In his sermon 'Setting the Course of Your Life,' Peter Allison explores the biblical principles found in Proverbs 24, emphasizing the importance of wisdom, understanding, and knowledge in establishing a strong and enduring life. He discusses how wisdom is vital not only in building a physical house but also in crafting one's legacy and spiritual wealth. The sermon highlights that adversity reveals true character and that a wise person is strong by virtue of their knowledge and willingness to learn. Allison underscores the necessity of seeking wise counsel for important decisions and warns against partiality and injustice, using examples from scripture to illustrate the consequences of foolishness and sin. He calls for an active role in delivering the oppressed and maintaining moral integrity, urging Christians to be willing to stand for truth and justice in the face of societal challenges, particularly in confronting issues like abortion and societal injustice.

Please turn in your copy of God's Word to Proverbs chapter 24. I'd like to read beginning at verse 3. Through wisdom, a house is built, and by understanding it is established. By knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is strong.

Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. For by wise counsel you will wage your own war, and in a multitude of counselors there is safety. Wisdom is too lofty for a fool he does not open his mouth in the gate. He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. The devising of foolishness is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to men.

If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, surely we did not know this, does not he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And will he not render to each man according to his deeds?

My son, eat honey because it is good, and the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste, so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul. If you have found it, there is a prospect and your hope will not be cut off. Do not lie in wait a wicked man against the dwelling of the righteous. Do not plunder his resting place, for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. Do not rejoice when your enemy falls.

And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked. For there will be no prospect for the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be put out. My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not associate with those given to change for their calamity will rise suddenly and who knows the ruin those two can bring.

These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to show partiality in judgment. He who says to the wicked, you are righteous. Him the people will curse. Nations will abhor him.

But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight and a good blessing will come upon them. He who gives a right answer kisses the lips. Prepare your outside work. Make it fit for yourself in the field, and afterward build your house. Do not be a witness against your neighbor without cause, for would you deceive with your lips?

Do not say, I will do to him just as he has done to me. I will render to the man according to his work. I went by the field of the lazy man and by the vineyard of the man to void of understanding, and there it was, all overgrown with thorns. Its surface was covered with nettles. Its stone wall was broken down.

When I saw it, I considered it well. I looked on it and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest. So shall your poverty come like a prowler, and your need like an armed man." Thus far the reading of God's Word may His Word be hidden in our heart that we might not sin against Him. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank You for preserving Your Word and for bringing it to us.

We ask that You might give us spiritual eyes this morning that we might learn, see and learn these spiritual things. For the spiritual things are not discerned by natural eyes. And I ask, Lord, that You would sanctify this vessel of clay and sanctify these sinful lips to proclaim what is beautiful and true and right. May all any chaff be driven away, and may you preserve me from error. In Jesus' name, amen.

By wisdom, a house is built. By wisdom, a house is built. I think it's a metaphorical reference to more than just a building of wood and stone, Although it's certainly true in that narrow case. Takes some wisdom to build a house that doesn't fall down and that keeps out the rain and that will last. But this is speaking about more than that.

It's speaking about one's house in the sense of one's legacy we might say or one's life what the building of one's life what remains What remains when you depart this earth? What is the sum total of your life? Eight hours of sleep a day or last 365 days a year for 80 years, 200, 000 hours of sleep, 87, 000 meals, 75 bouts of flu or more or less. Some number of thousands of movies, maybe. A million widgets produced at work.

What else constitutes your life? By wisdom it says a house is built and by understanding it is established the rooms are filled with by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. What is going to fill the rooms of your house? What will people remember? What will you have done?

Paul speaks about this in his letter to the Corinthians. What will you have done that will be eternal, enduring? And what have you done that's going to be forgotten? That's going to be gone, never to be remembered, after you depart this life. First Corinthians 3.

Paul speaks about, says, no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, and precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, each one's work will become clear. For the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test each one's work. Of what sort it is, what kind of work is it? If anyone's work, which he has built on it, endures, he will receive a reward.

If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss, but he himself, Paul said, will be saved, yet is though fire. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Let no one deceive himself.

If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool, that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Paul also told Timothy that in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honor, some for dishonor. So I've titled this message, Setting the Course of Our Life, not in the sense that we think we are the pilot of our life and the captain of our salvation, but recognizing that God is our Captain, God is our Lord, but He also calls us to plan. He calls us to prepare.

