We welcome you to summer school. Hope you're off to a good start. Now, there's a lot of different reasons why you could be here in summer school. Some of you maybe weren't planning to take summer school, and then something happened last week, and God directed you that you needed to be here. And that's something that maybe you weren't really focused on, but here you are. Some of you finishing up a class or two in a degree program. Some of you just getting a head start. If we were to ask each of you, why are you in summer school right now, I think we could get down to a basic motive that most of you would come to, which is that somehow you're here because it makes you happy to be here. Now, I know you might be thinking, wait a second, I'm not happy to be in summer school. Okay, but for example, you're finishing a degree program. Why are you finishing that degree program? Because you want to graduate. Why do you want to graduate? Because I want to have that certification or level of education. Why? Because I'm preparing for a certain type of vocation or ministry. Why? Because I think that would really be a great way to spend my life. Why? Because I would find happiness in that. It's often been said that if you take a look at motivation, why do people do what they do, you can pretty much bring it down to the bottom line of we do what we honestly think will make us happy. Take something as simple as lunch. Are you going to go to lunch today? Some of you are planning to go to lunch. Why? Because it makes you happy to eat. Some of you are thinking, no, it's summertime. I'm going to try to lose a little weight. I'm going to skip lunch. Why? Well, you think it'll make you happy to lose weight. Some of you will go to a place in town and you'll buy food to eat that's really unhealthy and greasy and bad and things I would never eat. And you'll buy French fries and onion rings and hamburgers. And you'll eat it and I would say, why are you eating that? And you'll say, because I enjoyed it, it makes me happy. And others of you would say, I'd never eat that. And you're going to go and get something healthy and you're going to get a salad with maybe fat-free dressing and grilled chicken. And you're going to eat something. And I would say, why are you eating so healthy? And you're going to say, well, because it makes me happy to eat healthy. And I'm not really here to debate this morning whether or not you agree with that. Most people would say that happiness is the bottom line motivation in life. And if you're not willing to buy that, at least it's a motivation in life. I want to ask the question, what is it that really makes you happy? What is it that we can find in Scripture that would help us to know how we can really be happy? I think of a song. It's actually one of my favorite songs, a very simple song. And I opened up to it in my hymn book. You don't need to do that, but it's 267. When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, what a glory He sheds on our way. While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey. For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey." Do you believe that song? Do you honestly think that if we would just trust and obey, we would find happiness? I remember reading in a writing by a Christian psychologist, I won't name him, but he basically mocked this song. And he called it basically the simple thinking of simple-minded people who live in a bubble and never really struggled with the challenges of life. And I remember reading that and thinking, wow, I guess I live in a bubble. Because I believe this song, that truly if we would trust and obey, we would find the happiness that God wants every one of us to have. You say, is there a biblical foundation for that? I had the joy a couple of years back of preaching a series of messages through Proverbs, and I'd like to take just one portion of one message that I entitled in the past, True Happiness. We could call it today Trust and Obey, the way to find true happiness. And once we look at just two verses in Proverbs, I hope by God's grace that maybe you'd be willing to consider that that song is actually true, that if we would just trust and obey, we find the happiness that God wants us to experience. Open up in Proverbs, please. We'll start. We'll look at just two texts of Scripture. Proverbs 16 and verse 20. Proverbs 16 and verse 20, simple two-point message today. The first point has to do with trust, and the second point has to do with obey. Proverbs 16, verse 20, is it true that trusting in the Lord brings happiness? In Proverbs 16, 20, the text says, He that handleth the matter wisely shall find good, and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." Now, I'd like to make a comment or two on the first part of that verse, and hopefully this will make sense. If you have a King James Bible, which is what I'm reading from this morning, He that handleth the matter wisely shall find good. Notice that word matter. That word matter occurs over 1,400 times in the Old Testament, It sometimes is translated as a matter or a thing. Just anything, something. But what's interesting is that same Hebrew word can be translated word. And frequently refers to the Word of God. For example, Psalm 119.89, Forever O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven. Or Psalm 119.105, Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. This word actually can refer to the Ten Words or Ten Commandments. You know the Ten Commandments. It says in Ezekiel 34, 28 that He wrote on the tablets the words, same word, the words of the covenant, the Ten Words. And thus if you have another translation, which I know many of you do, you'll read something similar to the New American Standard Bible that translates verse 20, He who gives attention to the Word, will find good. We should be giving attention to God's Word. Nothing more important than knowing what God says. And as we give attention to the Word of God, what do we discover? Now we're ready for the second half of verse 20. Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. You say, what does it mean to trust? It means to rely on. It means to lean on. It means to depend on. Everyone trusts in something or someone. Let me just give you a very simple illustration, if I can. How many of you, when you're going on a trip, you like to look at a map? You're just that kind of a person. You open up a map and, okay, great. How many of you, you use your GPS and you trust it? How many of you don't really do either? You just kind of drive by the seat of your pants, right? You just kind of, okay, and you just kind of go that way, right? I was up preaching at Northland a couple years back for their summer camp, and it was my first time up there, and I wanted to come back a different way. I went up there through Chicago, drove up to Chicago, spent the day up there, had a little family time with the kids. I then drove the next part from Chicago up to Northland. Well, on the way back, I wanted to come through Ohio, Cleveland, to see my folks. So I went over that, what is it, the Mackinac Bridge kind of thing, right? Went kind of north above that way through the top of Michigan and back down. Well, anyhow, I left early in the morning. I'd preached all day, all week, and I was tired. And I thought, you know, I think I know where I'm going. And I had a map with me, but I didn't pull it out. I made one wrong turn. And we kept driving and driving and driving. We left very early in the morning. Everybody's asleep. And I'm just kind of zoned out, drinking coffee, thinking, where is this Mackinac Bay Bridge thing anyway? And I stop for directions. And I notice everybody talks like they live in Minnesota. And I'm thinking, this is not a blessing. And I say, you know, where's the Mackinac? Where's the Mackinac Bridge? And the guy laughs at me. And he says, well, that's about six hours. I took one wrong turn, okay, and I went west instead of east, and I should have known better. But I didn't look at a map. I didn't use a GPS. I just trusted my sense of direction. Bad decision, okay? Bad decision. We were going to stop and visit some people in Michigan. We had to cancel that because I went a good three hours out of my way. which means I had to go three hours back just to get from where I started. Six hours wasted because I trusted in myself. You say, what does the Bible say? Again, look at the text here in Proverbs. It says that, Husso, Proverbs 16, 20, trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. I need to make sure that I'm relying on God, that I'm trusting in Him, that I'm leaning on Him, that I'm relying on Him. For those of you who are maybe ending your college career, you say, what is the next step? Maybe you would say, I don't know, but I'm trusting in the Lord. And I'm just leaning on God. And I'm going to make sure that every day I'm reading the Word, I'm paying attention to the Word. And I'm praying, Lord, whatever you have for me, that's okay, because I trust you. I rely on you. I lean on you. I'm not trusting in myself. I've made too many wrong turns in life. I'm not trusting in my GPS. I could tell you stories about where I've gone in wrong places because of my GPS. I was on visitation one night on the west side of Greenville, and I was in a place I was not familiar with. And I ended up in a very bad part of town on a dead-end street with a bunch of guys just hanging out at night in the dark. And I'm thinking, Lord, this is not a blessing, right? I didn't get out of my truck and witness to anyone. I was just praying for safety. And why? Because the GPS took me to a dead end street, but on the GPS it didn't know it was a dead end. You say, what happens when we trust in anything other than the Lord? Sometimes we find ourselves in difficult places. But if we trust, verse 20, what does the Bible say? Happy is he. Some translations have blessed is he. You say, what is this idea of the word blessed or happy? It's the idea that you see someone and you say, wow, that guy has it made. That guy has a good life. Have you ever thought that? Maybe there's someone in class and he's kind of smarter than you. He raises his hand and when he answers a question, the teacher just kind of nods and says, yeah, thank you. You know, you're the kind of guy when the teacher asks a question, you raise your hand and you give what you think is a good answer. And the teacher kind of tries not to laugh, right? But you can tell he's trying. And you're thinking, Lord, how come he's so smart, and she's so pretty, and he plays sports so well? If I could just be like that person, that's the sense of the word happy. It doesn't guarantee... Don't take this out of context. It doesn't mean you trust in the Lord and you become beautiful and intelligent and athletic. But it's the idea of when you trust in God, You have such a sense of blessedness and happiness that it's visibly evident to other people. That's trust. If we trust in the Lord, we find happiness. You say, well, what's the second point, that obey thing you mentioned? Let's turn to Proverbs 29 and we'll look at our second text of the morning. How do we truly find happiness? We trust and obey. And we saw in Proverbs 16, 20 this idea of trusting in the Lord leads to happiness. We'll see in Proverbs 29, 18 that obeying the Word of God also leads to happiness. Proverbs 29, 18, and again we'll have to talk about words just a little bit. Proverbs 29, 18, where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy is he. Again, we'll focus on the second half of verse 18. But we do need to comment on the first half of verse 18 because sometimes it's a little bit misunderstood. Where there is no vision, the people perish. You say, what does that mean? Well, maybe you've heard this and I've heard this. You know, it's good to have vision. You know, it's good to really have a plan. You know, be a man with a plan. Don't just sit back and don't do anything. Have goals. Go somewhere in life. Make a list. This is what I want to do. I want to go to summer school, you know, and then I