All of Me (Proverbs 4:20-27) - Pastor Daniel Fusco

[Music] I love it when we get to start a new series together there's something about a new series you just never quite know what God has in any given series and so I'll be honest with you I have a preference for the Book of Proverbs personally why because proverbs is known universally as a book of wisdom and I always like to define wisdom as the right application of the right information that's what wisdom is it's the right application of the right information now when you think about that the fact that wisdom is the right application of the right information you start to realize that not all wisdom is created equal right different people have different points of view and if you look at your life oftentimes you have these great examples of what could potentially be called competing wisdom or competing understandings of how to deal with something but they don't always have the same results now this happened in my family just recently in a really profound way because you know I've gotten the pleasure of living here in the Pacific Northwest at this point for about six years but I never had a mouse infestation in my garage yet so sure enough we start noticing that there's um something isn't quite right in our garage all of a sudden we find all these little black pellets everywhere it was kind of nasty right and so everybody knows even if you've never lived with a mouse infestation in your garage that little black pellets everywhere means that there is a mouse and so sure enough Lynn's noticing it now I'm noticing in and and I'm like okay so we better clean this up so we decide of course that you know we should clean out the garage and so so we start cleaning out the garage and and all the signs are there that I have a mouse problem in my garage there's a fuzz and pellets everywhere you know and I remember like we're cleaning and linds like well just make sure you clean everything so I started cleaning everything now what I didn't realize and this was my bad was that so I have this amplifier you guys know like I played bases what I did it for a career before I went into the ministry so I have an amplifier that's got these two 10-inch speakers i got these big vents in the bottom I go to move the thing and I hear all this sound I'm like oh no I didn't realize that these mice decided to make a little you know a little condo in in my mi l afire and literally I turn the amplifier over and like dog food and and all this stuff's coming out of the amplifier and then psych get that thing out of my house right now I'm like it's a good amplifier like no no no no it's an it's in the garbage amplifier I'm like come on babe you know maybe the amplifier I'm like I'm a dad you can't go buy an amplifier say well I'll let you buy a new and I'm like Amen let's get rid of that thing right now yes good you know it wasn't all bad but sure enough we're cleaning the thing out and I'm sweeping this thing out and I'm kind of lamenting this amplifier because like me and this amp have been around the block together a few times like we're old friends and and so it sure enough so when an Annabelle are in the garage and they're and Lynn's doing some work Annabelle's creating more work but weird let her if she's got a broom and she's working with us and all of a sudden I hear let's start screaming and I'm like what is going on she's like there's the mouse there's the mouse and she's jumping up and down and I'm like watching this and I'm like and I think I grab the broom I'm like I'm like I'm a hero you know I'm like William Wallace the mother to protect my wife's honor you know I'm gonna spear that Mouse and was like don't kill it don't kill it I'm like don't kill it it's our Mouse man she's like no no no go get some traps I'm doing myself no mountain you get it Mouse jump it's gonna kill the mouse anyway don't kill it that's why I catch the mouse I'm impressive like that you didn't know I could do that Meeny I was cleaning it up I had just like a little almost like a like a little container like that you cool hwhip used to be in you guys know we all have cool of containers you know pop I popped out on the mouse and there's like oh my god you got him I got him she's like what are you doing now me I'm gonna kill him don't kill him let go now at that point you have some competing wisdom because once that a wisdom says if your wife tells you what to do you just say yes ma'am that's one set of wisdom right and and you husband's don't discredit that piece of wisdom there's some wisdom there the other piece of wisdom is if you let a mouse go he's gonna find his way back cuz he knows where his condo is you know and so sure enough you know Lynn and Annabelle's they were the little brown eyes sucking her thumb just like and I'm okay I'll give them out I'll release them so I went over to the field on the back and I released the mouse and and there's like you are my hero right now and I felt really good about it and so I'm like okay good so mouse crisis averted until the next day Lin pulls into the driveway and the way Lin describes is she she opens up the garage door and she pulls in and there's these two mice so they're just staring her down cuz listen man if you just take someone's house away they're not exactly gonna like you for it you know and so so then you know and then then it's really all on and everything and so so so