He calls us to contemplate and to choose what we will do, who we will follow. And that of necessity means we can't do everything. We have to make choices. We have to dedicate ourselves, if we're going to get anything done, to it. And That means in dedicating ourselves to one thing that we are excluding and not doing something else.

The older you become the more you realize our limitations. We can't be an expert at everything. We have to be, We have to make a choice. So what choices are we going to make? What are we going to do with the resources, the years, the hands, the mind that God has given to us.

Through wisdom a house is built by knowledge the rooms are filled. This is speaking here not merely of earthly riches, speaking of earthly riches, but it's also speaking of spiritual wealth, physical and spiritual wealth. Because we are both. We are a spiritual, we are a body, and we are a soul. And as the saying goes, we can't be so heavenly minded that we're no earthly good, or so earthly minded that we're no heavenly good.

We are both. We are both a body and we are a spirit. And so this passage, this chapter here, gives us some of these principles by which to set our course. It gives us principles, it gives us things that we ought to do, make sure you do this, and it gives us things that we ought not to do, don't do these things. It gives us things to do, things not to do, And it gives us some principles to make decisions in specific cases that we can apply.

Principles that we can apply. It says that in verse 5, a wise man is strong. A wise man is strong. That's a little different than the Mr. Universe magazine.

Says that somebody who lifts weights and eats protein powders and builds muscle mass, that's strong. This Bible is saying, actually somebody that can control his spirit is stronger than the mighty man that can take a city. Wisdom, a wise man is strong. A wise man is strong. And a man of knowledge increases in strength.

Because a man of knowledge is going to be seeking knowledge. We are never too old to learn. That's one important principle. It's easy to say when you've reached years where you begin to be older than most people to think that, well, I don't really need to learn anything, I've learned it. If I don't know it, it's not important.

God is telling us that a wise man is strong and a man of knowledge increases in strength. It means there is an increase, there is a continual desire to grow and to learn and to realize as long as we have life we know imperfectly. And so there needs to be a willingness, A willingness to learn, a willingness to seek for greater wisdom. Wisdom is more than just knowing facts, it's knowing how to use that information, it's knowing what to do with it, it's knowing how to apply it. And that's a part of knowledge.

It's a big part of wisdom. It's the right application of what we know. The fool, on the other hand, doesn't open his mouth in the gate. He has nothing to say, he has nothing to contribute. He has not given himself to wisdom.

And so in the moment of decision, see that's what he's saying, he's opening his mouth in the gate. The gate is in reference to the courts of the land. This is the place where the public discourse happens. This is The place where the ideas are developed and the plan of action is determined. This is where counselors meet together to decide what to do.

The one who has not given himself to wisdom, the one who has not sought to learn and to grow, It's too lofty for a fool. He doesn't open his mouth in the gate. He has nothing to say. He has nothing to contribute. He's a useless body, as we said in the submarine force.

Useless body. It's those who are willing to learn who can contribute in that time into that discussion. Now there's also a principle that is given in the summary verse. I didn't read it, but I'll read it now. Remember we said this section of Proverbs has three main parts, right?

And we've looked at the previous two parts, and we're looking at the third part today. But each of these three parts was given a sort of summary verse or summarized or introduced at the beginning of this section. And so if we go back to chapter 22 verses 26 and 27, I think we read the introduction of this section, Do not be one of those who shakes hands in a pledge, One of those who is surety for debts. If you have nothing with which to pay, why should he take away your bed from under you? Don't pledge yourself as security.

In other words, don't cosign alone. Don't take on obligations from somebody else that they have. Don't accept their liability. If you would like to help somebody in a time of need, absolutely. Make them a loan yourself, a non-interest bearing loan.

Or give them the money. And if you're not in a position to do either of those two things, either making them a non-interest loan or giving them the money, or some combination of that, then you're not able to help them, really. And so the principle here is don't commit yourself to do more than you're able to do. That's essentially what being surety for somebody is. They're going out to incur an obligation, incur a debt, and you're going to be assumed the liability for that debt.

Well, if you are able to pay that debt, then just loan them the money yourself. If you're not able to loan them the money, then you can't repay the money, then you shouldn't be surety for that debt. See how that works. Essentially saying don't commit to doing more than what you can actually do. Because if you become liability for somebody else's debt, a debt that you can't pay, and they can't pay it, now you're liable for a debt that you can't pay.

And Proverbs says, why should they take your bed from you, from under you? You mortgage your house for a debt that you can't pay, and you fail, you aren't able to meet the obligations of that mortgage, you lose your bed. So wisdom in building our house is don't commit to doing more than you are able to do. We have to recognize the limits of the resources that God has given us and accept those. And if we are not able to help somebody, we are not able to help them.

