The Importance Of Getting Counsel

to you all on the importance and safety of having an abundance of counselors and guidance and advice from godly mature Christians. We've got a lot of young people who have recently been converted and I've seen some individuals make pretty major decisions without obtaining any counsel and so part of my burden to stress this this morning is to keep you from your own harm and foolishness by not doing due diligence to get counsel and one thing to ask as I'm preaching this message is is there a current situation in your life and you might view it as insignificant but it might be a lot more significant than you realize or it might be pretty major but is there anything presently in your life a major decision by which you're not obtaining any counsel you have yet to go to godly counselors and get some input you know if you're a believer in scripture is your guide and your standard then you cannot avoid the countless proverbs that speak about the in vital importance that if i am pursuing wisdom if i am pursuing to discern the will of god i can get wisdom imparted to me by the counsel and input of others just a few of those proverbs proverbs 11 14 it should ring in our ears where there is no guidance a people falls but in an abundance of counselors there is safety in an abundance of counselors there's safety where there's no guidance people fall proverbs 15 22 without counsel plans fail but with the many advisors they succeed all right no one wants their plans to fail right you don't so why not get counsel well often because the plans we have are not ultimately from god and we know if we go to the counselors the plans could get thwarted so therefore we don't go to the counselors because therefore ultimately we're not resigned to god's plans and god's will but safety all of us want safety you know you can think of so many illustrations in your life where it was important to get a second perspective i mean i was just thinking about when caleb was born in the hospital my wife was given pitocin and when the lady came in the nurse came in to give her the pitocin another nurse had to come in and they both had to check the exact dosage to make sure the right amount of pitocin was being given to my wife there was safety in having those two nurses present as they were giving this substance to my wife to make sure not too much was given you know the same thing with our our city our city cares about how things are built so they have inspectors come and inspect the work right that's a safety precaution to make sure the person did the job correctly but here we are if you're a christian here you are here i am we're wanting to do the will of god that's a lot more important than getting the foundation correct on a building it's a lot more important than the right amount of pitocin we're trying to discern the will of almighty god for our own lives as individual christians how much more we should have safety to navigate and make our decisions so you're going to save yourself a lot of grief and harm by having humility and the patience to get counsel from others before you make decisions specifically major decisions and you're going to save yourself harm by going to the right counselors and hopefully by the end of this you'll have a better sense of discerning that because the person without discernment won't discern the people to go to and then they won't get right counsel and they'll say i got counsel but it won't be the right counsel and then ultimately we need the help of almighty god to apply and consistently obey the counsel that we are given that is consistent with the scriptures so even when you get different decisions and different perspectives from councils different counselors at least it puts you in a position where you're able to sit back and look at things and say lord what is your will you're able to weigh things in the balance so we're going to look at 1st kings 12 at rehoboam's folly there's a lot we can learn here 1st kings 12 and my hope is to guide you from getting no guidance and then as you get guidance to help guide you in getting the right guidance let's pray father lord we need you every morning every hour we need you lord how much guidance i need as a preacher in the pulpit right now lord i need you to guide me and to help me lord i will be a useless vessel to help these precious sheep who you died for and you slaughtered your son for apart from your help and so lord i pray that you would come and you would help for the sake of your name lord for your glory for your honor lord please would you give discernment in this hour would you give help and insight and wisdom pray in jesus name amen so let's look at 1st kings 12 we'll start actually let's look at the verse chapter 11 verse 42 and the time that solomon reigned in jerusalem over all israel was 40 years and solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of david his father and rehoboam his son reigned in his place chapter 12 verse 1 rehoboam went to shechem for all israel had come to shechem to make him king and as soon as jeroboam the son of nebat heard of it for jeroboam was still in egypt where he had fled from king solomon then jeroboam returned from egypt and they sent and they called jeroboam and jeroboam and all the assembly of israel came and they said to rehoboam your father made our yoke heavy now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us and we will serve you he said to them go away for three days then come again to me so the people went away verse 6 then king rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had stood before solomon his father while he was yet alive saying how do you advise me to answer this people and they said to him if you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them then they will be your servants forever verse 8 but he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and he took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him and he said to them what do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me