Look Where You’re Going
The Path Series, Week 5
CCCAG October 31st, 2021
Scripture- Proverbs 4:25-27 (a lot more proverbs)
Today is Week 5 of 6 of our journey through what the biblical book of Proverbs has to say about the path we are on in life.
29 times, the book of Proverbs mentions the path or paths we are on.
Here are just a few. In Proverbs 1:15, Solomon is warning us about buddying up to people with questionable morals: My son, do not go along with them, do not set foot on their paths. That’s the path we don’t want to take.
In Proverbs 2:9, Solomon talks about following the way of wisdom: Then you will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path. Those are the paths we do want to take.
A few weeks ago, we studied Proverbs 3:6: In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
In Proverbs 4:26, he adds a nuance or supplemental principle to the principle we’ve been learning so far: Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.
If you’ve been with us for all or most of the series, you know that the principles that are true in geography are equally true in all of life. Those principles are:
A. The Principle of the Path:
Your direction determines your destination.
This morning though I want to build a bit on that thought and add a qualifier to that statement.
One slight modification that I think you’ll agree is very true—What gets your attention determines your direction and, ultimately, your destination.
B. The Principle of Focus:
Your attention determines your direction.
Let me illustrate this a little for us.
How many people have a cell phone today?
Not long ago, almost every state in the nation passed laws prohibiting people from talking on cellphones without some sort of hands-free device.
Why?
Because they knew that if a person is staring at their phone, giving more attention to it than to the road, there’s a good chance they’ll steer themselves OFF the road, or maybe steer themselves into somebody else on the road. What you give your attention to will determine your direction.
And your direction will determine your destination.
Solomon taught it to us 3,000 years ago in the book of Proverbs.
Here’s his whole statement on attention.
Proverbs 4:25-27
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
Prayer
Let’s explore this principle a bit more.
Another way of saying this scripture is what we have been saying for the last few minutes-
“Our destination is determined by our direction, and our direction is dictated by whatever holds our attention.”
Today we are going to be getting to the heart of the matter when it comes to our journeying down the path that God has for us.
When I say the heart of the matter, I’m being very literal here- we will be looking at the source of what choses our paths for us- our hearts and it’s desires.
Our hearts determine what we give our attention to.
The things that capture your attention will influence your direction.
An example-
Most of us travel the interstate from time to time. Have you ever been on the road for a long period of time, and you fall into that daze you get when you have been driving a long time.
You’re relaxed, no particular need at that moment, just listening to the radio, and driving comfortably down the road enjoying the trip.
You notice a sign up ahead, and its advertising that there is a McDonald’s at the next exit.
All of the sudden, feel hungry. You were not hungry a minute ago, but now that sigh has your attention, and you signal to get off at the exit for a Big Mac Meal.
Another way God gives us signs that grab our attention through the events of our lives. In 2012, I suffered a major knee injury. The doctor told me when he read the MRI report that my days of being a paramedic or a firefighter were over, and I would have to retrain for a different type of work.
I was pretty adamant about coming back to full duty in a few months, and got the surgery and I was back on the truck in 3 months. But God showed me that those days were numbered, and I’d have to start thinking about a new secular career to help support the ministry one.
Hence, nursing school.
That sign influenced my direction in life.
What captures our attention influences our direction. Attention, direction, destination. That’s the principle of the path in three words. As your attention goes, so goes your life.
Or, as Solomon said in our main scripture for the day:
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:25-27
So far, we’ve placed two verbs in front of “attention.” One is positive: something captures our attention. The other is negative: something grabs our attention.
That brings us to our next principle (A bit complex- take your time)-
C. The Principle of Choice:
You get to choose what you give your attention to.
Which leads me to the two other verbs I want to give you. Besides “grab attention” and “capture attention,”
1. You can choose to give your attention.
2. You can choose to pay attention.
These are wilful decisions that you can make for yourself. But there is a catch-
(1) Our Emotions tend to fuel the things that grab or capture our attention.
The second little point here is-
(2) Intentionality tends to fuel what you pay and give attention to.
On every path that leads to disaster or destruction, there is something powerful and emotionally engaging that summoned us, that grabbed or captured our attention.
Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury put it this way,
“What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.” Repeat
Repeating our central verse this morning- This is why Solomon wrote this proverb
25 Let your eyes look straight ahead,
fix your gaze directly before you.
26 Make level paths for your feet
and take only ways that are firm.
27 Do not swerve to the right or the left;
keep your foot from evil.
Proverbs 4:25-27
This is why we have to be very careful with our choices.
This is why the Proverbs warn us
Prov 4:23
23 Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.
That word wellspring speaks of the source of all life. In human beings, that source is the heart.
The heart is the center of it all. Eve, the Adam were lead into sin because their hearts desired what satan was offering.
Romans 10:10 tell us that it is with the heart we believe and are justified
It’s all about our heart.
