Proverbs 4:14 (KJV)
Enter not into the path
of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
I have a problem.
It has been a lifelong
problem as far as I can tell.
I remember it being a
problem when I was a kid
It causes me trouble and
I am reminded I have this problem very, very often.
I am not alone in my
problem.
I have passed it on to
my children
And as far as I can tell
it affects about half of the world’s population.
I am a male.
Being male has a number
of negative side effects. There is one in particular that applies to my message
today.
I can’t find things once
I put them down.
I will ask my wife where
something is
· She will tell me specifically where it is
· I will look and look and look and finally demand to here
that it is not there.
· She will walk in to the room, and point it out to me –
exactly where she said it was.
The problem is that I
don’t see it, even when it is staring me in the face.
The reason that applies
to my message today is that the word asher
– which
means happiness, is staring us right in the face in this verse – but I
suspect you have as much trouble seeing it as I do.
It’s the word “go.”
Can you believe it?
· The same word that is translated happy and
· The same word that is translated blessed
· Is here translated “go.”[1]
I am reminded that the
theme for the year – one that I borrowed from our country’s Declaration of
Independence is “The Pursuit of
Happiness.”
· It’s not the rest of happiness
· It’s not the retreat of happiness
· It’s not the surrender of happiness
It’s the pursuit of it.
If we want to be happy we have to go after and hunt it down.
All right, having said
that, I found three of these very curious applications of this word that is
most often translated blessed and happy.
There is, first of all,
I. A POSITIVE
Proverbs 9:6 (KJV)
Forsake the foolish, and
live; and go in the way of understanding.
I have in my head right
now the picture of a couch potato.
· Maybe it is a kid slouched over playing a game on his phone
· Maybe it's a guy laying on the couch with a bag of potato
chips watching football
The fact is, it is
impossible to be truly happy living that way.
I understand that we are
all different and that we enjoy different things.
· Some people cannot be still, their metabolism and nature is
wired in such a way that they just can’t stop moving
· Other people are more settled down. It is their nature to be
quieter, stiller and more reflective
Some people are content
with less.
Some are driven to
produce more.
And I don’t mean to
judge anyone for being the nature that they are.
But whether you are a
more content person by nature or a more aggressive person by nature, no good
thing will happen in absolute inactivity.
The Bible says “Go.”
Pastor Caleb has been
preaching on the many passages that tell us to go on Wednesday nights.
I just want to remind
you that the Bible says
· Go ye into all the world
and preach the Gospel to every Creature and
· Go ye therefore and
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Ghost.
This passage tells us to
“go
in the way of understanding.”
In other words, there
are blessings involved in following after and gaining an understanding.
The happiness people are
going to be those who seek understanding.
I notice that
understanding is not qualified in this passage.
We are not told whether
this is
· Spiritual understanding,
· Practical understanding, or even
· General understanding
I personally would
recommend that the happiest people of all the world are those people who, “…grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ…”[2]
But a case can be made
that pursuing any kind of understanding promotes happiness better than pursuing
no kind of understanding.
Benjamin Franklin was not born into a family
of wealth.
As a young teenager his
father did what many in those days had to do in order to provide for their
family and secure for them the best possible future, he let him out as an
indentured apprentice at a printer’s shop.
It wouldn’t have been
much different than that of being a slave.
The term was limited,
but while being indentured, Franklin was in no better standing than a slave
would have been.
· He was completely at the subject of his master
· He was no allowed to seek the affections of a girl without
his master’s permission
· He could be physically punished for anything his master
wasn’t pleased with and
· Many indentured servants in those days did not survive their
term of indenture
Having no opportunity to
go to college, however, did not prevent Franklin from pursuing an
understanding.
· He borrowed books
· He organized a group of friends for the improvement of their
skills
· He mastered his trade of printing and turned it into a
fortune and
· He then became, a philosopher, scientist, and world famous
statesman
Do you suppose his
pursuit of understanding made him a “happier” man than he would have been had
he wallowed in self pity over the conditions in which he was born?
George Washington was similarly situated.
Though he was born to a
fairly wealthy father, he was the son of the second wife of his father and his
father died when he was but a teenager.
Washington’s older half
brother inherited his father’s estate leaving young George with nothing really
but an earnest mother and a well known name.
George Washington could
never afford to get an education but he did pursue understanding through the
avenues that were available to him:
· He memorized a code of manners on how to behave around
respectable people
· He learned the trade of surveying, then a very lucrative
skill and one that enabled him to search out and apply for unclaimed land and
· He enlisted in the military, which at the time, if a person
was successful in it, could promote a person to nearly the level of royalty
Washington endured some
unbelievable hardships as a surveyor and as an officer in the Virginia Militia.
He failed a few times in
very big ways; many historians blame the French and Indian War on a mission
Washington bunged up.
