In Peter Allison's sermon titled 'Understanding the Will of God for Your Life,' he explores the biblical concept of 'the way' as both a literal and figurative path that represents our life choices and their alignment with God's commandments. Drawing on Proverbs 14, he emphasizes the importance of wisdom and understanding in discerning our way. The sermon highlights Solomon's example as a king who sought God's wisdom to fulfill his role, illustrating the necessity of knowing one's role in God's plan. It also discusses the need for discernment between good and better choices, caution against being a busybody, and understanding God's providence in our lives. Additionally, it addresses how to deal with guilt constructively, advocating for repentance and trust in God's forgiveness. The sermon ultimately calls for believers to commit their way to the Lord, ensuring their steps are directed by Him, and to embrace their unique roles within the divine plan.

Brothers and sisters, please turn with me in your scriptures to Proverbs 14. I'd like to read the first 11 verses this morning. We will be looking particularly at verses 8 and 9. Hear the word of our Lord. The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish pulls it down with her hands.

He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him. In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them. Where no ox and r the trough is clean, but much increase comes by the strength of an ox. A faithful witness does not lie, but a false witness will utter lies. A scoffer seeks wisdom and does not find it, but knowledge is easy to him who understands.

Go from the presence of a foolish man when you do not perceive in him the lips of knowledge. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way, but the folly of fools is deceit. Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor. The heart knows its own bitterness, and a stranger does not share its joy. The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish." And thus far the reading of God's Word.

May He add His blessing to it and write it upon our hearts. Almighty Father in Heaven, thank You for giving to us Your Word, for preserving it these many thousands of years. Thank you for giving to us your Spirit, that we may understand it. Who teaches us from it? We ask now that as we look into your Word, That You would give us an understanding heart.

We ask that Your Holy Spirit might work this morning in our midst. And we ask that you would bless The The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. And His way. The Bible has a lot to say about the way. In the Old Testament and in the New Testament, the way in Hebrew is an ordinary road, a path, a highway.

It's the way. That's the way it's often used, probably even most often in the Scriptures, to simply designate the road on which you walk, on which your horses go, the path to a city. But it's also used, and I think we're very, very familiar with this, It's also used to speak figuratively of the course of our life. The Bible says a lot keep the way of the Lord. And when God judged the earth in the days of Noah, it was because they had all forsaken the way of the Lord.

They had corrupted their way. And When God looked down from Mount Sinai where He was speaking with Moses, He told Moses to get back down there because the children of Israel had corrupted. They had forsaken the way of the Lord. The psalmist prays many times, especially in Psalm 119, that the Lord would teach him His ways. That He would instruct his heart in the way of the Lord.

Moses commanded the Israelites that they should fear the Lord and walk in His ways. They should love the Lord. They should cling to Him and walk in His ways. So the Bible uses this word to speak about the path that we ought to follow that is in accordance with the commandments of God. That is in accordance with the word of God.

And we're to walk in that way. We're to desire to understand that way. But it also speaks of it in the sense of our way. We see places especially like that in Proverbs. The Lord says to trust in the Lord and don't lean on our own understanding, but in all of our ways, that's the path that we are walking.

That's the decisions that we are making. That's the course of our life. The choices that we are making for our life. Where we will live. What kind of house we will live in.

Where we will work. What fields of labor we will enter into, and what fields of labor we won't enter into. How we spend our time, and how we don't spend our time, or won't spend our time. How we spend our time of rest as well as how we spend our time of work. This is what the Bible means when it talks about our way.

And it gives promises. If we commit our way to the Lord, the Lord will direct our steps. If we keep the wisdom of the Lord in front of us. They will be life to our soul and grace to our neck. And then the Bible says we will walk in our way safely.

And our foot will not stumble. Train up a child in the way that he should go. That has reference to the bent of the child, his gifts and so on, define the way that He should go. Or I should say influence the way that He should go. When a man's ways please the Lord, Proverbs says, He makes even His enemies to be at peace with Him.

This is a man's way. When our way, the course of our life, the direction of our steps, the choices that we make in all the little details and big decisions in our life, when they please the Lord, the Lord makes our enemies to be at peace. The heart of man plans his way. There's an effort that goes into our planning our way, but the Lord establishes our steps. We plan, but the Lord disposes.

And so we come to this text this morning that says, the wisdom of the wise, the prudent, here is the wisdom of the wise, that he has understanding of his way. Proverbs 21, 29 says the same thing in slightly different words. A wicked man puts on a bold face, but the upright gives thought to his ways. He gives thought. He understands.

He seeks to discern His way. The wisdom of the wise, The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way. Now prudent there is a good way to translate that word. It's sometimes used to speak of crafty. The serpent was more crafty than the other beasts.

