Proverbs 3:5-6 - One Weird Trick

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And that was the best introduction I have ever had.

And I think if my mom would have been alive and here to have heard it, she would have believed it.

But, man, it's great to be here.

Gosh, two and a half years ago was the last time I was here, probably standing up here.

And some of you guys know, you need to know that some of you all still sit in the same place.

It's true. I can look at it. It's hysterical.

But it's great to be here.

The text this morning is not like a Palm Sunday text.

But it's out of Proverbs.

But in preparation for this morning, I was reading through the Palm Sunday,

the triumphal entry of Jesus in some of the Gospels.

And something stood out for me in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

And it's the part right after Jesus has come into the city.

And John tells of the story of some Greeks, some Gentiles that come to Philip.

And then Philip goes to Andrew because they want to see Jesus.

And they go and they tell Jesus.

And then Jesus answers them.

And he says to tell them that the hour has come.

The hour where the Son of Man is to be glorified has come.

And then he goes on to tell them this.

He says that,

And then Jesus goes on to talk about how whoever loves his life will lose it.

Whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.

And so the message he's giving as he's come powerfully into the city,

he's starting to tell what's going to happen to him.

He is going to die.

And then there's going to bear much fruit.

Right?

But then he talks about us.

He says that if we hate our life, in this life, in this world,

we'll gain something greater.

So this idea that he's telling us is that the way up is down.

There's a humility that we're going to be called to.

Because as we go into the world,

it's a kind of world where things don't go the way that we want them to.

The unexpected things happen.

Our expectations are here and the reality is here.

There's a difference.

And he's preparing these Greeks, these Gentiles for this.

And it got me thinking in terms of my life,

how I face things, you know,

things that happen unexpectedly.

My expectations are here, but then reality is here.

What happens?

How do I gap?

How do I bridge that gap?

And usually what I want is a quick fix.

I want something to be fixed quickly.

In this world, things happen unexpectedly.

And I want a quick fix.

And I'm looking for a life hack most of the time.

Do you know what a life hack is?

You've heard of a life hack?

It's sort of just kind of a quick fix for things.

There's even like whole websites dedicated for a life hack.

And one of them that I found,

and it's hysterical because it was so disappointing.

I needed some quick fixes,

and I went to this whole website for a life hack.

And this is how they define a life hack.

A life hack is being,

it's little ways that make our lives easier.

Okay?

So when our expectations are here

and reality's here,

I need a quick fix.

I need my life made easier.

So here's a life hack.

And here's a few of them,

and they're horrible.

They're not going to make your life easier.

But listen,

this is supposed to make your life easier.

You know those binder clips,

those black binder clips?

They got like certain sizes.

If you take those,

you stick them on the back behind your desk,

you can organize all your cables

through the little loop on it.

Easy life.

That's a good one.

There was another one.

There was one that was about

what to do with pancake batter,

how to make your life easier.

They say to put it in a squeeze bottle,

you know,

a ketchup squeeze bottle.

Put your pancake batter in that.

Let's do the pancake batter math here for a second.

First,

first to get a ketchup bottle empty,

I got to get rid of the ketchup.

First,

I got to clean a squeeze bottle of ketchup.

Now that's done.

Then I've got to make my batter.

Then I got to get the batter into that thing.

And my batter will take like ketchup from now on.

So one last little one.

This one is about how to organize your keys.

If you got a lot of keys,

get fingernail polish,

different colors,

and you're supposed to paint the top of them

different colors.

And then you'll know what key is to go to what.

But then I think you need one of those

little quarterback cheat sheets

to tell you, you know,

which key goes to what.

Okay, so I failed with the life hacks.

But I still,

I want to figure out how to make life easy.

And I think this is something that marketers

and advertisers are really,

they've been leveraging for years.

Because we want a quick fix to stop.

And have you seen in the,

like on websites,

they have little advertisements.

And they'll tell you about one weird trick.

There's one weird trick out there.

And one of them was a weird trick

on how to save,

how to add $1,000

to your social security check.

And I love the wording of that

because that plays into exactly how I feel.

Because my expectations are here

and reality is here.

And something has happened

and I need a quick fix in my life.

I need a weird trick.

Because what's so cool is it's weird.

Like no one knows how it works.

It's weird.

And it's a trick.

I don't know how tricks work.

They just work.

And that's what I want.

That's what I want for my life.

I want a weird trick.

I love you when they say things like,

here's a ridiculously easy trick

insurance companies don't want you to know about.

And so here we are.

I need a quick fix.

I need something that bridges the gap

between my expectations and reality.

But who can blame us?

I mean, who can blame us?

