Finding Direction

[0:00] Finding direction, finding direction, that's my theme tonight. It's very easy to lose our way.

[0:19] ! With life's turns and twists, it can be confusing. It's easy to lose direction and to not know which way to turn, where to go. Proverbs 3 tells us the way to find direction. Life of these twists and turns can be confusing.

[0:36] This is a surefire way of finding direction for life. Proverbs 3 tells us the way. It says, it's a familiar one. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.

[0:51] In 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.

[1:02] It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Finding direction, finding direction. If you want to find direction, you need a pilot.

[1:13] You need someone, as it were, behind the steering wheel of your life. Just as a pilot behind a steering wheel of a ship. And if you want to find direction, you want to find a pilot you can trust.

[1:25] You want a pilot who knows the way to go, who's steering in a safe way between the reefs, and finding the way to go that is safe and right.

[1:36] A pilot you can trust. A road map you can trust. Someone you can trust. To be your guide. To be the one to set the direction for life. Someone you can trust in.

[1:47] Someone you can place your complete confidence in. And the Bible tells us who that is. That someone. That someone.

[1:58] That will never let us down. That someone. There is such a person. There is such a person. And we can know such a person. With a capital P. Such a person.

[2:11] Who can pilot us through life's storms, life's trials, and find that direction for life that is the best for us. One whom you can place your trust in 100%.

[2:25] And to find such a person. Such a pilot is critical. The question is this. Who can you trust? Who can you trust?

[2:37] Verse 5 tells us, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. Who are you going to trust?

[2:49] In a world of lies. Politicians stand behind a lectern and tell you, Trust me. Trust me. It's all going to change. Elect me. And it's all going to change.

[3:02] You know, they're in every country, aren't they? You can think of the US at the moment. It's topical. And in our own country too. Here in Australia we see, Trust me. I'm going to change everything.

[3:16] Change you can believe in. That's one of the slogans, wasn't it? You can believe in it. You can believe in me. Who are you going to trust when you have such ones that claim that they're going to promise you the earth, And really they often don't deliver much at all.

[3:35] And they make all kinds of slick promises. And then when they're elected, You wonder whether they really do deliver on what they, Their big claims that they made.

[3:46] Can you trust them? Can you trust them? Are they reliable? Sadly, often they fail. There are many, so many that we can put our trust in, in life, isn't there?

[4:00] People we can trust in. But sadly, people can break your trust. I think back to a time when there was a workman doing some work for me. And I prepaid some materials. And they would, he did some of the work.

[4:13] And then there was another order, some more materials. And it was like $500. And I prepaid the materials. And then, where did he go? Didn't hear from him for a while.

[4:24] And I rang him on his mobile. And suddenly the mobile wasn't answering anymore. And then I knew where he lived. And I went round and, oh, he's gone. You know, he's just shot through.

[4:35] I thought, what a breach of trust. What a thing. So someone could be so unethical, so unreasonable, so untrustworthy to do that to someone.

[4:49] It taught me a big lesson not to trust such people in the future. And to be very untrusting of such people as that. And you learn through life's troubles, don't you?

[5:00] Through how people do let you down. But generally you can't put a lot of trust in a lot of people these days. They're not reliable. They break your trust. They'll let you down. And there are those who make many claims about the merchandise.

[5:13] Their brands. Their products. They want to win your trust. And sometimes those products don't measure up. They have a product recall, don't they? Because something went wrong with it.

[5:24] You might have a, what seems like a perfectly good car. And then suddenly there's a recall on it. Because there's something actually dangerous in that car that you're driving. You can't even trust the brand of car that seems to be a trustworthy brand.

[5:38] People make promises that don't stack up. They promise you something and then you find out they were lying to you. They didn't really tell you the truth.

[5:50] It hurts, doesn't it? Who's ever been let down like that? Happens all the time, doesn't it? Sadly. Who are you going to trust? We all want to find someone we can count in.

[6:03] Someone who is reliable. People will let you down. It's the way it is. It's painful, isn't it? Proverbs 25 verse 19. Tells you what it feels like.

