Sermon Tone Analysis
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How many of you have been traveling on a vacation or just a random trip and you got lost and you did not know where you were at?
Back before GPS and before kids, Kelly and I were moving back to Fort Smith.
All we had was a road atlas that our insurance agent gave us.
We had stopped in Atlanta to stay the night at her friend’s house.
So, the next morning we headed back down the road to Arkansas.
We made it to Birmingham.
And there was a road that we were supposed to turn onto.
But somewhere we missed that turn and went a few more exits down.
We ended up in a neighborhood pulling a 25 foot Penski truck and our car behind that.
When we turned in that neighborhood.
We knew we were in the wrong place.
So, I did what most men wouldn’t do I stopped and asked the guy for directions back to the interstate.
You know what he did, he got in his car and said follow me I will take you out of here.
If we had not asked for directions we would have never found our way back to where we needed to go.
Today’s road sign is a Rest Area sign.
If you have ever driven from state to state, you know that the first thing you see when coming into a new state is a rest area.
You will see the sign that says welcome to whatever state you are entering and then a few miles up the road you will see the rest area.
Do you know what is in that rest area?
Information.
There is information about that state that you are entering.
It is a visitors center.
Some of those rest areas have people in them that can give you information about the state.
They might even be able to give you direction for the path that you want to take.
For the last few weeks we have been talking about how the direction you are heading will determine your destination.
That getting from point A to point B involves more than hopes and dreams—it involves a path.
So far we have learned that life is a series of mid-course corrections, that when we see danger, it wouldn’t be prudent to ignore it.
We want to take refuge and avoid the danger.
We’ve learned that one of the most common mistakes in determining which fork to take is trusting our hearts, because our hearts often lie to us.
We’ve learned that one of the easiest ways to make a great decision is to ask ourselves the question, “What story do I want to tell about this part of my life years from now?”
And today, I want to help you learn an essential lesson for success along the path.
The lesson has to do with figuring out what you don’t know.
How do you discover what you don’t know that you don’t know so that you avoid the potholes and pitfalls and landmines you never saw coming?
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of Proverbs.
I want to read one verse today from Proverbs and then we will read about a King in 2 Chronicles.
But for now go to Proverbs chapter 15.
How can you know what you don’t know?
You seek the right advice from the right advisers.
There are three reasons we don’t seek advice:
Ignorance Pride Laziness
We think we already know what we need to know.
- Ignorance
It feels better to have people think we know where we’re going than to let them know we don’t have a clue.
- Pride
It’s too much work to figure out how to get advice.
- Laziness.
Do you know what the Bible calls this? “Slothfulness”
So, sometimes we make plans without counsel, and those often fail or at least wind up being less effective than they could have been.
And, at other times we get counsel, but we get inferior counsel because we take it from the wrong people.
Look at what Solomon tells us.
Wise people listen to counsel and get wiser.
Discerning people listen to guidance and get further along their path.
4 Ways to Getting Good Counsel
1. Knowing that You Will Always Need Good Counsel
You will never get to the place in your life where you will no longer need wise counsel.
Even presidents need advisors.
The first secret to getting good counsel is to be open to it.
Wise people listen and add to their learning.
2. Asking More Than One Person’s Advice.
Did Solomon say to just get advise from one adviser?
No.
He used the word many which means more than one.
I even say that it means more than two.
Many probably means at least 3, but probably more than that.
All major decisions that I make here at the church are done with the counsel of at least three.
But many times before I take those decisions to those three people I have asked others what they thought.
Way number 3...
3.
Not Letting Pride Keep You From Admitting What You Don’t Know
Pride may be the number one enemy of the Path.
successful people are open to the fact that they don’t know everything they need to know and are quick to go to people who do.
Let’s take a moment and move out of Proverbs and go backwards in your bible to the book of 2 Chronicles.
I am going to read you a story from chapter 10 about a King who’s name was Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was actually the son of King Solomon, the man who wrote most of the book of Proverbs.
His story covers several verses, so I’d like you to turn there so you can read along with me.
Rehoboam has just become king, and the people feel like they have been worked unduly hard by his predecessor.
So before they allow him to be crowned as king, they ask him to lighten up on his demands for their labor.
Let’s begin at verse 5.
After hearing this request, Rehoboam made three very smart decisions.
He asked for time to decide what to do.
He was wise enough to know that this was not a time for a rushed decision.
The second thing he did was seek advice in making the decision.
He chose to listen before he decided.
And the third thing he did was he listened to many counselors, not just one, and not even just one group.
What Rehoboam wasn’t interested in, though, was actual advice.
What he wanted was confirmation of his own conviction.
So the reason he went to two groups for advice was that the first group didn’t tell him what he wanted to hear.
Nevermind that these men were older and wiser.
Nevermind that they had been there to help his father the wisest and richest king of his day.
Nevermind that they had actually gone where Rehoboam wanted to go.
This is the lesson of Rehoboam’s entire life, our number four...
4. Taking Counsel From Those Who have been Where You Want to Go.
Your life and mine are on paths.
Paths that either lead us toward where we want to go or away from where we want to go.
It is so important that you know that you will always need good counsel.
You must always seek that counsel from multiple sources.
You must also make sure that you listen to those sources that you learn what you didn’t know already, take counsel from the right people.
There is a real difference between the right road and the easy road.
The easy road is the ignorant road.
It doesn’t seek counsel.
Or ignores the counsel it gets.
Or seeks counsel only from those who are easy to get to.
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