Focus Verse: Prov 4:7 Lesson Verse: 2Cor 10:5
A. This is a study on how NOT to lose your mind. No, not a psychology class, but a class on mind-loss, and life-loss prevention. I'm not kidding!
B. Most men have basically lost their minds - incapable of making decisions, being spiritual, analyzing facts, using common sense. Why?
1. Because of indiscretion - not thinking that what you do, and what you think about, and where you go matters
2. Discretion is being careful - walking circumspectly
3. People are so clogged up with confusion, and hurt, and materialism, that they don't know what it means to live anymore
4. Discretion begins with knowing your weaknesses
C. This is God's word here folks - and it deals with the sins of the 21st century just as effectively as it did the day it was written under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost!
II.
Lesson - Discretion
for a Man - The Discretion of a Man
A. God is calling for the young man to take very serious the concept of discretion - old time, old fashioned standards of morality.
B. The Dangers of a Harlot (5:1-14) - of Pornography - the strange woman (Pr 2:16)
1. Her Trickery - a smooth operator (Cf Ps 55:21)
a. Lip-stick (RED) no longer for beauty, but for attraction!
b. Her mouth just LOOKS like you HAVE to kiss it
c. She is just luring sheep to the slaughter (5:4). She is a pretend woman
2. Her Trap (5:4,5)
a. Bitterness as wormwood
b. Sharp as a two-edged sword - cuts deep
c. Her feet are in the grave
d. She is connected with HELL
3. Her Tracking - can't pin her down (5:6)
a. She does not want you to be able to figure her out - mysterious woman
b. She is constantly in motion - dancing, wiggling, pumped up on her high heels to attract attention
c. She always is talking ABOUT life, but the last thing she wants is for you to PONDER the path you are on!!!
4. Her Triumph (5:7-14)
a. Conquers your honour
b. Captures your future
c. Confiscates your wealth
d. Crushes your spirit - you are in remourse, and regret from then on - you can never go back!
5. Therefore, RUN (5:7-10) - stay as far away as possible (Gen 39:7-12) - why? Rom 6:23!
a. God's word is more important and more true than ANY feeling you may have about things, and women, etc
b. A true teacher/instructor/preacher will WARN of the consequences of sin (2Tim 3:16)
c. You are supposed to be SEPARATE from some things - totally!
d. Do you see what you lose in just a short season of sin (Heb 11:24,25):
1) Your honour
2) Your long life
3) Your wealth
4) Your efforts
5) Your joy
6) Your body
e. Is it worth it? Is that pornographic film worth it? Is that relaxed attitude towards women worth it? NO NO NO NO!
C. The Delight of a Wife (5:15-19)
1. She will be your own well - not just a drink. God likens a man's wife to the most precious thing you can possess - a spring of cold, clear water (Song 4:12; Isa 48:1).
2. The two of you together will be a godly testimony - godly marriages are needed to be seen by the world
3. God's blessings are locked up in that relationship - they are at HOME - they are NO WHERE ELSE!
a. They are found in fountains - children going abroad like waters running through the streets!
b. They are found in your FAMILY, not in another man's family!
c. They are found in your wife being what God made her to be
1) Rejoice with what you have - if you have no contentment, then you never will (Heb 13:4,5 again)!
2) Let her love - she will do it naturally in the right environment - not the most expensive environment, but in a godly, Christ-honouring, self-less home, where you are loving, and living for Jesus yourself most of all!
3) Let her be WHAT she is - don't ever try and FIX-UP your wife - cosmetic surgery - make-up to the hilt - implants - sick!
4) Be ravished with the blessing that she IS - you may have to help her realise the blessing that she is, but DO IT!
D. The Deciding Factor (5:20-23)
1. The fear of God (Heb 13:4)
a. Why would you love another? That is stupid!
b. God is watching you
2. The grip of sin
a. Obsessed with another man's wife, or one not your own
b. You become the servant of sin (Jn 8:34)
c. Your own sins will get you (Num 32:23)
3. Early death and emptiness await all those hooked on pornography (22,23). Sin is its own punishment - in the end it bites as an adder. Sin always demands more - insatiable. Is that how YOU want to end up?
a. So dies Herod - married to his brother's wife
b. So dies everybody hooked on sin (1Cor 6:15-18; 3:16,17)
c. Wasted lives.