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Sermon Notes

Proverbs 7:1-4

My son, keep my words
    and treasure up my commandments with you;
² keep my commandments and live;
    keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
³ bind them on your fingers;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
    and call insight your intimate friend,

Wisdom and Insight has to be at the center of our…

• FOCUS (v2)
• ACTIONS (v3a)
• DESIRES (v3b)

–Make wisdom and insight our companions!

The Back Story…

Proverbs 7:5

…to keep you from the forbidden woman,
    from the adulteress with her smooth words.

(1 Samuel 17:20-31 , 2 Samuel 11:1-17 , 2 Samuel 13:1-29 , 2 Samuel 16:21-22 , 

1 Kings 2:13-25 , 1 Chronicles 3:3-6)

How To Avoid Moral Failure

Proverbs 7:6-9

For at the window of my house
    I have looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I have seen among the simple,
    I have perceived among the youths,
    a young man lacking sense,
⁸ passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.

• Avoid the direction not just the destination

10 And behold, the woman meets him,
    dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

• God really cares about the intention of our dress!
  

¹¹ She is loud and wayward;
    her feet do not stay at home;
¹² now in the street, now in the market,
    and at every corner she lies in wait.
¹³ She seizes him and kisses him,
    and with bold face she says to him,
¹⁴ “I had to offer sacrifices, 
    and today I have paid my vows;
¹⁵ so now I have come out to meet you,
    to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

¹⁶ I have spread my couch with coverings,
    colored linens from Egyptian linen;
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
    let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹ For my husband is not at home;
    he has gone on a long journey;
²⁰ he took a bag of money with him;
    at full moon he will come home.”                                                                       ²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.

²² All at once he follows her,
    as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
²³     till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
    he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
    do not stray into her paths,
²⁶ for many a victim has she laid low,
    and all her slain are a mighty throng.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,
    going down to the chambers of death.

Don’t fight against temptations… RUN  from them!

• Always remember…
• When I think I have it beat, I am closer to falling than ever
• The end is sudden, shocking, and never worth the fun