Proverbs 4 Road less Traveled
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The Road Less Traveled
Intro: “China is not to be won for Christ by quiet, ease-loving men and women.… The stamp of men and women we need is such as will put Jesus, China, [and] souls first and foremost in everything and at every time—even life itself must be secondary.”
This quote from Hudson Taylor who was an English missionary to China in from about 1853 to 1905 where he passed away in China. Christianity was introduced to China about the 7th century but it was not until the 16th century that the Jesuit missionaries started to take root. By the 19th century, China opened up to the West and Christian missionaries started pouring into the country.
He spent most of his life bringing Christ to China. He wanted to make sure they did not die without knowing or hearing of Christ.
Likewise Solomoon wants to ensure his children hear the instructions of God.
Read verses:
Main Idea: God’s Path may be less traveled but it is more rewarding
Why is it less traveled, because God requires certain actions from us in order to walk the road.
God’s Path Requires Preparation (1-9)
Solomon starts this proverb like the first three proverbs, with a request for his sons to hear him. “Listen to your father’s words.” Give attention to my instruction or teaching. Solomon says that he is essentially repeating what he had been taught by his parents.
So now Solomon keeps the circle unbroken. Father teaching sons, sons becoming fathers and then teaching their sons. Solomon wants no less for his children then to walk in the path of wisdom and righteousness that only God can provide.
A Father’s and as Solomon includes learning from his mother, we can include. Both parents in the important phase of life. A parent’s job is to prepare their children from the world at large and make sure they can function in this world. But as. aChristian t goes past just making sure they get an education, have the skills to cook and clean and work so they can move out, and live the life God has intended for them to live.
The best preparation we parents can give our children is to train them up in the way they should go; in th path of God. Learning His wisdom. Why? Because Wisdom will not leave you (verse 6) if you prize her she will exalt you. If you are a Christ follower, you will be exalted at the end times and given crowns. says Therefore the Lord says...For those who honor me I will honor and those who despise me will be lightly esteemed.” God is not saying you will only get A little esteem It is a way of saying you will get none.
We want our children to be there in heaven with us, we want our children to live a life that is pleasing to God. This goes beyond following rules. Anyone can follow rules It takes more to Trust the Almighty God with your life and know that he is leading you and your children on the path He has set for them.
Hudson Taylor’s parents who were fascinated with the Far East, prayed to God that their newborn son be Granted the ability to work for God in China as a missionary.” That is a very specific prayer for a newborn baby. They were preparing him from his birth.
Later, when Hudson was a teenager, he experienced a spiritual birth during an intense time of prayer as he lay stretched, as he later put, “before Him with unspeakable awe and unspeakable joy.” He spent the next years in frantic preparation, learning the rudiments of medicine, studying Mandarin, and immersing himself ever deeper into the Bible and prayer.
He was preparing himself for his work that God was giving him. He prepared in two different ways different ways: Spiritually and Physically
He was prepared Spiritually by praying and reading the Bible deeply.
Hudson prayed physically by studying medicine, mandarin and probably the Chinese Culture.
In , Jesus tells the parable of the Ten virgins. They all took lamps with them to await the bridegroom’s return. He says Five were foolish and five were prudent. The five who were foolish did not put any oil in their lamps; The five who were prudent did put oil in their lamps.
The lamp represents the physical preparation everyone had one. There were other missionaries to China, but We see Taylor’s otherworldly preparation in praying and getting to Know God more.
The spiritual preparation that Solomon is talking about, that Hudson and his parents did by praying, is the oil that makes the lamp light up your spiritual faith is they key to the kingdom of Heaven. This is what Jesus means in his parable. It is not the work that you do or even the words that you say if you have walked the aisle or gotten baptized. It is the faith you have in God. That his death saves you and you really believe that.
Application: Spiritual preparation is harder, and it takes longer than the physical preparation.
The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 states that Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.
Don’t be worried that you only have a little faith
Your faith like a mustard seed is enough to move a mountain. Because all of your pushing and heaving will do nothing if you do not have faith.
Also, the mustard seed grows into a mustard plant that is huge and blossoms.
The righteous shall live by faith, not by the law or works. This is because we show God how we honor Him when we place the faith that he has given us back into him. It is like an investment. If you have money and put it back into the stock, the stock keeps growing and increasing your money.
Our Spiritual preparation is handled and increased through God the Holy Spirit dwelling in you.
You don’t have to grow up alone. says “17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.”
You are not left alone in this world.That is why coming to church is important.the church family is important and integral to your spiritual formation.Not as much as the Holy Spirit but ithe church plays a part.
TS: After you hearknowedgeorgain wisdom you still have to make the choice of using it or not. An so God’s path requires a choice.
