Becoming Wise

Father, your word calls us to be very countercultural.

And Father, we confess before you that we breathe in the air of our culture

and we're formed by our culture.

And it makes us hard to understand your word sometimes.

And it makes us, Father, not even want to understand your word

or to give advice which goes against what you've said.

And so, Father, we confess that before you.

We ask that you would bring your word home to us in a powerful way,

that you would bring Jesus home to us in a powerful way,

that you would make us disciples, Father, of Jesus,

who are gripped by the gospel and who are learning to live for your glory

and the furtherance of your kingdom.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So just a bit of a warning. I'll talk about this more in a second.

I'm going to take a very big risk in the service today,

so hopefully you'll all like me by the end.

But I'm going to take a big risk.

But before we do that, if you could put up the scripture text for today.

Let's just read this and then we'll say something.

If you could all read this text with me, that would be great.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

I gave my life to Christ and became a Christian when I was in grade 12.

And just after I gave my life to Christ, I met an older man and he gave me a little book.

And in the book, it was sort of like first steps in following Jesus.

And some of those first steps were that I was encouraged or basically told or admonished to memorize.

I think it was 10 different scripture passages.

I have to confess I cannot remember what most of those 10 scripture passages were.

But I actually do remember three of them.

And I can't quite always.

I sort of when I say them, I get them a bit mixed up.

But I remember three of them.

One of them, in fact, would sort of almost, if I was to have a life verse, some Christians talk about having life verses.

And if I was to have a life verse, it would be this.

It was the very first passage of scripture I ever memorized.

Because I took the older man's advice.

I did try to memorize some of these Bible passages.

And one of them was this one.

Romans 12, 2.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And I memorized that text.

I come to it many times.

And in many ways, I definitely don't live that verse perfectly.

But if there was to be a verse that was the theme of my life, it would be that one.

All because this older guy told me that I should try to memorize the Bible.

Another text, which I do remember, was part of, I think, that was 10 different texts.

It's actually the scripture text we're going to look at next week at the end of our sermon series on looking at different verses that we could memorize.

It's 1 Corinthians 10, 13.

Many of you have probably memorized this text as well.

And it goes like this.

Oops.

It would be helpful if I had the right page.

There we go.

It goes like this.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to human beings.

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.

But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

And I've memorized that text.

I say it.

I get it all messed up.

But I'm old, so I've read this text and sort of memorized it in the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version, the NIV, the NASB, and the ESV.

So I often get texts all messed up when I try to say them off by heart.

And the third verse, which has been really, really, really, really important and precious to me, is this verse up here.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

In fact, I really have only one goal for this sermon.

And so if you sort of catch this goal right now, and then you all fall asleep because I put you to sleep, I've at least accomplished what my hope is.

And my hope is that this verse will become precious to you.

That trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.

That that will be a verse of scripture that you'll want to memorize, that you'll want to pray, that you'll want to live.

And that's my whole hope of this sermon, is that you'll recognize how important and precious this verse is.

Now, there's a big, big, big, big problem with this verse, which I'm going to try to bring out a little bit.

Because, you see, the problem is when we all Christians get together, it's all simple to say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That sounds good.

But then we go out.

And this verse is profoundly countercultural.

It's deeply, deeply, deeply countercultural.

For old Christians like me, I've been a Christian a long time now.

Grade 12 was a very, very long time ago for me.

And so for old Christians like me, it's comforting to read this and to pray it and to think about it and to try to live it.

And I really do try to live it.

I often fail, but I really do try to live it.

And often when I'm getting messed up, it's as if the Holy Spirit says, George, you've got to get back to that verse.

You've got to read that verse.

You've got to pray that verse.

But it's deeply, deeply countercultural.

Just this week, I was in a conversation in a coffee shop.

Somebody just suggested to me that to make it sound more holy, it should be called St. Arbuck's rather than Starbucks.

But I was in a coffee shop and a fellow was talking about this.

You've probably seen it in the news, this huge new sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.

