Open Bible with broken chains on wooden table at a rural forked path with sunset

The Fast Road to Nowhere

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“My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. She doesn’t consider the path of life; she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.” (Proverbs‬ ‭5‬:‭1‬-‭6‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

When Paul was warning the Corinthian church about sexual immorality, one of the things he observed to them was that sexual sins hurt ourselves. Most sin hurts other people when we do it. Sexual sin hurts us. It may hurt others too, but it definitely hurts us. Why would anyone do something they knew to be damaging to their body? It just doesn’t make a lot of sense. But unfortunately, folly in this particular area is frightfully hard to resist. We need the kind of wisdom Solomon calls us to here. Let’s talk about it.

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Guard Your Heart

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“My son, pay attention to my words; listen closely to my sayings. Don’t lose sight of them; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body. Guard your heart above all else, for it is the source of life. Don’t let your mouth speak dishonestly, and don’t let your lips talk deviously. Let your eyes look forward; fix your gaze straight ahead. Carefully consider the path for your feet, and all your ways will be established. Don’t turn to the right or to the left; keep your feet away from evil.” (Proverbs‬ ‭4‬:‭20‬-‭27‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

Jesus once got in trouble with the religious authorities of His day because His disciples weren’t washing their hands the right way before eating. That seems like a terribly petty thing to us, but if your relationship with God depended on getting the rules right and there was a rule about washing your hands properly before eating, it would seem like a much bigger deal to you. In response, Jesus told His critics that what goes into the body is not what interrupts our relationship with God, but what comes out of it, and specifically out of our hearts. That means we need to watch what is coming into and out of our heart pretty closely. Solomon agrees. Let’s talk about it.

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The Best Learning Doesn’t Happen in the Lab

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“Listen, my son. Accept my words, and you will live many years. I am teaching you the way of wisdom; I am guiding you on straight paths. When you walk, your steps will not be hindered; when you run, you will not stumble. Hold on to instruction; don’t let go. Guard it, for it is your life. Keep off the path of the wicked; don’t proceed on the way of evil ones. Avoid it; don’t travel on it. Turn away from it, and pass it by. For they can’t sleep unless they have done what is evil; they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday. But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they don’t know what makes them stumble.” (Proverbs‬ ‭4‬:‭10‬-‭19‬ ‭CSB‬‬ – Read the chapter)

We like to learn things by experience. This is why, for instance, every chemistry class I took in college had a corresponding lab period. They didn’t just want us to hear about the way various chemicals interacted with each other. They didn’t want us to just hear about what various instruments could do. They wanted us to see and experience it for ourselves. All three of my kids went or are still going to a STEM School. The whole purpose of the curriculum is that they should be doing a whole lot of hands-on learning. This same kind of idea applies to a whole lot of different areas of life. But not all of them. There are some things that are better learned only by report. Let’s talk about one of them today.

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The Good News About High Standards

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Last week, as we continued our summer teaching series, A Kingdom Vision, we started working through the second half of Matthew 5. We often look at these verses as a series of only loosely connected blocks of teaching from Jesus. What we came to discover, though, is that in this section Jesus is doing something really important. He is helping us see and understand the self-righteousness is not the way into God’s kingdom. That’s not how God’s kingdom works. His kingdom is a kingdom of grace. After establishing this fact, Jesus gives us six examples to prove His point. Let’s work through those today as we finish up the rest of Matthew 5 together.

The Good News About High Standards

We have been watching a series on the Angel Studios streaming service called Guarded lately. It’s a basic romantic-drama. One of the main characters is the billionaire owner of a tech company, and one of the prominent plotlines so far revolves around his relationship with his father. No matter what he does, no matter how successful he becomes, his father is only ever critical. He seems to almost delight in pointing out every flaw he has or mistake he makes. His character hasn’t said it out loud, but you can tell that he feels like no matter how hard he tries, he’s never going to be good enough for his dad. 

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Man dressed as Jesus warmly greeting young children with backpacks outside a school entrance

Opening Gospel Doors

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“Jesus said, ‘Leave the little children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to me, because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'” (Matthew 19:14 CSB – Read the chapter)

For the last couple of Fridays now we have been talking about various things that have resulted in the church I pastor being in the position that it is. We are growing. There is life and momentum and excitement everywhere you look right now. New families are connecting regularly, and most of them are young and with young kids. It really is a fun season. But it isn’t a season that has arrived overnight. Things have been slowly building in this direction for several years. There have been several decisions the church has made along the way that have contributed in important ways toward what we are experiencing. Exploring some of these with you is why I’ve started this series. We have looked at two so far – eating together and clarifying our identity – today, let’s take a look at a third one: getting into our local school.

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