Proverbs | Life Goes Well When... (July 16th, 2017) - Mike Armstrong

All right, well, good morning, church, and uh and welcome back.

We are in our uh Proverbs series uh that we have uh have been in and will be in uh throughout this summer.

And so uh grateful to see you guys uh fill this room up and come hungry uh to hear from God's word.

So with that said, let's do just that.

Why don't you get your Bibles open now to Proverbs chapter three?

All right, we're gonna be looking at the first uh first 12 verses of uh of this Proverb, and it's got some, of course, uh well-known, well-loved verses in the middle of that.

We're gonna get into all of that, but as you're getting kind of situated in all of that, um I think it's probably pretty safe to say that people generally want their lives to go well.

Right?

Like, would you would you say that?

Right?

Like nobody, nobody, for example, is like starting out a romantic relationship hoping that the thing just is just gonna fizzle, crash, and burn.

Right?

No one no one starts out uh doing that at all.

No one, no one invests their money uh really wishing that someday they're gonna lose it all.

Right?

No one no one feels that.

No one has has kids, and you know, I just really hope that my kids, you know, as they're growing up and stuff, I hope they really struggle.

You know, I hope life is a is a challenge for them and and it's just hard and difficult.

Right, and certainly none of us, you know, it's summertime and vacation time.

I'm sure none of us have ever said, you know, I hope my I hope my vacation's a bust.

You know, I hope it's just a kind of a pointless waste of time and money.

Right?

No one is saying any of those things ever, right?

No one, no one.

It's like ridiculous to even talk about.

Okay, no matter who you are, no matter what culture, no matter what what what year it is, no matter how old you are, right, you want your life to go well.

You want it to work out.

Now, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, I would imagine it's you know pretty much the same.

Right?

You want your relationship with him to go well.

Right?

You want him to, you want him to do a work in your heart, right?

You want him to change you, you want him to bless you, you want to experience him in a way that is powerful and deep and awesome, right?

That's that's what you want from the Lord.

You want your relationship, you know, to go well.

Well, our our our passage today, the first 12 verses of of Proverbs chapter 3, um shows us some things.

Proverbs 3 · chapter mention

It shows us that in a general sense, right, if we do uh a number of things, our life, our our walk with the Lord will, again, generally, you know, go pretty well.

And I think uh, you know, I again I'm pretty sure that all of us want that, right?

All of us want that.

Now, there are a lot of things that we need to say about that, right?

There's some some things, even in that, that need some some kind of clarification, right?

There's there's some understanding that we need to have of the big picture uh when it comes to our lives uh going well.

And we're gonna get into all of that as we go, but hopefully you're in Proverbs uh chapter three.

I'm gonna read it.

Why don't you follow along with me?

Verse one it says this, My son, okay, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.

Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.

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 eyes, fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

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

Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with your first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father, the son in whom he delights.

Father God, we come before you as your church today.

And God, we again submit ourselves to you, Lord, asking that that you would have your way.

Lord, we ask that, Lord, as we you know so badly want to see our lives go well in in so many ways, God, I I pray that, I pray that you would bless us, Lord.

I pray that you would meet us in all of that, Lord.

I pray that you would encourage your church here today.

God, I pray that anything that may be getting in the way of uh of following you and desiring to follow you, Lord, I pray that you would tear that stuff down.

Lord, I pray that, you know, as we have, you know, just sung this morning, Lord, that we would be a church that just longs for more of you, more of your presence, God.

So we invite you into this place.

We invite you to do a work uh in our hearts, God.

We pray that you would start with each of us as individuals, Lord.

Lord, we pray that you would gain so much glory through our lives, Lord.

And I pray that that's what we would be we we would be about.

Lord, I pray that we'd be excited about that.

Not trying to gain glory for ourselves, not trying to, you know, hold on to that or rob you in any set in any sense, Lord.

No, that it would be about you getting glory.

So, God, help us as we unpack these verses, Lord.

Give us understanding, give us wisdom, give us the ability to change and to grow and to be like your son Jesus, Lord.

We pray all of this in his name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right, so you want your life to go well, right?

I'm pretty sure that's that's what you want.

Well, there's some things according to this passage here that we just read uh today uh that we need to do if we want that to be the case.

All right, some things that that we need to do.

Now, um, that being said, there's some port some important things that we need to, you know, first of all, understand, right?

We need to realize some things here and keep these things in mind.

First of all, I'm not talking about, you know, some kind of mechanical formula, right?

We're just kind of externally, like if you were to do these like four or five easy steps, you just kind of plug those things into your life and you're never gonna have a bad day again, and everything's gonna go well, and it should be, you know, it should be roses, it should be, it should be easy.

No one's no one's saying that.

I'm not saying that.

The scriptures, you know, certainly never say that.

I'm not advocating here for you know some some kind of simplistic or you know, kind of pie in the sky idealistic model of living that's not grounded in reality, right?

We need to understand that.

It needs to be grounded in reality.