Absolutely shocking, the decades-long systematic abuse of mainly young boys and young men.

Just mind-bogglingly evil.

And so one of the guys that I have regular conversations with in this particular coffee shop, he was talking about it.

And this fellow, he's an immigrant to this country.

He's an immigrant from a Muslim-majority country, although he himself is not a Muslim and he himself would now say that he's an atheist.

And he was talking about this.

He asked me what I thought about it.

And he said, listen, this is the problem of religion.

This is the problem of religion wedded to powerful institutions.

People kiss their brains goodbye.

They kiss their consciences goodbye.

And he said, listen, I'm not dumping on the Roman Catholic Church here.

I said, the problem is in Orthodox Jewish circles.

The problem is in Islam.

The problem is wherever you have religion and you have institutions and people just kiss their brains goodbye.

They harden their hearts.

They submit to all of these things.

And people need to think for themselves.

People need to strengthen their own consciences in the face of institutions like that.

And that's what they need to do.

And you know what he said?

That's so common in our world, isn't it?

Nobody can make you happy but yourself.

Don't trust in other people to make you happy.

Don't let other people's version of happiness tell you what should be happy.

You need to discover happiness for yourself.

You need to discover what's true for yourself.

You need to be true to yourself.

You need to be the captain of your own ship.

You need to chart your own path.

You need to be unique.

Nobody can set any terms for you.

You need to think for yourself and be who you are meant to be and struggle with it.

And that's the message of the world.

Isn't it?

In fact, you know, if you think about it, we still have this text up here.

It's very, very interesting.

Let's just all say this text together.

And then just think about this text.

Here, I better get it in the scripture so I can read along with you.

Say it with me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

Imagine if I was to say to my friend, that's how I live my life after he's complained to me about this.

Give me that little rant.

Like that would fly like a lead balloon.

In fact, you know, if you think about it, here's what's happened in the world.

You know, we know that God doesn't make straight your paths.

So why don't we get rid of that?

Can you get rid of that, Andrew?

There you go.

And you know, the fact of the matter is, is that we know that what you should do.

I mean, look at the sex abuse scandal.

We shouldn't be trusting the Lord with all our heart.

Get rid of that.

And you know what?

Why on earth should we acknowledge him in all our ways?

Isn't that just part of the problem?

Could you get rid of that too?

And now that you got rid of all of it, could you get rid of that first three words?

That's the motto of the world, isn't it?

Lean on your own understanding.

That tattoo will fly.

Nobody will think it's odd.

That tattoo will fly.

Lean on your own understanding.

Don't trust authority.

Don't trust religion.

Don't trust the Lord.

Your own.

Your own heart.

The captain of your own soul.

Lean on your own understanding.

It's the motto of the world.

And it's very, very, very, very, very powerful.

Here's where I'm going to take a big risk.

If you could start to cue it up, we're going to listen to the theme song from Frozen.

And we're going to watch the video in the sing-along version.

I don't want you to sing along.

Some of you, it might be hard not to want to sing along.

I'm taking a risk with this.

You have to give me a bit of mercy.

But remember, what is the motto of the world?

Lean on your own understanding.

This UK version has 1.6 billion views.

The US version has something similar.

That doesn't count just watching the video.

That doesn't count buying the downloads.

That doesn't count Spotify.

That doesn't count owning the album or having the song.

This is billions and billions of views.

So let's listen to it.

Those who are going to be listening to this online, if you go and Google Frozen, the sing-along version,

you can watch that because we can't put it on the tape of the sermon for audio for copyright reasons.

Now listen, that's billions and billions of views.

If you're a guest here, Christians see that the Bible is divided into two parts.

There's the part of the Bible that was written before Jesus came that talks about, sort of sets the stage for Jesus coming.

And then there's the part that tells about Jesus coming and explaining what it means.

The part before Jesus is called the Old Testament.

And the part with Jesus and after is called the New Testament.

And in the Old Testament, there's a very, very wonderful story about the prophet who has to go and meet with God.

And so he goes to meet with God.