So it's in a bad way. But in Proverbs it's often or mostly used in a good way. That is somebody who has discernment. It's a different word than wisdom. It's somebody who has discernment.

Somebody who has thought about things and made thoughtful choices. And so what is the wisdom of this kind of person? It's that they've thought about the way that they're going. They've thought about their steps and the path. They've thought about those choices.

They've thought about the bigger choices more than the little ones. But they've given understanding to the direction of their life. They're not just rolling along like a tumbleweed getting blown about in the wind. Just every little wind that comes by it shifts direction and goes here and goes there. But rather there is some thought and there's deliberation, there's planning and there's preparation that have gone into the course of our life and the steps that we're taking.

The Bible says that's the wisdom of the prudent person is that they understood that. And so we want to look this morning at what does this mean? How do we understand our way? The wisdom, the wise, the prudent is that we understand our way. In Ephesians 5 says that To be wise is to understand the will of God.

Paul says, don't be unwise, but rather understand the will of God for your life. So if the wisdom of the wise is to understand our way, and the wise understand the will of God, then we can say that to understand our way is to understand the will of God for our life. Now everybody wants to know the will of God for their life. It's probably one of the most popular questions that people might ask. What is the will of God for my life?

God says that the wise understand, will know, the will of God for their life. So how do we know the will of God for their life. So what is it? How do we know the will of God for our life? Well, as we've alluded to just a minute ago, a right understanding of our way must first begin in understanding the Lord's way.

What is the Lord's way? And Paul in Ephesians goes on to tell us what the will of God is for our life. He says, redeem the time, because the days are evil. Don't be drunk with wine. Don't give your body to useless activity that's wasting of the time, it's wasting of your abilities.

Don't be dissipated. But be filled rather with the Holy Spirit that you may speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." That's what Paul told the Ephesians was the will of God. The will of God must be, first of all, understanding and knowing the ways of the Lord, so that we can walk in them. But this morning we want to look more closely at what is our way within the way of the Lord? Yes, as we've seen many passages of Scripture that I read, all tell us that we are to walk in the ways of the Lord.

That is a given. But what we want to understand is how do we find our way in the way of the Lord. And that means first of all to understand our ways, to know that the role, to understand the role that God has given to us. To understand the role that God has given to us. Because there are many possible ways that we might walk within the way of the Lord.

There are many roads and paths that He calls us to. And so we need to think about this. And Solomon did this when he became king. He sat down, which recorded in 1 Kings 3, he sat down before the Lord. He had offered to the light here, you turning there, 1 Kings 3, verse 4, he went to Gibeon and made a sacrifice there.

And the Lord then appeared to Solomon in a dream and the Lord said, ask him what shall I give you? And Solomon said, you have shown great mercy to your servant David. He understood the historical context in which he was living. That He was the Son of David and that David, His Father, had walked in the truth and in righteousness and in uprightness in His heart. And because of that, God had shown mercy to Him.

And you have continued this great kindness for Him in that you have given Him a son. You have given David a son, which is me, to sit on His throne. And now, O Lord God, you have made your servant king instead of my father David." There is a realization of a role that God has given to him. Maybe He hasn't made you king, but He's made you a father or a mother or a wife or a child or a student or an engineer. Or he's made you a leader, a foreman, a ruler in some way, or maybe a combination of those things.

And your servant, He said, is but a little child, and I don't know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people too numerous to be numbered or counted. Therefore Solomon asked for the Lord for an understanding heart to judge your people, that he would be able to discern good and evil for who is able to judge this great people of yours. Solomon had an awareness of his role that God was calling him to play, that God was calling him to fulfill, that of being a king. He understood the context of it.

He understood the requirements, What was going to be required of Him in this role? And he asked the Lord for wisdom to be able to carry out His role. Wisdom. He said, I'm a little child. I don't know what I ought to do.

Please give me an understanding heart that I can discern between good and evil in judgment." Because as a king, he realized he was a judge. He would be called upon to execute judgments. And what is the most important thing for a judge? A ruler who has to execute judgment. He has to be able to discern what's right and what's wrong.

He has to be able to hear two people come in front of him and tell their story. And you know, Proverbs says, for the first person to tell the story, it sounds right until the other person comes along and cross-examines him. And then you get a different picture. And Solomon realized, I'm going to be faced with a lot of people telling me two different stories and I'm going to have to be able to figure out the truth in them. Who's right and who's wrong?

Who's half right and half wrong? Who's 90% right and 10% wrong? I've got to be able to figure that out. And Lord, I need Your wisdom to be able to do that. And he asked the Lord for wisdom.

