 6. And this is the John 3, 16 of the Old Testament. If, I don't know if the Israelites had like football teams going on in the desert while they're walking around, wandering around, but they would have had their athletes with eye black on and Deuteronomy 6.4 written under them. Because this was the core of their faith. And it goes like this, listen, oh Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. This is the foundation of Hebrew faith, of Jewish faith, which is the foundation of the Christian faith. You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. Does that sound familiar? When Jesus asks what the greatest commandment is, he answers with the Shema. He says, love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And he says, the second commandment is just like it. To love your neighbor as yourself. Because you cannot love your neighbor if you don't love God and you cannot love God if you don't love your neighbor. And the Shema continues on, it says, you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commandments that I am giving you today. I tell you, by the time we were halfway through Boulder Field on Friday, we were wholeheartedly in it. We didn't have any choice of what -- there was no turning back, because turning back is just as hard as going forward. We're in it. And we've got to be committed to this. Are you committed to God's Word? Are you making this your compass, your guide in every area and element of your life? Obey my commands wholeheartedly. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you're at home and when you're on the road, when you're going to bed, and when you're getting up. Talk about them constantly. How many of you have kids out there? Awesome. Are we talking about important things? How many of your kids don't shut up about things? And sometimes it's things that don't matter whatsoever. Oh, some of you are getting dirty looks from your kids right here. But sometimes our kids get so excited about little things that you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm really glad that you're excited about it. How cool would it be if our kids were that excited about God's Word? And at Bridgewater, we've got some awesome tools that I would love for you to be a part of because I want you parents to be the primary spiritual caregivers in your homes, to be the people who are training your children up in righteousness, who are teaching them what God's Word says. And I know that can be hard and daunting, so there's an app for that. Two of them actually. We have the ParentQ app, which is awesome. If you have your kids in our kids ministry next door, they're going through this curriculum that teaches them how to live a godly life, that they have memory verses every month, so that they can understand and memorize and meditate on Scripture. But the ParentQ app, you can scan that QR code right now. It'll do two things for you. It'll help you to follow along with what they're learning in Sunday school, in Sunday school. We don't call it that, but it'll also tell you, and this is really hard for me, because it'll also tell you exactly how many weeks until your kid turns 18 and moves on to what's next. 510 weeks until my daughter moves on to what's next. And it helps me. Yeah, stop it. Got a little bit more time with my boys. 614 weeks, 749 weeks. And it reminds me that these moments are fleeting. My kids aren't going to want to join me on a trek across Boulderfield. My knees aren't going to want to join me for that much longer. But my kids aren't going to be kids for much longer, and it's my job as a father to train them in a way that will honor God for the rest of their lives, that will set them on a path now so that they will be able to do greater things and I could begin to imagine in God's kingdom. So that's the ParentQ app, and it'll help you follow along with what they're learning over in kids' church, which they're doing awesome things. You can watch the videos on there as well. And then the second app is Right Now Media. Who out there has access to Right Now Media already. It's an awesome resource. It's totally free. Some of the best teachings that you'll find. Way better communicators than me. Way better Bible expositors and all of that. Scan that QR code you can get right now media for free through Bridgewater. Some amazing video series with small group curriculum along there. But there's also kids' programs as well. And get this, parents. Any Bluey fans out there? My kids ask for Right Now Media over Bluey. So if you're tired of hearing mom, dad, or crying at the end of every episode, Right Now is your answer. There's some awesome stuff on there. Those are easy, simple tools for you to help train your kids in righteousness, to take an active part in their spiritual lives and in their growth. And that's what Solomon, or that's what the Shema encourages us to. As it continues on, it says, tie these commands to your hands and wear them on your forehead as a reminder. This is exactly what Solomon is referencing in Proverbs 7. Tie these things onto your hands and onto your arms and wear them as a reminder. It says, "Write them on the doorposts of your homes and on your gates. Put God's Word everywhere. Write it all over the place." And literally Jewish people for thousands of years, even to this day, will obey the Shema by taking part in this. You'll see the wrappings on the arms. Those are called teflin. And then on the forehead, it's called the frontlet. Because, hey, they took God at His Word. If God takes God's Word seriously, I want to take God's Word seriously. Amen? I'm just going to obey what God says. And I did try to go on Amazon and find some teflin. And the only ones that I could actually afford were the kids' teflin playset. It was like, this is a really cool