Trust, Don’t Lean
Prov 3:1 - 8, Matt 22:37-40, Gal 5:17
September 3, 2002
I. Last week I talked about the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and I ended up with a passage of scripture that needs more explanation.
A. But first I want to read you a research report done by Barna Research.
B. Although there are fewer evangelicals than there are either atheists and agnostics or adults aligned with non-Christian faiths, these individuals have become a political lightning rod and are routinely caricatured unkindly by the media.
C. Despite such public slander, most evangelicals have a healthy self-image.
D. Evangelicals are almost universally "happy" (99%) And, they were by far the segment that was most satisfied with their present life at (91%).
E. This upbeat frame of mind may be related to the fact that evangelicals are the least likely to say they are "lonely" only (8%), "in serious debt" (9%) or "stressed out" (16%).
F. The percentage who admit to high levels of stress is less than half the level measured among adults connected with non-Christian faiths (33%) or those who say they are atheistic or agnostic (42%).
G. At the same time, evangelicals were also nearly unanimous in being "concerned about the moral condition of the country" (98%).
H. This is certainly connected to the fact that nearly nine out of ten (87%) say they are "deeply spiritual" and more than nine out of ten (94%) describe themselves as "absolutely committed to Christianity." In fact, nearly all of them (96%) say they possess "traditional or family-oriented values" and two-thirds of the group (64%) says they are "mostly conservative on political and social issues."
I. In spite of their moral concerns, they were the group least worried about the future (54%) and least likely to say they are "totally committed to getting ahead in life" (52%).
J. The poll by Barna Research Group showed evangelicals are the most conservative, most satisfied, most spiritually inclined and least stressed of all U.S. adults.
K. According to Baptist Press, the study said those who claim to be atheists and agnostics are more stressed out, lonelier and less satisfied with their lives.
L. George Barna said, "The more deeply committed a person is to evangelical Christianity, the more at ease they report being with their life circumstances." The study found that just less than seven percent of the respondents claimed to be evangelical Christians, and of that seven percent, 99 percent said they were "happy."
II. And that brings us to the verses that I was talking about.
(Prov 3:1 - 8 NIV) My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
A. The book of Proverbs is a collection of writings that were compiled from about 950 B. C. to about 700 B.C., and they were used to train young men, and in training for government leaders, and Business leaders.
B. Proverbs is a practical guideline for living life, and the passage that we just read is a good parallel for the Christian life as it is laid out in the New Testament.
(Prov 3:1 - 2 NIV) My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.
C. Proverbs tells us that we are to keep the commandments of God this obedience is not to be nothing more than outward lip service, but it is to become central part of who we are.
1. A commitment to God’s standard is to be written on our hearts, in other words it is to be a part of what we are, and how we function in life.
2. Our obedience to God is to influence every choice that we make and every action that we carry out.
3. And with that obedience comes a promise, and the promise is that keeping these commandments will prolong you life and bring you prosperity.
4. It doesn’t mean that our obedience to God will automatically make us all rich, but it does mean that the quality of our lives will increase, because in following God we will make wise choices.
(Prov 3:3 - 4 NIV) Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
D. Verse 3 is a good description of everything that the New Testament is about. We are to let love and faithfulness ever be the overriding factor in every thing we do.
1. In (Mat 22:37 - 40 NIV) Jesus replied: "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ’Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
2. That is basically the same thing that the is being said in Proverbs, let love for God, and others and faithfulness be the overriding factor in everything in your life.
3. Love God with everything in you, and love you neighbor as yourself!
4. And, the way that we show that we love God and others is in our actions.
5. And as Jesus said all the other things, all the law, all the commandments, all the teaching of the prophets rest on the underlying principle of Love and faithfulness.
E. And in those things we acquire favor and a good name with God. It does not say that doing these things make God love us, because he already loves us.
F. It is saying that doing these things enhances the closeness and bond in our relationship with God and other people.
1. The connection between our relationship with God and our relationship with other people are forever connected, and if one is not right the other can’t be right.
2. And the only way that either relationship is going to be right is if we love God with everything in us and love other people the way that we want to be loved.
3. We show God our love and gratitude by our obedience, we are not made right with God by our obedience, but we show him that we appreciate the fact that he has made it possible for us to be right with him by our obedience.
4. And we show our love to God by the way that we love other people and we show other people that God loves them by the way we treat them and how we let them see him in us.
