Father help us now as we turn to your book Help us to learn this truth on how you could direct our paths. We pray in Christ's name Amen. Well, what amazing truths here we find in this passage of scripture Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and that last phrase is so powerful, and he shall direct thy paths. I want to preach this morning on a simple message, he shall direct thy paths. I want you to think back at your life, and if you've been alive very long at all, just think back momentarily some of the mistakes you've made. And not so you can get yourself into a deep depression, all right? Don't stay there too long, but just think about, man, yeah, yeah, yeah, I shouldn't have done that, man. You know, most of the mistakes we've made in life were avoidable. You ever think about that? They were avoidable. And there just gets to be a, you get to be a certain age when you realize that you need help. You need help figuring out life. Now, for young people, teenagers and young adults and sometimes people into their, oh, 80s, you know, they don't know yet that they need help. You know, you think about, the stereotypical teenage young man. Man, he can just do everything. I mean, he can raise kids better than you. He'd be a better husband than you. He can make pizza better than you. He can do just about anything. You know, this idea that I can do that better. And youth tends to think that they've got it all under control. until you realize you don't have it all under control, right? Life has a way of smacking us around enough to where we realize, maybe I need to be a little bit more thoughtful in my decisions, maybe I need to be a little bit more careful, maybe I should ask somebody that might know a little bit more than me. And that is not an indictment on youth, it's an indictment on the human condition. Because the truth is, all of us at every stage of life, we tend to have enough pride where we just think we can handle it. And how foolish it is for us to have God Almighty being willing to direct our paths, and we say, no, I got it. I got this. I don't need you. If I get in any trouble, I'll give you a call. Well, you're going to get in trouble. The Bible says if the blind lead the blind, they're both going to fall into the ditch. How many of us have ever been in the ditch? The ditch of life. You say, well, I'm going to go this way, and you find out there's a ditch on that side of the road. You say, well, I'm going to overcorrect. I'm going to go that way. You know what you find on the other side of the road? There's another ditch. And so if you're not careful, a lot of people spend their lives zigzagging from one ditch into the other, never finding that middle of the road where God has a path already laid out for us, and He's willing to direct our paths. And so this idea that God not only can direct our paths, I think we all believe that, but He will. He will. You know, one thing I love about the Bible is it teaches us that we have a personal God. God is not just some force or transcendent being that is unconcerned about the things on the planet or in our lives. God is a personal God where He's concerned about you and your situation and your life. God has a plan for you. And it's a good day, whether you're 10 or 100, it's a good day when you realize God's plan for my life is better than my plan for my life. And I've been following Jesus for long enough to know that He has given me things and allowed me to do things and experience things that I never would have been able to if I had gone my own way. And so this idea that, man, God's not only can direct our paths, He wants to direct our paths. He shall direct thy paths. What a promise. So imagine how this would change your life. What if you had direct access to God in order to get His input on your life's decisions? That'd be pretty cool, wouldn't it? And the Bible says we do. Life confronts us with hundreds of decisions every day. Most of these decisions are mundane, they're seemingly unimportant, while others of these decisions are clearly life-altering. You know, we all tend to focus on the big decisions. And by the way, there's wisdom to that. If you recognize that there is a life-altering decision you're about ready to make, it's probably a good idea to stop and really think that through. You know, the idea of getting into a marriage. You better really stop and think that one through. That's life-altering. The idea of getting out of a marriage. You better stop and think that one through. That's really life-altering. Where am I going to live? What am I going to do? What's my occupation? All of these huge things that we think about, we tend to recognize that is a big decision And the wonderful thing, if I could just encourage you as a Christian, if you would just learn that the big decisions, although they are big, if you would just learn to let God direct your paths, you wouldn't have to worry about it. It takes all the pressure off. It's not only up to me to figure out what to do with all the unknowns. If I just let God direct my paths, everything will be okay. The big decision, I tell the church this sometimes, the biggest decisions in my life I've never made. I didn't decide to be a preacher, God chose that for me. I didn't even decide who to marry, God chose that for me. I didn't decide to move to Rhode Island, God chose that for me. I didn't decide to pastor this church, God chose that for me. And the list goes on and on. If you'll just live and surrender to God, seeking His way, letting Him direct your paths, the biggest decisions of life you don't have to worry and lose sleep over You just find out what God wants, and you know what you find out is that was the best anyway. That was the best decision to make. I don't worry too much about the big decisions. The decisions that concern me are the deceptively