what it reminds me is is that wisdom is important and sometimes doing what your wife asked you to do is just dumb now I can't prove that it was the same mouse Lin swear as it is and I'm not gonna fight with her about it because I love her you know but but it's like you know but it's like I didn't tag the mice I didn't brand them or give them a tattoo or something so I know that it's you know I think they called him Timmy or something the kids named them for a while and so so I really what I've also learned is Lin shared this story at women's ministry and there's like 97 hundred thousand ways to get rid of mice and all of you know how to do it I mean we heard all sorts of theories on you know there's plugins and there's special sense and you know actually we actually brought in his car and we found out that that mice was also had himself a little crash pad in the eating system of Lynn's car - Matthew was reading out man he's like a just a modern 21st century Mouse you know he's got his home he's got a summer home got his winter ski lodge with extra heat I mean it was crazy so now if you come in my house there's just mousetraps everywhere that's just what you have to know hey if you come by my house just just get get armored up cuz you never know when a mousetrap is right in two feet so I shared you that story um just cuz it was a fun story but but really it's like the ideas that there's competing understandings of how to do things how many better Google something and then you just feel like I have no clue what to do now alright cuz it's like someone's like if you don't feel good drink apple cider vinegar and I people I don't drink apple cider vinegar apple cider vinegar is nasty it ruins your blood but it's the best thing for you and you go through this whole thing and you don't know what to do right now here's my deal and and I'm just gonna be honest and you guys know that I just kind of say it like it is what I do know is all wisdom comes in the person of Jesus that's what I know all this other stuff is up for grabs but Jesus's wisdom why because he is the way the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father but by him now some of you are like well I don't really believe that Jesus is wisdom well I would encourage you then to to really explore that because jesus said that he always did those things that please his father and that's kind of a bold statement on jesus's part so we don't there'd be nothing worse than to discredit the wisest person who ever left but i realize i mean i didn't grow up in the church so i understood what it was like to try and not give jesus's do but for me if the right application of the right information is wisdom then i want to know what we're wisdom is i want to part i want to spend time with and i want to deal with him and in a lot of ways the book of Proverbs is that the book of art now we're not gonna take the entire book this is I think our second or third series that we've done on the book of Proverbs because there's actually 31 chapters in the book of Proverbs so if you ever looking for a good devotional read it once everyday on the first day reading proverbs 1 & 4 31 days and you can keep reading it and the beauty of proverbs that the last series we didn't that was called God's tweets because if God had a Twitter account it would be the book of Proverbs these little one-liners of truth bombs I'd like to call them just boom right and so it's kind of hard to teach proverbs verse by verse although probably in like 20 47 we'll do it on a midweek service if the rate we're going right now but I like taking them in different little sections and so for today as we open up this new series called vice versa I want you to open up in your Bibles to proverbs chapter 4 proverbs 4 verses 20 to 27 proverbs 4 22 27 so I want you to grab your Bibles I want you to open them up I'll get you to the book of Proverbs if you're new to the Bible I realize many of you are of course if you have a device that is semi intelligent or at least has Internet connectivity you just type in proverbs 4 : 22 27 you'll get the verses it's easy to find the book of Proverbs because obviously the book of psalms is the largest book in the Bible there's 150 of those psalms or songs the next largest book of the Bible is the book of Isaiah which is 66 chapters and so actually proverbs sits between Psalms and The Book of Isaiah so right towards the the middle of your Bible towards the end of what we call the Old Testament now I've called this message all of me now depending on what generation you're from all of me could either be a song that you've heard Billy Holladay sing or I guess John Legend recently wrote a song called all let me sort up if you're older you use Billie Holiday if you're younger use John Legend for me because I'm a younger person with a old kind of way I kind of was thinking Billie Holiday because I dig jazz so if you've never heard the old Billie Holiday's all of me should go and put it in to your computer and listen to it because it's a beautiful beautiful song actually but the reason I called it all of me is because there's a simple truth that's gonna come right out to the forefront is that God doesn't just want a part of you he wants all of you Jesus gave his whole life so that he can have our whole life and I think one of the biggest problems we have today is that it's so easy for us to compartmentalize