And that pleased the Lord That He had asked for wisdom to be able to carry out His role. That He understood what His role was and He was giving thought to it. You know what? It's in the very next paragraph of Scripture that we hear this story about Solomon. You probably remember it.

The two harlots that came to him, they both had a baby. And the one mother slept on her baby and it died. And so she traded her baby for the other woman's baby. And the other woman woke up in the morning and her baby was dead. And she looked at it and said, well, that's not my baby.

This is your baby. Give me my baby back. And They had a fight, a dispute. And they took their dispute to Solomon. Now this is probably one of the most difficult kinds of disputes a king could have.

There's no real evidence. All he has is the story of two people in front of him. And obviously one is lying. But which one is lying? And then Solomon made the decision for which he is famous.

The display of wisdom that he asked the Lord for. He said to his servants, take the living child and cut it in half and give each person a half of that baby. And in that way, he smoked out the real mother. Because the mother of the dead child who didn't care about the living baby said, oh yeah, that's a good idea. See, if I can't have it, then neither of us are going to have it.

But the mother of that baby, who loved that baby, said, no, don't kill that baby. Give that baby to her. I'd rather that my child live, even if I don't get to have it. And that was all Solomon needed to know who was lying and who was telling the truth. And He said, no, don't kill that baby.

Give her to the woman. He said, don't kill the baby. You see, God gave Solomon great wisdom, more so than any other man in all that age, in maybe all of time. He was a very wise man. It is this book of Proverbs that we are going through that He wrote out of the wisdom that God gave him because he recognized his role that God had given to him, that of being a judge, that of having to decide between disputing people.

And he asked for wisdom to know his way. God gave it to him. You see, when we have that kind of understanding about our way, that this is the way that God has called us to walk in, then we're not tempted, every time we see This other path over here that our brother or sister is walking on that looks a lot greener. And we want, well I wish I was walking on that path. See, we know, we've thought about our way, we know this is the way God has called us to walk.

And we have a peace in that decision. It may look greener over there, it may in fact be greener over there. But we know that this is where God has called us to walk. So we don't care that it's greener over there. We know, if those who are accumulating wisdom know that it's probably not greener over there.

But it doesn't matter if it is or isn't. This is the path that God has called us on. And so we can have a contentment. We can have a peace knowing that we are doing what God has called us to do. We are walking in our way with understanding.

Now, the other thing that we have to remember in understanding the role that God has given us is that we can't do everything that is good. That's an important thing to learn. We cannot do everything that is good. Moses had to learn this about his way. He had led the children of Egypt out of Egypt.

Six hundred thousand men. That's a large body of people. Plus all the women and children, there's probably several million with the children and the women. One and a half, probably close to two million people. It's not quite as big as Houston, but it's close.

You can imagine all the disputes that they had. Just like the people that came to Solomon. Anybody that's a mother or father and has more than one child knows what Moses is faced with. Disputes. We're all sinners.

When you put a couple million of us together, there are disputes that need to be resolved. And Moses is the leader. And Moses' father-in-law came out to visit him, Jethro in the wilderness there. And so the next day after Jethro arrives, they had this wonderful reunion. And the next day Moses gets back to work.

No break for him with his family in town. He's a busy man. There's a million people that need judged, that need a ruler. And so he sat to judge the people, and the people stood before Moses from morning until evening. They're waiting in line all day to get access to Moses, to have his wisdom on their case.

And his father-in-law saw all that he had did, and he said to Moses, what are you doing? Why do you sit alone? And all the people stand before you from morning until evening. That's a waste of their time too. They're waiting in line all day just to hear your judgment.

And Moses said to his father-in-law, well, it's because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a difficulty, they come to me. And I judge between one and another, and I make known the statutes of God and His laws to them. That's a good thing. It's good that Moses did that.

That was a good work. That was his role. He knew what his role was. He walked in it, even when family was in town, and he attended to this work diligently, faithfully. That's commendable.

But Moses' father-in-law said to him, the thing that you're doing isn't good. Both you and those people who are with you will surely wear yourself out. They're going to wear themselves out waiting all day, Wasting a day, not redeeming the time very well. Wait in line. That's something to remember.

Never wait in line. It will save you a lot of grief. It means you probably won't get in to see Disneyland or Disney World, But I've never missed it yet. Don't wait in line. This thing isn't good for you.

This is too much for you. You aren't able to perform it by yourself. Listen now to my voice, Jethro told his son-in-law, and I will give you counsel and God will be with you. Stand before God for the people that you may bring the difficulties to God. And you shall teach them the statutes and laws and show them the way, there's that word way again, Show them the way in which they are to walk.

