Danger, Danger, Danger

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. Unspeakable joy on the road less traveled. But here's the problem.

If you're naive, you don't believe it. You see, there's unspeakable joy on the road less traveled. But you have to do something. You see danger with your health, you've got to do something. You see danger in your marriage, you've got to do something. You see danger coming with your children, you've got to do something. You see, you have to do something. The prudent do something and the naive don't.

They just plow ahead. 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. Back in the late 1960s, there was a TV show called Lost in Space. It was a show that was based on the movie Swiss Family Robinson. But instead of being lost in the South Pacific, these Robinsons were lost in the galaxy. They had set out for a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri and then became completely lost.

And for show after show, there was one lame adventure after the other. One of my favorite characters was a nine year old boy named Will Robinson. He was a child prodigy, sort of a electronics computer whiz at that time.

And he had a very best friend. It was the robot B9. He was a robot model B9.

Actually, this week I looked it up and he had no name. He was a general utility, non-theorizing, environmental control robot. But virtually every show when something bad was about to happen, the robot would begin to wave his arms. And he would say, danger, danger, danger, Will Robinson. Danger, danger, danger, Will Robinson. And that warning often saved the crew from some impending disaster.

A lot of you need a model B9 robot. As you go through life, over and over again, you could have used somebody to say, danger, danger. But I really wonder, how many times would have you heated it?

And in fact, how many times did you hear it and still not heat it? Open your Bibles to Proverbs 27. In Proverbs 27, in verse 12, a very sort of simple verse, but profound in its implications. Solomon writes, a prudent man sees evil and hides himself. The naive proceed and pay the penalty.

Very simple. Prudent man sees evil, hides himself. The naive proceed and pay the penalty. Just observing that one verse, we have two kinds of people, prudent and naive.

Apparently, they're on the same road. They see the same evil. Now, that word evil in the numeric and standards is not the best translation.

That is the word, Hebrew word, rach. And I think a better translation would be danger, trouble, calamity. In other words, the prudent man sees calamity or danger or trouble, hides himself. The naive proceed and pay the penalty.

There's something else here. We see that the prudent apparently have a much better outcome than the naive do. You see, apparently the prudent sees the evil, and when he hides himself, he sees a connection to the consequences of the danger. That's what prudent people do. In fact, if you're ever going to reach your Emerald City, you might have to ask yourself this question.

In light of my past experience and my future hopes, what is the wise thing to do now? You see, that's what the prudent do, but not the naive. The naive is the Hebrew word, pata, and it means easily enticed, easily persuaded, sometimes translated, simple. These are people who go through life disconnected from the idea of consequences.

They see today in the choices of today as only implying today, and hence, he says, they pay the penalty. Now, we're all that way to a degree, aren't we? Have you ever spent money you don't have? You see, that's naive.

Have you ever lit a cigarette? That's naive. You see what happens? The idea is, oh, no, I just really like this.

What are the consequences? You see, that's what happens there. Now, I know what some people will say, yeah, I did that, but I know somewhere in the Bible it probably says experience is the best teacher, but it's not. I really doubt that truth.

I do believe it can teach, but it's not the best teacher. I can prove that, by the way. Let me ask you a question. How many times have you ever said to yourself, I'll never do that again, and then you did it? Apparently, you didn't learn. You see, the naive proceed and pay the penalty.

This has a lot to do with life and the journey you're on because you never quite get to where you thought you were going to go. Let me illustrate that with Michael Vick, an athlete of supreme talent and ability, a man who signed a $130 million-plus contract. Now, what's interesting about that is Michael Vick was simply naive, and what I mean by that, not in the way we use it, but in the way God uses it. He had people waving their arms, saying, danger, danger, danger. In fact, one such was his mentor early in life. His name was James Poo Johnson, and he worked with the Boys and Girls Clubs in the city that Michael grew up in, and over and over again he warned Michael, and he said, Michael, where you are going in life, you're going to have to make some decisions. You cannot keep hanging out with the same guys you've been hanging out with and not have some kind of consequences in the future.

