[0:00] this message was recorded at vision baptist church in alfred georgia it is our prayer that you'll be blessed by the preaching of god's word thank you bibles to go with me to proverbs chapter three you know i hope you're excited about the idea of getting the gospel to uh anybody around the world i think it's exciting to think about these tibetans and them getting the gospel and i would like to say to you tonight you know uh as a church we're only going to be able to do what we can build strong men here to do and so we need men that are committed to stay here i love the missionaries but i won't be blunt honest with you i love the missionaries in our church but the men that are going to make sure the gospel gets around the world are the laymen that are going to stay here and carry the load and uh it's going to take both sides of that equation and i i hope and pray that you man up and lead this church i was as proud the night we i was as proud the night we uh ordained our deacons as i as i was any night on any uh missionary that we've sent out and i i really was i'm looking forward to doing that more and i hope that you get a hold of that um all right i want to talk to you about uh i want to talk to you if you write things out i don't think y'all ever write anything down so i'll say it anyway but if you do write things down the blessings of applied wisdom that's what i want to talk to you about tonight the blessings of applied wisdom we're in chapter three of proverbs and i want to i want to uh we won't be able to get uh as much done as we normally would uh so let's just start with verse five let me give you some things uh i'm going to read i think i'll read the first part of the chapter and uh uh this is not for the this is not for the missionaries it is for you uh that are here at the church trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not into 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 depart from evil it shall be health to thy navel and morrow to thy bones honor the lord of thy substance and with the first fruits of thine increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine and he's gonna he continues down and if you got your bible up i'm just gonna give you the tennessee hillbilly version of the rest of the chapter real quickly but he tells him he says i don't want you to be upset when god's disciplining you when god's spanking you disciplining you forming you chastising you you ought not be upset about that and you ought to realize that god's directing you towards wisdom and in verse 13 he said happy is the man that finds wisdom and gets understanding and uh he says actually getting wisdom is better than getting silver or gold or doing business it's more important than that he says in verse 15 it is more precious than it is to have rubies or fine stones and there's nothing that can be compared to wisdom he says it brings you length of days and riches and honor it brings her ways are pleasant her paths are peace uh she's a tree of life uh happy is anybody that gets her and then he says uh in verse 21 he says and my son don't make a mistake don't get away from this keep sound wisdom so and if you will keep sound wisdom and discretion there'll be life to your soul grace your neck safety you'll sleep sweet and you won't be afraid and you'll have confidence and so there's some blessings to applied wisdom this is very famous part of the book of proverbs because everybody knows proverbs chapter three how many of you somewhere in your life had memorized proverbs 3 5 and 6 trust the lord with all the heart lean not to your own understanding have you ever memorized it yeah that's what i thought it's like one of those passages that you memorize and you might take it out of its place and not realize the beauty of what he's saying to us so let's go through it first thing the first thing is we are getting god's direction and blessings in
[4:03] our life i want god's direction and blessing i want to know what god wants me to do and by the way i am in the place where he wants to shake the dust off his feet and leave not really but i know that feeling i i had that feeling and i and i often thought man america's had enough and america's in good enough shape and i'm headed out of this place and i and i went to the mission field but you know i know you need as men of our church you need god's direction and you need god's direction as you lead your home and you need god's blessings on your family so look at verse 5 and read it out loud with me everybody out loud if you would ready trust in the lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding uh we are to trust with all our heart it's more than just words it's more than a lip profession it means i don't trust him i trust i don't trust me i trust him you see when it's trusting him i don't trust me you got to pick who you're going to trust here i don't trust my experience you know one of the things of being an older guy is you got lots of experience i mean i've been lots of places i've done lots of things i've read lots of stuff i've got lots of experience i don't trust my experience i don't trust what i understand i don't trust what i know i don't trust my education i trust god that's what he's saying that's what he's telling me to do that's how i'm going to get this direction and guidance the second thing and you all know this part of the verse so i'm going to run through it quickly you are to acknowledge him what does it mean to acknowledge him what does it mean to acknowledge him in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths to acknowledge him is to recognize him we do we pay attention to him and what he thinks do we consider that he is god and that we are his servants i want to just ask you a question how often do you acknowledge god during a week or during a day how often do you acknowledge god you say what does that mean does that mean i got to say his name does that mean i got to say jesus does it mean i got to say bible what's it mean it means that you acknowledge you recognize that he's there and that he's involved and he's a part of it you think about what he wants uh good strong marriages and good strong families honestly