INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Today we continue with our series, Binge Reading the Bible.
• This series focuses on how God reveals his will and desires for mankind through each specific section of the Bible.
• Each genre, including the Pentateuch, Historical Books, Wisdom Literature, the Prophets, the Gospels, the Epistles, and Apocalyptic Literature, provides a unique and special way God has communicated throughout history and helps us understand the Bible as a whole.
• The genre we will examine today is Wisdom Literature.
• Through this genre, God reveals his wisdom to humanity through a variety of creative forms, so we can make decisions in a way that pleases him.
• The issue of wisdom is essential for us because we talk a lot about knowing God's will for our life, but then comes the difficult task of knowing how to apply His will to our life.
• Applying God's will in our life is where wisdom comes into play.
• Wisdom is defined as the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.
• Wisdom is more profound than knowledge; it also includes being able to apply that knowledge.
• The five Wisdom books of the Bible are Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.
• These books are also known as poetic literature and highlight the spiritual and practical insights of God’s people throughout history.
• These books include prayers, songs, poetry, and wise sayings meant to teach the reader about how to live a life for God in a wise manner.
• Each book highlights a particular angle of wise living based on a particular theme.
• For instance, the book of Job highlights wisdom through the perspective of suffering, while Proverbs highlights wisdom through the perspective of day-to-day living.
• Today we are going to look at a passage that is one of my favorites, Proverbs 3:5-6.
• Many places within this section of the Bible explicitly teaches on the subject of what it means to attain wisdom.
• For instance, Proverbs 9:10 states, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
• Here we see that the most crucial trait to have when seeking wisdom in your daily life is the fear of the Lord.
• To fear the Lord is not to be afraid of him, but to show reverence for him due to a proper understanding of how great he is.
• Those who fear God understand his capabilities. However, when it comes to summarizing these five books, Proverbs 3:5–6 states the central theme.
• This passage we will dig into today is simple, yet it may be one of the most challenging passages for one to integrate into one’s life IF we do not understand the core principles the passage requires us to grasp.
• Let’s turn to Proverbs 3:5-6 together.
• SLIDE #2
• Proverbs 3:5–6 (CSB) — 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. The path that leads to trusting God.
• When you take a glance at this verse, it sounds so clean, so easy, so simple.
• Proverbs 3:5–6 (CSB) — 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
• Proverbs 3:5-6 is one of the passages I memorized years ago as a core passage to my faith.
• While I was memorizing the passage, I really never thought about the depth of the passage.
• I did not dwell on the depth of the commitment that the passage asks of me.
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• In my view, the lynchpin of the passage is found in the first phrase: Trust in the LORD with all your heart…
• Doesn’t that phrase sound so simple? Does it bring comfort?
• Well, there is the command, let's follow it, and we will receive a great blessing! ?
• The phrase trust in the Lord (16:20; 22:17–19; 28:25; 29:25), and its close associate fear the Lord, is the fundamental definition of wisdom in Proverbs.
• SLIDE #4
• Proverbs 1:7 (CSB) — 7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and discipline.
• Of course, fear is a reference to respect, not scared to death.
• Trusting God as the goal or object means to regard him as the source of wisdom and power in all things and therefore, worthy of your entire confidence.
• The act of trusting is sometimes expressed figuratively as “putting your heart in the hands of” or “laying your liver on someone.” (USB Handbook: Proverbs)
• Trust carries the force of relying on someone for security.
• This trust is also not a BLIND trust; the trust has to be built on something that allows us to KNOW that we can trust God.
• This thought begs the question, what needs to happen before we can reach this point?
• What 's the path we need to follow to get to the point where we can trust the Lord with ALL of our heart?
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• The phrase "With all your heart" means with all your mind, with the full force of the mental faculties, totally and without reservation.
• The first step in being able to trust God to this level is to KNOW GOD!
• Typically, we will not put our trust in any person of whose character we do not know.
• We have to take the time to know God. We get to know Him through the reading and study of the Bible.
• God reveals himself to us through the Bible. The Bible is not some book of fairytale’s, but rather, it is the inspired Word of God!
• Without going into a deep sermon on the reliability of the Word; as a Christian, I accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God.
