The portion of God's word that he has appointed for us this evening is found in Proverbs, the wise counsel of Solomon in the book of Proverbs at chapter three. Proverbs, chapter three. This is a passage of scripture that is uniquely suited for young people as they come into a transition in their life. Proverbs is a book written to give wise counsel to young adults. And this passage, like the other passages in the first nine chapters of the book, is really a speech from a father to a son. It's a father's wise counsel to his son who is facing a great transition in his life. And I think that you'll see as we read the first 13 verses together that this chapter is particularly suited for the occasion that brings us together this evening. Proverbs chapter three, let's read the first 13 verses. This is the word of God. My son, Forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. For length of days and long life and peace shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thine heart. so shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. And all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. My son, Despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he delights. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that getteth understanding. Amen. Now this wise counsel you see from the very first two words there that we read together has in view a young man who is at the threshold of going out into life independently. This is not written to a child, is it? These 13 verses. That's reflected in really the whole chapter, but especially those first 13 verses. You see in verse six that there's the thought that from now on, it's the Lord that's going to be directing this young man. In verses nine and 10, you see that what's envisioned is him having his own income, his own barns. He's gonna build his own barns, have his own fields. He's gonna have his own wine press. And in the last two verses that we just read, speak with a solemnity to them, where this father repeats the direct address, my son, and speaks about the Lord's chastening, as if from now on the protection of parents is going to be removed. and it's gonna be the Lord himself who's going to directly deal with this young adult. In other words, the passage before us this evening, like the rest of the passages in this book, envision a young person who is facing life. He or she is going to have to face the brunt of the world and stand on his or her own two feet. And the passage is counseling this young person as he stands at this critical season of his life, a season when he'll have a job of his own, where he'll be seeking a wife and getting married, when he'll have children of his own, when he'll be establishing a household of his own. And he's facing all of that. It's a time of transition in this young man's life as his father talks to him here. And that's exactly what's going on in your lives right now. It's a time of transition. A transition is like a bridge. You're moving from one side across a great divide to this other side. And there's something about this week where you are crossing over that bridge. You recognize yourself there, don't you? You recognize that you're at a very similar place in your life that this young man was in these 13 verses, about ready to cross over a bridge into the unknown. The Lord knows the path that you're going to take. The psalmist says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. So I wanna talk to you then for a few minutes from these first six verses of Proverbs 3 about wise counsel for a life's transition. wise counsel to a life's transition. And I hope you'll listen carefully to what God says to a young person in the very exact circumstances of life that you find yourself tonight. There are four parts, four parts to this wise, divine counsel. Where does the counsel begin there in those first two verses? Where does it begin? Think about it with me. It begins like every walk across a bridge. It begins on the side where you always were. And what is the side that you've been on all these years? These 17, these 18 years, what is the side that you've been on so far? It's the side of the bridge where you're under your parents' instruction. and you're under your parents' authority. You're about ready to progress out of that. You're about ready to progress and transition across the bridge to the other side. But right now, this council begins on the side where you always were. And what the father tells his son is, my son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commandments. So the first council, that the Lord would give you this evening in this time of transition is to preserve your parents' instruction. Preserve your parents' instruction. This is what he would have you to do in order to make sure that this passage into the next phase of your life is safe and right. And so as the next months go by, and the next years go by, that you know that you are exactly in the place of God's appointment for you, what is going to ensure that? What's going to ensure it is this, preserving your parents' training of you. Preserve it. He says it negatively, and then he says it positively, doesn't he? He says it negatively. Forget not my law, or the word law is just the word instruction, the way I've pointed the way forward for you. Don't forget it. And the implication there is it is very easy for a young person at this stage of life to forget what they've learned in their parents' household. Whatever your parents have taught you, regarding scriptural belief and scriptural behavior, those two great categories of life. Preserve that. Guard that. Don't forget that. Don't leave it behind. That's where the passage begins. And then he says it positively, not just negatively, don't forget, but positively. He says, keep my commandments. And the word there is to guard it. And the implication in using that word, think about that. If he's telling you to guard your parents' instruction, then the implication is that it is going to be threatened. At this stage in your life, you are about to face the greatest threat to your parents' instruction that you have faced up to this point. What is going to threaten it? What does the book of Proverbs say is the major threat to a father's instruction? Who is the number