And and and remember, right, the proverbs, they're not they're not promises, strictly speaking.

We talked about that uh just a couple of weeks ago.

They're not they're not promises, rather, they are they're they're they're general rules.

Right?

Generally speaking, if you do this, you're gonna see that.

Right?

They're they're principles, they are they're they're guidelines for us, meaning that that if you're uh if you're a Christ follower here today, so if you know and love Jesus as your Savior and you live according to God's ways, then you know if you're if you're willing to exercise wisdom and you want to exercise humility, then then generally speaking, you're gonna see that life goes you know goes pretty well in a lot of ways.

God will bless you.

Again, generally speaking.

Okay, but here's the thing that's not the only grid through what we through which we need to look at life.

Right?

That's not the only way to look at things.

There's some other components and pieces here that we also need to need to understand.

First of all, we live in a fallen world.

We live in a very fallen, very warped, very very broken world.

And all of that started when?

Right?

It started in the Garden of Eden.

It started when our original parents, our original ancestors, first rebelled against the Lord.

And they said, No, Lord, we understand that that you don't want us to eat from this tree, but but we think that we know better, and so we are going to rebel against you.

We we, in our sense, we want to be God, we want to be the one to make all the calls and and you know, call the shots, all of that.

And so, because of that, sin entered into God's creation.

And ever since that day, life has been messed up, right?

And things just don't go well.

And and there are problems, there are there are pain, and and sin has really corrupted and and kind of made a mess of life as we as we know it.

Right?

Now, on top of that, okay, so another grid we need to look at here is that our God is sovereign.

Right?

Our our God is is greater, he is above all of that, but he is also in control of all things.

And so what the Lord does, we've talked about this here before, what the Lord does is He will He will use and sometimes even allow or cause even some of these very, very difficult things.

And some of you have experienced uh trauma and and trials in life that are that are downright heart-wrenching, right?

And he will he will use those things to to draw out our hearts and to draw us closer to himself.

Okay, so those are the different grids that we need to look at.

We need to understand kind of all of these things together, right?

We live in a fallen world, God is sovereign, but then of course, you know, as we follow him, we should see, we will see uh some blessings, kind of generally uh speaking.

God is very capable and and even wants to bless you and bless us as a church and as a people as we grow in wisdom and grow in uh maturity.

But just because we see that and we see those general rules throughout Proverbs, again, it doesn't mean that we're never gonna have a bad day.

Right?

It doesn't mean that life won't be difficult or that or that life that life could be perfect if I you know just found those three or four easy steps and I just did the plug and play thing in my life, or you know, if I just went out and grabbed life by the horns, and if I just did that, my life, my life could be, or even you know, will be perfect.

No, that's just not the way it works.

Right?

That that longing, that desire that that we all have kind of deep down, and oftentimes not so deep down, for that perfect existence where there is there are no problems and there is no pain and no drama, no stress, none of that.

Listen, that is just not reality in this life.

Right?

If that's what you are going for, you are gonna be perpetually disappointed.

Now, I'm not trying to like take the wind out of all of our sails here or anything.

I'm just trying to say we need to understand all of this.

The perfect life is not here, it is in the yet to come, right?

It is on the other side of eternity.

So as you go through life and and and even as you experience God's God's blessings and as rich as they can be, life will never be heaven.

It will never be that.

We're not gonna get that until we go and be with him forever.

Until we go and we can experience all of these things forever and in its fullest sense.

Right?

And so allow that ache that you often have and and that I often have to create that desire we have to create heaven on earth.

And you know, we've got the cottages and we've got the we've got the cars and we've got the blow money and we've got you know all of that kind of stuff.

Listen, that that stuff's never gonna fully satisfy you, and you're never gonna get it here.

Right?

Instead, allow that ache that you have to drive you towards a greater desire for glory, right?

A greater desire for heaven, a greater desire to draw close to Him.

Lord, give me a heart that loves you and has an understanding of how all of this stuff kind of fits together.

All right, so that's a lot of preamble there, but hopefully you kind of understand.

You know, I'm kind of trying to paint the picture here of again the big picture.

Okay, but with all of that in mind, you want your life to go pretty well here, right?

Right?

You want it to go generally well.

Well, then do these things.

All right, do these things.

First one, obey the Lord from your heart.

Obey the Lord from your heart.

Take a look at verse one.

Okay, verse one says this, my son, okay, my son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart, important, let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace, they will add to you.

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.

Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, so keep these things close to you, right, and you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and in the sight of man.

Now, what you'll notice here through these uh twelve verses that we're gonna be unpacking here this morning is you see kind of this this model, if you will, and there is a sense of formula here, isn't there?

Right?

And you see, like if you do, you know, these good things, right?

If you if you follow the Lord in these ways, then these good things will happen to you.

Right?

And so you'll see that back and forth, kind of all the way through uh this here.

Now, now notice here what Solomon says uh to his son.

Right?

This is a this is a paternal uh proverb, and he's writing to his son from a father to a son, and then and then notice the emphasis on the heart.