And in the story, there's this unbelievably powerful wind that actually can move the rocks around and break things.

But God is not in the wind.

And then the next thing is there's this earthquake that goes all around and things crumble and God is not in the earthquake.

And then there's this spectacular display of fire.

But God is not in the fire.

And then there's a still, small voice like a whisper.

And it's God speaking in the still, small voice like a whisper.

And in a world where Disney, with its genius and its creativity and its song,

How on earth, here, friends, is the great dilemma for us as Christians.

In a world where we have billions of views of frozen,

how on earth can we ever both live and even share?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

And lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him.

And he will make your paths straight.

That is a still, small whisper.

In a world of loud, rushing wind and earthquakes and fire.

That is the discipleship and evangelism challenge right there.

In a very, very powerful way.

Now, you know, here's the thing.

I began by saying that the motto of the world, which is lean on your own understanding.

Lean on your own understanding.

Nobody else's.

It's a very, very powerful thing in the face of so much abuse that's gone on

and so much breakdown that's gone on.

And if you think about it, can't you just see, especially a song like that, you know,

if you're a woman and your husband's just been really, really, really abusive to you,

if you've had to deal with just terrible bosses,

if you're a teenager and you're just in a really unbelievably dysfunctional family,

and maybe it's a very, very religious family, a homeschooling family,

maybe it's a family where you've had three dads over the last few years

because your mom's divorced and has many boyfriends,

but just whatever it is, the family's really, really broken up

and you can see the power that this lean on your own understanding.

Let it go.

No rules.

Be yourself.

Be the self that you were meant to be.

Just embrace the cold.

It didn't bother you anyway.

Just embrace it.

You can see how that's so powerful.

You can see how in some ways, in some contexts, there's some real wisdom in it.

And you can see how it's so powerfully portrayed in our culture.

But here's the problem with lean on your own understanding.

Here's the problem with that.

Is that it doesn't work and it doesn't deliver what it promises.

And that's a really hard thing to say.

And it's something that I could say and most people don't believe me.

But just think for a second of this.

Give you a thought experiment.

Imagine I have a couple and they're in great marital trouble

and they're thinking of separating and getting divorced.

And so they ask me to come and help them and give them some counsel.

And imagine I say to myself,

well, I know exactly the type of counsel I'm going to give,

but I'm going to need my wife to help me.

And I say to this, I'm going to need my wife to help me.

And so basically we come in the house and in one part of the house,

I play the video of Let It Go over and over and over with the guy

and say what you need to do is you need to take this to heart.

You need to take the lyrics of this.

I know it's Ilsa.

I know it's a woman.

But you need to take it to heart.

You need to let it go.

And we spend an hour with him singing along with it.

So he's memorized the words.

He's got the full feeling of it.

And meanwhile, his wife downstairs is with my wife doing the exact same thing.

How do you think their marriage is going to work

after two of them have taken that song in so perfectly?

Do you think it'll fix their marriage?

They'll be divorced within a month.

I mean, unless in an odd way they discover that they both like the song

or something like that.

The lyrics suck, but I like watching the movie.

I don't know.

I mean, in an odd way maybe that will work.

But can't you just see that if you take that advice

and you think about it how so much trouble in our world

is precisely because of the motto, lean on your own understanding.

You see, on one hand, what do we want in the world?

We want to lean on our own understanding.

But at the same time, what do we want?

We want relationship.

We want, you know, I've talked to so many young secular people in coffee shops.

And when you get talking and you get maybe past some of the cynicism

and the despair that some of them might have,

deep down so many of them say, someday I would like to marry.

And when I marry, I'm hoping that it will be for life.

And we want relationship.

We want friends.

We want to belong.

Yet, how on earth is it going to work

if everybody in the marriage is singing, let it go?

How is it going to work if you come in and your boss, that's their motto.

She completely and utterly believes it.

You see, the problem with this is that this song,

and lean on your own understanding it,

the problem is as that becomes deeper and deeper into our consciousness,

what happens, and we see it in our culture right now,

isn't one of the problems in our culture

is that people fracture themselves into little echo chambers.

