The Critical Path Pt. 2

Good evening. Welcome to Voice in the Wilderness. I'm Don Noble,

a pure Heart Ministries, and I welcome you today with

exceedingly abundantly and overflowing joy. It is great to be

with you this evening, and I am continuing on the

same subject as last week, the critical Path. This is

part two, so let's get started. Paths are part of life.

Everyone gets to participate. No one is left out of

the game, so to speak. Even Jesus had a specific

path he took. We know that path to be the Cross,

and carrying the cross along the Via dela Rosa wasn't

a path he wanted to take, but he surrendered his

will in the garden of Gessemone to his father's will.

From the time Jesus was born, his parents raised him

on the righteous path, and as Jesus began to mature,

it was the voice of his heavenly father that began

to guide and direct all of his paths. You see,

parents have the greatest influence on what paths their children

will choose. When there is only one parent, ah, the

chances decrease, and when the children are abandoned and left

to the circumstances of survival, they often choose the wrong path,

which can lead them into further darkness and making very

bad choices. Now, if you're a parent of young children,

you are responsible to raise your children in the admonition

of the Lord.

Now that's.

Making that assumption that you're a Christian parent. If you are,

you're responsible for your children's spiritual upbringing. So many Christian

parents are negligent in this area, allowing sports and creative

endeavors and who knows what to be the number one

priority instead of being in the house.

Of the Lord.

The culture, this culture that we currently live in, it

sets up children to fail and parents give in to it.

If you're a grandparent, may I encourage you to help

your grandchildren with their spiritual journey, especially if there is

no input from the parents. Proverbs twenty two six says,

this train up a child in the way, or we

could say, in the path that he should go, and

when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Train up a child in the way he should go,

and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Listen to this scripture from the New Living Translation. It

says this, direct your children onto the right path, and

when they are older, they will not leave it. Now,

we always find exceptions, right, My earthly father was raised

with no spiritual upbringing from his parents, but the Baptist

church was close by and they offered free skating and

cookies and milk. At least that's what my father tells me.

And during the depression, the cookies in milk tempted him

and he was he wanted to roller skate. They offered skating,

So you know the cookies in milk. Think about it,

it's depression. There's nine children, so there's a lot of

mouths to feed, and so this was very tempting to him. Now,

the key was before the cookies and milk, they were

taught a spiritual lesson. And because of this church's influence,

my father decided he was going to raise his children

in church. And by gosh, I'm telling you, he kept

we missus Sunday. I got so many perfect attendances. So

we went to church every Sunday from at least what

I can remember, first grade on up. Out of eight

siblings that he had, he was the only one that

made that decision. Now, two other siblings raised their children

in church, but it was due to their wives influence.

One wife was Mormon and the other was Baptist. Doctor

Ben Carson, the pediatric neurosurgeon and later the Secretary of

Housing and Urban Development under President Trump was raised with

only his mother, but she made sure he was raised

with strong spiritual tenants that doctor Carson still holds today.

In First Samuel one nine through twenty four is the

story of Hannah. Hannah was married, and she was barren,

and she was at the tabernacle at Shiloh, and she

was praying quietly but sobbing, and pleading with God for

a child. Eli, the priest, thought she was drunk, and

he commented to her about, you know, you shouldn't be

intoxicated in the tabernacle, and of course she told him.

That she had not touched alcohol.

But she was desiring and you know, a child, and

was pleading with the Lord. And Eli said, well, may

God grant you that child. And indeed God granted her request,

and she named her son Samuel. She dedicated her son

to the service of the Lord because she was so

thankful that she had this child. Of course, Samuel. And

if you're familiar at all with the Old Testament, you

would know who Samuel was. He was eventually became a

prophet and in later he was a judge. Hannah and

her husband decided early on what the path of their

son would be. See, right from the get go, she

knows the minute she gets pregnant and it's going to

have this baby, what path Samuel's going to take. She's

going to dedicate him to the Lord. And he even

lives in the House of the Lord with the old

priest Eli. So there was no doubt about what path,

what destiny, what future there was going to be for Samuel.

It was set in stone, so to speak, by the parents,

and Samuel became an incredible prophet, very important in the

life of David. He actually was called upon to God

told him to anoint the next king, and it happened

to be David. So Samuel anointed David to be king.

Samuel was pretty cool guy.

I liked Samuel. Now, unfortunately, some Christian parents want their

children to be financially successful in life, you know, they

want them to be well known or famous. You know,

it's this culture that we live in, and instead of

their children being spiritually strong, so they push towards this

success of fame and fortune, and they sacrifice the spiritual

well being of their children.

That is.

Can I say that that's a grave mistake. It's a

really grave mistake because you're not raising your children in

the admonition of the Lord. That's what the scripture says

to do. Right. Parents of young children can influence the

future paths of their children by how they're schooled. So

your child can be homeschooled, charter schooled, public school, Christian

school right, lots of choices. Many years ago, now, many

years ago, I would have said that it was necessary.

