Follow The Yellow Brick Road

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. What choices have you made in your life? Choices in your teen years, your early 20s, your 30s? Choices you regret?

Choices that you're still paying the consequences for? You see, that's what happens. That's the principle of the Yellow Brick Road. You see, whatever road you're on, it's taking you to your destination, the destination of that road.

It has nothing to do with your intentions. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. In 1939, the movie world was astounded. The Wizard of Oz was the first movie made in Technicolor. For 70 years, the Wizard of Oz has continued to astound.

I mean, after all, it has a very simple plot. Dorothy, a 12-year-old girl from Kansas, wants to go home because there's no place like home. Early in the movie, as Dorothy's house falls on the Wicked Witch of the East, I'll accept her feet, the only thing showing, Dorothy encounters the Good Witch of the North, Glinda. And Glinda tells Dorothy that there's only one who can help her with her problem to get home, the great and powerful Wizard of Oz.

Unfortunately, he resides in Emerald City. So Dorothy asks, how do I get to Emerald City? And Glinda, if you remember with her head tilted and her arms out, says it's always best to start at the beginning. All you have to do is follow the yellow brick road. The rest of the movie has a lot of twists and turns, adventures and misfortune. But in spite of it all, Dorothy makes it to the Emerald City.

And she doesn't make it because of the uniqueness of Dorothy and her friends, as unique as they were. No, she makes it because she chose to follow the yellow brick road. Wouldn't it be great to have your own yellow brick road, to take you wherever you want to go? All you have to do is get on the road and follow it, and you will be at the destination you want to be at in every area of your life. A yellow brick road to better health, a yellow brick road to financial security, a yellow brick road to a great marriage, a yellow brick road to good friendships, a yellow brick road to a clear conscience.

You know, I would imagine that if that were the case, you would stop looking for solutions and start looking for the yellow brick road to get on it. I'm here to tell you this morning that the yellow brick road is a principle for life. You see, the yellow brick road takes you to where it's going.

You get on the yellow brick road, you end up in Emerald City. How many of you, when you were younger or even now, really in your heart wanted to be happy? How many of you wanted to have a good family, a good marriage, good friends, a good job? How many of you wanted to wake up every day feeling meaningful and having a purpose in your life? How many of you said, that's what I want for my life?

How many of you thought that way? I'm guessing virtually all of you. But what kind of life are you living? How happy are you every morning? How happy is your marriage? You see, how secure are your finances?

How good is your health? How many friends do you really have? You see, that's the question.

That's the principle. You see, the yellow brick road is not so easy to see looking ahead as it is to realize that you missed it looking in your rearview mirror. Do you remember choices that you made in your life? Choices in your teen years, your early 20s, your 30s? Choices you regret?

Choices that you're still paying the consequences for? You see, that's what happens. That's the principle of the yellow brick road. Do you see, whatever road you're on, it's taking you to your destination, the destination of that road. It has nothing to do with your intentions. You see, we are so naive as people that we actually believe that if we have good intentions, we have big dreams, that that somehow will lead us to where we're going.

It will not. I'll tell you what will lead you to where you're going, the road you're on right now. You get on that road, you're going where you're going.

That's the principle of the yellow brick road. Open your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 14. One verse will launch us, verse 12. It is a verse that should be highlighted in your Bible if it's not.

It should be part of every decision-making process you're involved in. You see, verse 12 of Proverbs 14 says this, There is a way. That Hebrew word for way could be translated path.

For my purposes this morning, I'll translate it road. There is a road which seems right to a man or a woman, but its end is the way of death or literally destruction. There is a way that seems right, but it ends in destruction. There are choices that we make that we seem like we're making the right choice, but it doesn't work out that way at all.

I think all of our lives are littered with those kinds of choices, choices that we made that seemed right. You see, that's one of the problems. Dorothy could not be on her own to find Emerald City. Dorothy had to be specifically told there's only one way to get there.

How about the choice of eternal life if that's your Emerald City? What did Jesus Christ say? I am the yellow brick road. That's exactly what he said. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one will come to the Father but by me. Now, do people try other roads?