one competitor to parent counsel? Well, the easiest way to see it is to turn back a page to Proverbs 1, and look how this book begins. The book of Proverbs begins with a prologue. It's the first seven verses. So when you get to verse eight, you're getting the very first counsel now in this book. Okay, so he's gonna start introducing characters. The first character is my son. So there's your first character. The second character is thy father. The third character, end of verse eight, thy mother. So this is where it begins. That's right where you are. A son, his father, his mother. Now keep reading who's the next character presented. Verse 10. Sinners. And that word represents the number one competitor to your parent's instruction. Who are these people categorized as sinners here? Of course, we're all sinners. We're all sinful people. Proverbs acknowledges that, of course. What the writer of Proverbs means when he talks about sinners is people who actively reject the counsel of the Lord. They turn a deaf ear to what we're speaking about this evening. They reject God's wise counsel. And when those people come into your life, They don't come on the very first day that you're acquainted with them and reveal all that is in their heart. It's more subtle than that. Typically what you're going to find is what all of us found when we were young people. It's just human nature. There's a progression to these people's opposition. It typically begins with their attitude. You don't have to be around them very long before that attitude begins to show itself. It shows itself in what they do with their eyes. The way they raise their eyebrows at things. The times when they smirk. And then you'll find as you get to know these people a little better, that they're just gonna start to call into question what you're doing and what you've been taught in your home. And they'll begin to reason with you about a positive alternative viewpoint that you probably haven't considered before. And then the day will come when they'll be so bold that they will absolutely, totally contradict what your parents taught you. And those kind of peers are to be avoided if you are going to follow the counsel of God here in this passage. in order to preserve and to keep your parents' instruction. It's under threat. It's under threat by other people who are not walking the way of God. They're the assembled council of the ungodly. And so you'll have to be on your guard against them in order to preserve your parents' instruction. Be aware that no matter how sound or consistent or persuasive the training that you have received has been, it will be threatened. It will be threatened. And the only way to deal with those threats is to receive the scriptural counsel that is here given in this passage. And if you look here at the second verse of Proverbs 3, turning back to Proverbs 3, look at the second verse and the promise that he gives you. If you will do this, if you will preserve your parents' instruction, then he tells you that that will enrich your entire life. He says, for length of days and long life and peace they shall add to thee. He's talking about quantity of years that you'll live. He's talking about a quality of life, peace in your life. And it doesn't take long to observe the lives of people that are just a little bit older than you. And they didn't do this. They forgot what they were taught in their homes. And they did not guard and keep and preserve their parents' training. and their lives and their relationships are already catastrophes. They're filled with trouble and conflict. They're bitter. They're fault-finding. They're complaining. They're constantly breaking their covenants with other people who trusted them. They have no peace in their life. And that's what the Lord tells us in the book of Isaiah. There is no peace for the wicked. Doing what this passage does and preserving your parents' training brings this wonderful package of a life of peace and joy and fulfillment. So there's the first thing. And what a great blessing it is to know God's perfect counsel right now in this moment of your life. The first element is preserve your parents' instruction. The second thing begins in verse three. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck and write them upon the table of thine heart. So these verses direct us to two virtues. that the Lord wants you to be very careful to maintain, especially in this time of transition. When you're crossing over this bridge, here are two virtues that the Lord himself says you be real careful to maintain these two. You hold fast, here's the second counsel, hold fast to mercy and truth. Hold fast to mercy and truth. It's an interesting way that he puts it, right? He says, let not mercy and truth forsake thee, as if they're going to walk away, they're gonna run away. If you don't hold these things back, if you're not active about this, these things have a mind of their own, and they're just gonna wander off from you, and before you know it, they're gonna be gone. So what are these two things, mercy and truth? The word mercy. is a beautiful Old Testament word that talks about loyal love, covenant faithfulness, someone who keeps their word and their bonds, someone who is loyal. And then the second word, truth, is a word based on the Hebrew word amen. And it means about being trustworthy, or reliable, or dependable, or firm, or settled. So the person that is marked by mercy and truth is a person that you can count on. They're a person who's dependable, who's reliable, who's responsible. They meet their responsibilities. If they're given an obligation, they joyfully go about doing that obligation. You can count on this person to do the right thing. And this is what God says will bring you into favor both with God and with other people in this critical time of your life, to be the kind of person who is dependable and trustworthy and loyal, a person that people can count on. Verse four says that this is the way to find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man. It's the way to find favor in the sight of a man like your employer. or your future family when you go home to meet the in-laws one of these days. Even a thief loves someone he can depend on. Everyone loves someone who's