Dependence Day | Proverbs 3:5–6

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Amen. You may be seated. Well, good morning. Welcome to church. Glad you're here. My name's Andrew. I'm one of the pastors here at Life. And it's good to be back. Last couple weeks have been away with my family and had some rest and thankful for that. Thankful for Chuck and Chris filling in and uh taking care of the teaching of the word. But good to be back. Grateful for the opportunity. Whenever I'm away, uh, I'm not, this isn't a shade on any church I visit, but I'm just more grateful for the church that I get to be a part of. And I'm grateful for you, grateful for your faithfulness and what you're doing here and the opportunity we have to worship together. So it's good to see you. Uh thankful again to be back. Grab your Bible. Let's get together in Proverbs chapter 3. Proverbs 3. Obviously, we want you to look on the word yourself. Uh so we hope you bring your Bible. This is an important part of who we are. Convictionally, we are a people who believe God's word is the final authority for all that we do. And so we want to look to it regularly and apply it to our lives. If you don't have a Bible, we give them away for free out at the Connection Center. We want you to grab one and on your way out, let them know you don't have a Bible, we'll give it to you. You just have to bring it back next week when you come again. And uh that way uh we can keep uh keep on uh learning and growing together. Proverbs chapter three. We're in a series throughout the summer uh through the book of Proverbs, walking in wisdom is what we called it. Uh the wisdom uh literature uh we considered several weeks ago now is uh full of truths to uh be applied to our lives, not necessarily promises, but things that are mostly true. Like this is the this is mostly true. If you do this, this is probably what's gonna happen. Now, are there exceptions to that? There might be, but for the most part, this is the wisdom of of Solomon. This is the wisdom literature, this is uh the inspiration of the Spirit, uh moving moving Solomon to write these things. And so we're gonna learn from them and apply them to different areas of our lives, and we're gonna consider Proverbs 3. But again, just uh if you are guests with us, thankful that you're here. Uh, we would love to know you if you want to be known and serve you any way that we can. Proverbs 3, we'll read it here in just a second. But 250 years ago, we watched uh we watched the reminder of that last night, every Saturday night, uh hotels on the strip are setting off fireworks, and we can see the strat and the fountain blue from our backyard, and we heard we heard bombs going off, and we forgot that it was Saturday night at 8 o'clock, and so we walked outside and there was a fireworks show. It felt like specifically for us. This is the reminder that 250 years ago, on July 4th, 1776, the Continental Congress met together and passed what John Adams called the most important resolution ever taken in America. It was, of course, we know the Declaration of Independence. And the key statement in the document, if you're an American and you appreciate what God has done and what just the history is, this statement resonates with you. Resolved that these United colonies are and of right ought to be free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, which is why I'm grateful England didn't win the World Cup on U.S. soil. That would have been weird. 250 years after we said that, but anyways, that we're good. That all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved. That was the birth of a new independent nation. No matter what you think about it now, no matter what the media has done for you to think whatever you want to think, there is a sense of gratitude that we have uh for what really was a declaration of war. The Declaration of Independence formed the United States of America. And that day has been marked ever since then as the birth of our country. Again, we celebrate it every year uh by the more popular name, the 4th of July, but we know its official name is Independence Day. And independence is deeply embedded in the American spirit. We admire the person who can handle life without help. They're independents, they're just an independent man or independent woman. This is the self-made man, the strong woman, the person who says, I've got this. And we are in a culture, we have a sense in our country where we appreciate that. And from our earliest years, we are taught to stand on our own two feet, make our own decisions, and create our own future. We resonate well with the declaration of independence. But Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 and 6 calls the people of God in an opposite direction. Not a declaration of independence, but what we're gonna read today is what I'm gonna call a declaration of dependence. The Christian life begins when we admit, when we are honest enough to admit that we cannot save ourselves. It continues as we learn that we cannot direct ourselves. Jesus said it right, apart from me, you can do nothing. Yet one of the hardest lessons for us to learn is the dependence upon God is not merely the beginning point of the Christian life. It is how we live every day of the Christian life. And so, Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, this declaration of dependence is not simply a comforting promise for those trying to choose which college to go to, or which job to accept, or which city to move to or who to marry. It's not, we just pull this out of our pocket when it's time to make a big decision and say, Well, trust in the Lord, right? It says it here. No, this is the declaration of dependence that is uh to saturate and permeate every area of our life. And so this describes an entire way of life. It tells us where our confidence must rest, what we must reject, how comprehensively we must walk with God and know him and what God promises to do for those who depend upon him. So let's read it. Proverbs chapter three. Familiar verse. You probably learned it for years. You probably have it on