lighten the yoke that your father put on us and the young men who had grown up with him said to him thus shall you speak to this people who said to you your father made our yoke heavy but you lighten it for us thus you shall say to them my little finger is thicker than my father's thighs and now whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke i will add to your yoke my father disciplined you with whips but i will discipline you with scorpions so jeroboam and all the people came to rehoboam the third day as the king had said come to me again the third day verse 13 and the king answered the people harshly and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men saying my father made your yoke heavy but i will add to your yoke my father disciplined you with whips but i will discipline you with scorpions so the king did not listen to the people for it was a turn of affairs brought about by the lord that he might fulfill his word which the people spoke by ajai ajah the shulah knight to jeroboam the son of nebat verse 16 let's read a little more to get the full context and when all israel saw that the king did not listen to them the people answered the king what portion do we have in david we have no inheritance in the son of jesse to your tents oh israel look now to your own house david so israel went to their tents but rehoboam reigned over the people of israel who lived in the cities of judah then king rena rehoboam sent adoram who was the taskmaster over the forced labor and all israel stoned him to death with stones and king rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to jerusalem so israel has been in rebellion against the house of david to this day and when all israel heard that jeroboam had returned they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over israel there was none that followed the house of david but the tribe of judah only when rehoboam came to jerusalem he assembled all the house of judah and the tribe of benjamin 180 000 chosen warriors to fight against the house of israel to restore the kingdom to rehoboam the son of solomon but the word of god came to shimei the man of god say to rehoboam the son of solomon king of judah to all the house of judah and benjamin and to the rest of the people thus says the lord you shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of israel every man returned to his home for this saying is from me the lord so they listened to the word of the lord and went home according to the word of the lord amen what a passage what passage so much wisdom we could learn here we're going to try to scratch the surface this morning so first thing to consider here is this when you look at this the first thing you recognize is at least rehoboam did the right thing and he stopped and he said come back in three days and he went and got counsel right that a lot of people they miss it right there right they feel so such a demand on them that they have to make a decision right away that they get no counsel they just feel pushed and there are some decisions you've got to make a council right away but they feel so pushed that i have to do this and they don't get counsel rehoboam it says there he said come back in three days and then rehoboam where did he go first place he went was to the older men to get counsel all right so that that is very commendable he didn't make a decision on the spot he realized he had time he stepped back went to get counsel that's great many people they miss it right there proverbs 24 or 5 it says this a wise man is full of strength and a man of knowledge enhances his might for by wise guidance you can wage war and in abundance of counselors there is victory wisdom is too high for a fool and the gate he doesn't open his mouth you see you have the gate in the city and all the men are congregating there and you've got all the people there and the fool he's in the midst of all these people all this guidance could be obtained and he keeps his mouth shut rehoboam at least he didn't do that right at least he did not do that and you think through scriptures there are men godly men who missed it who's one who really missed it he had a circumstance thrust upon him out of nowhere a group of people they come up to him and they're wanting to make peace and have a covenant with him what did he do what did he do when the gibbonites came did he seek the lord no he didn't joshua and them did not seek the lord joshua 19 for they took provisions but did not ask counsel from the lord why do you think they didn't ask counsel it seems so innocent right i mean some people walk in the door their clothes are tattered up they've got old rotten food i mean there's no way these guys are our enemies that we're about to kill and they've heard that we're coming and so they're faking it i mean there's no way they're that smart right the enemies friends we have an enemy who does what disguises himself as an angel of light we have an enemy who deceived eve in the garden and paul the apostle says to the those at corinth he's afraid for them that their minds could be led astray from a simple and pure devotion to jesus christ just as the serpent deceived eve so we don't want to be the fools who think all these things are so insignificant so innocent there are often many things and many decisions we face that prove to have a lot bigger implications than we realize we might look at it and say it's a pretty minor decision 10 years from now you might look at that and say that was a massive major decision and one of the most biggest decisions you ever made so and you know what's ironic how many days did rea boem go and get counsel for three how many days did it take for israel to recognize who the gibbonites were three three days if joshua would just step back let's think about this let's consult the lord let's get more evidence in three days these people couldn't keep their mouths shut anyways and people found out there to give you nights three days of waiting would have saved israel a thorn