5. As Christians we are to be a reflection of God’s in our obedience to him and in our actions toward others.
(Prov 3:5 - 7 NIV) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.
G. The basis of our whole relationship with God is trust, the only way that we can become Christians is to trust in what Jesus did on the Cross and not what we can do in and of ourselves to make us right with God.
1. We have to be willing to stake where will spend eternity on nothing more than God’s promise that Jesus has done what it takes to make us right with God, and accept by faith the gift that he offers us.
2. But just because we do that, does not mean that we will automatically GROW in our relationship with God.
3. The trust that we have to put our faith in what Jesus did to make us right with God, has to be allowed to move into other areas of our lives.
H. When we trust God with eternity then we have to build our relationship to God closer through our obedience and worship, and prayer so that we can trust Him with more and more of the day to day things.
1. We have to learn to trust God with our finances and give God what is his.
2. We have to learn to trust God with our time.
3. We have to learn to trust God’s word as the guideline for our decisions.
4. God’s desires have to be the guideline for all of our lives.
5. And as we do that the Holy Spirit is given more and more access to the different parts of our lives but only as we trust with all our hearts all areas of our lives.
6. And that means that we have to accept His word as the guideline for all our actions.
I. But a key part of doing that is that we have to learn to not to trust our own understanding.
1. We do not and will never have the understanding of human life that God does.
2. If we trust our own understanding and, thoughts, and our own emotions and feelings instead of God’s commands then we will never have the life that God intended us to have.
3. Yes, we are to use the good sense that God gave us but we have a problem.
4. And, that problem is that we were born with nature that battles pit our own understanding, against God’s desires for our life, and His knowledge of what life on this Earth is all about.
5. Because Adam and Eve rebelled against God we are born with a nature in us that wants us to trust in our own understanding and our own abilities.
(Gal 5:17 NIV) For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.
6. And, that sinful nature clouds our understanding and makes it untrustworthy.
7. That nature in us makes us find ways to convince ourselves that our own selfishness is ok, that whatever we want to satisfy our won desires that go against what God says is right will be alright, but that is not true.
8. We cannot trust our own understanding, we have to trust what God says!
9. And, that will only happen as we put out trust in God and turn control of our lives over to him, as we trust what he says in the way we live and give his Spirit access to the things in our lives that need to be changed.
III. Verse 8 says This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.
A. Living a life of trust and obedience to God Brings health and joy to life!
B. You see Proverbs already knew what the Barna Research team discovered, that those who love God, and follow God, are successful in life!
C. Those who can put their trust in day to day living in God’s understanding and his direction, find peace in themselves, and even though they may not have all the things that our culture says you have to have to be happy, they are happy!
D. The have joy in their lives! They are less stressed! They are content! They have peace!
E. And those things only come as God is given more of the control in their lives. And, those things only happen as they trust God and his understanding instead of their own.
F. Those things only happen when God’s Spirit is given the freedom to lead their lives, and make them successful at life!
G. We have to give God the control!
H. We have to acknowledge him, acknowledge his right to direct our lives, and let him be the one that guides us in our choices and makes the way we go straight.
IV. According to the survey done, those that put their trust in God and their hope for the future in what God does, and not their own understanding for this crazy world that we live in are, happy!
A. They have more peace, more hope, more joy, and less stress than those who have chosen to trust in their own understanding!
B. What are you waiting for!
V. I hope that you have all noticed that God is at work in this church, and that there are some exciting things happening, but if we try to depend to our own understanding for the direction for the future, it will be the biggest failure that you have ever seen.
A. Things are changing and God is doing things that only God can do, but we have to put our trust in him and we have to allow his Spirit to be the one that guides us all in what this church becomes.
B. This service is the last service that we will have in this building. We are moving on to a new phase in the life of this church and I want to challenge you to leave anything that would hinder God’s ability to direct your life right here, right now.
C. I want the day that is going to be in our church to be a new day, to be a new day in your life.
D. Will you give God more room to work in your life so that his presence can go into that new place of worship, because he is alive in you?
E. Will you come and lay at this altar, all the things that would hinder your life from being the life that God wants it to be?
F. Will you make a commitment today to trust in what God wants and not in your own understanding, and ability?
G. Will you let God, make the peace that passes all understanding more a part of your life?
H. We are going to give you that opportunity, and I hope that next week will be a new day for this church, but even more so I hope that today will be a new day in your relationship with God.
