“MAKING YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT”
“Straightening up your life”
Proverbs 3:5-6
Fr. Christopher M. Nerreau
Introduction: (Read passage)
Opening Remarks:
• Recently I was reminded of an essay written by George Orwell. In it he recalls eating a peanut butter and jam sandwich out on his deck. A fly landed on the sandwich and began sucking on the jam. At that moment George cut the fly in half, but the fly kept on eating the jam and as Orwell put it – “a tiny stream of jam trickled out of his severed esophagus.” Only when it attempted to fly away did it realize the gravity of the situation. Many people have much in common with this fly. Severed from their souls, but greedy and unaware, people continue to consume life’s sweetness. Only when it’s time to fly away will they gasp their dreadful condition.
• Today do you get the sense that your life out of control? Are you like the fly, attempting to eat the jam of this life and unaware of the gravity of your condition? Unaware that the paths of your life are crooked.
Proposition: God has provided a way for us to make our paths straight, to have lives that are Holy and set apart.
Interrogative sentence: Are you interested in making the crooked paths of your life straight today?
Sermon Preview: It is my goal in our sermon time today to show you how you can make the paths of your life straight. This is a process that includes three things:
1. Trusting God With All Our Hearts (v.5)
2. Leaning not on Our Own Understanding (v.5)
3. Acknowledging Him in all we do (v.6)
Transitional Sentence: Let me show you what I mean as we see…
I. TRUST IN GOD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS (v.5)
Explanation: The bible tells us that in order to make the paths of our life straight we first must trust in God with all our hearts. But what does it mean to trust? –
• We are called to trust God with our lives
• We are called to trust God with our loved ones
• TRUST - “assured reliance on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something one in which confidence is placed.”
o We are called to “lean” on God, to put our full weight upon Him.
o We are called to believe in His promises:
Not forsake us – THE BIBLE SAYS: “I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.”
THE BIBLE SAYS :“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”
• WITH HOLE HEART – The heart is representative of the entire being
o Our lives Our REASON All we do and all we are!
o Our finances Our Health OUR WHOLE HEARTS
o Our loved ones Our Futures OUR ETERNAL LIFE
Illustration: We have to trust in things everyday –
• We trust our chairs to hold us up
• We trust the tires on our car to stay inflated
• We trust airplanes to make it from point “a” to point “b”
• We trust the roofs on our house will not cave in
• You trust a broken sinner to preach this sermon…
In our passage today we are called to have this same assured reliance upon God that we have in so many other areas of our life. IF WE CAN PUT OUR TRUST IN A 14 YEAR OLD FAST FOOD COOK, CAN WE NOT TRUST IN GOD?
• What is really being said – WHERE GOD PUTS A PERIOD LET NO MAN PUT A QUESTION MARK!
Application: To trust in God with your whole heart means we must do an overhaul on the system we have in place now.
We trust our friends, our doctors, our accountant and ourselves. We have a system of trust that we have built, but it must be set aside to make room for God.
• Friends will violate your trust
• Family will violate your trust
• Clergy will violate your trust
• Unfortunately even your own spouse can violate your trust.
• But the promise of God is that even in difficult situations, even when it does not make sense and especially when it hurts – GOD IS TRUSTWORTHY.
• Today I wanted to begin by asking you – Do you trust God with your whole heart? What I mean is –
o When things are good do you trust Him?
o When things are bad do you trust Him?
o When things turn out differently than you thought they should do you trust Him?
o If you look at the sun rise and set daily, the tide coming in and out daily without fail. The night sky, the orbiting planets, the laws that govern the Earth (gravity) you find that they never fail. They illustrate the trustworthiness of God.
o When we put our trust in Him, the only one who can see the beginning and the end, the our paths will begin to grow straight.
Transitional Sentence: So in order to get the paths of our life straight we must first TRUST IN GOD WITH ALL OUR HEARTS but we must also…
II. LEAN NOT ON OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING (v. 5)
Explanation: We find in this statement a very sad truth. We most often put our trust not in God but ourselves and our own limited understanding of situations, people, motives, intentions etc…
• To put trust in ourselves, to “Lean” on our own understanding is to prop ourselves up into the position of God.
