Sermon Tone Analysis

Vision for Living:  Taking Care of the Gift of Life

Prov 3:5-10

 

INTRO:  Man talked with George W. Truett.

“I’d give up everything to be able to feel about the Lord like I did when I was 16 years old.”

Somehow, I don’t think he did a very good job of taking care of life.

Life is a gift.

Every life is a gift.

The life that a woman carries in her womb is a gift.

The child you take to school is a gift.

The boy or girl that you teach in SS is a gift.

Almost instinctively we know that we’re to take care of that gift.

Sanctity of Life Sunday reminds us of that, but we already know it.

However, it’s not just someone else’s life—your life and my life is a gift, and the Bible teaches that we are stewards of this life.

*1 Cor.

4:1*

Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

*1 Peter 4:10*

As each one has received a /special/ gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Now when I talk about stewardship, I’ve discovered that there are 3 stages of growth for most of us.

(1)                      Stage when we don’t know what stewardship means.

(2)                      Stage when we think we know what stewardship means.

(It’s about the money!)

(3)                      Stage when we discover what stewardship means…It’s about life.

The word steward meant keeper or manager of the house, or overseer of an estate, the one who employed servants, catered at banquets, represented the master in business dealings.

There is a book telling of the reign of Queen Anne of England.

It lists all of her chief officers and servants with the salaries and responsibilities of each office.

The chief steward leads them all.

He was an honored and trusted officer or servant.

The position demanded great intelligence, initiative, and integrity.

Some people used to say that it mean keeper of the Pig Sty, and grammatically that has been disproved.

However, if you look at the condition of the typical teenage bedroom, it gives one second thoughts.

That may have been closer to the truth than we want to admit.

The book of Proverbs is a collection of the wisdom of the greatest-most enduring culture in history.

It is wisdom revealed by God and tested by life.

And early in this book is one of those passages that says really everything that needs to be said about taking care of life.

It’s Prov 3:5-10, and I want us to look at together this morning.

There are Four Admonitions that the writer gives us which I want to call your attention to.

There are really more than that, but these are the ones that are most important, I believe.

If you want to take good care of the gift of life:

 

*I.

**Trust the Lord…*

* *

This verse is one of MB’s favorites to quote to me, and quite frankly, it is one of my favorites to hear her quote, too.

*Proverbs 3:5-6*

 

 

It’s not commending anti-intellectualism.  It’s a rebuke of self-sufficiency.

It’s an anti-dote to worry.

Self-sufficiency and worry are to ways to ruin your life.

Oddly both off them are distortions of good qualities that have been impacted by the Fall of Man.

It’s good to accept responsibility, but responsibility without humility, leads to pride and self-sufficiency.

You lean on yourself or your own money or your education or your connections…

 

There are probably some of us that need to take a  careful look at who or what we are leaning on…Way back when Michael Jackson was still just one of the Jackson Five, he did a song called “Lean on Me.”

It was very popular, but I remember a preacher asking the question, “He’s 12 years old and he wants the whole world to lean on him?

What would I be leaning on?

He doesn’t even shave?”

ILL:  Illustration of Trusting in the Lord.

Trusting in the Lord is also the anti-dote to worry.

Worry can ruin your life.

It can ruin your marriage.

It can ruin your kids.

Ill:

 

The word translated “trust” in verse 5 means “to lie helpless, facedown.”

That’s such a powerful picture isn’t it?

Because there are times when we don’t understand and we aren’t able…and we feel weak…and we lie face down…totally trusting God to do something that we cannot do ourselves.

Sometimes we have to trust God with the mysteries of life that we cannot understand.

Sometimes people say, “If I can understand, I’ll trust,” but the better way is to say, “I trust, so that I can understand…”

 

*II.

**Acknowledge the Lord*

* *

The word acknowledge comes from that Hebrew word “Yada” which can be translated “to know.”

It speaks of a deep intimate awareness of something or someone.

It’s the word used in the Old Testament to speak of sexual relations, such as Genesis 4:1 when it says “then Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived…”

 

So when the Bible says “In all your ways acknowledge Him…” this is no mere nod of the head like you would do when you casually recognize someone’s presence in a crowded room.

This verse speaks of a real awareness…a deep understanding.

* *

*To Acknowledge him* is to know him, have an intimate acquaintance with him.

It is not simply an intellectual awareness of God’s existence but an awareness of the awesome reality of God’s presence.

If we want to take care of the gift of life, then we are in all of our ways acknowledge God.

What does that mean?

 

1.

*It means Put God first.*

Know that He is the Lord.

Never enter into a classroom without in your heart remembering, “Jesus is Lord of my life.”

Never accept any award, any recognition without knowing “Jesus is Lord.”

Always ask yourself,  “Does the decision I’m about to make violate the reality that Jesus is the Lord?

Am I about to do something that I wouldn’t do, if I was completely submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?”

2.  *Give God the Glory.*

*  *In all things we acknowledge our need for God, and that whatever success, achievement or wealth we have comes from Him.

In Acts 12, the Bible tells how Herod the King was giving a speech to the people of Tyre and Sidon…and the people kept crying out, “It’s the voice of a god and not of a man!”  (Now, I don’t know what Mrs. Herod was doing, but I can imagine that when she heard it she was going, “You’ve got to be kidding.”)

But Herod, well Herod seemed to enjoy it just fine…and the Bible goes on to say:

 

*Acts 12:23*

And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.

3.

*Discern God’s presence.

* One of the big problems in Jeremiah’s Day was that the people stopped caring about the presence of the Lord.

They stopped acknowledging His presence.

They lost the ability to discern His presence…and no one noticed.

Not even the so-called holy people.

*Jeremiah 2:6, 8  (NASB) \\ *6“They did not say, *‘Where is the LORD* Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and of pits, Through a land of drought and of deep darkness, Through a land that no one crossed And where no man dwelt?’…8“The priests did not say, *‘Where is the LORD?’ *And those who handle the law did not know Me;     The rulers also transgressed against Me, And the prophets prophesied by Baal.

And walked after things that did not profit.

Listen…The way you acknowledge God is to develop your spiritual intuition so that every situation you come into, you are asking, “Lord, where are you?

What is your desire?

What are your wishes?”

When Elijah was in the cave, he discerned the still, small voice of the Lord even in a gentle breeze.

*Philip.

4:5*

Let your forbearing /spirit/ be known to all men.

The Lord is near.