Actually, many years.

Ago I would have said it was not necessary for

children to have Christian schooling, not necessarily necessary.

But now, oh now, not.

With teachers in public schools pushing materials with pictures of

sex acts in elementary school, as well as helping children

to transition to another sex and hiding it from the parents.

Oh no, no, no, no no, no. Public school is

out in my opinion, just my opinion, for Christian children.

It is.

Public school right now is so out of bounds. I mean,

if you're a Christian, you are a Christian parent, and

you put your child in public school, I don't know,

that's a scary, scary thought. I mean public schools are

so out of bounds today. So if you are a Christian,

please don't consider that option. And I know that not

all Christian parents can afford Christian schooling, but you can homeschool. Well,

maybe you have to work. Maybe both parents have to

work and they can't homeschool. You know, think about other

options like is there a sister or is there a

family member that could homeschool or you know, a lot

of Christian schools will work with the parents with their finances.

So don't like discard that because you think financially I

can't do that. You know, if you go to the

Lord and you sincerely want your children to be raised

up in the way of the Lord, the Lord will

help you find a way. I know that he will.

Now we have to remember, children initiate excuse me, Children

imitate what they see in here. So your lifestyle is

a Christian here's the question, what's your lifestyle like? Is

it nominal? Is it a lukewarm Christian lifestyle? Or are

you on fire for God? Jesus made it clear in

his message to the Laodicean Church Revelation chapter three, verses

fifteen and sixteen. Jesus said this. He said, I know

all the things that you do that you are neither

cold or hot.

I could wish you were cold or hot.

Then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot,

I will vomit you out of my mouth. That's pretty

strong language from Jesus, so it makes it really clear

he is not in favor of nominal Christians. He is

not in favor of lukewarm Christians. He wants you hot,

on fire for him, or just be cold. Now, that

statement in Revelation three is a strong indictment against a

nominal lukewarm Christian. And that is a dangerous lifestyle for

a person raising children. So if that's the category you

fall in, you're treading dangerous water. The formative years of

a child are so important, and how they are raised

will play significant role in the past they choose in life.

There are two stories of women in the Bible. Each

had to make a choice to make which path to take.

One chose the righteous path and one chose the wicked path.

In the Book of Ruth, we learn of.

A young pagan woman a Moabitis, and that's because she

was from the land of Moab.

She became a widow at.

A very young age, she decided to leave her hometown

in Moab and spend the rest of her days with

her mother in law, Naomi, living in Judah. And that

day she decided to stop following pagan gods. I want

you to listen to this portion of the story. I'm

reading out of the Book of Ruth, chapter one, verses

six through eighteen. Then she arose with her daughters in law,

she meaning Naomi. Then she arose with her daughters in

law that she might return from the country of Moab.

For she had heard in the country of Moab that

the Lord had visited his people by giving them bread. See,

there was a famine in Judah. So that's why they

took the whole family and went to Moab. Grass is

always greener verse seven. Therefore she went out from the

place where she was, and her two daughters in law

with her, and they went on the way to return

to the land of Judah. Now let me just say,

at this point, Naomi's husband dies and both sons die,

so she's a widow, and suddenly her daughter in laws

are widows. Okay, So Naomi said to her two daughter

daughters in law, go return each to her mother's house.

The Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt

with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant that

you may find rest each in the house of her husband.

So she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices

and wept, and they said to her, surely we will

return with you to your people. But Naomi said, turn back,

my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there

still sons in my womb that they may be your

husband's Turn back, my daughters, go for I am too

old to have a husband. If I should say I

have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and

should also bear sons, would you wait for them till

you were grown, till they were grown, would you restrain

yourselves from having husbands?

No, my daughters, for it greeves me.

Very much, for your sakes, that the hand of the

Lord has gone out against me. Then they raised up

their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother

in law. But Ruth clung to her, and she said, look,

your sister in law has gone back to her people

and to her gods. Return after your sister in law.

But Ruth said, entreat me not to leave you or

to turn back from following after you.

For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge,

I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there will I

be buried.

The Lord do so to me.

And more also, if anything but death parts you and me.

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her,

she stopped speaking to her. So Ruth made a decision.

She had a choice to take this path and go

back to where I grew up, to my hometown and

start a new life there, or do I go with

my mother in law and serve her God. And so

she made that decision. She was going with her mother

in law to serve Naomi's God. Now, eventually Ruth would

marry a godly man by the name of Boaz, and

her son would eventually make Ruth the grandmother of King

David and brought this Moabetize into the royal lineage of

Jesus Christ.

Now you talk.

About choosing the correct path, you talk about choosing the

righteous path. That one decision change the trajectory of her

life and her offspring. Just like I talked last week

about the decision I made, I left Morgantown.

