Good morning. It's great to be here. As Scott said in the bulletin, it indicates I'm going to be preaching from Proverbs, so if you want to make your way there, Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 12, on a message entitled, Settled Devotion to the Lord. This is a continuation of the series I've been going through on living wisely in a sinful and foolish world. And this is kind of a two-part message. The first part today, and then the next time I will finish. But it just really kind of brings everything together in the book of Proverbs. This section of scripture really summarizes all of the topics and passages that I went through very well. So that's why we have come here today. Like I said, over the past several messages, we have examined several passages in Proverbs, a book that is really part of wisdom literature. God has inspired through Solomon to give us really practical ways to think about life, to equip us. And the ways that I addressed in the several messages was that proverb really speaks a lot too on how we ought to think and gives us ways in practical application to life on how we should think as Christians. And I thought it was very beneficial to look through that. But then we also looked at on how to speak. Scripture, not only in Proverbs, but also throughout the Old Testament, and some passages that may come to mind to you as well in the New Testament, including James, address how we ought to use our tongue, how we ought to speak in a way that honors Christ. And then I addressed some passages about listening, listening to God's wisdom, listening to his word as we read it, as we pray through it, and as we hear it preached, and even as we sing passages of scripture. And that brings us here today to really address a very well-known passage. A lot of people are very familiar with this passage, and if not, that's okay. We're gonna look through it today, at least in part, on settled devotion to the Lord. And this is really where every Christian, every believer should arrive. Obviously, God is working in us throughout our life until He takes us home. But really, we ought to come to a place that we are settled, that we stand firm in our conviction, in our devotion to Him. Standing firm and not moving, even in the midst of difficulties, trials, tribulations, anything that may come about, that you are settled in where you stand in your devotion to Christ. So let's read Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 through 12. So I'm going to read 5 through 12, but today I'm just going to be addressing verses 5 through eight. Proverbs chapter three, starting in verse five. 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 your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and from the first of all your produce. So your barns will be filled in plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights. And here this can be very close to some of you here today as maybe you had a father who spoke to you much wisdom from the word of God. And some of you are fathers yourselves. And some of you may not have children, but you certainly know young men and young children to speak a truth to. And this has always found a very encouraging place in my heart, this passage here, because it brings great confidence, should bring great confidence, in how to trust in the Lord. We didn't read in the first four verses, but essentially what it is, it's an exhortation, an admonition, really, to, in a parental way, as he says there, my son, do not forget my teaching. Really, He's calling the young generation to listen to what He has to say, but also, too, calling everyone. Everyone who approaches the Word of God ought to hear today and listen. Listen to what God has to say and do not forget His teaching. Let your heart keep His commandments for the length of days and the years of life and peace they will add to you. And he goes on to say, do not let kindness and truth leave you. Bind them around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart so that you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God, in the sight of man. And that really should be the heartbeat of our life, that we should find favor with God, right? Find favor with God and find favor in the eyes of men. Obviously, we shouldn't pursue to please man, that ultimately to please God and have a faithful testimony before people. Before we go any further, let's have a word of prayer. Oh Lord, we thank you for the truth here in Proverbs. Thank you for the wisdom that it gives us. Lord, may you do what you see fit today. May you work in the hearts and minds of the people here The people hearing, O Lord, and maybe even some of those who listen to the audio recording, O Lord, may it equip us, may it convict us as you see fit, O God, in Jesus' name, amen. So this morning and in the next sermon, we will examine from this passage what it means to have a settled devotion. I don't know about you, but I remember in my early years as a follower of Christ, I really wrestled with being settled with a lot of things, a lot of issues, a lot of theological things, a lot of struggles that I had in my own heart and my own mind. And this is a perfect passage that anyone should ought to land on to find confidence. to find real, true peace and rest in as a follower of Christ. And as I said, we all need to arrive here. We all need to arrive, young and old, to arrive at a place that we can know and be confident as a child of God. And so I'm