good strong marriage is good the man will think about his spouse during the day if you go all day long and you're a married man you go all day long you never think about your wife might be you need to you need to turn on the you need to turn on the microwave or the stove or something and warm up a little bit something's wrong you're supposed to be in love with her amen well if how if and you know i think a majority of you would say no i am there i agree with you i think about my wife i think about my kids i think about in fact that sometimes you're working you say that's the reason you work well think about this how often you think about god how often you does he cross your uh your thoughts your mind to acknowledge him is to recognize his rights authority and status over you to acknowledge him is to acknowledge his rights authority and status over us do we consider that he has a right to say anything about our lives do we acknowledge that he is the lord god and we are to obey and accept does he have rights over me does he have rights over me no no no see we all know he has rights do we acknowledge his rights you know i know i know that the highway patrol has rights over me but i usually don't worry about it blunt honest i set my cruise right on about nine miles over until i see one and then i acknowledge him by tapping on the brakes knocking off the cruise is that am i the only one here that does that come on bunch of liars in this room you know uh hey if you ever acknowledged one you ever been driving if you ever noticed i mean i'm old enough to know how to drive by now i got a few hours drive if you ever noticed how you can drive just as well you can keep the car in the lane and everything but if you just look up and out of nowhere you see a cop
[8:06] car behind you no lights on or anything but he's like 10 or 20 yards behind you it's harder to hold a car in the road it becomes more difficult to drive because he's back there once i see him i'm like what's he want pass me get off my tail quit bothering me acknowledge him he said does he have rights do i acknowledge that to recognize to acknowledge means to recognize as genuine and valid do we really believe in him do we accept that this is more than what the bible says or what we studied sunday school he's god he really is he's really big it's not just sunday school it's not just church well when we put him in his proper place and then not only then will he give us direction see god god's direction isn't because you memorize a little ditty because you could say trust in the lord lean not under your own understanding and understanding and all thy ways acknowledge if you say it all day long but what it amounts to is i'm not going to make a decision today without thinking about what he wants i'm going to determine how i use my money by how what he wants i'm going to determine how i use my time by what he wants i'm going to determine what my relationship with his wife by what he wants none of this works unless we are not the smart ones that's where it's this is where it's going to it starts getting harder and harder as the verses go on look at verse seven and this verse is almost i would say never tacked on to the leadership verses up there we read we read uh we read five and six and we we skip seven but look what verse seven says to you it says be not wise in your own eyes don't think you're smart respect god fear god have an awe about him a reverence about him really believe he is all he says he is and all the bible says he is and quit doing wrong depart from evil that's how you get that's how you get direction it requires humility on our part the you know the the longer you live the easier it is to run the easier it is to run on your own intelligence and your own ability the more decisions you've made the less you need anybody's help making decisions and it's a lot it's not long before it's like well god i don't even need to check with you on this one uh god if i get to any big burdens i'll call you one man told me he i said you have you prayed about that he was talking about some money problems he had i said man you need to talk to the lord you take it to him put your cares on him and cast all your cares on him he cares for you know what he told me he said it's such a small amount it was several thousand dollars such a small amount i don't want to trouble god with it and i said well let me explain to you there's not an amount you can think of that's not small potatoes to god i mean if you went to god and said god i'd like to talk to you about my 10 billion dollar debt but i is that big on your scale he'd be looking and say well wait a minute my my gates are made out of all the finest diamonds and stones that are the earth has ever seen bigger than you've ever imagined my streets made out of pure gold nah 10 billion dollars not much not a small potatoes to me but that's the way we are we don't acknowledge him we don't bring him into our life we don't bring him into it it requires humility it requires really believing that he has a will for my life and he can accomplish it it means seeing him for who he is at all times in my life when we do this we will turn from evil which is anything that's rebellion to his will for my life can i let me tell you you know what sin is don't you can i just summarize i'm gonna teach you that i'm gonna i'm gonna break it down really simple for you you know what sin is anything you want that's not what he wants sin is just doing what you want go back to the garden of eden what did eve do wrong you say she ate the fruit it the fruit wasn't the problem eating the fruit wasn't the problem you know what the problem was god i'm gonna do what i want what's he say in isaiah 53 we've all turned