thing. But believe it or not, those leather shafts start about 300 bucks and move up to about $1,500. But good Orthodox Jews say, hey, you know what? God's Word is worth it. Now, if you guys are looking for a great Christmas present for me, don't. Use that money. Give it to vision. Give it to something awesome that God is doing. But those are the teflin. And if you see a good acidic or Orthodox Jew wrapping up their arms for prayer, that's what they would do. It's not just like, hey, amusement park wristband. They are wrapping it and it's tight. You'll see their flesh bulging out from under it. And you'll be able to see for hours after, hey, this man spent some time in prayer this morning, because I see the marks on his arms. And they wear that front lid on their forehead to help them remember, God, I want every thought that comes into my brain to be filtered through your Word. And that's my prayer, and I hope for each one of us, that our thoughts, our minds, our actions, everything is filtered through what God's Word says. If God's Word says, yes, I want it to be a yes. God's Word says, no, I don't want any part in it. And then the last one, we're going to say this word together because it's a really fun word. Mizzouza. Let's say that together. Mizzouza. And that they would put on the doorposts of their homes. Why? Because God's Word said too. Because every time they went through a doorway in their home, they would take which is just one moment and pray the shama. The Lord our God is God alone. And I want to love the Lord with all my soul and all my mind and all my strength. And I want to love my neighbor as myself as I go out. How can we bind God's Word on our arms and on our foreheads and on onto our posts today? Maybe it's writing a verse down on your bathroom mirror that you're going to look at or in your car that says don't honk at that driver even though he's doing something really stupid. I don't think that one's in the Bible. Ben can fact check me on that. But are you taking time to put scripture front and center in your life? Are you waking up early to spend time in God's Word? And Solomon continues to challenge his sons. He says love, wisdom like a sister. Make insight a beloved member of your family. Let them protect you from an affair with an immoral woman from listening to the flattery of the promiscuous woman. He's saying put those things front and center in your life. What he's saying is pre-decide to pay attention to what should have your attention. I know that's a lot of words there. But pre-decide choose ahead of time to pay attention to what's going to have your attention today. Because if you just take every day and all right I'm just going to wander through life aimlessly, you're going to get somewhere aimlessly. But if you want to get somewhere on purpose and to a good place on purpose, you're going to need to discipline and prioritize yourself. Because the truth is we're never going to drift in good directions. We must discipline and prioritize ourselves to good directions. I've never heard of somebody who accidentally ran a marathon, right? And that may just be craziness. Proverbs does tell us that only a fool runs with nobody chasing him. But if you see somebody doing something great, it's because they've disciplined and prioritized themselves to that. It didn't happen by accident. Proverbs 7 continues and says while I was at the -- oh, this is a cautionary tale that Solomon jumps into and says this is what happens when you don't decide ahead of time to what's going to have your attention. You're going to be caught by the bright and shiny and the sparkly and the loud. You're going to get the squeaky wheel is going to get the grease and that grease is going to trip you up. He says while I was looking out the window of my house, looking through the curtain, I saw some naive young men and one in particular who lacked common sense. He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman strolling down the path by her house. It was at twilight in the evening and deep darkness fell. You hear that dramatic music coming in here? Something bad is about to take place. The woman approached him seductively dressed and sly of heart. She was the brash rebellious type, never content to stay at home. She is often in the streets and markets soliciting at every corner. She threw her arms around him and kissed him and with a brazen look, she said, I've just made my peace offerings and fulfilled my vows. You're the one I was looking for. I came out to find you and here you are. This sounds like every youth group relationship I've ever seen happen. Hey, I just got done worshiping and look how cute you are. You're the one my heart has been looking for. Hopefully those youth group relationships don't go in the direction of this one because it escalates pretty darn quickly here. My bed is spread with beautiful blankets with colored sheets of Egyptian linen. She's not just talking about interior decorating. I perfume my bed with mer, allos and cinnamon. Come, let's drink our fill of love until morning. Let's enjoy each other's caresses. A little bit forward here, isn't she? And here's when the shoe drops. For my husband is not at home. He's away on a long trip. Red flag sirens, flashing lights, everything is going off right now saying stop, don't do this. And I would really, really hope that if you guys are walking through Walmart later today and a married man or woman comes up to you and says, hey, let's go to bed. You could say no to that. But sometimes temptation comes in much more subtly. And if we haven't pre-decided what's going to have our attention, it's easy to convince ourselves that it's not all that bad. What's the harm in taking that one little step? It's kind of nice getting that attention at work. I really like