dependable, someone who's trustworthy. Everyone's looking for an honest, faithful person. And you probably already understand that is a rare thing. For an employer to find a person who's marked by these two virtues at your stage in life, they're constantly complaining about it. Why are they so unreliable? I wish I could depend on them. Employers are constantly complaining about that kind of thing. These virtues are especially going to be critical. in your relationships. You have got to be the kind of young person that is committed in your relationships. You can't just be bouncing around from one thing to the next, especially when you have committed yourself to someone else. You're entering a time of life when you're going to be seeking a husband or a wife. And it'll be absolutely critical for you to not allow mercy and truth to forsake you. You've got to keep those things from wandering off. You've got to bind them around your neck. It's like when I went to Kenya about 10 years ago, and I was so paranoid about losing my passport. I'd never been. I'd been to Jamaica before. It's kind of close. I'd never been across the world. And here I am in basically a third world country and ministering to a pastor's conference in the slums. And I was real paranoid about losing that passport. So I bought one of those wallets that has a big strap around it. and I wore it around my neck under my dress shirt the entire time I was in Kenya. So I could never leave that thing behind. I was not going to leave it in my hotel room, because who knows, somebody might break into my hotel room. I'm not going to leave it in my bag, because somebody might get into my bag, or I might leave it behind or something. I'm not going to put it in my pocket, because there's pickpockets and stuff. I'm going to put it around my neck. If someone's going to get this passport, they're going to have to physically assault me. That's what you're gonna have to do to mercy and truth. Bind it around your neck. This is gonna be just key in every area of your life. You have to be the kind of person that when you wake up in the morning, you remember other people are counting on me. So you get up out of bed, and you fulfill your responsibilities. And you'd go to work and you'd do the job because there are people counting on you. There's a wife, there's children. You've got to be a person of mercy and truth. It's just absolutely marvelous counsel. It's perfect counsel, isn't it? I mean, when you think about beginning school, or starting a new job, or leaving home, or marrying, or other transitions, like having your first child, I mean, all of these life's transitions, where do you start to make sure that you have the traction, and the footing, and that everything's right, and you're gonna be on the right path, and you're gonna go down a straight path? Well, don't leave behind all the blessed instruction that you've received from your home, and now as you move forward, be the kind of person Be a person like God is. Be like Him. He is full of mercy and truth. He's abundant in it, and you be like Him, and you be loyal, and you be faithful, and you be trustworthy, and you be dependable too. And you'll find favor with people everywhere for being that kind of person. All right, now when we come to verse five, everything changes now. Because now this father's gonna turn his mind away from other people, even away from his parents, and he's gonna talk to him about his relationship to the Lord. The most fundamental relationship in his life. And he tells him, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. So the third counsel is to place your wholehearted confidence in the Lord. Place your wholehearted confidence in the Lord. That first word of verse five, that word trust, It's a word that speaks of feeling confident or secure. There are a couple different words that transit faith or trust in the Old Testament. One kind of has to do with the factual things, like, I know this is true and not false, that kind of truth, that kind of trust. But that's not what this word is. This word has to do more with your emotions. It has to do with how you feel. You feel confident. This is the word that's used when the Bible cautions us about trusting money. And when a person trusts money, the issue is not that they believe in the existence of money as a fact. That's ridiculous, right? When a person trusts money, what they do is they're putting their confidence in money. They're feeling secure in their human resources. All right, so that's this word. So feel secure in the Lord with all your heart. Think about it from the standpoint of a parent. When you were small, This is exactly what your parents wanted from you on those occasions when you were scared of the dark or when there was a thunderstorm brewing, that first shot of lightning or a rumbling off in the distance. Your parents wanted you to feel secure. They wanted you to feel that you were protected, that you didn't have anything to fear, that they wouldn't let anything happen to you. They wanted you to feel confident in them. And they probably said certain things to you to assure you and to allay your fears and to put your spirit at rest. They wanted you to trust them, to feel confident in them. All right, so here you are. and you're facing so many things that you've never faced before. Here's God's counsel. Be confident in me. I just told you some of my own virtues, he says. Mercy and truth. And I told you to display them in yourself. And I wouldn't tell you to do something that I wasn't already doing for you and committed to do for you for the rest of your life. I'm trustworthy. I'm reliable, I'm loyal. I'm abundant in mercy and truth. Feel confident in me with your whole heart. And then he urges this on this young person from a different direction. He doesn't just say, feel confident in me with all your heart. Now he says, lean not to your own understanding. You see, when it comes to feeling confident in God, there are always these counter influences. So the passage comes back to warn you about that. Because this is what happens, this is exactly what happens whenever you and I are admonished to trust God with something specific in our lives. We sit and we say, that sounds wonderful. I would like to do that. That