And it's because for this week, this minute, this month,

this echo chamber is exactly in tune with my understanding,

but then it starts to change,

and then we have to go to another one,

and we send angry tweets and get on social media,

and you can't lean on your own understanding.

You can't have let it go as your anthem

and have a good relationship with your teenagers

or with your husband or your wife

or with your employees or your bowling club,

because that only works if there's only one person in the room

who's like that and everybody else has to put up with it,

but we're all singing it.

And so there's endless conflict and the breaking down of community.

So I just want to suggest to you that it might be,

if you could put up the scripture text again,

could you say this with me?

It's a still small voice, but if you could say it with me.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways, acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Now, some of you say, well, what's up, George?

This doesn't work.

Okay, so you showed some problems

with lean on your own understanding.

I can sort of get that.

You showed some problems with it,

but come on, George.

Look at the room here.

I'm going to put you all down.

Do you think this room of Christians

are living this text?

They don't look that successful to me.

They don't look like they're always straight up

about what God's will is for their lives.

Like, what's going on with this text?

Like, how on earth can you,

I possibly believe that this is something

that I could live that points me in a different way?

Like, George, what's up with that?

Well, here, if you could put up the first point, Andrew.

Here's the first thing for us to understand

about this text.

This proverb is not a recipe.

It's not a rule.

It's not a law.

It's not a technique.

It is the Lord's call to embark on a quest.

This proverb, and by the way,

this is what basically all proverbs are.

That's what the literary form is.

They're not recipes.

They're not rules.

They're not laws.

They're not techniques.

Like, what a technique is,

is like if you go to a bank machine,

it's a perfect example.

You know that there's a series of steps

that you follow,

and by the end of the step,

you've got your cash balance

or you've got your money

or you've moved your money around.

It's going to a computer programmer

who gives you all of the different steps

so that the app will work

or the function will work.

And it's not a rule.

It's not a law.

It's something different.

And it's something different

because God wants to do something

with human beings.

He wants to make us more human.

And to be human,

in terms of what God's intention is,

it's going to have to be something more

than just following rules

or just learning techniques

or learning recipes.

In fact, if you think about it for a second,

if you look at this text,

if you could go back up to the text,

Andrew, that would be wonderful.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding

and all your ways acknowledge him

and he will make straight your paths.

This text, which was written before Jesus comes,

it actually launches things,

if you think about it.

It doesn't say trust in the patriarchy.

It doesn't say trust the tribe.

It doesn't say trust the institution.

It doesn't say trust the powerful people.

It doesn't say trust fate.

It doesn't say trust the cycle of life.

It doesn't say trust abstract moral rules.

It doesn't say trust the techniques.

It says trust in the Lord.

And trust is a personal word.

It's a relational word.

It says trust in the Lord.

Trust in a person.

Trust in the one who's created all things

and sustains all things

and will bring all things to their proper end.

And so it doesn't work.

There's a real promise in there

that the Lord will make your paths straight.

But it says something more

and it's a quest

because, you see,

here's what a quest is.

The best example from us moderns

or post-moderns about what a quest is

is if you read Lord of the Rings.

He's not on an adventure.

On an adventure,

you go through an adventure

and then at the end of things,

like basically,

you know,

maybe there's some justice or whatever,

some experiences,

but then life is sort of back to normal.

But in a quest,

not only does the person change,

but the world changes.

And that's what God calls us to.

It's a quest,

not an adventure,

not to be a tourist,

not to be a magician or a technician,

not to be a lawgiver or a rule giver,

but fundamentally,

he calls us to be on a quest.

And in a quest,

at the end of the quest,

the world will be changed

and you will be changed.

And so when God says,

because I believe the Bible is written by God,

ultimately,

trust in the Lord with all your heart,

lean not on your own understanding,

in all your ways acknowledge him

and he shall make your path straight.

What we're seeing here

is God admonishing us

and encouraging us

to go on a quest.

