The Two Paths

INTRODUCTION
(Series Slide)
Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church!
I also want to second what was just said in announcements.
Our Youth Group has had explosive growth.
Tons of students coming to Christ as well!
And we’re looking for people who are sitting in this room right now that will say, “I want to do something with my faith. Help other people grow.”
And same with discipling adults here by signing up for our follow-up team.
We’ve had 79 adults come to Christ in 12 weeks, and we need more believers to join the follow-up team and disciple them.
We need people who will say, “I don’t want to do cruise ship Christianity anymore and sip on my coffee while almost near-revival happens in the seats around me.”
“I want to pick up an oar and help change this world for Christ!”
That’s what I want for you and there are plenty of places around here that you can be used (quite significantly) for Christ!
You just gotta grab an oar!
Let’s open up the Bible together and get started for the day.
Proverbs 4:1-9
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We are in the middle of a series called, “Ways of the Wise,” where we are teaching verse-by-verse through the first 9 chapters of the Book of Proverbs in the Bible.
And I’ve actually swapped this week & next week’s passages.
We are going to leapfrog ahead today to chapter 4, and then come back to the end of chapter 3 next week, as that passage is a great passage for some of the cool things that are happening around here next week.
But let’s start looking at chapter 4 together.

GET WISDOM (vv. 1-9)
Let’s start with the first 9 verses
(Proverbs 4:1-9) – NIV
Listen, my sons, to a father’s instruction;
pay attention and gain understanding.
2 I give you sound learning,
so do not forsake my teaching.
3 For I too was a son to my father,
still tender, and cherished by my mother.
4 Then he taught me, and he said to me,
“Take hold of my words with all your heart;
keep my commands, and you will live.
5 Get wisdom, get understanding;
do not forget my words or turn away from them.
6 Do not forsake wisdom, and she will protect you;
love her, and she will watch over you.
7 The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom.
Though it cost all you have, get understanding.
8 Cherish her, and she will exalt you;
embrace her, and she will honor you.
9 She will give you a garland to grace your head
and present you with a glorious crown.”
(Series Slide)
Okay, the majority of these first 9 verses of chapter 4 are fairly similar to what we’ve already read in the first 3 chapters of Proverbs.
They can be summed up by verse 7:
The beginning of wisdom is this: GET WISDOM!
So if you want to walk in the Ways of the Wise you have to Pursue Wisdom!
You need to do the 4 things we talked about 2 weeks ago:
4 Ways to Pursue Wisdom
#1: Read Scripture
#2: Read Other Books
#3: Seek the Lord
#4: Seek Out Wise Christians
I pray you’re making progress here.
Remember, we don’t want to be just hearers of the Word, but doers of the Word.