A. To Lean -
• The word lean can mean a few different things:
i. To move in a certain direction - In this case the bible is warning us not to move in this direction or that by our own understanding.
ii. To put ones full weight upon something – We lean upon our own understanding when we give our limited knowledge great credence.
iii. Could have to do with our opinions – For example we lean toward this candidate or that for president. God is warning that we should not lean or be persuaded toward our own understanding but rather His.
B. Understanding -
• Understanding – Literally means our “Mental grasp” of things. God is calling us to set aside what we by our own mental grasp think we comprehend and to TRUST HIM.
• What is being said is that we in and of ourselves with our limited understanding of things are not worthy to be trusted, to be LEANED UPON for true understanding.
Illustration: I think what is being said can be illustrated nicely by the side mirrors of our cars. The mirror tells us one thing but the words on the bottom of the mirror correct us. “VEHICLES ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR.” We get insight from the mirror but we trust in the caption below the mirror.
• In the same way we can indeed get insight from life but we lean not on our perceptions and understanding but rather trust in the caption below – “God’s ways are not our ways, His ways are far superior to ours.”
Application:
• Today, when you are faced with difficult decisions who do you turn to first?
• Do you even consult God? Or do you simply lean on your own understanding of the situation?
• How’s that working for you so far? Today we have been given the command to scour the scriptures, to pray and to seek God’s understanding and His will for our lives.
• YOU CANNOT SEE THE BEGINNING FROM THE END, YOU ARE NOT TRUSTWORTHY!
• THE REASON THE PATHS OF YOUR LIFE ARE CROOKED IS BECAUSE YOUR TAKING ADVICE FROM YOURSELF, A BROKEN, SINFUL HUMANBEING.
• ONCE WE GET THIS, AND ONCE WE BEGIN TO LISTEN AND HEAR GOD, THEN WE ARE CALLED TO OBEDIENCE…
Transitional Sentence: So we see that they way to straighten the paths of our lives begin with TRUSTING IN GOD and DISTRUSTING OUR OWN UNDERSTANDING but lastly we must …
III. ACKNOWLEDGE GOD IN ALL WE DO (v.6)
Explanation: The word Acknowledge in its Hebrew form literally means to recognize the authority of God.
• So what is being said is that we are to recognize the authority of God in every single situation of life.
• That God has total authority over all our decisions as the Lord over all creation.
Illustration: When someone is on life support the hospital recognizes only a single person to make decisions for the sick person. This person has full authority over every single decision that is made in the care of the sick person.
In a similar sense we are surrender any perceived authority we have over to God, that He is the care giver and sole (soul) decision maker of our lives. We are sick; we cannot make decisions for ourselves, we need someone who can see clearly to make decisions for us.
• Saint Paul explains it like this – “Pray without ceasing” 1 Thes. 5:17
• To consider God in every single decision we make regardless of how small or how large.
Application: Why is this even brought up? Why do we even have to be told this today? Unfortunately we invite God into certain areas of our life but in others we exclude Him, usually because we want the object of our desires…
• We say to God – Here you can help but stay out of this area and that!
• Today we see a call to both allow God into every area of life and also to submit to Him in His decisions for us, knowing His plan is far superior to our own.
• Today, what area’s of your life is God excluded from? What are the things you want so much that you do not invite God into the situation.
• Let His light shine in on the situations of your life, through prayer acknowledge Him in all you do.
CONCLUSION:
Restate Proposition: Today we have seen that God has provided a way for us to make our paths straight, to have lives that are Holy and set apart.
Restate Main Points: We are called to:
1. Trusting God With All Our Hearts (v.5)
2. Leaning not on Our Own Understanding (v.5)
3. Acknowledging Him in all we do (v.6)
Final Application:
• I know this is difficult. I know that in many areas we are in love with our sin.
• Today, the question stands – do you want to make the paths of your life straight? Do you want guidance into the way of Peace?
• How do you want to be remembered when your gone? Will you even be remembered at all?
• The way we respond to this sermon will dictate the life that we live and our eternal future…
Final Illustration:
Just to close with some practical applications –
• When our flights are canceled – We do not lose our peace but trust in the Lord.
• When God calls us to give and we have no money – Lean not upon your own understanding.
• When we want to chase after a sin with all our might – Acknowledge Him and the passage says…
(V.6) - “AND HE WILL MAKE YOUR PATHS STRAIGHT!!!”