[6:15] You know, I was thinking I should show you a picture of a broken tooth. Oh, no, no. But you can imagine. Who's ever had a broken tooth? I've got one. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.

[6:30] Oh, that toothache. You know, that broken tooth. You just got to get some help. You just got to go and get it treated. Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth.

[6:44] It's a pain. Literally, it's a pain, isn't it? And someone does that. Someone might recall this man. Jim Jones. Jim Jones. A lot of people had confidence in him.

[6:55] A lot of people followed this man. They have confidence in cult leaders. They have confidence in flaky churches or ministries. People like Jim Jones. And people get badly hurt.

[7:07] People get killed. Badly hurt by dangerous church leaders. Who promise things that don't deliver. And they just cause hurt and damage.

[7:19] Who are you going to trust? It's a big question that we should think carefully about, isn't it? There is one who we can trust. There is one you can trust.

[7:30] You can trust him completely. Completely. He will not fail you. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.

[7:44] It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Commit your life squarely into His charge.

[7:56] into his hands, into his keeping, all of your hope to trust in the Lord. It speaks of resting in him, of finding that confidence in him, of placing your confidence in him, in his control, because he is the one who sets the direction for life.

[8:16] Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You can trust in his finished work. Now some people trust in the Lord, but they also trust in their own works.

[8:27] Pharisees were like that, weren't they? Really they trusted in their own works. There are some people that teach this, that think that our salvation is somehow by our doing.

[8:39] It's not of that. It's trusting in his finished work. If you are saved, it dates back 2,000 years ago.

[8:50] It happened then, at the cross. And we can have that assurance, we can have that peace, we can have that trust in this name. Not a brand name that won't measure up, some kind of worldly enterprise that might go broke when you've invested your money in it.

[9:10] Some worldly enterprise, some brand name or some product or other. There is one name. One name. We heard about that this morning.

[9:21] We can trust in the name of the Lord. And in this name we can have absolute confidence. His name. There's many scriptures that talk about the name of the Lord. For example, Psalm 124, verse 8.

[9:34] It tells us, Our health is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Proverbs 18, 10. The name of the Lord is a strong town.

[9:46] The righteous runneth into it. And is safe. He is a strong and mighty town. You know, in the times of scriptures, that was a picture of a fortress of strength, of security, of defence, of safety.

[10:05] He is a strong town for us. Romans 10, 13 tells us, For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

[10:19] Friends, tonight, place no confidence in the flesh, your own or another's, in man, in yourself, and find your shelter.

[10:30] Take your shelter in him. Psalm 94, 22 says, But the Lord is my defence, and my God is the rock of my refuge.

[10:41] What a picture of security, of strength, of safety, of grounding. Psalm 91, 2, it says, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress.

[10:53] My God, in him will I trust. There's that word again. In him will I trust. You can trust him tonight.

[11:04] Psalm 9, verse 9, it says, The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in time of trouble. Psalm 62, 6, He only is my rock and my salvation.

[11:17] He is my defence. I shall not be moved. So, friends, tonight, who are you going to trust? It's a big question, isn't it?

[11:29] We're not talking about trusting some dead prophet. We're not talking about trusting some guru. We're talking about trusting in the living God.

[11:44] Lean not on your own understanding. Sometimes we don't understand. We simply have to trust. There's questions we all grapple with.

[11:57] There's people ask me questions. And I've got to say, I don't know. Some of this evening, I came with some obscure scripture from Revelation, saying, What do the thunderings mean?

[12:08] And I've got to say, I don't know, sister. One day we're going to find out all of the answers to all of the questions in life. And all of the unsearchable riches of the scriptures that we don't know the answers to.

[12:22] But one thing's for sure. We can trust in Him. Trust in Him. And lean not on your own understanding. Sometimes we just don't understand.

[12:34] We don't understand. I'm sure, well, possibly Pastor Adam doesn't understand why he had some time of affliction. My dad's had years of affliction. And there's all kinds of questions, troubles and trials and setbacks and frustrations and disappointments and devastations of life.