That's your role, Moses. You are to teach the way of the Lord to God's people. And the work that they must do, there's their way, the work that they ought to do, the way that they ought to walk, you can be their counselor. But he says, you should select from the people able men such as fear God, men of truth, men hating covetousness, and place them to be rulers over thousands and rulers over hundreds and rulers of fifties and rulers of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. In other words, there's one man for ten people as a judge, to be a judge, to be somebody who you can come to and ask advice and counsel.

One to ten, that's a lot better ratio. That you can still get things done. And then it will be that every matter they shall bring to you, but every great matter they shall bring to you, but every small matter they'll be able to judge. They'll be able to handle it. And so it will be easier for you, for they will be able to bear the burden with you.

And if you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure. And all these people will go to their place in peace. They're going to get a response faster as well. They're not going to have to waste all day standing in line waiting for you. That's not good.

It's not good for you and it's not good for them. And so in understanding our role, our way, we have to remember that we can't do every good thing that needs done. The apostles learned this as well. We looked at that just a few weeks ago in Acts 6, where there was more on their plate than they were able to do, and there were things that weren't getting done. And the Holy Spirit led them to choose to do exactly what Moses did.

Choose additional men who feared God. Men who were filled with the Spirit. Men of wisdom. And give the task to them. Now that's not saying that one is more important than the other.

These are both important things. What Moses was doing wasn't more important than what the other men were doing. But rather, it's a matter of understanding our role and understanding that we can't do everything. God has not called us to do everything. We need to discern what it is that He's called us to do and that we can do.

The Word of God also brings discernment in understanding our way to discern between the bad, the good, and the better. To discern between the good and the better. So we just looked at, We can't do everything. We have to do what we're able to do, what God has physically enabled us to do in terms of our circumstances, our times, and our place, and our abilities. And so that's not a division between good and better.

That's just a division based on the limitations of our own body, our human limitations. But now, God also gives us, His Word gives us the ability to discern between what's good and what's better. We want to take what's better. And interestingly, the Bible says a lot about what's better. In fact, Proverbs are filled with things that are better than other things.

Remember some of those Proverbs? Better is the poor that walks in his uprightness than he that's perverse though he be rich. It talks about it's better to have a little bit of bread with peace than to have wealth and not have it. So there's a lot of things that are good versus better. In fact, when Jesus was in Bethany at teaching, remember Mary was sitting at His feet learning and Martha was serving.

She was beckoning. A good thing. But then she complained to Jesus that Mary wasn't helping her to serve. And Jesus said Mary had chosen what was better. She had made the better choice because Jesus wouldn't always be there.

She had chosen to sit at Jesus' feet and learn. And Jesus said that was better. She had made a better choice than Martha. Not that what Martha was doing was wrong. And There is a time and there is a place for that.

But in this circumstance, Jesus said it was better what Mary had chosen to sit and listen. So the Word of God will bring discernment that enables us to distinguish between what's good and what's better. God has not called us all to the same role. We all know that. Sometimes though we forget that.

We might think that somebody else isn't doing what we're doing, that there's a problem with them. A problem with them. Remember Moses and Joshua when they were fighting. Moses went up on the mountain and he held up his hands before the Lord. And Joshua was down on the battlefield fighting.

But that wasn't because Moses lacked the courage to fight, or Joshua was weak in prayer. It was because they had different roles to serve in this occasion. And Joshua wasn't complaining that Moses wasn't down there in the battlefield helping him out. And Moses wasn't complaining that Joshua wasn't up here praying because that was more important. But rather, they had their roles.

In fact, remember Aaron and her role was what? To hold up the hands of Moses, because when Moses could hold up his hands, then the Israelites would win and when his hands went down they would start losing. And his arms got tired holding them up. Let's try it sometime. And so he needed help.

So there were roles there for these people. And they knew those roles. And they weren't looking and saying, well, why aren't you doing what I'm doing? Why aren't you helping me? But they recognized that we're all called to a different role.

We have different gifts. We have different abilities. We're one body, and we're connected, but we all have different roles. And we can't say to another part, well, what you're doing is not important. What you're doing isn't as important as what I'm doing.

That's not understanding our way properly. That's not the wisdom of the prudent to understand our way. The wisdom of the prudent is to understand what God has called us to, and to be content and fulfilled in what God has called us to. If that's holding up the arms of Moses, then that's where we're called, that's where we're content. If that's fighting, then that's what we are content in.

If that's praying and holding up our arms for the people that are fighting, then that's where we're content. Then that is where we are fulfilled. Is where we are fulfilled. To understand our way and to be content in our way is also to be content not to know our neighbor's role. The Bible has a word for people that spend more time in their neighbor's role than they do on their own.

