INTRODUCTION
• In just 30 minutes each week, we can show YOU how to achieve YOUR goals. YOU matter - success is living a happy, healthy, full life. Private telephone and e-mail coaching combine with assessment profiles to ensure YOU get where YOU want to be... (http://helpyougrowcoaching.com/index.htm?source=life+coach&gclid=CMCB1LTL44sCFQZKYQodRiz_SA)
• There are more and more people who are using the services of what is called a “Life Coach.”
• With roots in executive coaching, which itself drew on techniques developed in management consulting and leadership training, life coaching also draws from a wide variety of disciplines, including sociology, psychology, career counseling, mentoring, and numerous other types of counseling.
• The coach applies mentoring, values assessment, behaviour modification, behaviour modeling, goal-setting, and other techniques in assisting clients. Coaches are to be distinguished from counselors, whether counselors in psychotherapy or other careers. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_coaching)
• People like Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankee’s uses the services of a life coach to help him make good decisions and to help reach personal goals.
• People are looking for answers in life; they are looking for the motivation to carry on with life.
• I believe that many people want to life what they consider a successful life.
• People are looking to books. Life coaches, various religions, among other things for the answers.
• Today I want to begin a 5 part mini-series entitled “Five Things To know.”
• As Christians, there are many things we need to know about our life in Christ. I want to focus in on five things that were shared with me a long time ago as I started out wanting to become a minister.
• The next five weeks will deal with scriptures that are “life scriptures”. These are passages that can have a profound affect on our lives if we will memorize them and follow them.
• SLIDE #1
• The first of the 5 things we need to know is that we have a life coach.
• As we go through these 5 things we need to know, I want to encourage you to take the time to memorize the main text each week.
• These passages will be a blessing to you when you struggle through some of the challenges that life has to offer to you.
• Christians do not have to search all over the place looking for guidance; we have the guidance we need to succeed in life from our God.
• Today as we look at Proverbs 3:5-6, we will see that God makes a promise, but that promise has three conditions for us to maintain.
• SLIDE #2
SERMON
We must:
I. GIVE THE COACH A 100% COMMITMENT.
• If want to enjoy the benefits of having the ultimate life-coach, we have to be 100% committed to Him.
• Look with me at what part of verse five tells us.
• SLIDE #3
• Proverbs 3:5 (NASB) 5Trust in the LORD with all your heart…
• This part of the text is part of the commitment we are called to make if we are going to enjoy the benefits of having the ultimate life coach.
• What does it mean to trust? It means that we put our full confidence in something.
• To trust means that we are willing to set our hope and confidence in God.
• In Proverbs 3:5, we are told our trust is to be put in the Lord.
• Why do we have such a hard time with the issue of trust?
• WE struggle with trust because we have been lied to, deceived, and used so many times; it is hard for us to trust.
• When it comes to the issue of trust, what does the writer of Proverbs tell us concerning how MUCH we are supposed to trust in the Lord?
• We are called to trust Him with ALL OF OUR HEART!
• We cannot have a 75% commitment to trusting God and then expect to fully receive the guidance we all want for our lives.
• When we partially trust God what happens?
• He will guide us in a certain direction and because we are not 100% committed to trusting Him; we deviate from His perfect plan and will for our lives.
• When we do not give God a 100% commitment to trust Him we are hurting ourselves.
• If we decide not to trust the Lord with all of our hearts, then who are we going to trust? Let me ask you this, “Who is better the trust than the Lord”?
• Who knows you better than God, who better to know what is best for you than God?
• We cannot be afraid to approach God.
• When we were living on Auburn, I had a tendency to feed stray cats. I had a cat and I like cats. My only stipulation to the cats was that if I fed them, I got to pet them.
• We had this yellow cat who would come around our yard who would meow from a distance when I saw me put out the food for Boy.
• It took a long time to gain the cat’s trust. I had to take small steps to gain his trust. Finally as we were getting close to moving, I got to pet the cat, then I started putting a bowl of food out for the cat.
• Rach named the cat “Blade of Grass”, I called him blade for short.
• The point is, when the cat decided to trust me, he no longer had to go hungry and unloved.
• It took me a long time to fully trust God’s direction in my life. There are times I still struggle with it.
• When I was called to leave the comfort and safety of Square D Company to go into ministry, it was hard to fully trust God.