I decided I'm going to nursing school.

And even when the call came that I could have

the job that I thought was my dream job, I said, no,

I'm staying here. I'm taking a new path. So, Ruth,

imagine this is this pagan woman. There's no way widowed

at a young age that she could have even a

imagine that she would have a book in the Bible

after her, and better yet, have a grandson that would

become the king of Israel. You see, there are great

rewards to choosing not just the right path, but the

righteous path. Now the story of the other woman. Ahab

had become king over Israel, and he reigned in Samaria

for twenty two years. So want you to listen to

First Kings sixteen, verses thirty.

Through thirty three.

Now, Ahab, the son of Omri, did evil in the

sight of the Lord more than all who were before him,

and it came to pass as though it had been

a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins

of Jereboam, the son of Nabut, that he took as

wife Jezebel, the daughter of eth Bail, king of the Sidonians,

and he went and served Bail and worshiped him. Then

he set up an altar for Bail in the Temple

of Bail, which he had built in Samaria, and Ahab

made a wooden image. And Ahab did more to provoke

the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the

kings of Israel who were before him. So we can

see quickly.

That marrying this.

We could call her non believer pagan woman. She already

had a direct influence on him. He's already worshiping the

pagan god of Bail. We see that the king of

Israel doesn't marry a woman of his faith and culture,

but a foreigner. And actually it was a political marriage.

An Ahab married a woman who worshiped pagan gods. Jezebel

had a very bad influence on Ahab. In First King's

Chapter twenty one, Jezebel, wanting to revenge her husband because

Nabeth wouldn't sell his inheritance a vineyard to the king,

she orchestrated his death by having the elders stone him

until he died. See what he did, See what she

did this. Naboth had a vineyard and he wouldn't sell

it to the king because inheritance was important back then.

That was his land, it was given to him. He

wasn't going to sell it for any amount of money. Ah,

But Jezebel orchestrated a little plot and a plan, and

she got him stone to death. Jezebel also challenged Elijah

the prophet and planned to have him killed. After Elijah

had eight hundred and fifty of Jezebel's prophets of Baal

and Ashtarith who ate at her table, he had them executed.

Elijah prophesied to her husband Ahab and said this that

the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.

So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to

Second Kings chapter nine, Jay who gets anointed king of Israel,

and Ahab is dead. Okay, so Jayhu is the new king,

and we're going to start here.

Verse thirty.

Now, Now, when Jaehu had come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard

of it, and she put pain on her eyes and

adorned her head and looked through a window. Then as

Jehu entered at the gate, she said, is it peace Zimri,

murderer of your master? And he looked up at the

window and said, who is on my side?

Who?

Now, that's Jehu asking the question, who is on my side?

So two or three eunuchs looked out at him. Then

he said, throw her down. So they threw Jezebel down,

and some of her blood spattered on the wall and

on the horses, and he trampled her underfoot.

And when he had gone in he ate and drank.

Then he said, go now see to this accursed woman

and bury her, for she was a king's daughter. So

they went to bury her, but they found no more

of her than the skull and the feet and the

palms of her hands. Therefore they came back and told him,

and he said, this is the word of the Lord,

which he spoke by his servant Elijah. The tishbite sang

on the plot of ground Jezreel. Dogs shall eat the

flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be

as refuse on the surface of the field in the

plot at Jezreel. So they shall not say, here lies Jezebel.

Ooh, ooh.

Let me tell you that was a wicked queen who

had a very wicked demise prophesied by Elijah. So We're

talking about two women that were on totally, totally opposite paths. Right,

one was on the righteous path and one chose to stay.

On the wicked path.

And you see the reward I said earlier, there is

a great reward for following a righteous path, a great reward,

but there's also an evil reward for following the evil path.

And you can see that Jezebel got her do I've

been talking this whole program about the critical path? Do

you realize that the path you choose can be a

choice leading to death like Jezebel, or it can be

a choice leading to life like Ruth. The question you

have to ask yourself is what path will I choose?

I pray that you choose the righteous path, for it

is the critical path. Amen, Well, this is Don Noble.

You can go to www dot pureheart dot today and

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think of this message. Down at pure heart dot today,

all lowercase letters, all one word down at pureheart dot today,

and you always know that I appreciate your prayers. I

truly do. I hope you're out there praying for me.

You could even jomp me a note and let me

know your praying for me. That would really make my day.

And of course I'm hoping that you would think about

supporting this ministry. You can in a check to Pure

Heart Ministries PO Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West, Virginia,

two six o six. Oh. That's Pure Heart Ministries, PO

Box eighty five, Valley Grove, West, Virginia, two six oh six. Oh.

I look forward to being with you again next week.

I'm going to be talking about the Critical Path and

probably for the next several weeks, so tune in next week.

I look forward to being with you. This is Don

Nobles saying, shilloam shalloam, Peace be unto you.