My Son... If

My Son…if… Proverbs 2:1-5

Intro.: These words of Solomon in Proverbs 2 are directed toward his son, but they are also a directive from the Lord to his children. When God says “My son”, our hearts should awaken to His wholehearted devotion to us, just like the prodigal’s father in Luke 15:20, “While he was still a great way off, the father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.” Solomon would have done well to heed his own words, because later in life he turned his heart away from God, bringing judgment upon the house of Israel. Years before Solomon’s failure, he passed these warnings on to his son. He told him not to be ignorant of the warning signs of calamity and the power of immorality, but to seek after the knowledge of God with all his heart.

I. Finding the Knowledge of God is not a Mystery & it has Rewards

A. It will save you from the metaphorical immoral woman - vs. 16-19

1. She is the spirit of this age–cunning, deceptive & ravenous in nature

B. The Father has given us the lifelong assignment of seeking after Him

1. He wants us to live every aspect of our lives from that position

NOTE: Too many pastors and leaders have taken on the role of “Instructor”. What we need are men and women that will righteously take their place as spiritual fathers and mothers that will be committed to protecting, mentoring and encouraging those in their charge. They must challenge them to have a vision for their lives and lead them into their destiny of knowing God.

QUOTE: Author, Corey Russell in his book "Pursuit of the Holy" wrote, “The majority of us, even in the Church, are wasting our lives doing good things rather than the best thing: living in intimacy with the Father in His house. We do a thousand things in His name, but the true and living knowledge of God is absent in our experience. We get burned out and bored when we continue serving without truly knowing God, without relating to Him intimately and personally. We need something more than our ministries. We need to be filled with God.

II. “My Son” is the First Heartbeat of Proverbs 2

NOTE: It reveals the emotions of a Father who longs to protect his son from evil and to lay out the simple paths of seeking and finding God.

A. Proverbs 2 is a key to following God with wholehearted devotion

B. The “Father-heart” of God is revealed in His desire for His son’s

success.

NOTE: Solomon is not just instructing his son, he is fathering him. Likewise, God does not just give instruction, he is being a good Father and guiding us toward His heart, which then brings us into His victory.

III. We desperately need long-term vision in the age we live in

A. If we lack vision, we will not survive – Hosea 4:6

B. If we don’t know where we are going, we will easily get off track

C. We will easily give in to distraction

1. We need not only direction, but focus

NOTE: We get temporarily charged up by a conference, a new idea or a scripture and then quickly return to life as it was.

NOTE: We get so caught up in the “right now” that we lose sight of the importance of having and working toward long-term objectives.

D. This can be devastating not only to us, but to generations that follow

1. Through His Word, God reveals Himself & gives us a life vision for

pursuing Him

2. God is preparing a generation who will not be moved from their

vision of eternity.

Concl.: The Father’s heart is toward us.

God’s desire is that we not succumb to the spirit of this age.

This age and her seductions are cunning, deceptive and ravenous in nature. She longs to captivate our minds and hearts.

We all need to be “instructors”, but we can’t stop there. We must ramp our commitment up and serve as spiritual fathers and mothers. We must, protect, mentor, encourage and challenge others toward their destiny

We must recognize the emotions of the Father experience them in our lives.

We should not forget about our short-term vision, because it helps us accomplish the necessary day to day tasks.

EXAMPLE: If you are on a hike and your goal is to reach the top of a particular mountain 10 miles away: if you focus only on your feet, you will become so lost, you may never find your way. If you focus only on the mountaintop, you will continuously trip on things in your path and may even fall in a river or off a cliff. You have to implement short and long-term vision.