in their side but that didn't happen they quickly hastily made a decision because it seemed so insignificant it seemed so small you know it's good that rea boem waits how many people would be affected by this decision that he makes who all came to him with him wanting to make a decision did it say a few people in the congregation it said all of the assembly went before him this decision that this man makes is going to affect all the thousands of israelites that's pretty major it's pretty major proverbs 19 2 it says desire without knowledge it's not good meaning you have a desire for something you don't have all this knowledge about it you don't really know what direction you're going in you don't have biblical knowledge on it and then he says whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way whoever makes haste one of the things you know i mentioned a negative thing at the beginning of the message that i've seen some young people make decisions without any counsel on the flip side i've seen some of you get tons of counsel and not be hasty in order to not miss your way and that's very encouraging that that happens all the time in the church conrad murrell in his article discerning the voice of the lord he says this it is the devil who puts you in a rush and demands that you act immediately you will feel that if you take time to pray and wait that you'll miss something do not listen to that spirit it's not god but the devil god will lead you and guide you to in time to consider until you are fully persuaded and there will be peace in the action not pressure and torment so ria bolum he's commendable in that he got counsel he waited three days he was not hasty and he went to the old men first but let's secondly here just think for a moment about who he gets counsel from right two groups and each of these groups contains a plurality okay each it wasn't he wasn't going to one individual each group had multiple men you see that in 12 7 and they said to him okay so they these are the older men there's a plurality of these men saying to him now first question were these men aware of the specific situation that ria bolum was seeking counsel on would these men be aware of how solomon ruled his kingdom and whether or not things there's too much taxation and there were too many building projects going on right now would these men have been aware of the situation yes because they had been with him the whole time they were the older men the counselors of his father and so these men were aware that the specific situation it's not like ria bolum could have gone to them and omitted certain details that he didn't want them to know that could alter how they did their counsel these men they knew all the details so there's nothing ria bolum could hide from them they knew it all and often that can be the danger people go to someone they don't know enough about the specific situation you know you get someone they call you on the church phone and they give their perspective they're wanting my counsel and it's like what are they omitting and not telling me that i don't know about and i can't give counsel from texas all the way to them up there in canada in an accurate way so what was their counsel well as their counsel was basically to be a servant verse seven if you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and speak good words to them when you answer them then they will be your servants forever okay i mean morally does that sound like good counsel is there anything sinful about telling a king to be a servant to his people no i mean that's that's that's good advice it's good advice right there here's something else to think about is how did these men get in their position how did these men even get into position they're in say again not well who put them in the position this man's father who is real bones father solomon who was solomon you you want to it's not just he was king look flip back to 10-1 or no let's go to first kings four this this is a staggering you're going to find that the men who read a poem rejected their counsel these men they had association with a man who had wisdom like none other first kings 429 god gave solomon this is real bones father wisdom and understanding beyond measure and breath of mind like the sand on the seashore so that solomon's wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east and all the wisdom of egypt for he was wiser than all other men wiser than and then it lists names verse 32 he also spoke 3 000 proverbs and his songs were 1005 okay flip over to chapter 10 and first kings 10-1 now when the queen of sheba heard of the fame of solomon concerning the name of the lord she came to test him with hard questions she came to jerusalem with a very great retina with camels bearing spices ratoon great ratoon forgive my pronunciation of that word and when she came to solomon she told him all that was on her mind and solomon answered all her questions there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her okay this really paints more of a perspective here the old men who he's going to get counsel from are the men who served under the wisest man that ever lived and was alive right then and there they're around solomon as he's leading the kingdom they're hearing his wisdom they're hearing his insight it's rubbing off on them no doubt and and get this solomon's actually getting counsel from them solomon the wisest got counsel look at look at proverbs go to go to proverbs keep your hand in first kings you don't maybe don't have to turn here but proverbs one look at solomon says in verse five let the wise hear and increase in learning but the one who understands that solomon obtained guidance so solomon himself kept wanting to obtain more and more guidance and understanding incredible he had not yet arrived as you might say so solomon had did he have counselors yeah what a surprise you would kind of assume that solomon did not have any counselors right i mean wait there's old men who counseled my dad that i can go to