Of course they do. You know what it ends in? Destruction and death. You see, Jeremiah said that the heart of a man or a woman is desperately wicked. It is deceitful above all things, and I've said over the years it means it deceives you. There is a way that seems right at the time, but it isn't, and you pay the consequences.

You see, your intention or goodwill or dreams never establish the destination. The road you're on, that's the road that establishes your destination. It's a principle of life, and it works in every situation.

It is much like Paul writing that God is not mocked. Whatever a person sows, so shall they reap. For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. For every choice, there is a consequence. You see, you make a choice, you get a consequence.

I can remember years ago, Mark Bailey, the president of Dallas Seminary, I remember a message that he gave, and the message was intriguing to me. He said, you can pick your choices or you can pick the consequences, but you don't get to pick both, and I had to think about that. But what he is saying is once you want a certain consequence in your life, all the choices are made for you. You can't make other choices. You see, I can't choose that I want to be 158 pounds and do my quiet time at Krispy Kreme Donuts.

I can't do that. You see, that's the way it works in your life. You can pick the choice or you can pick the consequence.

You don't get to pick both. It's amazing how this works. I want to illustrate it now. I want you to turn to Proverbs 7 with me. As only Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, can illustrate this.

This is one of the more intriguing, colorful chapters in the Bible, and it must be extremely important because notice how Solomon starts it. My son, keep my words. It's a commandment, by the way, in Hebrew.

It's PL, intensive stem. It's commandment. My son, keep my words. He says, treasure my commandments within you. Don't just keep them.

Treasure them. He says, keep my commandments and live. And he doesn't mean breathe. He means live, sort of like Christ said, I've come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly.

Live. He said, if you listen to what I'm saying right now, you can have a life. He said, and my teaching as the apple, he said of your eye, make it special to you.

Bind them on your fingers. He says, write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, you are my sister, and call understanding your intimate friend, that they may keep you from the adulterous, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. This has an application, yes, about adultery, but it has application about every other path other than the Yellow Brick Road. Solomon is teaching in parabolic or a parable form here. He said, that's why I want everyone to listen to this, how important this is, because I want to show you how easy it is to be enticed and persuaded off the Yellow Brick Road. And so he starts his story. He said, for at the window of my house, I looked through my lattice.

What a great imagery. Here it is, this wise king, the wisest man who ever lived, and he creates this imagery that it's at nighttime, and he is at the window looking through the lattice down on a street. And down on the street, he's going to see a scenario play out. He said, I saw among the naïve, I discerned among the youths, a young man lacking sense.

That term young man is probably someone between about 15 and 20. He is a young man lacking sense. Who does he see? Does he see somebody he knows? Some commentators think Solomon sees himself in his memory. That's very possible.

I think Solomon, when he says lacking sense and naïve, I think he means all young men. That's what he means. And then he goes on, and he says, passing through the street near her corner, he takes the way to her house in the twilight, in the evening, in the middle of the night, and in the darkness. All of this happens from twilight to the middle of the night. Now, you often know how that works.

Teenage young man walking in the middle of the night going toward her house. You see, you can see it coming, can't you? You can see the problem. The only problem is this, though. It's always easy to see that other people are not on the yellow brick road.

The problem that you have is you can't see that you're not. How many times have you heard a scenario or been involved in a scenario as a parent with your own kids? And as soon as they described what they were going to do that night or that day, you thought, I saw it coming. You just knew how this was going to turn out. That's what Solomon is saying. I could see this coming.

They're going at night. And then he says, and behold, a woman comes to meet him dressed as a harlot. That should have been a sign, but it's not, because she's not a harlot. She's a wife. She doesn't make her living doing this.

She's just dressed like one. You know why? Teenage boys love that. He lacks sense. You see, here's this young man thinking, if you imagine him, oh, what a night this is going to be.

Wait till I tell my friends about this night. He's actually thinking something good is going to happen in his life. That's what he's doing. If he had an iPod on, he's probably listening to Steppenwolf, Born to be Wild. You see, that's what he's listening to.