a coffee mug or a picture frame on your wall, but this needs to come to bear on us in a fresh, life-changing way. So let's consider it. Proverbs chapter one. Now, what's gonna be on the screen is, I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter three. What's gonna be on the screen is verses five and six, but I'm gonna begin in verse one. So I just want to read this. If you have your Bible open, you'll see it, and then verses five and six will be on the screen. Here's what he says My son. I love that. I feel that. I feel like either Solomon is sitting here remembering his father David, what he said to him, or maybe he is writing and maybe more so speaking to Rehoboam, his son. He's pleading with him. He's he's trying to capture the heart of his son, and he's trying to encourage him in the wisdom that God has given to him. And he says, My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and peace, they will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. I've given you good advice, son. I've encouraged you up to this point. I'm gonna give you more good advice. Keep them in a very forefront place of your life, around your neck, and at the forefront of your life. Look to them, be guided by them, and then he gives us the text for today, which is this. And just think of a son sitting there before his dad, his dad, tear in his eye, ache in his heart, intensity in his voice, and he says to him, Son, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Trust in the Lord. So again, the father, David, pleading with his son Solomon, Solomon the Father pleading with his son Rehoboam, follow the ways of the Lord, take the advice I'm giving to you. But maybe even more than all of that, this could be the Father of in heaven talking to his sons and daughters, pleading with us, reminding us, encouraging us, giving us great instruction on what it really means to trust the Lord. So the Father is trying to be give to us and download to us this truth. And here's the big idea that I want to sit over the top of this. Those who walk in wisdom trust the Lord in all seasons of life. They trust him. The wisest thing a person can do, the wisest thing a person can learn to do is to trust the Lord in this way. To truly trust the Lord with everything, above everything, in everything, and through everything. This is what the the saw uh the proverb, the wisdom of Solomon, this is what the Spirit of God is trying to get to us. Trust him. Now, before we just hurry past this, because this is a familiar uh sign on the side of the road that we pass every day or see regularly, let's pull each piece of this out of its uh case here. Let's unpack it together and let's study it so that we can know what it means to walk in this kind of wisdom. So, what is trusting the Lord? What is walking in wisdom and trusting the Lord in every season look like? So there's four truths here. There's gonna be three commands and one promise. So we're gonna see the three commands, then we're gonna talk about the one promise, and they're all gonna be packaged uh in this way. So we'll say it this way those who walk in wisdom, number one from verse five, is they trust the Lord completely. Those who walk in wisdom, trust the Lord completely. There it is in verse five, laying right there on the pages for us. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Here's something cool. The Hebrew word translated trust carries the idea of placing your full weight upon something and finding in it confidence and security. That's what God is calling on us to. It's the picture of resting your entire weight of your life and of your mind and of your ways upon the Lord. So you're exercising trust right now. I was watching, I was kind of standing up here in the weird, creepy section in the dark area, watching people walk in and just kind of watching if people were, and I did this on purpose because I wanted to see. Does anybody walk into this room and shake the chair before you sit in it? Do you inspect it? Maybe, maybe a history of trust is there, but maybe you're a guest here and you just assume the church is not going to let their chairs deteriorate. And so you pulled the seat down and you plopped your body full weight and all into that chair. What you are doing is you are trusting in that and taking a nap, finding security and confidence in it. That's what you do when you lay in your bed. That's what you do when you step off the jetway onto the plane. You're stepping off the jetway, solid ground, and you're stepping into a plane, and that plane begins to move. You're not uh uh holding up some of your weight while on the plane, fearful that the plane can't hold you, you're fully trusting in it. That's what we're talking about here, and then finding in it peace and security. The idea and meaning of trusting the Lord and finding peace and security in him is found all over the Bible. In fact, I'm gonna throw some of these on the screen for you to just consider. Leviticus chapter 25, the Lord says this in verse 18 and 19. Therefore, you shall do my statutes and keep my rules and perform them, and then you will dwell in the land securely. That's the same idea. You will you will have peace and confidence and security by trusting in me and my ways. Verse 19, the land will yield its fruit and you will eat your fill and dwell in it securely. So trusting in the Lord is not just I trust that he's gonna tell me the truth. Trusting in the Lord has to do more than just believing, it has to do with finding confidence and security and comfort by casting your entire weight upon him and his power. Job chapter 11, verse 18. Here's a promise Job was quoted or was quoted in Job. He says, And you will feel secure because there's hope. You will look around and take your rest in security. You see the idea. More than just I believe it and I trust it, it's finding rest and confidence and security by knowing that his way is better and his will is better and his power is significant. Psalm verse 4, Psalm 4, verse 8 says it this way In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for you, O