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The Direction Before The Decision · Men's Morning Devotional

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Gentlemen, every day is a battle.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: They prepare before it begins.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the men's morning devotional.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into God's word.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's time to man up.
• 0:26
  Chris Alessi: All right, men, good morning.
• 0:28
  Chris Alessi: Welcome to day four, Thursday.
• 0:31
  Chris Alessi: We have been focusing on Proverbs 7 all week, and by now you've already heard me say we can share this with other men, and hopefully you've been able to do so.
• 0:40
  Chris Alessi: But we really are going to move into the full body of the chapter of chapter 7.
• 0:46
  Chris Alessi: Solomon shifts from instruction to illustration.
• 0:50
  Chris Alessi: He tells a story, maybe an allegory, but the story he's telling is very vivid and sobering.
• 0:56
  Chris Alessi: He describes a young man, and the first thing he tells us about him isn't what he did, but where he was looking.
• 1:04
  Chris Alessi: So here's your man up moment for this Thursday.
• 1:13
  Chris Alessi: Here's our scripture for today, Proverbs 7, 6 through 9.
• 1:17
  Chris Alessi: At the window of my house I looked out through the lattice, and I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men a youth lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night in darkness.
• 1:35
  Chris Alessi: So Solomon is building the story.
• 1:37
  Chris Alessi: He's watching from the window and he sees a lot of young people, but he notices one young man who's not in trouble yet, but he's heading toward it.
• 1:47
  Chris Alessi: He's passing near her corner.
• 1:48
  Chris Alessi: He's taking the road toward her house.
• 1:51
  Chris Alessi: It's twilight.
• 1:52
  Chris Alessi: At this point, he hasn't done anything wrong.
• 1:55
  Chris Alessi: He's just walking in her direction.
• 1:58
  Chris Alessi: And Solomon, with the eyes of a wise father, can already see where that road ends.
• 2:04
  Chris Alessi: So two things stand out.
• 2:06
  Chris Alessi: First, the young man is described as lacking sense, not talent or strength, opportunity, or certainly not lacking good intentions.
• 2:15
  Chris Alessi: He's just lacking sense.
• 2:17
  Chris Alessi: In Proverbs, this idea of sense is the practical wisdom that reads a situation correctly and acts accordingly.
• 2:25
  Chris Alessi: That's why we call it common sense.
• 2:28
  Chris Alessi: We feel like if you're in this room, everybody should be able to read the room.
• 2:32
  Chris Alessi: But this young man, unfortunately, he can't see what Solomon can from the window.
• 2:37
  Chris Alessi: He doesn't recognize the danger in the direction.
• 2:40
  Chris Alessi: The second thing that we catch is the timing.
• 2:44
  Chris Alessi: Notice it, it's a twilight at evening in the time of night in darkness.
• 2:49
  Chris Alessi: This isn't just an accident of scheduling, it's unfortunately a choice of environment.
• 2:54
  Chris Alessi: The young man has put himself in a place where the light is low, and the consequences are harder to see.
• 3:01
  Chris Alessi: Listen, us men, we do this all the time.
• 3:04
  Chris Alessi: Maybe not with geography, but with the conditions we allow in our lives.
• 3:08
  Chris Alessi: The late night phone in a dark room, or that unaccountable trip where we go alone.
• 3:14
  Chris Alessi: The conversation that slowly moves somewhere it shouldn't.
• 3:18
  Chris Alessi: Wrong paths almost never start with a wrong decision.
• 3:22
  Chris Alessi: Just a wrong direction taken in low light.
• 3:25
  Chris Alessi: But the guarded man, the man we've been building all week, a man who keeps wisdom and watches wisdom keep him, that man knows his own vulnerabilities well enough to manage his directions, not just his decisions.
• 3:42
  Chris Alessi: He doesn't trust himself to make the right call at the corner.
• 3:46
  Chris Alessi: He doesn't get anywhere near the corner.
• 3:49
  Chris Alessi: So here's your man-up challenge for this week.
• 3:51
  Chris Alessi: Ask yourself honestly, what directions am I currently walking in that are heading somewhere?
• 3:57
  Chris Alessi: I don't want to end up.
• 3:59
  Chris Alessi: Maybe not full-fledged decisions just yet, but directions, a pattern, a habit, a regular environment.
• 4:07
  Chris Alessi: Name it, and then take one step to redirect it before the corner becomes a choice you can't take back.
• 4:15
  Chris Alessi: Let's pray.
• 4:17
  Chris Alessi: Lord, I pray you'd give us the sense that this young man was lacking, the sense to read our directions, not just our decisions.
• 4:26
  Chris Alessi: Show us where we're drifting toward corners we should avoid.
• 4:29
  Chris Alessi: Lord, we want to be men who guard our paths before the temptation arrives, not after.
• 4:36
  Chris Alessi: Help us, Father.
• 4:37
  Chris Alessi: In Jesus' name.
• 4:39
  Chris Alessi: Amen.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now go live it.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Share this devotional with another brother.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.