Getting Help Along the Way

How many of you have been traveling on a vacation or just a random trip and you got lost and you did not know where you were at?

Back before GPS and before kids, Kelly and I were moving back to Fort Smith. All we had was a road atlas that our insurance agent gave us. We had stopped in Atlanta to stay the night at her friend’s house. So, the next morning we headed back down the road to Arkansas. We made it to Birmingham. And there was a road that we were supposed to turn onto. But somewhere we missed that turn and went a few more exits down. We ended up in a neighborhood pulling a 25 foot Penski truck and our car behind that. When we turned in that neighborhood. We knew we were in the wrong place. So, I did what most men wouldn’t do I stopped and asked the guy for directions back to the interstate. You know what he did, he got in his car and said follow me I will take you out of here.

If we had not asked for directions we would have never found our way back to where we needed to go.

Today’s road sign is a Rest Area sign. If you have ever driven from state to state, you know that the first thing you see when coming into a new state is a rest area. You will see the sign that says welcome to whatever state you are entering and then a few miles up the road you will see the rest area.

Do you know what is in that rest area? Information. There is information about that state that you are entering. It is a visitors center. Some of those rest areas have people in them that can give you information about the state. They might even be able to give you direction for the path that you want to take.

For the last few weeks we have been talking about how the direction you are heading will determine your destination. That getting from point A to point B involves more than hopes and dreams—it involves a path.

So far we have learned that life is a series of mid-course corrections, that when we see danger, it wouldn’t be prudent to ignore it. We want to take refuge and avoid the danger.

We’ve learned that one of the most common mistakes in determining which fork to take is trusting our hearts, because our hearts often lie to us.

We’ve learned that one of the easiest ways to make a great decision is to ask ourselves the question, “What story do I want to tell about this part of my life years from now?”

And today, I want to help you learn an essential lesson for success along the path. The lesson has to do with figuring out what you don’t know. How do you discover what you don’t know that you don’t know so that you avoid the potholes and pitfalls and landmines you never saw coming?

If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Proverbs. I want to read one verse today from Proverbs and then we will read about a King in 2 Chronicles. But for now go to Proverbs chapter 15.

Proverbs 15:22 NIV

22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

How can you know what you don’t know? You seek the right advice from the right advisers.

There are three reasons we don’t seek advice:

Ignorance Pride Laziness

We think we already know what we need to know. - Ignorance

It feels better to have people think we know where we’re going than to let them know we don’t have a clue. - Pride

It’s too much work to figure out how to get advice. - Laziness.

Do you know what the Bible calls this? “Slothfulness”

So, sometimes we make plans without counsel, and those often fail or at least wind up being less effective than they could have been.

And, at other times we get counsel, but we get inferior counsel because we take it from the wrong people.

Look at what Solomon tells us.

Proverbs 1:5 NIV

5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance—

Wise people listen to counsel and get wiser. Discerning people listen to guidance and get further along their path.

4 Ways to Getting Good Counsel

1. Knowing that You Will Always Need Good Counsel

You will never get to the place in your life where you will no longer need wise counsel.

Even presidents need advisors. The first secret to getting good counsel is to be open to it. Wise people listen and add to their learning.

2. Asking More Than One Person’s Advice.

Proverbs 11:14 NIV

14 For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.

Did Solomon say to just get advise from one adviser? No. He used the word many which means more than one. I even say that it means more than two. Many probably means at least 3, but probably more than that.

All major decisions that I make here at the church are done with the counsel of at least three. But many times before I take those decisions to those three people I have asked others what they thought.

Way number 3...

3. Not Letting Pride Keep You From Admitting What You Don’t Know

Proverbs 13:10 NIV

10 Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice.

Pride may be the number one enemy of the Path. successful people are open to the fact that they don’t know everything they need to know and are quick to go to people who do.

Proverbs 12:15 NIV

15 The way of fools seems right to them, but the wise listen to advice.

Let’s take a moment and move out of Proverbs and go backwards in your bible to the book of 2 Chronicles. I am going to read you a story from chapter 10 about a King who’s name was Rehoboam. Rehoboam was actually the son of King Solomon, the man who wrote most of the book of Proverbs.

His story covers several verses, so I’d like you to turn there so you can read along with me. Rehoboam has just become king, and the people feel like they have been worked unduly hard by his predecessor. So before they allow him to be crowned as king, they ask him to lighten up on his demands for their labor. Let’s begin at verse 5.

2 Chronicles 10:5–19 NIV

5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people went away. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked. 7 They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.” 8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “The people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ” 12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13 The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, 14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. 16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!” So all the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. 18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

After hearing this request, Rehoboam made three very smart decisions. He asked for time to decide what to do. He was wise enough to know that this was not a time for a rushed decision. The second thing he did was seek advice in making the decision. He chose to listen before he decided. And the third thing he did was he listened to many counselors, not just one, and not even just one group.

What Rehoboam wasn’t interested in, though, was actual advice. What he wanted was confirmation of his own conviction. So the reason he went to two groups for advice was that the first group didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear.

Nevermind that these men were older and wiser. Nevermind that they had been there to help his father the wisest and richest king of his day. Nevermind that they had actually gone where Rehoboam wanted to go.

This is the lesson of Rehoboam’s entire life, our number four...

4. Taking Counsel From Those Who have been Where You Want to Go.

Your life and mine are on paths. Paths that either lead us toward where we want to go or away from where we want to go.

It is so important that you know that you will always need good counsel. You must always seek that counsel from multiple sources. You must also make sure that you listen to those sources that you learn what you didn’t know already, take counsel from the right people.

There is a real difference between the right road and the easy road. The easy road is the ignorant road. It doesn’t seek counsel. Or ignores the counsel it gets. Or seeks counsel only from those who are easy to get to.

Wise men and women seek counsel from wise people. Then they listen to it, they heed it, and then they walk the path that leads to where they want to go.

Imagine for just a moment if you stopped making irrational decisions. Maybe you started making it a habit to seek wise Godly counsel.

Proverbs 15:22 NIV

22 Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.

What will you do with this advice today?

So, here are your follow steps for this week.

Come back next week. Next weeks sign is Watch for Falling Rocks. Come back to know what that means.

Finish up the Book of Proverbs

Ask God to show you the counselors He has for you.

Seek advice this week from someone who is where you want to be.

Follow Jesus. You can look all throughout the four Gospels and read where Jesus says many times, “Follow Me.” The best steps you will ever take are the steps you take to follow Jesus.