In other words, danger, danger, danger. But he proceeded all the way through Virginia Tech and in all the early years in Atlanta, but eventually it says here in the Bible he paid the penalty. Do you really think that Michael Vick, when he thought about his life, he thought, oh, good, one day I'll get to spend time in a state penitentiary?

That's what I'm aiming for? No, I think when he saw his life, he knew what he wanted out of life, and unlike a lot of us, he had the capacity to virtually grab everything that he probably wanted. But he made a mistake. He didn't heed the danger. In fact, he went the way of the naive. From God's point of view, this is an incredibly important principle for us.

It must be because he repeats it. Turn back to chapter 22 of Proverbs. Now, you might not have seen this verse in there before because in chapter 22 of Proverbs, you have one of those top ten Proverbs, and when you have a top ten one, that's the only one you ever highlight in your Bible, and that's verse 6. Train up a child on the way that he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.

By the way, sidebar on that. Don't be naive about that. That's a principle. That's not a promise.

You see, Hebrew wisdom literature is always principle. It's not promises. So every child, every child that's trained in the right way doesn't always turn out right. People have free will. As I've often said in the past, God has no grandchildren. He only has children, and so each person makes their own choices. But by principle, that works.

But look at verse 3. The prudent sees the evil and hides himself or takes refuge. The naive go on and are punished for it. Same thing. The only difference is it says go on instead of proceed, and it says punish for it instead of pay the penalty. Apparently, God wants us to get this.

This is a very important thing from his point of view. In fact, let's go to Proverbs 14. Why do we keep getting off the yellow brick road? And that's verse 12. There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of destruction or death. You see, you follow your gut. You follow your instincts. You follow your heart. But unless those are aligned with the word of God, you're in deep trouble. There's a way that seems right. And here's, by the way, there's another point to this. Not only is that true, but when you surround yourself with other people who are naive, they'll endorse the stupid mistakes you're making.

They will actually say, that's a great idea. In fact, notice verse 15. The naive believes everything, but the prudent man considers his steps. The naive believes everything. It will always work out. Not always.

Verse 18. The naive inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. The outcome of being naive is foolishness. The outcome of being prudent is a crown of knowledge. It makes all of the difference in the world. And after you do this year after year, decade after decade in your life, what ends up happening is having two completely different destinations in mind.

People going a completely different direction. The prudent go one way, the naive go another. By the way, this kind of naivety is not fatal, apparently. Turn to Proverbs chapter 1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, the king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction. To discern the sayings of understanding. To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and equity. These are the purpose of this whole book. It says this, to give prudence to the naive. To give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion. So apparently if you are naive, you can become prudent. But that's only if you heed the words of this book.

That's what he's saying. You see, when you go back to the original thought here, what is the difference between these people? They see the danger that that states are on the same road, but one does one thing and another does another.

You see, apparently what happens with the prudent is they see it, they weigh it, they hear danger, they go with caution, and they make a choice. They actually do something. The naive, what do they do? They just plow straight ahead.

They plow straight ahead. They're just going to do it. Now experience has taught me, although Solomon doesn't talk about it, that usually what the naive do is listen to the other naive. That's kind of the way it works among them. The idea is, oh, we can do this.

There will be no consequences. Think of how many times. How many times have you heard of the senseless deaths, for example, of teenagers? A senseless death. I can't even tell you how many times I've heard, and it's even happened on the LSU campus a few times. A young man in college dies from binge drinking. He drinks so much that he dies. Now, don't you think somewhere somebody said danger?

What do you think his friends were saying? Go, go, go, right? And look at the consequences.

Look at the penalty that's paid. You see, it's a matter of who you listen to and what happens. You see, the reason this series is so important to me is this. I live in a world of nodding heads and notetakers who every week leave this room and do very little about what they heard. Now, they nod their head. They took some notes. Sometimes they'll even ask me after the service, exactly what did you say? But what do they do?