important decisions. The decisions that look small, but are truly life-altering. The ones that we think they're unimportant and we make a quick decision not recognizing that that decision will change the course of our lives and change the outcome. But you know what the good news is? Even in those decisions, God can direct your paths. So if I let God direct my big decisions, I'm safe. If I let God direct the seemingly small decisions, I'm safe. And He shall direct our paths. And so I'm sure that many people listening today, either here or online, I'm thinking about, we've got several families that are out of town and on vacation and different things, and thinking about them and those who watch online and such, and between the people in here and the people that are listening now or that will hear this message in the weeks and days to come, there's a lot of people listening that right now have decisions to make. I mean like right now. And some of them, you know they're big. And it's scary, because what if I make the wrong one? And some of them, you don't recognize they're big, but they're so big. And each one of us have decisions to make, and we're unsure how to proceed. We've all experienced that paralyzing fear of not knowing what to do in an important matter. There's not enough money to meet the bills. The doctor says we've got this terrible situation. Do we take option B or treatment A or treatment B or treatment C? We're faced with this situation. What do we do? Even a choice like where do I go to church seems like such a small decision. I'll just find one that makes me happy. I'll find one that makes me feel good. I'll find one that... But did you know even a decision like that will literally change the direction of your family and your children and your future? All of us have understood that, that fear of not knowing what to do. You know, I often think about the young people, and my heart goes out to you because the world's nuts. And sometimes you look at the world and you're like, the world's nuts. What's life gonna look like in the next three to five years? Should I even have kids because the world's getting so bad? And should I even think? And will I get married? And if I do, who am I gonna marry? And what should I do with my life? And a lot of huge decisions for people under 20 and even 25 to make life-changing altering decisions. As you get older, the same thing, boy, life brings you difficult decisions and you can't do everything that you want to do, and how do you prioritize? Or maybe you've come to a decision, do I stay at the job I'm at or do I make the leap and try to take a new position that might provide better, but I'm just not sure. All of these things can be paralyzing, but what if? What if you could go to God and ask God, what should I do? And He would tell you what to do. Wouldn't that be a good thing? The good news I'm going to tell you this morning is, in these verses, we find three things that we're supposed to do if we want God to direct our paths. One man said this, There are things in life you can control and there are things in life you can't control. A happy man knows the difference. Think about that. Do you know just what percentage of things we worry about that are completely out of our control? And we have to learn to stop worrying about the things that are outside of our control and leave those to God, and we make sure we're being faithful to the things that are within our control, and then everything will be okay. And what I'm gonna show you is, God says, if you do three things, I will direct your paths. I will step into your life. I will show you which way to go at that fork in the road. I will show you which option to take. Sometimes you think you have two options, but God will step in and create a third one that you didn't even know was there, because he can do that. And so this idea, he shall direct our paths Let me give you this final introductory thought. God wants to direct our paths, but our hearts have to be prepared for the answer. Do you know the number one reason why God doesn't direct our paths? We don't want him to. Isn't that sad and ridiculous? Oh God, I got this. I'm okay, I got this. Let me show you a verse here, we'll come back to Proverbs. Look at Jeremiah chapter 29. Jeremiah 29. And after we look at a few verses here, we're gonna stay pretty much in these other two verses in Proverbs, and I'll just give you a few thoughts about them. Give you those three things. Proverbs 29. And look at verse 19. Basically, Jeremiah is prophesying the captivity of the Jews, the destruction of the Jewish nation. Part of them have already been taken off into Babylon. The other part's getting ready to be taken off into Babylon. God tried to help them so many times, so many times He tried to give them instruction, but now they'd crossed the final line. Destruction was coming. They were getting taken away into Babylon for 70 years. Look at Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 19. We find out why. "'Because they have not hearkened to my words,' saith the Lord, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them," look at this sad phrase, "'but ye would not hear,' saith the Lord." All the pain, all the suffering, all the death, the horror of it all, was because they wouldn't listen. And God said, I even sent you, I tried to communicate with you the prophets. And God has communicated with us. God's given us his word. God's put people into our lives that have wisdom. Parents and preachers and godly church members and different things and godly friends. He puts people in our lives to give us the information we need. But did you know if our heart doesn't want the help, if we don't want to be led by God, then none of it matters? And so the first step to getting help, just kind of an introductory thought, is we've got to get to the place