want to maybe go on a mission trip. Have vision. You say, is that good to have? Well, I think it is good to have vision, but that's really not what the text is talking about. You say, well, what do you mean by the text is not talking about it? It says where there's no vision, the people perish. OK, let's talk about the word vision. Vision there is not the idea of you're just kind of a mover and a shaker and you know where you're going and you set goals. Vision is the idea of a vision that comes from God. You say, okay, so I should have a plan from God. And I should just pray, Lord, tonight as I'm sleeping, you know, just show me the dream. No, no. That's really not it either. Vision is the idea of revelation. It's God speaking to you. You say, how does God speak to us today? I would argue that God speaks to us through the Scriptures. When the Holy Spirit illumines my mind to this book, I am hearing from God. So where it says that here in verse 18 of Proverbs 29, where there is no vision, it's the idea of where there is no word from God. When no one is hearing from God, when no one, if I could paraphrase it this way, when no one is reading his or her Bible, the people perish. You say, well, what's the idea of perish? It's the idea of letting loose or letting go. It's the idea of the people are unrestrained because there's chaos. Because where there's no faithful preaching of God's Word, where people are not reading the Scripture, then things don't go well. And there's chaos. And sin is unrestrained. Because see, I have a heart like yours. I have a sinful heart. And I want happiness. But sometimes I'm looking in the wrong places. And when I get into this book and I read the Scriptures, when I listen to pastors preach the Scriptures, God's Word has an impact on me, a restraining impact. See, here you are going through life, and you're thinking, I would love to be happy. You know, maybe if I date that girl, I'd really be happy. You say, well, she's not godly, she's not even saved, and the way she dresses, well, who cares about that? She'd make me happy. But then you read your Bible, and you read what God says, and it restrains you. And you live a life that pleases Christ as you obey the Word and submit. And what do you find? you find happiness. The same thing you wanted to find in the beginning. Now you might be thinking, wait a second, you're telling me that reading your Bible and submitting to it and obeying it brings happiness. Yeah. You say, but that sounds so like following rules, legalistic. How many of you like sports? You like sports? How many of you, your favorite sport is football? Amen. All right. Praise God. All right. Especially like when there's young ladies like football in the back. Way to go. All right, I love football, my favorite sport. Did you ever play football with people who don't know how to play football? It's no fun. You get together and, you know, so you stand, here you go, I'm offense, you guys are on defense. And no one has even said hut, and they're already running in. And they're trying to tell, and it's like, get back. You can't move, the ball wasn't snapped. And they're like, oh, oh, okay, all right. And then you go out for a pass and someone tackles you and you haven't even caught the ball yet. You say, what are you doing? And they say, well, I was tackling you. And it's like, just go home, all right? This is no fun. If you try to play football without following the rules, it's no fun. You say, how do you really enjoy playing football? You enjoy playing football by following the rules. And when you play within the context of the rules, it's a great sport. Now, I know some of you like soccer, and that's kind of the big sport in Christian schools, and that's fine. And the same thing would apply to soccer. I don't really know a lot about soccer. I know a little bit. I've never played it. I went to a high school where everybody played football, and the only guys who played soccer were guys who couldn't take football, all right? So there, all right? You like sports, but you're not man enough to play football. Play soccer, okay? I have no problem with ladies playing soccer. So here we are. And you follow. I say, I can't believe you said that. OK, well, get over it. OK, so here we are and we have a list of rules and you follow them. And you know what you find? You find out the game is fun. Guys, there is no doubt in my mind that God's desire for your life is to have a happy life. And if you would get into the word or continue to be in the word, trusting completely in the Lord, and submitting to what you see in Scripture, you would find the happiness that you really want. God's a heavenly Father. He loves you. I think of myself. I love my daughters. You say, what do you want for your daughters? I love to see my daughters happy. Now, sometimes I tell them no, and they don't like it, but it's always for their benefit. It's always ultimately for their good. And sometimes they don't understand, and they get discouraged, and they might even get annoyed or angry with me. But at least on my best days, I'm always looking out for their best interest. And deep inside, I want for them to be happy. There's no doubt in my mind that God wants that for us. And when we seek Him and submit to Him, and rely on Him, if I could put it in the words of the song, when we trust and obey, truly there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Here we are beginning the summer, some of you wrapping up a school degree program, some of you just beginning, but I really do believe that deep inside every one of you wants the same thing. You want to be happy. I believe God wants that for you as well. The Bible tells you how you can find it. You trust and you obey. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for the Scriptures that teach us that if we would lean on You, rely on You, trust in You, and obey what You have revealed to us in the Word, that actually we find what we're all really looking for. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.