Navigating A New Year (Part 1).

Notes
Transcript
Introduction: A new year comes with new opportunities. We tend to look at a new year and visualize ourselves eating healthy, losing weight, getting fit, quitting bad habits, and improving our lives.
I don’t criticize this because we need a time in the year for a fresh start, wouldn’t you agree. I do criticize our tendency to give up too quickly! We’re too much like the guy that said he went on a diet once and it was terrible, the worst 15 minutes of his life!
I think the problem with our resolutions is they don’t bring permanent satisfaction into our lives.
We diet but realize that the diet we chose is unsustainable and doesn’t bring the results we hoped for and we really don’t like the process.
We remove something from our lives only to realize we have nothing meaningful to replace it with and we feel the void left by it.
We take better care of ourselves only to realize we can’t stop the aging process.
All of these things as good as they are, don’t bring lasting satisfaction so we grow weary.
The reason for this is because there is only one thing that truly satisfies us and it is what we were created for. We were created to find our satisfaction in God. Worship Him, draw close to Him, know Him intimately. John Piper’s quote is forever seared in my mind: “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.” So then, this morning rather than making resolutions, let’s consider how we can navigate the new year in a more satisfying way.
Bible Passage: Proverbs 3:1-6
1 My son, do not forget my law, But let your heart keep my commands; 2 For length of days and long life And peace they will add to you. 3 Let not mercy and truth forsake you; Bind them around your neck, Write them on the tablet of your heart, 4 And so find favor and high esteem In the sight of God and man. 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Do you want to know how to navigate life and open the door to a purposeful year of Christian growth. I pray that we do. Often the new year is filled with how to be successful in every area of life except the area of our life in Christ. This morning I want to give you several keys to finding lasting satisfaction in the Lord and contentment in life.
Pursue Peace Through Obedience
Pursue Peace Through Obedience
Proverbs 3:1-2
Verse 1 begins with the wise sage addressing his pupils encouraging them to remember and keep his commands.
One imagines that an older Solomon, who has made his mistakes and learned from them is handing down instructions to his children. The wisest man to ever live is opening his mind and experience up to his children so, they can have a long productive life filled with contentment.
On another level however we must realize that the author of scriptures is God and the pupils are us. He speaks from a position of perfection and sovereignty. He knows everything, holds all wisdom, sees all the outcomes of every situation, makes good of every circumstance, and loves us beyond our comprehension.
When He says listen we should listen.
When He admonishes us to keep commands we should strive to keep them.
When He gives us a pathway to a full life and peaceful days we should follow.
His instructions show the way to living wisely.
The admonishment is not just to read scriptures and know the words, but the encouragement is to take these instruction into our hearts. “Let your heart keep my commands.” We search and meditate upon scriptures that we may know the author and know what we must do. Listen to John 5:39-40
39 You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.
The Pharisees knew the scriptures but they were unwilling to embrace the Christ who is testified of in scriptures. Our meditation upon scripture must be mixed with a yielding faith to the truth of scripture. Contrast John 5 with John 14:21
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
The one who has the commands and keeps them, knows God and experiences Him. The goal is obedience. The product of obedience is peace and contentment.
The Christian life begins with obedience, depends on obedience, and results in obedience.
Charles Colson
The first key is pursuing peace through obedience. Second…
Find Favor Through Balance
Find Favor Through Balance
Proverbs 3:3-4
The second action that the sage calls His pupils to observe is a perspective of balance.
Twin virtues are mentioned in verses 3 and 4 that we must bind around our necks.
The idea of binding is having these principles with us always in every situation so as to be reminded. We see this similarity in Deuteronomy 6:4-9
4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
We don’t want to forget these balancing truths, but make them part of our lives. What are they? They may be translated slightly different in different Bible versions but the principles is the same.
The KJV & NKJV renders it “Mercy and Truth.” In the ESV it is steadfast love and faithfulness. The NASB has loving kindness and truth.