going to give you the general outline of verses 5 through 12. If you want to write these down, that's fine. If not, at least the first part. But really the verses 5 through 12 address three crucial responses of a settled devotion to God, to live wisely for Him. Three crucial responses of a settled devotion to live wisely for the Lord. And you'll see why they're very crucial. And the first response is really confident humility in verses five through eight. Confident humility. And the second response is found in verses nine through 10, is submissive financial stewardship. It may seem like something way out of left field, but really scripture talks a lot about how we ought to manage our money and be good stewards of what God has given us. And that's in verses 9 through 10. Like I said, 9 through 10 and 11 and 12 I'll address in the next time. And then the third response, verse 11 and 12, is really a patience in the Lord's discipline. Patience in the Lord's discipline. Because as you see there, it says that, do not reject the Lord's discipline. And that's really an emphatic address, saying do not reject His discipline or loathe His reproof. Why? For whom the Lord loves, He reproves. And that's really why we ought to be patient. and his discipline towards us. We will look forward to that in the next message. So let's cover the first response. A confident humility. A confident humility. And in this confident humility, we will find that we must entirely trust the Lord, verses five and six. You see there, it says, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. But then, we also must, we must be humble. With a confident humility, we must be humble. Verse 7, first line, do not be wise in your own eyes. But also, we must fear the Lord. The remaining part of verse seven, fear the Lord. And then a second one, we must turn away from evil. It says fear the Lord and turn away from evil. So our response is confident humility, but what does that look like? It looks like a trust in the Lord, but it also looks like humility. And it looks like a fear of the Lord and also a turning away of evil. It's not a full summary of what humility is, but it certainly addresses some major parts of living humbly before the Lord with confidence. And I would say that too often humility is confused with passive silence, while confidence is confused with boastful pride. Well, I would argue, and I will argue in this section here, that these can certainly be the case, yet it is entirely possible for one to be settled in his devotion or her devotion to the Lord with confident humility. So what I mean by that is that you can be humble, but also be passionate and zealous in a wise way. Not necessarily being passive, but opportunities to stand for the truth. But not in a boastful way, but in a humble way. Having a confident humility and devotion to the Lord. Humility can really be hard to find. It might be hard to find in your life. I certainly hope not, but humility is something that can be very confusing. So what I mean by it's going to be hard to find, we, a lot of us go into workplaces and maybe know some people that do not display this character by any means. And people like that, and even, you know, I can find, I have found myself to sometimes be hard to be around. And that's really what it is because the people like that are proud. and not humble. Whether it's in the workplace, or you may know or have some friends that are not humble, or family members, or even relationships in the home. It's certainly easy to be very proud if your spouse may come and confront you about an issue, a sin issue in your life, and may be hard to receive. A challenge to be humble, but really we ought to. Even, I think one of the things that should be mentioned is that strangers, who you don't even know. Social media presents multiple opportunities to be very boastful in front of strangers and people you don't even know. And that's something that really wasn't an issue, too much of an issue back before the advancements of technology, this has really become, unfortunately, a tragic issue. People engage in certain conversations and really, in some ways, can ruin their testimony before God and before man by being very boastful or very proud instead of being gracious and humble. So this is why I want to come and to discuss some of these issues as scripture brings to our mind. So first, let's look at the fact that we must entirely trust the Lord. Trust is an important aspect of being confidently humble before the Lord. Trust can be very difficult for some people, especially those who have been deeply and or consistently betrayed. And that's a fact. can be very challenging for someone to trust. And especially if they're confronted with the gospel and confronted with the fact that they have to trust God with their life, it can be quite a challenge for some people. And it could have been the fact that there may have been somebody in the church that may have hurt them in some way. And really, some people are found and shackled by this and can be a great stumbling block of trust. But there's other people that really this isn't a struggle for. But I mention that because we ought to know that everybody has come from different parts of life, different struggles, different families. And trust can be a real hurdle for people. And most importantly when it comes to trusting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Yet I would say that scripture is really littered with examples of complete trust in the Lord. Maybe you can think of some in your mind. You can think of some passages, some narratives in the Old Testament that really resonate with you of trust in the Lord. I think one narrative that comes to my mind is Joseph. You know, and how Joseph trusted God throughout his entirety of his life. And sometimes we can really forget the years. I mean, just think about the years that he needed to have a confident trust in the Lord and to be settled in his devotion and still remain faithful to Him over those years. But I also want to bring your attention to another example is David. in his early years is in 1 Samuel chapter 17 in his battle with Goliath. 