Your Direction Determines Destination

Some of you are making plans or you have already made plans on where you will go on vacation this Summer. Many, if not all of you, will get in a car and you will drive. You will put your destination in your google maps or apple maps and you will drive to that destination and enjoy however long your vacation is.

This past March, Myself, Kelly and the girls, packed our bags, hopped in the car and we made our way to San Antonio for a week. Of the three of us, Kelly was the only one that had been. So, it was a new adventure, we had a great trip. We took off in a specific direction and it eventually led to our destination. We made a few stops along the way but because we headed in the direction of San Antonio, we reached our destination of San Antonio.

If I were to get on the road here in Fort Smith and go north I will eventually reach Canada. That is the path to Canada. I can pack my beach towel, I can have dreams of the ocean, I can imagine myself sitting on a Florida beach all day long, but if I am headed north, then I am going to go to Canada not the beaches of Florida.

My Direction, NOT my intention, Determines my Destination.

Throughout this summer we are going to be in the book of Proverbs. If you will read one chapter of Proverbs a day, you will finish the book of Proverbs before we finish this series. If you have been reading your bible through in a year, and you are following the bible reading plan that we handed out at the beginning of the year, you have already read Proverbs.

Today we begin our series on the path in Proverbs 7. If you are following along I will begin reading at verse 6.

I want to show you this from what Solomon showed his audience 3,000 years ago. Solomon is about to tell us a story. We don’t know whether it’s true or one he made up to demonstrate this principle. As he tells the story, he’s standing at a window, looking down at the street:

Proverbs 7:6–7 NIV

6 At the window of my house I looked down through the lattice. 7 I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who had no sense.

Can you see that something’s coming?

Proverbs 7:8–9 NIV

8 He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house 9 at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.

You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to anticipate where this story is heading, do you? A young guy cruising the streets at sunset, heading in the direction of a specific woman’s home. We will find out in a minute that he knew who this woman was, he knew she was married. And, apparently he knew her husband was not home. That alone should have stopped him in his tracks. But it didn’t. In fact, that was the very reason he was headed in her direction.

Proverbs 7:10–12 NIV

10 Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. 11 (She is unruly and defiant, her feet never stay at home; 12 now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.)

Are you imagining this scene?

Proverbs 7:13–15 NIV

13 She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: 14 “Today I fulfilled my vows, and I have food from my fellowship offering at home. 15 So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!

When this woman said she had fellowship offerings at home, she was essentially saying, “Look, I’m not a hooker. I have plenty of money at home. I’m not after your money—I want you!” She was also implying that she had been to the temple and had everything squared away with God. Having already taken her sin-bucket and dumped it out at the altar, she was ready to fill it up agin with him.

This young guy is thinking, If my friends could see me now. Even if Solomon called down from the window and warned him, the kid wouldn’t have heard him over the seductive words that came next:

Proverbs 7:16–20 NIV

16 I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. 18 Come, let’s drink deeply of love till morning; let’s enjoy ourselves with love! 19 My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. 20 He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.”

That pretty much clinched it right there. Not only did he not have to worry about her husband catching them, but he could hang around for breakfast. He could even spend the entire weekend. But look how Solomon saw this.

Proverbs 7:21–23 NIV

21 With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk. 22 All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose 23 till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life.

Solomon knows that this young man is throwing away his future. Possibly his life.

It is at this point that Solomon changes course and addresses a broader audience. These next words are directed at you and me.

Proverbs 7:24–26 NIV

24 Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. 25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. 26 Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng.

Notice he uses our series name here, the path. Solomon debunked the notion that there was anything unique about what this kid was experiencing. It may have been unique for him, but this experience represents a well-worn path: a path that leads to death despite what the naive kid may have wanted to argue. If Solomon could have called a time out in the story and gotten this kid’s undivided attention, he might have said something along the lines of, “There is nothing unique about this path. Many people have gone down this road before and if they could tell you their stories you would make a different decision.

And in verse 27 Solomon drives home his point.

Proverbs 7:27 NIV

27 Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death.

There is nothing new about this path. Nothing unique. Just another young man who has chosen a path that will take him precisely to where he doesn’t want or plan to be. There was a disconnect.

The disconnect in Solomon’s scenario is easy to see, at least for us it is. The young man had his whole life ahead of him. He wanted his life to be relationally richer chose a path that would ultimately undermine his relationships. He yearned for something good chose a path that led to something not good. A youth striving to prove his independence chose a well-worn path that had the potential to strip him of his independence. There was a disconnect. Solomon saw it from his window.

What about all of us. Each of us has a propensity for choosing paths that lead us where we do not want to go.

A single woman says, “I want to meet and one day marry a great Christian guy who’s really got his act together”… but then she dates whoever asks her out, as long as he’s cute.