The word translated mercy, love, or kindness is the Hebrew word “hesed” which is a loyal and merciful love that has a strong commitment to other’s well-being. In other words a kindness that thinks of other’s before self.
The word translated truth or faithfulness carries the nuance of both. It is the idea of a firm, constant commitment to the truth.
These two combined carry the notion of living our lives loving others without compromising our commitment to truth. Put another way loving God and loving others. Love and faithfulness are to be engraved upon our hearts and made an enduring part of our character.
Christian love links love of God and love of neighbor in a twofold Great Commandment from which neither element can be dropped, so sin against neighbor through lack of human love is sin against God.
Georgia Harkness
Jesus perfectly demonstrated this balance while interacting with sinners and self-righteous religious leaders. He sought them and showed mercy toward them, yet never partook of their sin and rebuked their self-righteousness. Listen to this declaration of the life of Jesus in Luke 2:52
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.
Let me say that this is not an easy balance to develop. But, we must practice this discipline. If the first thing you notice about someone is their sin you’re too far right, and if love without any recognition of sin, you are too far left. May God help us to love people in truth and towards truth.
If they can see you love them, you can say anything to them.
Richard Baxter (Puritan Divine)
We find favor with God and man by striking this balance between love and truth.
Seek Trust Over Understanding
Seek Trust Over Understanding
Proverbs 3:5-6
These next two verses are the most memorable of the entire chapter. The verses call us away from self-reliance to trust in God.
Can I be honest and say that the word trust is a hard word for me. I was raised to never trust anyone who said “trust me.” Trust is not my natural instinct.
The idea behind this word is to put our weight upon the Lord. Invest our hope and confidence in Him. Not to be suspicious of His intentions, methods, or means of doing things. To lean completely upon Him.
Weather we want to admit it or not, the reason we don’t obey Him or follow Him is because we don’t trust Him. I mean, what if He asks us to do something that’s not safe? What if He asks us to do something we don’t want to do? Or, He asks us to do something we don’t understand? Can you trust someone that may do that?
Faith is a living, bold trust in God’s grace, so certain of God’s favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it.
Martin Luther (Founder of the German Reformation)
The trust that God ask from us is wholeheartedly trust. “Trust the Lord with all of your heart.”
That means from the very center and fabric of our being we trust God.
The heart is the seat of our emotions, intellect, mind and inclination. It literally means the inner man.
It is apparent that this trust comes into conflict with our understanding by the statement “and lean not upon your own understanding.” At times God’s truth will seem counter-intuitive to us. But, we trust Him.
The kind of trust God wants us to have cannot be learned in comfort and ease.
Anne Graham Lotz
Why? Trusting God When You Don’t
Understand (2004)
Anne Graham Lotz
You know I have been really challenged in this area. There are so many things that seem ridiculous yet God is working.
I remember God leading me to apologize to people I had mistreated. It went against the old adage “let sleeping dogs lie.”
What about going somewhere that you have never been, meeting people that speak a different language, adjusting to a different culture, and meeting people that know anything about you? Going and sharing the Gospel with them and asking them to put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Recently, at our men’s retreat, guys began to share their weaknesses and failures with others. That doesn’t make sense to men, but God used it to liberate us, draw us closer, and help us overcome things that had held us for years. Trust God when it seems counter-intuitive.
There’s a third aspect to trust and that is acknowledgment.
The idea is to discern Him.
Can you see Him in your days and ways?
This is trusting in God’s sovereignty and guidance. Discern what God is doing in all your circumstances and glorify Him in them.
It is not simply that God”s ways are not our ways; it is that our ways of thinking preclude us from discerning those ways in the first place.
Alister McGrath
Trust is a 24/7 leaning upon the Lord.
Let’s pray as we prepare for the invitation.
How does this passage point to Christ?
How does this passage point to Christ?
Let’s admit something. We at our best can’t keep the commands, show mercy and love, or trust God as He requires. But Jesus did!