this thing. And you know what? I deserve this. I never do anything for myself. And we don't realize it, but we're drifting closer and closer to an edge that we're going to fall off. To a place of no return. And we're going to make bad decisions because we haven't decided ahead of time what should have our attention. And unfortunately, we're going to see this young man drift down that path. Solomon continues and says about that husband, he's taking a wallet full of money with him. He's not going to come home until later this month. Nobody's going to catch us. Nobody's going to know. How are they going to know? But we need to learn to say no right away to foolish distractions. We need to learn how to say no to things that are going to tempt us, that are going to drift us away from a path that is best for us. From what God's Word tells us is absolutely best. Do we trust what God's Word says? Do we trust that this is the best plan for our lives? If that's a yes, let's follow it. If it's a no, I would love for you to just give it a shot. Hey, let me just do what God's Word says because I know how I've lived my life and it's not great. So let me just maybe just go to the creator and the designer and ask him for instructions. Wouldn't that be a really good idea? Let's follow what God says and say no right away to foolish distractions. For some of us, that might be making this thing a whole lot less fun. I did that this week and it felt really, really good. I took off like Facebook and Instagram and all the games off my phone. I'm like, I don't even want this thing anymore. But what if we turned our phones into communication devices instead of distraction devices? What if instead of sitting in front of the news letting it tell us how to be terrified about the world around us? What if we just shut that off because the world around us is still going to go on, bad things are still going to happen even if you don't know about it immediately. And guess what? When these bad things happen, natural disasters come wars and rumors of wars. Jesus tells us these are the beginning of birth pains. This is good news. It might not feel like it right now, but God is doing something great. And when we hear these wars and rumors of wars and these natural disasters, it should spur us to action because it means that Jesus is coming back even sooner. And those of us who trust in Him as leader and forgiver should celebrate that because we get to go home. We get to go be and experience God the way that He designed it for us to be. But it should also spur us to action because there are people who don't know Jesus as leader and forgiver yet who will be eternally separated from God because they've held God at arms length and said, no, I don't want any part of this. I just want to live my life and have my fun. So we should go to those people and say, hey, listen, I know you think you're having fun, but you need Jesus. We need to be ready to tell those people the truth of the gospel that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord, that by trusting in Him, you can have life to the fullest because God wants what is absolutely best for you. Unfortunately, this young man does not listen to wisdom. We see the woman says she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery. He followed her at once like an ox going to the slaughter. He was like a stag caught in a trap awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a stare, little knowing it would cost him his life. So listen to me, my sons, and pay attention to my words. Don't let your heart stray away toward her. Don't wander down her wayward path. For she has been the ruin of many, many men have been her victims. If we don't plan ahead of time what's going to have our attention, we're going to get caught into these traps. We need to take action to follow God's word, to treasure it, to guard it, to tie it on our hearts, to write it on our hearts, to take these action words. These are words that Solomon uses in the beginning of chapter seven. Follow treasure, guard, tie, and write. We need to take action if we want to go in a good direction because if we don't, we're going to go to the other side and we're going to be just seduced, enticed, caught, and snared by temptation, and we're going to have to pay the cost for it. If we choose to just drift instead of discipline ourselves, we're going to drift in bad directions and drifting is deadly. Coasting is easy, but coasting is costly. It will cost you everything if you don't discipline yourself to follow God's word. So as we close this morning, I want to challenge you to write God's word on your heart, to memorize just one small verse of scripture. And that's Psalm 119 verse 37. We're going to pray this together in just a moment, and this is my prayer for each one of you this morning. It says, "Turn my eyes from worthless things and give me life through your word." I fully believe and I'm convinced that God's word is life. He wants what is best for you. So I pray that you will follow that. Let's pray that this morning. Lord, God, turn our eyes from worthless things and give us life through your word. God, we admit that we have chased after things that don't matter. Yet they grab all of our attention. We're drifting in the wrong directions and not prioritizing and disciplining ourselves to do what we know is right. God, take our hearts, shape us and change us to be more like you as we commit ourselves to your word as we take action to live by what you have called us to. Lord, God, we trust you that your word is good and that you want what is best for us. We love you because you first loved us. Lord, God, help us to be more like you this morning. We pray these things in the awesome and holy name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
