6/14/26 - Proverbs 3:5-8: In the Uncertainty

Uh you know, a few years back when we were um we were driving through California.

Um kids were young and we I remember turning the corner in uh we were in kind of northern California and I remember turning the corner and seeing um we were going to Yosemite.

I remember turning the corner, going around this bend and seeing like the the the the that little area and where all the granite mountains of Yosemite.

And I remember like I so I this morning I just wanted to remember that moment.

I knew we had a video, uh, and so I went back and watched the video, and it's great because I was I I I was like, whoa, I think I said that, whoa.

And somebody else in the car said, holy, and like it was, and you know, okay, growing up, you know, in our house, we don't say the word holy unless we're talking about God.

Uh, but you know, the word means other, uncommon, right?

And so kind of, I mean, uh I'm not making a case for it, okay?

That's not what I'm here for.

Uh, but but it that that mountain's like half them and all those mountains there, like they are other.

And I remember as we got closer to it, uh, and if you've ever been near something like that, I grew up in the Appalachians where it's just kind of like this, but this is like this.

It's it's it's sheer, right?

In the big waterfall.

And I remember standing beside those huge granite outcroppings and thinking, I am so small.

Uh I am a I am just, I am very, very small.

Uh, and so that you there's a sense of awe and reverence for this huge thing in the sense of, you know, we live most of our lives thinking we're pretty big.

We got this, we're in control.

We look in the mirror, we got this, I can do this.

We stand in front of something like that and say, I can't do this, I'm very small.

And that's good for us to be reoriented and reminded.

And really, this morning, really the next three weeks are all about that.

That we would stand before El Capitan, well, capital C.

I don't know how to spell things.

Uh, but that we would stand before God and say, Oh, like I am small.

We would stand like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 in the vision and say, Whoa am I! His robes fill the temple.

Like I can't believe I ever thought I had this.

That was all an illusion.

Philippians 2, 12 says this.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

You see it on the screen there.

So, what does it mean to walk and work out our salvation in fear and trembling?

It was confusing for me a long time, but you have to understand that those words mean awe and reverence.

So, first we know that our salvation, we also know that our salvation is by faith alone and Christ alone.

It is apart from our work, so that none of us can boast, so that the entirety of our boast is in Christ.

And so all this is for the glory of God.

So, what does it mean we are supposed to now work these things out, work out our salvation in fear and trembling?

Look at the next verse that comes after that.

Philippians 2, 12 through 13.

Again, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling, tied to obedience, right?

13.

For it is God who works in you both to will and work for his good pleasure.

So it is God's work in us for his good pleasure.

So to do this, to work out our salvation with fear and trembling by the power of God in us, we do it to please God.

So again, putting all this, this is just a prologue.

The sermon has not started yet.

Just to let you know where we're at.

Don't get your hopes up.

So again, what does it mean to work out the salvation that we have received by faith apart from works?

It means with awe and reverence, standing in front of El Capitol, like we're standing in front of the mountain ring, that we're standing in the temple, we're standing before the face of God.

With awe and reverence, we work out, that is, we flesh out, we make visible, right, what's inside of us.

We're working it out through their fingertips.

Right?

We're helping the needy, we're we're serving the vulnerable, we're praying with those in need.

That is working out the salvation that we've received out through our hands, right?

We're manifesting it.

Y'all get it.

Not because we do this, not because God is a judge at a talent show, but but because he is God and He is good and He is true and He is love and He gave everything so that we could gain Him.

The cross of Christ is greater and more beautiful than any granite mountain range, and so we stand as living testimonies to the world of his endless beauty.

We've seen something.

We've turned the corner and we say, whoa, holy, holy, holy.

With his God, He would love me, He would do that for me.

So that I could know Him and that I could be His for my sin.

We see that and now we live.

We live and press it out through our hands.

We just want people to know the joy that God whom we've experienced and tasted.

Okay.

So that's the next three weeks.

That's maybe I won't I won't repeat that part every week for the next three weeks.

I might.

Uh, but I I don't plan on it.

So that's the next three weeks of what we're gonna be talking about in fear and trembling.

And all in reverence, we're working these things out.

