Well, today we come to the close of our current series, Living a Life of Thanksgiving. For the past three weeks, we've looked at the who, the why, and the what of Thanksgiving. With the who of Thanksgiving, we said that we are to worship God through the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. With the who of thanksgiving and the why that it leads us to, we said then that we are to be thankful because it's commanded. And not only is it commanded, but because it's the will of God and also because God is sovereign. Under the what of thanksgiving, We said that we are to be thankful for who God is and for what he has done and for what he is doing right now in your life for spiritual blessings, for daily and future blessings. And now we come to the how of thanksgiving. I have been thinking on this long before getting here. for our study this morning, but thinking about how do we do these things that we've been hearing from Scripture. Alistair Begg says, through the Holy Spirit. Romans 5.5 says, the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And so when you walk by the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit will be produced in your life. And so as Alistair Begg says, gentleness is with the rest of the fruit. You get all of it. And so in the words of Charles Spurgeon, he says, so long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be giver of thanks. And we are receivers of mercy, aren't we? His mercies are new every morning. And if it wasn't for the mercy of God, and mercy and grace seem to be combined together in so many passages, but if it wasn't for that, we would all be in hell. Think about that. The grace of God is seen in the book of Genesis on that very moment when Adam and Eve sinned. He told them in the day that they ate of it, they would surely die, and God did not kill them right then on the spot. And since He didn't kill them right then on the spot, that's grace. That's mercy. In fact, they didn't die for some, what, 900 years? My second crop, I like to call them. We have a first and second crop because there's about a 15-year gap between them. But our second crop is our kids that are currently at home. When they were much younger, we took them on a vacation out to the Florida caverns. These are caves that are up near the Pensacola area. And so we took them in there, and I remember we had Samuel, and he was in his little stroller. At that point, you could kind of maneuver a little easier, because he was smaller. And we were picking him up to get him in the entrance, because they had all these rocks and all in the way. But we went into that cave. And there were other people, of course. And it was a tour. You had a guide. You couldn't go in there by yourself. And at some point in the tour, the guide said, I want to show you what it looked like when these caves were discovered. We thought, well, that'd be cool. He turned all the lights out. It was pitch black darkness. You couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. It was so dark. I had my hand on my phone, and I had my hand on one of the kids. I don't remember which one at the time, but I was waiting for them to kind of get a little scared about this. And it was really quiet. In fact, in that moment, I kind of took advantage of this. I went, wow. This is what hell must be like, because it calls it outer darkness. Nobody said a word. But you know, when I was thinking about this, you know, there were only a couple choices that we could have made the moment the guide turned out the light. We could have panicked, right? We could have become very anxious over this, or we could have trust the guide. And we chose to trust the guide. Because other than that, we were just helpless. None of us could have navigated our way out in the dark. We didn't know the cave like the guy did. And when you think about our study that we've been doing on Thanksgiving, if we phrase it another way, we could have said, we had the choice of being anxious or being thankful. You say, what? That doesn't seem to fit. Actually, it does. You remember 1 Thessalonians 5.18? First verse we read when we started. In everything give thanks. So does it fit that situation? Yes. Yes, it does. Truth is important. because it reveals something important about us. And when we talk about trust, again, it's gonna reveal. Do you lean on your own understanding or do you trust in the Lord? More specifically, do you trust Yahweh? Your version may say trust in the Lord, The Hebrew word for Lord is Yahweh. And that's one of the many names that God has. But it speaks of His self-existence. You remember in Exodus chapter 3 when Moses came as he was in the desert and he saw this bush that was on fire, but the bush wasn't consumed. And so he started to approach it. And all of a sudden he heard a voice coming from it. I think I would have passed out. But the voice told him to take his sandals off for the place where he was standing was holy ground. It was holy ground because God was there. He was in that burning bush that wasn't consumed. And so we are told to trust in Yahweh, trust in the Lord. And that's what we're going to talk about today. In fact, it's coming from a very familiar passage. It's one that we've all memorized at some point. It's one that you walk into bookstores, you see it printed on mugs, you see it on calendars. And the one I'm talking about