Go with me, if you would, back
to Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3. This portion of Scripture
is one that I can honestly say has helped me every time I've
needed it. every time that I have needed
it. Every time I read this or quote
this, I quote it often. Or just think about it in my
mind and in my heart, it brings peace to me. This portion of
scripture brings peace to me. And I'm just telling you that. I'm just bearing my heart to
you. This is one for me that brings absolute peace to me. Now, a different portion of scripture. Proverbs 30 says, every word
of God is pure. I love that verse. Every word
of God is pure. And then Psalm 119 says, thy
word is true from the beginning And every one of the righteous
judgments endureth forever. Every one of them, every word
from God, all of these words, every word from God is Holy and
righteous and just and life. Every word from God
is life. Not one of his words will ever
fail. Never, never. I think all the time about how
I cannot wait to enter the great congregation and watch the pastor
ascend the pulpit. And he's gonna preach his word
to us. And he's gonna preach it as it
was written. Not one word is gonna fail. Every
single word is gonna last forever. Therefore, not one word is greater
than another word. But I believe, I very strongly
believe that the Lord selects certain portions of Scripture
to reach different ones of His people individually. and speak
to them through his word. I believe the Lord, our living
Lord, through his living word, speaks individually to his people. We all have certain portions
of scripture that whenever we hear them or we read them, we
feel like he is literally speaking to us in our heart. We hear it
from him. We hear his voice. and it blesses us and it speaks
to our heart. For me, this is one of those
passages. Every time I read this, I think
that is wisdom. Every time I read this, I think
that is right. That's the answer. That's the
answer. It's Proverbs 3, verses 5 and
6. It says, trust in the Lord with
all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge
him and he shall direct thy paths. Every time I read that, I think
that's the answer. That's the answer. Every time
I'm in a position where I'm asking myself, what should I do? Which
is all the time, all the time. Every time I come back to this
passage, every time I'm reminded of this passage, it speaks to
my heart and it says, this is what you should do. That's what
this passage says to me. This is what you should do. It's
a four step process. Number one, Trust in the Lord
with all your heart. All of it. You know, from the,
we talk about something being from the bottom of my heart,
from the top of my heart to the bottom of my heart. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart. Number two, whatever you do,
don't lean on your own understanding of things. And that's the one that we really
need help with. If we can, if the Lord will help
us with that, that'll lead to number one. If the Lord will
help us with number two, that'll lead to number one. Trust in
the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding
of things. Number three, in every way. Every step, every word, every
desire, acknowledge Him. Acknowledge His power. Acknowledge
His sovereignty. Acknowledge His control, especially
in the thing I'm going through. And number four, this passage says,
after you do the first three, Then just wait on the Lord. He will direct you. He will. Verse five says, trust
in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding
in all that ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct that
paths in that comforting. That is so helpful to me. That is just so helpful to me.
I need my Lord. I do. And you need your Lord. And isn't
it so wonderful to know that we have Him? We truly have Him. We sincerely have Him. Turn with me over to Proverbs
18. Proverbs 18, verse 24, it says,
a man that hath friends, or a man that wants to have friends, must
show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh
closer than a brother." You want to talk about a man who showed
himself friendly? Oh, there is a friend. We have
a friend. And the Lord's letting me enter
into this right now. This is a blessing in my heart.
We have a friend. You ever had a true friend? I
mean a true friend. We have a friend. We have the
friend of all friends. We have a friend like no other
friend. A friend who actually laid down
his life for his friends. What a friend. What a friend
we have in the Lord Jesus. We're just saying, what a friend
we have in the Lord Jesus. Turn with me to Isaiah 43. Isaiah
43. Verse 1, it says, But now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. What does that
mean? What does it mean that He has
redeemed His people? That means he paid the price
for their sin. That's what it means. The Lord Jesus paid it all, all
the debt we owed. He paid what God demanded to
settle the debt of our sin. What did
he pay it with? What was the price? He paid it
with his own precious blood, the blood that flowed from Emmanuel's
veins. When the father saw the blood, he said, when I see the blood,
when the father saw the blood, he said, I'm satisfied, they're
redeemed, the payment's made. The price has been paid in full. He said, son, they are yours.