We may regret that. It may be because we haven't been wise ourselves that we're not in a position to help. The one who stole was to steal no more, but rather work with his hands to be able to help those who were in need. So if we're not able to help those truly in need, There may be, possibly, not saying that it's always that way or even most of the time that way, but it may be our fault or it may be a part of our fault. But even if that's the case, This is saying don't compound the problem and take on more than you're able to take on.

Next principle is that a wise person recognizes they're not an expert in everything and seeks counsel, especially before major decisions. No human can know everything. And so one of the aspects of wisdom is to recognize when there are things that you don't know. In effect, you know that you don't know, instead of not knowing that you don't know. So there is, by wise counsel, you will wage your own war.

And in a multitude of counselors there is safety. Not just one counselor, but in a multitude. You're getting different input from different perspectives. Now you have to be careful who you pick as a counselor. That's very important and we've looked at that before.

You need to pick the right counselors. They need to be counselors that fear the Lord. They need to be counselors that are knowledgeable in the Scriptures. It would be folly to go to somebody who doesn't know the Word of God, to ask them how to follow the Word of God. Yet that's exactly what people do when they send their children to the government school.

Here are people who don't know God, who don't know His precepts, And even if they do, they are prevented from teaching them. And you're going to send your child there to be counseled by people that don't know God. To be taught how to fear God by people that don't know how to fear God. That's not wisdom. So yes, we need to seek counsel, but we also need to seek it from the right counselors, from wise counselors, from people who fear God, from people who have set themselves to know and to study the Word of God.

Another, the next principle is that thoughts count. Thoughts count. He who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. And the devising of foolishness is sin. The devising doesn't say the doing of it, it's the actual thinking about it, the planning part of it, the thinking about it is wrong.

It's sin. The devising of foolishness is sin. Thinking and planning foolishness, If what you're planning to do is wrong, then the planning to do it itself is also wrong. Some people imagine that they can commit all manner of sexual immorality in their mind. That they can enjoy the pleasures of sin in their mind with no consequences or guilt.

That's just not true. What you plan in your mind, you will speak. And what you speak, you will do. Our mind and our thoughts are important. God sees them even if other people don't.

And the mere planning of sin, of foolishness, is sin. That's an important principle to remember over the long haul. What you plan and think about today nobody may know about. But if you are continuing to think in those thoughts, and to think in that vein, those thoughts will express themselves. Those thoughts will express themselves.

Ever been in a senior home? Where all the people that their children aren't able to care for, maybe they don't have any children, sometimes special care is needed. But if you're around there, you'll know that there are some who seem to have lost all restraint and all consciousness of what they are saying. And out of their mouth comes either praise to God if they are a Christian, comes truth, or out of their mouths just stream profanities. It can be shocking when you see a little old lady, a frail old lady who can barely sit up, who is just pouring forth a stream of profanity.

They've lost the restraint. Their mind isn't there anymore. But what's in their heart now is just pouring out. The secrets of the heart will be revealed. The next principle here In this lesson on life and building our house is that trials and adversity are proof of character and belief.

Trials and adversity are proof of character and belief. Trials bring out what is already inside of us. If we are people of courage, then a trial, adversity, will give it a cause for that courage to be demonstrated. If we are people that are fearful, then a trial will bring out the fear that is in us, that we are living with. The event doesn't create it.

The event, the adversity, the trial simply opens up and exposes what's already inside of us. If you faint in the day of adversity, of adversity, your strength is small. Another principle on here is something to do. Here is something that we are called to do. If you think about what should the course of our life be, what are the things that are important that we should do?

Deliver those who are drawn toward death and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, surely we did not know this, does not he who weigh the hearts consider it? And he who keeps your soul, does he not know it? And he will render to each man according to his deeds." We are to rescue those who are perishing. We are to show mercy to those who are in need.

One way you might be able to gauge the Christianity of a nation is to measure how long it takes for someone to stop for help and offer help to somebody who is stranded on the side of the road. How long does it take for someone to stop and offer? How many people go by without rendering aid? Now sometimes you can see that they have it well in hand and they don't need any help and it's obvious as you go by. But how many cars go by?

If you ran this experiment in Houston and then you ran it in the Midwest, you'd probably get a very different answer. But it's a real measure of the Christianity of a nation. Are there people who are willing to rescue those who are perishing, to rescue those in trouble, to show mercy to those who need help? It's a way of life. It's part of who we are as a people.