[12:09] into our own way we've all gone our own way i did it my way i want to live my way well here's how you get god's direction you trust him you trust him you acknowledge him you admit that you're not able and you don't know and you can't do it and you when you get to that point you say hey it's god and it's not me and if we're going to build strong families and we're going to be strong men we're going to proverbs 3 is going to become a reality in our lives when we say no i'm not in charge and i'll just go and tell you almost nobody makes decisions by finding out what god thinks we don't even really want to know what god thinks it's like i don't need to bother god with this one i don't need to trust god with it you know when we trust god when our wife's going to die from cancer now we start trusting but we're so out of the habit we don't even know what to do when it happens we never i mean we don't really say i'm about to date a girl i'm about to get married i'm about to get a divorce i'm about to i'm about to it's just like god's not a part of the whole equation and that's he saying put him in there if you want to apply some wisdom and it all goes together this chapter kind of works together the second thing he really goes to the first thing was i'm getting direction by acknowledging him by trusting in him by not trusting in me then he says all right if you really want god to work in your life honor him with your stuff honor him with your stuff look if you would at chapter 3 verse 9 and 10 chapter 3 verse 9 and 10 honor the lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of thine increase so shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy presses shall burst out with new wine now proverbs is a book fact is when we get down to the last verse i have in mind here that if i get if i'm able to rush that quick to verse 26 it starts breaking down into more of the it starts breaking down into more of the proverbs but some of this is just running together working together and this one happens to be one trust in the lord don't trust yourself acknowledge the lord put the lord first well guess what the very next step would be if you put the lord first guess what you do you honor him with your money you honor him with the stuff he's given you you acknowledge that i didn't get this stuff in all thy ways acknowledge him well you know what's the biggest way we don't want to acknowledge him by the way you know what what's what is what bothers people so much when when tithing or giving or faith promise or money is ever mentioned in the church what is it what bothers them they just want my money the key word is not money they want my money you don't mind if i have a bank sale and get lost people to give the money you don't mind if i figure out a way to somebody else to give their money you don't want somebody messing with my money i'm all glad for you giving your money just leave my money alone and he starts off and he says hey you want god to bless you you want all this wisdom i got tagged on in this passage of scripture start up acknowledging me for who i am all right start pretending i really am god and honor me with with your stuff read it just let me go through that that means counting him as important weighty to esteem him that means giving him what belongs we get we honor him by giving to him what belongs to us we give him the first fruits he get we give him the first part of everything the first fruits that's what it says in the verse first fruits first bite of the candy bar first bite of the paycheck first bite of whatever's mine now watch this christmas the story the wise men bringing gifts why'd they bring gifts what's the point of the gifts if you're talking christmas you're gonna be teaching your family well you know what they were doing they were acknowledging that he was a king they were acknowledging that he was bigger than them
[16:15] and they made a trip all that time probably took them two years to make that trip and they brought all that stuff with them and they were acknowledging him and they were saying we honor you we honor you what's god want me to do god says austin i want to be number one in your life i want you to think about me everything you do i want to be on your mind i want you to be thinking about me i want you when you read your bible to think about me but i want you while you're eating your breakfast to think about me and while you're working at the at the at the company or the garage sale or the or the or the factory or whatever it is you're doing i want you to be thinking about me i want you i won't be on your mind i'm god the breath you breathe i gave it to you the blood flowing through your body i'm the one keeps it moving i the whole world hanging together that's me he said so acknowledge me and then he said this and let's just let's just prove it honor me with your stuff um i could ask but i won't who's uh for those of you who practice christmas i'd like to know i don't want an answer now but who do you give the best gift to uh chuck's in a note today said uh said i know y'all thinking about what you want to do for me for christmas he said just uh you know make sure you don't spend over 50 dollars and then he said well you can forget forget that just give me what you gave me last year and so but yeah let's think about gifts what are you going to give it to your you're going to send it to your kid's school to the school teacher that's going to be the best gift you give this year i doubt it uh zach what you're for that amen zach said bring it on all right are you going to give it to your mother-in-law the best i mean the best you got this year you're going to give it to your mother-in-law right right you are that's because you're sitting by your father-in-law and you are a liar and the truth is not in you and and uh who you're going to give it to well i'll tell you i'm giving it to i love david with all my art he's the last child that was born to us i love him very much and i plan on i think betty we spent 50 on him let me explain this i spent a whole lot more than that on betty and i've already given her her gift i got it i got her gift bought i got it all wrapped up and i said get in here woman and she said uh we're not doing christmas i don't have your gift i said oh come on man let's do christmas she said no and i bugged her for day after day we've already had christmas because i got her some stuff and i'll be honest with you i honored her but see i love her and when you and when you acknowledge and i love david but i mean there is a ranking there is a ranking and the rest of you that are laughing i love you too but you ain't getting