Mm-hmm. Oh, hi. Yeah. Just doing a little hiking around. This is a nice place to come, especially in the summertime.
It's wonderful. You know what? It makes me think of, and most people don't know this story. In fact, I'm not sure I've told it to anybody. Was when I was first a Boy Scout, of course, the first rank in Boy Scouts is Tenderfoot, right?
When I was a Tenderfoot, I went on one of my first camping trips with our troop. And you know, you're very raw, you don't understand what you should and should not be doing.
So, one day we were out at this area that I'd never been to before. We were camping, we'd set up our tents, and I decided to go on a stroll. And I think it was like early morning on a Saturday. And I just went all by myself.
Okay, that's rule number one. You never do that. But I went off by myself and I walked out into this beautiful woods that I'd never been into before.
Now, I had no fears about getting lost because where I grew up, our street that we lived on was a dead-end street, and across the street from us was a creek and a vast woods that went off into Sligo Creek Park in Maryland.
So woods were very familiar to me.
So I went off in this woods I'd never been in before. And suddenly I got to this point. Where I looked around. And I couldn't remember where I had come from. Or, what direction I needed to do to go to go back.
I mean, I was very disoriented, middle of the morning. And I'm thinking, well, this isn't a big deal. I'll just walk a little bit more until someone comes by or I see a landmark or something like that. I walked a little bit more and then I realized it wasn't looking any better. In fact, right at that moment it dawned on me that perhaps Perhaps the worst thing I could do would be to wander in a direction I didn't know.
I could get deeper lost.
So I decided, like they had always told you, I remembered this part: when you get lost, just stop where you are. And don't go any farther 'cause you can make the situation worse if you continue to ramble. And just look around and wait until maybe someone comes through. Because there were a lot of scouts in the area. But at this moment in time, there was not a scout within sight and there was no sounds at all.
And it was at that moment as I sat there. Yeah. that it dawned on me that I was in danger. Have you ever had that feeling before that? You didn't know where you were and you didn't know how to get out of where you were.
This feeling in the pit of your stomach that I'm lost, I'm lost. I think God allowed me to sense that. to get a bigger picture later in life, including to this very moment. What it's like to feel lost, to feel like there's no direction, there's no way to figure out how to get from where I am to where I should be. And I may never be found again.
At that moment, I was thinking, boy, if I had. Even if I had a map, it wouldn't have helped me because I didn't know which direction was north, south, east, or west, and I never knew where I actually had started on my trek into that area. That wouldn't have helped at all. I was just lost, and I had no clue where I was, and I didn't know how to get back to the people. It's a horrible feeling.
A terrifying Really? on a beautiful Summer afternoon. A horrible feeling.
Well, I'm not lost right now. And in fact, If I were lost, if I didn't know where I was, I could still just listen. And I can hear civilization. I can hear kids playing behind me over here in Adams Park. I can hear cars going by over there.
I can even hear a plane going overhead. Not that that would help me very much. I mean, I have all these clues about directions in life. And that's what I wanted to talk about today. The device in your pocket, your pocket messiah.
Is a wonderful tool for direction, for where to go and where you are. There's never a problem. In fact, not only does it tell you where you are. If you had a lapse, like, well, how did I get here? But if you don't even know where you are, then you can also ask it, well, how do I get from here to where I want to be?
And you can tell it, and it'll show you directly how to do that. Did you know it can do that not only with driving instructions, it can show you even if you're on foot, like I am right now. How to get from where I am. to where I want to be. A remarkable tool, a remarkable tool.
That's cell phones and connected into the internet, and GPS satellites, which are there's a cloud of them that are flying overhead right now for the single purpose of giving you a triangulated position of where you are on planet Earth within a matter of yards. It's astonishing. Great direction. But but in that great utility there lingers a seduction. And of course this has been the theme of all these things.
And the seduction is this: that as long as I have my phone, and as long as I have an internet connection. I know where I am. and I know how to get to where I want to be. Hey.
Okay, in things like finding where the next McDonald's restaurant is, that's a pretty easy thing. But what about if we turn this and start talking about the issues of life itself? Not how, not where am I and how do I get to where I want to be. But in the deeper issues of, yeah, like Where am I? And where am I going?
And how do I get there?
So, the seduction is in the fact that your phone may start to lull you into thinking. That if you need guidance in life, not just in how to get to McDonald's, but guidance in life, direction to get from where I am to where I want to be, that something about my phone is going to solve that problem for me. That's the seduction.
Now you're probably sitting back saying, psh. I don't think so. I'll never go there. Yeah. Well, I know, but this is what seductions are all about.