lives like we give Jesus a piece of our life or we give our spouse a piece of our life or we try and do I like you know I'm a cutthroat businessman in my business but then I'm trying to be a loving husband at home and and and that's just not realistic or fees where it's like we feel like we could divorce you know how we do business from the our character or we can divorce how we treat people from you know from areas of business see what we're realizing in this day and age is that you can't compartmentalize anything everything bleeds everything bleeds over into other areas and so we live I think we're coming out of a day and age in America where you could check the box on your census that I'm a Christian but not act like a Christian I think that day is over and so really what Jesus is interested in is a complete and encompassing holistic way of life that's what he's interested in and to be honest with you guys as a pastor else what I'm interested in that's what I'm interested in crossroads being not just like we do a little Church on Sunday and then we do whatever else it's like there's just too much at stake for that and if you think about it in in in in almost every other field it's like that like in sports it's like someone you know people who are athletes just on the weekend or not professionals you know what I mean like you you can't be for a little bit but you don't survive because you need to take care of your body right you need to take care of yourself and there's nothing worse than if you have like somebody who is trying to be your your financial planner but they're driving around in a car that that's all beat-up you're like well you can't make any money so I'm going to give you my money right and so you realize that all these things really come together and so you're gonna see why I call this all of you when I read you this passage it's we have over 11 references to parts of the body and it ends up encompassing all of humanity look what it says proverbs 4 verse 20 it says my son give attention to my words incline your ear to my sayings do not let them depart from your eyes keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them in health to all their flesh keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring the issues of life put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you let your eye look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you ponder the path of your feeds and let all your ways be established do not turn to the right or the left remove your foot from evil so you notice as I read that whole thing how really the the writer of this section of Proverbs is taking all these different body parts and he's trying to focus us to be inclined to wisdom and that's what really I think God wants for all of us and so it begins here and in a really simple way notice it says my son give attention to my words incline your ear to my sayings do not let them depart from your eyes and keep them in the midst of your heart for they are life to those who find them in health to all their flesh so I just say it this way the word totally blesses the Word of God totally blesses somebody right and so this is why I think that the Bible is so important because you might say well the Bible is just like any other book it is because it's a book but it isn't because it's inspiration comes from God and the God who created and sustains everything inspired the Word of God so that once we grab hold of the wisdom that is within the Word of God that will totally bless and transform our lives I mean if you notice the outcome of somebody who is involved with the word it says in verse 22 for they are life to those who find them so the words of wisdom that are found within the Bible are actually life to those who find them and health to their flesh so the idea of life in the Bible it speaks of not just this life but everlasting life and health to your flesh literally speaks about holistic wholeness and health and the beauty is is that if you actually embrace what's in the Bible you will find this stuff to be true first of course because the Bible is primarily about Jesus who is the creator of life and he's the giver of life and Jesus desires to share his life with each one of us and you cannot learn about Jesus apart from the Scriptures because the Scriptures are the book that tell us who Jesus is and when you walk with Jesus your life gets changed but not only does the word bless us because it tells us about who Jesus is and ultimately his finished work for us by living a life that was perfect and by dying a death on the cross and by being resurrected from the dead conquering both sin and death and then ascending to heaven to pour out the Holy Spirit but the Bible is also chock full of all sorts of other types of wisdom as well like there's how you should relate to one another like love one another sounds pretty wise doesn't it how you should deal with your enemies you should love your enemies you should bless those people too right so is that how do we deal with interpersonal conflict how do you deal with your own body if you ever read the law of Moses people get kind of freaked out about it but you realize that it's actually the first health code that was ever given like literally it was like washed her hands after you touch a dead body could I get an amen it's pretty smart right you know people freaked out about the Bible