i mean my dad was the wisest guy why was he hanging around anyone else he's so far above the rest no no no you know when solomon wrote many of the proverbs and it's amazing you you find here in 10-1 the proverbs of solomon he says in 11 14 where there's no guidance that people falls but in abundance of counselors there is safety here another question is who what named the man the primary man most likely to whom the book of proverbs was written specifically to what's his name what's the name of the man that most likely the book of proverbs was written specifically to rea bowen rea bowen proverbs 1 proverbs 1 throughout here he refers verse 8 hear my son your father's instruction forsake not your mother's teaching verse 10 my son now did he have many sons he did but how many sons were heir through the throne one man rea bowen and so you have to assume that if you're solomon and you're writing these proverbs and you have a son rea bowen who's going to be the heir of the throne that one of the prime sons you're concerned about taking heed to the book of proverbs is that man and in the book of proverbs the wisest man who ever lived writes saying it's smart to get an abundance of counselors and he lived that out himself and here his son is actually obeying that initially by going to the old men to get and obtain counsel to get and obtain counsel you know this one thing this tells about us our need for counsel our need for guidance our need for input it tells us that we don't know at all right i mean how many you you feel that like you've got a major decision you should feel not confident in one sense you should not sit there thinking yeah i know what to do there should be a sense that lord i need help and i got i need help from others in the church you put me in a body here and this body has many members and gifts and they're able to help me to discern what to do so the older men who are selected by the man with the most wisdom alive rea bone rejects it verse 8 we're in first kings 12 verse 8 he abandoned he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave now now look how this reads here he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him and he said to them what do you advise it sounds like he already abandoned their counsel prior to even going to the young men it sounds like he already heard them out said that's not right and then he goes to the younger group to get their input he's already rejected it appears in the way it reads right there that he's already rejected the counsel of the old men in some way he's already made up his mind here he didn't get advice from both and weigh out the two options he didn't go to the old men and get their counsel and then go to the young men and say this is what the old men said what should i do here and then he took the young men's counsel and went back to the old men and said hey this is what these guys said can you poke holes in it and show me where they're wrong he didn't do that apparently now let's say the second group we already looked at the first group that he got counsel from the second group the second group it says the young lads in the kjv here it says the young the young guys how young were these guys well to answer that how old was rehoboam rehoboam in first kings 14 we read that he was 41 when he began to reign so rehoboam is 41 and these guys he grew up with are obviously around their 40s as well okay so when you read young here don't be thinking 19 and 20 okay these guys are 40 in their 40s okay what does that say about the elders they were actually physically older the older men they were probably in their what 60s 70s or 80s okay and some of you're thinking oh wow you know that person i got counsel from i thought they were old because they're in their 40s no they're young again you find from timothy don't enroll a young widow and she's under 60 the bible looks at you being old when you get past 60 apparently that's not here nor now and don't take false comfort in that that you're young um so second group i know this does not bode well for me i'm only 34 so but i'm one of the elders in the church even though i'm not old physically in age but you can't look does many years tend to teach wisdom it does is that an absolute no it's not timothy paul said don't let anyone despise you for your youth right and then we know a lie who's thinking job 32 verse 6 a lie who he finally answered job after all these other people had and he says i'm young in years you're aged therefore i was timid i was afraid to declare my opinion to you i said let days speak in many years teach wisdom and then a lie who said something very profound but it is the spirit and man the breath of the almighty that makes him understand you see you can be 100 and have no wisdom because god has not given it to you and you could be 10 and have incredible wisdom because god has given it to you it ultimately you're cast upon the living god a lie who goes on to say it is not the old who are wise nor the age to understand what is right therefore i say listen to me let me also declare my opinion behold i wait for your words i listen to your wise sayings while you searched out what to say so another thing about the second group of counselors that he went to is it says that he had grown up with them he had grown up with them you see that in verse 8 he took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and then it says and stood before him the word stood the idea is they presently are serving him they're on his team because if you notice here he says he when he abandoned he says in verse 9 what do you advise that we answer the people so he includes the young guys in the decision because they're serving already with him as he's trying to lead this kingdom as a new king um so they've grown up with him what can we learn here you know usually you could think it's good to get counsel from people who grew up with me they know me better than anyone else yeah yeah that could be true right there's nothing you can omit and not say to them