That’s why we need to check our hearts when we consider what direction this heart choice is going to lead us, and what the destination will be if we journey down that road.
I also remind you what we learned about our heart from Jeremiah 17:9- the heart is deceitful above all else and desperately sick-
What you give your heart attention to determines your direction. And the direction your head in determines your destination.
I want to ask you a sincere question: what has your attention these days?
Where is your heart leading you?
Is it a relationship?
A career?
A house?
An enjoyable pastime?
Is it a person who is leading you somewhere you don’t really want to go?
Or a person who is leading you towards where you do want to go? Or maybe do want to go, but shouldn’t.
Is it your marriage?
Your children?
Your faith?
Is it an achievement you’re hoping to accomplish soon?
What has your attention these days?
Not all of these are bad- some of them can be very good like a home or a good hobby, but others can set you on a path that leads to destruction.
What captures or grabs your attention, or what you choose to pay or give attention to will determine your direction, and your direction will determine your destination.
Here’s a second question:
What do you want to have your attention?
If you could only fix your eyes on one thing, what would it be?
Five weeks into this series, I want to make a suggestion to you.
After listing off a whole lot of positive things he had going for him, The Apostle Paul said all of that past stuff was rubbish, and then went on to describe his new approach to life this way:
Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).
Pause.
Are we pressing on this morning?
He follows that up by saying,
All of us who are mature should take such a view of things (Philippians 3:15).
The author of the book of Hebrews says,
We must pay more careful attention, therefore to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away (Hebrews 2:1).
Some of you here today may have drifted away from the faith for awhile and you wonder how that happened.
It happened because of the principle of attention. Your eyes, your attention or following your heart and then following something other than God.
Hebrews continues to teach us about this truth
Here’s what you need to do to stay on the right path spiritually.”
Hebrews 12:2-3
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
I like that verb, “Fix.”
“Fix your eyes on Jesus.” – Don’t swerve to the right or left. Don’t let your eyes wander.
This is my suggestion for you: Don’t let your heart or your attention be captured by lesser things, focus your attention on Jesus, on following Him, getting to know Him better, serving Him fully, becoming like Him more and more every day.
In the early days of Christianity, when persecutions were just beginning, an unknown saint wrote a song that described the path that Jesus took.
The apostle Paul used this song in his epistle to the church at Philippi.
The song went like this:
Jesus, being in very nature God,
did not regard equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the form of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:6-11
The Apostle Paul inscribed this song into his letter to the church in Philippi because he thought it was important that everyone know that one day every person, everyone with knees, will bow before Jesus, no matter where their path has taken them. On that day, some will be in heaven and on earth – those are the new heavens and the new earth we learned about in our series on heaven, but some will be under the earth.
They’ll bow, even in that destination.
Friends, “under the earth” is not a direction anyone here wants to pursue.
Remember a few weeks ago when we learned that:
The prudent see danger and take refuge,
but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
Proverbs 22:3
Here’s a danger I hope you see:
If you pursue anything less than Jesus, you may end up bowing your knee before him from a destination you never wanted to arrive at.
Which is why Hebrews 12:2 says, Fix your eyes on Jesus. He’s the path to heaven, the path to fulfillment, the path to purpose, the path to where you want to go.
Here’s the way He said it:
I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)
Another word for “way,” is…? Path. “I am the way,” he said. “I am the path. Follow me. Follow me. Follow me.”
Jesus said, “I am the path. Walk in me, and you will see the The Father”
Because whatever you give your attention to will determine your direction and whatever direction you head will determine where you wind up.
You have a choice. You can follow Jesus, or you can follow something less. You can let your attention be grabbed by something that feels good for a moment, or you can give your attention to the one who will direct you all the days of your life and on into eternity.
Which will you choose today?
In his epic story called A Pilgrim’s Progress, John Bunyan wrote an allegory about a man walking the path to heaven. In every turn, there was a choice to make, a direction to go in that would compromise his ability to reach heaven.
The path to heaven has many exits, many tempting signs along the way to get you to take the exit and find your fulfillment in whatever or whoever that desire is.
Some of you have never chosen Jesus before. Maybe you’d like to choose to fix your eyes on him today.
And some of you decided to follow Jesus a long time ago, and then you let your attention be grabbed or captured by something or someone else. Today is the day to correct that, don’t you think? Today is the day to say, “Jesus is the Lord my God. I will no longer have any other gods before Him.”
Next Steps:
1. Come back next week.
We have one more week, and it’s an important one. I want to talk to you about what to do when you realize that there is a “Road Closed” sign on your path and you won’t be able to reach the destination you were hoping to reach, martially, materially, physically, or in some other way.
2. Fix your eyes on Jesus.
When you get up each day this week, talk to Him. Spend a few minutes alone with him, either in Proverbs or some other place in Scripture.
3. Pray for a friend who is not on the Jesus Path.
Prayer
