God's Way

Josh Elliott

You Asked For It • Sermon • Submitted 9 months ago • Presented 9 months ago

Proverbs 3:5–12

Wisdom

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Introduction

It’s important for everyone to be humble enough to admit their weaknesses. Men of the church, who can confess with me that they are unable to find things that are sitting right in front of their faces? I’m not sure whether I have some very particular kind of blindness where I can’t see things that I’m actively looking for, or if my wife has a strange superpower where she can make things appear where I had just looked and they weren’t there.

All I’m saying is know your limits, right? And if any book of the Bible would echo that sentiment it would be the book of Proverbs. Now for those who don’t know this is the final sermon in my summer series “You Asked For It” where I’ve been preaching sermons based on suggestions and questions that were placed in a box at the back of the church. Today’s suggestion was written exactly like this:

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 shall direct your paths.

My FCC friends will not be surprised to hear that in my research I decided to expand this sermon not just to cover the two verses in question, but some of the surrounding context. So I’ve decided to preach on Proverbs 3:5-12, which I will be reading in the CSB translation.

Proverbs 3:5–12 CSB

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight. Don’t be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and turn away from evil. This will be healing for your body and strengthening for your bones. Honor the Lord with your possessions and with the first produce of your entire harvest; then your barns will be completely filled, and your vats will overflow with new wine. Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline; for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

So as is typical in Proverbs, Solomon is pairing instructions with the usual results. If you trust God instead of yourself and know Him in all your ways than He will make your "paths straight," or in other words make the way easy, make life easier. If you stay humble and fear God and turn away from evil than your body will be healed and your bones strengthened. If you honour God with your possessions and give Him firstfruits then your barns will be completely filled and your vats will overflow with new wine. Finally this section is brought to a close with an encouragement not to react negatively to God's instructions and discipline, because they show God's love for us just a like a father loves the son whom he disciplines.

Of course just like the rest of the book of proverbs it’s important to remember that none of these are guarantees. It’s not a formula telling you that if you do x than y will result, but rather general wise life advice. You could theoretically do everything that the book of Proverbs tells you to do and still have things go wrong, but its wisdom is likely to make your life easier and better barring some crisis or other unexpected event.

And I say you could “theoretically” do everything right and still have things go wrong, because no one has or ever will actually do everything the book of Proverbs tells us to do except Jesus Himself. In fact we need the wisdom of Proverbs because of how often we follow our own way into folly. I quite love the hymn “Come Thou Fount,” and one of the lines from that song that deeply resonates with me is “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Because I like every other human being struggle every day with my tendancy to turn from God and go my own way. This passage of Proverbs is teachings us to rely completely on God, to surrender completely to God and to in all things live life God’s way. Every verse in this section of Scripture basically runs counter to our human instincts, much to our benefit.

Many, many, many people have destroyed their lives trying to live according to their own wisdom and understanding. This is why I am genuinely upset by the constant refrain of “trust your heart” that we hear constantly from every corner of media, because Jeremiah 17:9

Jeremiah 17:9 CSB

The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

We share the common fallen nature of man that seeks its own way and its own benefit apart from God. This passage should encourage us as followers of Christ to put the Kingdom first and go to God for guidance in all things rather than trying to do it all on our own. It teaches us to do things God’s Way in three different ways:

Living God’s Way

Giving God’s Way

Enduring God’s Way

1. Living God's Way

So many of you have heard that Katie and I recently purchased a new home. My Real Estate Agent was a bit of a shady character, but it worked out well. We love our new home but it’s a bit of a fixer upper, and as budget conscious people we like to do as much ourselves as we can. In fact I saved a chunk of money by repairing a foundation crack myself with a kit you can buy through Home Hardware. It’s extremely satisfying to put in hard work and slowly watch your house transform and become more and more the home you’ve invisioned.

That being said, I have to admit that a lot of it is quite new to me. I would never look at something that needs to be done that I have no experience in and just try to guess how it is done, or wing it based on instinct. Instead I would either contact someone I know who does have experience or do research online on the best way to go about the repair that’s needed, or some other resource.

Yet a lot of the time with a lot of other things in life we try to get by based on best guesses on our less than expert opinion. Which is especially sad considering we have access to the greatest expert of all time, God Himself, and not only that but He left us a whole book to guide us in how to live life.

The fact of the matter is that the way to succeed in life is to surrender to God and trust in Him more than we trust in ourselves. Trusting in ourselves is how mankind ended up in this fallen sinful state that we find ourselves in. Jesus Christ came to die for our sins because we can't be righteous enough on our own. The Christian way of life is surrender to Jesus and acceptance of His ways above our own.

Hence Proverbs 3:5-8

Proverbs 3:5–8 CSB

Notice the strength of the language here. “Trust in the Lord with some of your heart...” no wait, that’s “trust in the Lord with most of…” nope, still wrong, it says “Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart.” Likewise, it says “in ALL your ways know him.” God doesn’t want to be the one you turn to just for religious advice. The one you seek when you’ve exhausted all the other options. He wants to be the one that your entire heart trusts. The one whom you acknowledge in every area of your life.