to try to paint their perspective of you they know who you really are but it could be dangerous because they could be some of the people with the greatest partiality towards you and these guys were serving with him okay so how much you tax how much of the work do we keep doing and building all these buildings it's going to affect those young guys right in other ways it's like ria bone could be saying to the guys hey you know should we cut back on the hard labor and the building and the taxation but by the way you know that big palace i promised you maybe we won't be able to build that now you see these people they have interest in whatever decision he makes because they're part of his team he says what should we do what should we do so they've got some partiality here some bias and they grew up with him ria bone the rich snobby kid if you want to call him that he's hanging out with all the other rich kids right they don't have all the same wisdom and experience like the older men they're lacking that they don't have wisdom in how to run a nation apparently ria bone does not either so these men are in vast contrast to the older men in vast contrast so option two in essence you know option one be a servant to the people option two what did the young men say speak to the people make their yoke heavier and tell them my little finger is thicker than my father's size you know you tend to think of a finger there you're you're doing something with authority you're putting it on something you'll talk about the hand of god the finger of god there's a sense of authority being used through the hand and what someone is saying and so it seems like the idea here is take the smallest finger on my hand my little pinky and that is thicker than my father's thighs meaning my father's waist meaning the authority that my father put down i'm going to put it down so much harder so much more fierce he used this we're going to use scorpion whips on the people to get them to obey very scary ria bone is going to be harsh so whose counsel did he go with he went with the younger people's counsel and elsewhere the bible gives us a perspective into what was happening here 2nd chronicles 13 6 it says jeroboam the son of nebat a servant of solomon the son of david rose up and rebelled against his lord rehoboam and certain worthless scoundrels gathered about him that jeroboam and defied rehoboam the son of solomon when rehoboam was young 41 and irazut he had no resolve and he could not withstand them he couldn't withstand them even though he got counsel from the older men he could not withstand them that's what 2nd chronicles 13 says so rather than the older men the men with a lifetime of knowledge who his father the wisest man in the world had as his counselors this man went with his buddies insight pretty shocking and the man who the book of proverbs you could say one of the primary intentions of that book being written was for rehoboam had he read that book and these guys are saying do everything far more harshly and you know what's so sad about this what solomon wrote in ecclesiastes 2 is being fulfilled before our very eyes solomon said this i hated all my toil in which i toil under the sun seen i must leave it to the man who will come after me well who's the man who came after him rehoboam and who knows whether rehoboam whether he will be wise or a fool incredible i mean solomon's bemoaning that you know you know in a way look solomon had a lot of issues but in a way one thing we see here is it shows the parents humble reality that they cannot guarantee their child be wise solomon is sitting there who knows whether he his own son will be wise or a fool that's the helpless estate that us parents are in as much as we want our kids to make wise decisions we're cast upon the grace and power of almighty god so rehoboam destroyed if you don't know this this is the mark in your bible where the united nation and the kingdom of israel was divided thank you rehoboam you didn't listen to counsel i'm being sarcastic by saying thank you you didn't listen to counsel and here it is the nation is split right here here it happens because you have a young king who wants to be an authoritarian leader rather than a servant leader i mean that's what's going on here he wants to have all this authority all this power rather than serve rather than serve his pride in rejecting the council led to the nation being split incredible i mean if you look at this i hope it's obvious how you would discern between the two options right if you were rehoboam and you had gotten counsel from this side and this side i hope it'd be pretty obvious that the servant attitude manifests the fruits of the holy spirit and is consistent biblically compared to this attitude of being harsh and insulting and mean towards these people his friend's advice was wicked psalm 1 says blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked rehoboam he walked in the council of the wicked now let's think here five or four ways that rehoboam went wrong let's speculate a little and maybe read in some here on some possibilities number one i would say this rehoboam never should have went to the young people to begin with he never should have went to them they were not worthy of allowing their counsel to penetrate his ears it wasn't worth the time it wasn't right to open himself to that influence he already had a clear word from a multitude of men who were chosen by the wisest man who ever lived and their wisdom was such that it was be a servant very consistent with the scriptures why would he even go to the young guys i think he missed it by even going to them and putting himself in the vulnerable position to hear that other word and have that as an option on the table and you know what usually the last counselor you go to can leave the strongest impression right and so he went to the old first if he had gone to the young first and then he went to the old and said this is what the young said the old would have poked all manner of holes in that