would be the blessed way to live. And then your mind says, but wait, what's that going to cost me? What am I going to have to give up? It's not going to be that easy. and you end up hesitating, vacillating between feeling confident in the Lord and questioning what he's saying to you, questioning what is the wise course of action, what's prudent in this case, and it's in that fork in the road that leaves people in the position that James calls double-minded. They've got two minds about this. They've got a mind that wants to feel confident in the Lord, and they've got a mind that, you know, I don't know if that's really going to work out the way he says it's going to work out. Seems like it's going to be painful. I don't know. And that's the leaning on their own understanding. Every one of us faces this. Every one of us. Your brain is subjected to the seduction of your flesh. Your fallen nature has its own mind about things. and it's always contrary to the spirit of God. So it's that double-mindedness that fills you with anxiety. We well know that this is the way that scripture marks out, but when we look at that way, and we fear that there's gonna be consequences for doing the scriptural thing. So we fear, like Israel, here we are on the threshold of entering Canaan, but the people, they're so numerous, and there's giants in the land, and they've got big cities with tall walls, and they're double-minded. Double-minded. The passage counsels you to not do that. Don't lose your confidence in God and lean your weight on your own understanding. Rather, place your wholehearted confidence in the Lord. And then verse six gives us the final piece to this wise counsel for a life's transition. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Fourth counsel is, know God regarding all your ways. Know God regarding all your ways. The word acknowledge here is just not the best translation. The word acknowledge communicates to us kind of like a, you know, nodding to someone. Like, you know, someone enters the room and you just kind of greet them, you nod them, you acknowledge them. There'll be a lot of acknowledging up in the chandelier lobby in a few minutes. There'll be handshakes and acknowledgements, right? And that's not what we're talking about here. That's not the word. It's not just a nod to someone and to greet them. It's not just tipping your hat to God or some, you know, acknowledge God, you know, just kind of, you know, do your thing, right? The word is the simple word translated all through the rest of the Old Testament, know. Know God in all your ways. Regarding every affair of your life, know God. It's not saying you give a nod to God in all your planning. It means you actually seek His counsel about all your ways. In all your ways, know Him. And when you know the Lord regarding your ways, It's when you resort to his revelation that he's given of himself and you want to know what is his pleasure, what are the way that he responds to situations like this? What does he value? What is his standpoint? and you're presenting your decisions before him, and you want to go to his word, and you want to ransack his revelation to find out his mind about this. And when you do that, When you're ransacking his revelation about his viewpoint on this decision, he promises that he'll direct your paths and he'll make them straight. And not just straight, but smooth. Your life is an individual plan of God. Do you believe that? That right now, the whole course of your life is individually planned out by God, and it has been from all eternity. There is nothing about the remainder of your days or years that God does not have a perfect design for. He made you to glorify Him in all your ways. And from all eternity, He has had His heart set on a certain path for you. And you can do it the easy way, or you can do it the hard way. If you constantly resort to your own viewpoint, If you don't really know the Lord regarding your ways, if you can constantly take things into your own hands, God still has a way of getting you where you need to be, but it won't be smooth. It won't be straight. Case in point, Jacob. For the first seven or eight decades of Jacob's life, he went his own way. In the end, did Jacob end up doing the will of God and contributing to the ongoing work of God in the way that God ordained? Did he? Absolutely. But it wasn't smooth. And you don't want Jacob's life It didn't have to be that way. Here's the smooth way. Know the mind of the Lord regarding all your ways. Don't make decisions without consulting Him. When it comes to all of your decisions, All the ways that you're going to take, all the forks in the road, all the little things, all the big things, be a person who knows God. Value His counsel. Put a premium on seeing things from His viewpoint. so that you have the mind of God in all your ways, and the outcome of a life like that, a life where you are knowing God in all your ways, is that he will direct your paths. He'll make your paths straight and smooth, and that is the way to go. So here is God's wise counsel for you in this moment of transition. Preserve your parents' instruction. Hold fast to mercy and truth. Place your wholehearted confidence in God and know God regarding all your ways. If by grace you will do this, then you will know quality of life favor in the sight of God and others, and God will make your path straight and smooth. Are you committed to following this counsel in this time of transition in your one and only life? Bow with me as I pray for the Lord's blessing on your ways. Let's pray. Lord, our gracious God and heavenly Father, we thank thee for this wise, fatherly counsel, perfectly suited for an occasion like this. How precious your word is, how perfect the law of the Lord is. And we pray that you would give us hearts that submit to your counsel, to your ways. Will you convert our souls and make wise the simple and rejoice our hearts and enlighten our eyes and grant unto us the fear of God? Will you burn these words and this wise divine counsel into each of our hearts that we might honor you in all our ways. Bless these students. Bless them as they transition out into the world and adulthood. We pray that you would keep them. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.