Super, super key that we get that.

Right?

It says this let your let your heart keep my commandments.

Okay, that'll be worth highlighting there, right?

Let your heart keep my commandments.

It says, Don't, don't forsake steadfast love and and faithfulness.

Write them on the tablet of your heart, right?

Are you guys awake?

On your heart, right?

It says if you if you do that, good stuff's happening, right?

It says you're gonna live long days, you're gonna have peace, you're gonna find favor in the eyes of God and man and be uh successful, right?

You're gonna be successful.

So listen, how how are we doing today?

How are you doing when it comes to obeying God uh from the heart?

Right, how are you doing in that?

How's it going?

In other words, do you obey the Lord?

Do you tend to fall into that rut of obedience where like I'm following the Lord, I'm obeying the Lord, kind of because, kind of because I have to.

Right?

That's what that's what Christians are kind of like supposed to do, right?

So I guess I guess I'll do it.

Right?

I I guess I'll follow you, and I don't really, you know, my heart's not really in it, right?

It's all it's external.

Right?

On the outside, you've kind of, you know, you've got it all figured out, but on the inside, your heart, your heart's not really there.

Do you follow the Lord because you feel like you have to, or because you actually want to?

Because you actually want to.

There's a huge difference there.

Okay, when your when your heart is really captivated by the Lord, when it's captivated by the by the goodness of the gospel and the and the good news that that you know brings to us, you know, your obedience will come from a place of desire.

You'll be like, Lord, I I want to follow you, Lord, I need to, I need to do what you command me to do, Lord.

This is there's nothing I want more.

I I love to love you, I love to love others, I I want to follow your commands, and I want to I want to serve, you know, whatever you say, however you lead, wherever, whenever, I will go, I will follow.

Right?

That's a that's a heart that's that's been gripped by the Lord.

That's a heart that's fired up and is passionate.

Why?

Because he's got your heart, he's got it.

So again, the question is here does he have yours?

Right?

Does he have your heart?

Because make no mistake, that is exactly what he's going for.

Right?

That's what he wants.

He's not he's not interested in the North American Christianity game that we all tend to fall into, right?

Where I'm coming and I'm here and I'm patting myself on the back because I've made it to church two or three times in a row, you know, uh in this month, right?

That that's not what he's going for.

He's not, the external stuff doesn't matter if he does not have your heart.

Right?

And you see that, and that, you know, as I have been, you know, reading through the scriptures, I've been so, you know, captivated, I guess you could say, by the fact that all through in the Old Testament, like we're reading here this morning, and and in the New Testament, how many times, over and over again, the Lord is going after our hearts.

Right?

That is what he wants.

And so does he have yours.

Okay, in the scriptures, okay, the heart is considered the inner person.

Okay, the heart is considered the inner person.

And so what that's really all about here is that it's the it's the seat of thought and emotion.

It's kind of like the core of who you are as a person.

It's your it's your conscience, it's your it's your courage, it's your mind.

And so when it's talking about the heart, it's talking about you and who you really are, kind of from the inside out.

And so it's it's ultra important that you and I, we learn how to cultivate soft hearts.

And and that is a a huge, huge aspect of what the Christian life is.

That we that we're constantly like, Lord, it's my is my heart soft and and and putting yourself in the right position and and doing the right things and crying out to the Lord for these things that we would have soft hearts that love to obey.

Not that obey externally, but our hearts are all shriveled up and dying.

That that doesn't please him, that accomplishes nothing.

Right?

Hearts that again are engaged.

Now, the million-dollar question is how do I do that?

Right?

How do I actually cultivate a heart?

Because maybe you're sitting here this morning and you're kind of you're kind of thinking, yeah, my heart, my heart is disengaged, and you know, I I don't really care about a lot of things that I should care about, and I am kind of just here in, you know, in body, but not in spirit, if you will.

Right?

So how do I develop this?

Well, I would say one thing that you should start doing is really just infusing prayer in everything that you do.

Right?

Infusing prayer.

I think sometimes we look at prayer like it's this massively intimidating thing, and I need to like impress God with my words, and you know, or I, you know, I need to do all that.

No, you don't.

Prayer is simply dialogue with the Lord, right?

So invite him into the various, the various areas of your life when you're trying to cultivate that heart.

So, for example, if you're you know, if you're coming to church, right, as you're you know getting up in the morning and as you're you know, maybe leading your family here, or maybe you're just coming, you know, by yourself, be praying, Lord, would you do a work in me?

Would you develop my heart?

Would you grow my heart in these things?

As you're driving to work uh to church, you know, pray with your family.

Lord, would you have your way?

Lord, would you soften our hearts?

As we we know that we're gonna come and the word of God is gonna be open.

We know that as we come and we worship, Lord, we'll be filled with passion for these things.

So do you see how you're doing that?

You're inviting the Lord into uh an extremely important uh part of your week in coming to church.

How about this?

When you're when you're driving home from work, right?