I mean, because life takes all kinds of turns

and things happen.

And who can blame us

that we would want a quick trick,

a weird trick to fix it.

Because we live in a broken world.

Genesis tells us the story of how that happened.

And then the repercussions of the fall

of our parents, Adam and Eve.

And the repercussions were that work

is going to be hard.

What we do is going to be difficult.

Right?

I mean, the economy turns

and we lose our jobs.

It's just difficult.

It's hard.

And making money and buying things is hard.

And then relationships are affected.

All of our relationships are hard.

When you're married, it's difficult.

And you're getting along with your neighbor

and the people at work.

And it's just so hard.

And I need a weird trick.

I need something to fix this.

I need a life hack.

But here's the thing.

The Bible is not a collection of life hacks.

It's not a collection of weird tricks

on how to avoid pain and struggle in life.

In fact, it's the opposite.

Jesus, when he was saying

after his triumphal entry,

you know, unless you die,

unless you die,

unless, see, the way up is down.

And so the Bible is not a collection

of weird tricks,

you know, life hacks.

Although,

it's full of resources.

I mean, that bring life

as we go through this broken world.

Brings perspective.

It brings life.

Resources.

Gospel resources.

That's kind of even a strange

sort of terminology there.

But here's the thing.

We're going to look at

one thing this morning.

It's in our passage.

It's one thing.

Just one,

I don't know,

life hack.

It's trust.

Because when

your expectations are here,

reality's here

and that gap in between.

And you,

you know,

Jesus said

as he rode in on the donkey,

I am king.

That's what he was saying.

I'm king.

Yet a week later,

a year later,

Caesar was still king, right?

But we know

Jesus is king

because when my expectations

are here

and reality is here,

I have to believe

he's king

even when it doesn't feel

like he's king.

And that's where trust

comes in.

Let's read the passage

this morning

and then we'll pray.

Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.

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,

and he will make straight

your paths.

Let's pray.

Father,

we need to see Jesus

this morning

just as the Greeks asked.

Lord, show us Jesus.

Take us to the cross.

Blaze a trail

that so that we end up

before the face of Jesus

to look into his face.

And Father,

know that he's king

even when it doesn't feel like it.

Teach us to trust.

Show us that truth

this morning.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

Amen.

All right.

So, very quickly again,

we're on a journey

through a broken world.

It's hard.

Things are hard now.

Very difficult.

And we're on that journey

through it.

And it goes all the way back

to our parents.

So, we're born

with a bent away from God.

We're born in sin.

We're sinners.

That's how we're born.

And we need to be rescued.

And so, everything about us

wants everything except God.

And then, even as we're transformed

and given new hearts,

that battle still rages in us.

We want things our way.

And it's difficult

in a broken world.

And so,

we have to go back

and to think on,

well, why were we created?

What picture do we have in Genesis?

And that picture in Genesis

is that God wants to be with us.

He wants a relationship with us.

And so, we read and see

the picture that's painted there.

And in fact,

we have the imagery

of God walking with us

in the cool of the day.

Right?

That He wants to be

in relationship with us.

And so, in places

like Deuteronomy,

we have this passage

in Deuteronomy 10,

Deuteronomy 10:12

verse 12.

And now, Israel,

what does the Lord,

your God,

require of you

but to fear the Lord,

your God,

to walk in all His ways,

to love Him,

to serve the Lord,

your God,

with all your heart

and with all your soul?

Another familiar passage

is Micah 6.8.

He has told you,

O man,

what is good.

And what does the Lord

require of you

but to do justice

and to love kindness

and to walk,

to walk humbly

with your God.

And then Jesus sums up

all the commandments.

He gives the greatest commandment

that we love God

with all of our hearts

and all of our soul

and mind and strength.

So the goal in our life

is to know God,

to walk with Him.

Roy Hessian,

in that great book

on We Would See Jesus,

he even says,

to see God

means to know

and to love

and to walk with Him.

And so that's what

we want to do.

We want to see God.

We want to walk with Him.

We want to walk with Jesus.

In this world

where our expectations

are here,

reality here,

we need to see Jesus.

We need to walk with Him.

We need to have

a relationship with Him.

We need to trust Him.

And we're to trust Him

with all of our heart.

Now, the heart,

imagine God is trying

to describe

how we made us.

And He says that,

you know,

there's all kinds

of parts to us.

And one of the ways

He describes the heart

and then we have emotions.

But our heart

and emotions

are different.

Our heart is the place

where our greatest

commitments and hopes reside.

That's the place

where all of our commitments

and hopes reside.

And so what the passage

in Proverbs says

is we're to love God

with all of our hearts.