[12:54] Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. Sometimes our own understanding just can't grapple with these questions of life.

[13:08] So who are you going to trust? The Lord. Secondly, who are you going to acknowledge? Our text tells us, in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy past.

[13:22] Many people like to acknowledge their land, their country, their culture. You know, it was St. George's Day recently. St. George's Day. And people who hail from England like to acknowledge that.

[13:35] It doesn't really mean anything much to me, really. It's just another day of 365. But some people make a fuss about a day, about a date, about an occasion, about a tradition.

[13:49] They acknowledge that. They recognise that. It means something to them. In all thy ways acknowledge Him. Now here's a picture of a recent worship event that could have been held anywhere around the country.

[14:06] You can imagine one that was held just Saturday or maybe the U.S. or any other country of the world. You can see this kind of worship event.

[14:18] People are just worshipping. You know, I've heard it kind of tongue-in-cheek said that some people worship football or basketball or whatever it may be.

[14:32] Because in the Old Testament days, they worshipped ball. You know, now they worship football or a basketball or you name it, don't they? And it becomes a worship event.

[14:43] They acknowledge their team. They just barrack for their team. They go nuts, unashamed, to show their allegiance as they wear the colours of their team.

[14:53] And they make no secret of it who they belong to, what they want to acknowledge and what they want to identify with and who they barrack for.

[15:04] There's no mistaking of it. And it's how they spend their time. It's how they spend their money as they buy the badges and they buy the scarves and they buy the beanies and they buy the DVDs and the posters and the magazines and the merchandise.

[15:22] They acknowledge their team. They acknowledge that they want to tell the whole world about their team. It's the constant threat of their conversation.

[15:34] And some people, they even get tattoos to proclaim who they worship. They want to acknowledge. They want to acknowledge. Not that we are to do that at all. But they want to acknowledge.

[15:49] To acknowledge the Lord. Speaks about knowing Him. Now in the middle of acknowledge is the word know. K-N-O-W-N.

[15:59] And some scriptures that talk about this are Psalm 100, verse 3. When it says in our text, In all thy ways acknowledge Him.

[16:11] The word acknowledge is the same word here to know. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.

[16:23] We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. The Bible teaches you and me that we can personally come to know Him.

[16:37] Psalm 46.10, a familiar one. Be still and know. Same word. Know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.

[16:48] I will be exalted in the earth. Proverbs 30, verse 3 talks about the knowledge of the holy. Same word again. To acknowledge Him. To know the holy.

[16:59] To know the Lord, He is God. To know, be still and know that He is God. Do you know Him? Do you know Him? Whom to know is life eternal.

[17:11] You know, all over the world there's people that do ceremonies like this, you know. They pledge allegiance to the flag. They pledge this, they pledge that. They pledge allegiance to a flag.

[17:23] They pledge allegiance to a country, a king, a president, a government. It may be a way of standing together in a common cause that unites a nation.

[17:36] I can remember such traditions way back at school. You know, there was times in Aussie schools when they used to shoot the flag up the pole and people would, I'm not sure how we, what did we do?

[17:51] Did we salute? Can you remember that some of you back at school? They used to, they used to recognize the flag. They don't really do such things anymore. It's old fashioned, isn't it?

[18:01] It's like they don't care about such things anymore. Now, there's questions about whether we should salute a flag, but nevertheless there's that recognition about an allegiance is the point I'm making.

[18:12] An allegiance, there's a tradition there at times of school days in the scouts I can remember such things as that where you pledge an allegiance, you declare, you're acknowledging, you're belonging, you're declaring.

[18:28] What about you? Will you declare your allegiance? Declare your faith? Will you acknowledge Jesus Christ? Who are you going to acknowledge?

[18:42] Will you bear testimony to Him? Will how you live your life be sending a signal about who you belong to? Think about how you can bear testimony to Him.

[18:54] He says to you, if you confess me before man, I will confess you before my Father which is in heaven. Who are you going to acknowledge?

[19:06] It's a very important question. Really, it's about who will you serve? We know in Joshua's day, he said, are you going to serve Baal? Or the Lord?

