Sermon Tone Analysis

RECORD

Well if you are just joining us for the first time in 2018 you should know that we are now 3 weeks into a new series that is taking us all around the book of Proverbs

At the very core of the book are statements written by King Solomon to help us attain wisdom and understanding as well as guidance in living successfully as per the way that God intended us to live

They are nuggets of truth which can transform us if we will listen and apply them

So far we’ve looked at the necessity of having truth in our lives and not just “truthish” and then last week we look at the progression from knowledge to understanding and ultimately wisdom which is living out wisdom

This morning we are going to pick up from there as we consider another key element in living successfully and that is the element of trust

So open your Bible to the third chapter of Proverbs and we’ll read verses 5-8,

Let me read for you again, this time from The Message Bible which has a great way of wording this passage,

Trust God from the bottom of your heart;

don’t try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;

he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all.

Run to God! Run from evil!

Your body will glow with health,

your very bones will vibrate with life!

I guess that the question we need to be asking ourselves in this is, ‘What does it look like to have a “successful” life?

A God honouring life?

And in order to answer that question I think we need to step outside of ourselves and realize that all of us have two indicators in our lives which demonstrate where our trust is placed

The first indicator is our beliefs

Our beliefs are the things that we know, think, or feel passionately about today

Beliefs can, and often do, change throughout the course of our lives

As we grow and mature we often change what we believe as we gain understanding and have different life experiences

Paul said,

The second indicator is our behaviour

Our behaviour flows out from what we REALLY believe and not just what we say or even think that we believe

Our behaviour also brings out in the open how strongly we actually believe something to be true

Now I’m not just talking about theological beliefs here, I’m referring to all areas of our life

We can say that we believe that respect for the law is essential in a civilized society but then drive with a total disregard for the laws of the road

Our actions show a more clear definition of what we really believe, which is that the law is important as long as it is not inconveniencing me and then...

If we go back to our text in what we hear Solomon saying is that the wisest thing that we can do is to not base our lives on our own beliefs and behaviours but instead to make sure that our lives are based on the bedrock of Jesus and Jesus alone

One day Jesus clarified this proverb by the telling of a parable,

Matthew 7:24-

I’m sure that all of us are familiar to some degree with this parable of the wise and foolish builders

In fact although it’s been many years I even remember the song that we learned way back in Sunday School and could probably even do the actions that went with it

“The wise man built his house upon the rock, the wise man built his house upon the rock...”

Do you remember that?

But even though I knew this parable so well there was one aspect of it that I didn’t really consider until recently

What is the difference between the wise man and the foolish man?

Both of them heard the Word of the Lord, both of them believe that Word and both of them build but there was one difference that stands out

The foolish man does not put into practice what he heard and “believed”

As Solomon worded it in our text, this man was “wise in his own eyes” because he thought that he knew a better way to live his life

He heard the message, he “believed” the message but when it came to how he would actually live he felt that he knew what was best

‘My “house” (life) will never face a storm of this magnitude, I can cut a corner here and take a shortcut there and I will be just fine

The wise man only trusted the solidness of the rocky surface to build his life upon while the foolish man trusted in inferior sand

Doing what we do based on fear or anger or feelings is like using sand to build, it just cannot withstand the storms of life

The problem is, and anyone who has ever tried to construct a building into the rock will tell you this, building in the rock is much more difficult, costly, and time consuming

I remember talking to Pastor Colin Clugh shortly after they had finished building the new church building in Napanee

He told me horror stories of construction delays and design changes and cost over-runs because of the rock the church was being built into

They actually had to bring in explosives to deal with some of the rock because they could clear it any other way

Building on the rock is the more difficult path but the final product is one that can “successfully” handle the storms

So let’s go back to our text once again and let me give you two ways this morning that we can learn to better trust God and build our lives on His Son Jesus Christ the rock instead of “being wise in our own eyes” and building an inferior life

The first thing that we need is the fear of the Lord

says this,

You have heard me say before how the original Bible languages are so much more expressive than our own English language and this verse is another case in point

In the Hebrew language there are several words used for “fear” depending on the context and desired connotation

One of those is the word “pachad” which could best be described as “terror”

That is NOT the word that is being used in this verse nor is it ever used in the context of how we are to relate to God

We are never called to live in terror of God, to fear Him in that manner

Instead the word used here is the word “yirah” which means to consider in reverence or with awe

The very first step to living in wisdom, to building a life with the right materials is to grow and increase in our reverence and awe of God

To begin to get a glimpse of His glory and His majesty, to peek behind the veil and realize how holy and wonderful He is

When we begin to increase our awe of God it naturally results in a decrease in our infatuation of self

And the more our awe of God grows, the more our trust in Him grows right along with it

The second thing that we need to do is to “shun evil”

Shun means to take whatever steps are necessary to stay away from

I saw a poster once that said something along the lines of “And lead me not into temptation because I can find my own way there.”

Having said that I want to give you some advice this morning that might seem counterintuitive to our normal approach to this matter

And that is that too many Christians spend too much time and effort trying to manage their sinful nature

I read this quote recently, “Breakthrough, for many followers of Jesus, will happen if they increase their practice of God awareness more than their current plan of sin management”

In other words, as with previous weeks, the progression in our text is pivotal to the success of its concept

The more in awe we become of God, the less tempting sin becomes

I’ve pointed this out many times but it speaks to this point so clearly, it takes place when Joseph was being tempted by Potiphar’s wife

Genesis 39:8-

It is a headlong pursuit of God which empowers us, by the power of His Holy Spirit, to turn from sin

At best, a culture of holiness based on sin management produces the lifestyle of legalism causing people to become like the Pharisees

And the reason for that is that sin management never takes the focus off of self

Instead of trusting in our own ability to manage sin we trust God, trust Him with our thoughts

It’s doomed to fail because

We trust Him with our cares and worries

We trust Him with the things in our life that burden us and weigh us down

Matthew 11:28-30

We trust Him with our future

Proverbs 16:3

In other words,

Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.

Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.

Don’t assume that you know it all.

Run to God! Run from evil!

Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life!

Do you see what it says there, that when we learn to do this we will glow with health and vibrate with life

Jesus described it as a life that would be full and elsewhere the New Testament describes it as a life overflowing with ever increasing peace, joy, gentleness, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control

The solution is that we need to get out of our own way, to stop trusting ourselves and being wise in our own eyes and begin trusting God by learning to fear Him

A life built on anything else is nothing more than a sandcastle, but a life built on a proper perspective of God is life everlasting

Let’s pray

It Is Well