So, what are we working out today?

What is it?

What is the main text here?

So, again, in the uncertainty.

So, today we're gonna look at how we walk in fear and trembling in our uncertainty and in the ordinary.

So, focal text, uh Robert read it well.

That's I'm not reading it because he didn't read it.

Well, I'm not trying to clean up what he messed up.

I'm just uh let's let's let's hear it again.

Proverbs 3, 5 through 8.

Here's what it says Proverbs 3, 5 through 8.

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.

Be not wise in your own wise eyes.

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your f flesh and refreshment to your bones.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

Thank you for everything you've done for us.

May we stand in awe at the foot of your glory, at the foot of your throne.

And just uh uh may our knees tremble at your beauty.

May we see our smallness, but know that uh you know our frame and you love us, and may we be shaped by that, may we be melted by that.

Thank you for your son Jesus Christ.

It's in his name we pray, and it's in his name we can stand in confidence beside something so holy, holy, and holy.

It is in the name of Jesus we pray this in all things.

Amen.

So let me give you a purpose statement for this passage in Proverbs 3, 5 through 8.

In the uncertainty and in the ordinary, we are meant to trust the God who has restored us unto eternal life.

So three parts to that.

Today we're gonna look at the following our worry, our ways, and our wisdom.

Our worry, our ways, and our wisdom.

So, first, our worry.

Trust in the Lord.

Verse 5, Proverbs 3, if you have a Bible, keep it open.

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

The book of Proverbs is the wisdom literature of Solomon, most probably.

Wisdom is the application of knowledge.

You understand that?

You have knowledge, great, good for you.

Are you applying that knowledge?

Having the knowledge of how to change your tire means nothing unless you actually change your tire, right?

Uh, this week I taught my uh one of my sons how to change the cabin air filter in a car.

And so he knows it.

Now will he apply it, right?

So the wisdom is doing it, right?

That is wise to be able to apply what you know to your daily life.

And the wisdom in this book is the form in is in the form of poetry.

So this wisdom in Proverbs is in the form of poetry.

You remember, uh, remember when we went through the book of Romans?

If you were here over the past 22 years, uh, when we were going through Romans, we saw how Paul would take a single truth.

Remember, Paul would take this single truth, and then he would take a lot of words to unpack that single truth.

So here's the truth.

Now, buckle up, we got two chapters of me just unpacking this one line of truth.

Right?

God loves you.

Here comes Romans 8.

In Proverbs, we must understand that the author is taking big truths and packing them into a couple of lines at a time.

So it's almost the opposite of what we see in Romans.

One truth, a lot of lines.

Uh, and in Proverbs, you got one big truth all squeezed into just a couple lines, right?

And so that's what we're looking at today.

And so each line is not the full counsel of God, it is simply a general principle of God's truth.

The poetry here is the instruction of a parent to a child, here in this section of Proverbs.

It's meant to be received in love and from love and for love.

And so it's not meant to be arbitrarily restrictive.

Rather, it is aimed at the flourishing of the child.

So again, you don't have a father who is telling the child a bunch of things, hey, do this, do this, do this, do this.

This is wisdom, so that the father can take a long nap on the couch.

Like, please do this because I'm tired and I need you to not be near me.

That's not the kind of instruction we get.

We get instruction from a father who loves the child and wants to see that child flourish.

For instance, if you tell a child, please don't run in traffic into traffic.

When the child hears that, if they're young enough, when the child hears that, that will feel like a restriction.

Like, why doesn't my dad love me?

He's trying to restrict my freedoms.

I'm a free person.

Truth is inside me.

I get to run in traffic.

You know, we know, hopefully you know, that that is not being restricted, that is being loving.

And that's what we get here today as well.

Proverbs 3, 5, the writer says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

He's not trying to restrict us, he's trying to help us flourish.

The word trust usually implies a situation in the Bible in which the person is in danger or there is some sense of uncertainty, right?

That's usually when we talk about the word trust, when we're uncertain about something.

It is the question of where we place our confidence when something goes wrong or happens unexpectedly.

Uh, you know, my family can tell you this, I you know what I don't like?