Lord, you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. You get the picture. There's security, there's safety, there's peace, there's confidence. I love what Isaiah 26, verse 3 and 4 says. He says it this way You, God, keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. He trusts in you, and what does he find? Perfect peace. He finds security and comfort and rest. So verse 4, he says, Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. You find peace and security in him. Ezekiel 28, 26 says, They shall dwell securely in it, and they shall build houses and plant vineyards. What's the idea there? That they will they will live in security in the land and in the place where God has called them when they all follow and obey his lead. They will find security, they will find peace, they will find freedom from anxiety. So the word uh used is a feeling, it's a sense of peacefulness and security and ease and comfort, sometimes even in the most dire of circumstances. In fact, consider what the psalmist says in Psalm 27, verse 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. The context there is because I trust in the Lord. I find security and confidence in the Lord. Not in circumstances, not in the peace around me. No, there might be a war, uh, uh, an army, there might be an enemy encamped outside my gate, but I find confidence and uh and freedom from anxiety because I trust in the Lord. And listen, God has sought to build this trust and security and confidence in the hearts of his children from the beginning of redemptive history. This has been his plan. So much of what God does in the Bible for his people, and then as we read about it, what he's doing for us is to work in us the faith and this sense of trust in him. This is what he's doing for you. In fact, think about how he wants us to see him. In redemptive history, we find that first he desires his children to trust him as God their savior. When he started to move Israel, the nation of Israel, out of Egypt and out of bondage, he used mighty power and miracles to work ten plagues on the most powerful nation on earth. That was the nation of Egypt. And he displays his power and his might and he flexes his mighty muscles, and he was teaching them with his power so that his people would trust in him with all of their hearts. It was so that they would be at peace and in confidence in his mighty power. And then they they deliver from from uh Egypt, they're running from Pharaoh and his army, and they come up to the Red Sea. You remember the story? And they're standing at the Red Sea, and they can't, but the Bible says that they can't go around it either way, and and the waters in front of them, they can't go through it. And Pharaoh and his army are pressing down on them, and so then God stands in between them in a cloud and pillar of fire, and he blocks them, and then he parts the Red Sea, they walk through the Red Sea on dry ground. Pharaoh and his army try to chase them, and the water crashes around them. God was doing something in that to teach them to trust him because he is mighty and he is powerful. And then I love this. I say all that to get to Exodus 14, verse 31. Notice what it says Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians. So the people feared the Lord and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses. You know what that means? It means that God was at work to teach his people through the powerful display of his miraculous works that God can be trusted. And when they trust him, even when an enemy is bearing down on them, that they can live in security and in confidence. He is their savior. But what God desired for his children wasn't just there, he later wanted them to also trust him as God their provider. Soon after they had crossed the Red Sea, they were in the desert on the other side. More than two million people, no food, no drink. And God began to teach them to trust him as their provider, and he brought them food and he brought them water in miraculous ways. Every morning God provided food to eat. Every morning. They could gather as much as they could eat for that day, but they could not stockpile it as a substitute for tomorrow's provision. They had to depend on God tomorrow, so they gathered enough for the day, and day after day God was teaching them again and again and again. I am your provider, you can trust me. Later, Moses recounted this in Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. Notice what he says. And he humbled you, and he let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know. This was good manna. This is manna from heaven, sometimes mistaken for Chick-fil-A. That's what this is, right? Just piles of chicken nuggets or something falling down. And here's why that he did this, that basically you've never tasted before. Food that your fathers never tasted before. What is this? Who made this? Where'd this come from? God provided day after day after day that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. What is he saying there? He's saying God wanted to teach you something in the middle of the desert with two million mouths to feed, and no food, and no drink, and no ovens, and no stoves, and no microwaves, that every day I'm gonna provide for you so that you can know man lives dependent upon God. God often teaches us trust in the same way, doesn't he? Every trial becomes a new opportunity to learn that he is sufficient. We tend to think trust isn't is is necessary only when something goes wrong. Well, something's going wrong, I just need to trust him. Scripture reminds us, trust in the Lord with all your heart. And the heart in Proverbs, as we learned last week, is the pro is the control center of the whole person. It's our mind, our desires, our affections, our choices, our will. So to trust God with your whole heart means that there is no corner of life withheld from him and no competing source of ultimate confidence. We often want to trust in the Lord plus something else. I'm gonna trust the Lord and my savings account. Trusting the Lord plus my education. I'm trusting the Lord and the doctor. Trusting the Lord and my strength. I'm