is the one that's found in Proverbs 3. If you will take your Bible, go to Proverbs 3, and let's look together at verses 5 and 6. The only difference in all the versions that you read this in is the last part. Up to the last line about your paths, it's either he's making your path straight, or he is gonna direct your paths. I was trying to think of the other version, because I sung the other version. But that's not the version that I actually am using up here. From the New American Standard or the Legacy Standard Bible, either of those versions, even I think the ESV says it the same way. It says, 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 paths straight. And I think the version that I was singing from might have been the New King James, and he will direct your paths. I remember that that was how I learned it years ago. But we'll talk about that when we get there. And as I said, I've been thinking about these verses long ago when we started this series. Thinking about even this question, how are we to thank the Lord? And got even more serious about it this week because I finished all the other messages that we were doing and now I'm coming on the how of Thanksgiving and I just keep walking around going, how am I going to do this? Now, I really have been giving you the answer already. And I actually gave it just a second ago when I was talking about who? The Holy Spirit. When you're filled with the Spirit, you will be thankful. When you are not thankful, you're not filled with the Spirit. There's a good way to determine when you are filled with the Spirit and when you're not. So if you're thankful, you have gratitude in your heart to the Lord, you're not trusting in yourself and trusting in your resources, but you're trusting in the Lord, that's how this works together. Because as you trust the Lord, you fall dependent on the Lord and you fall dependent upon His Spirit to guide you. You walk by the Spirit. That's what our disposition is now as believers in Christ. We walk by the Spirit. We don't walk by the flesh. Even though there are times when we fall to the flesh, because we still have this corpse that we're carrying around. But we walk by the Spirit. And so if I talk about how to be thankful, it is by walking by the Spirit. It's by being filled with the Spirit. And ultimately, it's Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. It's trusting in the Lord. It's trusting Yahweh with all your heart. Leaning not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledging Him. You see all the things that are there that you have to do? Though this is on you, you can't really do this on your own, can you? Well, let's look at this. In verse 5, he begins with the foundation of thanks. And the foundation of thanks that's rooted in these verses, beginning at verse 5, is total surrender. Now, I've talked about this so many different times, different passages that we come across. It brings us back to this understanding that God wants total surrender from you. not partial, not halfway, but total, full surrender. Even when you're hurting, even when you're confused, even when you don't understand what is going on and you're trying to figure things out, that's where this comes in, doesn't it? Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him. You have to trust Him. Now, there's something that I said some time ago as well, and that is this. One of the reasons why we are thankful to the Lord is because he's sovereign. He's in control. And if he's sovereign and he is in control, then I can trust him with everything. I have nothing that I should be worrying about. I have nothing that I should be anxious about. But I should be trusting him in everything. So he says, trust in the Lord or more literally trust Yahweh with all your heart. These two verses were penned by Solomon in the 10th century and their wisdom for life's reigns. It calls us to trust God wholly and in doing so cultivate thankfulness. You might even ask, why link trust and gratitude? Well, because self-reliance breeds entitlement. See, when you are relying on yourself, you feel like you got this entitlement. You're entitled to certain things. That's what we breed in our culture. We breed this self-reliance, this entitlement mentality. You could tell when you're talking to a person that they're like that. because they're always talking about things that they deserve, things that they should have. It's never an acknowledgment of the Lord. It's like their rights. And believe me, we saw this when SNAP ended because of the closure of the government, the shutdown of the government. And there were people online saying, you know, I deserve the right to have this food, and therefore I'm not going to pay for it. And they were walking out of the store. Saying it was their right, why is it their right? If it's their right, it'd be our right too, wouldn't it? But know what it is, people that live this entitlement mentality and they say it's their right, they want someone else to pay for it. Because somebody has to pay for it, there is nothing free. And these politicians get out there and they try to sell you on something that is free. And even Mamdani, the guy that got elected there in New York, found out that he can't really deliver on his promises because the governor's not going to allow them to fund free bus rides. Anywhere you want to go, a free bus