Take them with you. When you pay the price in full,
you can take it with you. They're yours to have and to
hold from this day forward, never depart again. Never again. Isaiah 43 right here, verse one
says, but now thus sayeth the Lord that created thee, O Jacob,
sinner, trickster, supplanter, in your own flesh." He went on to say, "...and he
that formed thee, O Israel, prince with God." Speaking to the same
person. Prince with God, in Christ. Jacob in your flesh, Israel in
Christ. He said, "...fear not, for I
have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. You're mine. That's wonderful
to hear, isn't it? You are mine. I bought you out of your condemnation
into glorious liberty and freedom with me. You're mine. You're mine. And he said in verse
two, When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow you. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, Thy savior. He said, the flood will not overtake
you because it overtook me. And the fire will not touch you
because the fire touched me. I'm your savior. I'm your keeper. I'm your redeemer. I'm your friend. I'm your friend. This is one
of my favorite, favorite portions of scripture. Go back two chapters,
Isaiah 41 and look at verse 10. Isaiah 41 verse 10. He said,
fear thou not for I am with thee. Be not dismayed. That means don't
be puzzled. Be not dismayed for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea, I will help thee. I will uphold thee with the right
hand of my righteousness. In verse 13, he said, for I the
Lord thy God will hold thy right hand. How sweet that is. That he would take the time.
Let's just enter into the, to God. I think about the fact that,
Oh, how merciful it is that God would have anything to do with
centers, but that he would take the time to sit with me. It's amazing that God would have
mercy on a people all over this world, that a number no man can
number, but that God would take the time to sit down beside me
and hold my hand. He said, don't worry. I'll just
sit there with you and hold your hand. Verse 13, for I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, and I'll just say to you while
I'm sitting there holding your hand, fear not, I'll help you. Fear not thou worm, Jacob, and
you men of Israel, I'll help you. saith the Lord and thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel. Now that's what he has said to
us. That's what he has said to us. What are we going to do in
response? That's what he says to his people. What are we going to do in response? We're going to trust him. By God's grace, not by our doing
at all. By His sufficient grace, we're
going to trust Him. We're going to trust our Lord. We're going to look to our Lord.
We're going to believe the word of our Lord with all of our heart. Not part of our heart. Like, yes, I believe him with
this half and then I'm going to do my own thing with the other
half. We're not going to believe him with most of our heart, but
we're going to reserve a little bit of our heart for a backup
plan. We're going to trust the Lord
with our whole heart. We're going to put it all in
him. All of our heart, all of our
soul, all of our mind. We're going to buy his grace.
We are going to cast our all on him. We're going to cast our
all on him. Look with me at Psalm 37. Psalm 37, verse three, it says,
trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land
and verily thou shalt be fed. What is good? He said, trust
in the Lord and do good. What is good? Trusting in the
Lord. Trust in the Lord. Verse four,
he said, delight thyself also in the Lord. And he shall give
thee the desires of thy heart. Delight thyself in the Lord. Make your heart's desire be in
the Lord. And he said, if your heart's
desire is in the Lord, you're going to get the Lord. You're
going to get your heart's desire. He'll give you the desires of
your heart. Verse five, he said, commit thy way unto the Lord. If you have a margin in your
Bible, mine says, roll thy way upon the Lord. And I'm gonna have a moment of
awkward silence until we enter into that. Roll it all on him. Just roll it all on him. Everything, roll it all over
to him. Now that sounds so relieving. Isn't that so relaxing? Roll everything over to Him. We don't know how to do that.
It takes the Spirit and the grace and the blessing of God to even
make a sinner do that. But we can ask, Lord, would you
take it from me and roll it over to you? Roll everything over
to Him. Our Lord is constantly saying,
fear not. He's about to say fret not. It's all we do is fret. Verse
five, commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him and he
shall bring it to pass. That means he'll take care of
it. He shall bring it to pass. He'll
take care of it. He will take care of it. Glorious
news for the burdened. He'll take care of it. And He
will. He has proven that to His people
for generations upon generations, time and time again. He'll take
care of it. Wait on the Lord. Look to the
Lord. Trust the Lord. He'll take care of it. Verse
six, he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and
thy judgment as the noonday. Verse seven says, rest in the
Lord. Wait patiently for him and don't
fret over anything. Just trust in the Lord, delight
yourself in the Lord, commit your way to the Lord, and rest
in the Lord. That's the answer. That's wisdom. That's peace. We want to trust
the Lord. God's people do. They want to
trust the Lord. We want to not lean on our own
worldly understanding. We want that. We want to acknowledge
him and we want to wait on him, but our flesh is so weak. It is so, so weak. The spirit
of the new man that God has created in us is willing. But the flesh
of the old man is so weak and we fret over everything. We worry about everything. We worry about everything, trying
to, in our minds, fix everything. constantly trying to plot our
steps, to find our way, not realizing that verse 23 right here, if
you look at Psalm 37 verse 23, it says, the steps of a good
man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. We're constantly trying to figure
out which way to go, not realizing forgetting the fact that all
of our steps have actually been ordered by the Lord. Verse 23 says, the steps of a
good man, that means a man or a woman in Christ. There's none good but Christ. The steps of a good man are ordered
by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Verse 24 says, though
he fall, He shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth
him with his hand. He said in verse 25, I've been
young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread. And then in verse 26, he said,
he is ever merciful. That means merciful forever. Get a hold of that. He is merciful forever and lendeth,
and lendeth, and lendeth, and His seed is blessed. Trust Him. Lean on Him. Acknowledge Him and wait on Him. He knows us. He knows our frame. He knows
who we are. He knows where we are. He knows
what we are. Before He formed us in the belly,
He knew us. He knows what things we have
need of. He knows our down sitting, our
uprising. That means every time we sit
down and every time we stand up. He knows. Go with me over to Psalm 139.
