Trust: in all things (part 2)

Good morning everyone…I am so happy to see you all. Hey, right now I want to welcome in our little friends and to join your teacher back in the back of the room where you will get to go and spend some time having fun and learning about Scripture in a way that you understand. Isn’t that great! I mean I love our teachers so much...I love that we have volunteers in our fellowship that spend their own time during the week preparing to bring Scripture and then sacrifice their time by serving while we are all in here. Listen, if you are on the kids ministry teams then I want to truly thank you, and if you are potentially interested in joining this team, then I want to encourage you to reach out and lets get you connected to this ministry. Actually, there are a few ways to serve here at LRBC and if you are here this morning and are wondering what it would look like to join the family in serving, then I want to encourage you to reach out and let’s have a conversation.

You know, actually while we are talking about serving, do you realize that serving actually requires trust? You see, when you are serving others, you are trusting that your time will be received well, you are trusting that you will have enough time or resources to do what you need to do, you are trusting that you will be able to handle whatever situations may arise. You see, when you serve others, you are trusting that God is still providing for you. That is actually a pretty great thing to think about, especially since we are in the middle of this series called Trust: in all things. Last week we saw that there re promises and there are commands from God. We saw that those commands are attached to the promises and then I asked the question, “Am I willing to trust God in everything?” Basically what we saw last week is that if I do trust God in everything, then I will have God’s peace, and I will do well. Today we are going to be reminded about where to trust, and where not to trust...

Let’s go ahead and take a look at today’s passage and then we can talk about it and then decide how it applies to your life this morning, and hopefully how you can take this information and make better decisions with your life. I mean, who doesn’t want to make better decisions, right?

Proverbs 3:5–8 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. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

So this morning I think that we can see that we should

Trust God…not myself...

You see it is actually really important to begin to think about what is going on in your life, and relate that to God’s will and not your own understanding of things. However, in order to really understand this concept, I would like to take a moment to think about my own understanding of things. This is something that Solomon writes about in this passage, but it is also something we can see from elsewhere in Scripture. So let’s look at

My understanding:

What does my understanding have to do with anything? Well, if we are honest, we will typically rely on our own understanding of things. In this passage we actually see the the author here is putting in view all of our decisions and how they relate to God. Specifically, this passage is speaking of your thoughts, your understanding, your knowledge and ultimately your own wisdom. In order to talk about that, I guess we kind of need to know what we are even talking about, right? So, let’s look at that together. First of all, in vs 5, we see the term...

Understanding = Intelligence

So if this term is referring to our own intelligence, it would seem that we are being warned against a pure academic knowledge, or intellectual pride. Intellectual pride is when our learning is growing to the point that we feel we no longer need the Lord. Now, the reality is that this can happen with our secular knowledge, and it can also happen within our knowledge of the Lord. Let me explain…intellectual pride would be attempting to learn outside of the knowledge of God. For example…this would be someone that is studying about the origins of the universe while attempting to remove the potential of God. There can also appear in our relationship with the Lord. For instance, I have had conversations with people over the years that have told me things like, “I don’t really need to go to church, I am spiritually mature enough”, or “Bible study is more for those that are not as knowledgeable about Scripture yet, but I already know most of this stuff...”. You see, that is intellectual pride, and pride, as in magnifying yourself, is always sin. So, this passage is warning us of intellectual pride…What is the opposite of pride? Humility. So, don’t allow yourself to rely on your intellectual pride, instead grow in your intellectual humility. Now, I want to bring in a passage from early in Proverbs. Arguably this is the key verse to understand the entire book. Lets take a look at

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

In this passage we see where knowledge begins…that is the fear of the Lord, or the submission to the Lord. In other words your knowledge comes from the Lord, which by definition means that you should rely on the Lord for wisdom or knowledge. That takes us to another aspect of my own understanding. That is

My Wisdom:

What does this passage say about my wisdom? Well, specifically in vs 7 we see that we should not be wise in our own eyes. What does that mean? Well, this is a continuation of this same intellectual pride. Actually a simpler way to understand this is, “Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom.” Now, I do want to be clear. You see, this passage is not suggesting that Christ followers turn off their brains and ignore their intelligence and common sense. It just means that we should not depend on our own wisdom or knowledge and experience or the wisdom and experience of others. You see, the phrase...

Wise in my own eyes = arrogance

Let me share with you an example of someone that relied on their own wisdom, or their own knowledge of how things work. You see, there was a guy that was traveling…we will call him Abe. Well, Abe was traveling to a place that had a pretty intense reputation of simply taking what they wanted. If you got in the way, you would simply die. This is a place where people didn’t really recognize the sanctity of life the way that you and I recognize this today. You see, Abe knew that in this place if it was discovered that his beautiful bride was in fact his bride, then he would be killed so that they would be able to sleep with his wife without anyone in the way. So, Abe decided to tell his wife not to tell others that he was married. Actually he even went further, he told his wife to tell everyone that she was his sister, that way they would not bother him. Now, Abe does this becuase he knows that this is a place that is ruthless. Abe is relying on his own wisdom and understanding. Abe has forgotten that God has sent him to this place. Here is the thing, in case you didn’t catch on, this is a true story and Abe is in fact Abraham. This story is when he and his wife Sarai went into Egypt in Gen. 12, and Abraham was afraid that he would be killed even though he was following God’s commands.