ride through the city. Because they don't have the money for that. See, that's socialism. And it doesn't work. After a while it will bankrupt everything. Even the first pilgrims tried that and they found out that it didn't work. Other nations have tried that, found out it doesn't work. But we have these liberals that think this is what America should be. It's what our country should be because we're entitled. Let's paint our name on the highway. You know, let's put Black Lives Matter everywhere when it should have said All Lives Matter. I read something the other day that said people that usually talk about race are racist. People that aren't racist don't even talk about it. They don't care. I believe we should have the mentality our kids have. Our kids are not racist. They'll play with anybody. And they should. But when we grow up, Then we start getting these opinions about people based upon the color of their skin. That's not only stupid, but it's sinful for a believer to have that kind of mentality. That does not honor God. God has made red, yellow, black, and white. They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. Remember that song He sang as a kid? He made us all. He's the creator. And you have some people that have more melanin, which is a pigment for your skin color, and some that have less. You see an albino, they have, like, no skin pigment. That's why they're that color. But people that are really dark, they have a lot of melanin in their skin. We all have melanin in our skin. That describes our skin color, our skin tones. And you've heard me even say this. People even want to claim, well, I'm white. What color is that? Anybody in here look like this color? This is white. What we are are shades of brown. That's what we are, we're shades of brown. But beloved, when we start talking about this entitlement, that's just gonna breed frustration. That's gonna breed anxiety. That's going to make us think about ourselves all the time instead of thinking about the one who created us. And when we trust God, it reminds us that everything that we have is a gift from Him. And again, it comes from a sovereign God who has a sovereign will. And since He is a sovereign God with a sovereign will, I am to trust Him. And it's really not even a blind trust. You know why I would say it that way? Because here's all the evidence about God. Right? Every time you read your Bible, you're learning something about God. That's why you should be in the Word all the time as much as possible, reading and absorbing and saturating your mind. And that will get you off that self-reliance. It'll get you off that type of mentality of entitlement. The Hebrew word that Solomon uses here in verse 5 for trust is batash. It literally means to lie helpless, to lie face down. Now, think about this because it's really describing the picture of a servant who is lying prostrate on the ground face down before a king. and waiting for a command, waiting to be told what the king's wishes are. I mean, your life and your death was in the king's hands. And even when you read Esther and the story that's in Esther, and you remember the king, nobody could come into his presence, even his wife, unless he summoned her. Otherwise, even his wife would be subject to death. if they came into His presence without being called." That's some pressure, isn't it? That makes for a very weird marital relationship, wouldn't you say? But it's that kind of picture. It's even a picture of a defeated soldier who's been captured and he throws down his sword. He yields himself entirely to the conquering general. There's nothing passive about this Word. This Word is very active, it's very aggressive, and it means to cast one's entire weight upon God. If I leaned on this pulpit right here and I put all my weight on it, you know where the pulpit would go? Out there where you are because it's on wheels. I can't trust that, can I? Or at least it's going to go forward and fall right here. And if I'm really leaning on it and putting all my weight on it, I'm going to be laying on top of it, right? Years ago, my dad was up on a ladder painting the eaves. And he fell off that ladder. And the way he fell, it slid down the wall. And he couldn't do anything except for what he did. I don't recommend this. He hugged the ladder. And when he hugged the ladder, he landed on his arm. And, yep, it broke his arm. After that whole incident, we had vinyl up there going all around me. No more painting, right? And I'm with that. I don't get on ladders anymore. I definitely don't get on roofs anymore. I used to climb up there and put Christmas lights on about this time of the year. That's something for all the kids to do now, not me. But again, we're talking about your entire weight. Think about that. Trust in the Lord. Put your entire weight on the Lord. And that's anything that's weighing you down. This is really like an echo of Deuteronomy 6, 5, which talks about loving God with all your being. In fact, if you look at verse 5 when he says, trust, and look what he says in the next phrase, and do not lean. So we find that the verb trust is complemented by the verb lean. And that's really your definition right there. Want to know what to do? You know what it means to trust in the Lord? You're going to lean on the Lord. Not going to lean on your understanding, you're going to lean on the