trusting the Lord and my ability to control the outcome. We thank God for those gifts, and we should thank God for those gifts, and we should use those wisely, but none of them bear the weight of our ultimate confidence. To trust God with all your heart does not mean that you will never have questions. It does mean you will never feel afraid. It means in the middle of your questions and fears, you continue to rest your life upon Him. Some of you are walking through circumstances that you cannot control. You're worried about your health, you're worried about your family, you're worried about a loved one, something that just feels so out of control. You're worried about your future. What am I gonna do? Where am I gonna go? How am I gonna make it happen? What's gonna happen? Where am I gonna live? How am I gonna work? Or you're worried about your finances or a decision that you must make. And the question is not merely how will this work out? The deeper question is, will I trust the Lord while I am in this pattern of waiting? That's what he's calling us to do. So trust is not confidence that God will do exactly what I want. Trust is confidence that God is good, he is wise, he is powerful, and he is faithful, whatever he chooses to do, and I'm throwing my full weight, the full weight of my life on him. And when I'm doing that, I am finding security and peace and rest and confidence in him in that place because I know he's capable of holding my life up. God has never failed anyone who's ever trusted in him fully, and your story won't be the first one. So those who walk in wisdom, those who walk in wisdom and trust the Lord, they trust the Lord completely. The second command that he gives us in the text is this those who walk in wisdom reject self-reliance humbly. That's command number two. So first we trust him. That's first command. This is the imperative sentence. The grammar is important. Verse 5a trust in the Lord with all your heart, every part of you. And verse 5, second part, do not lean on your own understanding. So if trust is the foundation of wisdom, then self reliance. Is its greatest enemy. This verse is a warning for us of the danger of self-reliance. So remember, God was teaching his children, the Israelites, and all throughout redemptive history, his children, brothers and sisters alike, to learn these things. First, he taught them, trust me, I'm gonna display the strength of my might and the power of my miracles so that you will trust me. And then he also brought them to places where they could learn to reject self-reliance. And so think about this. Remember when they were wandering, they're now past the Red Sea, they're nearing the promised land. Moses sent over those twelve spies. There's a song about that you may have learned in Sunday school as a kid. I'm not gonna sing it for you, but you know it's there. They spied out the land to see what kind of land it was and what the people were like and all of that. The 12 spies came back with a report that it's a good land, but we're in trouble. There are these warriors over there. It's a warrior race. They're the Anichites, and they're huge. They're huge. Sorry, I had to do that. They're huge. Bulging muscles, like me, military prowess. They even have beards now. They're crazy, right? They're super big, strong Anics. They're the Anakites. And they came back and they brought a report. Look at this in Numbers 13. So they brought to the people of Israel a bad report of the land that they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone to spy it out is a land that devours its inhabitants. All the people that we saw in it are of great height. And there we saw the Nephilim, the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim. We seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them. It's not bolstering any confidence right there, right? Israel should have been quiet though, shouldn't they have? This was the promised land, from God promised. They should have been at ease, at peace, in confidence, like a young boy in his father's shoulders, trusting confidently in the power of God the Father. But instead they looked at those walled cities and they looked at those mighty warriors and they looked within and they said, Look at them and look at us, we can't do this. They sought trust in themselves and they didn't think they had enough power. They didn't think they had enough ability, so they turned away from the Lord's plan. They turned away from trusting in the Lord's power and strength. They sought to trust in themselves. And years later, Moses looked back on this and wrote about this in Deuteronomy chapter one. Notice what he says in verse 29. Then I said to you, so he's recounting, he's remembering, do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God goes before you, will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt. Remember Egypt, we just talked about that. Ten plagues, Red Sea, parting, drowning Pharaoh's armies, he will do the same for you there. Verse 31, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place. Yet, in spite of this word, you did not believe the Lord your God, who went before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents in fire by night and in the cloud by day to show you by what way you should go. See what he's doing? He's saying basically, you didn't trust him. You leaned on your own understanding. All throughout the history of the Old Testament, with God's people, this was the key issue. Again and again and again, as recorded in Samuel and Kings and Chronicles, the people of God were brought into tough circumstances, and their response was frequently represented by the king. They looked to their king and how he would respond. What would they do? What would the king do? Would he send out human allies or four human allies? Will he go out for Assyria? Will he reach out for Egypt? Would he send money by envoys to try to get an ally when his army with this army was invading? Will he kind of start scheming and thinking, I can't fight? And so so we've got to figure something out. Or will he act like Jehoshaphat or