Allowing God to direct your life - Proverbs 3:5-6

Title: Allowing God to direct your life
Date: February 17, 2008
Text: Proverbs 3:5-6

Story

- I want to tell the story of homeless man at In-and-Out in Carson City
- Visited the restaurant while we were on a drive down through the Carson Valley
- Dianne and I had just ordered our meal
- Saw the homeless man sitting there with just a small cup of water - I felt a prompting to go buy him a meal - At the same time, Dianne said, let’s buy that man a meal
- So Dianne went and found a seat and I went up to the man and asked if he would like something to eat
- He said yes, he hadn’t eaten all day
- I asked what he would like, went to the counter and placed the order - Then I gave him the slip to claim his food
- I went back to Dianne with our own meal, only a lady was sitting there with her
- This lady had come up to Dianne, all remorseful, and told her that the Lord had told her to give that man a meal
- But she had felt uncomfortable at the idea of her as a lady on her own, talking to the homeless man
- Dianne said, that’s OK, God got it sorted out anyway, and the man now had a meal
- The lady then said, but you don’t understand, I am a pastor
- Dianne replied, so are we
- The lady then said, I am a pastor in the Foursquare denomination
- Dianne was amazed and said, so are we!
- The odds against this happening were amazing!
- This lady was the pastor of a small church up in the mountains, and she was just on her way back after a visit to family in Winnemucca
- In her church was a group of ladies knitting hats and scarves, but they did not know what to use them for
- Dianne told her about our homeless ministry, and the lady offered to send us the hats and scarves, for the homeless
- 2 weeks ago there was a large box sitting on our doorstep, full of hats and scarves
- We handed them out last Sunday, down at the river, along Galletti Way
- (Show samples of hats and scarves)
- This is an example of following God’s direction
- Prov 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.”

1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart – v.5

- Trust in the Lord
- Trusting someone else can be difficult
- We have learned not to trust
- Man has let us down
- We all have feet of clay
- All of us have inherited the sinful nature that came as a result of the fall
- Psalm 146:3 and 118:8 say not to put our trust in man
- But 1 Cor 10:13 tells us “God is faithful”
- We can trust our maker
- Num 23:19 God is not a man that he should lie

- With all your heart
- With all your heart means total surrender
- When we first accept Jesus we give him our all
- But then the world encroaches on our life
- Bit by bit our first love starts to cool down
- We need to continually turn back to God and get that fire that we had at the start
- Acts 13:22 David a man after God’s own heart – he made big mistakes but he was totally surrendered to God
- James 1:8 God wants us to trust him, with all our heart, not half-heartedly

2. Lean not on your own understanding – v.5

- It often seems like something unusual
- It doesn’t make sense to go feed a homeless person
- We don’t associate with them, we can’t spare the money, all kinds of excuses
- God says, just go and do it! Just be obedient
- We need God’s direction in our lives
- But sometimes that direction does not make sense
- Genesis 12 - Like when God told Abraham to leave home and travel to an undetermined destination
- Abraham didn’t argue the point – he just went and did it – he was obedient
- So when you have an inner prompting to do something or say something, that is OK per the Bible, even if it seems strange, it may be from the Lord
- Don’t lean on your own understanding

3. In all your ways acknowledge him – v.6

- In everything you do, involve God
- This means walking closely with him
- When you rise in the morning, spend time with him
- Ask him for direction for the day, to guide your steps and use you as he sees fit
- Be aware that he may have assignments for you and be aware of promptings he gives you
- He won’t tell you to go and stab someone in the back, or steal from someone, or lust after someone
- The thoughts we have can be influenced from three other sources – our own mind, society, and even the enemy
- The things God says will be approved by his Word the Bible
- So you need to test your thoughts, is this something God would say and approve of - Isaiah 8:20
- Involve God in all you do, have a prayerful relationship with him
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – pray continually

4. He will direct your paths – v.6

- Then we are promised that God will direct our paths
- God starts with the little things
- He says that if we are faithful in little, we will be faithful also in much - Luke 16:10
- So if we show God we are faithful in small assignments such as feeding a homeless person, he will give us other things to do
- He tells us he will direct our paths - This means he will give us direction
- That direction may be for an immediate event
- On the other hand it may be direction for our life’s goals
- I often hear from people, how do I know what God’s purpose is for my life
- God’s purpose for us is described in Micah 6:8 – to walk humbly with your God
- When we do this, he will show us the way to go – he will direct our paths

Communion

- Sometimes that path is not where we would want to go
- Jesus is the supreme example of this
- Luke 22:42 - In the garden of Gethsemane he prayed to the Father, if it would be possible to not have to go through with the crucifixion
- Yet he said to the Father, yet not my will but yours be done
- Just an hour or so before, he sat down with the disciples and performed a ceremony with them which would remind them of the most important aspect of his ministry
- Luke 22:17-20 “Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, "Take this and divide it among yourselves; 18 for I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes." 19 And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." 20 Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.