Now,

just as I,

remember,

I was sharing about the,

one of the things,

you know,

when my friend at the coffee shop,

he talked about this great crisis

in the,

another sexual abuse crisis

in the Roman Catholic Church

and

I actually said something to him.

Like,

I,

I said to him,

I said several things to him.

One of the things I said is,

you know,

the Bible is the great critiquer

of religion and institutions.

And I said,

the,

the wonderful thing about the Christian faith,

I said to him,

is that the,

the Christian faith doesn't call you

to put such

confidence in institutions.

That what the Bible does

is the Bible stands,

I said,

as an outside judgment

on human endeavor

and an outside source of wisdom

on human endeavor.

And that any person

who'd been involved in that,

if they merely read the Bible,

that you shall not,

I mean,

the Bible is very clear

that you're not supposed to have sex

with young boys.

It's a rule.

You just have to follow a rule.

You don't have to be wise.

You just have to follow the rule.

And so it's not that the Bible

doesn't have any rules,

but that the Bible calls us

to something more

than just following rules.

Just,

you know,

you don't have to say to this text,

if I'm thinking about robbing a bank

or beating somebody up

just because I feel like it,

I don't have to say,

oh Lord,

should I be beating this person up?

No,

there's rules about that.

You don't,

don't engage in an act of violence.

You don't cheat on your wife.

Like you don't steal.

You don't rob banks.

There's a few rules.

But life is far more than rules,

isn't it?

Life is far more than rules.

It's,

it's,

it requires wisdom

to figure out how to handle a boss

or how to deal with a fight

that's going on in the family

or how to deal with a fight

that's going on in an institution.

It's not that there's no black

and white in the world.

There is black and white in the world,

but there's also red

and green

and yellow

and orange

and purple

and blue

and chartreuse

and all these other colors.

And,

and the Bible's,

the Bible says

that God's going to launch us

on a quest of wisdom

to live in a world

of many colors

where there is black and white,

but of many colors.

And so that's the power

of this text.

And,

and the reason that we know

that it's a,

it's a,

and,

and,

and to try to fully understand

this quest,

we need to know something

about the whole flow

of the Bible.

You see,

the Bible is an overarching story

and it begins in a very,

very,

very powerful way.

It begins with God,

a personal God

who does exist,

who has a character

and a nature

and a,

and purpose

and who loves

and is creative

and he makes everything

that exists out of nothing.

And he makes this world,

this universe,

he makes it to be the home

for human beings.

And,

there's this very,

very powerful story

in the first couple

of chapters of the Bible

that describes

how God makes human beings,

he makes them to be

at home in this world,

he calls them to be

in a relationship

of,

of marriage

and just of,

of family

and all the other things

that flow from that.

He calls them to

tend the garden

and to,

in a sense,

to tend the earth,

to,

to be creative

and to tend the earth

and to develop things

in the earth

and,

in a sense,

to develop castles

and bridges

and,

and poetry

and music

and,

and song

and story

and,

and dance

and,

and business

and,

and he calls

on human beings

to,

to be creative

and to care

and tend for the entire world

and,

and his whole hope

is that every day

at the end of the day

in the cool of the day

that we human beings,

we were made to walk

in the cool of the day

with other people

and with God

naked and unashamed.

That's how God created

human beings to be,

to tend the earth,

to live well with each other,

to live naked

and unashamed

with God

and others

in his creation

and walk with him

in the end of the day.

And the Bible

has this overarching story

that brokenness

and evil

and sin

and shame

and rebellion

and abuse,

that was created

when human beings

wanted to become like God

and rejected

their creator.

We rejected our creator

and that is this

fundamental breaking

or bending

in what it means

to be human

that happened

way back

in the very, very start

of us human beings

actually being human beings.

And the Bible tells

this wonderful

overarching story

both of how we were created

and what God created us to be

of this tragic break

and even in that tragic break

God instantly shared

a severe mercy

how the day would come

when he would send

a deliverer

because we human beings

could not deliver ourselves.