Hezekiah, who would just simply kneel before God and say, Save us, O Lord. We can do nothing against this army. Again and again it was the same lesson. Will you trust me? Or will you lean on your own resources? That's an interesting word, lean. Gives us a physical picture. It's kind of the idea of putting your entire weight on a stick or a walking stick or a cane. And if the stick is strong, it supports you, but if it is cracked, it collapses beneath you. And think about this. One more illustration here. There's an account in Isaiah 36, in which through the mouth of an Assyrian field commander, there came a challenge to Hezekiah, the king. Hezekiah isn't surrendering to the Assyrian army, and the Assyrians are surprised. And all of Judah had been destroyed by the invading Assyrians. The Assyrians had never lost a battle, and they were mystified that this king and his nation are not going to surrender to us. And so the field commander comes to talk to King Hezekiah and he says, Tell Hezekiah this. Say to Hezekiah, thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, on what do you rest this trust of yours? What is the base of your confidence? What is the base of your peace in the midst of circumstance? I do not understand it. And then he guessed in Isaiah 36, 6. It's on the screen. Look at this. Here's what the the the commander says Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, the broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it, such as Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to all who trust in him. Get the picture here? The picture here is this king assumed that Hezekiah was leaning on something that was going to fail him, that was going to break under the weight of his dependence, and the the splinters of the broken staff were going to pierce his hand, and he was going to be left worse off than he was before he leaned on it. So that just begs the question. What are we leaning on during times of trial or questions? And what the picture we get from Scripture is that if it's anything but the Lord, it will become like the splintered reed of a staff, which splinters and pierces your hand as you put your weight onto it. Here's what Scripture teaches us again and again and again that when we place the weight of our confidence, hoping to find security and rest in anything other than the Lord, we will be disappointed by it. It will fail us every time. Any idol, any dependent place will fail you. So ask just ask ourselves, you know, of course, we're in church, we're gonna say, well, I trust the Lord, yes. But but really let's let's just do some some work and think. What am I trusting in? What am I leaning on? Am I leaning on money? Some lean on money. Proverbs 18, 11 warns us though a rich man's wealth is his strong city and like a high wall in his imagination. Some lean on intelligence, you you skeptics in the room who question and doubt and wonder, right? We're there. I'm with you. We assume that if we can analyze the situation carefully enough, if we can make sense of it all, we can control it. We're smart, we're intelligent. I'm dependent upon my ability to reason through this and use my brain. Some lean on experience. We say, I've been through this before, I know what to do. Some lean on relationships or reputation or physical strength or political power or past spiritual successes. Others lean on their own goodness and assume that they are righteous enough to stand before God. Adam Clark said it well. He said, It is on God, not on thyself, that thou art commanded to depend. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. Self-sufficiency and self-dependence have been the ruin of mankind ever since the fall of Adam. The grand sin of the human race is their continual endeavor to live independently of God. So, what he's telling us here is he's commanding us those who walk wisely, they trust the Lord completely and they reject the self-reliance humbly. And he calls this don't lean on your own understanding. That's interesting. Let's just be clear here. This verse is not condemning thinking. You should think. This is a book written to give wisdom and knowledge and discretion and understanding. God created your mind. He commands you to use your mind. We may say this to our kids often. Use your mind, use your brain. Is your brain fully formed yet? Think about this. I may have just confessed some sins in my life as a father, but this is what we do. We want them to use their brain, use their mind. This is what God wants this. He repeatedly calls us. God created the mind and intellect to be our guide. However, through the fall and the corruption from sin, the mind has been made into a very poor guide. So the problem is not using your understanding, the problem is leaning on your understanding, treating your limited perspective as if it were the final authority. There's a difference. Using your understanding is wisdom. Leaning on your understanding is self-reliance. Submitting your understanding to God is faith. Our understanding is limited. We know that, right? Job said it, for we are but of yesterday and know nothing. Like our life is as good as it's yesterday. We see one moment, God sees the entire story. We see the immediate circumstance, God sees how every detail fits into his eternal purposes. We judge by appearances, God knows the heart, and our understanding is limited and affected by sin. There is a way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are or is the way to death. Something can feel reasonable, appear harmless, and even be affirmed by culture and still lead us away from God. This becomes especially important, this understanding and trusting in our own understanding when God's word doesn't make sense to us. There's moments when Scripture challenges our instincts, God commands may feel restrictive, his timing may seem slow, his providence may seem confusing, his ways may be yyond our ability to trace and see. And at that moment we face a decision. Will I submit my understanding to the word of God or will I submit the word of God to my understanding? You don't run Scripture through