Learn From Men Who Have Been There

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Gentlemen, every day is a battle. A battle for your faith, your family, and your purpose. The men who stand strong don't prepare when the battle arrives. They prepare before it begins. Welcome to the men's morning devotion. Let's get into God's word. It's time to man up.

Chris Alessi 0:27

All right, men, it's Friday. Happy Friday, man. Way to get to the end of the week. Listening to this podcast all week. Proud of you. My name is Chris Alesi, and it's an honor to host another day of Men's Morning Devotional as we continue to dive into wisdom. Particularly this week, we're looking at Proverbs chapter 7. And Solomon actually closes Proverbs 7 the same way he opened it. As a father speaking directly to his son. All week we've been talking about keeping wisdom, writing it on our hearts, binding it on our fingers, letting it keep us, and watching what happens to the man who walks in the wrong direction. Today Solomon lands the whole chapter with a final plea, and it's pretty urgent. So here's your Friday man up moment. The wisdom that saves a man's life is almost always the wisdom someone tried to give him before he needed it. Look at verse 24 through 27 in the book of Proverbs 7. Solomon says, And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. I feel like my dad would really like to know that I'm making this episode this week with the title and everything. I think I would love to think my son in the future is making a podcast this simple, but uh essentially I'm making this point. We've got to listen to the voice of our fathers. That's why Solomon says, Sons, listen to me after everything he has said, after the keeping, the binding, the writing, the story of the young man in the twilight. He comes back to his own voice, a father's voice, direct, urgent, personal, not a lecture, but a plea, almost begging his son to listen. It's the kind of thing a father says when he knows what's at stake, and he needs his son to actually hear it. What strikes me about this closing, and it's why I use it to close out our week, it's this phrase many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Solomon's not describing some rare danger. He's describing, unfortunately, a well-worn path with a long casualty list. The men who went this way before, men of strength, reputation, men who probably also thought they had it handled. Those men are counted among the fallen. The wrong path doesn't discriminate. It is taking down mighty men too. And it will take down the man who thinks he's too strong to heed Solomon's warning. Here's what I want every man to hear as we close this week. The wisdom Solomon is offering in this chapter is the wisdom of a father who has watched. He's seen it from the window. He knows what the twilight walk leads to. He knows how the story ends. We find it in Ecclesiastes. He says, At the end of my life, I can now see it clearly. It's the whole point of the other book of wisdom that he writes. And he's giving us the ending before we have to live it. It's an extraordinary gift if we will receive it. The man who listens to his father, his earthly father, when his father is wise, but his heavenly father always, that man is the one who gets to learn from someone else's window instead of his own wreckage. That's not weakness, that's wisdom. So keep it. Let it keep you. Listen and live. So here's your man-up challenge for this Friday. And I think it's good to take you into the weekend. Write down one piece of wisdom a father figure, your dad, a pastor, a mentor, even God through Scripture, has given you that you haven't fully applied yet. And this weekend, apply it. Don't let it stay as advice you heard. Let it move from your head to your heart, all the way to your hands. Let it become a life that you have lived. Let's pray. Father, thank you for speaking. Thank you for the warnings, the wisdom, the voice that's been calling towards us and calling us towards life all along. We choose to listen today. Really listen, and to let your words do what they were meant to do. To keep us, guard us, lead us in the paths of life. In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

All right, gentlemen, you've heard God's word. Now go live it. Lead well, stand strong, honor God in everything you do. Share this devotional with another brother. Remember, every day is another opportunity to man up.