but you don't people don't actually think about it it's like listen if you find a dead carcass don't eat it it's pretty smart right now you might be saying well that's kind of weird I don't see that cart wow this was long before Costco existed and freezers but you know it's like so what happens is meat was very uncommon how many of you guys like your meat go ahead your hand and give a round of applause for all the vegetarians thank you extra bacon for me anyway sorry anyway see the ideas but if you found that you could be tempted in a society where these these were luxuries and not prevalent you finding me like oh man maybe that that thing hasn't been dead so long if I cook it nice and well-done maybe I can just eat it right but you all know that that's a straight nasty right but you can imagine in that culture these things are if there's wisdom there how you deal with your finances you give God your first fruits why because everything you have come from God right and by giving God your first what you're saying God you've provided for me so I'm gonna get back to you and I'm gonna trust your vision you know you don't even realize how wise that is because when you give God the first fruits of what you have then you start to say well Lord now I have you know in your mind you can say I have a 10% less than what I thought I had so how do I want to do that when the Lord teaches you how to live within your means with self-control which would alleviate an awful lot of anxiety in our day and age where we find ourselves compulsively buying things we don't need creating anxiety in our lives because we always need the next thing and it never satisfies and then we find ourselves straddle with debt working jobs that we don't like just simply to service a debt that we shouldn't have had in the first place it's a common story but the Bible talks about how we ought to live how families are supposed to function husbands are supposed to love their wives and give themselves up for their wives as Jesus did for the church wives are supposed to submit to their husbands now because men are better but because it's really easy to submit to a self sacrificial love that has given it how many marriages would be better if husbands would lay down their lives for their wives and wives would learn how to respect their husbands which is what men really desire more than anything else and we I could do this all I mean I get is all day the agricultural wisdom like work your field for six years on the seventh year lay it fallow that's called rotating your fields that's like really normal I mean now in our day and age we just pump it full of all sorts of fake chemicals to get it more you know you have all these different ways that that life supposed to live and all that wisdoms right in the book a 2000 year old book and that's why the word blesses it totally blesses our lives so I just simply want to give each one of you an encouragement to be people of the word of God read it every single day memorize it you're like I don't really like reading listen to somebody else reading it just you need to get the Word of God in you because the Word of God transform or I see a major part of godliness within our lives lies in a dogged attentiveness to the most important things and I say that we're dogged because we really need to learn how to get focus on the main things see in this little section it says give attention to my word and then it says incline your ears to my saying so the first thing focus your attention on it and then open up your ears to really hear what the sayings are now that don't let it depart from your eyes forever keep the Word of God before your eyes and then keep them in the midst of your heart so you see all of these things are saying listen don't slack on god's book but i'm here to tell you listen you could read anything and there's no issues you're gonna start reading the bible and then all hell breaks loose that's how it goes you could be sitting there in the morning you know that i'm gonna read my bible and you're going you're like i'll just see what's going on on facebook you'll be there all day super silence quiet you know I'll find out what's happening in the political arena cuz I needed a little WWF wrestling you know so what's going on to politics and you know no problem is super quiet you open up your Bible and all hell breaks loose man dog barks the kids start screaming yeah a coughing fit all the stuff goes on why cuz Satan hates the Word of God why because the Word of God is the one place that it will tell the story of good and evil right and wrong and the fact that Jesus hands down is victorious the Bible is the only place that you will ever hear that you are more than a conqueror and not only that you're more than a conqueror but how that happened through Jesus's death on the cross on the resurrection and when you start to see your life through the lens of who Jesus is and the work of the Spirit you begin to realize you know what all things do work together for good I don't know how it's gonna work out and I can't even believe that this is what it is but if God can raise Jesus from the dead then God can take this situation that I'm in and he could bring something beautiful out of it and that kind of faith is something Satan doesn't wanna have to deal with he'd much rather you look at pictures on Instagram he much rather you get yourself all