the filter of your understanding. You run your understanding through the filter of Scripture. No pastor said years ago, if the Word of God is rubbing the cat the wrong way, then turn the cat around, right? Let's just change the way we think about this. Unbelief says, if I can't understand it, I will not believe it. Faith says, because God has spoken, I will trust him even when I cannot fully comprehend it. This is trusting the fact that he knows. In fact, Paul said it this way in Romans chapter 11, verse 33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? Who gives counsel to the Lord? He knows. We are of yesterday and know nothing. His knowledge is unsearchable, and nobody counsels him. Yet sometimes we stand before him with our thumble full of knowledge and say, God, I think you got this wrong. Right? God, I see a pixel, one pixel on this massive LED screen, and I think from the pixel that I see here, you got the whole story wrong. And he stands in his omnipotence and omniscience and tells us, trust me. Andrew, trust me. There'll be times when I say, I don't understand why God allowed this. Or I don't understand why this prayer has not been answered the way I hoped it was. I've prayed for that person for years, I've prayed for their victory for years, I've prayed for their salvation for years. I just don't understand why this door closed. I don't understand why I can't move there or do that or get that job or have this thing. And I just don't understand. I don't understand why obedience is so painful at times. Proverbs 3.5 does not require you to pretend that you understand. That's the beauty of scripture. I'm not calling on you just to act like you understand. No. Proverbs 3.5 calls you to trust the Lord when you don't understand. Don't lean on your own understanding. The longer we follow Christ, the more subtle self-reliance can become. And I think what Proverbs is telling us to do is to not lean on the weak staff of your own understanding because it will buckle under your weight and splinter you. So here's what the wise do. The wise say, I trust you with all my heart. I'm going to find safety and security in you. And I'm going to do that by not leaning on my own understanding because that's going to fail me every time I do. I'm going to learn what you've been trying to teach your people throughout redemptive history that you are a place where my trust can rest and my understanding submits to. And there's a third thing I want you to see. Those who walk in wisdom, this is interesting. They know the Lord continually. This is command number three. Verse 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him. So first, again, notice the comprehensive language, right? All your heart and all your ways. Comprehensive, everything. Exhaustive, all every part of your life. God is not asking for a part-time trust or an occasional recognition. He claims the whole heart and every road. Now the word ways in verse 6 refers to the paths and patterns of your everyday life. Not just major decisions, but every day. How you conduct yourself at work, how you spend your money, how you treat your body, how you respond to criticism, what you watch, and how you treat strangers and what you do when no one else is watching. And we often acknowledge God at the major crossroads. Alright, I'm at a major crossroad. Pick up the phone, let's call him. Let's acknowledge him. Give him a look. What do you think over there? Up there. What should I do? That's how we look at this, right? And acknowledge is kind of a word. And I actually think it's a it's a weak word for this translation. Because I think it just has this idea of I'm walking through life, I come to a crossroads, I find him. What do you think? Go here or there? Okay, good. I'm going there. It's a bigger word than that. In fact, the Hebrew word translated acknowledge is the word for know him. Derek Kidner said this is more than just an acknowledgement. This is a fellowship with. This is a relationship with. It's recognizing his authority, it's taking cues from his directives, yes, but it's deepler than merely admitting that he is present. It speaks of living in a growing personal covenant relationship with him. To know him. So so rather than say, in all your ways, acknowledge him, I think it might be better to understand it this way in all your ways, know him. In all your ways, live in fellowship with him. In all your ways, make sure that your covenant relationship with him is nurtured and it is informing everywhere you go. So it's more than just I give him a nod, he points where I go. It's a fellowship that's ongoing with him in all of my ways. Now, listen, what when you know somebody, you trust them differently, don't you? Sometimes my wife will come to me and she'll say, Hey, will you do me a favor? And I don't say yes. I don't say yes. Right? I she knows this. I say, What is it?

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Right?

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Because I got I've got to know what it is before I agree to this. Now, our history is long enough, and I know she loves me and I love her, and I completely trust her so that if she came to me and said, Will you do me a favor and I do my normal thing of what is it before I say yes, and she says, You're just gonna have to trust me on this one, I would do it. I would do it. Now, I don't think it would burn me. I hope it wouldn't. I'm promise it, confident it wouldn't. But but it's like this have you ever had somebody say this to you? Close your eyes and open your mouth. Listen, I love my wife, but if she says that to me, there is no way I'm doing that. There's no way. But listen, if you are foolish enough to do something like that, I'm gonna do it for you later. I got something for you, I wanted you to try. Uh but they say, close your eyes, open your mouth, and if you do that, that is an indicator that you trust that person because you know that person. Could you imagine walking up to a person on the strip, you're out in front of the Bellagio, and somebody says, close your eyes and open your mouth. First of all, never