where we recognize we need God to direct us. And honestly, I can tell by looking at just some of you who've been there, you're like, preacher, you don't have to tell me. I've been in the ditch enough. I've been alive long enough. I've wrecked my own life enough. I've been in that down enough blind alleys. I've been conned enough. I've been hurt enough. I've trusted the wrong people enough. I've gone the wrong way enough. Preacher, I'm ready for God to tell me what to do. And that's a good place to be. But there's probably some who are like, I think I got this. I got it under control. And whether it takes a week or 20 years to get there, you will eventually get to the place where you're like, I need God's help. So you might as well start today, right? Just start today and save ourselves a lot of trouble. Look at Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. We find another portion of scripture where Christ himself is looking over the city of Jerusalem. And he says these sad words, Matthew chapter 23. He has prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. And he did it with a broken heart. And by the way, in 70 AD, that happened. The Romans came in and basically killed thousands and thousands of people. Historians at the time said that there was so much death at one time that blood was literally running in the streets. that blood was running down the steps of the temple as they came through and the Romans killed thousands of Jews and tore down the temple and burned the place to the ground. And Jesus, knowing all this was going to happen, he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. Look what he says in Matthew 23, verse 37, Now wait a minute, why were they sent there? But God was trying to lead them. God was trying to help them. God was trying to direct them. But they didn't want it. They didn't want God's direction so much that they actually killed the messenger. Did you ever hear the statement, hey, don't kill the messenger? Right? I'm just giving you information. But oftentimes when we don't like the message, we will destroy or attack the people who are giving us the message rather than deal with the truth. But look what he says here, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, now that killest the prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often will I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings. Look at the last four words, so sad, and ye would not. Jerusalem, you know why you're gonna be destroyed? Because you just wouldn't listen. And I've seen a lot of lives over my years, and do you know why a lot of people get destroyed? They just wouldn't listen. You know why a lot of people are in jail? They just wouldn't listen. And here God says this with a broken heart. So the first thing we need to do, just by introduction, before we even learn these three simple things, we have to have a heart that says, Lord, I'll listen. Lord, I want to be directed. I want to know what to do. Let's turn back to Proverbs chapter three, and I'll give you these three thoughts. Proverbs chapter three. There are three simple items that will guarantee God's direction. As we talk about this idea, he shall direct thy paths. Number one, and it's outlined right here in the verses, number one, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You want God to direct you? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You know why we don't listen to people? Because we don't trust him. We think we know better. I'm not gonna listen to you when I think I know more than you. And this idea of trust, you know, trust and faith is the currency of God's kingdom. Everything God does is by faith. God says, I've worked it out where right now you can't see me. You're going to see me someday. Right now you can't see me. You're not going to hear my audible voice. But I want you to trust me. And what that does is it makes the ground level. Everybody plays by the same rules. Everybody can be the same close to God. Everybody can either believe or disbelieve God. And we all have the opportunity to trust in the Lord. God has created humans to be creatures of faith. Do you know that even atheists who don't believe in God, they make faith-based decisions every day? You know one of the greatest acts of faith that you do on a daily basis without thinking about it? is driving 50 to 70 miles an hour down the road with a 6 to 10,000 pound car coming at you at the same speed, and the only thing separating you is a yellow line painted on the ground. We are trusting people to stay on their side of the road. And sometimes they don't. Bad things happen. But you, now some of you, that's gonna freak you out. Now you're gonna be driving thinking, man, look at that car coming at me. No, no, no. I was like, okay, whew, okay. And then wait till it's a 80,000 pound cement truck. You see him come and you're like, stay on your side of the road, stay on your side of the road, stay on your side of the road, stay on your side of the road. And we live by faith every single day. You know, every time you eat at a restaurant, you're trusting them that they didn't, that they washed their hands. that the food's not rotten. You ever see any of these shows on like the Food Network where they go in, it's like, we're gonna help this struggling restaurant. And they go in there and open the freezer, it's like, you know, and the guy's literally like trying not to vomit as he's looking at the food they just made for him. Some of you are not gonna eat out today. You're like, I think I'll just eat a sandwich at home, you know. We make faith-based decisions every day, and I'm not telling you not to eat out. I'm not telling you don't drive down the side of the road. I'm saying that all of us make faith-based decisions every day. It's no stretch that God says, I want you to have faith in me. I want