I don't like a jump scare.

I don't like when people hide around the corner and I walk around there and they scare me.

Boy, oh boy.

Like, uh, I mean, I didn't ask his permission.

I usually ask our kids permission, but I'll tell you, our four-year-old, he learned how to jump scare, it is not okay.

Listen, he can't be quiet for a second unless he's trying to jump scare you.

He will sit and wait for two hours to give you a good jump scare.

And you know, if you've ever been jump scared, when you first get like, well, okay, this is just me.

I'm gonna project this on you.

When I get jump scared, my first irrational response is anger.

I'm angry.

I hear Kristen laughing over there because sometimes I make threats.

Like I get scared and I'm like, that's it.

Just you wait.

I'm gonna get you so bad for the next two months.

You don't walk around a corner with confidence.

I am going to get you.

Because I like just that's that's my irrational response.

You did that to me, just anger.

Seriously, frustration.

Please don't do this to me.

Like, seriously, this don't do it.

I'm please.

I don't want to lose my testimony.

Like, I just get angry.

It's an irrational response, and I get that.

As I calm down, I'm like, okay, that was irrational.

Uh, but seriously, I'm gonna get you back.

Uh, it's but it's a you know, it's a knee-jerk response to a threat.

You know, the stimulus, the the the threat makes me have a knee-jerk response, an immediate, automatic, involuntary reflex.

And the natural response of our flesh is to run to the confidence of man.

We talked about this in Sunday school if you're here this morning.

We tell ourselves it will be okay if we have this or that.

And our thoughts and actions betray what we say we believe.

So when something happens, we put where do we put our confidence?

And the longer we live like this, the more arguments we'll invent for not going to the Lord when what made us confidence has been stripped from us.

And our conditioned response to shaky ground and stormy forecasts will be anxious rumination leading us away from God.

Anxious rumination that leads us away from God.

Right?

It may not be anger when something goes uncertain, when you get scared by something around the corner or around the bend.

But it may be anxious rumination that leads you to away from God, leads you away, away.

And to yourself.

Of course, this doesn't mean we should ignore our experience, but we ought to run all our thoughts through this filter.

A filter that declares in the midst of these things, I trust the Lord.

This is yet another danger of social media.

Linger on a 20-second video about what you fear, and the next thing you know, your entire algorithm's diet is a confirmation of those thoughts of a slippery slope and irrational eventuality around every corner.

Every symptom feels terminal when everything we consume sows destruction.

We must stop taking our fears to the irrational wisdom of the mob.

The purveyors of panic will only lead us to an affiliate link of anger, frustration, and certain doom.

And our hearts race and ask, what is the economy doing?

What's going on with my kids?

What will happen to my job?

What does this illness mean for my life?

But we are not of this world, child of God.

And so our fears and tears threaten, and so while our fears and tears threaten to consume us, and we groan with the Spirit of God, understand this.

We ought to preach this to our souls.

And I trust our Lord in these things with all my heart.

I'm not asking you to fake it till you make it, but I am saying preach it to yourself.

Preach it to yourself because you understand there's other voices preaching to you.

Be afraid.

So we preach to ourselves.

That's not true.

The Lord loves us.

He is God, He's overall things, He is sovereign.

Even if I can't see it, even if right now I'm acting irrational because I've just been scared.

I trust God.

I'm gonna hold on to that.

I'm just gonna cling to it.

He's gonna hold on to me.

Trust Him with all our hearts is the wisdom of the Lord.

Take a moment and consider what that means.

What does it look like, feel like, sound like to actually trust the Lord with all our hearts?

Again, this is not a call to escapism or naive bliss.

This is us saying we're creatures and he's the creator.

The illusion of control that we enjoy in the flat fields of a spring day is just that.

An illusion.

We have never, we have never been in control.

I mean, if the pandemic's taught us anything, we are not in control.

Early on in our marriage, Chris and I realized that we're terrible at forecasting.

Every time we say we think we know what a year holds, we are wrong.

We've never been right.

We're always surprised by what a year brings.

Always.

We always at the end of the year say, didn't see that coming.

And I'll tell you right now about this year, I didn't see that coming.