1 Samuel 17 and verse 37 it says, And David said, The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of the Philistine. And Saul said to David, go, and may the Lord be with you. An important aspect of trust to see here, and also throughout scripture, is there is a close tie to deliverance. If you read other examples of people trusting in the Lord, you will see that theme as well. If not in immediate context, very, very close by. of deliverance. David was confident. He trusted the Lord that he was going to be delivered by God. So the basic meaning here in this passage that we ought to draw from is to see the fact that David trusted God. Meaning that there was a confidence behind this. And I'll also mention one, I don't have it written down here, but what about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They said, I will trust God, even if God doesn't deliver me. Even if God doesn't deliver me from the burning fire, which we know that He did. So I also want to point out, too, that the word trust is not used here in this passage. And that's an important thing that you ought to really equip yourself with in studying scripture. Because God communicates certain aspects and themes without using the very word. And so trust wasn't used, the word, but it certainly is very evident in the life of David. And that's important. So turn back to Proverbs chapter 3. Here it says to trust in the Lord and really it's a command. This is a command. It's a command for all to hear and to obey. And the basic meaning of the word used here is to be full of confidence. To be full of confidence. In your devotion to the Lord, as you're commanded to trust in the Lord, be full of confidence. But then it goes on to say that to trust in the Lord with all our heart. So God should certainly be the object and the central object of our trust. That's what it means by, in the Lord. But then it goes on to say that, with all our heart. The heart here is communicated as the driving, the command center of life. Who you are as a person. So who you are as a person in all that you do, all that you say, all that you think, your volition, your motives, your actions, trust, full confidence in the Lord. But I want to mention something that I skipped over. in that when it says, trust in the Lord, too many people put trust in other things. Maybe you have. I know I certainly have put trust in other things when I certainly have placed my trust in God. There's examples of people putting trust in riches. Look at Solomon. Solomon himself, the inspired Word of God through him, the wisest man outside of Jesus Christ himself, fell victim to the folly of foolishness. Fell victim to riches. Fell victim to himself. pursuing the worldly things instead of God being the object of his life. And that really ought to cause us to examine ourselves today. What kind of things are we putting our trust in? What kind of things do we allow our lives to be identified by? And that goes for even the young kids here today. You know, I remember thinking back when I was your guys' age, my world was pretty small, and there was a lot of fun things I liked to do. My motivation was not to trust in God. And really, you ought to, even yourself, there's a lot of fun things ahead in life. You know, hopefully the Lord has a full life for you ahead, and many things, even many challenges in life. presented. God calls you to trust in Him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And then it goes on to say, and do not lean on your own understanding. Oh, how easy this is to do. How easy or Just even in some senses it's done without even knowing it. Trusting in and leaning on your own understanding. So an aspect of this portion of the sermon here is to see that our minds ought to be submitted to the rule of God. There's a command here not to lean on. What does that mean? It's a metaphor that basically should draw on your mind to depend on. Some people like to use an illustration to make fun of Christians and to say that, oh, God is just your crutch. You need something to lean on. And you know what you can say? You said, you bet. Because I need God. I need to trust in Him. Because without Him, there is no life. So this leaning out to draw in your mind the idea of dependence. Depending on the Lord. And it really fills in another aspect of this trust. How are you leaning on the Lord today? How are you trusting in him? How are you depending on him with your finances, with your relationships, with issues at work? And it's interesting to note this word here used as lean. Over half of these uses are used in reference to trusting in someone. Then it goes on to say to not lean on your own understanding. Not to lean on your own insight. This includes many things. Many things such as what is right and just. And you