Lord. Because there's a lot of things we don't understand, right? We try to figure things out, and we kind of get an opinion about things. And there are things that have been proven and tried, and we go there as well. I mean, I've owned my home. This is, I think, our third home. And our previous home was much older, had a lot of work to do. And I was much younger. I could crawl under that house. and worry about the snakes under there if there were any. That's why I didn't like to crawl under the house. But I could work on things. You know, I could do that. I was much younger at that. I can't do it now. My fear now is if I go down, will I get up? Can I get up? Bring me something. So this is a conscious dependence. This is a conscious support where you're leaning on the Lord for everything, so no matter what you do. Over a hundred times in the Old Testament we find that phrase, trust in Yahweh, and we hear it Like in Psalm 4 verse 5, it says, "...offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in Yahweh." Psalm 9, 10, "...and those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, O Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you." Psalm 21, 7, "...for the king trusts in Yahweh, and through the loving kindness of the Most High he will not be shaken." Psalm 25, one and two. To you, oh Yahweh, I lift my soul. Oh my God, in you I trust. Do not let me be ashamed. Do not let my enemies exult over me. And listen, that would be enough to bring about anxiety, running from your enemies. Psalm 37.3, trust in Yahweh and do good. Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in Yahweh and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in Him and He will do it. That's a few of the hundred times. Trust Yahweh. Put all your weight on Yahweh. And then he says, with all your heart. That's encompassing your entire self, your emotions, your intellect, your will. It's wholehearted. It doesn't leave any room for doubt. Again, the scope here is with all your heart. It's not 90% of your heart. It's not trust in the Lord with your Sunday morning or trust in the Lord with your salvation or trust in the Lord with something else. But at the same time, you're over there handling everything yourself. and you're biting your nails. I think one of the areas of testing that the Lord does in us many times is in the area of finances. We trust our finances. And I can just tell you there are so many times, you know, even working three jobs a long time ago and still just there with a question mark going, how did we make it through the month? Well, here's how we made it through the month, because we didn't trust that stuff, we trusted the Lord, and He brought us through the month. On paper, it never works out. But when we trust God with all of our heart, we're admitting that we're not the one in charge, we're not the captain of our soul, He is. We're not the one in control. He is. And that admission right there gives birth to gratitude. When you realize that every breath you take, every meal that you eat, every day you live is sustained by His grace and your natural response then would be, thank you. We shouldn't be drawn to this subject of Thanksgiving just at Thanksgiving. I think that's been my point the whole month of talking about this. This is to be a daily activity. And all of us want to be like this, don't we? We don't want to be grumblers and complainers. We want to be thankful. We want to be satisfied with God and what we have, what He's given to us, and our lot in life. And quit fighting Him. I'll tell you somebody that was a good example of this, and that's Abraham. Let me have you go to Genesis. Genesis. And go to chapter 13. And as you're going there, let me just mention some things from chapter 12. Abraham had been living in Haran. It's mentioned in chapter 11. His father took Abram and took his nephew Lot, actually it would be his grandson, he took, it was Abram's nephew, and he took Abram's wife, she was called Sarai, but later changed to Sarah. And they together went from Ur of the Chaldeans. And they were going to the land of Canaan. Canaan is modern day Israel. That's where they were going. And they got stopped in Haran and never got to go any further. In fact, Abram's father died in Haran. Now we don't know how long it is from verse 32 of chapter 11 to chapter 12 when the Lord speaks to Abram, which of course now is Abraham. But he tells him to go from his country, from Haran, from his relatives, from his father's house, and to a land I'm going to show you. and I'll make you a great nation, I'll bless you, I'll make your name great, so that you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." And then we read in the next verse, so Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him. That's trust. The Lord is speaking to Abram and telling him to go to a place I'll show you. You're going to leave your country, you're going to leave your relatives, you're going to leave your father's house, and you're going to go to a place that you've never been, and I'm going to show you." And so verse 4, Abram goes. That's the kind of person Abraham was. It's like in Genesis 22 when Abraham is told to take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice, and then it says after he told him, he rose up early in the morning. And he started heading toward Mount Moriah. He didn't have any delayed obedience. He