In a lot of proverbs Solomon pairs each piece of advice with a result that stems from it. In this case he assures us that if we trust God with our whole heart instead of relying on ourselves and if we acknowledge him in everything we do that he will “make our paths straight.” Katie, Owen, Lucy and I just recently went on a hike to see Carrow Falls near Blissville, and although online the hiking trail was called “easy” it seemed less so when trying to assist a toddler in navigating it. A straight flat path is an easy path, and so God making our path straight is a metaphor for making life clear and easy to live.

Not only this but we are assured that this policy of surrender to God’s way will bring healing for our bodies and strength for our bones. The body and bones here standing for the entirety of a person. Again, this is not a guaranteed formula. I cannot stress enough that just because you are sick and suffering doesn’t mean that you’ve done something wrong or that you don’t have enough faith. What’s in vision here is this basic idea:

God is the one who designed you, and the one who designed the world. So of course doing life God’s way will generally result in an easier life and better health. Statistics sort of prove this out. In an article on Christianity Today about the benefits of religious practices on the overall health of medical workers we find this quote:

Our findings aren’t unique. A number of large, well-designed research studies have found that religious service attendance is associated with greater longevity, less depression, less suicide, less smoking, less substance abuse, better cancer and cardiovascular- disease survival, less divorce, greater social support, greater meaning in life, greater life satisfaction, more volunteering, and greater civic engagement.

So what does this look like practically? We see in Solomon himself an example, at least in his early reign, of the kind of attitude that we should emulate. We read about this in 1 Kings 3:4-14

1 Kings 3:4–14 CSB

The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there because it was the most famous high place. He offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. God said, “Ask. What should I give you?” And Solomon replied, “You have shown great and faithful love to your servant, my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, righteousness, and integrity. You have continued this great and faithful love for him by giving him a son to sit on his throne, as it is today. “Lord my God, you have now made your servant king in my father David’s place. Yet I am just a youth with no experience in leadership. Your servant is among your people you have chosen, a people too many to be numbered or counted. So give your servant a receptive heart to judge your people and to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of yours?” Now it pleased the Lord that Solomon had requested this. So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to administer justice, I will therefore do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and understanding heart, so that there has never been anyone like you before and never will be again. In addition, I will give you what you did not ask for: both riches and honor, so that no king will be your equal during your entire life. If you walk in my ways and keep my statutes and commands just as your father David did, I will give you a long life.”

Solomon understood what was most important, just as we should. He asked for wisdom from God and we should do the same. James 1:5

James 1:5 CSB

Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.

And all of us could use a little more wisdom, couldn’t we? And of course we cannot neglect the ultimate example of trusting God with all your heart and leaning not on your own understanding: Jesus Christ Himself. He WAS God, and yet never acted or even spoke without first consulting the Father. John 12:48-50

John 12:48–50 CSB

The one who rejects me and doesn’t receive my sayings has this as his judge: The word I have spoken will judge him on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a command to say everything I have said. I know that his command is eternal life. So the things that I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

So essential to Christian life are the twin practices of prayer for guidance and serious reading and meditation on God’s Scripture. For in the words of Jesus to the Devil in response to his temptation in Matthew 4:4 “…Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

2. Giving God's Way

How many of you have ever been responsible for a company card, or able to charge to a company account? There’s a big difference between spending your own money and the company’s money. For example, suddenly I’m much more aware of the cost of each sanding sponge and each roll of plastic I use when painting my house than I was when I was charging them to Kesa painting as a professional painter. It’s easier to be a big spender when it’s someone else’s money, whether that’s right or wrong. Yet there’s also a responsibility associated with being able to charge something to the company. Knowing that your boss will be looking at the receipt and that you’ll need to be able to justify what you’ve purchased if you’re questioned on it.

Well what if I told you that even when you’re spending your own money in a way you’re spending someone else’s money? That’s because we believe as Christians that everything ultimately belongs to God, even the money in your bank account. James 1:17

James 1:17 CSB

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

This is the heart behind the commandments surrounding possessions in the Old Testament law. The practice of “offering firstfruits” is found in Exodus 23:19a

Exodus 23:19 CSB

“Bring the best of the firstfruits of your land to the house of the Lord your God. “You must not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

When you first bring in a harvest, give it to God. This is a reminder that it was God who gave you the harvest in the first place. It’s a reminder that it doesn’t really belong to you in the first place, and that God has simply given you stewardship of your resources.

This is why Jesus so often spoke about the proper use of and perspective on money. Consider the parable of the talents, which were a denomination of money in the time of Jesus. We find this story in Matthew 25:14-30, but I will summarize it for you. Basically there is a master with three servants who leaves to go on a journey. He leaves 10 talents to one servant, 5 to another and 1 to the last. The first two servants double his money, but the third buries the talent and gains nothing. In this parable God is the master and we are the servants. Everything that we have in this life are represented by the talents that he gives to the servants. The question is, what do we do with the resources that God has given us? Do we use them to build up the kingdom and therefore multiply what we have been given, or do we squander what we’ve been given and produce nothing?