A husband says, “I want my kids to respect me as they grow up”… and then he openly flirts with other women in the neighborhood.

A married woman says, “I want to have a relationship with my husband”… but she makes the children a priority over him.

A young Christian says, “I want to develop a deep and lasting intimacy with God”… so he gets up every morning and reads Facebook and Instagram.

A working man says, “I want to grow old and invest the latter years of my life in my grandchildren”… but then he neglects his health.

A regular guy says, “I want to get thin and lose weight… supersize that.”

A couple says, “We’d like our children to develop a personal relationship with God and choose friends who have done the same”… but then they skip church every weekend and head to the beach, or sleep in and watch football.

Newlyweds determine to be financially secure by the time they reach their parents’ age… then adopt a lifestyle sustained by debt and leveraged assets.

A high school freshman intends to graduate with a GPA that will afford him options as he selects a college… but neglects his studies.

And I could go on and on. All of these people in each one of my examples have great intentions but just like the young man in Solomon’s story thee paths they choose eventually bring them to a destination that is entirely different from the one they intended.

This isn’t Rocket Science. If you goal is to drop two dress sizes, you shouldn’t eat lunch at the donut shop. If yo desire to remain faithful to your spouse, you don’t linger in an online chat room with members of the opposite sex. Those aren’t pastimes. Those are pathways. They lead somewhere.

And as I’ve said it is much easier to see these dynamics at work in other people than it is in ourselves. And right now you are probably thinking of people that need to be here to hear this message, but please stop thinking about them and ask yourself this.

Are there disconnects in your life?

Are there discrepancies between what you desire in your heart and what you are doing with your life?

Is there alignment between your intentions and your direction?

I think we have all been on vacation before where we have taken a wrong turn. I don’t know how many times I have been driving listening to Siri telling me to turn but I missed the turn and she gives me another route to take to get to my destination. It may make the journey longer but I eventually get there.

In life that doesn’t happen. You don’t just waste minutes or hours. You can waste an entire season of your life. Choosing the wrong path in life will cost you precious years. Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to wake up to his fifties and wish he had taken a different path in his thirties. Nobody wants to arrive at the end of a marriage and wish she had taken a different path during her dating years. Think about it. You only get to be twenty once. You get one senior year. You get one first marriage. The path we choose at those critical junctions doesn’t just determine our destination the following year, but for the following season of life.

Everything that you do is a path. You are currently on a financial path of some kind. You are on a relational path. You are continuing down a moral path, an ethical path, an entertainment path. And each of these paths has a destination. This raises the question again, “Why would a guy like the one in Solomon’s story walk down such a path? How come he doesn’t see what’s coming?”

The answer is simple. He doesn’t see it as a path, he thinks it is an event, a one-time occurence. When the truth is, God says your life and its destination isn’t about the immediate, it’s about the ultimate.

Your Direction, NOT Your Intentions, Determines Your Destination.

Some of you have been brokenhearted at various times in your life. You wanted to know, “Why did God let this happen to me?” The truth is he didn’t. He wanted to stop it, but he couldn’t stop you.

Here are two questions I want to ask you today.

1. What Direction are you Headed in Today?

Morally, Relationally, and Financially

2. How do you Learn to Choose the Right Path?

Let me help you with this...

1. Get Wisdom

Make it a point to read a chapter of Proverbs every day. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs. Read one a day and you will have read the entire book of Proverbs before we are finished with this series.

2. Attend Wednesday Night Connect Groups

You need more than just one day of receiving God’s Word in your life. You need a group of people around you to pray with you. Meet with you. Encourage you.

What if this young man had someone that could have came to him and kept him from going down this path?

3. Make Choices Based on the Long-term, NOT the Short-term.

See your life the way God sees your life by thinking about it like a path, a series of steps, not a bunch of unrelated events.

Think about what will happen if you eat that brownie every day. What’s the next step after you eat the brownie once?

Think about what will happen if you balance your checkbook and save and tithe every month. What does your life look like, step by step, if you do that every month? Looks pretty good, doesn’t it?

Think about what will happen if you pray each morning and say nice things to your spouse before work every day.

Make choices based on what will develop if you do something over a long period of time, because that’s the path your on every time you make a one-time decision.

I want to give each of you a fork this morning with a string attached to it. This is going to be your reminder that every decision is a fork that will lead you down one path or another. Which fork will you take? For the next several weeks of this series, use this fork to remind you of that. Hang this fork somewhere that you will see it. Maybe hang it from your rearview mirror or attach it to your refrigerator.

Say this with me. (Look at slide)

Every decision I make is a new fork in the road. Every decision I make takes me down a new path. Lord, help me to choose the right path.