[19:19] Will you serve Baal? Or will you serve God? Choose you this day, whom you will serve was the challenge. Who is Lord?

[19:29] That's the question. Who are you going to acknowledge? Now back in Roman times, they would just have to throw a little bit of incense on the flame to acknowledge, Caesar is Lord.

[19:43] Lord. The Christians wouldn't have a bar of that. They would not do such a thing because that was to deny their Lord. They would say, Jesus is Lord.

[19:54] Jesus Christ is Lord. Who will you acknowledge? Will you acknowledge that you are one of his followers? We look back to Peter warming himself up at the fire and suddenly someone said, this man was with him.

[20:10] This man was with him. And Peter said, no, no, no. I never knew him. Will you be like Peter at the fire, warming yourself, getting nice and snug and comfy and some Christian, your Christian testimony, you're just hiding it.

[20:29] And when you get an opportunity to share it, you just cower and shrink back like Peter warming himself by the fire. Will you acknowledge Christ?

[20:40] Will you acknowledge him? Will you give him honour? Will you give him glory? Will you give him praise? Will you bless him with your life? Can it be seen of you who you belong to?

[20:51] I like to think sometimes about what people put on Facebook. It's what they want to brag about. It's what they want to acknowledge. It's what they want to tell the whole world about themselves.

[21:04] Let it be of him. Let it be for him. Acknowledge him with your life and live it all to the glory of God in all your ways.

[21:17] In all your ways. What do you stand for? What does your life give honour to? Will you stand up for Jesus and declare your faith in all your ways?

[21:30] Acknowledge him. This prompts us to pray. It prompts us to depend on him. It prompts us to praise. It prompts us to listen to him. To think on him.

[21:40] To know him. To know him. Whom to know is life eternal. To acknowledge him. To give him glory. In our family. In our lives.

[21:51] Give him glory and he will lead. He shall direct your paths. It goes on. Who are you going to fear? Who are you going to trust?

[22:03] Who are you going to acknowledge? Who are you going to fear? We see that in verse 7 of our text. Be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

[22:15] evil. Some people fear the tax office. Because they're trying to hide something. All those doubtful transactions they keep in a separate book.

[22:26] They don't want anyone to find out the money under the counter stuff. Tax office might do an audit. They get fearful of that. Some people fear sent to link finding out that they've been lying to them.

[22:41] cheating. Stealing. Some people fear things that will never happen. Some people fear their friends finding out that they're a Christian.

[22:54] Oh, I won't be in a cool crowd anymore if that happens. Oh, my mates will drop me if that happens. If I actually stand up for Jesus.

[23:06] If I actually start witnessing to my family members. If I actually start trying to introduce my workmates to Christ and tell them about my faith, they'll drop me like something hot.

[23:24] They'll drop me and I'll lose my friends if I identify with Jesus. And so they act different around them.

[23:37] They fear men. It's a trap, isn't it? Isn't it? To shut up about Jesus because are we ashamed of him?

[23:52] Some people fear witnessing so they don't do it. They fear men more than they fear God. How will they hear unless we tell them having a healthy fear of God will be good for us?

[24:06] This is a fear that we should have. fear that will do us good. In Proverbs 14.26 it says, In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence and his children shall have a place of refuge.

[24:20] There's a strong confidence. Proverbs 1.7 it says, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Fear the Lord, people of God, fear the Lord.

[24:33] It talks of how we are to esteem the Lord. Esteem him highly. He is high and lifted up. It speaks of revering him and esteeming him, honouring him, worshipping him as the worthy lamb of God, lifting him up and giving him honour with our lives and our lips to raise him up and regard him as holy and blessed.

[25:00] There's many promises for you who fear the Lord. Many scriptures we could cite. These are just some examples. Psalm 33 verse 18.

[25:11] Some promises for you who fear the Lord. Why should I fear the Lord? Psalm 33 18 says, Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy.

[25:29] The eye of the Lord is on you. If you fear him, he will be watching over you. Psalm 34 7. It says, The angel of the Lord encampeth around about them that fear him and delivereth them.