We hold things loosely.

And we realize, listen, God is God.

And this is where we, Chris and I, church family, we should all want to get better for each other.

Instead of being an echo chamber and an algorithm of anxious thoughts, we want to grow in how we provoke one another to trust the Lord with all our hearts, no conjunctions, no yeah buts.

The final word in all our normal emotions of our humanity is we trust him.

We will not be consumed, not because we're in control, but because he is.

The emotion of fear, anxious thoughts, over concern is natural.

It's human.

You don't have to be angry at yourself about those thoughts.

The question is, what are you gonna do with those thoughts?

Are you gonna harbor them, ruminate on them, find toxic community to echo them back to you so you can just be consumed by fear?

Or are you gonna go to a Christian friend saying, I am spiraling right now?

Would you remind me?

Would you remind me?

Would you lead me to Christ right now?

Would you would you hold me?

Would you cling to me as a and would you take me back to Christ, my king, who went into the darkest valley?

Would you take me back to him?

That's what I need from you.

I need you to say, Yeah.

Or a draw.

Trust the Lord.

Secondly, our ways.

So our worry, our ways.

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

In all your ways, acknowledge him.

This is more than just saying, in all your ways, remember him.

It's like, okay, hey, let's acknowledge the elephant in the room, let's acknowledge the God in the room, let's acknowledge, you know, him.

Okay, we're before the face of it.

Let's just acknowledge him.

He's here.

Okay, great, let's move on with our lives.

That's not what this is saying.

It's not just telling us to be aware of him.

Rather, to acknowledge him, knowledge, is to know him.

As in, know God in all our ways, to be intimately conscious of God's character and glory in our lives.

For instance, uh, I don't think we have any police officers here today.

I don't know, I don't know all of you, uh, but I I was watching some documentary or something about something called going polite.

It's like when somebody is driving and they see a police officer and they go polite.

That is, you know, they go three miles under the speed limit and use every turn signal like six miles before the turn.

You know what I mean?

And the police officer behind you are like, hey, listen, can we just go to speed limit?

And thank you for signaling that turn in the county before.

But please, this is confusing to all of us.

And so, uh, you know, when whenever you're whenever you're doing that, whenever you're driving that way, uh, you may slow down in the awareness of his presence.

So you're acknowledging the presence of the police officer, so you clean up your ways.

But it would be different to slow down on the road because of knowing the one who wrote the speed limit.

Say, no, no, I know the speed limit is good, so I'm gonna slow down.

So in both instances, you slow down.

One time it's an acknowledgement of his presence behind you in fear of him.

The other time it's an acknowledgement of the of the goodness of the speed limit.

Saying, no, it's right and good.

Like, this is safe.

This is good for us, this is good for our society.

You know, I have a I have a kid who's learning how to drive.

It's good we go the speed limit.

Those are good things put in place.

We don't just do it in acknowledgement to the people.

You understand like that?

You understand what that means?

So, going back to verse 5 and the call to trust, we might obey the speed limit, but not trust that it is good.

You can obey, listen, and you know this.

You can obey and not trust.

I'm going to obey, but I don't trust.

I obey the laws of the land, but I don't trust the people in charge.

But that is not what the Bible calls us to.

Here in Proverbs 5, 6, the wisdom is to know God in all your ways.

That is, trust him in your daily lives.

That's what it means to acknowledge him.

As a child of God, we obey because we trust him, not because we're afraid of him.

Does that make sense?

Feel that's different?

And again, see it here.

This is expanding our relationship with the Lord as well.

This is not just about what we do when we worry or when we're uncertain.

This is about what we do with our entire lives, all our ways.

This is to know him, not only in the valleys full of shadows and blind turns, but also in the green pasture flatlands.

Even when it seems like you can see the next hundred miles and you have everything you need to get there, we're meant to trust the Lord even in those times.

On the long stretches, when we feel lulled asleep by our own sufficiency and wisdom, we are exhorted to know the Lord in those times.

When the days feel like they are on cruise control, we are called to know God.

The world's wisdom would say that what the world's wisdom would say that when you are well fed, when you have more than you need, acknowledge yourself in all your ways.