worked up over something going on in American politics he can eat much rather you being aggravated that the Yankees aren't in the World Series but when we behold the Word of God with the totality of who we are we're totally blessed it gives life and health sounds good huh it has to be people of the book now moving on from there in verse 23 proverbs 4:23 might be one of my favorite verses in the Bible is one of the first ones I memorize I think about it all the time it says keep your heart with all diligence for out of it Springs the issues of life I'll put it this way guard your heart well just keep your heart it literally means to guard it it means to keep it like a watchman keeps something you got to guard your heart now I say this all the time I'm gonna say it again don't follow your heart you need to lead your heart let you got to follow Jesus and lead your heart there's nothing worse than when someone says I'm gonna follow my heart you know what the problem is our hearts are fickle they're all over the place right how many times have you followed your heart right into a heart ache go ahead raise your hand exactly so like we all know this don't follow your heart your heart what what what does it say in the movies all the time the heart wants what the heart wants right it's actually it's brilliant understanding of the human heart your heart wants what it wants for whatever reason don't follow your heart follow Jesus and leave your heart as you follow Jesus that changes everything but we have to learn how to guard our hearts to keep our hearts now here it says keep your hearts with all diligence so don't don't procrastinate on guarding your heart don't be lazy fair about the affairs of the heart because the heart wants what the heart wants we have to learn how to guard it with all diligence wives four out of it Springs the issues of life now that is a powerful statement if you think about it what that means is that all the issues of your life are not external but they're internal how many how many of you are like excuse me here's the deal you can interpret the events of your life however you want you can choose how you feel that this just happened the other day I love it my little Annabelle she's so fun Lynn was talking over said Annabelle you know we need to go outside it's sunny out soon it's gonna start raining and that's not gonna be a whole lot of fun an anvil says it's gonna be a lot of fun I get to jump in the puddles oh the wisdom of a child the wisdom of a child right and you can imagine you know you're like Oscar start raining in we have to be inside all this Amanda Bob and it's like it's great when it rains I could jump in all the puddles do you see how it's the same external event but the way we interpret it is different to people having the exact same experience one sees it as God's greatest gift to their lives and another person sees as the greatest curse to their life what's the difference part the way we interpret these events do you see the things that you experience is God's opportunities or do you see them as God not liking you see that's why the heart is so important because if we do not keep our heart with all diligence you don't realize that situations in your life are gonna happen either way but how you deal with it how you feel about it how you interpret it and how you integrate it into your life that's all on you no one does that for you if you're the kind of person who's here today very common in this day that you're always the victim guess what that's a position you've chosen you've chosen it now I'm not saying that all the things that went on weren't real but one person sees it as a great stepping stone to what God is doing in their life you can't change what happened I can't change but I'm not gonna roll over and play the victim and say everyone's always against me I'm gonna say Lord how can I grow from this Lord I can control what happened but what do you want me to do now and that's why the keeping of your hearts so important because all the issues of your life are actually generated by your heart you know that every feeling of stress you have that's self generated nobody makes that for you make it for yourself and this is why my friends I think I realize I'm saying this and I'm like man someone I'm gonna get in a lot of trouble because these the victim the victim mentality is so ingrained and so many of us in our culture but you know things my Bible doesn't say you are more than victims because of Jesus as you are more than what conquerors you are more than victors you can't be a victor and a victim at the same time either way life can be hard either way life can give you what you never asked for but what you do with it has to do it how you guard your heart how you keep your heart for many of us the situation's of our lives what really goes on is that we begin to believe lies about God like God doesn't love me this wouldn't happen if God loved me or God isn't for me or God loves everyone else more than me but the thing is is if you stay in the Word of God does the Word of God let you get away with that it doesn't the word of God checks that I'll go hold on you I know you feel that way right now but what does the word say and for others I see this is why this series I think is gonna be powerful for us because when God's wisdom troughs like a bomb in the midst of our lives and we have to either say