• SLIDE #5
• Psalm 9:10 (CSB) — 10 Those who know your name trust in you because you have not abandoned those who seek you, LORD.
• Trust requires us to get to know someone; trusting in God is no different. To the level you KNOW Him will be the level of trust you are willing to put in Him.
• When you got to know your spouse is when you truly were able to do the next step, to LOVE.
• The second step in the path to trust is to LOVE GOD!
• When we talk about love at first sight, this is not a depth of love that will carry a person to for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.
• I thought I loved Robyn early on; however, my love deepens each day we are together.
• When we know the character of God, when we know what makes God tick, and how much God loves us, we can truly love Him!
• The deeper the love, the more entire the trust.
• Our Lord Jesus Christ knew His Father (John 17:25) as no creature could know Him, and His love being based upon this profound knowledge, His trust was entire and His obedience perfect, even in His darkest hours.
• As you get to know and love God, your trust will grow.
• This leads to our next thought.
• SLIDE #6
II. The effects of trusting God.
• The main effect of trusting God is that we gain an enormous level of confidence in Him.
• When we trust Him, this trust will have three effects on us.
• First, we will recognize and acknowledge His presence.
• We may be in the presence of a superior and know that we are in his presence, without acknowledging it by showing Him the respect that is due to Him.
• If this is the case, we virtually ignore His existence. A child whose behavior is not respectful to their parents practically ignores them.
• It is one thing to say that we believe in God; it is another to acknowledge His existence by being obedient to Him.
• Why would you trust and obey someone who is not there?
• The second effect of trusting God is that you know He cares about you!
• When we trust Him, we trust His motives for us. We know God not only cares about the human race, but He cares about ME! We tend to trust those who we know to care about us.
• We tend not to trust people whom we know do not care about us.
• The third effect of trusting God is we will then be able to lean on Him.
• 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him,…
• Verse 5 proclaims the heart behind any wise decision that we can make: to trust God with your whole heart and “lean not on your own understanding.”
• Our day-to-day experiences in life are tied to our ability to make decisions and assess the consequences of those decisions.
• When we trust in the Lord fully, it allows us to lean on Him and not our own understanding or interpretation of things.
• This was key in the book of Job, where we hear the story of a man who experienced much strife, loss, and anxiety within a very short period of time.
• The only way he was able to mentally and emotionally handle these events was to trust that God had an ultimate plan other than what he and his friends could see or fathom, or “lean” into.
• Not leaning on our own understanding and trusting our affairs to His guidance and submission of our will to His happens only when we trust Him fully!
• This will be easy and natural in proportion to our knowledge, and love, and conviction that God will not think any of our concerns beneath His notice.
• Our submission will be in the ratio of our confidence—our confidence in the proportion of our knowledge.
• In all your ways KNOW Him or acknowledge Him is another way of saying that I will trust Him enough to submit myself to His will because I know that even if it is more challenging to do so, that God has my back!
• Let’s look at a final thought.
• SLIDE #7
III. The blessing of trusting God.
• SLIDE #8
• Proverbs 3:5–6 (CSB) — 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.
• This does not mean we will not live a problem-free life, but rather that one’s life will have a clear direction and purpose.
• When Abraham set off on his journey, he did not know where he was going, but he knew that God would lead him.
• SLIDE #9
• Genesis 12:1 (CSB) — 1 The LORD said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
• God promised Abram that He would make his path straight!
• Make straight renders a verb that means to smooth out, make level, or remove the obstacles in preparing a roadway. (USB Handbook: Proverbs)
• The phrase also denotes travel made safe by clearing and leveling the road. Making paths straight is also a form of guidance.
• Verse 6 tells us when we acknowledge the Lord in all our ways; He will direct our paths.
• To get to know the Lord in our processes of living, we should observe his statutes and continually pray, and as we do so, God will continue to direct our paths.
• We cannot expect God to direct us if we never communicate with him.
CONCLUSION
• Trust, it is not an easy thing to offer, particularly as we allow life to make us skeptical of being able to trust anyone or anything.
• We have all been burned by someone or something we have trusted.
• When you get to know God, you will learn about how much He loves you, and you will be able to develop a trusting relationship with Him.
• When we need guidance or help with decision-making, or are experiencing suffering, we can use the Wisdom books to learn how to live wisely.