With every ounce

of our being,

we're to love God.

We're to place

all of our hope

and trust in Him

because our emotions

come out of that.

So God is to be

the very center

of all of our commitment

and hope.

That's what we're called

to do.

Derek Kidner

in one of the commentaries

painted a picture

of what that word

trust in Hebrew

and there's a lot

of facets to the word

trust and we'll talk

about a different

facet later.

But he gave this idea

of trust as lying

face downward,

helpless,

helplessly face downward.

And I gotta tell you

and I've brought up

an illustration using

our oldest son many times

because Billy,

as a lot of you know,

is autistic.

He's an adult now.

I think I'll get

his age right.

He'll be 23 this year.

And many of you know

when he was 17

he turned violent.

And oh boy,

I know many of you here

know that day well.

And we had to place him

outside the home.

And he's in a group home

for a while

and he's still in a group home.

But in that first group home

and organization,

one of the ways

they were helping him

deal with his violence

and his lashing out

was they had this thing

called a blue mat.

And a blue mat was,

just imagine you're

in elementary school

and you're at gym

and the blue mat

would be the mats

you put on the ground.

It's that sort of foam mat.

And it had a little handle on it

and it could fold in two

and they would carry that

around with them

because when Billy

would begin to act out

they would have to put

the blue mat on the ground

and I watched them do this

a number of times.

They would gently put him

down on the blue mat

face down

and then two workers

would get on either side

of him and hold him down,

helplessly hold him down

until he stopped

wanting his way.

And thanks to my wife Sherry,

she brought that illustration up

and said that that is how

we are to trust

because typically

what we want is our way.

We want our way.

We want things our way.

Our expectations are here

and the reality is usually

down here

and we want our way

and God teaches us to trust

to stop wanting our way

and wanting his way.

So that's what we're called to do.

To trust in the Lord

with all your hearts,

not wanting your way,

but we're to lean on

and we're to put all of our weight,

not on our understanding,

but on the understanding of God.

In Proverbs,

any understanding,

any wisdom

is not true understanding

apart from God.

And so our challenge is

we always want to lean on

our little thimble full

of understanding

when we stand before

a vast ocean

of God's understanding

because our expectations are here

and what God wants

is usually right here

and there's a huge difference.

and if I lean on my understanding,

I can get bitter.

If I lean on my understanding,

I can get angry.

I can start to find

other ways out,

looking for a quick fix,

a weird trick,

a life hack

to get out of whatever mess I'm in.

But I have to lean on

how God sees it

and his understanding.

Here's a great quote.

If God were small enough

to be understood,

he wouldn't be big enough

to be worshipped.

Amen on that.

If he was small enough

to be understood,

he wouldn't be big enough

to be worshipped.

So we need to fall on our face

on a blue mat

before the vast ocean

of God's understanding.

Let me ask you this then.

What's next?

What do we do then after that?

How do we get up

off the blue mat?

Well, it says in the passage

we're to acknowledge him.

That simply means to know him,

to have a deep relationship

with God,

to know him.

It's a personal knowledge.

We're aware of the other person.

And it's just like

your relationships,

just like our relationships.

Oh man,

I wish I could go back

in time now

because I was able to do

as a pastor

a lot of marriage counseling.

And those poor people

that I counseled early on,

I just want to go back

and like,

can they do a do-over?

Because I would think

I could help

a little better now

with marriage issues.

And here's what I would say

about that.

Here's what I would do differently.

And I'll put it this way.

If you're maybe

going to go into

marriage counseling,

maybe with one of the pastors here

or with a therapist,

here's what you need to do.

Promise me you'll do.

If you walk into

this initial meeting

and the first thing

out of that counselor

or pastor's mouth is,

and they say,

who wants to begin?

Just get up and leave.

Because what they're saying is,

who wants to start

complaining first?

That's not what you want to hear.

Here's what I would recommend

that you would try

to listen for.

And here's what I will do

as well if you come to me.

Is I will ask you,

before we find out

what's concerning you,

I'll ask you

to start talking about

what was it like

when you first met.

Tell me what it was like

when you first saw her.

How did you feel?

And then that person

could say,

well, wow.

First time I saw her,

oh, I just thought,

it's beautiful.

Then we started to talk.

She was so smart,

funny,

and her laugh was cute.

And then the wife could say,

oh, I remember

when I first saw him.

And yes, handsome

and rugged.

And Sherry says,

you know,

I was wearing

these little tight red shorts.

And she reminds me.

This is the day

when gym shorts were tight,

like that.

And because then

after that happens,

then the counselor can go,

okay, now tell me,

what concern has brought

you here today?

You see what's going on?