you to trust me. When you get married, you say, till death do us part. You're trusting the other person to keep that vow. When you have children, you're trusting them to not stab you in the night. Because they can, as a teenager, they can. We make faith-based decisions every day without even thinking about it, and some people scoff at the idea that the way to communicate with God is trust, and it makes perfect sense. It's totally logical when you look at the world through the eyes and the prism of the Word of God. Did you know the way to heaven is through faith? You say, well, I thought I had to work my way to heaven. I thought I had to join a convent, or I thought I had to be on the side of some mountain in Tibet and become some type of monk and swear off every enjoyment of life, or beat myself with chains, or all of these things. No, the Bible's very clear. The way to heaven is through faith. In Acts chapter 16 verse 31, they had taken the Apostle Paul, they'd thrown him in jail for preaching, they had beaten him, he had stripes on his back, and we won't get into the whole story, but they'd thrown Paul and Silas in jail. Through a series of events, God supernaturally delivers them from that prison, and the jailer comes in and falls at the Apostle Paul's feet and says, what must I do to be saved? Saved is a Bible word that means saved from hell, saved from eternal damnation, rescued from the penalty of our sin. What must I do to be saved? The apostle Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Did you know even the way to heaven is through faith? Believe that Jesus is who he said he is. Believe that Jesus did what he said he did. He died on the cross to pay for our sins, was buried and rose again the third day, and lives today. He will save your soul and forgive your sin if you will ask him in faith. So it's no wonder that the first thing you have to do in order to get God to direct your paths is to trust him. Trust him. But notice it says, trust in the Lord with how much of your heart? Oh, what does that mean? Preacher, what does that mean? It simply means childlike faith. Childlike faith. You know, children believe what you tell them. If you tell a child there's a monster under their bed, they'll believe you. I was up here preaching one night, and I think it was Mason when he was younger, I was up here preaching one night and I made a joke and I said, everybody knows monsters don't live under your bed, they live in the closet. And Mason goes, what? Like how loud he's, what? He looks over at mom and dad like, what? And I was like, no, no, I was just joking. But they believe what you tell them. You know my kids are just trusting that they're gonna eat lunch today? No, they're not. I'm not gonna feed them. No, the truth is, we are gonna feed them. They just believe they're gonna, you know what, childlike trust. I can trust what daddy tells me. I can trust him to take care of me. And God says, if you want me to direct you, you have to come to me with a childlike faith. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. I'm just gonna trust you, Lord. I'll believe what you tell me. I'll do what you say. I trust you. Now, some of you have had terrible traumas in life. You have been abused and lied to and hurt, and my heart goes out to you. I think one of the scourges of life is sinful people are making children deal with adult-sized sins. It's awful. And some of you have learned you had a tough life. Maybe you had a mom or a dad that wasn't there, or that wasn't who they should have been in your life, or someone that you trusted that hurt you. And if you're not careful, you'll learn not to trust people, but you've got to put God in a different category. Because God's not like those people that hurt you. He's God Almighty, and He can be trusted. So if you want God to direct you, number one, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Number two, look at the scripture. It says, and lean not unto thine own understanding. What does that mean? We're used to trying to figure out things ourself. We're used to trying to lean on our understanding. Here's what it means. God, I'll do what you say if I understand how it's all going to work out later. And let me just warn you, God's not gonna come to you and give you a 15-point plan about how this decision is going to affect the next 30 years of your life. Oftentimes, God will tell us, God will give us enough light to take the next step or two or three. And then we go back to point number one, we have to trust in the Lord with all our heart. Sometimes God might even ask you to do things that don't make sense in a strictly logical sense, but they make sense in faith. For example, things are getting tight. The first thing that I try to do every time I get a paycheck is give my tithe an offering. It's a way that we worship the Lord. It's a way we honor the Lord. It's also a way that I show trust in the Lord. Because here's what that says. Lord, I may not understand how all this is going to work out, because logically speaking, it seems like it would be better just to keep all this money. But I believe that if I honor and obey you, you have the ability to make all that work out down there, whether it's giving me more funds or decreasing my expenses. And let me tell you, folks, I have tithed for going on 30 years, and I'm not missing any meals. Right? I've got clothes on my back. Now there's times when it's tight. There's times when he'll test you. But it always works out later. Same thing about everything from having another child to getting married to deciding to step out in faith with what God's called you to do. All of it you have to suspend your own understanding and say, God, and here's the deal I made with God years ago. God, if you just tell me what to do where there's no shadow of a doubt it's from you, I'll do it. I won't