On the first look at the seduction, it looks silly. But then after a while, it tends to worm itself into your thinking. Until you think As long as I have this device. I know where I'm going and I know how to get there. And I'll never be disoriented.
But in the deeper issues of life which actually come to us Usually later than sooner. when we ask ourselves, how did I get here? And is this where I wanted to be? Issues of direction. Are things that we ask God about, not our phones?
And you're still probably saying this is a silly metaphor. It's really not. Because with the advent of AI, and I'll talk a lot about that in our last session, the advent of AI, it changes everything in the dynamics of this.
So that at one point you might actually say, you might actually say to your phone, How do I get to where I want to be in life where I will be happy? It's an appeal for directions. And your phone will try and answer those questions in ways that will make people money. They already do it to some degree.
So let's just sit back for a second. I'm going to find a Better place, I think, to do this. But let's sit back and let's Let's think about biblically The role of God and His Word in bringing us direction. That's reliable. And that has more to do than just how to get from point A and B on planet Earth, but has everything to do with how to get from planet Earth.
the presence of God himself.
So let's look at that now, just briefly.
Okay, that's a little better. Direction. Let's talk about direction. Can God be relied upon to bring us direction? Is He You know, of course.
You're supposed to say yes. But in practicality, does that work? And as we read through the pages of Scripture, I think especially the Old Testament. The reality and the dependability of God. to bring us direction.
In life, not only from point A to point B in life, and I could tell you some interesting stories about that. But from point A to point B, where point B is actually life with God, maybe even heaven itself at the end of the age. He can do that.
So let me just remind you a few scriptures because these are really encouraging, especially if you feel like. Um your life is without direction. And when I say without direction, that usually is triggered by an internal sense. that something's not right. I mean, at the minimum, I'm not happy.
But you feel like something's not fitting. You don't get what's going on.
So let me just read you some passages. Maybe this will encourage you today, and maybe it'll take away the seduction of your phone as being the only source of direction in your life. Jeremiah 10.23 is a great one. He says, and this is a fascinating observation. I know, O Lord, that the way of a man is not in himself.
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. which is a way of saying if you feel aimless and misdirected, You might be the problem. Because you're looking just to yourself for that direction. Let me read it again. This is just a fascinating insight into who we are.
Jeremiah 10:23. I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
So Of course, the obvious answer to that Conundrum is Going to God rather than yourself.
Now, we often go to the internet to find direction in things. That's where I find direction and how to fix my car, directions and how to fix my car, and there's nothing wrong with that at all. But again, we're talking about the deeper issues in life. That something's just not right, that my direction might have in the past been wrong. And we need to correct that.
Let me give you another one. This is from Proverbs, great wisdom literature from Solomon, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Proverbs 20:24. A man's steps are from the Lord. The man's steps are from the Lord.
How then can man understand his way?
So he's saying in a really wonderful way: if God is the one who's directing our steps, it may very well be that the next step that God is directing you to take is not something that makes sense to you. That's what he says in the second half. And how then can man understand his way? Because, after all, these are steps that are ordained by God, not by me. If I was smart enough to have stepped this direction, I would understand why.
But many times God leads us in ways that are just conundrums to us. I mean, we just don't get it. But man's steps are from the Lord. Another problem that he does. This is in Proverbs 16:9.
He says, The heart of man plans his way. Eh? The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. It's as though saying many times, maybe the most productive way to find direction is to start to step. But then God Himself will establish your steps as you go.
My plans are they for naught? No, we need to plan. But in the end, the success or failure of those steps depend upon whether they came from God rather than from yourself. Job says it really well too, Job 34, 21. For his eyes, God's eyes, for his eyes are on the ways of man, and he sees all his steps.
Now, that last phrase, he sees all his steps, not only means looking backward. where you've come from. But it means looking forward. He sees all his steps already. Even though I'm choosing where I'm going to step next, that's the marvelous thing about the timelessness of the sovereignty of God.
It doesn't matter about just the past. It matters about the future where he's sovereign. And I love this one. We used to sing a song to this from Psalm 37:23, a great song: The Steps of a Man. The steps of a man are established by the Lord when he delights in his way.
That is, Psalm 37, 23. The steps of a man are established by the Lord when I delight in the Lord's ways. Rather than just my own. See this this Gets rid of the fact this idea that I could possibly just do whatever I want to do and God has to bless it. I can make choices in how to walk life and the directions I set in life based surely on totally selfish reasons.
And God will bless that. Yeah. No. But I delight in God's ways. That's what he's saying in Psalm 37.
If I delight in God's ways. My steps will be established. And then he goes on next in that entire passage and says that if and when we should fall, we won't be hurled headlong. We won't do total face plants. And why?