So, in this passage we have an encouragement to not rely on ourselves and our own limited understanding, but instead to focus on

God’s understanding:

You see, we don’t specifically see this phrase in this passage, however the better option to relying on my understanding or my thoughts, would be to focus on God’s understanding, or more specifically, Scripture’s clear teaching… You see, in the example I shared about Abraham a moment ago , we see a man who had a very clear command from God, but instead decided to focus on what he thought was best. How many times do we each do that? I mean, maybe even on a daily basis. I know I’m guilty. As a matter of fact, I’ll tell you that every time I get super stressed about finances or about some particular facet of my family, or even of the church it is becuase I am trying to rely on my own understanding and not on the clear teaching of Scripture. Whenever I decide to trust myself instead of trusting God, then I will become excessively stressed and potentially unhappy. However, what is amazing is the promise that we have here is that when we do in fact trust God instead of ourselves, that we will know what we are to do. We will understand what our next steps are. You see...

Trust in the Lord = Peace

I will tell you that I have attempted to do things my own way, and they did not work out at all. I’ll give you an example. You see, the last church that Beth and I served at I saw many things that I did not agree with. These were both practical ministry things as well as Biblical convictions. Well, during that time I was still learning and growing and honestly I grew alot at that church. However, there came a time that I was so focused on what I wanted to accomplish and I was so focused on leaving that church that I was not actually trusting in the Lord during that process. I can remember serving there and confronting mistruths and Biblical inaccuracies and just not wanting to really serve there anymore. I also remember that I decided I was going to take a job in another place. However, I was going to look for a new church to serve based on my own understandings of how things are supposed to work. I began working with some search agencies and tweaking my resume to be more attractive. I interviewed with national mega churches and I interviewed church from all over the states, including Alaska…However, nothing was happening, and I was becoming increasingly anxious about things. Well, I remember one day I was talking to a national headhunter and as we are talking God revealed something to me. God showed me that I was not in fact trusting him. You see, all of that time I had never even considered the idea of following God’s leading as a lead pastor. No, I was looking at becoming an executive pastor, or a campus pastor, or some other pastoral role. However, I knew that there was no way God would call me to serve at a church as a lead pastor, becuase frankly, I didn’t trust that God could even use me in this role. You see, my understanding was that there was a limit to what God can do through me. God’s understanding is that God is the limit to what God can do through me. Do you see the difference?

You see, trust in the Lord is the only way to experience the peace of the Lord. I am not trusting in the Lord, then I will not be able to acknowledge

God’s wisdom:

Here’s is the deal…God already knows the end of the story. There is nothing that either will happen, or has happened that the Lord in unaware of. I want to be clear about this…If you are having financial issues, God already knows…If you are having marital issues, God already knows. Even more, if he already knows about the issues, he also knows how to resolve these issues. However, if we are so focused on our own wisdom then we will be unable to see what God is doing in the midst of our circumstances. This passage has in view, not just our own intelligence and knowledge. This passage has in view the normal everyday decisions. Not just the decisions of what to do from day to day, but even our private vision of right and wrong must be submitted to God. This is everything, and when everything is submitted to the Lord, then are we able to have in view God’s direction and God’s peace. You see,

God’s guidance = a map to life

Yeah, thats right, God’s guidance is a map for our circumstances. So, I will tell you that I use Google maps all the time…Im sure many do, and just like I use Google maps every single time I go to a new place. Just like I rely on Google maps to get me anywhere. I mean, the app on my phone even tells me where to turn as I get up to the right street. That is the level of guidance that we can rely on God for…However, that only happens as we actually trust the Lord.

Now, earlier I talked about stress and anxiety in our lives as we rely on ourselves and on our own understandings. I want to be clear about this…our stress, our anxiety can also lead to actual health issues, can it not. I know that in my life I had a heart attack scare when I was so focused on myself and was essentially leaving God out of the actual decisions. Now, let me be clear, I was in the middle of seminary, which is grad school for pastors. I was in classes and I was serving full time as an associate pastor, and I knew exactly what to do and how things needed to happen. However, I was not trusting in God and I ended up in the ER two times as a result of that. Now, there is an amazing promise here…look with me at

Proverbs 3:8 ESV

It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

This is pretty clear here…when we trust the Lord, we will begin to see physical healing in those issues that were caused by our lack of trusting God. That does not mean that we will see physical healing in every issue that we are experiencing…it means that the health issues that were caused by our lack of trust, will begin to dissipate. It does not mean that all health issues will be dealt with…that is not the promise here. The promise if for those issues that are caused by your lack of trust, or pride, those are the things that will begin to dissipate.

So, what areas are we called to trust God in? Every area…that even relates to our use of resources, whether that is time, or financial, or skills, or whatever, and that also relates to the decisions that we make using those resources. Listen, let me be clear for a moment…God has gifted each and every single person in this room and joining us online with resources that he has also called to use for his glory. Now, you must decide what to do with that yourself, but this morning, let me ask you a question....

Am I trusting God with my resources?

This morning as we draw to a close I want to encourage you to be honest with God about your level of trust. In other words, I want you to take a moment as I pray to ask God to reveal to you if there are any areas that you are not actively trusting God and instead are leaning on your own understanding…When I say any area…I mean any area. This could be financial, home, work, relationships, resources, whatever it is…take this moment this morning to start that conversation with God about trusting and acknowledging the Lord.

Prayer