• When we decide to fully trust God, the blessings will be well worth the trust we give to Him.
• Trust the Lord with ALL your heart!
• The second thing we must do is…
• SLIDE #4
We must:
II. TRUST THE COACH’S PLAYCALLING.
• If we are going to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, what are we going trust him to do?
• Let’s look at some more of verse five.
• SLIDE #5
• Proverbs 3:5 (NASB) …And do not lean on your own understanding.
• We HAVE to trust that the path laid out for us. When God calls a play for us, we have to trust Him enough to follow it.
• The tendency is to follow divine guidance only when it agrees with human logic or with what our flesh wants to do.
• SLIDE #6
• 1 Corinthians 2:14 (NASB) 14But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
• If going to receive the guidance and direction we desire to have to live life, we need to quit leaning on our own understanding, we have to quit finding support in our own understanding.
• Trust means that we lean on God.
• We have to know that His ways are the BEST ways for us.
• At best man’s understanding of life is unsound, indecisive, and uncertain.
• The phrase “lean on your own understanding” is a metaphor meaning to have confidence in something.
• I believe it was last season when I was coaching Rachel’s ASA team. She was on of our pitchers. For a pitcher, your pride tells you that you should pound hitters inside to show who owns the plate.
• The problem with this philosophy is if you do not have a blazing fastball, you will get burned if you miss over the plate a couple of inches.
• I started having Rachel pitch on the outer edge of the plate, and coming inside only when we needed to knock someone off the plate.
• She did not like it. She told me she was tired of throwing on the outer part of the plate. Then I pointed out to her that she was VERY successful pitching there. Finally she trusted me and did well. When we did not struggle with the play-calling or pitch selection, things worked out well.
• When we allow our pride or our own understanding to get in the way of God’s path for our life, we will struggle. We need to trust that when God calls a pitch for us, that it is the right pitch!
• The third thing we must do is…
• SLIDE #7
We must:
III. REMEMBER WHO HELPS YOU WIN.
• When we experience success in life, it is easy to forget why we were successful or it is easy to forget who helped us to be successful.
• Let’s look at part of verse 6.
• SLIDE #8
• Proverbs 3:6 (NASB) 6In all your ways acknowledge Him…
• What does it mean to acknowledge Him in all our ways?
• It simply means that we are to consult His will, seek His direction, and recognize His sovereignty over our lives.
• We are called to do this in EVERY area of our lives.
• Some folks will say your faith is a private thing. In some ways it may be, BUT, God has NEVER told us, implied, or wanted us to separate our faith from ANY part of our lives.
• When we have a relationship with God through Jesus, we soon realize that God demands sovereignty over EVERY area of our lives.
• WE cannot be religious at church and then leave this place only to live our lives leaning on our own understanding Monday thru Saturday!
• Part of the reason this passage is worded the way it is, is so that we do not get into the situation of acknowledging God only in formal worship or during crises in life.
• Every aspect of our lives MUST be focused on God and His will for our lives.
• As we are living our lives, we cannot forget why we are where we are.
• WE cannot forget to acknowledge God in EVERYTHING we do.
• This acknowledgment is not theoretical in nature; it is the way we are called to live the life for Jesus!
• Now, guess what kind of blessing we receive as we are striving to follow what God has asked us to do!
• SLIDE #9
Then we know:
IV. THE COACH WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!
• Once and a while, as a coach I would make a wrong call or I would make a bad judgment call that would let the team down.
• The great thing about God is that He will never let us down!
• Look at the rest of verse 6 with me.
• SLIDE #10
• Proverbs 3:6 (NASB) …And He will make your paths straight.
• The basic meaning of this is that when we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, and do not lean on our own understanding and in all of our ways acknowledge Him, He will remove the obstacles which will impede our progress.
• Our walk with Him will be full of joy and blessings.
• It does not mean we will never struggle or that we will never face adversity, but it means that God will fight the battle for us.
• The battle belongs to the Lord!
CONCLUSION
• How would like to have the ultimate life-coach?
• Think about a life-coach who can give you the BEST counsel in EVERY area of your life, a life-coach who will never lead you astray!
• Guess what, when you belong to Christ, you have one!
• You do not have to wander in the desert, as we will see next week, all you have to do is ask!
• Who is your life-coach? If is not the creator of heaven and earth, let me introduce you to my life-coach Jesus!
