God's Way to Find Our Way in 2013

God’s Way to Finding Our Way in 2013

Proverbs 3:5,6

Introduction: Do you remember the story of the pig and the hen that approached a church and read the sermon title on the sign: “What can you do for the poor?”  Immediately the hen suggested that they feed them a bacon and eggs breakfast.  The pig thought for a moment and said: “There is only one thing wrong with that idea: For you it only requires a contribution, for me it means total commitment!” 

     How committed are we to the Lord?  The end of one year, the beginning of a New Year. How many surprises we had in 2012!  Victories, struggles, successes, defeats. Joy, heartbreak.  What will 2013 bring us? Only God knows. The good news is: God knows. And He is good. And we can trust Him. He will prepare the way for us, if we’ll trust Him.  Proverbs 3:5,6 talks about this truth. It is one of the first verses of the Bible that I memorized as a new Christian, and even after 34 years as a believer I am still learning to live out in my daily life the truths that it presents. The words easy, but it can be very difficult when we are faced with choices in our daily lives.

Big Idea: Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize God’s presence and trust Him implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

I. Because of Who He is, we can trust God: “Trust in the Lord…” Our faith is only useful to the extent that the object of our faith is trustworthy.

           One of the cries of the protestant reformation came from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, via the apostle Paul: “The just shall live by faith!” At its root “faith” is talking about believing God, taking Him at his Word. There is a proviso built into that idea: if we are going to believe God, we need to know what He has told us. That is, we need to read the Bible.

Last year we promoted a “through the Bible in a year” reading program. This year, will you make a commitment to be in the Word daily?  Tomorrow night some of us will join together here, reading through the Book of Revelation. We read in Revelation 1:3 “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” Scripture restates that promise in various ways with respect to the entire Bible: it is God’s Word to us, it is the Word of Life.

           Our trust, our faith, is only as good as the object of our faith. You might think someone is trustworthy but that doesn’t make it so. I got a rifle as a Christmas present and took it out to the range to try it out – you might trust me to shoot an apple off your head at 100 yards, but it would be a terrible mistake! It would not go well for you!

           Here we are told to trust in the LORD, the God of the Covenant. Notice the word “LORD” is written in all capital letters in most English translations. We are to trust in Yahweh, The God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, who led the Jews through the wilderness in the Pillar of Cloud and Pillar of Fire. The God who spoke in times past to the Fathers through the prophets, and in these last days has spoken in His Son. He is trustworthy. Do you trust Father’s voice?  I recall the story of a building fire in Harlem, NYC. It was a desperate situation: a blind girl was perched on a fourth floor window. The firemen couldn’t get the ladder truck between the buildings to reach her, and they were trying to coax her to jump into a net, which she of course couldn’t see.  Finally the girl’s father arrived at the scene and took the bullhorn and spoke to her, saying that there was a net below, and that she had to jump. Immediately, she jumped, totally relaxed, because she heard her father’s voice and trusted him. Even when we don’t see the net, we can trust our Father. He is good. He loves us. He is trustworthy.

*** Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize the presence of God and trust Him implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

II. If God is who He claims to be, He deserves our whole-hearted trust: “…with all of your heart…” In the Old Testament we are told to love God with all our heart, to seek Him with all our heart, to serve Him with all our heart – only here do we find the call to trust Him with all our heart. The closest thing I could find in the Bible is when the Ethiopian Eunuch asked Philip if he could be baptized. He answered "If you believe with all your heart, you may." Obviously there he is talking about trusting God for salvation, the kind of faith that saves.

  This passage must include the idea of trusting God for our salvation, but I think it goes further – we entrust our lives to Him – whole heartedly – no reservation – nothing held back. That’s radical faith. That’s the faith that changes lives. That’s the faith that lets us live our life in dependence on Him. Even when we don’t understand, we can trust Him. With all our heart. No matter what, He is trustworthy.

  Remember the story of the man who was walking along a narrow path, and lost concentration for a second and slipped over the edge of a cliff. As he fell he grabbed a branch growing from the side of the cliff. He realized he couldn’t hold on for long and called out for help, 

“Is anybody up there?” 

A voice replied, “Yes, I am here.” 

“Who’s that?” the man asked. 