And what we call

the Old Testament

from Genesis 4

right on to the end

of the Old Testament

is God promising

and God preparing

for the time

when he would send

the one

who would start

to put all things right.

And we Christians

believe that Jesus

is the answer of God.

He is God keeping

his promise

that God,

the Son of God

takes on human nature

and he lives the life

that we were not able

to live

and he pays the price

that we were not able

to pay

and that he is

God's provision

for human beings

to be made right

with him

and he does everything

that has to be done

for us to be made right

with him

because we were bent,

we were twisted,

we cannot do it ourselves

and we receive it

by trusting in him

and as an act of grace

and mercy

God who has done

all that has to be done

to make us right

with himself

through his Son,

he gives that to us

when we hold out our hands,

our arms in faith

saying simply,

you know,

nothing in my hands

I bring,

simply to you

I want to cling

and God reaches

across that infinite distance

between him

and us

and actually makes us

right with him

and takes us

as his child

and begins to change us

and the rest

of the New Testament

is the promise

that God

who begins

this rescue operation

with his Son

that the day will come

when Jesus will return

a second time

and then all things

will be brought

to their proper end

and all will be judged

and there will be

the new heaven

and the new earth

it's also the beginning

but what's it going

to look like

when the new beginning

is there?

When the new beginning

that's there

we will be human

and we will live

in a created order

that is our home

and we will care

and tend for the garden

and we will make music

and song

and poetry

and buildings

and dance

and we will once again

be naked

and unashamed

with other human beings

and walk with God

in the cool of the day

where he will put his hand

on your shoulder

and mine

and say

I am your God

you are my child

it is so good

to walk together

in the cool of the day

and so to make

the type of person

that God is making us into

it means that we need wisdom

it means that we need

to be launched

on a quest

where we learn

to trust in the Lord

with all our heart

and lean not

on our own understanding

and all our ways

acknowledge him

and he will make

your path straight

see that's why

it's not just a matter

of keeping rules

but some of you

might say

I have to sort of

start wrapping this up

okay George

well okay

look at that text

you know

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

it's just talking

about emotions

and stuff like that

just about spiritual stuff

you know

and I'm a guy

I don't know

like do I even have emotions

my wife says

I have emotions

but I don't know

if I have emotions

you know

maybe I have emotions

when in my case

I haven't had to show

my emotions

in a long time

because the Oakland Raiders

have been a lousy football team

for a long time

but I show my emotions

when they win

or something

but this is just about emotions

can you put up the next point

Andrew

this quest will involve

all of your life

all of what makes you you

and all of what you will become

when we learn to pray

and to think through

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

and do not lean

on your own understanding

in all your ways

acknowledge him

and he will make straight your paths

this is a call

not just to your emotions

not just to the spiritual part

of who you are

it's your mind

it's your creativity

it's your affections

it's your will

it's your family

it's your sexuality

it's your money

it's your aging

it's your memory

it's your desires

it's everything

that's meant to be you

this quest will involve

all of your life

all of what makes you you

and all of what you'll become

and it's in this powerful word heart

you see

in that part of the Bible

that we now call

the Old Testament

before the coming of Jesus

every time you see the word heart

what the Bible understood

what God teaches us

is that there's one sort of

central command center

of who we are

and out of that central command center

of who we are

that's where our mind emerges

that's where our creativity emerges

that's where our humor emerges

that's where our desires emerge

that's where our will emerges

that's where our ability to love emerges

that's where our power to do things emerges

that every single thing

that makes you human

emerges out of your heart

and so when the Bible says

trust in the Lord with all your heart

trust him with your memory

your sexuality

your money

your career

your ambition

your past

your future

your dance

your singing

your entrepreneurial ability

your submission

your initiative

all of it emerges

out of the heart

and it says

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding

in all your ways

acknowledge him

the ways of your mind