What he should have been listening to is the soundtrack to Jaws, because that's what's going to happen. Notice, she's not only dressed as a harlot, but she's cunning of heart. She is boisterous, loud. You see this?

He's pinning an image. Any man with wisdom sees a woman dressed like a harlot in the middle of the night who's loud and boisterous, thinks this is not a good person to spend my time with, but not someone who's naive and lacking sense. He says she is boisterous and rebellious. Her feet do not remain at home.

She's now in the streets, now in the squares, and lurks on every corner. That starts to give you an indication he's talking more about, much more than about an incident here. He's talking about how we're all seduced away, how we all lack sense, how easy it is for this to work for us, how obvious it should be to us. This is not the yellow brick road.

That will not take me to Emerald City, but we lack sense. It says so as he seizes him. Notice, he takes the initiative and kisses him, and with a brazen face says to him, I was due to offer peace offerings today, and I have paid my vows. Therefore, I have come out to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. What is that?

You know what this is? She's actually inferring, and what Solomon is teaching us is that people will actually manipulate their own faith in order to be seduced off of the path. What she is saying is, I've paid my vows. I took all my sins to the temple. I dumped them on the altar. I gave a few bucks, and now God and I are fine.

You ever do that? It's an amazing capacity we have for this. Oh, if I just go to this service and I just say these words, then I can get done with this thing. I can bring my sins to God, and then I can go out and sin again because the slate's all clean again, and I can start over. That's what she's doing.

Anybody would see through this, but not one lacking sense like this young man is. She said, therefore, I have come to meet you, to seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you. She says, let me entice it.

I have spread my couch with coverings. She says, with colored linens of Egypt. Teenage Jewish boy, Egypt.

Egypt, the worldliest place in the world. Wow! See how we're enticed?

She said, I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh and aloes and cinnamon. Wow, this is the perfect spider's web, isn't it? Come, let us drink our fill of love. Love? Love? That's love? If you're on the yellow brick road to go to the Emerald City of Love with another person of the opposite sex, this isn't it.

There's nothing about love here. But it sounds right to him. Who would believe that line? People who lack sense.

They believe it every day. Oh, I'm in love. I feel like I did when I was 18. I'm in love. Oh, come on.

It isn't even close to love. Well, after she does this, she says, let us delight ourselves with caresses. Let me entice you even more. The man is not at home. He has gone on a long journey.

He has taken a bag of money with him, and at full moon, he will come home. You've got time. You've got time. You're not going to get caught. You've got time. You can spend the night.

We could have breakfast tomorrow. You see what she's doing to him? She's painting this picture, this amazing picture, and he's buying it. He's buying it hook, line, and sinker. In fact, notice what Solomon goes on then and says. With her many persuasions, she entices him. You see, that's the problem, people. That's why the yellow brick road is a road less traveled.

It's so easy to entice people off of it. Notice what Solomon says. With her flattering lips, she seduces him.

Suddenly, he follows her, and then he can't say enough. He says, as an ox goes to the slaughter. What an image. You see, when I think of that imagery, I, in my mind, always think of the wimpiest priest in Israel. I always think of a guy who's 5'1", 115 pounds, and he's a priest, and he's got the ox, and they're bringing the ox to the slaughter in the temple ground. Now, the ox is about 1,400 pounds of muscle, and this little guy's got him, and they're going to take him over here where they'll crush his skull and then carve him up and then burn him. What does the ox do? He goes. Could the ox not go? Oh, yeah. An ox that doesn't want to go is a pretty hard thing to move around, isn't it? But this is an ox led to slaughter. You see, could have this boy not been there?

Yes. Could have he turned around? Yes, but he doesn't. And Solomon says it's kind of pathetic. He's like an ox being led to slaughter. He said he's like one in fetters to the discipline of a fool. He's like one who, in a sense, ties himself up until an arrow pierces through his liver.

That's a fatal blow, by the way. He's like a bird that hastens to a snare. You sit the little trap.

