Hello and welcome back to the One Thing Podcast. Today I'd like to ask you the question: What entices you? See, one thing I've learned in life is that every single day there's always something tugging and pulling for our attention, for our hearts, for our minds - there's always something. We live in a world, and we know that the world - the Bible says the spirit of the world is in opposition to the Spirit of God. So we know that living in this world - the spirit of the world is always looking to draw us away - away from who? Away from God. Vice versa, the Spirit of the Lord is always speaking and always looking to draw God's people to Himself.

"People...can be caught or enticed or pulled away if we're not on guard and not looking to what God wants to speak through His Word in order to keep us pure, to keep us with Himself."

Why is this important? Well one thing is if you look through the Scriptures, you can look through Kings and Chronicles - Israel had an issue many times, and what does the Bible say in numerous occasions? The Israelites were enticed or drawn away, seduced by neighboring people who worshipped foreign gods and they were literally enticed even by some of the women, and they got into immorality and all sorts of things. But bottom line we know that that same thing still happens today. Many times, people who are looking to maybe follow God or maybe to, you know, to walk in purity, can be caught or enticed or pulled away if we're not on guard and not looking to what God wants to speak through His Word in order to keep us pure, to keep us with Himself.

Now, looking in Proverbs chapter 7 one of my favorite chapters in Proverbs - if you look at the title many of the titles that you may have may say ‘The Immoral Woman,’ it's talking about this woman. Now it's not literally talking about just a physical woman, but it's talking about that spirit - it's a seducing, enticing spirit. It’s the spirit of the world that looks to pull away. Now, let's look at verse 21. And you can read the whole chapter but I’m just gonna do a couple bits and pieces here. But this woman is now seducing a young man. It's a kind of a short story here but it says in verse 21 - it says, “So she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery. He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter. He was like a stag caught in a trap, awaiting the arrow that would pierce his heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life.” How sad to see that this young man was seduced by this woman. By her what? Her pretty speech. She enticed him, it says, with her flattery and what? It says that he went literally like an animal, and just got caught into this trap, and what happened in the end? It says that it cost him his life.

"Right now, what is consuming our minds, and what is consuming our heart?"

There is a seriousness in the Word of the Lord today. We have to ask and say, ‘Are we enticed in the same way?’ Has the world enticed us, has the world overtaken our mind - what entices us what draws our attention every single day? Right now, what is consuming our minds, and what is consuming our heart? See, think about the world for a moment. The world is very sensual. When we look at every television ad, it is so easy to be enticed to even purchase things that we don't need. When we’re watching different movies or different television shows, and I have nothing against TV but we just really have to think - when we get caught three or four hours watching television we look at our watch and we go, ‘Wow, how did that even happen?’ How easily can we be enticed even just watching one of our favorite shows and in the process, nowhere near thinking about God or even thinking of what His will is or what His voice is speaking.

"But there is hope today...“Obey my commands and live!”"

Another thing we can look at is today, one of the big things - actually the biggest thing on social media is, you know to check out people's Instagrams and the pictures they’re putting up and all the different things. And it's, you know, who's wearing the nicest swimsuit, you know, what guy has the six pack abs. And when you really stop to think about it, how easily people are sucked into it drawn into it. People have billions and millions of followers to check out what they're wearing how they look, and to look at the body, and to see what they have or what they don't have, the jewelry and everything else. And we stop for a moment: Look at how enticing and seducing the world can be. People spend hours looking at photos and pictures of people they'll never meet or never know, rather than being with God rather than seeking Him rather than taking care of maybe their household. Or many times we can even find ourselves being caught up in a whirlwind of enticement by this world. Now the sad thing is, we know that it ends in death. Now it may not even be physical death, but a death to our minds, a death to our heart - a death to our relationship with God, our relationship to one another, because we find ourself caught up in the world or overtaken. But there is hope today. Let's go back to verse one in chapter seven, it says, “Follow my advice, my son; always treasure my commands,” - the commands of God. What is God saying? What is God doing? See like Jesus - Jesus said, “I only do the will of My Father.” Why would He only do the will? Because Jesus knew something. Verse two, “Obey my commands and live!”

The hope, the antidote today, is the very voice of God, and that voice is being sounded through the Lord Jesus Christ. See, when we obey when we follow when we hear Him, when we just say, ‘Father, today, help me. Open my mind. Holy Spirit, train my heart, train my ears to hear Your voice train my heart. Father draw me in to where You are.’ Because as we do that, as we seek Him, listen - the immoral woman? She was looking to seduce unto death, but see the voice of the Lord, the commands of God are to give us life. God will tell you to go right, when if you went left, there was just gonna be a trap. God will tell you to go left, because if you went right, there was gonna be a swallowing up of the world. But God, He speaks and as those who heed and obey His voice, we live. We find life because to do the will of God, to hear His voice, to obey is better than food. It's better than anything the world can offer. See, the images that the world gets caught up into - the images of man and women and the body - see, we get caught up in the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Everlasting One. It says that His eyes are like flames of fire, His hair is white as wool. How beautiful the Lord Jesus Christ!

"I pray today...that you would no longer be enticed by the world, but drawn in by the precious Lord Jesus Christ - drawn to the Father."

So I ask again, what entices you this day? If you find that you've been enticed by the world I'm praying that we would turn and repent, and say, ‘Father I'm so sorry for being overtaken with my mind and my heart by this world. Father let me come back to You this day.’ May we follow His advice may we treasure His commands, may we obey His commands and live by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray today that the Word would bless you, and that you would no longer be enticed by the world, but drawn in by the precious Lord Jesus Christ - drawn to the Father. Amen.