can see that in Proverbs chapter two, verse nine. So having understanding, leaning on your own understanding would be leaning on what you think is right and what is just. And that last part is a lot of people get hung up on. How can God be just? How can God be just and send people to hell? Well, that's leaning on their own understanding. But also, this understanding implies wisdom. Chapter 10, verse 23 of Proverbs. Having understanding, having wisdom. Being skillfully equipped through God's Word to be obedient to Him. But also patience. Chapter 14, verse 29. having patience, having insight. And this really is a skill. It can be a challenge for us at times, and some are better at it than others. By the grace of God, he's enabled us through his spirit to be patient. It's a fruit of the spirit. And as you know, if you're parents, this can be exercised very often throughout the day. And it's good. It's a good thing. It's a good thing to be reminded about God's enablement and patience in dealing with your children, but also could be with your friends or family or colleagues at work, being patient. Because what you ought to call to mind is God's long suffering with you. Oh, how long suffering is God? How long suffering is God? in your life, or has he been? But it also deals with the idea of the insight, this understanding at the end of verse five, is keeping the law. Keeping the law, chapter 28, verse seven. God has given us His Word, His truth, His law, and having understanding in keeping that law. But also too, and we're going to see it at the end, but I'll mention it here as well, is shunning evil. But the way it is pointed out here is to what? Turn away. There's this aspect also of shunning evil, chapter 28, verse 28. of Proverbs. But there's many limiting factors. Of course, we are fallen beings. We don't have infinite minds and there's limits to our understanding, even across people. I don't know about you, but my experience in school and trying to understand things, I had to work very hard. I was not an A student. But there's other people that I know that are just brilliant, and people just have a better capacity to understand things. So I say all that because there's limits. There's limits placed on understanding. But we must see, and I'm going to turn here and read it, in Proverbs 9, verse 10, A genuine insight and discernment is with those who fear God. This is where it begins. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. This is where true understanding comes. And so when we think about the rest of that passage, and do not lean on your own understanding, Think about your understanding about who God is. A lot of people have different views about who He is, but God's Word is very clear. And this is where we ought to draw our understanding of who God is, from His Word, not from something other than outside of Scripture. So it moves on in verse 6, it says, So it's saying here, in all of life, in all parts of your life, know God. And the idea of knowledge, the basic meaning here is knowledge about a thing. And the thing pointed out here, in all your ways acknowledge him. Know him. In all your ways know God. Knowledge by observation and reflection, knowledge of God and the fear of the Lord are two sides of the same reality. We read that reality in chapter 9 verse 10. So what does that mean? How would you think about that in life? In all your ways, acknowledge Him. Well, one way is if you have an important decision to make, maybe about purchasing a house or where to go to college, where the Lord might have you to be in life. what sort of decisions you need to make, acknowledge Him. Do not lean on your own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And this brings us to the end of verse six, and it says, and He will make your path straight. How to draw a picture in your mind as well. It's not to really bring home this truth. And really a motive. This gives you a motive for life, for trusting God, not leaning on your own understanding. Acknowledging Him in all your ways. He will make your path straight. What does that mean? Does that mean that there will not be difficulty, trials, and tribulations in life? No. But it does mean that God will be your guide even through the difficulties and obstacles in life. The truth from his word will be the light to your feet. It will set guardrails around your life on how to live. It will point you in the right direction. And this should be seen in contrast to the wicked or the crooked path of wickedness. So looking at how we should really apply all of these verses, some people may say, well, Do these passages mean that I don't have to learn anything? Does it condemn academic intellectualism? Or does it say that we shouldn't have to use our minds? No. But I would say that it does condemn academic arrogance. Being arrogant or being proud about the things that you know and letting other people know how much you know. Using your mind in a sense to say or to show others all of the fanciful things that you know. That's not what it means. And I'm pretty sure that you all can gather that from everything that we've discussed. But also, going back to what we had talked about, what I had mentioned about those who struggle with trust. Those who struggle with trusting people. I actually had a forestry friend of mine mention this to me about somebody he knew. And I thought it was very intriguing because the person he was talking about It was her father and he basically instructed his daughter to not trust anybody, ever. Which I thought was intriguing when he was telling me that. I was thinking, well, she obviously trusted him in saying that. It's kind of interesting. But I point this out because the thing is that people will exercise trust even though they don't know it. I mean, you exercise trust in very simple ways every day. Whether it's trusting the other person driving in the lane opposite to you is paying attention and driving like he or she should be. Or you go to a restaurant and you trust that whatever you order is going to be brought out in the way that you ordered it. There's all kinds of ways that you put your trust in people. So, I would say that it's impossible not to trust, but it's where we put our trust. It's where we put our confidence. And those who struggle with trust are really trusting themselves too much. Leaning on their own understanding. Maybe you struggle with trust today, and hopefully that this passage brings a great settlement to your soul, and that you can find that you can trust in the Lord with all your heart. Like David, like Joseph, and many of the others, Abraham, and many others even in the New Testament. And that you can trust God with all your heart, in all aspects of life. Decisions can be very intriguing. I can remember trying to make a decision on whether I wanted to pack up my things and move to California and go through the pastoral training that I thought I wanted to do. But that decision was very, very intimidating for me. And I know some, I came in contact with some who had a much more challenging decision because they were married and had children. And some of them made the decision to pack their bags and move to California and be trained in that seminary, the master's seminary. But also too, just practical things, and how to spend your money, and how to make decisions at work, and how to make decisions about interacting with people, and what to say, what not to say. So many things that I think that we do without trusting in God and leaning on our own understanding. Not submitting, even the smallest of things, the smallest of things, to the Lord, trusting in Him, to give you insight. To give us insight. What a great thing it is to come to God to give us faithful insight into life. Give us wisdom about decisions and how to apply His word to life. Secondly here, the second portion that we must be humble. Pride is an errant thing in all of us, unfortunately. Every one of us. It manifests its ways in your life different than in others, but it's there. And really, if you look back into Genesis 3, it was one of the central reasons why Adam and Eve, really Adam, fell. Failed in his leadership. Pride. God hates pride. Those who are proud are enemies of God. One example of pride can be seen in Exodus chapter 10, verse 3. If you want to turn there, you can. Keep a finger in Proverbs 3. Exodus chapter 10, verse 3. Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, thus says the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, how long will you refuse to humble yourself before me? Let my people go. that they may serve me." Most of you are familiar with his response. What did Pharaoh do? Pharaoh hardened his heart. He was proud. But what is God calling Pharaoh to do through Moses and Aaron? He's calling him to humble himself. So in this confident humility, We ought to humble ourselves. In what way? It says here in verse 7, Do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not be wise in your own eyes. This phrase describes two types of people in scripture. In Proverbs particularly. Those who are fools. Those who are wise in their own eyes are fools. Chapter 26, verse 5. Answer a fool as his folly deserves, that he not be wise in his own eyes. Fools are wise in their own eyes. Fools look at the world and their own understanding. But also too, same chapter, verse 16, it says, the sluggard is wiser in his eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer. That's quite a description, because Proverbs speaks a lot about sluggards being foolish. But it says here, it's a sluggard The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can give a discreet answer. But what types of people are these people who are wise in their own eyes? Scripture says that those who are wise in their own eyes are without hope. chapter 26, verse 12. But also in Isaiah, chapter 5, verse 21, it speaks of those who are wise in their own eyes as cursed. God speaks a curse against those who are proud. And in Proverbs 30, verse 13, those who are arrogant. Arrogance. Arrogance characterizes someone who is wise in their own eyes. Let's look at some other descriptions of pride and the proud. Chapter 8, verse 13 of Proverbs. It says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance in the evil way and the perverted mouth I hate. Chapter 16, again, verse 18, speaks of another example. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before stumbling. Some of you are familiar with that passage. And that's a passage that ought to come to our mind when we are tempted to be proud that pride goes before destruction. It's guaranteed. A haughty spirit before stumbling. Why? Why is that? Because God humbles the proud. It's a certainty. Also in Isaiah 16 verse 6 it speaks of arrogant and boasting people, but I think one important one to point out is in the Gospel of Mark chapter 7 verses 21 through 23. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, Deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man." And as I said, God humbles the proud. And this is really God's response. This is God's response to pride in a person's life, that he will humble you. There's many examples throughout scripture of God humbling people, but there's a particular section in Deuteronomy that speaks of God humbling the Israelites. And He did. If you read portions throughout Deuteronomy, God humbled them in their pride. That ought to really be something that really confronts us. Especially for those who struggle with being proud. Struggle with being arrogant. God hates pride. And God will humble you. And also point out, I skipped over this, but I should point out in 1 John 2, verse 16 speaks of the boastful pride of life. What should the response of confident humility be? A response of the humble can be seen in 2 Chronicles 7 verse 14 where how the Lord calls Israel. The Lord calls Israel out of a great despondency and it would be good to turn there and read in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 starting in verse 14. Starting in verse 13, I'll read 13. If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among the people, and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, that I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land. What should you see there? You should see that those who humble themselves, what does that point to? That someone who comes to God first must humble themselves. Humble themselves before a holy and righteous God. Realizing that they are nothing outside of God Himself. Humble themselves and pray and seek God's face. Turn from their wicked ways." That's repentance. Turning from their wicked ways so that He would hear from heaven and will forgive their sin. Also again in 2 Chronicles 32, we see another example of this. 2 Chronicles 32 verse 26. However, Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of the Lord did not come on them in the days of Hezekiah." In a well-known prayer from Hezekiah, he humbled himself. He came to God, confessed his pride in his heart, and God relented. God relented from the wrath that was going to come. And really those who humble themselves, that's the pinnacle of humility. Coming to God, realizing that you are in need of Christ. that you were proud, that you were full of the treachery that I read out of the heart, slander, maybe the boastful pride of life. The ultimate expression of humility is coming and confessing your sin before God and realizing that you need Christ as your Lord and Savior. But also, a reward you could say of being humble is that you would obtain honor. And that's seen in Proverbs 29, verse 23. That the anger of the Lord is turned away. Scripture speaks of those who are outside of Christ as being enemies of God. Alienated from Christ. But here the wrath, the anger of the Lord is turned away. And then also too, a great benefit or reward from being humble is being wise. Is wisdom. Gain wisdom through humility. And I think it would be fair to just stop and ask yourself right now, are you proud? Is there any way that is expressing pride in your life today? in any way that you might need to respond in humility. But there's also another way that this needs to be addressed as well. In Proverbs 26, verse 5, it says, Answer a fool that he may not be wise in his own eyes. You see, God equips you with wisdom And there's times, there is that passage that says, you know, answer a fool according to his folly. Do not answer a fool according to his folly. Well, this would be the application of answer a fool according to his folly. If you see the foolishness of someone that you would answer so that he would not be wise in his own eyes, and certainly it takes much wisdom to approach a situation like that. But I think it would be fair to say we all act in foolishness sometimes. And this person who may be talking to the fool yourself might be your spouse. And she needs to address, or he, you being wise in your own eyes. Or a faithful friend. A faithful friend that would come to you and to point out your foolishness. What a blessing. Right? Those things are hard to hear. But what a blessing it is to have a friend so faithful that he or she would point out issues in your life of your foolishness. The third portion of this confident humility is that we must fear the Lord. Chapter 3, verse 7, it says, There's a lot packed into that verse. Fear the Lord. Fear has been experienced by a lot of people. By most, if not all. But the fear that may come to mind isn't what this is talking about. It's not talking about a fear that brings, necessarily being afraid of God, but the fear here is being reverential towards God. A fear that would motivate you to obedience towards Him. That's fearing God. Fearing God to the point of a great reverence, of a great respect, that would cause you to turn your life and believe in Him. And there are several examples of this, of fearing the Lord, and there's a lot of instruction, and I'll just mention the passages if you want to write them down. In Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 4 verse 10, And in chapter six there's three examples, verse two, verse 13, and 24. And there's others as well in Deuteronomy. But also you should see the fact of a New Testament example. I always think of this example for some reason when I'm thinking about making decisions in life and what ought to motivate me in life. is that the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 