You put the little droplet on. You put a little food in there, and here comes the bird. Now, think about this. How hard a bird usually works for food. He's got to dig in the soil, pull out a grub. You know, he has to work for it.

All of a sudden, in your yard, there's a piece of bread laying under a box. He should be thinking right now something's not right here. But he goes in, and he gets caught, and he gets eaten.

That's what Solomon said happens to us when we get off the yellow brick road. He says so he does not know that it's going to cost him his life. Now, how he means that, we're not sure. He could mean his future. You see, what he should be for a woman he's going to spend his life with, he'll never be again.

He will not be that. But it also could mean something else. In Solomon's day, if you got caught having a relationship with a married woman, you were stoned to death.

It was a capital offense. So he said he does not know what he's going to pay for this. He has no idea how great the consequences are going to be.

No idea how great they are. And that's where we run into it all the time, don't we? We have no idea the choices we make have such great consequences.

Just terrible things we have done. He then says this, now, therefore, my, notice he changes, sons. He means all of us. He says, see, this is just a story.

I have a lot of experience in this, by the way. Nobody could be, by the way, more representative of this young man than Solomon. This was a place where he failed over and over again in his life.

He knew women, but he did not know how to make good choices with regards to women. He said that was me. But he says, here, now, therefore, my sons, listen to me.

He said, I need you to listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. Do not let your heart be torn aside by her ways. Notice, do not, do not stray into her path. Don't get on her road. Don't get off the yellow brick road.

Don't you dare do that. Don't let yourself stray over there to that path. He says, for many are the victims she has cast down. See, that's why he called the series A Road Less Traveled.

The other roads have heavy traffic, but the yellow brick road is less traveled. He says, many are the victims she has cast on, and numerous are all her slain. He says, her house is the way to Sheol. Her house is a highway to the grave, is one translation.

Her house is a highway to the grave. You see, that's what life's all about. You start out making the choice for Christ because that's the emerald city of salvation and forgiveness of sins. But once you are saved, you start down the emerald, to the emerald city of living life and living it abundantly. But you've got to stay on the yellow brick road. And if you don't stay on the yellow brick road, you'll never get there. Your intentions, your wishes, and your dreams are irrelevant. You see how that works? I don't care how sincere you are.

It won't matter. You know where you're going? You're going where the road you're on is leading you.

You know where you're going financially? The road you're on is leading you there. Marriage, the road you're on. Your family, your children, the road you're on. Your health, the road you're on.

That's where you're going. You're going to go on the road you're on unless you get off the road and get onto the yellow brick road. Isn't it interesting that the psalmist writes that God's word is a path? It's a path.

You see, it's a path where we can live our lives. I hear people say this, I want to marry a devout Christian. If you're single and you're saying that, that's your intention. Let me ask you a question. Who do you date?

That's the road you're on. And don't give me that, oh, just cute guys. Because if that's the road you're on, you're going to be like a lot of women in this world that found out marrying a cute guy is not exactly what it's cracked up to be. You say things to yourselves like, I want to have a great marriage. Well then tell me, how much do you sacrifice for that? How do you get up every day saying my spouse is more important than I am?

You do that every day? Because if you do and you're on that road, you'll have the great marriage. But wanting to have a great marriage and not willing to make the sacrifices to have a great marriage, you don't get a great marriage.

You get the marriage of the road you're on. I want to have financial security. And let's look at your savings account. Let's see if you have that, because that's the road you're on. I want Christ to be the most important thing in my life. Okay, then show me your priorities. Show me your priorities. You see, when push comes to shove in your life, what has priority in your life?

Christ or something else? You see, that's the only way you can be on the yellow brick road is to actually be on the yellow brick road. There's nothing else you can do. Wishing to be on it, wanting to be on it, intending to be on it is not the same as being on it. In every area of your life, you're already on a road. That road will establish your destination. Not your wishes, not your intentions. I want to leave you by having you ask yourself this question. Are there discrepancies between what I desire in my heart and what I'm doing with my life?

Are there discrepancies between what you desire in your heart and what you're actually doing in your life? If there are, follow the yellow brick road. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that website you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .