Good morning everyone…it’s a great morning, isn’t it…Hey right now we are gonna let all the kiddos head out to their class where they are going to learn in a way that makes sense to them. Remember after class come and find me and let me know what you learned this morning and Ill have something for ya. Hey, I also want to welcome those of you online as part of our extended spiritual family

Now, last week we started this brand new series called Purpose Discovery. This really is our focus for this year and so I wanted us to have a strong foundation as to what we are doing exactly this year. Last week we saw that the first step of discovering your purpose is to understand that we are all shaped by our values, and that God is shaping us for good works that he has already prepared for us to do. That means that God has something for you to do, and God has something for us to do as a church. We just have to discern and discover what God is leading us to do. That is why we are looking at this topic this year as a church. We desire to be focused on what God has called us as a church here to do.

So last week we talked about Values and how God has given you values and passions within your heart. This week I want to talk a little about how to align our values with God’s direction. You see, one of the final things I said last week was that God has shaped you for his purposes…and not his purposes according to your agenda. The question is…how do we make sure that we are following God’s purposes and not our own…That’s what I want to talk about today. We are going to be in Proverbs 3, so you can go ahead and grab your Bibles and turn there as we prepare to see what Scripture says about

Aligning with God’s Direction

See when we are aimed at aligning with God’s direction, we are able to go further and do more than we could ever imagine following our own direction. But how do we do that? How do we align with God’s direction and remove our own agenda from the equation? Well, I love what theologian Daniel Akin says,

The Spirit will never lead the believer in a direction that contradicts the teaching of the word of God. —Daniel L. Akin

That means that the first step to understanding God’s direction is to spend time in His Word regularly…preferably daily. That’s why we have been really pushing that over the last couple of years and I have to just tell you all how exciting it is to know that the percentage of LRBC that is actively reading Scripture daily, or at least regularly is higher than many other churches around the US. That is exciting and its happening because as a church we have put such a high value on Scripture.

So, since we have placed a high value on Scripture, let’s go ahead and look at some Scripture together this morning. Turn over to

Proverbs 3:5–6 ESV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

This morning I want to unpack this passage a little bit and then look at how this passage applies to our goals of understanding our purpose as a church. So lets start by understanding what this passage is telling us this morning. We will take it section by section.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart: Trust means to rely on, depend on, have confidence in. Trust with God as the goal or object means to regard him as the source of wisdom and power in all things and therefore worthy of your entire confidence. The Lord translates the personal name of Israel’s God, Yahweh. With all your heart means with all your mind, with the full force of the mental faculties, totally and without reservation.

And do not lean on your own understanding: Lean means to support oneself. In Isaiah this word takes on the meaning of trusting in the Lord. Understanding refers to comprehension or intelligence. In other words, don’t support yourself on your own intelligence. This is the person who says, I don’t really need to read the Bible anymore because I’ve been in church for a while, or the person who says, I’ve already heard everything Biblically so I don’t really need to attend church regularly. Do not lean on your own understandings because I guarantee your understandings are faulty. What if I said it like this, Don’t think that your own understanding is enough to help you. You must trust God with all your thinking.

In all your ways acknowledge him: Your ways refers to everything you do. Acknowledge him is to know him, to have an intimate relationship with him. In the present context it’s not simply an intellectual awareness of God’s existence but acceptance of God’s presence to guide and direct your life.

And he will make straight your paths: Make straight means to smooth out, make level, or remove the obstacles in preparing a roadway. We can also translate this figuratively “He will show you the right path” or “He will make your path level.” We can translate more literal by saying, “He will show you what to do” or “He will direct your life.”

So that is a quick picture of this passage…now what does that mean and how does it apply to our search for God’s purpose individually, or as a church? Well, last week we talked about understanding your values and how this year we are going to be looking at and discovering our values as a church. So once we understand our values, then we need to

Connect our Values to God’s Direction

Yeah, see God has shaped you through your values, and if that’s true, then he gave you those values for a reason. So how about we connect our values to God’s direction and not just live according to our own purposes. Scripture tells us that his ways are better than our ways…we read that in Isaiah, let’s take a look at that passage just to remind us real quick.

Isaiah 55:8–9 (ESV)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

See, God’s ways are far better than my ways and so we need to search to connect our values to God’s ways and not try and tell God that our ways and our desires are better than his purposes…Make sense? Let me remind you about a person that you have all heard about at some point in your life. Let me tell you about a guy named Joe and his brothers.