THE TWO PATHS (vv. 10-19)
Let’s keep reading
Proverbs 4:10-19
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(Proverbs 4:10-19) – NIV
Listen, my son, accept what I say,
and the years of your life will be many.
11 I instruct you in the way of wisdom
and lead you along straight paths.
12 When you walk, your steps will not be hampered;
when you run, you will not stumble.
13 Hold on to instruction, do not let it go;
guard it well, for it is your life.
14 Do not set foot on the path of the wicked
or walk in the way of evildoers.
15 Avoid it, do not travel on it;
turn from it and go on your way.
16 For they cannot rest until they do evil;
they are robbed of sleep till they make someone stumble.
17 They eat the bread of wickedness
and drink the wine of violence.
18 The path of the righteous is like the morning sun,
shining ever brighter till the full light of day.
19 But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness;
they do not know what makes them stumble.
(The Two Paths Title Screen)
What is being described in verses 10 – 19 are TWO PATHS.
This is how my mind sees it:
(Two Paths Diagram)
On the left of this diagram, we see what Proverbs 4 calls the Path of the Wicked.
And The Path of the Wicked involves, (as v. 16 mentions) an addiction to evil.
Those on this path can’t rest until they engage in sin.
They even find their identity in their sin (v. 17)
Sin is what they eat, drink, and live…it becomes WHO THEY ARE.
And eventually, verse 19 tells us, that the path eventually leads (as you can see on the screen) to a deeper and deeper darkness.
…one where the person is in such darkness, that they are stumbling around in confusion and pain.
But the Path of the Wicked (the path of Choosing SIN over GOD) often starts out by looking like the more appealing of the two paths.
That’s why I have it as the lighter path at the beginning.
Because of our sinful nature, it’s almost easier to choose the path of the wicked:
To stay mad rather than forgive
To lust rather than to look away
To gossip rather than keep a secret
And we could go on all day.
And so “the path of the wicked” is like what Proverbs 14 describes:
(Proverbs 14:12) - NIV
There is a way that appears to be right,
but in the end it leads to death.
(The Two Paths Diagram)
And so it looks appealing in the beginning, but as you get around the first bend, the darkness starts to reveal itself and grow
And notice it looks wide, and not narrow, in the beginning as well.
This is what Jesus teaches in Matthew 7
(Matthew 7:13-14) – NIV
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
(The Two Paths Diagram)
But let’s look now to the Narrow Road, the Path of the Righteous (as Proverbs calls it)
The Path of the Righteous is a straight path (v. 11)
That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it means it’s good, and not confusing or messy
It’s a path where you can even run, and not stumble (v. 12)
In part because, as verse 18 says, this path just shines ever brighter as you progress on it.
You get to enjoy more & more of the blessings of God’s wisdom.
But if on the other hand, you continually choose sin, selfishness, laziness, bitterness, etc., it will lead to a life that gets darker and darker.
I was reading a sermon from Timothy Keller, and he mentioned an interview he read long ago.
It was an interview of a man in jail telling the story of his life.
And he started by telling a story of a gold watch his father loved when this prisoner was a young boy.
And one day the young boy snuck into his dad’s room and took the gold watch out of his father’s drawer.
He was playing with it, and he accidentally dropped it, and it cracked.
In fear, the boy put it back into the drawer and said nothing.
When his father found it, he got everyone in the family together and said, “Who did this?”
The boy didn’t say anything. He just stayed silent. Never confessing.
Years later, one night when that boy was now an adult, he was driving a car on a dark road, and he accidentally hit a kid with his car.
And rather than stopping to help (or call an ambulance), his instinct was now to cover it up. And he fled.
And without help, the boy died.
But they eventually found this man who did it, and he was put in jail.
And in the interview from prison, he said, his life really started to go downhill, not when he hit the boy, but when he didn’t fess up to breaking the watch.
Because your character, and thus how you will react in different situations, is shaped by a million decisions that come before it.
This is why, parents, the absolute best thing you can be doing for your kids’ future is to invest their time in the things that will have the biggest impact on their ENTIRE life: Age 0 to 90
But most parents don’t do that.
Instead, we just drift along with the cultural current.
And if you do that in America, you’ll end up almost accidentally spending the vast amount of their childhood trying to ensure that they can one day make varsity soccer, or AAU basketball, or honors band, or the lead in the musical.
Even the average American child is now spending between 5 to 10 thousand hours on sports or activities before they turn 18.
10,000 hours!
And what’s the goal?
To play varsity sports for 2 years of their life?
That’s about 3% of their entire life.
And then what?
So Mom, Dad, I urge you to think intentionally & strategically about their whole life.
What you really want to put the most time and effort into, is into shaping their Godly character.
Reading the Word, teaching them to seek first the Kingdom of God (never missing church, youth group, etc.), discipling them yourselves, teaching them how to walk with Jesus…
Because teaching them to make wise & Godly decisions, will pay incredible dividends (not just for junior & senior year of High School), but for the rest of their life!
For the decades coming in their life where they are going to have to start making much bigger and harder decisions.
Because listen to me, this is a hard word, but I gotta say it to you:
If….heaven forbid…when they turn 40 or 45, their marriage is falling apart, and their kid is rebelling, and they just lost their job.
They’re not going to care that they were once on the varsity swim team, they’re going to be desperate to know the wisdom and direction of God!
And so start now, even with your young kids pointing them to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God, to have a deep relationship with Jesus, and trust His path above everything else.

BE DILLIGENT ABOUT STAYING ON THE RIGHT PATH
And it’s a path we must stay upon ourselves.
And it’s harder than it sounds.
Proverbs 4:20-27
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This is what the last part of the chapter is about.
Let’s keep reading. Verse 20 now.
(Proverbs 4:20-27) – NIV
20 My son, pay attention to what I say;
turn your ear to my words.
21 Do not let them out of your sight,
keep them within your heart;
22 for they are life to those who find them
and health to one’s whole body.
23 Above all else, guard your heart,
for everything you do flows from it.
24 Keep your mouth free of perversity;
keep corrupt talk far from your lips.
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
27 Do not turn to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
(The Two Paths Title Screen)
And so in the middle of this chapter, Solomon tells his son to choose the Path of the Righteous…
And now we see him pleading with his son to be diligent about staying on the Path of the Righteous.
Look at how serious he is about even the smallest of choices here:
Be Diligent about Staying on the Right Path
-Pay attention (20)
-Don’t let wisdom out of your sight (21)
-Guard your heart (23)
-Watch your mouth (24)
-Fix your eyes ahead (25)
-Give careful thought to your paths (26)
-Don’t turn to the right or left (27)
He doesn’t want his son to even take one step off the Path of the Righteous because he knows the deceptive appeal of the Path of the Wicked…and the darkness it eventually leads to.
That’s why he says, “Fix your eyes ahead. Don’t tempt yourself. Don’t turn to the right of the left”
(Horse Blinders)
Essentially, we should live our lives with blinders like they put on horses.
Or as Paul warns in Ephesians 5:
(Ephesians 5:11-12) – NIV
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
Be Diligent about Staying on the Right Path
-Pay attention (20)
-Don’t let wisdom out of your sight (21)
-Guard your heart (23)
-Watch your mouth (24)
-Fix your eyes ahead (25)
-Give careful thought to your paths (26)
-Don’t turn to the right or left (27)
And if I can be honest, we’re not very good at this as Christians in America in modern day.
We can often be quite careless about what we let into our heart, what we say, what we watch (we rarely have blinders on)…
And as a result of our carelessness, or lack of attention to righteousness, we’re not progressing on the “Path of Righteousness” as Proverbs calls it.
(The Two Paths Diagram)
And so our walks with God feel lacking to us, or stuck, or stalled out.
And that’s because…we’ve contented ourselves with surrendering 20% of our lives to God, but that doesn’t get us very far down this path where wisdom really starts to work for you…
…where you get to walk in that ever-brightening light of day (as verse 18 says)
The path won’t work for you until you actually walk it
Because the blessing of wisdom is the cumulative effect of thousands of decisions to honor God…not just one.
I heard it said this way once, and I think this is helpful:
The path you are on determines the destination you arrive at
So ask yourself:
“Where do I want to be in 12 months? In 5 years?”
“And if I want to be there, what Godly choices do I have to start making now, today?”
(Two Paths Diagram)
And these choices don’t always have to be about the world’s common vices like drunkenness, and course language, and sex.
I think of it this way:
When I was in seminary, I had to do a rotation in an assisted living center
And once or twice a week, like a chaplain, I would walk the halls and knock on a bunch of doors, saying, “Hi…would you like to talk?”
And as I went from room to room and spoke with those who were in the final years of their life, I was blown away:
I’d go in this one room, and the sweetest woman in the world would say, “Yes, honey, please enter…what a pleasure to have you!! Can I offer you some tea?”
Then, I’d go to the very next room, and seriously, it would be the angriest person I’d ever met in my life
And they say, “GET OUT OF HERE! I didn’t ask for any visitors! LEAVE!”
The next room would be the kindest person this side of the Mississippi, but in the room after that, somebody would throw something at me…screaming as I ran out
…and on and on it went.