What do they do? I don't take it personally. We've all done that. We've listened. We agree with someone. We feel convicted. Oh, I'm so convicting. What do you do? Nothing.

But I felt convicted. We buy a CD. We subscribe to a podcast. But we don't take action. That's what the prudent does when they hear danger. They do something.

They take action. You see, you might hear something or read something in the Word of God, and you have to have that awkward conversation with someone. You might hear something or read something in the Word of God, and you're going to have to make that phone call.

You hear something or read something in the Word of God, and you might have to cut up your credit cards. You might have to break up with somebody. You might have to move out of that situation. You might have to find a new circle of friends. You might have to throw those bottles away.

You might have to unsubscribe to that movie service or any number of things. See, you know that's true. How many times have you said to yourself, oh, I wish I hadn't done that? I wish I would have done that.

How many times? It's the difference between the naive and the prudent. The prudent do something. Now, when you do the right thing, the question is, what can you expect?

Well, let me give you good news and bad news in a sense. You can expect two things. One, relief. Two, criticism. Relief in your conscience and criticism from those who are naive.

Man, you are overreacting. You're no fun anymore. Isn't it amazing what the naive consider fun? You see, living life with caution is very rewarding and very unpopular at the same time. There is unspeakable joy on the road less traveled. But here's the problem.

If you're naive, you don't believe it. That's your problem. You see, there's unspeakable joy on the road less traveled. But you have to do something. You see danger with your health, you've got to do something. You see danger in your marriage, you've got to do something. You see danger coming with your children, you've got to do something.

You see, you have to do something. The prudent do something and the naive don't. They just plow ahead. They become the fool of the Book of Proverbs. One of the great theologians in American history is Forrest Gump, who said, stupid is as stupid does.

He's exactly right. That's what's stupid. Stupid is as stupid does. Now, a less intellectual person, Aldous Huxley, he said this, facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

You see, the facts don't cease to exist because they're ignored, and that's what the naive do. They just plow ahead. When you see something wrong, a danger in your spiritual life, your lack of growth, the sin in your life, whatever it is, you've got to do something.

You pay the penalty. I mean, think of Samson, a judge of Israel, used of God in a great way. But what road was he on? Whose advice did he listen to?

Remember what he did? I mean, early on, he sees a woman outside of Israel and says to his parents, I saw her. She looks good to me. Bring her to me.

She's the one I want. And the parents indulged him. By the way, that's usually true with the naive, indulging parents. And then Samson goes through a whole litany, and he always has the same problem. He goes with a prostitute. Then he falls in love with a Philistine woman named Elilah. All of these the Word of God spoke specifically to. He ignored that.

How'd that turn out? You see, I'm sure that there were other young men in Israel saying, Samson, what a guy. Samson, what a warrior. What a stud Samson is. Look what he's like. And look what happened to him. He gouged his eyes out. You see, you pay the penalty. You can be popular.

You can be right. Turn with me to Matthew, chapter 5, and I want to illustrate this again spiritually at the very basic aspect of Christianity. Matthew 7, excuse me, Sermon on the Mount. And in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is speaking, and this is not hard for us to understand, but it applies to the whole world, but he's not speaking to the whole world. He's speaking to the Jewish people. He is speaking to people who are under the Abrahamic Covenant. He is speaking to people who already feel they're rightly related to God.

That's who he's talking to. And to that group in verse 13 of chapter 7, he says this, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter through it. For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are a few who find it. He's speaking to the Jews. He's saying clearly, if it's not the road less traveled, it's the gate less entered. He's saying the majority of you will make the wrong choice here.

And by the way, in these two verses, you find the element of danger. What's at stake? Everything. What's at stake? Heaven and hell. What's at stake? Eternal damnation.