Psalm 139 verse one, it says, Oh Lord, thou has searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
of far off. You know all my thoughts. Thou
compassest my path and my lying down and are acquainted with
all my ways. For there's not a word in my
tongue, but lo, oh Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast
beset me behind, and before Thou hast laid Thine hand upon me."
He said, you're behind me, you're in front of me, you've laid your
hand on me. He said, such knowledge is too
wonderful for me. It is high, I cannot attain unto
it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit,
or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up
into heaven, thou art there. If I make my bed in hell, behold,
thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall
thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say,
surely the darkness shall cover me, even the night shall be light
about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not
from thee, but the night shineth as the day. The darkness and
the light are both alike to thee. For thou hast possessed my reins,
thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee, for
I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works,
and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid
from thee when I was made in secret and curiously wrought
in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance,
yet being unperfect, And in that book, all my members were written,
which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of
them." He said, you know, everything about me, everything about me. And then look at verse 17. He
said, how precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them? If I should count them, they
are more in number than the sand. The next time you go to the beach,
if you can remember to do this, I want you to do this. The next
time you go to the beach, I want you to scoop up a handful of
sand and count all the grains in your hand. It'll probably
take you all day to do it. All right? And whatever number
you come up with, every time you count a grain of sand, that's
how many thoughts He has had toward you. And that's just one
handful of sand. After you count that, look up
and down the beach both ways, and then circle the United States
and North America, South America, and then go to all the other
continents. And then think about all the sands that's under the
water, not just the beach. He said, if I could count all
of your thoughts that you've had toward me, you know everything
about me. And if I could count every time
Gabe Stoniker entered your mind, there's not enough grains of
sand on the earth to equal that number. He said
in verse 18, if I should count them, they're more in number
than the sand. When I awake, I'm still with
you. Every time I wake up, I still
have you. I'm still with you. I still have
your mercy. I still have your compassion.
I still have your faithfulness to me. Every time I wake up,
it's proven to me again, you haven't left me. You haven't
forsaken me. You've loved me with an everlasting
love. Doesn't that make you want to
trust him? For everything, eternally, temporarily,
temporally, spiritually, materially, emotionally, in the blood of
the lamb, for Christ's sake, he loves us. He loves us, he
loves his people, loves the one he died for. Could we, with ink,
the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every man a scribe by trade? To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. He loves us, and
we can trust Him. We can trust His Word to us. We can trust. You think about
the fact that we read these pages and we say, is it really so?
Is it really true? Does that really apply to me?
Can I really count on that? Martin Luther said, feelings
come, sometimes I feel safe and sometimes I don't. And he said,
feelings come and feelings go and feelings are deceiving. My
warrant is the Word of God, nothing else is worth believing. Though
all my heart should feel condemned for lack of some sweet token,
there is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging
Word till soul and body sever, For though all things shall pass
away, His Word shall stand forever. You know what that means? That
means we can trust Him. We can trust Him. Let's close
back in our text. Proverbs 3. At all times, in all circumstances,
This is our guidance, this is our comfort, this is our peace.
This right here is our rest and our peace. Proverbs 3 verse 5
says, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not
unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall. I love that word. He shall know
ifs, ands, or buts about it. If I just wait, and just look
to Him, and pray to Him, and call on Him, and cry out to Him,
and roll it over to Him, and if I say, Lord, I'm putting it
in Your hands. If I do that, Will it be taken
care of? Will he lead me? If I say, Lord,
I'll wait on you until you make it clear. Will he make it clear? Will he lead me? That right there
says he shall direct your paths. He will. He will. Trust him. Let's trust him. All right, let's
all stand together.