was swift in his obedience. The Lord said it, that's what I'm going to do. Even to the point of raising the knife up to slay his only son, who was the son of promise. It says in Hebrews 11, he knew that God would resurrect him. That's trust. He said, I could do this because he's the son of promise and if God is going to bless me through Isaac, then he's got to raise him from the dead if I have to take his life. Right? That's what that means. But go to chapter 13. It tells us in verse 2 that Abram was very rich in livestock and silver and in gold. And then it tells us about because he had so many possessions, guess what? Lot also had a lot of possessions because of Abraham. And they had so many things that they couldn't live together. The herdsmen were fighting with each other. And if you will notice, if you go down to verse 8, here's what Abraham said to Lot. Please let there be no strife between you and me, nor between my herdsmen and your herdsmen, for we are brothers. It's not the whole land before you. Please separate from me. If to the left, then I will go to the right. Or if to the right, then I will go to the left." Wasn't that gracious? Doesn't that show a man who had gratitude and gentleness I mean, he just had an experience with the Lord. God spoke to him and told him where to go. Told him what he wanted him to do. Now, I don't believe God is audibly speaking to anybody today, but he does speak to us right here. Hold it up. He speaks to you right here. And every time you forsake this, you're basically saying, God, I don't want to talk to you today, Lord. I don't want to hear anything you have to say to me today. Until you get in trouble. Then you start crying out to Him and you're trying to listen for something because somebody a long time told you that you would hear a still small voice. There's nothing that supports that. I've had some people share with me some pretty wild stories, some of them even here, about how they saw the Lord. I only have to go by what I'm reading here, and that's why I'm skeptical about people responding like that. I believe that we're in this period where the Lord wants us to trust his written word before he speaks again, and he will return to that, but not right now. Jesus is gonna come back. He's gonna reign on the earth for a thousand years. I believe that. I'm definitely pre-millennial. There are some out there that don't believe that. What kind of hope is that? You're not going to come back when he says he is? And Voskamp, in a poem that she wrote, 1,000 gifts, says Thanksgiving, giving thanks in everything, prepares the way that God might show us His fullest salvation in Christ. You will see more of the good hand of God in your life if you're thankful. Because trust opens that door. But there's an enemy that you and I have to be aware of. If you're not trusting Yahweh with all your heart, then you have a divided heart. And a divided heart will lead to a complaining spirit. And if you trust God with your soul, but not with your schedule, then guess what? You're going to be anxious about your time, aren't you? If you trust God with your theology, but not your children, but you're a wreck of worry over their future. And a worried heart has no room for gratitude. It's the same kind of thing I said some time ago when I said, when you are filled with the Spirit, at that very moment, when you are filled with the Spirit, you will not sin. You can't. Holy Spirit's not going to lead you into sin. He's going to lead you in righteousness. That's why it says in Galatians 5, 16, walk by the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So if you're all caught up in the lust of the flesh, you're not walking by the Spirit. If you're not walking by the Spirit, you're very susceptible to sin. So the only way that we can kill sin in our life is to walk moment by moment, step by step with God. But the enemy of things, So we look at the foundation of thanks and now we come to the enemy of thanks. What's the enemy of thanks? Well, it's the idol of control and it's found in the next part of that verse. And do not lean on your own understanding. So Solomon moves from the positive command to the negative prohibition. But I want to give you the definition of this word, lean. It's very interesting. It means to support yourself. It means to rest your weight upon something. Very similar to what we saw in the previous word about putting all your weight on God. Solomon here is painting a picture of a man, like a man with a broken leg who needs a support. And he has two options. He could lean on the unshakable rock of Yahweh, or he can lean on the flimsy, brittle cane of his own understanding. The word for understanding is bina. It refers to our mental capacity to distinguish, our mental capacity to plan and to figure things out. And Solomon's not saying that we should be mindless. The book of Proverbs is full of commands that talk about seeking wisdom and seeking understanding. I mean, that's the purpose of the book, right? I mean, you come to chapter 1, verse 2, it says that the purpose of Proverbs is to know wisdom and instruction. Verse 3, to receive instruction. Verse 4, to give prudence. So we don't want to totally escape from our understanding, but we don't want to depend on it. We've been told in Proverbs 2, 3 to call out for understanding. Verse 4, we're told to seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures. We're told in Proverbs 4, 5 to acquire wisdom, acquire understanding. So what's it mean not to lean on it then? Well, it means that we're not to make our human perspective the ultimate support of our life. The ultimate support of our life is not our understanding, it's God in whom we put our trust. God's word must have first place because it teaches you how to do this. And again, if you're forsaking God's word, then you're forsaking the very answers to the questions you have. You're forsaking the very power that you need to live your life every day in a way that pleases God. We don't trust our interpretation of events more, but we trust in the character of God. And this is where you see the connection to thankfulness and even where it becomes painful. Why do we grumble? Why do we complain? Have you ever kind of asked yourself that question? Why are you doing that? Well, the answer is we're doing this because we're leaning on our own understanding. We're trusting in ourselves. We're relying on ourselves. See, we're almost saying, God, I'll trust you as long as your plan makes sense to me. But that's not trust. That's a negotiation. And when the deal falls through and the darkness comes, the negotiation turns into something else, bitterness. William Cooper, who struggled with depression throughout his life, he understood this probably better than most, and he wrote this. He said, Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. See, feeble sense, that's our understanding. It's limited. It's like looking at a parade through a knot hole in a fence. We see only one small slice of reality. We see the pain of this moment. We see the bills on the counter piling up. We see the empty chair. We don't see the beginning and we don't see the end. And if you lean on your limited view, you'll break under the weight of life's tragedies. But if you refuse to lean on your own understanding, you're free to thank God even in the dark. And you will thank Him even in the dark. You can say, Lord, I do not understand this path. It hurts. It's dark. But I know you. I know you. It's like going back to our time in the cave. We were trusting the guide. And because we trust him, we can thank him because he's working everything together for my good and for his glory, even if I can't see it right now. Isn't that what Romans 8 28 talks about? We know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who were called according to his purpose. See, this is the cure for anxiety. This is why Paul said in Philippians 4, 6, to be anxious for nothing but in everything with thanksgiving and prayer. Let your requests be made known unto God. God doesn't want us to worry. We really have no reason to worry if He is in control. When we're worrying, we're demonstrating we're not trusting God. We're not putting all of our weight on Him. We're putting all of our weight on ourselves. We're trying to figure this out. We're trying to find the best solutions, the best answers, the way through this. And God is saying, trust me. Trust me. I got this. You don't. And so if we could define anxiety, we'd just simply say it's the arrogance of thinking that we know how the universe should be run and the fear that God is getting it wrong. You stop leaning on our own understanding, then we lay down the burden of being the general manager of the universe. And in that space, thankfulness can finally breathe. So how do we do this? Well, I think it's found in the next verse as well. Verse six. This is the practice of thanks. And this is what we would call a God-drenched life. What did you think of when you heard the word drenched? Water, didn't you? Just throwing a whole thing of water on you, just soaking wet. You're drenched. Wouldn't you like to be drenched with God? In that way, to where He's just fully... You're fully embracing Him. Look at verse 6. In all your ways acknowledge Him. This is a beautiful verse. Because it talks about how we do this practically, how we move from the theory of trust to the practice of it. And he gives us the method right here. In all your ways, acknowledge. That's the Hebrew word, I don't even know if I'm pronouncing it right. Those of you who like all these Star War movies, yada. That's the word, Y-A-D-A. But it's one of the richest words in the Old Testament and it's far more than admitting that he exists. It's a word that speaks of intimate relational knowledge. It's used in the most intimate sense in Genesis chapter four where it says Adam knew his wife. Sure he knew his wife. It's used in a sexual sense right there. He had a sexual relationship with his wife. It was one of the most intimate relationships. And so to acknowledge God in all your ways means to have that intimate fellowship with Him in every single aspect of your life. It means to know Him when you're at your job. It means to know Him when you're in your car and you're in the middle of a traffic jam. It means to know Him while you're bent over changing diapers. Me and Teresa have been changing diapers way too long. That's Samuel's need right there. Reminds me of Jamie Ragle. He has a disabled daughter. Jamie Ragle is an evangelist. Heard him years ago at Hillcrest when they were over there on Lane Avenue. And I remember he was talking about in those situations when you have a disabled person and how you have to care for them, you