How can you leverage the grace and blessings of God for yourself?

And again, of course, there's nothing wrong with enjoying the gifts you've received.

But in those gifts, in that green pasture, are we going before the Lord?

Do we know God?

Do we trust God in the green pastures?

Does that make sense?

Do we acknowledge God in the green pastures?

That's where the danger is.

It's easy to run to God and it's not easy.

But it's more natural reflex to run to God when you don't know what you're doing, when you're afraid, when you're uncertain, and when you're worried, you realize I've got nothing when you've been emptied, when it feels like you're eating with the pigs.

Pretty hard to run to God when the green when the pastors are green.

You think you got everything you need.

You're self-sufficient.

I mean, you can read it in the letters to the uh to in the revelation to the churches.

Oh, you've got everything you need.

Good for you.

One thing you lack is me.

You want the promised land without the promiser?

You want the gift without the gifter?

Giver?

Giver?

Okay, that's right.

You want creation without the creator?

We can do this all day.

We need him.

Know him in all things.

Are we knowing the Lord in these things?

We are called to know him in our finances.

We are called to know him in our free time.

We are called to know him in our viewing habits.

We are called to know him in our relationships with each other.

And again, this is not simply an acknowledgement of his presence, but rather in all our ways, we are walking in a relationship of trust and love of the Lord.

And this is not a peculiar wisdom.

If you are in a loving relationship with someone, it changes your life.

We don't simply honor our spouses or loved ones only when they're in the room.

Our love for them reorients our actions when we are apart from them.

To use the language of the passage, we should acknowledge them when we are on a work trip, when we are at a grocery store, when we are by ourselves.

That is a relationship built on loving and knowing, not just because they're in the room.

Does that make sense?

And that's our relationship with God.

We acknowledge him in all our ways.

Not fear because he's present.

Trust in him because he's ours and we are his.

And in that knowing of God and orienting all our ways around that knowing of him, we will find that our paths have been made straight.

Okay.

This is not saying that if you live in the way that is in line with the knowledge of God, that God will make your life easy or without hardship.

Rather, this is saying that when you walk this way, you'll be walking on the right path, that you will live within the boundaries of the life that God has for you.

And in that, there is a smoothness in your life that is absent when we walk in the counsel and the knowledge of the wicked.

It is to walk in that trust of God's goodness as your creator and father.

And as we'll see in the next point and final point, it is on that path that we find deep healing and refreshment.

You can find shalom and peace, in suffering and in hardship.

You can find it in the green pastures.

But it's all in knowing God.

Thirdly, finally, for this morning, our wisdom.

Be not wise in your own eyes.

Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

So again, be not wise in your own eyes.

You see it on your screen, see it in your Bible.

In this wisdom, in this, the wisdom is to not be governed by your opinion.

Okay?

So be not wise in your own eyes.

The wisdom is don't be wise in your own opinion.

That would be to walk in continual acknowledgement of yourself.

You've probably heard this, even if you're not like been in church a lot, you've probably heard this proverb, Proverb 26, 11.

It says this, like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.

Fool biblically usually means sinner lost, right?

Like a dog who returns to his vomit.

I mean, it's it's a pretty graphic image for those who are fools.

But look at the next verse in that proverb, Proverbs 26, 12.

So that's 11.

Verse 12 says this Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes?

There is more hope for a fool than for him.

A fool is like somebody who returns to his own vomit, and we go, ugh, seriously?

Sinners, lost people, ugh, what's wrong with you?

Then 27, 12.

You see a man who's wise in his own eyes?

There's more hope for a fool than him.

So, you look down on a fool and mock him for repeating his mistakes and returning to his own vomit, and in that looking down on them, you have become wise in your own eyes.

You've placed yourself above him.

And the wisdom of God says there is more hope for that fool than for a proud person.

And we scroll and scroll on our news feeds and we look down on the fools.

We watch our 24-hour confirmation bias news programs, and we shake our heads in disgust at those who return to their own vomit.

And the Bible says that pride, that wisdom of your opinion is more deadly than the dangers of those you disregard.

The most eternally dangerous place is to be on the throne of our pride.