[25:43] If you fear the Lord, it says, God, his mercy will be extended to you. And he shall deliver you.

[25:55] Psalm 103 17 it says, But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his righteousness unto children's children.

[26:07] The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. If you fear God, his mercy will be extended to you. Psalm 147 11 it says, The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.

[26:23] Don't you want God to be pleased with you? For God to be pleased with your life? For God to take pleasure in your life? Fear him. Give him that holy regard.

[26:36] Stand in awe of him. Uphold him in honour and love and praise. Proverbs 14 27 it says, The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to depart from the snares of death.

[26:52] A fountain of life. There's life there. This is not some dread, irksome, burdensome fear. It's a liberating, joyful acknowledgement, a connection with God and a revering of him, a loving of him, an esteeming of him.

[27:10] It's a fountain of life. Psalm 115 11 it says, You that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. The Lord is your help.

[27:22] The Lord is your shield. You that fear him. So trust in the Lord. God will know humility because it puts us in our proper place doesn't it?

[27:35] When we esteem him, when we lift him up, then we realise how tiny we are in perspective. We don't put any claims or merit on ourselves.

[27:49] Now some people with their kind of religious inclination, they've got this view and this kind of self esteem for themselves that somehow they're earning their salvation.

[28:05] There's very many well meaning people who are on our streets every weekend knocking on doors earning their salvation so they think but they're earning nothing nothing at all.

[28:22] It's not of our works it's all of his grace and you that fear the Lord he is your help and your shield and it puts us in that place of being his servants of being under his charge and at his command our great king and lord and master and the privilege we have to be in his service.

[28:51] How about you? Who are you going to fear? Psalm 118 6 it says the Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do unto me?

[29:02] Now these scriptures are very real as we pray in some countries where to stand for Christ means the death sentence it means you're a wanted man it means there's a price on your head it means there's people who'll get paid to kill you or to imprison you the Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do unto me are you going to be amongst the many who are more concerned about what people think more concerned about the fear of man than the fear of the Lord there's times when some people they make a Christian profession but they're a silent Christian it's like they're ashamed they're ashamed of Christ they're ashamed of their testimony we can all have places like that times like that this is not to condemn there's times that

[30:13] I clamor I'm encouraging you tonight don't fear men fear the Lord be encouraged tonight those opportunities that come your way seize them take take those opportunities it might be a gentle word it might be just a few words that you can use to point people to Christ and not be worried about the fear of man but fear God love God so much that you don't care what people are going to say I can remember back as a schoolboy still and I became a Christian and I immediately started talking to my friends and they weren't my friends anymore it's not that I was particularly a bad witness I just think they just didn't want to know a Christian and that can happen for you can happen for me and I suppose all you can do is tactfully prayerfully try to be a witness for Christ with those people in your lives so will you fear the

[31:26] Lord finding direction for life it's summed up in these three truths if you like trust the Lord acknowledge the Lord and fear the Lord if we'll set this godly direction for life it'll sustain us it'll help us through because he's the pilot he's behind the steering wheel of our ship he is the one navigating between the dangerous reefs and the swelling tides to make us safely through to that safe harbour to that safe haven!

[31:59] he will set direction for life and the bible tells us it shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones it speaks of health it speaks of refreshing it speaks of his sustaining power so to recap to repeat again trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding in 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 there's strength there you'll find direction there as you trust the Lord as you acknowledge the Lord as you fear the Lord he will set the direction when you're confused these three truths will guide you through

[33:01] I trust you'll trust him now to trust him it speaks of faith it speaks of faith in what he did at the cross for time and eternity he did everything at the cross so you stop trusting in yourself as the master of your own destiny you let go of the steering wheel and you let the pilot take over you let the pilot the Lord Jesus Christ to be the steersman to be the captain of your ship to guide your vessel in the direction that is the right one as you trust him as you trust that he died on the cross paid the price in full for the penalty for the guilt of your sin he paid it fully there and as you trust him for that as you receive that you know life you know God you acknowledge him you know him and you fear him you will revere him you live a life that is to his praise let us pray