have to do everything for them. Everything. And even those things that you don't want to do that are very uncomfortable, you've got to do it because that's the need. Clean them up. But think about the guy that's in the wheelchair and goes into the handicap in the bathroom, and he can't clean himself up. And he has no one to clean himself up. There are people like that, a lot of people like that. And I heard one situation where he had to ask a stranger to help him, to help clean him up. Would you do that? You do that for someone you don't know that has that kind of need? Would you go over there and forgive me if this offends you? Would you wipe their butt? It's what you're doing. Can you know him in that situation? Yes. Yes. Back in the 17th century, there was a monk. He's referred to as Brother Lawrence. I remember that name years ago coming up. But he worked in a kitchen in the monastery. He hated working in the kitchen. He wasn't a servant type. But he decided he was going to acknowledge God in the pots and the pans. And this is what he wrote. He said, We can do little things for God. I turn the cake that's frying on the pan for love of Him. And that done, if there's nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before Him who has given me grace to work. Afterwards, I rise happier than a king. You see what he's doing there? He took a mundane, annoying task of frying a cake and he made it his sanctuary. And if you want to be people of thanksgiving, you must learn to see God in all your ways and everything you go through. When you drink your coffee in the morning or when you don't drink coffee. I don't drink coffee. But whatever you drink in the morning when you wake up, You acknowledge God. You can acknowledge Him while you're drinking the coffee and say, Lord, thank you for the very beans that make this. Thank you for this flavor. Thank you for your provision. Thank you for the caffeine in it that's going to help me wake up. Because I can't see drinking it for any other reason. Nasty. You solve a problem at work, you don't just pat yourself on the back. You acknowledge the God who gave you the mind to think and to breathe and to speak. Believe it or not, there are some people out there that can't do what you do, whatever you do. They're not you. And even when you face a trial, you can acknowledge Him and you can say, Lord, you're here. You haven't left me. You're teaching me. Help me to see what you want me to see in this situation. Help me to glorify you in this situation. Help me not to fail. Help me not to fall. I was thinking about that the other day, about something that was bothering me and I was just praying, Lord, help me not to fail you right here in this situation. Help me to bring you glory in this situation. So the thankful heart sees life as a continuous walk with a friend. If you acknowledge him in all your ways, you find something to thank him for in all your ways. You can be in the presence of the King of Kings and never remain a grumbler, His glory will swallow up your complaints. Listen to Philippians 2. This is for you and me. This is what we're supposed to do. My beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. He's not saying work for it, so don't confuse it there. He's talking about practical sanctification, living a holy life. Work this out and do it with fear and with reverence. For it is God who is at work in you, both the willing to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling and disputing, so that you will prove yourself to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory, because I did not run in vain or toil in vain." In other words, when you do everything, without complaining, without grumbling under your breath. It's that muttering that we do. And we might even be saying something, but we just don't want anybody to hear it. But whatever that is that you're doing, you've got to stop. And when you stop, you'll prove yourself to be blameless because nobody can pin anything on you saying that you're complaining because you're not. You're being thankful. And when it comes to being a child of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse world, you appear as light when you are thankful. This is a mode of witnessing too, guys. Living this way. When people see it lived out in your life. Even people that don't even know you. That's what I want people to see in my life. Well, we've seen the foundation of thanks, that's trust. We've seen the enemy of thanks, and that's when you lean on your own understanding. We see the practice of thanks and all your ways acknowledge him. Now notice the promise of thanks. What's the promise? A straight path. Because before trusting, I'm like this. I'm just kind of navigating all this direction. I even go off over here. I was trying to explain something to someone the other day about what it's like preaching without notes. It's like this. I go off in a rabbit trail, I'm way over here and I don't even know how to get back. And I'm going, what did I say? What did I say that triggered this? And sometimes I can't find it. And I look down, oh, there it is, right there. Here's the promise, verse six, and he will make your paths straight. What happens to the man or the woman who totally trust, who refuses to lean on their own logic and walks in intimate communion with God? He will make your path straight. That's the Hebrew word yashar. It means to make smooth, to make level. It means to remove obstacles. But you've got to be very careful when you come to this, because this is not a promise of a trouble-free life. It's not a promise that if you trust God, you'll never get cancer, or you'll never lose your job, or you'll never lose any money, or you'll never face rejection. Jesus himself, the only one who perfectly trusted the Father, he had a path. You know what that path was? The cross. And that path wasn't easy, but it was straight. And we're even told in Philippians 2, 5, have this way of thinking in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. By being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. You have to die to yourself. See, a straight path in Hebrew wisdom literature refers to a path that reaches its goal. It's a path of purpose. It's a path where you do not wander in the wilderness of futility. And when we try to control our lives, our paths become crooked. We manipulate, we worry, we strive, we burn bridges. And I remember that's one thing, and I remember constantly when my dad told me, don't ever burn your bridge, because you might have to cross back over it. That was sound wisdom, and I have kept that in my mind all my adult life. Don't burn that bridge. And yet, when I get upset, sometimes I don't want to just burn it, I want to blow it up. But that's what we do when we're leaning on our own understanding, when we're not trusting the Lord. We take shortcuts that turn into dead ends, and our anxiety makes us restless. But when we trust God, He clears the way. He removes the obstacle of our own pride. He levels the mountain of our fear. And He leads us exactly where we need to go to become the people He created us to be. Let me illustrate that by Thinking about a pilot who's flying through a storm and the clouds are so thick, the turbulence is shaking the aircraft and his understanding or his physical senses are telling him he's upside down. But his inner ear is playing tricks on him. And if he leans on his own understanding, guess what's going to happen? He's going to crash. And that's why he has on the dashboard an attitude indicator. I'm sorry, an altitude indicator. We might as well call it an attitude indicator, right? But it tells him the truth about his position relative to the horizon. And if he trusts the instrument, then he acknowledges the truth over his feelings and he will fly straight. He'll cut through the storm. He'll land safely. See, that's the promise. God says, I'll be your gyroscope. I'll be your compass. If you keep your eyes on me, I will ensure that your life is not wasted. It will land exactly where I intended it to go. And isn't that the ultimate reason for thanksgiving? To know that our lives are not random accidents? To know that we are being led by a shepherd who loves us? So how do we apply this? How do we leave this place and be more thankful this week than we were last week? And I think it starts with the decision of the will. It starts with the batak, the trust, the lying face down. And maybe you're holding onto something tightly. You need to let go of it. Maybe you're worrying about your finances. Maybe you have some kind of resentment toward another person. Or maybe you have the fear of the future. Maybe you've been leaning on your own understanding and you're trying to figure things out. You're trying to fix it. You're exhausted. You have no thanks in your heart. All you have is stress. Well, the invitation here in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 is just to let it go. Stop leaning on the broken crutch of your own strategies. Fall into the loving arms of your Heavenly Father. We can trust those arms because they were stretched out on a cross for us, right? And the ultimate proof that you can trust God with your life is that He gave His life for you. He walked the darkest path, the path to Calvary, and He trusted the Father so perfectly that our path to God could be made straight. He took the crookedness of our sin and gave us the straightness of His righteousness. And if He did that for your soul, surely you can trust Him with your schedule, If He saved you from death and saved you from hell, surely you can trust Him with your daily bread, right? So I want to close with this prayer by King David that turns trust into thanksgiving. And let this be confession of our hearts today. It says in Psalm 28 and verse 7, the Lord is my strength. Yahweh is my strength and my shield. My heart trusts in Him and I am helped. Therefore, my heart exults and with my song, I will thank Him. Listen, if I wasn't a musician, I'd want to be a musician just so I could sing His praises. Trust Him. You trust Him with your spiritual life, trust Him with your physical life. Look to the cross. Go out of here today with a thankful heart. But if you've been grumbling, you've been complaining, then as we pray, confess it as sin. And ask God to forgive you, and He will. He will. 1 John 1, 9. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a promise. Let's pray. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for this time that we've had together in your word and we pray now, Lord, that we'll put it to action in our lives. I pray that you'll help us to apply this. Help us to put all of our trust in you, all of our weight on you, and not to put any weight or any support