And and and maybe it's you know, you know, maybe you're the dad, you're the husband and the dad, and and and you're coming home from work, and you know, what where's your energy level at at that point?

Right?

It's like it's way down, and you're saying, Yeah, I gotta come home, and you know, I've probably got to like start barbecuing something, because I think every dad does that.

But you I you know, I've got to play with the kids, I've got to wrestle with the kids, you know, I I wanna be present with my with my wife and not just have her talk to me and goes in one ear and and out the other.

Right?

And so you need to pray, invite the Lord into that.

Lord, would you soften my heart with this?

Would you give me a desire to lead my family well in all of this?

Maybe you're the you know, you're the stay-at-home mom.

Hey, how's summer going for you with the kids being home?

24-7.

Right?

How's that going?

You're like, is it August 30th yet?

Right here, again, your heart, you said your heart maybe is is is hardening, and I am so, I'm so done with the kids by the time my husband gets home, and it's like shove them off to him, and I just need to go like have a soak or something.

Right?

And you said my my heart is is hardening here, and the Lord doesn't have my heart, and and yeah, I'm with my kids constantly, but but I'm not making the most of this, and I'm not seeing them as my mission, I'm not seeing this as discipleship, I'm I'm seeing this as crowd control.

Lord, would you help me in all this?

Would you soften my heart and give me a heart for my kids that I would that I would disciple them, that I would serve my husband well?

Right?

That's pretty huge.

How about when you open the Bible?

Right?

How many of us, you know, open the Bible up and you know, we read a couple of verses and we're distracted because maybe we haven't chosen the most, you know, the greatest place of solitude to do it, or the right time.

So kids are asking you questions and you read a bunch of it, and as soon as you close the Bible, you have no idea where you read it, you're like, I think I read the Bible, but I can't even remember, right, where I was.

Right?

And so because of that, your heart's not being cultivated, it's not being developed, it's not becoming softer.

So again, pray for the pray to the Lord, Lord, as I get into your word, would you give me a desire for it?

Would you give me a heart for this?

Give me a passion for this, Lord.

I, you know, confess the fact that you don't have a good uh right desire for this.

The Lord can handle it, he's big, right?

Just say, God, I'm I'm struggling with desire and I and I and I don't really feel like doing this.

God help me.

Help me in it.

Right?

It's a massive part of the Christian life.

It's this it's this learning to cultivate a soft heart.

Sometimes we get caught up in this whole thing, well, if I just externally go do a bunch of things, then God is just gonna do all the rest.

And and if and if it's not happening in me, and if my heart is hard, if my attitude kind of is going south, then it must be because there's something wrong with him.

Right?

It must be because there's something wrong with the church, and if you know the church is only better, if only my husband or my wife love me more, and see we start to play the blame game and we start to look at how it's everybody else's fault, but we're not owning the fact that our hearts are a mess.

Right?

So cultivate that.

And you find, you're gonna find that is that life goes pretty well when your heart's engaged in passionate obedience.

And that's a process, right?

That's a lifelong process if we learn to do that.

Alright, you want your life to go well, then trust the Lord instead of yourself.

Okay, trust the Lord instead of yourself.

Check out verse five.

Verse five says this 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 strength.

Your past.

Pretty sure I've heard that verse once or twice.

Right?

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.

Okay, so what do we see here?

What do we see here as we as we look at that?

Well, it says here that if we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, if you know that word trust there, if we rely on him, if we depend on him, if we put our confidence in the Lord in all matters of life, if we if we fear the Lord, we've talked a lot about that already.

If we fear the Lord, if we're turning away from evil, which is intentionally and and willfully subordinating our lives to him in every single way.

If we lean not on our own understanding and aren't wise in our own eyes.

So what's that?

That's rejecting that pride that we all have that where we think that I have the ability to kind of govern my own life.

And I can do this.

I've got it.

I can take whatever life throws at me.

Right?

If we reject all of that and we do these good things that the scripture is encouraging us to do here, what happens?

Well, life tends to go pretty well.

Right?

Imagine that.

You follow the Lord, things go pretty well.

It says that he will make straight your paths.

Now, I think it's important that we understand what that's really talking about here.

So many times we read that and we look at, like, well, God is just gonna remove every barrier.

Right?

It's gonna be a straight path, and I can just strut through arms wide, and it's gonna be awesome and easy.

That's not what that's saying, right?

That's not what it's getting at at all.

This is referring to how he will lead you towards the goal of moral straightness.

You might want to jot that down.

He'll lead you towards the goal of moral straightness.

Your sanctification, your your growth in your walk with him will proceed towards greater Christ-likeness.

That's what it says there.

As you trust the Lord and you stop leaning on your own abilities and your own strengths and your own knowledge and your own quote-unquote wisdom, then the Lord's gonna straighten things out for you.

He's gonna make you more like Jesus.

Right?

That's awesome.

That's awesome, but but that's not all.

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

You know, as you as you trust the Lord instead of yourself, he will heal you from past sin.