The Bible calls them busybodies. Being too eager to understand our neighbor's way obscures the light in our own way, in our own path. Remember, after Jesus' resurrection, He was talking to Peter, calling him to be a fisher of men, telling him that when he got old, he had just restored Peter after Peter had denied him. Then he said, Most assuredly I say to you, when you were younger and girded yourself and walked where you wished and when you were old. But when you are old you will stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you don't want to go." This the Bible says, he spoke about what kind of death Peter would die.

Church history tells us he was crucified upside down. And when he had spoken this, he said to him, follow me. Jesus had given Peter something about his role, his calling, what he was to do, and how he would die. And what was Peter's first thought? Well, what about John over here?

How's he going to die? What's his role? And what was Jesus' answer to him? What is that to you, Peter? If my will is that John should stay until I come, should be alive until I come, what is that to you?" That's John's role.

Don't be a busybody. Don't be more concerned about John's role and what God's will for his life is. Worry about God's will for your own life. Worry about walking in the way that I have called you to. Now interestingly, some people misunderstood what Jesus said, and they started a rumor that he wouldn't die, that John wouldn't die.

But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, if I want him to stay until I come, what is that to you? We have to be careful to understand words. That's something true today. We misunderstand little words, little differences.

We can misunderstand the context. Jesus corrected that rumor. He said, I didn't say He would, I said, if that's what I want, what is that to you? Peter wrote to the saints in 1 Peter 4, but none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Paul told the 2 Thessalonians 3 that If someone doesn't work, he shouldn't eat.

He says, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all. Not working, but they are busybodies. Busybodies. They're always busy about other bodies. They're busy about other people's business, but not their own role, not their own way, not what God has called them to do.

Let me just turn there. Now those who walk among you in a disorderly manner, and on our busy bodies, now these we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread. There is God's will for our life. We're to work in quietness and to eat our own bread. We're not to steal but rather to work with our hands that we may be able to provide for others who are in need.

That is a big part of, I think, understanding our way, especially for a man who has a family. That His way, what He decides to do ought to provide for His own family for bread for them to eat and to be able to provide for those who have a need. Work in quietness and eat your own bread. I'm sure you all know people who don't do this. They aren't disciplined and diligent in their work.

And so They're in other people's business. They never have enough money. They're always short on things. They ruin their family. They're destroyed.

There's a lot to be said for simply providing food, clothing, shelter for your family. That's a big, big thing. That's not everything. It's not everything at all, but it's important, a very important aspect of our role as fathers and husbands. And those who do not carry that role out will face the consequences in their families.

The role of A wife and a mother is a different role. It's not an inferior role, it's not a superior role, it's a different role. It's not a better role or a worse role, it's a different role. It's just as important, it's just as vital, but it's a different role. And those who understand their way will understand that role, and they will understand what it And what it is that will make them excel in that role.

Understanding our way means also understanding the need for caution. Understanding the need for caution before the way. We might call this the alternative minimum requirement. The IRS has a tax. They call it the alternative minimum tax, I think.

They have this complicated code and if you've managed to lawfully thread your way, your way through this code so that you don't pay very much tax, then they have a gotcha at the end. It's called the alternative minimum tax. They say, you haven't paid enough tax. Somehow you've been able to take advantage of all the loopholes. And at the end, the bottom line, it's not enough.

So you've got to pay more. The alternative minimum tax. And in a sense, we could say, think of it in one sense this way. It's an alternative minimum requirement. Don't move.

Don't move until you are certain it's the right thing to do. And that comes out of Romans 14, 22 and 23, which teaches us that if we do something that is not of faith, it's wrong. Even if it's right, even if it's in accordance with the law of God, but we don't understand it to be that way. We think it might be wrong, or we are not sure if it's right or wrong. Paul says that's not a faith, and what's not a faith is sin.

So we need to have caution. We need to know that what we're doing is right. We need to be certain that what we are doing is right. That the step that we are taking, that we are contemplating, is in accordance with God's ways. And if we're not sure, if we have doubts, then we should wait.

We should wait until we are certain that that is right. Now discerning God's will comes by practice in contrasting God's way with other ways. Paul told the Hebrews, in Hebrews 5, that they should have been those who were teachers, but yet they were still those who were immature and needed the milk of the word and not solid food. Solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is those who by reason of use have their senses trained to discern good and evil. We become skilled in understanding and learning the will of God, what is right and wrong, by practice, by doing, by reason of use.

Have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil. So as we understand our way day by day, as we pay attention to making sure that our way is in the way of the Lord, the Bible says we become skilled, we become mature and able more readily to discern what is right and what is not right and that when we're out of practice when we don't Understand our way when we don't look to discern What is what is right and not When we just plunge ahead without thinking, then we become those who are babes, who need to be taught. Instead of those, we become unskilled in the word of righteousness. Now that doesn't mean that we don't do anything until we know it's the best way. There's a difference between what's in the way of the Lord and what's not, what's good and what's evil.