And what does Jesus say? Most of us will go the way of the naive. We'll just plow right on through and forget about it. Some of us, he said, will enter the narrow gate. What happens when you enter the narrow gate? You hide. You take refuge.

Really? In who? In Christ. You see, the danger of eternal damnation to me is real.

So what do I do? I take refuge in him, the one who warned me. You see, that is eternal life. Even as I live the Christian life, isn't it interesting when you read the book of Psalms how many times David says, God is my refuge. God is my refuge. I hide in God. I run to God.

That's what he's saying here. If you want to even have a spiritual life. You see, what happened to the Jews is here's what most of the people said. Look, we're sons of Abraham. As long as you go to temple once in a while and show up at a few festivals, you're in. Jesus said you're not.

You're not in. But you could get other people to corroborate your story. The other naive say, yeah, that's the way it goes. Now think of the world we live in. We live in a world that takes a little different approach but with the same idea.

When you talk to most people about the necessity of Jesus Christ in their life, pretty much the response is this. Well, I don't know about that. I've got to think of it this way. If there is a God, there may be, there may not, but if there is a God, I'm pretty sure he's just going to grade us on a curve. And as long as I'm not one of the really bad, evil, corrupt people, I'll be okay. That's the prevailing view of the day. Most people think that.

You know what? That's what Jesus said. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and many are those who enter that way. You see, when it comes to your eternal life, don't go for democracy.

Let's vote. How many of you think, well, then we must be going that way? We have the majority. Jesus says even in Israel, it was only a minority, only a minority who entered through the narrow gate. You see, that's the difference between prudence and naive, the idea of hiding or taking refuge in God or not.

The question might be this. Well, how do I make that movement? How do I move from naive to prudent? Well, the Scripture says you can. I think one thing that I would recommend doing is just taking Proverbs 27, 12 and turning it into a prayer. It would go like this if you were praying it. Lord, help me see the danger or trouble coming along. Help me see it before it gets here. And then give me the wisdom to know what to do and the courage to do it. That's what it takes. You see, help me see it coming. Help me listen to when I hear that, but then give me the knowledge to know what to do and the courage to actually do it. That would help. You know, apparently that's not very easy.

I don't think it's an easy thing to do. Let me illustrate that of our propensity to be the naive. August 17, 1969, if you lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, you know the date. It's the date of Camille. There's danger in the Gulf. And I imagine weathermen all over this area are waving their arms. Danger, danger, danger. And what did many of the people in the Mississippi Gulf Coast do?

Nothing. In fact, I remember reading the account where several of them got together and had a hurricane party right there in a high-rise on the beach. See, that's the naive.

And by the way, they get all the support from their friends. This is going to be so much fun. 134 dead, 27 missing, 8,932 injured. You pay the penalty. You see, you pay the penalty for the naivete.

Now let's move forward all those years, August 28, 2005. Katrina, and boy, even more weathermen waving their arms. Danger, danger.

And again, 1,800 people paid the ultimate penalty. You see, we have this propensity as people that when someone tells us something is going to be dangerous for us, even if they're experts, even if they have a master's degree in meteorology, we don't really care. Not if we've decided to plow on and we get the support of our friends.

See, that's all we need. There is danger in so much in life. There is danger in who you are in business with. There's danger in that.

The Bible addresses that. Do not be unequally yoked is a passage that deals with business partnerships directly. We use it in marriage, but it's business. There's danger in who you spend your time with. There's danger in that.

You have to think about that and you have to be prudent. There is danger in what you watch. There is danger in what you listen to. There is danger in what you read. There is danger and you have to be aware of it as you're going through it. There is danger in the advisors that you heed when you're trying to make a decision in life.

See, there's danger. The prudent do something. They're careful. They watch out.

The naive, they just plow right through. The last question of the day. Are there any hurricanes in your Gulf? Anything right now in your Gulf?

Any danger signs? The question is, what are you going to do about it? 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.

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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 F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. 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.