the ways of your desires

the ways of your creativity

the ways that you tell joke

in all your ways

it's the Bible

launches you

and says

you are to learn

how it means to trust me as Lord

in everything that makes you you

and all that you will become

that's the quest

it's not just a simple rule

or a recipe

it's a quest

to learn how to live that

but some of you say

I don't know George

it still sounds

a little bit

I know

anti-intellectual

like

it says

do not lean on your own understanding

George

doesn't that make it

sort of

anti-intellectual

if you could put up

the next point Andrew

that would be wonderful

actually

sorry

I'm not quite ready

for the next

well you can leave it up there anyway

but

I had something else

I had to say first

you know

it's

actually

take that

go back to the scripture text

sorry Andrew

this is why you have to always be nice to the sound guy

at the beginning of the service

and all the way through

look at the text again

actually

could you say it with me

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

and do not lean

on your own understanding

in all your ways

acknowledge him

and he will make straight your paths

now

if all the Bible said

was lean

do not lean

on your own understanding

it would be very anti-intellectual

in fact

large parts

of eastern thought

is

do not lean

on your own understanding

Christopher Hitchens

in the 80s

was doing documentaries

on different

eastern gurus

that were coming

to the

to the states

to the west

and one of the things

that it was interesting

that he reported

that others didn't report

is that when you were going

to meet the Swami

the guru

there would be a sign

over the door

he recounts one in particular

and it says

leave your shoes

and your mind

at the door

as you go in

do not lean

on your own understanding

that's what they're saying

but the Bible

doesn't just say that

it says

if you just lean

on your own understanding

you're going to get in trouble

and lean on

means to rely on

it's like what we do

with a ladder

going up a ladder

we're leaning

on our own understanding

the Bible says

the problem

isn't just leaning

isn't your understanding

it's leaning

on your own understanding

you need to trust

in the Lord

and acknowledge

means to know him

it is involved in mind

it involves listening

to his word

it involves

looking at how

he communicates

to the order

and wonder of creation

it's a matter

of using your mind

and of thinking

through what it means

that God exists

and what it is

that he says

in his word

and how this applies

to this problem

and this desire

and this longing

and this yearning

and this fear

and this wound

and this need

and it's profoundly

an invitation

to use the mind

that's why

the heart

refers to not only

where other

like our emotions

come from

but also our mind

but some of you

might say

well George

okay the problem is

this whole straight

thing

I mean not just

I mean in a sexual

sense about being straight

I mean

the fact of the matter

is that Christians

don't have successful

and easy lives

and we don't

if you could put up

the next point Andrew

here's the thing

on this quest

the Lord does make

the path

does not make

the path easy

he makes them straight

the straight path

isn't the easy path

if you could put up

the next point Andrew

on this quest

the Lord will do

more than guide

he will make

the paths

straight

you see

in the book

of Proverbs

and in the Old Testament

and in the Bible

the opposite

of the straight path

isn't the hard path

it's the crooked path

the opposite

of the straight path

isn't the easy path

but the path

away from God

the straight path

is the path

that involves

being in God's

presence

under his rule

being in God's

presence

under his rule

that's why this

verse does not

at all contradict

when Jesus says

take up your cross

and follow me

that we can understand

this verse

in a far more

powerful way

sometimes the straight

path will mean

doing very

very

very

very difficult

and hard

things

and sometimes

the straight path

will mean

doing things

which are

completely

nuts

Hudson Taylor

said

God's work

done in God's way

will always

receive God's

supply

and that's

a brilliant

summary

of biblical

teaching

and

you know

some of you

might know

we're looking

into whether

God is calling

us to start

two new

congregations

so you look

around the room

that's the

dumbest thing

to even consider

in the world

from an economic

and sociological

point of view

and Daniel

was sharing

with me

he was listening

to a podcast

this week

about what it

was like

and it scared

him because

it's so much

work

but

you know

if all we

were doing

was being

motivated

purely by

economics

and sociological

processes

you don't do

things like

that

but the

question

isn't

always

economics