And it was during this rotation, that I developed a theory on life that I think of often.
And it’s the idea that as we age, we grow into two very distinct types of people.
You can’t easily notice the difference when we’re in our teens, or 20’s, but by the end of life, it’s very pronounced.
Because the longer you walk the Path of The Righteous, submitting to God’s Word, spending time with Jesus …the more fruit the Holy Spirit grows in your life…
And the brighter that light shines out from your life.
HOWEVER, if you spend your whole life…insisting that you can do what you want…
…and you’re unwilling to work on yourself (or let God work on you!), you’re unwilling to listen to others…
…in time, that will leave you more and more isolated.
Because you believe that anyone who disagrees with you isn’t “for you,” and if they’re not “for you,” they can’t be you friend.
And before you know it, you’re 80, angry, and alone.
And as I went to room after room after room after room, I could not believe how pronounced the divide between the two paths was.
Which path do you want to be on?

But here’s the thing: you can’t just decide to be that joyful person on The Path of the Righteous…and snap your fingers and make it happen.
It’s a path you have to walk.
It’s a destination you’ll get to from 10,000 little decisions along the way.
And plenty of mistakes too.
But it’s the little decisions that lead to great things.
Being honest in the smallest things at work, will lead to you being promoted and trusted to bigger things at work.
Jesus says those who can be trusted with little will be trusted with much.
It’s being more serious than the rest of your friends about who you date, and what you let your eyes see and where you let your heart go…
Because you trust that those are the little decisions that lead to better outcomes in your life!
That’s what this passage is all about.
And so let me speak a second to the youth in this room:
I urge you, don’t even step foot on the path of the wicked.
Once you get on it, it sucks you in, and it’s harder and harder to get off.
So trust your parents when they warn you about it.
Because your parents are like Solomon in verse 3 today when he said, “For I too, was once a son”.
I know it may not seem like it, but they remember what it’s like.
And they’re not telling you to avoid these things simply because they’re “bad” or “wrong in God’s eyes,” (which they are),
But they’re also telling you to avoid that path because they love you, and what they want is goodness and blessing for your life.
And as John Piper says.
“The Bible is God's guidebook to joy.” – John Piper
And that’s what they want for you
Let me speak to the new believers in the room:
(2 paths diagram)
So many of you are new in your faith.
Like I said earlier, almost 80 of you in the last 12 weeks.
Many of you are coming back to the faith
Hundreds of you have come to faith in the last 2 years.
Right now many of you can’t even imagine going back to the path of the wicked.
But I must warn you that, if it hasn’t yet, that old path will begin to call out to you again.
But now you must call upon the Holy Spirit inside of you.
You now, as a Christian, have a power inside of you now, that has broken the chains of sin that used to be wrapped around your heart.
You’re not chained to that path anymore…you’re not powerless over it anymore.
God can help you stay on His good path.
Call out Him! You can’t do this on your own.
And finally, let me speak to those of you that have been walking with Christ for a long time…decades some of you.
I want to encourage you with Galatians 6:9
(Galatians 6:9) – NIV
9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
Keep walking further on the path.
The harvest of blessing from God’s wisdom is coming.
Press deeper.
Trust Him more.
Renew your trust in His wisdom again!
His path is Good.
His ways are good.
Stay on it.
It’s worth it.
Let me pray.