would have shunk the sip sunk the ship to the ground and he would have recognized who's right and who is wrong you know sometimes people out of mere duty they feel like well we'll go to the older people and get counsel first but i'm already no i'm not going to agree with it but i want to have the appearance of wisdom by going to them first and then i'll go to all the other people who i know are going to say what i want to hear and that's going to so drown out my conscience on the first council that i'll fill enough justification to believe i'm not grieving the holy spirit as i make this decision so second if you're going to go to the young men why not go back to the older men i already already said this it makes no sense to go to the old and the young and there's no appearance appearance of him taking that counsel back to the old and saying poke holes in it third at a heart level it's clear that he despised being a servant and wanted authority and power and was clueless as to true leadership if your heart's wrong and the purpose and the goal of what you're even wanting counsel for i mean it's it's not going to work you can get all the input in the world but if you're an insecure let's say maybe he was an insecure king who was afraid of losing his power and he gets this perspective from the young guys the way to get the power is to put the hand of you know the fist down and be strong his heart was wrong i mean don't aren't you grossed out by what these young men told him doesn't it disturb you that they would even recommend that to what i mean this says something about where rea bone is out going into the situation he wasn't in a good place prior to this that's not what's happening here this is not a fluke in his life and a one-time failure his rejection of a lifetime of counsel from the older men is an evidence of the direction of his own life so the fourth thing why use such harsh language i mean you could just tell the people no right they want you to lighten things and you go before them and you say no we can't do that right now because such and such right i mean why not do that rather than say we're going to whip you all the harder and my little finger is thicker than my father's waist and i think if you're going to say no you can do it in a way that's far more receptive so yeah why did he even go to the old men to begin with was it just to have the appearance of wisdom was he just going through the motions was he just looking for approval and not counsel and in the end the advice that was the least pleasing to him was the right advice right now that's not always the case but often often the advice that can seem to be the least pleasing is the consistent advice because if you have self involved as you're trying to discern the will of god selfishness has to be crushed and therefore in your heart you feel like no i'm going to lose some i wanted this i have my hopes set on this and it's now it's going to be taken away the psalmist said the lord consumes like a moth all that is dear to us now that you don't take that literally god is not sitting here taking everything away that is dear to us but there are things that we can make idols in our lives and god has a way of going in that attic and consuming it right before our eyes and taking it away um so yeah rea bone did not just mess up one time everything in his life indicated sadly he was a fool proverbs 12 15 the fool the way of a fool is right in his own eyes but a wise man does what listens to advice and that does not just mean listen as in allow the audio to impact the eardrum listens means you go and obey and follow through on what has been communicated um you know what children you hear children in here this is all a warning to you this is a warning to you what if like rea bone okay your parents too have written down many sayings and they've given you all sorts of wisdom they've been bringing you to a biblical church you're being exposed to all this truth what if you end up like him what if the answer is obvious go with the older people's counsel but you get let some young kid that you run into on social media or some co-op poison your mind against the truth and get you to believe the lie that sin is worth it it's not you know someone mentioned to me recently a a father and a mother or the mother mentioned to my wife that one of her daughters said so often the main thing she hears the little girls the teenage girls talking about in the church is guys and who's interested in what guy young sisters that's not what life's about live for god seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you this is a note to parents too in this text we can't forget the fact that solomon though with all his wisdom was a hypocrite specifically near the end of his life that man disobeyed god again and again and again and even with all that wisdom his life was a contradiction in many areas and so his parents god forbid that we'd be like solomon and impart wisdom and write a book of proverbs to them and give them all this give them a bible not write a book of proverbs but just give them a bible give all this wisdom to them and then we go and we live a hypocritical life that's not going to help convince them that the wisdom we're saying is true if we ourselves are not living it out and the very man who talked about an adulterous woman in proverb 7 and not being captured by her eyelashes had thousands of wives from nations he should not have gotten wives from it's incredible we don't want to be like that let's think for a moment about the outcome of taking bad counsel for rea bone his authoritarian and harsh response caused him to lose power and lose the nation 12 16 says when all israel saw the king did not listen to them i mean they they ultimately rebelled verse 18 when rea bone sent rea bone sent the taskmaster they killed him and then what's rea bone's response in verse 21 he gets the army to go to war but god sends a word in verse 23 don't go and guess what rea bone listens to counsel this time verse 24 so they