That's the most eternally dangerous place to be, is on a throne.

I mean, seriously, what's wrong with them?

What are they doing?

Ugh, can't believe it.

Hey, did you see what this person's doing?

Let's talk, let's, let's, let's have a let's have a whole you know what we should do.

We should meet on Sundays and talk about the people who aren't like us and who who've lost everything.

Oh my goodness, what's wrong with them?

And what is this world coming to?

God opposes the proud.

He opposes the proud.

He ate with the sinner.

He opposes the proud.

He's not saying he loves sin.

Something about a person though.

He's poor in spirit.

Proverbs says, instead of that, instead of living as were for or above others, fear the Lord.

Humble yourselves before the one who is truly sitting on the throne.

When Isaiah stood before God in his vision, he not only cried out for the sins of his people, but also his sins.

He said, Wretched am I, and I dwell among a people who are wretched.

Isaiah didn't say, Boy, I you should see the people I live with.

He said, I am wretched, I'm being undone and ripped apart by your holiness, by my smallness.

The prophet saw who was on the throne, and it was not him.

He saw the only one who is actually holy, holy, holy.

And in comparison to the holiness of God, he was wretched, ruined, and torn apart.

And the application of that knowing awe and reverence of the true king is to turn away from evil.

And see how these things lead to one another.

If we're continually proud of our own ways, proud of the wisdom of our own eyes, against the foolish shortcomings of those around us, we will see no reason to turn from the evil of our own hearts.

In fact, the evil will grow as we become unmerciful.

And we become shells of piety.

The beautiful brick facades or tombs that hide the death that dwells within.

The fences and gates of our subdivisions that keep fools out will fester into all kinds of proud wickedness that obeys in public and becomes a cesspool of sin in private.

See the danger.

See it.

This is the danger for the church.

We got this.

Can't believe they don't got this.

We should make a bomb shelter.

Call it a church.

Sirens are ringing.

Let's all run to the shelter.

Get away from that which defiles us.

And we become wise in our own eyes.

We become like Pharisees.

We heap heavy burdens.

And do this, do that.

You want to be a part of this?

And sin grows.

Sin grows in our hearts, and we become pride.

We become proudful.

Prideful?

Proud.

And these things happen in our hearts and we don't know it.

And so, in humility and trembling, we turn from the terminal disease of pride and see what we find in that.

Verse 8.

It, okay.

Verse 8, you see it, it's on your screen, it's in your Bible.

It, that is, the wisdom of God in repentance and turning from the evil of our pride.

That's it.

Will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.

It will be healing and refreshment.

The phrase healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones is called a marriagism.

That is, it's a figure of speech that is meant to say, from our flesh all the way to our bones and everything in between, there will be healing and refreshment and restoration.

In fear and trembling.

In humility.

Turn from your pride.

The Bible says, the wisdom of the Bible says, and you will find healing all the way from the outer reaches of your flesh all the way to the inner reaches of your bones.

You'll find healing and refreshment.

That's where it is.

This is not a call to obedience for the sake of blessing.

This is the obedience of a rightly oriented relationship with our God, to know him in our ways, to know that his ways are good, that his wisdom is good.

We trust him, and therefore we trust his ways.

Okay.

I'm closing this morning.

In the Garden of Eden, evil tempted man to trust himself over God.

It was the first invitation to confirmation bias.

To lean on our own understanding and not the wisdom of the one who created all things.

How easy it is to trust a stranger on a distant screen who first convinces us that our entire lives are uncertain and that the way to life is to trust in man.

Yet we have a hard time trusting the God who did not remain distant but came close to us to give us his life.

And in our lack of trusting, our confidence rises and falls in the waves of our circumstances, and we feel continually at risk of being lost in the depths of the sea.

But God in his mercy has become the straight, dry path through the waters that threaten our existence.

God in his mercy has become the dry path through the Red Sea.

He is the truth.

And he is not clamoring for a click or subscribe.

Jeremiah 17, 5 says this.

Okay.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be cursed.

So we just start there.

We just parse this out.

You hear something that starts from God, a word from God through his prophet that says, cursed is the man.

Everybody's ear should say, huh?

