Today's Sermon Notes:

Take Control and Fulfill God’s Purpose for Your Life

Following the Footsteps of Jesus

Opening Text

Proverbs 4:23-27 (ESV) 
²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance,
for from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴ Put away from you crooked speech,
and put devious talk far from you.
²⁵ Let your eyes look directly forward,
and your gaze be straight before you.
²⁶ Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
 turn your foot away from evil.

The Wisdom of Solomon

Keep your heart. The content of your heart will determine the limits of your life. 

Proverbs 4:23 (ESV) ²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance,
 for from it flow the springs of life.

• Springs - h8444. תּוֹצָאָה tôṣâ’â; or תֹּצָאָה totsaah; from 3318; (only in plural collective) exit, i.e. (geographical) boundary, or (figuratively) deliverance, (actively) source: — border(-s), going(-s) forth (out), issues, outgoings. Keep your tongue. The words of your mouth will determine the conditions and outcomes of your life. 

Proverbs 4:24 (ESV) ²⁴ Put away from you crooked speech,
 and put devious talk far from you.

1 Peter 3:10 (ESV) ¹⁰ For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days,
 let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;

Psalms 34:12-13 (KJV) ² What man is he that desireth life,
and loveth many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep thy tongue from evil,
 and thy lips from speaking guile.

Look straight ahead - Give focused attention to what lies ahead. “Look directly forward.” Don’t become paralyzed by the past. Use your calendar and note or list upcoming events, obligations, and deadlines. 

Proverbs 4:25 (ESV) 
²⁵  Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. 

Proverbs 4:25 (NLT2) 
²⁵  Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. 

Fix your eyes. Gaze - Give focused attention. Discipline your mind to ignore irrelevant issues - distractions. 

Fix your eyes on what lies before you - Give focused attention to what lies before you. Think about what’s right in front of your [present circumstances] and what should be done right now or in the future to address them. 

Ponder the path of your feet – Prepare a road, i.e., a roadmap. Make a schedule to follow. Plan your day, week, month, year. 

Proverbs 4:26 (KJV) 
²⁶  Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

ponder - properly to roll flat, i.e. prepare (a road); also to revolve, i.e. weigh (mentally) :- make, ponder, weigh. Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.

Let all your ways be established. Plan and schedule everything. Mentally make your schedule relatively firm. Make fixed appointments with yourself and stick with it except when redirected by a higher authority, or higher priority. 

• Established - properly to be erect (i.e. stand perpendicular); hence (causative) to set up, in a great variety of applications, whether literal (establish, fix, prepare, apply), or figurative (appoint, render sure, proper or prosperous)
  Strong's Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary. 

Turn not. Stick with it, unless you get new overriding information. Don’t be unnecessarily and habitually flexible. No one will respect your schedule if you don’t.

Proverbs 4:27 (KJV) 
²⁷  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Joshua 1:7-8 (ESV) ⁷ Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. ⁸ This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Remove thy foot from evil – Take control of your life.

Proverbs 4:27 (KJV) 
²⁷  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

Psalms 34:14-16 (KJV) ¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good;
seek peace, and pursue it.
¹⁵ The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous,
and his ears are open unto their cry.
¹⁶ The face of the LORD is against them that do evil,
 to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. 

The Wisdom of Jesus

1 Corinthians 1:30 (KJV) ³⁰ But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

1 Peter 2:21 (KJV) ²¹ For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

• Jesus kept His heart. 

John 14:30 (KJV) ³⁰ Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

• Jesus kept His tongue. 

1 Peter 2:22-23 (ESV) ²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. ²³ When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

• Jesus looked straight ahead. 

Hebrews 12:1-2 (KJV) ¹ Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

• Jesus fixed His eyes.

Luke 9:51-53 (KJV) ⁵¹ And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, ⁵² And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. ⁵³ And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

• Jesus pondered the path of His feet.

John 9:4 (KJV) ⁴ I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Hebrews 10:7 (AMP) ⁷ Then I said, Behold, here I am, coming to do Your will, O God—[to fulfill] what is written of Me in the volume of the Book.

• Jesus made and kept His appointment.

Luke 13:22 (KJV) ²² And he went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem.

• Jesus maintained control of His schedule and His life. 

Luke 12:50 (AMP) ⁵⁰ I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how greatly and sorely I am urged on (impelled, constrained) until it is accomplished!

Luke 18:31-33 (KJV) ³¹ Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. ³² For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on: ³³ And they shall scourge him, and put him to death: and the third day he shall rise again.

Luke 22:37 (KJV) ³⁷ For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things concerning me have an end.

• Jesus fulfilled His purpose. 

John 19:28 (KJV) ²⁸ After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

John 19:30 (KJV) ³⁰ When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.