listened to the word of the lord and went home that would have been pretty scary pretty scary if right there at that point rea bone did not listen to that who knows what would have happened there so there's so many other examples in these very chapters on the outcome of not taking counsel let me just just rattle these off jeroboam is now king right and he has the fear of a mutiny happening so what does he do he takes counsel what are the counselors telling them to do make golden calves and position them in two different places to get to people to worship there then they won't go back to jerusalem and rea bone won't get them back is that good or bad counsel bad counsel for jeroboam and then a man of god gives counsel and rebukes jeroboam and jeroboam refuses the man's counsel and gets struck by the lord and then the man of god who gave the counsel to jeroboam jeroboam says hey you stay a while the man says no i'm not going to god told me to go and then on the way home that man who didn't listen to jeroboam's counsel has an older prophet say come and eat with me god told me to have you over for a meal and now jeroboam the prophet listens to that guy and what happens to the prophet he gets eaten by a lion so you got rea boem doesn't listen to counsel jeroboam gets into power he doesn't he listens to bad counsel and makes the golden calves and then he gets rebuked by a prophet doesn't listen to the counsel he gets struck by god then the prophet doesn't listen to jeroboam's counsel and he goes home on the way home an older prophet gives him counsel and he listens to it and he dies all the decisions we have to make and look what's at stake life and death heaven and hell that's what's at stake we have people dying before our eyes because they listen to counsel and dying because they did not listen to counsel and my friend the greatest counsel you want to listen to is jesus christ who's saying do you come and buy without money without price if you thirst you can come drink of me and i'll give you life freely through what i've done on that cross by being slaughtered by my father as a sacrifice to be the atonement for your sins that's the counsel you don't want to reject you don't want to reject jesus christ but most do john 5 40 says most say they refuse to come to him that they might have life they don't want anything to do with the lord jesus christ they want to rule and reign over their life they don't want counsel from god who created them they'd much rather worship the creature than the creator who is blessed forever counsel guidance is huge um here i know we're running out of time another question is what was the root reason behind him not taking the right counsel it says the answer in the text what answer does god give us what was the root reason behind him not taking the counsel from the older men who has the answer it's in the text by the lord you see in all of this you have god's sovereignty and i want to put it to you like this it doesn't mean god caused him to refuse the counsel but it does mean god did not open his eyes to clearly see and make the right decision god stepped back and let this man walk off the cliff so to speak and you know what that tells you and i you should thank god anytime when you hear counsel and it's biblical counsel and you actually respond with obeying that counsel and you have ears to hear that that is the mercy of god that was a turn of affairs brought about by the lord in your life because of his love for you to keep you to the end and guide us oh thou great jehovah as job is a lie who said listen to those words again but it is the spirit in man the breath of the almighty that makes him understand the ultimate reason any of us are given any understanding to receive any counsel is the lord and that's the reason to praise god for his faithfulness to us because we don't deserve that mercy that counsel from the living god it should humble us and this all this should remind you of romans chapter 1 people did not acknowledge god and what happened to them they were given over to base to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done god gave them over how did they end up in homosexuality god was involved by taking away his hand of mercy and allowing them to walk off into the deeper deeper darkness that they went to this should make us cry out as psalm 102 says do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress incline your ear to me answer me speedily in the day when i call so any counsel that you have received you should rejoice in that counsel we want to real real fast as we close right here we want to get counsel from the wise it's interesting in proverbs 11 14 and 24 6 if you look at your greek the greek bible where it's got the old and the new in greek the same word for guidance there is found in first corinthians 12 28 speaking of spiritual gifts it says one has a gift of administration a better rendering is one has a gift of acts of guidance likely referring to giving wise counsel to the community as one said as a whole not simply to other individuals so there are people in this church that god has put here who have a gift of discernment and those are the people you want to go to for guidance on specific things um think about ahab ahab he did what was evil in the sight of the lord as the house of ahab had done for after the death of his father they were his counselors to his undoing who was his counselor to his undoing who was ahab's counselor to his undoing who his mother his mother it says right there for his mother was his counselor and doing wickedly we need to choose our friends well notice what is linked hand in hand if you look at proverbs 11 and 20 two of the verses that talk about getting the abundance of counselors it's interesting how both those texts say whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets and then it talks about getting guidance the point is it matters who you go if you go to someone to get counsel who's a gossip and a slanderer that's not going to go well for you