God’s Path Requires a Choice (10-19)
DL. Moody said If I walk with the world, I can’t walk with God.”
Solomon encourages his sons to hear and accept his sayings. This how we know that there is a new section.
He is saying in verse 11 that he has given his instruction so that he is set on the right path, He has directed his sons and he says I have led you in upright paths.
Solomon Encourages his sons to avoid the path of the wicked. Avoid it, do not even pass it by. Where I grew up, we were not aloud to go past a place called Sabatianos. It was a bar and grill but other things went on there. There was a significant mafia influence in my hometown because we were conveniently halfway between the bigger cities in Pennsylvania. My parents and grandparents knew to keep my cousins and me away from their less than honorable happenings there.
Although it was not an easy or short journey, Taylor, at 21 years old, arrived in a country, far from his own, both in distance and culture. There were only a few dozen missionaries in the country. But it did not deter him. He knew he was on the righteous path that God had selected and prepared him for.
Taylor saw other missionaries working with or as businessmen or translators and not so much as ones spreading the Gospel. He deemed them too worldly Instead He and a companion chose to head inland distributing Chinese language bibles and tracts even though they still did not have a mastery of the native language.
Taylor made a choice to not be like others and go do the hard work. Even When the Chinese Evangelization Society, which had sponsored Taylor, proved incapable of paying its missionaries in 1857, Taylor resigned and became an independent missionary; trusting God to meet his needs.
Taylor’s Choice was to trust God to walk the path that he had been put on.
Application: We must always choose to follow God no matter the circumstances.
Even though Jesus knew he was going to die, he knew that was his purpose as the Messiah and son ofGod, he obeyed the Father’s will and went to the cross.
Why do we follow God? Because he is the sovereign King. The road we are on, that we have been put on by Him, leads us to Him.
Even when Peter denied knowing the Lord in front of the crowd, was a part of the road.
The trials and tribulations in our life may bruise us, and may make us bleed, but it also cuts away our old selves, our sins and our immaturity that would keep us from growing Spirtually.
says 26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; 27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; 30 and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.
TS: After we have prepared and then made our choices, where we walk also requires that we pay attention to where we are going.
God’s Path Requires Attention (20-27)
Why do we need attention? Because i is easy to veer off course. The road is long and there are a lot of potential stops, but not all of them are good ones.
Solomon tells. His sons four items to pay attention to.
Your heart, your mouth, your eyes and your feet.
The heart flows the springs of life. Jesus Warns the Pharisees in , You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak [a]what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. And here Jesus also links the mouth to the heart.
If your heart is full of love, your mouth will give words of love. If it’s full of hate, then hateful words is what comes out.
What are you putting in your heart? The deeper you prepare with God,the more Godly your heart will be. Because you are allowing the Holy spirit come in to live in you and through you.
Application point: If you keep your eyes centered on God, you will always be going toward him.
This is how Solomoon ends his sons’ lesson; do not turn to the left or to the right.
Taylor kept his eyes on God even though he had to return to Engnald with illness, he lost his wife and several children.
As he prepared to return himself and send others to China, Taylor was wracked with doubt: he worried about sending men and women unprotected into the interior; at the same time, he despaired for the millions of Chinese who were dying without the hope of the gospel. In 1865 he wrote in his diary, “For two or three months, intense conflict.… Thought I should lose my mind.” A friend invited him to the south coast of England, to Brighton, for a break. And it was there, while walking along the beach, that Taylor’s gloom lifted:
“There the Lord conquered my unbelief, and I surrendered myself to God for this service. I told him that all responsibility as to the issues and consequences must rest with him; that as his servant it was mine to obey and to follow him.”
But Taylor was faithful. And walked with God. Taylor’s boldness knew no bounds. In 1881, he asked God for another 70 missionaries by the close of 1884: he got 76. In late 1886, Taylor prayed for another 100 within a year: by November 1887, he announced 102 candidates had been accepted for service.
The organization that Taylor started still exists and is Reaching people today.
Conclusion
Following God is not easy. Not everyone does it and not everyone stays on th path. Most likely because they did not have the faith to begin with.they were physically prepared, but not Spirtually. Hudson Taylor, was a Christ follower that emulated Jesus by yearning to reach a lost people. He died in China in 1905.
Spiritual preparation is more important than physical preparation. You can take all the gear you want out camping, but if you don’t know how to use it, it is useless.
Robert Frost’s poem A road less traveled starts out
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Are you happy walking the narrow road with God? Or do you wish you could just get off and go back to the more traveled road that more people are on?
Walking the road takes preparation choice and attention so you do not stumble.
Lord’s Supper Read Mark 14:22-25