do anything like that. In fact, keep all closed wounds and open mouth closed in front of the Bellagio. You never know what's gonna be picked up down there. But here's the reality: what you know about somebody affects how you trust that somebody, right? In fact, one man said this way: our trust in God grows as we learn more and more about him. The more we know God, the closer we draw to him, and the easier it becomes to commit our ways to him. Trusting God cannot be separated from intimacy with God. These three, trusting him, leaning wholly, and knowing him intimately are the mechanics of a life that is totally committed to him. We often want guidance though. Well, if I acknowledge him, he'll guide me. And really, what I want from God is like I want my GPS system. I don't want a relationship with the woman on my GPS system. I just want her to tell me where to go and what the best route to take is. And that's sometimes how we look at God and his ways. God, I just want to acknowledge you. Turn right, okay, cool. In 300 feet, turn right. No, I want to know him, I want to live for him, I want to live in fellowship with him and relationship with him and intimacy with him. I want to speak with him and him speak to me. I'm not just coming to him in prayer because I'm hoping he gives me a right turn or a left turn. I'm coming to him in prayer because I want to know him and live in fellowship with him. And as I'm journeying with him, he's just leading me, and I don't even know which way we took because I'm just following his lead because I'm walking in step with him. In fact, Jesus said it this way: that this is the pinnacle of eternal life. This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. What's eternal life? What's the peak of the Christian journey to have guidance so I know which job to take and where to invest my money? No, that I may know Him. In fact, Philippians 3:8, Paul said, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. Paul's controlling desire was not merely, I want to know what happens next, and I want you to tell me what turn to take. It was, I want to know Christ. Knowing the Lord and trusting the Lord go hand in hand. That changes the way we view our circumstances. And so what we say, instead of, I just want to tell you to tell me what to do, we say something like this: In success, I want to know Christ as the giver of every good gift. In suffering, I want to know Christ as my comforter and sustainer. In uncertainty, I want to know Christ as my shepherd. In failure, I want to know Christ as my advocate and restorer. In temptation, I want to know Christ is better than anything sin promises. And in weakness, I want to know the sufficiency of his grace. I want to know him more than the directions that he's giving me to walk. This means no part of our life is spiritually insignificant, and every road becomes a place to know God. Your workplace, your parenting, your singleness, your suffering. So instead of asking only, God, how do I get out of this? Perhaps we should also ask, God, what do you want me to know about you in this? Instead of asking which decision will make my life easiest, ask which path will help me honor Christ more faithfully. Instead of asking God to endorse the plans that we have already made, we open our hands and say, Lord, every part of this belongs to you. Show me what faithfulness looks like here. So it's to know him. It's to know him more personally and to know him continually. That's what it means to walk in the wisdom and trusting of the Lord. And last one, shortly, and we're done, is tight in the bin part of verse six. Those who walk in wisdom follow the Lord confidently. The three promises trust in the Lord. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways know him. And here's the conditional promise, and he will make straight your paths. After the three commands comes the promise. The grammar is important here. The promise is connected to the posture described in the commands. As we trust the Lord, we refuse self-reliance and know him in all our ways. God promises to direct our paths. The words paths here, we can summarize what it is. It's the course and directions of our lives. And make straight carries the idea of making it level, clearing the way, getting obstacles out of the way, removing the rocks and the boulders and the trees. In the Old Testament times, roads were rough at best and dangerous at worst. Travel was exhausting and perilous. And so when a king took a journey, some of the servants Would go ahead of his caravan and they would smooth the rough places, they would remove the obstacles in the road, and they would make his path straight to get to where he needed to go. This does not mean, by the way, that God promises to make every path easy. A straight path may still lead uphill. It may pass through a wilderness. It may involve grief and sacrifice and waiting and unanswered questions. I mean, think about Joseph. Joseph's path went through a pit and a prison, if you remember in Genesis. The nation of Israel's path to the promised land went through a wilderness. Paul's path of obedience included beatings and imprisonments and shipwrecks. Jesus' path to the resurrection and glory passed through the crucifixion. So a difficult path is not necessarily a misdirected path. God does not promise painless roads, but he promises faithful direction. We may not always understand the route, we may not always understand what he's leading us to, but we can trust the one directing it, not just because we take our cues from him, but because we are walking in step with him. God makes our ways straight. And he directs us toward the life that he has prepared for us. That's the promise here. So the promise of verse 6 is not that God will give us a complete roadmap. It's that he will be our faithful God. Trust in the Lord. Throw the full weight of your life upon him and find rest and security. Do not lean on your own understanding, because anything other than the Lord will splinter under the weight of your trust and in all your ways know him and walk in fellowship with him. So let's pull