“The Lord” came the answer. 

“Lord help me!” he cried. 

“Do you trust me?” the voice asked. 

“I trust you completely!” he frantically replied. 

“Good,” said the Lord, “Let go of the branch.” 

The man asked, “WHAT???” 

The Lord replied, “I said, Let go of the branch.” 

After a long pause the man spoke, “Is anybody else up there?”

***Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize God’s presence and trust Him implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

 III. The opposite of faith is self-reliance: “Lean not on your own understanding…”

          First, what this is not saying. This is not saying that believers are supposed to muddle through life without thinking. We don’t put our minds on hold when we trust Christ! Paul reasoned with the philosphers on Mars Hill and the Jewish rabbis in the synagogues. If anything our minds should be on a new level – we know the One who is the truth. All truth belongs to Him. Nor is this saying that we don’t try to use discernment in making decisions. Faith is not blind, mindless faith.

           We are not to “lean on” our own understanding. Because our minds are affected by sin, and our motives and our thinking are askew we can’t trust our reason – certainly we can’t put our reason before the black and white truths of Scripture. Nor can we pick the parts of God’s Word that we want to accept while ignoring the rest.  The church father Augustine said: “If you believe what you like in the Gospel and reject what you don’t like; its not the Gospel that you believe, but yourself.” Peter himself said that Paul wrote about many things that were hard to understand.  Faith means we take God at His Word, whether we understand or not.

      Of course the truth is that we usually do understand, we would just rather not listen. Mark Twain expressed unusual honesty for an unbeliever when he said: “Many people are bothered by the things they can’t understand in the Bible. As for me, the things that have always bothered me the most are those that I do understand!”

*** Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize His presence and trust Him implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

IV. Trusting God means acknowledging His sovereignty and recognizing His presence in every moment of our lives: “In all your ways acknowledge Him…”

           God in interested in every aspect of our lives. One of the saddest tendencies in the church today is to put God in a little corner of our life, and then to live the way we want to. We are to trust Him “in all our ways.”

I read recently in a devotional: 

“If you have been basically doing things on your own while occasionally expressing a semi-sense of dependence on [God] for your life and work and family, then you may not be prepared for suffering. But if you build a habit of daily acknowledging Him as your source and sustainer, you will feel welcome rushing to His side in an emergency.” 

We should acknowledge his presence, His goodness, His promises about walking with us every moment.

 The word “acknowledge” is the Hebrew word yadah usually translated “to know.” We need to know the truth, recognize it, receive it: God is present, and He cares about every detail of our lives, every minute of our existence. Read Psalm 139:1-10:

 You have searched me and known me.  ² You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.  ³ You comprehend my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.  ⁴ For there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O LORD, You know it altogether.  ⁵ You have hedged me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me…  ⁷ Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence?  ⁸ If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.  ⁹ If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,  ¹⁰ even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me…

Well that is a Biblical view of life: where ever we go, whatever we do, God knows, and He is there with us. We need to know and be assured that somehow, He will work every detail of our lives together for our good, and for His glory.

***Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize His presence and trust God implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

  V. God promises that He will lead us if we will trust Him: “…and He will direct your paths.”

          Literally, “He will make our paths straight…” He’ll level out the ground before us. He’ll make a way. I recall an instance when we just bought our current vehicle and were on a trip in upstate New York, near Cooperstown. A sudden snow storm came out of nowhere. We came behind a snow plow, it cleared a path before us, laid down some salt and sand as it went. God goes before those who trust Him, preparing the way. He doesn’t promise that it will be easy, but He promises to be with us, and to prepare the path that He would have us walk.

What is God saying to me in this passage? *** Rather than relying on ourselves we need to recognize God’s presence and trust Him implicitly.  He promises to lead us on the right path.

What would God have me to do in response to this passage?  I have become overly reliant on my GPS.  I’ll use the thing even navigating around town! Will you rely on a real GPS in 2013 (God’s positioning system!) – taking God at His Word? Follow Him! Trust in the Lord (He is trustworthy) with all your heart (no reservations) and lean not on your own understanding (He knows best!) in all your ways acknowledge Him (know that He is there, working, guiding, teaching) and He will direct your paths.  Amen.