Let me hear what comes after this.

Does that make sense?

So cursed is the man.

Do I have your attention?

Who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength?

Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength.

Cursed.

Not pitiable, cursed.

Let me finish that verse.

Cursed is a man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from God.

Okay, here are the binary.

There's two paths here.

Trust in man or trust in God.

Trust in man, you turn away from God.

Adam and Eve, trust in man, we got this.

We can have the knowledge of God.

We can be like God, turning away from God.

Right?

You can't do both.

Well, I trust in myself and in God.

On the cross, Jesus took the curse of our trust in man.

Remember, that's the original sin.

Jesus took the curse of our trust in man so that we could turn away from that evil and trust in him.

The book of Proverbs is wisdom from God, but don't miss it.

It all points to the wisdom of God.

That is Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

Our certainty is not found in our flesh, it is found in his flesh.

We are made confident in this age because he has gone before us in all things.

He wants you to know him because it is only in knowing him that we can flourish eternal.

His laws are not arbitrary, they are loving.

So, child of God, go to him in all things.

Know him in all your ways, lean on him.

Ask yourself, who or what are you trusting for security?

Robert in our Sunday school asked us that question.

I like we should linger on that.

Who or what are you trusting right now?

Right now, for your security.

Right now, what is it that you are convinced that if you just had that one thing, you could find rest?

Again, echoing back to what Justin preached a few weeks ago.

What is the one thing you said, if I just had this?

I just had that one thing.

That would give me the certainty I need to just walk and join, I'd be skipping, and there'd be a blue bird on my shoulder.

It'd be so great.

What is that one thing?

We all have that thing.

And it I know it changes, but I'm sure you have one thing right now.

Just just get there.

I know everything's gonna be okay.

Then I could finally rest, I can finally enjoy my family, I can enjoy my church, I could, I could be generous if I just had this one thing.

Right now I gotta fight for this thing.

I'm gonna put my confidence in my flesh.

What are you looking for to give you exhale?

Are we walking in rhythms of constant jump scares, convinced that around every corner we'll lose that which gives us life?

Fearful that our accounts will be emptied, that our community will be lost, that we will be orphaned by abandonment, that our leaky shelters will rot and collapse.

Have we not learned yet?

Whatever that is, is a vapor.

Unless it is God.

Repent of that evil.

Taking my time here.

Repent of that evil, of what you're trusting to be your God, as Keller says, and Brad quoted earlier: whatever it is that it is that you're looking to, to do what only God can do, is your idol.

Madison County, repent.

Steve G, repent of that idolatry.

You can't put your idols in your pockets and go before the face of God.

They don't travel with you.

Repent of the evil you trust and turn to in times of uncertainty and times of the and in times of the ordinary.

Repent and believe in Christ Jesus.

He is the wisdom of God, He is the rest we seek.

He fills our accounts with righteousness.

He is our shepherd who leads us.

He is the king whose policies protect us.

He is the shelter we hide in.

He will never leave us or forsake us.

Walk in the fellowship and confidence of our King, and we will not be undone.

Rather, we will find home, the place of true life, recline in his presence.

May we be a people who gather in fear and trembling before a God and encourage one another every day to know God in all our ways.

That's what every good friend, every good spouse, every good church does.

It doesn't point to themselves, it says, Let me lead you to Christ today.

May we be that for each other.

Every day, as long as it is called today.

Lead us, lead each other to God.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for this day.

It is so hard to trust in you when everything feels like a jump scare, and we have irrational responses of trying to take things in our own hands, like we believe we're sovereign, we're the king of the universe.

And Father God, we know it is the Prince of the air who's convincing us, who's tempting us, but we also know that it is our hearts that that lean into that temptation and it gives way to our sin.

Father God, forgive us.

Forgive us of all the things that we believe would give us rest apart from you.

All of those things are a vapor.

Solomon chased them down, and he couldn't stand on any of it.

It all was smoke.

Father God, may we learn that today from your word.

May we lean on you.

May we trust you.

May we acknowledge you in all of our ways.

Thank you for your son, Jesus Christ.

It's only in him that we come before you and pray this in all things.

Amen.