Do you not want that?

Do you not want that?

How many of us have made mistakes before that we're suffering from now?

Even still, it might have been years ago, it might have been decades ago, and the consequences are still being felt.

Isn't it nice to know that as we trust the Lord more and more and we learn to do that, he will heal us?

Right?

Sign me up for more of that.

That's what I want.

Right?

It says that He will be refreshment to our bones.

I mean, how many of us, you know, are coming in here this morning, so to speak, like like hurting, right?

We're we're injured.

We've been we've been walking through life and we're like limping our way into church, you know, and our our flesh has gotten the better of us throughout this week, and we've had some challenges, and and the the enemy, man, that guy just doesn't quit, and he continues to come after me, and I just feel beat up.

It's a it's a war zone, and you know, I could really use some some refreshment, right?

That's how I feel constantly when I come to church.

I need this, I need the Lord.

I need that that renewed perspective, that that refresher on joy, you know, that that that encouragement, that that resolve in my my weary bones that spiritually are just just aching.

You know, not even to mention physically.

Right again, pretty sure, pretty sure we could all use a bit of that.

Right?

We could use that.

Okay, so understand also that that trusting the Lord, okay, trusting the Lord, it's not just a one-time thing.

Right?

A lot of us think of trusting the Lord as what we do the moment we get saved.

Okay, I'm no longer trusting in my ability, right, to impress God or to please God.

I'm trusting in the person and work of Jesus Christ on the cross to save me.

And so I think a lot of us we kind of understand that at a point in time you trust Christ.

Right?

You trust him.

But then what we so easily do is we start, you know, we go through life the very next day, we're kind of like taking the reins back, right?

I want to take the can the control back, and you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna kind of manage the rest of my life from here.

Thank you very much, Lord.

But that's not it either.

Right?

The Christian life is again this this lifelong discipline of us learning to hand over control of our lives to God, right?

That's what it is.

That's what it means to trust him, that's what it means to live by faith.

So, how are we doing with that?

Right, how are you doing with that this summer?

Okay, well, maybe this will help.

You here are three signs that I trust myself more than I trust God.

Okay, you ready for these?

Okay, I'll uh spoiler alert, all right?

These might stink all right?

Here's the first one.

Prayerlessness.

Prayerlessness.

Right now, this is just like if I wanted to pick on anybody, this is just too easy, right?

Because we all feel guilty and we all feel, you know, shameful about our prayer lives.

I doubt there's a person alive who's like, Yeah, I feel like I've just like prayed enough.

I feel like I've kind of mastered that.

I'm good.

No one's feeling that.

But listen, listen, prayerlessness is a sign that you trust yourself and not God.

Right?

Prayerlessness is in its sense in essence saying, Lord, I don't trust myself, or prayer is rather saying, I don't trust myself, and I need you.

Right?

I trust you.

If we refuse to pray, if we if we lack prayer, if you know, whatever that might be, it means that you know, we kind of think that we've got it.

Okay, prayerless people are deeply conceited people because they don't think that they need the Lord, they're not trusting Him.

There's a there's an overestimation of their ability to kind of handle life.

Okay, prayerlessness is a big one.

How about this one?

In frequent scripture intake.

Okay, infrequent scripture intake.

You know, again, how many of us struggle with this too?

Like this kind of goes, you know, part and parcel with the prayer piece, right?

And I, you know, I haven't I haven't read scripture in a while, and and I just find myself, you know, it's just just too busy, and there's you know, there's so much going on, and and we're constantly away, or I'm traveling a lot, or you know, I need my sleep, and you know, I again it's busy, busy, busy.

Life's too busy.

Here's what I would say: nonsense! Right?

Life is not too busy, right?

We all have the the same amount of time, right?

We we all easily find a way to watch you know season six of suits, right?

We fit that in.

Right?

That's that's easy for us.

Right?

We we we play the busy card all the time.

Nonsense.

We don't read the scriptures because we're proud.

We don't read the scriptures because we're we're arrogant.

We're not we're not bored with it.

We don't think we need it.

Right?

People that that are deeply in the scriptures and and in it constantly and and continually coming before it and reading it and memorizing it, they're they they're not like they they just realize that they need the Lord.

Right?

Like I have to be in this or I am done.

Right?

One of the things that that struck me so powerfully a while ago is that if my if my prayer or if my prayer life and if my time in God's word is not robust, I just can't handle the demands of my life.

Right?

I can't do it.

I will I will crash and burn.

Yeah, for a while I can kind of put it all together.

For a while I can, you know, I can kind of make it and I can limp through, but at some point I'm headed for a crash.

Right?

I I need to get in front of God's word and not stop seeing ourselves as too busy.

That's not the issue.

The issue is that we're too proud.

We need to humble ourselves and come before God.

Here's the third one: disdain for community.

Okay, that's that's definitely a sign that you trust yourself more than you trust the Lord.

And you might be saying, well, hold on a second.