But he persisted and
eventually
· Inherited his father’s estate when his brother died
· Assumed the role of Commander in Chief of the Continental
Army and
· Became the founding President of our country
Do you really think
George Washington would have been better off if he had grown bitter that his
brother got the farm and lived like a slob?
On the other hand, there
are some things after which a wise person does not chase.
Go back to our original
passage where we find
II. A NEGATIVE
Proverbs 4:14 (KJV)
Enter not into the path
of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
It is unrealistic to
expect that happiness will fall into your lap. You are going to have to go
after it somehow.
You may not have all of
the advantages of others, but you need to make the most of whatever is at your
disposal, but as you pursue happiness be aware that there are some things after
which you are best not to chase.
The Bible says, “…go
not in the way of evil men.”
I used Benjamin Franklin and George Washington as illustrations for
the positive; allow me to use another figure from the same era as an
illustration for the negative.
Benedict Arnold had about as many
opportunities to succeed as did either Franklin or Washington.
Like Franklin and
Washington, his upbringing wasn’t stellar.
He had reasons to be
upset and bitter as a kid but seemed like he had pulled out of it just as
Washington and Franklin had done.
By the time the war had
begun Arnold was far from successful, but he wasn’t doing poorly.
He had succeeded enough
in life to be an officer and not just a foot soldier.
Arnold saw, just as
Washington had a decade earlier, an opportunity to improve his status in life
through the military and it looked as if he would be successful.
During the first years
of the war Arnold was
· a rising star,
· a war hero and
· Washington’s right arm man
But then Arnold fell in
with the wrong crowd.
· He met a woman who bedazzled him and
· She introduced him to a British spy who beguiled him
In some ways you could
say that Arnold’s treason resulted in his personal success:
· He and his wife, Peggy Shippen by, escaped to England
· He was made an officer in the British army
· After the war he was paid a stipend from England for the
rest of his life
He became:
· A land speculator in Canada and
· A shipping privateer during the French Revolution
But he was never a happy
man.
On his deathbed he asked
to be dressed in his uniform as and officer in the Continental Army saying, “Let
me die in this old uniform… God forgive me for ever having put on another.”
He was able to attract
the attention of the British because there was an enemy to the cause for which
he fought.
Let me tell you that
there is an enemy to the cause for which you fight too.
Evil men will seek to
rob you of
· Righteousness
· Honor
· Virtue
· Holiness and
Ultimately destroy your
hopes for any sort of happiness.
There is only one way to
protect yourself from them
· Identify them and
· Have no company with them
Romans 16:17 (KJV)
Now I beseech you,
brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine
which ye have learned; and avoid them.
2 Thessalonians 3:14
(KJV)
And if any man obey not
our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he
may be ashamed.
Let me tell you where I find that most people fail in this; they are too sensitive
to obey the Word of God on this point.
· They do not want to be judgmental, so they will not label
something or someone as evil
· They do not want to hurt someone’s feelings so they will not
avoid or having no company with them
I think I should move to
my final point and show you
III. A
NEUTRALIZER
Proverbs 23:19 (KJV)
Hear thou, my son, and
be wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
If we have a proton and
an electron, this would be the neutron.
The Hebrew word Asher,
so often translated
· Blessed
· Happy and in the verses we have seen this morning
· Go
Is here translated “guide.”
Perhaps this would be
the perfect time to tell you that this variation of the word Asher is also
defined as “straight up, level or to be
honest.”
When I was an apprentice
ironworker my foreman assigned for me to plumb up this row of rebar legs.
We had poured a concrete
foundation and had placed in the pour hundreds of these legs, about three foot
tall, intended to tie the foundation to the concrete walls that would be poured
later.
Anyway, I went to each
of them, bent over them, and bent them so they looked straight to me. I
finished the job and went on to the next assignment.
Later my foreman, his
name was Denny and he didn’t like me anyway because he thought I was Mexican,
come to get me. He took me to the row of rebar legs to have a look at my work.
Standing back and
looking at them in a row I could see that NONE of them were straight up.
You can’t look over the
top of something like that and bend it straight up and down. You have to get
back a bit and get some perspective.
And you have to use a
level to bend it plumb.
Here’s the thing
You will never choose
the right way based on what your heart or your feelings want. You are just to
close to see what’s straight from that perspective.
· You are going to have to take a step away from your emotions
and
· You are going to need to use something to show you level –
the Bible
It’s this simple, we
will always be happier when we guide our heart in the honest, upright and Bible
way.
[1] Actually it is one of
the variations of that word. Strongs
H883 aw-shar', aw-share' A primitive root; to be straight (used
in the widest sense, especially to be level, right, happy);
figuratively to go forward, be honest, prosper: - (call,
be) bless (-ed, happy), go, guide, lead, relieve.
[2] 2 Peter 3:18
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