Obedience

Series: Walking in Wisdom

Title: Obey

Passages: Proverbs 3:6

Grace Fellowship Saratoga

8.11.24

Big Idea: Following God’s plan for your life is the most rewarding way to live. God's Plan is the Greatest Plan

KNOW:

FEEL:

DO:

Intro

Many families have Christmas or holiday season traditions. One that I grew with was dinner and presents at my grandparents' house.

For food we would do what was called fondue where you take different types of food and stick them into boiling pots of oil until they are cooked. Things like steak, chicken, various vegetables that have been breaded, shrimp…just a whole variety of foods.

Then after dinner at some point would be time for reading of the Christmas story and presents. When it came time for presents, Grandma had always wrapped them all with exquisite care. But here was the thing. I can remember from an early age at some point leading up to Christmas, we would have told Grandma exactly what we wanted and even got to a point where we would go with her on a shopping trip and pick out what we wanted and then she would wrap it for us to open on this evening. But this year, I had been off at college and had come back just in time for Christmas. So I had no idea what Grandma was going to get me or what any of my siblings or cousins would be getting.

Grandma also had a way of knowing whose was whose with the presents even though none of them had tags.

This particular year there was a large present in the corner and there was an intrigue on whose present this was.

I’ll skip to the good part that this was my present. And I had 2 initial thoughts when Grandma told me that this was mine. First, was “what in the world could this be?” And second was, “How in the world am I going to get this back to college?” And then a third was, “I really hope I like it because it’s the biggest present here.

So I open it up, and it’s full of packing peanuts. I thought maybe it was something that was fragile and I thought it was clever that Grandma had put it in such a large box.

So I begin digging into these peanuts and could not find what was in there.

Eventually Grandma said that I would probably just have to dump the box.

I dump the box and begin sifting through the packing peanuts and eventually find a small piece of paper rolled up with some money with it. Grandma hadn’t picked out a gift for me that year but rather had just given me the money to do what I wanted with or to get what I needed.

But what was written on the pieces of paper was really the gift.

On the paper my grandma had written the verses Proverbs 3:5-6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

Many of you may know those verses and they are where we are going again today.

Last week we started this 2 part series called Walking in Wisdom.

We find incredible wisdom from the words of Solomon in the book of Proverbs and I talked last week about how this is so much more than just human wisdom though. These are the very words of God that are given to us.

So today we are continuing and we are looking specifically at verse 6 in Proverbs chapter 3.

Last week I gave the challenge of memorizing verse 5 and I hope many of you did that throughout the week this week. But if you weren’t here last week or didn’t put it to memory, I want us to look at it again as our backdrop and then we will unpack verse 6.

Proverbs 3:5

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

Last week we talked about the word trust. And how trust means:

Filling your heart with God’s promises

Surrendering completely

Recognizing our view is limited

Having a spirit of humility

We want to trust God with all that we are.

And today we pick up in verse 6

Proverbs 3:6

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

Last week we looked at what trust means.

Today we are going to look at what Obedience means

Obedience means

1. Committing Fully

When we talked about trusting the Lord with all your heart, I gave you a cheesy statement that will probably get stuck in your head and I’m going to say it again today.

All means all and that’s all, all means.

Verse 5 says to trust with all of our hearts. Every part of our hearts. Not just portions. Not just some. But all of our hearts.

And here in verse 6 it says in ALL your ways submit to him.

So there is a similarity to surrendering completely.

That we commit every part of our lives. That we say God you have every aspect of my life.

The question here is really, does God have all of our ways?

If you’re like me, you have no problem giving God part of your heart and part of your life right?

We’ll let God have pieces.

We’ll say God I want you to be at the center of my time with you as I read your Word. But when I get on Netflix or social media, that’s my time.

God I believe and will follow your plan if it includes meeting my spouse soon and being able to move forward with plans and desires I have in my heart.

God, I’m on board with your game plan for my life if it includes things going smoothly or I can see the silver lining in anything that doesn’t go like I thought.

Or here’s one that hits home for me, God, I commit to using all my financial resources for you and your glory. And then an unexpected thing like a car payment or medical moment happens. Then how easy is it to say, God it’s all yours?

If you’re anything like me, we go, “Hold on just one minute here. How in the world are we going to take care of this? It’s going to take forever to recover from this.” Or something along those lines.

We say we’re going to fully commit to what He has and then we say, “Nah, nah, nah, that’s too much. That’s too far. What do you mean it’s going to be hard and scary?”

Jesus answers a couple of tough questions that really point out the need for loving God with all that we are.

We read it this way in Luke 10

Luke 10:25-28

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[c]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Committing fully to loving God with all that you are.

Another time, someone came and asked a question and it went like this:

Luke 18:18-24

A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

19 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.’[a]”

21 “All these I have kept since I was a boy,” he said.

22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

23 When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was very wealthy. 24 Jesus looked at him and said, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!

In both of these cases, Jesus is making the point that it’s not about checking off the right boxes so that you have done what you needed to do in order to pass the test.

But rather it is about saying, God you have all of me.

And Jesus is making it clear that this won’t always be easy.

It’s hard to love him with all that we are.

It’s hard to say, “I’ll give up everything just to follow you.”

It’s hard to say, “I’m all in.”

I have seen videos of paragliders who are getting ready to do a tandem jump and glide.

Has anyone here been paragliding?

Alright. Tandem paragliding is the one where someone is strapped in with an instructor and they jump together and go gliding.