11 says that what motivates him is the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord motivates him to be faithful in the ministry that God had called him to. And this really would be a place where we ought to all find ourselves. That the fear of God ought to motivate us to the point of serving Him with a great confidence And I'll just mention a few descriptions of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil. But also, the fear of the Lord, Scripture says, Proverbs 14 verse 27 says that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life. There's true life. True life comes in the fear of God. So I want you to apply this. Fear of the Lord. Living uprightly, a devoted life. Seek wisdom, seek to know God. Seek to know God through His word, through prayer. That it may equip you for a life of faithfulness. In the last portion of verse 7 it says, turn away from evil. The enticement of every sinner is to fulfill the lust of their sinful desires. Yet apart from the grace of God and the Spirit of God, there go we, right? Apart from the grace of God and His enabling Spirit, that would be us. No ability to to stem off the desire to fulfill the sinful lusts of our sinful self. God provides a clear example of this from the life of Job, meaning that how Job was a man who was recognized by God who would turn away from evil. And I think it would be good to turn there The first chapter of Job addresses this very clearly, chapter one, two, and three, actually. Can you imagine this? Imagine if this was something, and we ought to all strive towards this, is that God would describe you in this way, that there was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God, and turning away from evil." Then in chapter 2, it says, the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil. And he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me. against him to ruin him without cause. And there's another example in Job chapter 3 verse 7, but you can just write that down or read it later. And this idea of turning away is turning aside or keeping from or avoiding. And this ought to be our motivation in life, that we ought to avoid evil. What is this evil that is spoken of? This evil, there are synonymous words to this, guilt, sin, arrogant pride as we discussed, slander, betrayal. These are all the evil that are described here. But we're instructed to turn away, to turn away from evil. So we have Job as an example of turning away from evil. But there's also many examples, including the examples in the Kings, of the Kings, specifically in 2 Kings, but you can read the lives of many kings that did evil, as Scripture said. Did evil in the sight of the Lord. And that's important to know that they did evil in the sight of the Lord because this evil is not ignored or is not hidden from God. But what end? What ought to motivate us? We have this to turn away from evil. And then this great refreshing passage in v. 8, it says, it will be healing to your body and a refreshment to your bones. not being wise in your own eyes, fearing the Lord and turning away from evil, it will be healing to your bones. It will bring life. It carries this idea that God promises well-being for those who pursue wisdom to live wisely according to His will. Of course, there are those who desire to, as the Gospel of John points out, men who love darkness rather than light, and those who do evil and hate the light for fear of exposure. May that not be us in our life, that we bring it to light, bring it to the light of Scripture, that we fear God and turn away from evil, and not be like those who like to hide from the light of the truth of God's Word into our life. So really this confident humility is really an entirely trusting God with your life. Being humble. Fearing the Lord and turning away from evil. But you may ask, what is humility? And I'll conclude with this. There's a lot of definitions of humility, but I thought this was very good and very succinct. It says that humility is honestly assessing ourselves in the light of God's holiness and our sinfulness. So as you seek to be confidently humble before God in your settled devotion, just remember that. Humility is honestly assessing ourselves in the light of God's holiness and our sinfulness. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for the truth of your word. We thank you that you have given us hope, you've given us comfort, maybe even conviction today. But may it be our resolve, O God, may it be our resolve to trust in you with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding. And we recognize that the ultimate expression of that is our trust in you as our Lord and Savior, that we would not be cast into eternal hell, but that we have eternal life through Christ. But there's also other opportunities, Lord, can trust in you in life. Oh Lord, we just pray for wisdom. Pray that you equip us, even through this passage, to live in a way that honors and glorifies you. Those who are parents in here today, may we have wisdom to raise our children in a way that honors you. If we're grandparents, may that be so as well. Those who don't have children, oh God, may you give them Wisdom for life, really we all need wisdom just in the daily tasks of life. May we be reminded of these passages. May they stick in our heart and in our mind, oh God, to trust in you, trust in the Lord with all our heart and do not lean on our own understanding. Pray this in Jesus' name, amen.