Like I, you know, that one's not for me because I don't disdain human, you know, uh community.

That's a bit of a that's a bit of a strong word, and you know, maybe that's true.

Maybe you're not the person on the outside saying, I don't, I don't need this church, and you know, I can kind of do it myself, but isn't that how our hearts often speak?

That's how our hearts feel.

And it may be more of a subtle thing for you.

And maybe you've kind of got yourself into that kind of you know, kind of soggy kind of midsection where everything's kind of going okay, and you know, I've I've got friends in my life, and you know, I've I've got people, and I've you know, maybe of you even in a small group, and you know, I'm connected here and serving on all of that, but but listen, but you keep people at arm's length.

Right?

And you're and you're not letting you're not letting people in.

And so you you kind of have this picture in your mind that I've got community, but but but you're like a fortress.

I'm not letting people in, I, you know, and in some ways I'm not letting the Lord in.

Why?

Because community is how the Lord structures life, right?

And and we we cannot escape that reality.

The Lord is or the the world, the our lives are inescapably social, right?

They're inescapably geared towards community.

God gave us the church and he gave us each other because we need each other, and we need the Lord through people, right?

And that's the model, that's the method that he has chosen.

All right, so you want your life to go well, then reject that that self-trust that we often have that engulfs your heart, and instead trust the Lord.

Learn to do that bit by bit, piece by piece.

Also, honor the Lord with your giving.

Honor the Lord with your giving.

That's the third one.

Hey, verse 9, take a peek.

He says this honor the Lord with your wealth and the first fruits of your produce.

Okay, so he's saying willingly, he's talking about willingly giving to the Lord a you know a biblical proportion.

All right, and then what does he say?

This says, then your then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting uh with wine.

Okay, now sometimes I I kind of feel like that like maybe as the church and generally we we don't really take this command maybe as seriously as we take some of the others.

Right?

The commands that we've already talked about this morning to you know obey the Lord from the heart and and trust him and not ourselves, like that those ones are like, yeah, I gotta work on those.

But this like honoring the Lord with our wealth, we're like, yeah, I'll maybe get to that some other day.

You know, and and uh maybe we just we don't take it seriously, you know, as uh as we need to.

And maybe for us it even feels a little bit out of place here when you compare them you know to the other commands.

Okay, but it's inclusion here shows us just how serious this issue is to the Lord.

Right?

That we would that we would honor him with our wealth, that we would honor him, you know, with our giving.

Why?

Why does he take it so seriously?

Well, because our because our money and our and our treasures and our and our possessions have have incredible power over our hearts.

Incredible power.

And we're so easily enslaved to this and the pursuit of all of that and the things that we have, and if we don't have them, the things that we want to have.

Right?

Our hearts fall into that trap, you know, super easy.

Right?

You're probably thinking Matthew 6, 21, write it down.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

And listen, the Lord is just flat out not okay with anything, with anything that vies for the attention of your heart.

He's not okay with that.

Now, I mean, we we talked about just just a couple of weeks ago, you remember that, right?

We had this message, worshipful giving, and we talked a lot about what you know, what giving and giving sacrificially and and giving generously, and how that is an act of worship, and how the Lord is glorified in that, and and how the Lord, you know, uses that in the church for fruitful ministry and all of those things.

And so I'm not gonna go a whole lot more into that, I'm not gonna rehash all of that.

I would just say this if you didn't get a chance to hear that message, just jump on our podcast.

And it was again, it was like three or four weeks ago.

Go on that and and give it a listen.

If you need a refresh, listen to that again uh this week and ask the Lord, how am I doing on this?

Right?

And as you kind of start to grow in this area, and as we start to hold on to our possessions and and hold on to our wealth, how however great or or small that is.

And and as you, again, you just the more generous that we become, and Lord, I I want to see you use this in the church, and I want to see you know disciples you know made through all of this, and I want to see great hat great things happen for your kingdom.

Guess what's gonna happen?

He's gonna take care of your needs as they come up, right?

He's gonna take care of everything, anything that might be lacking.

It says there are our barns will be filled with plenty.

It doesn't say necessarily more than you know what to do with, it just says plenty, right?

It's it's enough.

More than you'll need, our vats will be bursting with wine.

Okay, so so really assess your heart in all of this.

Again, don't fall into the trap that we easily fall into.

It's like, well, maybe later.

You know, I I kind of like having this hold on my finances and this hold on my money.

And I'll get to it when I feel like it.

Listen, you want to see the blessing of the Lord?

You want life to go well for you?

You want to see God do great things, not just in your life, but in others' lives through you.

And this is a really huge, important area.

Prayerfully invite him in.

Lord, would you help me with this?

Would you soften my heart on this?

Would you help me to engage in worshipful giving?

I want to honor you, Lord.

I want to honor you with this.

Alright, you want your life to go well.

Well, obey the Lord from your heart.

Trust the Lord instead of yourself.

Honor the Lord with your giving and yield to the Lord when he corrects.