And the instructor says it is critical that you fully commit and I say we’re going, we go. Because if you hesitate or stop, we won’t go leaping off of this cliff and glide, we go tumbling down the side of it and probably both get really hurt or die. So you have to be truly and fully committed.

I know it’s easy to say we follow God’s plans until things really do get tough and then we want to think we have a better plan.

First, Obedience means committing fully

Second, Obedience means

2. Listening to what He says

Going back to our verse it says,

in all your ways submit to him,

and he will make your paths straight.

When obedient faith is present, the Lord will guide the believer along life’s paths in spite of difficulties and hindrances. The idea of “straight” (v. 6) contrasts to the crooked and perverse ways of the wicked.

Allen P. Ross

This word submit can sometimes have a negative connotation. People don’t always love the idea of having to come under someone else’s authority or instruction.

Other translations have the word, acknowledge.

But this is really getting to know God deeply and listening to His commandments.

There are a few different ways to hear from God and one of them is from His Word and another is through prayer.

So we have to ask ourselves the question of whether we are spending time with God to really know Him and hear from him.

David gives an incredible challenge and encouragement to Solomon about knowing God in 1 Chronicles.

1 Chronicles 28:9

And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every desire and every thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

This isn’t just a head nod. This isn’t, “I think I have a vague idea and understanding of what God says and wants.”

This is a depth that is different even than other relationships. Because He knows us differently. Why does David say to know God and serve with wholehearted devotion and a willing mind? Because the Lord searches our hearts and understands our desires and thoughts.

You want to completely lean into what He is saying and has for you.

You need to be listening for what God has for you in His Word and prayer and then obeying what He says.

Samuel had a big wake up call and sobering moment for Saul about listening to God and obeying what He says.

We read about this in

1 Samuel 15:22-26

“Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than the fat of rams.

23 For rebellion is like the sin of divination,

and arrogance like the evil of idolatry.

Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,

he has rejected you as king.”

24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned. I violated the Lord’s command and your instructions. I was afraid of the men and so I gave in to them. 25 Now I beg you, forgive my sin and come back with me, so that I may worship the Lord.”

26 But Samuel said to him, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!”

Samuel calls out Saul for how he had done what the people said rather than what God had said.

You may think of things in your life where you knew what God wanted and what was the right thing to do but you gave into peer pressure. What others around you wanted you to do.

This may seem like a really silly and little thing but let me tell you about a time when I was in middle school.

I had been following Jesus for a very short time and I was on fire for Him. So everyone knew and I was very clear by my actions and things that I said that I was sold out for Jesus.

But in one moment of free time at school, someone said, “Don’t you think it would feel good to just say one curse word? Just one bad word. Is it really that big of a deal?”

I knew in that moment, my sirens were going off that this was wrong for me because I knew that God’s Word said to be careful with my tongue. So I was wrestling with it internally. And externally I said I wasn’t going to do it…for a little bit.

Then at some point, I knew it would gain me some credibility or standing if I just did it.

So I succumbed. And I felt terrible. And I kept apologizing and saying that I shouldn’t have done it. And even in this moment with people who aren’t followers of Jesus, they said, well you already did it now.

Samuel here says this Saul. You already crossed the line. You did what was easier or what the people wanted you to do, not what God told you to do.

How bout you? Where do you know God has told you something clearly and you are struggling to obey?

Or are you saying you’re not really sure you’re hearing from God?

Obedience means fully committing and listening to what He says.

And thirdly it means:

3. Walking His Path for you

The last part of verse 6 says

and he will make your paths straight

You may see a footnote that says, will direct your paths

Or other translations say, guide your path

This is kind of the end of the package deal.

When you are trusting God with all your heart, when you are not leaning on your own understanding, when you have in all your ways acknowledged or submitted your ways to Him, he will direct you and guide you.

This has a feeling of assurance to it.

Somewhat similarly to language David uses in Psalm 37

Psalm 37:5 (ESV)

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

This allowing God to show you the way.

That you follow His guidance from His Word and His character.

Note, Those that put themselves under a divine guidance shall always have the benefit of it. God will give them that wisdom which is profitable to direct, so that they shall not turn aside into the by-paths of sin, and then will himself so wisely order the event that it shall be to their mind, or (which is equivalent) for their good. Those that faithfully follow the pillar of cloud and fire shall find that though it may lead them about it leads them the right way and will bring them to Canaan at last. –Matthew Henry

What has God designed for you?

Trust and Obey

When we walk with the Lord

In the light of His Word,

What a glory He sheds on our way;

While we do His good will,

He abides with us still,

And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey,

For there’s no other way

To be happy in Jesus,

But to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise,

Not a cloud in the skies,

But His smile quickly drives it away;

Not a doubt or a fear,

Not a sigh or a tear,

Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear,

Not a sorrow we share,

But our toil He doth richly repay;

Not a grief or a loss,

Not a frown or a cross,

But is blest if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove

The delights of His love,

Until all on the altar we lay;

For the favor He shows,

And the joy He bestows,

Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet

We will sit at His feet,

Or we’ll walk by His side in the way;

What He says we will do;

Where He sends, we will go,

Never fear, only trust and obey.

Everyone has a plan:until they get punched in the face. –Mike Tyson

Plans are great until the bullets start flying

Story from Knight and Day. “With me… Without me…With me…Without me…

Psalm 37:5

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him and he will do this

A