this together. To those of you who don't know Christ, your greatest need in life is not guidance. It's not a spiritual GPS system about your career or about who to marry. Your greatest need is reconciliation with God. So what are you trusting to make you right with God? Are you leaning on your morality? Are you trusting in your religious background? Are you trusting in your baptism or something that you went through as a child? Are you trusting in your good intentions or the idea that your good deeds will one day outweigh your bad ideas? Scripture says, none is righteous, know not one. No amount of self-improvement can remove our guilt before a heavenly holy God. So do not lean on your own understanding of God or your own understanding of sin or of judgment or of salvation. Trust and submit to Him, and He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. That's Jesus. So the way towards salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. And know this that Jesus lived the righteous life that you and I have failed to live. He died under the judgment your sin deserves, and he rose in victory. Turned from your sin, placed the full weight of your soul upon Christ, and he will save everyone who comes to him in faith. Trust in the Lord, don't lean on your own understanding. To the Christian who's experiencing success, when life is going well, enjoy God's gifts and give him thanks, but do not begin trusting in the gifts. Do not trust in your recent successes in business and ministry. Do not trust the strength of your family or your growing biblical knowledge or your spiritual track record. Every good gift comes from God, and circumstances can change quickly. Success may be a greater test of trust than suffering because it allows us to imagine that we are doing fine without God. So being a mature follower of Christ, bring Christ into the private rooms of your successful life. Ask, is my soul healthy? Am I still praying? Am I still teachable? Am I still reading? Am I still fighting sin? Am I using what God has given me for his kingdom? That's my challenge to you. Trust him. To the Christian walking through uncertainty. You may be looking for work, facing medical diagnosis, wondering how you will provide, or waiting for an answer that has not come on where to move or what decision to make. Trusting God does not mean passivity. Prepare the resume, make the phone call, seek counsel, visit the doctor, build the budget, take the wise and responsible next steps, but do not place your ultimate confidence in any of them. Pray as though everything depends upon God because it does. Trust him with the full weight of your life. Work faithfully because obedience is one of the means that God uses to direct your path, yes? And when a door closes, do not conclude that God has abandoned you. Seek to know Christ in the disappointments and the frustrations of life. And he will make straight your paths. And let me say something to parents and students that are entering a new season, and this might just be for me because I'm entering a new season as a parent. But I think parents quickly discover how little control you actually possess. Parents, you can teach and guide and correct and pray and model faithfulness, but you cannot control every decision or guarantee every outcome. Trust your children to the Lord. Trust your young children to the Lord, the one who loves them more perfectly than you ever can. Trust him there and say, Lord, I'm trying my best here, but I'm gonna trust the full weight of my parenting to you because I'm pretty bad at this. I fail way more than I succeed. Students entering a new season of life, you're gonna face choices about identity and friendship and calling in the future. Do not build your life merely around what promises the greatest status or comfort or salary or best experience. Ask, how can I know Christ? How can I honor Christ? How can I make Christ known along this road? In every season, the call is the same. Trust the Lord completely. Reject self-reliance humbly. Know the Lord continually in every step and follow the Lord confidently. Amen? All right. The big idea: those who walk in wisdom, trust the Lord in all seasons of life. Pray with me if you would. Let's ask the Lord's help here. Well, Father, thank you for giving us this text. I've read it so many times that I feel like it's one of those road signs that you just see again and again and again and just kind of forget it's there. I don't want that to be my life. I'm a self-reliant man. Evidenced by so many areas of my life. I think we are probably a room full of self-reliant people. I'm thankful that you remind us again to trust you. The full weight of our life will find safety and security in you. Help us with that. Lord, I pray that you would teach us what it means to not lean on our own understanding. That you'd help us know what it means to know you in every way. That we would experience the incredible promise of you making straight our paths. Lord, there's probably in the room like this plenty of things that we all are needing to just hand back over to you. I think of what Peter said, cast our cares upon him, for he cares for us. I think of what Paul said in Philippians said, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and supplication, make your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God that passes understanding will keep your hearts and minds. That kind of confidence and rest is what you want for us, which is such a grace. And so often we go to leaning back on broken reeds and staffs and our own understanding, faulty as it is. So help us to trust you. Help us to lean again back onto you, confident that you have the power and ability to hold us. And where somebody's trusting in themselves to get them into a right relationship with you, I pray that they would repent and that they would trust Jesus Christ as their Savior today. Show them that they have been trusting in a broken source to find eternal life, and it can only be found in the way, the truth, and the life who is Jesus Christ. Thank you for this truth from Proverbs in Jesus' name.