Yield to the Lord when he corrects.

That's the last thing here.

Okay, verse 11.

Verse 11 says, My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof.

Reproof is just kind of another word we don't use a lot today, but another word for rebuke.

Right?

Okay, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves.

As a father, the son in whom he delights.

Now, the Lord's discipline that stings, doesn't it?

You ever experienced that?

You ever felt that like that hot knife kind of like carve right through your conscience, pierce right into your soul as the Lord kind of points out to you, yeah, this thing's this thing's not right.

Right?

Your heart's going astray in all of this.

I need to I need to call this out.

This is an area that I need to I need to deal with.

I mean, I I've I've literally, I think I might have shared this with you before, but I I've literally sat in church before, sweating profusely, because of the conviction of the Lord.

Right?

His hand is just so heavy on my life and and showing me this this isn't right.

You worship this, and you need to worship me.

This thing has become too important to you.

Or this is this is outright wrong, and it is hurting you, and it is hurting others, and I need to, like a surgeon, come in and remove that through discipline.

Now, again, that hurts.

That is a it's an incredibly uncomfortable, humbling, and I would say even terrifying at times experience.

Right?

And what's the what's the temptation for all of us when when we start to sense the discipline of the Lord?

What do we want to do?

Run! Right?

Run away?

I want to get as far uh away from this feeling as as possible.

And so what do we do?

What are we what do we think we're so good at?

I'm gonna bury it deep down.

I'm gonna get my foot in there and and squash it down and silence the voice of the of the Holy Spirit, and you know, I'm just gonna busy myself with life and good things, and I'm gonna go on the shopping spree because that makes me feel a little bit better, and you know, I'm gonna spend money how I want to, and I'm gonna, you know, just live for the weekend and do what's fun, and you know, numb myself in front of my phone, constantly scrolling, and do whatever it takes to just ignore what's going on in my life and what the Lord is trying to do in me.

Right, we ignore it.

We want to run away as far as we can, as fast as we can.

Okay, but what's the command and the encouragement here in the verses this morning?

It says, do not despise the Lord's discipline.

Don't despise it, don't hate it, don't, don't loathe it.

Right, the encouragement there is to yield to it, you will yield to it, give way to it.

Allow the Lord to have his way, whatever that issue might be.

It might be incredibly daunting, it might be incredibly scary, you may not know how this is really gonna turn out, and this is gonna make things real awkward between me and somebody.

This is gonna be extremely painful, and you know, life will be hard for a long time, and it's not gonna, it's not gonna get better quickly.

I I don't I don't wanna go down that road.

Right?

The in the encouragement though is to yield.

Trust the Lord.

Trust that he knows what he's doing.

And this is this is for you.

Yes, it's gonna be uncomfortable.

Yes, it's gonna be awkward and even painful.

But what do you think it's gonna lead to?

It's gonna lead to you know greater heights of joy like you've never experienced before.

Right?

Greater depths of love.

You know, some of us here, we've heard the call and the challenge already.

Allow your hearts to be soft, cultivate soft hearts.

Well, the Lord does that through discipline.

So sometimes we we want the soft hearts, we want the benefits, but we don't want to take that painful, prickly, and thorny path to get there, do we?

Because we don't trust the Lord.

And we don't and we don't believe that he can really do that, or we're we're just flat out terrified.

Listen, verse 12 is money for you, if that's you.

Right?

If if if you are terrified, if you are s uh if you are scared, if it if this is awkward and uncomfortable and painful and you're not sure how to move forward here, let this verse shape the understanding, your understanding of the character of your God.

Okay, this is what it says.

It says, for the Lord reproves him who he, what's the word?

Loves.

Right?

He loves you.

Right?

As a father, the son in whom he what delights.

Right?

He delights.

Right now, I grew up in the church my whole life, and you would automatically maybe think that that that that was just a you know a great a great process.

And and man, he must, you know, he's a pastor now, so man, he must have had things figured out by the time he was like seven, right?

That didn't happen.

Right?

I I grew up most of my life, and then through my twenties, finally starting to realize I don't see this God.

I don't I don't relate to God in this way.

I don't understand that this is God.

I saw God as this kind of kind of vengeful, angry, you know, never pleased.

Everything I did was was never enough.

You know, God's the God up in the sky, cold and distant.

He's got the Indiana Jones whip, right?

Just cracking it on me.

Right?

You're not good enough, and man, you're you're trying, but man, step it up, man.

Right?

That's really the picture of the God that I had.

Guess what?

Not biblical.

Right?

That's not the God that we worship here.

Right?

That's just that's just not it.

And verses like this allow verses like this to begin to transform your heart if you tend to see God like this.

Allow it to shape your understanding of of his nature and his character.

Right?

God disciplines us, not because he's a sadist and he gets some you know sick pleasure out of it and he loves watching us twist in the wind, he's kind of sitting back with his feet kicked up, sucker.

Like that's not him.

That's not what he's doing.

No, he does it because he's a loving father.