This is speaking, I think, especially to judges, and it addresses judges a little later. This is in a sense a parallel passage to Psalm 82 which addresses the rulers of the land. God stands in the congregation of the mighty, he judges among the gods. That word is referring to the rulers. The gods are the rulers of the land.

How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? In other words, you have people that come before your gates for judgment and because of their position in society, because they live next to you, because you benefit from what they do in some way. Maybe they're your customer and they buy what you make. And so when they've done something wicked and they stand before you, they don't get the same sentence, they don't get the same treatment that the next person that you don't know would get for doing the exact same thing. That's partiality.

That's also a measure of the Christianity of a nation. Jeffrey Epstein got special treatment in the courts in Florida because of who he knew, because of his money, because of his influence. And God says, No, God says no, you will die like men and you will fall. Defend the poor, God says in Psalm 2, defend the poor and fatherless, do justice to the afflicted and needy, Deliver the poor and needy, free them from the hand of the wicked. When the poor come to you for justice because they are being oppressed, deliver them.

Don't say, well they are poor, they are insignificant. They are not going to help me get re-elected. I don't need to worry about their case as much. That's partiality and it's particularly condemned for judges. They do not know, nor do they understand.

They walk about in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are unstable. When there is injustice in the land, when there is partiality, the foundations of the land are unstable. The country is unstable. Is unstable.

We are to rescue those who are perishing. We are to deliver those who are stumbling, to hold them back. We can't say, well I didn't know. We didn't know. I'm surprised.

That was the response of the German nation to the concentration camps. We didn't know. We lived right next door and we didn't know what was going on inside those walls. There's a lot of pushback today, even among Christians, when images of abortion, the graphic images of abortion, where the babies are being cut up, where their limbs are being torn from their bodies, where their heads are being crushed by calipers. These are real babies, these are real people being dismembered.

And the results of that horrible abomination sit on the table in the murderer's office. And there are pictures of it. And there are a lot of people that are offended when those pictures are displayed. But they want to be ignorant of what's going on. They don't want to be reminded of this horrible, horrible abomination going on right under their nose.

But we should be horrified at it. And we should see it. Because we need to know about it. And so the next time somebody is offended at one of those pictures, If you tell them, if you say, surely we did not know it, does not he who weigh the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does he not know it?

That's willful ignorance. And God knows it. And God knows it. And that's going on in our land today. We can't ask God for mercy to our land.

We can't ask God to feed us and to provide our clothes and our shelter if we are willfully ignorant to this kind of murder going on right under our nose, God would be perfectly just to destroy our food system, our food supply chain. God would be perfectly just to destroy our economy so that we have nothing. Know the wisdom of God. Oh, the wisdom of God, the justice of God. But oh, he is merciful.

And so let us pray for God's mercy upon our land. Let's pray especially for his church to repent where it has been, as people to repent where they have been willfully ignorant. And to cry out, to be once again to cry out to the Lord and to seek to rescue and deliver those who are perishing. To pray that our land will once again make the killing of unborn children murder, and punish it appropriately, accordingly, as God's justice demands. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, We thank you that you are merciful and that you are slow to anger. For surely the blood of our land, the innocent blood, does cry out to you and has for over 40 years, yet even longer. So we ask Lord that through these adversities that you would restore a justice, civic justice in our land. Lord, we ask that You might grant strength and courage to your church to be a light on a hill, to be the voice of truth, to bear witness to the justice and necessity of your commandments, to not be ashamed of your laws. Laws that condemn fornication of all manners.

Laws that condemn adultery and unfaithfulness in marriage. Laws that condemn homosexual fornication as well, laws that condemn theft, even if it is legalized. Even if it is legalized. Lord, we have strayed far from You and we have oppressed many who We have oppressed many who are poor as a government, as a nation. We have stolen the wealth of those to whom you have given it.

And we have brought upon ourselves your just and right condemnation and judgment. Father, we ask for your mercy now. We ask that we who have for so long tried to be neutral, pretended to be neutral, for there is no such thing. We are either, our nation is either for you, it either acknowledges you as our God and lawgiver as the one who has given us life or it does not. Father we ask that we might not be as your people that we might not be ashamed to proclaim that you are the King of Kings and that your commandments are truth and there is no truth apart from them.

Lord give to us boldness. May we not fear the ridicule of the scorners and the cries of the mockers. Father, May we be willing to stand even alone because we are standing with you and we are standing by your strength. And so we ask, Lord, for this boldness through Jesus Christ. Amen.