I mean, there's part of it

on a practical level.

You can't stay mad

at somebody

when you're remembering

things about them.

But we're to remember.

The way,

your relationship

will grow with each other

as you remember

how you met,

what you've been through,

all those things

you've got to remember.

That's how you develop

a relationship

just among people.

And one other little thing, too,

I would tell couples

you need rituals.

You need things

you do on a regular basis.

It could be like

a Tuesday night

pastry and coffee.

Something that you do

on a regular basis.

That's how we know God, too.

If you look at a lot

of the Psalms,

they begin with

the psalmist

remembering things

about God,

remembering how

and what he brought

you through.

Remember what he's done.

And so as we have

a relationship with God,

we open his word

and we remember

what he's done

from start to finish,

you know,

from Genesis to Revelation,

what he's done

for us,

how he came after,

how much he loved us,

how much his heart

is after us,

what he's done

to come after us.

That's how we develop

a relationship with God.

We remember

what he's done

and we think on it

and we delight in it,

in his word.

And then you have rituals

where, you know,

regular time with God,

doing that remembering,

regular time

with God and his word

and with his people.

Right?

Spending time with him,

spending time with others,

with people.

That's how he grows us.

That's how we get

into relationship with him.

So trust in the Lord

with all your heart.

Lean not on your understanding,

but in all your ways,

know him.

Know him.

All right,

so there you go.

What's the next thing

we're supposed to do?

Well,

if we are to trust him,

not ourselves,

we do it by knowing him.

The next thing that we're called

to do in this passage

is relax.

I don't know if you saw it in there,

but it's relax.

Because the next part of this

is it says,

he will make straight your paths.

There's a lot of work

that leads up to the relaxing.

You know,

you spend time in the Word,

spend time with others,

you think about him,

you remember,

you remember all these things,

but he causes us to relax.

Why?

Because he's got it.

There's an old Portuguese proverb

that says that

God writes straight

with a crooked line.

You know what that crooked line is?

It's the hardship,

it's the world,

the broken world we live in.

We're called to walk

that crooked path

that God has written for us.

We're to believe

and to trust him

in that time,

whatever he's called us to.

Your expectations are here,

reality's down here.

Trust him.

Relax.

It's hard to do,

but it's what he calls us to do.

Relax.

Okay.

Why is trust

a life hack

or a weird trick?

Why is trust?

Why do we need it?

Very often,

the broken creation,

especially with fallen people like us,

we get to that place

where we wonder

where God is.

Listen, y'all,

since leaving here,

the past two and a half years

has been hard.

It's been one of the hardest things

that Sherry and I

have ever walked through.

I never thought

I would not,

I'm going to do a double negative.

I always thought

I'd be in ministry

from always from on,

from the time

I went off the seminary

until I wasn't,

until I went on to glory.

I always thought

I'd be in ministry.

And boom,

all of a sudden I wasn't.

And I can tell you

I needed a quick fix.

I needed a life hack.

I needed a weird trick.

I needed some button

I could push

to fix it.

But what God gave me

was Him.

Every day,

trusting Him.

Every day,

believing that He is

writing straight lines,

even though it looks crooked

from my vantage point.

I'm telling you,

there's life there.

And if any of you

are going through

whatever it is,

you just wonder,

is God king?

Is Jesus king?

Doesn't feel like He is,

but He is.

Trust is a call

on our lives

to believe Him,

to be face down

and not won our way

on the blue map.

There's life there,

I can tell you.

There's life there.

That's what we need.

And so our response

is always to be

to trust Him.

Jesus is king.

May not feel like He's king.

He's king.

He's bringing,

making all things new.

And we can believe that.

We can trust it.

And so we're to work

on our relationship with God.

That's what we're called to do.

That's what this passage says.

Trust in the Lord

with all your heart.

Everything about you.

Work on it.

Really know Him.

And then we're called to relax,

to trust the Lord.

But here's the problem,

and I'm going to close with this.

There's a problem here.

And the problem is this.

We can't trust Him like that.

Now the type A's in the room,

you can go a lot longer than I can.

If I were just to tell you,

now go trust Jesus.

Now we're going to give you

a rah-rah speech,

and we run out of here.

The type A's are going to be able

to trust Him way longer

than the type F's like me

or whatever the worst type there is.

Because the challenge really is

there was only one who did trust,

like Proverbs calls it to.

There was only one who trusted like this.

Because here's the challenge.

Even in a church

where you can feel like

we're all shiny, happy people,

everything's good,

everything's going great.

It's just not the truth.

And you can hear from somebody

to say, well, remember what Bill said,

just trust the Lord,

and it can sound trite.