and sociological

processes

is what's

the Lord

calling us

to do

and you

see

the thing

about

making

your path

straight

isn't

just

that

God

gives

direction

but he

makes

the path

straight

God's

will done

in God's

way

will receive

God's

supply

every

congregation

every

Christian

is often

being called

to take

risks

of stepping

out in

faith

because

God

is calling

them to

do

something

that makes

no sense

now this

isn't an

invitation

for you

just to

kiss

your brains

goodbye

you know

trusting the

Lord

with all

your mind

will start

to mean

that you

do put

sense

into it

but sometimes

you just

gotta follow

the Lord's

leading

you really

do

and that's

what this

text encourages

us to do

just want

to wrap

this up

because I'm

up to

42 minutes

some people

worry

I've just

said that

this text

is gonna

make us

religious

and weird

it won't

make us

religious

and weird

but it

will make

us

counter

cultural

if you

could put

up the

next point

Andrew

on this

quest

the Lord

will make

you more

human

as you

become

more

humble

and wise

on this

quest

the Lord

will make

you more

human

as you

become

more

humble

and wise

and finally

the final

point

Andrew

the Lord

is trustworthy

so this

quest

will end

with you

being

where you

truly belong

see that's

the wonderful

thing that

the gospel

this

when this

text was

written

Jesus

still

hadn't

come

but now

when we

read this

text

and we

read it

through the lens

of the gospel

we have this

powerful

wonderful promise

we know

that God so loved

the world

that he sent

his one

and only

son

to the end

that all

that believe

in him

will not perish

but have eternal

life

we know that

Jesus

is introduced

as the Lamb

of God

who takes

away the sin

of the world

but he also

teaches John

to teach us

to say

in the beginning

was the word

and the word

was with God

and the word

was God

he was in the beginning

with God

all things were made

through him

and without him

nothing was made

that was made

that the same

Lord who's created

all things

and is sovereign

over all things

the same Lord

saw who you were

completely and perfectly

and still loved you

so much

that he would send

the son

and in the person

of the son

both the father

the son

and the holy spirit

all of God

in a sense

takes into himself

our rebellion

that God

the son of God

does what is needed

to be done

so that we can be

made right for God

and he does this

completely and utterly

out of love

and he rises

from the dead

after doing that

and that can be known

and so we know

that the Lord

is deeply

trustworthy

I think it's in Romans 8

that he says

if he who did not

spare his own son

how will he not

give you all things

we can trust the Lord

please stand

friends

the Lord calls us

to be deeply

countercultural

we breathe

the cultural air

of lean on

your own understanding

we breathe

the cultural air

of let it go

and

in the midst

of such

earthquake

wind and fire

the Lord speaks

to us

with such

apparent weakness

and quietness

through his word

and whispers

to us

and says

trust in the Lord

with all your heart

and lean not

on your own

understanding

in all your ways

acknowledge him

he will make

your path

straight

let's pray

father

we can get

overawed

by the thunder

of the world

the crashing

of the world

the apparent

power of the world

and father

it can

it can really

be overwhelming

and sometimes

it can make us

afraid

and just want

to hide

and and sometimes

we just feel like

we should surrender

to the world

because we don't

want to be

counter-cultural

but father

we we thank you

for your word

we thank you

for Jesus

we ask father

that you would

help us to

to lit

and to learn

this passage

of scripture

that you would

help us to pray

this passage

of scripture

that you help us

to live this

passage of scripture

we thank you father

that you are so

trustworthy

that you are still

sovereign

that you are still

present

that you are still

active and powerful

in the world

that you are still

the God

who so loved

human beings

that you sent

your son to die

and that the gospel

still works

and it still has

power

and so father

we ask that your

holy spirit

would draw us

to your word

and help us

to live

and to pray

and to walk

in this wonderful

quest that we do

not do alone

but do with you

who makes our

path straight

that we would

grow in trusting

you

with everything

that we are

that we would

not just lean

on our own

unaided

understanding

but that we

would acknowledge

you in every

aspect of who

we are

and we thank

you father

that you will

walk with us

and never

abandon us

and that you

will always

care for us

and love us

and you will

make our

paths straight

all these things

we ask in the

name of Jesus

your son

and our savior

amen