I'm gonna choose my ways to choose God's ways and my friends every issue of your life is actually generated by the way that you feel about it and how you choose to do it now no I'm not trying to minimize heartbreak and hardship God knows life could be a mess but if you keep your heart with all you've you let the Word of God function as doorkeepers in your life you'll be amazed that the things you begin to realize about situations you'll be amazed at how God can leverage a broken situation and bring the most amazing things out of it and I know right now some of you're like oh that's great but I don't believe you at all I don't want you to believe me I want you believe in Jesus I guarantee if you keep the word ever before you and you choose to guard your heart with what the Word of God says I guarantee you not that your life will be easier but your life will be more filled with joy because God's presence will be all over that life no matter what it looks like she just didn't say it was gonna be easy if you followed him she said I know you're gonna tribulation either way your life's hard for you gonna be a good share of overcome this world and that's the hope of the gospel my friends how are you doing guard in your heart have you stopped guarding it have you started to let that heart get away are you letting other ideas other than biblical ideas be the doorkeepers of your heart if that is you how's that going for you I've done this many times I've seen it many times in my own life where I'm like oh man I'm letting a set of beliefs that aren't biblical guard my heart and it's leaving me broken inside hurtin me so we have to keep our heart and you guys know the heart is the control center of your life now in verse 24 look what it says put away from you a deceitful mouth and put perverse lips far from you I like to say it this way wash out your mouth ha ha ha ok real honest how many of you had your mom wash your mouth out with soap go ahead raise your hands could keep you guys on how many bet you happen it happened more than once yeah see we've all been abused by our parents sometimes I felt the only time I didn't have my mouth washed out was when my mom was changing soap brothers this is here's the deal your speech is a window into your heart what you say comes from your heart or just coming out your mouth listen to Luke chapter 6 verse 45 a good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his hearts bring forth evil for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks just look at the person that you say I'm so sorry guys you guys online too just right now I'm so sorry everyone in saladboy say I'm so sorry go ahead look if we're the other side too they've heard your mouth too you say it I'm so sorry yeah is it a horrible like talk about this is why proverbs is so awesome right your words or a window into your heart it's kind of scary in there isn't it I know it's even more scary not only there's things that how many of you and I'm not gonna ask you to raise your hands because we're all guilty this how many of the things that pass through your mind that you want to say but you've gotten up just a little bit of self-control I feel so grateful always tell you guys just just own that you're like oh yeah I remember when I first got saved I had like no there was no second time delay between what I thought when it came out of my mouth part of the downside being from New Jersey like it was like every thought deserve the light of day and then when I got saved I'm like this is really bad you know what I mean because I say something like I can't take it back so now I'm doing it about a three-second time delay between when I think someone that comes out my mouth with about a ninety four percent rate of it actually working so the six percent of the time something I say something I probably shouldn't have said I didn't mean to say it either but it was in there you know and really what it is is as God is keeping his word before us and we're guarding our hearts he's also cleansing our speech he's we start to realize that our words are creative and there's a lot of things that we might think that we shouldn't say because the reason we're thinking them is because we're not thinking biblically and that's not an edifying or a building up way to talk to somebody and that's why I start saying things like put away from you a deceitful mouth that were deceitful could also be translated as a devious mouth or a crooked mouth and put perverse lips which literally means corrupt or foul talk far from you so you see how this works you see why cause all of me right it's like we got the word we got it before us and then we keep our heart and then we got to wash our mouth down we got to watch our words now I'm always reminded of course and I know that in a subsequent message you can hear more about this so I don't I don't have been labor at this point but you know for those of you who are chatty people it's even worse for us all right and so and I'm definitely you know I'm feeling your pain just imagine if you had a microphone on for five hours every week you know so just be careful and wash your mouth out clean that business up see I'm just gonna leave it there I'm gonna conserve my words verse 35 says this let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you run sisters we need to set our eyes straight I love this let your eyes look straight ahead