Unless, unless,

we also say,

but remember that Jesus

is the one who trusted,

who truly trusted.

You're called to trust.

You and I are called to trust.

No doubt.

But we have to remember

Jesus is the one who trusted

like we were supposed to have.

There is a one facet

of the word trust in Hebrew.

The root word has all these derivatives

that are the opposite of trust.

It means that you're sort of,

the root,

some of the words that are derived from it

have this idea that

the person that you're trusting

is deceitful.

And I love that imagery

because there's only one place

we should put all of our trust.

Our heart should only have,

be putting our trust in one place,

not anywhere else.

Not in our jobs,

not in ministry positions,

not in anything else.

But it's only in Jesus.

And that's what we,

we're like the Greeks.

Let us see Jesus.

Show us Jesus.

Let's do that.

Because the question we want to ask

when our expectations are here

and reality's here

and we're scared

and we don't know

what's going to happen next.

We don't know if we're going to,

if marriage is going to make it.

We don't know if,

man, my job's going to last any longer.

We're scared.

We're afraid.

Because life is hard

and our relationships are affected

and we don't know

how we're going to fix those.

And the weird tricks

are all been worked through.

Right?

What do we do?

Can we believe that God's there?

Can we believe Him?

Yes.

Because we see Jesus trusting.

Later on this week, right?

On Thursday night,

I got my nights right.

He's in the garden.

He's praying.

We see Jesus trusting there

because here's the deal.

Jesus lived the perfect life of trust

that you and I could never live

given a million opportunities.

He lived that perfect life.

He died the death

that you and I deserved.

And as He,

on the night before,

He was betrayed

and knowing what was before Him.

It says this.

And Jesus knew

He was going to drink the cup

of His Father's wrath.

The wrath that was deserved,

you and me.

Jesus knew He was going to drink this.

And He knew that it meant

that He was going to be sent

from the Father's presence

and experience pain,

the depths of pain,

you and I can only barely imagine.

And this is what it says

in Matthew 26.

And going a little further,

He fell on His face

and prayed,

saying,

Father,

if it be possible,

let this cup pass from me.

Nevertheless,

there it is.

I don't know.

Is this heretical?

But I picture Jesus

on the blue mat

saying,

I don't want my way.

I can trust you, Father.

I will walk this horrible path

because of the joy set before me.

I'll do it.

And here's the deal.

He had your life

and my life in mind.

And He still did it.

That's crazy.

He did that for me

and He knew what a mess

I would make of my life.

He still did it.

He's trusting the Father.

He's trusting the Father

to raise Him.

He's trusting the Father

that this will be enough.

It'll be finished.

There is the trust.

And He did it for you and me.

He can be trusted.

The life that God

is scribbling for you,

it looks like crooked lines.

And He asks you to walk it.

And it's painful

and it hurts

and you wonder,

are you king or not?

And He asks you to walk it.

We just need to remember

and look at Jesus

how He trusted

and know

it's worth it.

It's going to be okay.

He's got it.

We can trust

because Jesus knew the Father.

He knew the Father.

With a love

so great as this

that Jesus had for the Father

and the Father had for Jesus,

we see it.

We see what Jesus did for us.

We remember.

We lean on that.

We trust in that.

We don't want our way.

We want Jesus' way.

We want the Father's way.

With love so great as this,

that Jesus would lay down

His life for us.

With such great love

between the Father

and the Son,

that trust flowed so deep

from the heart of Jesus.

How can we not trust

the Father

to make

your crooked path straight?

the pain

that you're walking through,

the hardship

that you're in,

the difficulty.

He can make it straight

and He's making it straight.

He can be trusted.

And so we can get up

off the blue mat

and start walking

with Him

on that crooked path

with hope.

Absolute hope.

He will direct your paths.

Relax.

He will make them

straight and smooth.

So trust,

remember,

relax.

Trust,

it's not a weird trick.

It's not a life hack.

Trust is a person.

It's the gospel.

It's Jesus.

Amen?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

my expectations

in reality,

they hardly ever match up.

And so,

Father,

thank You for that.

I thank You

for the past

two and a half years.

Lord,

thank You.

The straight path

that You're working out.

It looks crooked to me,

but Father,

I look to Jesus

and I see

the glory.

I see Your glory

in His face.

Father,

take me

no further than the cross

and no higher than His feet ever.

Continue to teach me,

teach us,

to trust You,

to place our hope

only in You,

the author and finisher

of our faith.

Lord,

we thank You

for this message.

Lord,

we thank You

for the message

of the gospel of grace.

In Christ's name,

Amen.

For more information,

visit us online

at southwood.org.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.