When you hear the word “worship” I wouldn’t be surprised if the first thing you think about is music. Even in my case if someone told me the worship was impactful this Sunday I would assume that they meant the music. However, the word worship means giving God the worth that He deserves. Everything that we do should be aimed at giving praise and worth to God, and finances should be no different. So how are we doing at worshipping God with our wallets?

To be clear I’m not just talking about the offering plate here. I don’t like talking about giving money to the church too much because I have a conflict of interest there obviously, but giving to the church is just one aspect of honoring God with your money. Obviously I think providing for the needs of the church is important, but giving to missions, giving money to the poor, supporting Godly causes, and taking financial care of your family are all a part of honouring God with your wealth.

In case you don’t believe me on that last one, consider the words of 1 Timothy 5:8

1 Timothy 5:8 CSB

But if anyone does not provide for his own family, especially for his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

So even if you’re giving all your money to missions, if you aren’t careful to take good care of your family than you’re “worse than an unbeliever” in the words of Scripture.

Really this is all the same point as the first one if you think about it. Spending money and allocating resources is just one category of decisions that you make in your day to day life. If you’re doing life God’s way than that includes financial decisions by default, but God knows His Children and that we are often quick to honour Him with our mouths and slow to honour Him with our resources. In the words of the famous reformer Martin Luther, “There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the conversion of the mind, and the conversion of the purse.”

3. Enduring God's Way

Now this point could be understood actually in two ways. It could be understood in the same way as the first two points, meaning that we should endure things the way God tells us to. On the other hand, it could be understood as meaning having the endurance to withstand living life God’s way. Although both principles are present in the Bible, the second is meant here when we consider Proverbs 3:11-12

Proverbs 3:11–12 CSB

Do not despise the Lord’s instruction, my son, and do not loathe his discipline; for the Lord disciplines the one he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights.

Now these verses in their context set up an interesting tension. On the one hand we are told that living life God’s way will lead to health and spending resources God’s way will lead to abundance, and now we’re told not to hate God’s discipline. You’ll remember we talked about the fact that life doesn’t have any guarantees and that you could theoretically do everything right and still have hardships? Well one of the reasons that we endure hardship is actually so that God can disciple us through His discipline. The value of suffering is that it can make us into better disciples Romans 5:3-5

Romans 5:3–5 CSB

And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

So God allows us to suffer so that we can grow, in the same way a loving father will discipline a child, sacrificing the happiness and freedom of a moment to reap a harvest of character in the future. Hebrews 12:3-13 reiterates this idea in the New Testament

Hebrews 12:3–13 CSB

For consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, so that you won’t grow weary and give up. In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives. Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Furthermore, we had human fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn’t we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but he does it for our benefit, so that we can share his holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated but healed instead.

This means that whenever we face suffering despite our best efforts to live according to God’s way than we can look for the lesson in our suffering. Not that everything bad that happens to us is made to happen expressly for the purpose of God building our character, though it is possible that that’s sometimes the case, but God can and will USE every bad thing that happens to us to build our character. That’s what Paul was getting at when he said in Romans 8:28

Romans 8:28 CSB

We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

This is said in the context of Paul talking about the benefit of suffering with Christ. So if you are doing your best to live by Proverbs 3:5-10 and you’re experiencing Proverbs 3:11-12, take heart that God is building you up so that you can be more like Jesus and bring glory to Him, glory that we will one day share in the New Heaven and New Earth

Conclusion

So it’s probably pretty unsurprising to say the least if I told you that Jesus is the man who has best kept all the commands of Scripture. Pretty obvious, that’s why He was qualified to die on behalf of sinful mankind, because He was the perfect sacrifice. Well Proverbs being part of the inspired Scriptures means that Jesus also lived perfectly the principles described in the book of Proverbs. That means that He is our ultimate example of how to live according to Proverbs 3:5-12.

Even as God Himself we know that He trusted the Father completely, and did nothing unless the Father told Him to do it and said nothing unless the Father told Him to say it. We also know that Jesus’ father was a tradesman and taught Him a valuable trade, but He gave up His career and all His means to live off the support of other people and focus on building the Kingdom of God. In this way He honoured God with His possessions, giving them all for the sake of His ministry. Finally we know that He did not despise the discipline of the Father, but rather having earned no discipline Himself took our discipline on His own shoulders, suffering and dying on our behalf so that we could be restored to relationship with the Father. The Father literally Disciplining His Beloved Son in Whom He Delights, which is exactly what the Father speaks over Jesus after His baptism, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

So as really with every other sermon the main point here is that we need to be more like Jesus, and the way to do that is to turn everything over to God, seeking His will instead of our own even with our possessions and even if it means suffering His discipline. Let’s read this passage one last time with these principles in mind.