and your eyelids look right before you this really speaks so that we need to make sure that our eyes are focused on the proper goals a wise person has unswerving directness but a fool is easily distracted we need to make sure that our eyes are fixed on the right things now of course I love the writer to Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2 says that we should be looking unto Jesus the author and the finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is now seated down at the right hand of the Father the single greatest place for you to fix your eyes is upon who on Jesus that's why the Apostle Paul said for I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified Paul had a singular focus almost like a an outrageous obsession with this person Jesus and I believe that for us as children of God that we need to learn how to set our eyes on our Savior do you have your eyes fixed and focus looking unto Jesus because when you have your eyes on the Savior you're not gonna have any time to be distracted because Jesus is hands-down the most amazing person for us to behold every day the perfect person the man God and flesh Christ Jesus who is the mediator for all who would believe in him you will never in all of your life if you keep your eyes focused and fixed on Jesus you will never grow bored or grow tired of who he is because his resplendent beauty and glory is unimaginable you can dwell at the foot of the cross your entire life and still not even unpacked even the most basics of what was going on there and we have to learn how to get our eyes fixed straight ahead not distracted not veering to the left or to the right and in this little chapter closes verses 26 and 27 ponder the path of your feet and let all your ways be established do not turn to the right or to the left remove your foot from Eva Braun sisters we need to learn how to lead your feet but you see how this goes right like like if your heart is not being guarded with the word that totally blesses right and and and if you're not cleansing your speech because God is cleansing your heart and so what you say reflects what's in your heart and if you're not keeping your eyes focused it makes total sense that you're gonna be walking in places you're not supposed to is that how life works but now what we learn is first of says that you should ponder powerful pond or the path of your feet when was the last time you looked at your life and said I walk in these places and that's either a good or be bad it's either me the best version of myself or the alternative which isn't the hottest version of myself the best version of myself when was the last time you pondered the path that you are on with self reflection see when you ponder the path of your feet then it says and let all your ways be established don't turn to the right or to the left remove your foot from evil see proverbs provides both the goal and the route to get there now every time we get to like this part of a message when I see something like remove your foot from evil I always in my heart of hearts realizing that as a church family not only a really really large church but a large reach into online and all this stuff I always just feel the sense of my heart that there are some of you who are your feet are involved in evil right now and you know it and you're hearing this and there's that part of you that when you heard that the Spirit of God said that's you and the Spirit of God whispers into your heart not because he's mad at you but because he loves you see whom the Lord loves he chastens see the fact that you fell for a moment a little uncomfortable at that verse is because God loves you so much that he placed his own spirit inside of your heart so that when you start getting out of bounds you get that check that conviction and I don't want you to pass by that I want you to honor that check that's there because you are God's child and God loves you too much for you to hurt yourself you need no one will remove your foot from evil but you I always say that that conviction is good but repentance is better conviction is when the Spirit of God says you shouldn't be doing that and repentance is when you respond to that conviction and you change your direction and simply if that's you if you when you heard remove your foot from evil you said my feet are an evil brother sister listen honor that check it's because God loves you he doesn't want you to hurt yourself does want you to destroy your life just want you to destroy your family doesn't want you to destroy your future he doesn't want that he wants you to walk in his steps of righteousness receive that conviction as a loving father who cares about you and then respond to that by turning changing direction front sisters don't just go wherever your feet take you you need to lead your feet and it reminds me of course of another great verse in Proverbs and I'll close with this trust in the Lord with all your heart lean not on your own understanding in all of your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your steps all of you for all of him blessing all of the world that's what God wants for us as fire heads in our hearts as we pray together

Channel: Crossroads Community Church

Views: 5,739

Rating: 4.7362638 out of 5

Keywords: Crossroads

Id: eispXEOa_GI

Length: 42min 17sec (2537 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 29 2017