And so we don't act when we can't make that decision. We always need to know that what we're doing is right. But we can't be paralyzed between the choice of Good and better. We can't sit and make no decision because we don't know if it's the will of God. There's a job offer.

We need a job. Should I move? Should I take that? Well, I don't know if that's the will of God. Thankfully, sometimes the urgencies, the pressures of our life, The fact that we have to eat will propel us in certain cases.

But in other cases we may have the luxury of not having to do anything. I think that would not always be wise. We need to be productive. We need to be thinking about our way, planning our steps, having a purpose in our life according to the role that God has called us. But we may not know what is the exact the best thing.

We can't let that stop us from making some decision and doing what we know is at least good. And it's often as we go down the road, take the first step of what we know is right, That the Lord will give greater clarity. It's like being in the fog. You look down the road, you can't see very far at all. You see a hundred feet, a hundred yards.

But what happens when you drive the hundred yards that you do see, well then you see a little bit farther. You see the next hundred yards. The hundred yards you couldn't see when you were sitting back at the beginning. And that's what it's like as we walk on the way that God has set out. We don't always know everything clearly at the beginning.

But we have to take the first step. We walk by faith and not by sight. We trust in the Lord to direct our steps. And When we see what is right in front of us, we can take that step and trust that the Lord will give us greater clarity, greater vision, greater understanding to take the next two, three, four, five steps. I could tell you many things like that in my life and maybe you could as well where we started out not understanding everything we were doing.

Maybe not even making the best choice or a better choice, just making a good choice. And through practice, through obedience, through taking the steps that we did know to take, the Lord brought greater wisdom, greater ability to discern between the good and the better. We also have to understand God's providence on our way. If we're going to understand our way as wise people, we need to understand God's providence in our way. See providence is an infallible historian.

It reveals God's secret will in history, but it's a silent prophet. It doesn't tell us necessarily what to do next. We learn from it. We make our decisions in the light of God's providence. In fact, the very context in which we make our decisions is shaped by the providence of God.

The city that we are living in, the place we are gathered here today, these are all the providence of God. The people that God brings into our life, this is the providence of God. And so the decisions that we make are within the air, if you will, that surrounds us of the providence of God. But God's providence doesn't tell us what to do next. And we can't be those who try to read what to do next from the providence.

You see, because God sends trials, He chastens us. And we can't say, oh, well that didn't work out so well, so that must have been the wrong thing to do. Maybe it was, but maybe it wasn't. Just because there was a trial, just because you got a flat tire and you went that way, that doesn't mean that that's the wrong way. Look in Judges 20, where you can listen.

God taught the children of Israel this lesson about how to judge as 20. The Israel is having this war with Benjamin because of a great evil that was in the land. And so down in verse, well the children of Israel rose and went to the house of God to inquire of God. And they say, which of us shall go up to battle against the children of Benjamin? Now, they're going to battle because Benjamin was guilty of this great evil.

And so they realize they must bring judgment. And the Lord said, Judah first. Judah is the first one that should go. So the children of Israel rose in the morning, and they camped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin.

And the men of Israel put themselves in battle array. And then the children of Benjamin came out, And they cut down to the ground 22, 000 of the Israelites that day. And the people, that is the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line where they had put themselves in array on the first day. And then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and asked the counsel of the Lord, saying, Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin? And the Lord said, Go up against him.

And the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day, and Benjamin came out the second day, and they cut to the ground 18 more thousand of the Israelites. It's not going so well. Maybe it's not the Lord's will that this is what we should be doing. But they'd ask the Lord, who should go first? Do You want us to go?

God said go. But things aren't working out so well. There's a lot of men dying. There's a lot of blood on the ground. There's a lot of widows and orphans.

Fathers have been killed or young men. Maybe it's not the Lord's will. No, that's not the right lesson to learn. Then the children of Israel, that is, all the people went up and they came to the house of God and they wept and they sat before the Lord and they fasted that day until evening and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings and the children of Israel inquired of the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant was there in those days.

And Phineas, the son of Eleazar, stood before it and they said, Shall I yet go again in battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or should I cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand. There was the promise of victory. Did that mean they were on the wrong path the first two days? No.

No. But it was God's providence that they should suffer defeat. It was God's providence that they would suffer loss. But it was the right way. It was the path that God had ordained for them.

It was the right path for them to be on. We know that because they asked of God at each step. And God said, go. They inquired of the Lord, they fasted, they prayed, and yet these things still happen to them. So we have to understand God's providence in our way.