lean on my own understanding. And God will come through and say, this is exactly the next step to take. And then you take it. And you know what? After you take that one, he gives you enough light for the next step. And after you take that one, he gives you enough light for the next step. The will of God is like driving at night in your car with the lights on. Like at night, if you come to church tonight and you leave and it's dark, you don't turn on your lights and the whole path home is illuminated. What happens is you can see just a few hundred feet in front of you, and as the car moves, you can see the next few hundred feet, and the next few hundred feet. And that's the way the will of God is. God's not going to come to you and show you the whole drive home at once, but he says, I will show you the next few steps, and as you keep moving in my will, I will keep illuminating those next few steps so you know the way to go. Isn't that a blessing? Let me show you this last thing. It says in verse six, in all thy ways acknowledge him. The important word here is the word acknowledge. It means to pay special regard. The idea in this verse means that you basically seek God's input. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Lord, what do you think about this situation? Lord, what do you think I ought to do here? You acknowledge him, for example, You walk into a room and what if you walk into a room full of people and no one notices you're there? That's kind of weird, isn't it? Would you feel offended? Would you feel, did you know that God is with you every moment of every day and oftentimes we don't acknowledge him? We don't pay him any mind. We act as if he's not there. And it's really kind of rude of us. The old timers used to talk about practicing the presence of God. What does that mean? I'm going to make an effort to remember that God is always with me. And once you realize God's with you, you'll start to ask him, what do you think? You know, how about if I took my wife out to eat back when she was well enough to do so, if I took my wife out to eat and we sit down at the restaurant and I ordered a meal and just pretended like she wasn't there. What do you say? Honey, what would you like to eat tonight? And since God's always with you, Lord, what do you think we should do in this situation? Lord, what do you think? Lord, what should we do here? Lord, what should we do? And just as a very practical, kind of foolish illustration, but one that shows how to invite God into every area of your life, we've had a little problem with the air conditioning in this room for the last three weeks. So between Patrick and I, we've been up there, we don't even know how many times we've been up in the attic. And the air handler that has a problem is not at the back of the attic, it's about right there. And so you get up there, you gotta crawl up in the attic, then you gotta crawl up higher, and then you gotta crawl in, and there's a spider web of duct work and old stuff that we used like 175 years ago for VBS, and it's still up there, and it's like poking you in the side. And so you're up there, and then during VBS, it was like 150 degrees up there. Thankfully, yesterday we were up there, it was not too bad. It would cost us thousands of dollars to have someone come in and look at that and fix it. Thousands. So what do we do? We try to fix it, and then we'd, Patrick and I'd talk about it. We'd say, boy, that's, what do you think? And I'd pray about it, and God would give me this idea, or God would give me that idea. And just ask, acknowledging God. Lord, do you think God knows about air conditioning? He air conditions the whole world in the winter. I think he can handle a room. And you say, but that's foolish. Is it really? Wednesday night, I wasn't here because I was with the youth at a conference. Wednesday night, they had seven or eight buckets out here because there's literally water pouring from the ceiling. We don't have any buckets here today because God gave us a little idea. Now, we don't know if it's going to work. We don't know if it's gonna keep working. One of these days, we're gonna have to probably deal with all of this. But there's no water falling on your head this morning. And we give the glory to the Lord. We simply ask the Lord, what do we do with this? As a contractor, I used to ask the Lord, you get into a bind, Lord, what do we do here? You get into a situation, Lord, you can literally get in the habit of acknowledging God in all thy ways. You might laugh at this, but last night when I was picking out my clothes to wear, I said, Lord, what should I wear? And some of you are like, well, he chose wrong. That's right. I was going to wear a different tie. I was going to wear a different ensemble. It's like, why don't we go with the gray? Okay, let's go with the gray. You say, preacher, that's ridiculous. It's not ridiculous. It's called, in all thy ways acknowledge him. So watch this. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him. And what happens? He shall direct thy paths. That, my friend, is a good way to live. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house. We thank you for the privilege that you could direct our ways. And we ask you to do so. So many decisions, so many big things that we understand are big, so many little things that are potentially life-changing and we just might make a quick decision. But Lord, you've given us the option to be directed by you. And we ask that you'd help us to do so. We thank you that you're a God who cares, you're personal, you love us. And we ask you to direct our paths in every situation. As a church, as a family, individual families, as individuals, that we would all follow these three simple things so that you could direct our paths. Heads about eyes are closed. Of course, if you're not sure you're saved,