Joe was a part of a large family that all understood who God was and what God had called their family to do. Well, Joe’s brothers were a bit jealous of him becuase their dad seemed to treat him a little better. Right or wrong, that’s what happened. Well, Joe had a desire to follow God’s leading. So, as Joe is following God’s leading, he is wrongfully accused of various things that land him in jail in a foreign country. Over time and alot of circumstances, Joe continued to follow God’s leading every step of his life. I mean, Im sure he followed his own ways at times, but largely he was marked as following God’s leading. So, after a while he ended up in a politically advantageous position. Joe was sitting in the room with the leader of the nation, and that leader liked what Joseph had to say…so, even though he was a prisoner, that leader put him in charge of everything, which eventually he was able to use that position to help his family…See, if Joe would have followed his own ways he would have likely never left home and then he would never have been able to help support his family in the middle of a drought. Now, this is a true story and I’d like to invite you all to read it for yourself in Gen 39-41.

Now, imagine if Joseph’s values were not connected to God’s purposes? Joseph would have potentially stayed at home and never would have been sold off into slavery in Egypt and then the entire nation of Israel could have been wiped out right when God formed them as a nation. God chose to use Joseph because Joseph had already connected his values with God’s direction. Can the same be said about you? Are your values connected with God’s direction, or are you hanging on to the illusion that your ways are better than God’s ways?

Now listen, this is an incredibly important step and so I need to spend a moment here giving you some practical tools to help you connect your values with God’s direction. What I want you to do is go into a quite place later and answer these questions. As you answer these questions I want you to be honest and asses your values and how well you are aligned with God’s purposes..

What values do you prioritize in your life?

Are these values in alignment with biblical truth?

In what areas of your life do you sense misalignment with God's direction?

See, this stuff matters in every aspect of your life. If your relationships are not aligned with God’s purposes then those relationships can pull you away from the Lord. Some of you know that’s true because you have noticed in your own life how some of your relationships are actually pushing you away from the Lord and not pulling you towards the Lord. This matters at work… is your job pushing you away from God’s purposes in your life? If so, maybe it’s time to look for a new position in a place that will help push you towards God and not away from God.

Then as you see the areas in your life where you are not connected to God’s direction, start to take steps to realign your values and your direction to be in step with the Lord. Listen, maybe you don’t need to change anything other than where you are putting your priority? Is God your priority or is everything else your priority? In other words, are you putting God first, or does God just get the left overs? Listen, I know what it’s like to live in a way where you give lip-service to God, but you are not actually surrendered to the Lord…Maybe you need to take a moment this morning and actually surrender to the Lord…That’s not all though…see, as a church, I want us to understand the…

Importance of Trusting in God's Direction

I said earlier that God’s ways are better than our ways, we read that in Isaiah. But do you understand that reality, or is it just some Bible verse? Listen, I have shared portions of my life in the past with you. I have shared about times when we truly trusted the Lord and times when I tried to manage things for myself. Actually trusting in God’s direction is so important in our lives as Christians that I don’t want you to leave this morning without understanding that. I know not everyone is going to see this or understand this, but it’s my job to at least share it with you. See, God has shown me in my life personally specific moments in my life when I trusted in God vs trusting in myself. Ill share one of those times with you right now. Im not sure if Ive ever shared this, so if you’ve heard this before, just take a quick nap.

I’m like 20 or 21 years old and Im serving as the youth pastor at the church that my dad was the pastor. I had it all figured out…I knew what it was like to live as a teen who didn’t care about God and I wanted desperately to share that desperation that I experienced and wanted these teens to not have to experience what I had experienced. I wanted so desperately to help open their eyes so they would be better off than me. However, that led me to thinking that I truly had it all figured out. Really I was God’s gift to these teens. We had a Friday night ministry where more and more teens were attending as we were discovering what a life with Jesus looked like to a bunch of kids who really had never experienced Jesus in real life. So guys I planned a fantastic event where I was going to be speaking and then we were gonna go outside and play football and just have a great time with food and all that good stuff. People were normally showing up like 20-30 minutes early to youth group because we really had solid relationships with these kids. Well, the even started at 7pm and 7pm came and went…no one had showed up. I figured everyone was just running late, so we’ll just give everyone a few minutes. Next thing I know its like 7:15-7:30 and still no one was there. I was crushed ya’ll. I mean why isn’t anyone here is the question that I kept asking myself. Well, I sat down to pray and as I’m praying God’s shows me that I was relying on my own direction and not his direction. I immediately repented of that and gave the night over to the Lord and asked that God use me however he wanted to. I said Amen, and almost immediately like 20 kids came walking in the doors of the church. It was like they had all rode together or something becuase they literally all walked in at the same time. It was an amazing picture that God gave me of what I can accomplish trusting in my direction vs what God can do when I simply trust him.