whatever you want to counsel on is now going to be spread among the brethren you want to get counsel from those who are familiar with your situation just like a medical doctor you want to get a second opinion often one family are going to have brain surgeries and it costs five hundred thousand dollars the kid got sick before the surgery they flew to another state got a second opinion the doctor said your kid has no problems he does not need brain surgery it's amazing just getting that second opinion it prevented them from doing that which they did not need and here something is would you all agree that who you marry is one of the most important decisions you will ever make right i mean the top of the list is following christ who you marry i would say it's tied in second with what church you're a part of okay because often the church you're a part of is going to lead to the spouse you have so that goes you know hand in hand i'm telling you and i remember 13 years ago or 12 years ago sitting in the men's grace house and hearing tim talk about the importance of getting counsel on who you marry and tim he echoed the the words i'll never forget he said many of you are not hearing me now he said you're not hearing me brethren i plead with you we are not an authoritarian domineering church at all i hope but we love you if you're a young person and you're thinking about getting marriage there is no greater decision other than following christ and what church you're a part of than that decision you would be an absolute fool to not get counsel on that decision and just go test all the waters out yourself get emotionally attached and then go get counsel after the fact when it's a little difficult to pull away because your heart's already been fused together with the other individual so you throw out objective counsel because your feelings are so involved and you put the feelings is more important than the facts please for your own soul you know what's going to take young people out of the race and running zealously is if you get unequally yoked with someone if you marry someone who's not in the lord and it says it's better to live in a corner of a housetop than in a house shared with a quarrelsome woman what do you have to lose to get counsel you know yeah you have to lose you have a lot to lose you have years of your life and your time and your energy to look you could lose all of that by not getting counsel by thinking you see clearly by thinking you discern your emotions correctly and look appreciate those who give you counsel proverbs 27 oil and perfume make the heart glad the sweetness of a friend comes from his earnest counsel we should thank god that we even want to do the will of god that is an absolute miracle from the lord one more one more quote some counselors realize no counsel is the best counsel we can't overly hold your hand especially those who are slavishly in bondage to people's advice you see this is a balancing statement right at the end of the day you've got to make a decision in good faith before the living god and you might have had counsel saying go left counsel saying go right but the end of the day you got to make a decision you got to believe god you've got to go in faith and honor him and trust that the lord if that's a wrong decision he can easily do something to prevent you from going and you should pray for him to do that john newton said this this is about the best human vice is insufficient john newton said no person can adjust and draw the line exactly for another there are so many particulars in every situation of which a stranger cannot be a competent judge and the best human advice is mixed with such defects that it's not right to expect others to be absolutely guided by our rules nor is it safe for us implicitly to adopt the decisions or practices of others but the scripture undoubtedly furnishes sufficient and infallible rules for every person for whatever the circumstances and the thrones of grace is appointed for us to wait upon the lord for the best exposition of his precepts thus david often prays to be led in the right way psalm 25 show me the path where i should walk oh lord pointing out the right road for me to follow lead me by your truth and teach me okay well i want um i'll mention right here in closing we are we're going to change plans this tuesday study at eight we do it on zoom instead of looking at the passage i mentioned we would last tuesday i want to look at the topic of subjective guidance and subjective impressions and so think about this if you're going to be out there tuesday in romans 8 when it talks about being led by the spirit in what way in context is that talking about someone being led by the holy spirit in romans 8 okay let's pray father i realize lord so many other things could be said lord lord we could go on for hours trying to say everything we could lord i pray i pray oh god would you keep us from being like rea bowen lord keep us from an appearance getting counsel and wisdom but then at the end of the day lord i pray no one would go in a direction that's obviously lord that's obviously full of insanity like the counsel of those young men lord what horrible counsel was given that is not with your character and so lord would you help us to know your word more to know your precepts to know your character lord that we might be more and more impacted by the word of god as we try to discern the will of god and so lord would you keep working this out in our lives lord protect us please lord even if this message causes some people to get counsel about things they have not or to get more counsel lord i pray if those conversations take place today lord that it would not be for someone's destruction but lord it'd be for the help of an individual lord that there would be strength found in clarity lord that there would be a sense that this is the way of my god he wants me to go here and so lord we need your help in jesus name amen amen well we have a break for about 20 minutes so we're dismissed for now