Choosing A Path
Robby Pollard, Lead Pastor
Wisdom is learning from personal experience.
Wisdom is learning to live on the right path.
Wisdom is receiving, believing and living the Word of God.
Proverbs 1:8-9
8Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 26:4
4Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
Proverbs 1:8-9
8Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Genesis 41:42
42Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck.
Daniel 5:29
29Then Belshazzar gave the command, and Daniel was clothed with purple, a chain of gold was put around his neck, and a proclamation was made about him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom.
Proverbs 1:10-19
10My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. 11If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood; let us ambush the innocent without reason; 12like Sheol let us swallow them alive, and whole, like those who go down to the pit; 13we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder; 14throw in your lot among us; we will all have one purse”— 15my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird, 18but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives. 19Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
Direction, not intention, determines your destination.
Decisions, not merely belief, determine your direction.
Before you choose a path, consider who is inviting you.
Proverbs 1:10
10My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
“Show me your friends, I’ll show you your future. The people you’re hanging out with today are shaping the person you will become tomorrow.” - Craig Groeschel
The methods of the sinful
Seduction - “entice you” (v. 10)
Peer pressure - “come with us” (v. 11)
Gang up - “let us lay in wait” (v. 11)
Ambush - “ambush the innocent without reason” (v. 11)
Before you choose a path, consider who is inviting you.
The motivations of the sinful:
Harm others - “lie in wait for blood” (v.11)
Destruction - “like Sheol let us swallow them alive” (v. 12)
Selfishness - “fill our houses with plunder” (v. 13)
Evil - “their feet run to evil”” (v. 16)
Before you choose a path, consider who is inviting you.
Before you choose a path, consider where the path is taking you.
Proverbs 1:15-17
15my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths, 16for their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood. 17For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird,
Proverbs 1:15
15my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,
Proverbs 1:17
17For in vain is a net spread in the sight of any bird,
Proverbs 1:18
18but these men lie in wait for their own blood; they set an ambush for their own lives.
Proverbs 1:19
19Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
Before you choose a path, consider where the path is taking you.
Before you choose a path, consider whose heart is leading you.
Proverbs 1:19
19Such are the ways of everyone who is greedy for unjust gain; it takes away the life of its possessors.
“My son” (v. 8)
“Your neck” (v. 9)
“My son” (v. 10)
“Your lot” (v. 14)
“Hold back your foot” (v. 15)
Proverbs 1:8-9
8Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 1:10
10My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
Proverbs 1:15
15my son, do not walk in the way with them; hold back your foot from their paths,
Follow your heart.
Follow the heart of your Father.
Before you choose a path, consider whose heart is leading you.
Wisdom is learning to live on the right path.
Wisdom is receiving, believing and living the Word of God.
Considerations when choosing a path:
Before you choose a path, consider who is inviting you.
Before you choose a path, consider where the path is taking you.
Before you choose a path, consider whose heart is leading you.
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