And when there's a there's an area of our uh of our life that's that's not going well or it's not where it should be, God will come in and he will do surgery on that.

And he will he will transform us in those areas.

Why?

Because he doesn't want you to make the same mistakes.

He knows that those mistakes, even though you may not be able to see it right now in this moment, those things will never satisfy you.

You think they will, but they're not.

Only he satisfies truly, only he satisfies purely, only he satisfies totally and thoroughly.

Right?

And so he will go after the things that you think you need, but you actually don't.

And you better believe he's gonna go after those areas that hurt you or maybe hurt others.

Listen, write this down.

This is so huge, okay?

The Lord's discipline is his protection.

The Lord's discipline is his protection.

And why does he protect you?

Because he delights in you.

Right?

He thinks you're great.

Right?

Well, how do I know that?

And you know, how about the cross?

Right?

The cross is like, you know, example number one.

You think he would have gone through the horrors of that?

You think he would have gone through the suffering of that if he didn't care about us?

Right, God sent his only son to suffer and die the death that you and I deserved.

Right?

He did it because he loves us passionately.

Remember that.

Allow that to become the core of your understanding as you yield your life to him, as you as you give over control.

And as again, as terrifying as it may be, Lord, have your way.

Would you do this to me?

I get that I don't see how this is all gonna work.

I get that I got lots of question marks, but God, I trust you.

Oh, would that be our prayer?

Can you imagine the good that God is gonna do in our lives if we if we would have that mindset?

Can you imagine how he's gonna sweep through this church as He's going to sweep through this community in Newmarket as our church begins to yield to him in all ways?

Is that not your heart?

That is literally what I pray for you every Sunday morning.

I pray for you through the week.

Lord, I pray that we would give bits and pieces more and more of our heart over to you.

Because Lord, you are worthy.

Lord, you are good.

You love us.

Lord, help us to understand that.

Help us to see you clearly.

Lord, as we are a delight to you, Lord, would you be a delight to us?

Would following you, would yielding to you, would be, would submitting to you be what we want and what we love to do.

Listen, you want the you want life to go well for you.

We need to accept the Lord's discipline when he brings it.

Stop shutting the door on that.

Stop making excuses.

Stop trying to bury it far away in the far reaches, the dark corners of your conscience.

Expose it to the light.

Expose it to the Lord.

Yield to him when he corrects.

This is really saying, let him have his way.

Or let him have his way.

You will not regret it.

You won't.

It's gonna be tough for a season, but ultimately there is so much awesome in store for you.

And it's gonna be amazing.

Listen, some of you have never done that.

Some of you have never yielded to the Lord.

You know, some of you, you know, you don't have a personal relationship with Christ.

You don't know him, you're still in your sin.

Your sins are still being held against you.

And what tends to happen is people want benefits and blessings from the Lord, but but I don't just want the Lord, and I don't want to be in a relationship with him.

Well, listen, you can't walk around that and get blessings from the Lord.

It starts with surrendering your life to him.

Would you do that?

Would you do that today?

Would you invite him to be Lord of your life?

Would you recognize that that the cross was what it took to make sure that your sins would be forgiven?

Christ suffered and he died for you.

Do you know that that was where you deserve to be?

Right?

You deserve to have to have all of your sins counted against you, but because God delights in you, because God loves you, he said, you know what?

They can't fix it.

I'm gonna fix it by sending my son.

So would you trust him today?

Would you trust that what he did on the cross secures your salvation?

I would encourage you, do that this morning.

Do it right now.

You got questions about that?

Talk to the person who came with you this morning.

Ask them, how do I, how do I get into a relationship with God?

How do I, how do I know him personally?

Come talk to one of us after the service.

Come talk to me.

I would love to walk you through that.

Right?

You want to see your life go well.

Well, it has to start here.

It starts with a relationship with the Lord.

You do that.

Right, you do that.

The Lord is gonna begin to work in you.

He's gonna begin to do these things that we've talked, been talking about this morning.

Beyond that, you're gonna have heaven for you someday on the other side of eternity.

Right, you're gonna have that waiting for you.

Hell and torment and eternal punishment and all of that.

That's a thing of the past.

That's not gonna happen anymore because you have trusted in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, for your righteousness.

You've cast aside your self-righteousness, understanding that it's polluted.

Do it today.

Ask your questions.

Listen, it all starts there.

And church, let me encourage you, let's do these things.

Right?

These four things that we've been talking about this morning.

Right?

Let's let's obey the Lord from our hearts, enough with the external stuff.

Enough with you know putting on the mask and pretending and everything's fine, but our hearts are a billion miles away.

Let's let's learn to trust the Lord and not ourselves.

Right?

Let's let's trust him.

He is able, we are not.

Let's honor the Lord with our giving, let's honor the Lord with our wealth.

And of course, let's yield to him as he disciplines, as he corrects.

All right, let's do these things.

Watch out, watch out what the Lord's gonna do in this church.

Right?

Continually want to encourage you with that.