Because the Lord is the one who holds our hands. Another really great promise in that psalm about the fact that as we move forward in life, and it may look scary like this path behind me. God's always there to not only establish your steps, He knows about them ahead of time. But he's also there to hold your hand in the process of going through. and you will trip.
You will trip. Great passage from Psalm 119. And this is the practicality of how that direction comes. He says in Psalm 119:105. Your word is a lamp.
to my feet. and a light to my path.
So, when you're walking in a path like when you're camping and it's dark, the lamp is a thing right in your hands that immediately lights your next step. It's the immediate direction you're taking. Your word is an illumination of my next steps. But then, a light to my path tells me more of a long-distance perspective of where I'm going. Like down that way, it's a light to the actual path in life, a lamp to my immediate steps, a light to where I'm going.
And that, what is that? He says in Psalm 119, Your word. Your word, O Lord.
So he is proposing to us that what we need to do when it comes to Quandries about directions in life and where we're going and where we've come from. that God's Word itself is designed to bring illumination to our next steps. and illumination further out to where we're going.
Now, I'll close with this. It turns out that when Jesus had announced to his apostles that he was leaving, Freaked him out. Totally freaked him out. You can find this in John's Gospel. It's really well narrated.
And perplexity. They were trying to figure out from Jesus exactly what's going on.
So this is Jesus' response to that. That disturbedness in their hearts about the fact that Jesus says, I'm going someplace and it sounds like you can't come. In fact, he said you can't come.
So I'll pick up the narrative here in John 14. John 14 and verse 1.
So Jesus says, Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that if I w What, let me say that again.
If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, Seth? Hmm? For you? Let me read that again. I'm still screwing that.
In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, Would I have told you that? I go to prepare a place for you. Then he goes on, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again. And will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Great promise. Even though he's going, he's coming back, he'll bring us back to where he is. And then he says something perplexing to the apostles. Verse four. John 14.
and you know the way to where I'm going.
So at that moment, I've always imagined the apostles look at each other like, who's gonna raise their hand?
So Thomas raises his hand. Thomas says in verse 5. Lord, we don't know where you're going. We don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?
We don't know where you're going. And then a very famous line that Jesus speaks that we always forget, it's in the context of this immediate need to know. Where Jesus is going and how we can follow him. How can we know the way? And Jesus says, I'm the way.
I'm the truth, I'm the life. No one comes to the Father. but through me. And that's the longer path. No one comes to the Father but through me.
So, Jesus is saying, if you want to know the way from here to there, from here to the presence of the Father, You come through Jesus. He's the way. Follow him. Follow him. He's going ahead of us.
He's the truth. He's the life.
So, you know, many times when we have these quandaries about where am I and where am I going in life, the real question at the core of that is: I thought I'd find life here and I can't find life here. Why am I not finding life here? I want life. I am the way Jesus says. I'm the truth, the true way to that.
I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And so he gives us direct instructions that what we need to do if we want to know the way from here. to there You need to follow Jesus. Is it that simple?
Yes. Yes. Well, wait a second. Wait a second. Didn't that guy that we just read a second ago, didn't he say that in Psalm 119 that your word is a lamp?
And a light.
Well, how does John start his gospel? Who is the word? Jesus is. Jesus is. So John agrees with Psalm one nineteen.
Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. Jesus is that word. Jesus says you'll know the way if you just follow me. I'm the way. I'm the truth.
On the way. That's direction. That's true direction. Not just from how to get from here to McDonald's. A true direction in terms of how do I get from here, wherever you are.
to the point where you find life. to to where you find life. Jesus. He's the word. He's the truth.
He's the way. Don't trust your pocket messiah because we have a real messiah. who's whose job and whose love. His aim toward bringing us into his fulfilled life, the abundant life, he calls it. and that abundant life is always in him.
Follow him. And you get there. I've got a lot more stories about supernatural direction from God in times where I had no direction where I was going. I mean, in reality. But those are just, in a sense, although they're very concrete and real.
and and very supernatural. They are really in a way metaphors of the bigger. Path in life, getting to where I need to be based on following Jesus. That's the true direction issues. And those issues are things that your phone aren't going to help you with with GPS.
Okay, we're done. We'll come back next time with another aspect of a of the pocket messiah that tends to try and usurp Our relationship with God.
However, in the short term, it has great utility, and I'm not saying phones are bad or the internet's bad. There's great utility there if you're smart and you're wise about it. But just beware of the seductiveness of being trained into thinking that there is no other source of direction in life than my phone. Because there is. And it's Jesus.
I'll see you next week.