We can't look at it like tea leaves and think that, well, things didn't work out so well there, or I don't feel comfortable, that must not be the right way. We can't allow our emotions or the circumstances to dictate what we understand the will of God to be or our way. We have to evaluate our way by the Word of God, by the mind that God has given to us, by our understanding of the role that He's called us to. They were called to the role of judge in that situation. There was a great wickedness that needed to be punished.

They needed to do it. And they needed not to stop doing it because it didn't go as smoothly as they thought it ought to go. Elijah was an individual that had the same kind of problem. Remember, he was called by God to be a prophet to an apostate nation, to a wicked king. And he did.

He stood up to the prophets of Baal. He stood up to Jezebel. He stood up to Ahab and God granted him a great victory. But then he was threatened his life. Jezebel said, you know, by tomorrow you're going to be like all those prophets, if I have any say about it.

And he got afraid and he ran away. God said to him, after many days of running away, He said, what are you doing way out here? Elijah said, I'm discouraged. It's not going so well. They want to take my life.

I'm trying, but it just doesn't seem like I'm on the right road. God said to him, Elijah, I have 7, 000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They're out there. I've called you to be a prophet. Now get up and get going.

I need you to do this. I need you to anoint this man to be king and anoint this man to be king of Israel. We have to have a right. We have to interpret and understand God's providence in the light of His Word. And just because there are trials, just because there are difficulties, just because there are roadblocks, we can't allow them to say, well, that must not be the way that God has called us.

Sometimes He calls us to suffer, to undergo tribulation for our own good, that we might be more sanctified. Now, to understand our way, to be people of wisdom, means that not only do we understand our path and what we ought to do, but also that we understand the times that we live in, and that we will be a counselor to the nations. Proverbs 22, 29 says, Do you see a man who is skilled in what he does? Such a man will stand before kings, not before mean people. This is a man who has dedicated himself to understanding his way.

He's gotten skill in it. The Bible says you're going to be a counselor to the nations. You're going to stand before kings. Not only do you know what you should do, but you're going to know what the nation should do. And people are going to listen to you.

Think about that. Wouldn't that be neat? The nations listen. Maybe they're not listening to us because we don't know as we ought to know. Look in 1 Chronicles 12.

Saul has just been Saul has just been killed. David is king in Hebron. Saul is king and he's just been killed by the Philistines. Been killed by the Philistines. And then for seven years, David is king in Judah, the southern true tribes, and Ishbosheth is king in the north.

And there's this battle between these two houses, because God has anointed David to be king over all of Israel. But the Israelites are not in agreement yet. You still have this tribe of Benjamin and these northern tribes that are for Saul's house. And so there's a battle. This is a difficult time in the country.

There's a lot of division. Sound familiar? The two different camps have their own different leaders. They think they ought to be going in different directions. And there's actually a civil war going on.

They're fighting each other. They're killing each other over this battle. And so David is gaining the ascendancy. And the mind of the people is beginning to change. And they begin to see that David is the one that God is calling.

And then Abner is killed. And that is a big demoralizing factor on the north. And then we have this passage in chapter 12. And it recounts the numbers, it's recounted the people that have defected to David. David is growing.

And then in chapter 12, 23, there are numbers of divisions that are equipped for war and they come to David at Hebron to turn the kingdom of Saul to him according to the word of the Lord. And it lists all the people that had come to David at Hebron to turn the northern kingdom over to him. These are soldiers. This is a battle going on here. There isn't a lot of bloodshed at this point, but it lists all the people.

Here's what it says. It lists all the different numbers from the different tribes, which is interesting in its own right. Manasseh sends 18, 000 men who were designated by name to come and make David king. And of the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were 200, and all their brethren were at their command." Very interesting little statement stuck in there. Here in the time of this great civil war, this battle between two houses, the house of Saul and the house of David, The Bible says where you have thousands of people coming, finally, to turn the kingdom over to David, some designated by name, but you have these 200 sons of Issachar who have understanding of the times, and All their brethren are at their command.

That means all their brethren understood that these two hundred men understood the times. They knew what Israel needed to do. They knew that it was time for David to be king. And they had the voice of their brethren. They listened to them.

They recognized that these men understood the times, that they knew what Israel needed to do. And they listened to them. They followed their leadership. That is the mature fruit of understanding our way. That we will be counselor to the nations and we'll have the voice of our brothers.

But there's one more thing. Write in our text that is vitally important in understanding our way. Proverbs 14 and verse 9. Fools mock at sin, but among the upright there is favor. The wise Examine their way.

They examine their own heart. They understand their own heart. David prayed in Psalm 139, Search me, O God, try me, and see if there be any wicked way. There's that word, way again. See if there be any wicked way in me.