You see, When you trust your own plans, you will fail. I’m sure many of you have similar stories of times that you trusted yourself vs times that you trusted God and how trusting God is far better than trusting yourself. That is exactly what our passage today is telling us. Don’t lean on your own understandings, but trust the Lord instead. We are reading through Job as part of our reading plan this year and we are seeing what Job’s life looked like and how hard it would have been to trust the Lord even in the midst of severe hardships…but we also see how the Lord will bless and care for job in the midst of that suffering. If you haven’t read that book yet, please do…I promise you will be blessed as you see that even in your suffering God can reveal his glory, not only to you, but to the world.

Here’s the deal though, trust is essential to connecting your values to God’s direction. How do we do all of this though? How do we do this individually and how do we do this corporately…thats the question we need to start answering this morning isn’t it. So, this morning before we go, let me give you some

Practical Actions for Alignment

How do you develop that level of trust though? I mean that’s not easy is it. Well, how do you develop trust with a friend? You spend time with them. Over time your trust gets stronger and stronger. Well, the same is true with God. Are you having trouble trusting God? Well, are you spending time with him? Are you reading his letter to you? are you having conversations with him? You see, prayer fosters intimacy with God, strengthening that bond of trust. This is important to have an active prayer life daily. In prayer, seek God's guidance for your decisions and reflect on whether your values align with God's purposes.

Reading Scripture reveals God’s character. You should be reading, or listening to Scripture daily folks. Not once a week, but daily. If you are just getting started with Scripture, then join the Bible reading plan we are working on. Push play while you drive to work. Listen while you work out. Read Scripture instead of scrolling social media. Whatever you do, make a commitment to start today, not tomorrow…there is always another tomorrow, but there is only 1 today. Start putting God’s word in your mind and in your heart so you can build your trust in his direction.

What about an accountability partnership? Gather a group of friends together and jointly read the Bible or do a devotional together. Hold each other accountable to actually read Scripture. See, Accountability Partners offer support and encouragement, as well as a gentle correction from time to time as you seek t align with God’s purposes in your life.

How about active church involvement? Listen, I have known people through the years that would tell me that they don’t need to go to church. They don’t need to go because they have a fine relationship with the Lord. Maybe they would even say something like organized religion is no good, or that they love God, but hate the church because the church is filled with people and people disappoint you. You’re right, and theres a whole lot to unpack in those statements, but how about we simply realize that The church is the bride of Christ and that Active involvment in the local church is essential to the spiritual health of every believer . When you learn and serve alongside other believers your trust in the Lord grows as you talk about different ways God has provided for each of you.

Listen, I don’t know everyone’s situation here today and maybe you feel that you have a good reason to not trust the Lord. Let me just tell you this, and you might get mad at me here, but Im ok with that. There is no good reason to not trust the Lord. You may feel like you have a good reason, but Im telling you that you don’t

You see, aligning with God's direction is not just a theoretical concept; it's a transformative journey that requires intentional steps. As we talk and meditate on our values and choices, remember the words of Proverbs that we read today. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Grow your faith in the Lord through prayer, reading Scripture, partnering with other friends to hold each other accountable and hear how God is working in all of your lives, and by being an active part of this church.

As a church we are in the process of discerning God’s direction for us and it’s an amazing opportunity for us to stretch ourselves both individually and as a large group. My question to you this morning is if you are willing to be a part of that journey? Are you willing to partner with the Lord and following his direction, following his purposes, or are you to focused on your own purposes? Let me challenge you today to reflect on your values and your commitment to trusting in God’s purposes abve your own.

If you are here this morning and realize that you have been living your life according to your own purposes, then let me encourage you with an opportunity to repent of that faulty lifestyle and commit to the Lord this morning. Listen, practically speaking, you know that your ways of doing things only ends in turmoil, you’ve lived it…maybe it’s time you turn to the Lord for the first time this morning. Maybe you are here and you have been considering God’s ways are better but you keep choosing your own way, even though you don’t want to. Listen, you’re in good company. Paul said himself that he keeps doing the thing that he doesn’t want to do, if that’s you then simply cry out to the Lord and moment by moment rely on the Lord and not on yourself. I’ve been there and I’m still right there with you. It is so important for us each to constantly cry out to the Lord for direction and mercy.

Let’s pray (pray for guidance as we seek to follow God’s direction and not our own)