See the fool is deceived, self-deceived about his own way. He mocks at guilt. There's a parallelism here between these, the fools mock at sin but among the upright there is favor. Remember we use the parallelism of these antithetical proverbs to help us understand and complete the sense of them, because they are compact and abbreviated. So we have The wisdom of the prudent is to understand his way.

And that exactly parallels the folly of fools. The folly of fools is deceit and fools mock at sin. So the wisdom of the wise is to understand the way. The folly of fools is deceit, which means that the fool is self-deceived about his way. The word for understand is a reflexive word.

It means to understand reflexively, understand his own way. And so the contrast there, if we make these two proverbs fully antithetical, we have the wisdom of the prudent and the folly of fools. The wisdom of the prudent understands his way, the folly of fools is deceit. He doesn't understand his way, he's deceived about his way, he's self-deceived. And so we want to bring in the reflexive aspect of that first part, understanding our way, into this second half about the folly of fools is to be deceived.

So they are deceived, verse 9 says, about their own heart their own sin they they mock at Sin they mock at or guilt the King James has guilt and I think that's probably a better a better Translation they mock at guilt I mean Christina is always telling us about the fools, the wicked, who mock at the guilt of the murder that they've committed, or mock at the guilt that others have for the murder that they've committed. That's exactly what this verse is talking about. When we sin, there is guilt attached to it. And only a fool mocks that. Only a fool says that's irrelevant and pushes it away and says, well, just go plant a tree or do something.

It's all in your mind. It's all your own pressure upon yourself. The Proverb says that's a fool. They laugh at what they should be mourning at. They look down upon people that are overcome with guilt.

They mock them. See the wise respond properly to guilt. Because see, guilt is a good thing. It's like pain You know we think of pain as bad right? We don't want pain, and that's true, but pain is a good thing It's what preserves us you know if you put your hand on a hot stove and had no pain, what would happen?

Smoke would start coming up and it would turn black and it would burn up. But because of pain we know immediately to take it away, don't we? And because of pain it saves us. We react to it. We don't mock it and say, oh look at my hand, it's hurting.

Who does that? The drunk. The drunk does that. The person who is high on drugs does that. Mocks at the pain.

No, we take it seriously. We pull our hand away. And we need to treat guilt the same way. Guilt is like the nerves of our conscience. It ought to tell us when we're doing something wrong.

It lets us know that we're hurting ourselves. But notice what it says here, but among the upright there is favor. How does the wise handle his guilt? Does he go about moping all day and all night because, oh, I'm so bad, I'm so guilty, I'm such a terrible person? Well, yes, you are.

But how does the wise handle his guilt? It says that among the upright there is favor. The wise repent of what was wrong. They turn away from it. And God grants forgiveness.

Blessed is the man to whom guilt is not imputed, David said, whose sin is covered. God says He's removed our guilt from us as far as the east is from the west and remembered it no more. If you confess your sin, God is faithful and just to forgive it, to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no guilt to those who are in Christ Jesus.

With the wise among the upright, there is God's favor. They're not deceived by their sin. They don't mock at the guilt. They repent. The guilt drives them to repent, to confess their sin.

And then they trust in the promise of God that there is no more condemnation. That yes, though your sins be a scarlet, My blood has made them clean. And You are clean. You used to be these things, but you've been washed. Praise the Lord.

Among the upright there is favor. If we take our guilt and simply want to immerse ourselves in it, if we simply want to drown ourselves in it, if we simply want to walk about every day burdened with guilt, then we are in sin. We're not listening, we're not obeying God's word, We're not believing His promise that says, your sins are forgiven. Your iniquity is cleansed. There is no more condemnation.

That yes, though you were black, now you're white. I've forgiven your sins. To walk around with this burden of guilt is to say Christ's sacrifice isn't good enough for me. It's to say Christ's work to take my guilt away isn't good enough. The table that we will celebrate in a minute is a table that remembers Christ's sacrifice that takes away our guilt.

Do we believe the Word of God? That God has removed our guilt, removed our sin from us, and that we are the apple of God's eye? That we are His chosen people? That He loves us? And that He looks with favor upon us.

Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we do thank You that You direct our steps. We thank You for that promise that as we commit our way to you, as we trust in you and don't lean on our own understanding, that you will direct our steps. You will direct our way in what is good. For Lord, you are good.

You are merciful. You are kind. You know every trial. You can sympathize with our deepest distress and sanctify them to us for our own good and for your own glory. We ask that you would teach us to live by your promises, to cling to them, to rest in them, that we might know your favor as we walk in the way that you have set before us.

Looking to you, running with patience, that race that is before us, and looking to Jesus, who is both the author and the finisher of our faith. In whose name we pray, Amen.