nothing maybe a christmas card and here's what he said he said acknowledge me then he said honor me and honor me with the first stuff you got and he said i'll bless you but i want you to acknowledge oh you know what's the big deal about giving an offering to god well it's a big deal if it's my money but if i ever thought that god gave me that money and him asking me for a part of it back it'd be a totally different thing we don't think like that but that's the you want you want to head towards this wisdom acknowledge number three and uh a month from now in our next breakout men's session i'll finish this up but anyway number three accept the way god's working in your life accept the way god's working in your life in this room right now we're going through stuff there and i could name some of it with some of you some of you having financial problems some of you having health problems some of you having family problems and you're dealing with issues but but you see now wait a minute i got to back up a second is there a god in heaven does he have rule over me does he have rights over me is he god is he big
[20:20] stuff and i'm little stuff is you're not then honor him with your money and then back up and say this wait a minute whatever's going on in my life's not an accident god is at work in my life so you get kidney cancer big boy acknowledge that i'm god and i'm in charge i determine if you live i determine if you don't live acknowledge me and then he says and don't get upset when i'm dealing in your life read with me if you would verse 11 and 12 tell me this doesn't work right together tell me this doesn't just flow together he says my son despise not the chasing of the lord neither be weary of his correction for whom the lord loveth he correcteth even as a father the son and whom he delighteth now wait a minute you gotta listen you're not gonna pay attention to this and i'll waste my breath and waste your time who is determining how things are going in your life your boss your boss the president your mom and dad your spouse who is determining how things are working in your life well if you really acknowledge him to be who he claims to be he thinks he's god and being god means he thinks he created you he thinks he owns you he thinks he can be in charge of your life which he can all of that say amen right there and but i get upset and why did i have to lose a kidney he had a kidney why why why do i yeah his is smaller why do i have to have arthritis or why does why do i have to be going through financial difficulties right now and why do i have to deal with this right now and i don't really like this but let's back up trust in the lord lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him admit that he is who he said he was hey hey don't trust yourself fear the lord and while you're at it just go ahead and give me something to prove you really believe i am god you know why do we pay taxes you know why we pay taxes don't you because we love our country jeff why are you smiling like that i mean we love our you know why we give seven cents on every dollar when we buy something around here because we just love we love georgia yes you know why we give an extra penny around this place because we love for south county amen we love the t posh and all that other junk no we don't they got guns that's why they got bars on jails and so we do all that we're acknowledging that they're bigger than us but you don't acknowledge that god's bigger than you you don't acknowledge that he's dealing with you and he's working in your life don't take it for granted that god is actively at work in your life listen what i'm telling you right now today god is at work in your life if you are a born again christian you say what do you how you get that what says this don't despise my chasing what does despise mean it means to treat it like it's nothing it means to act like it's worthless it means my wife prepares the best meal she possibly can and sets it in front of you and you go i ain't eating that junk that's despising don't you despise what i am doing in your life that's what he said the consequences and lessons may be costing you but they're worth every bit of it know that nothing is happening that's not for your good it's just how he treats his children and i don't always like what's going on and you don't like what's going on but he is god and he is in charge
[24:22] i guess i should stop i could probably finish it in 10 or 15 minutes but then you'd hang me and i have to acknowledge you let me just stop uh uh you see wisdom is the secret to happiness and if i could get you to it you know why you get wisdom is you fear god and you know what fearing god means is acknowledging god and recognizing who he is uh you you know what you're thinking you think that your boss is a rear end and that's why things aren't going well for you you think the economy stinks and that's why things aren't going well for you you think life is cheating me you think mother nature's sending the rain you're an idiot you're a blooming idiot mother nature's not sending anything there's no such thing as mother nature some evolutionist made that up there's a father god and so what's going on in my life i need to acknowledge you man i need to acknowledge you i need to realize god's in charge of what's going on in my life i need to acknowledge that say things aren't working out the way i want them to work out i don't know who put you in charge who died and put you in charge you're not in charge of how long you're going to live you're not in charge of what the quality of your life is going to be in all your ways acknowledge him in all your ways acknowledge him and when you acknowledge him you treat him like who he is you treat him like who he is he doesn't walk into this room like any regular person if he comes in this room we fall on our faces and recognize him as god almighty with all power and we acknowledge him we acknowledge him for who he is and we honor him so we give offerings you know why we give offerings we're not giving offerings to take care of austin we're not giving offerings to take care of vision we're giving offerings because we honor and honor and respect god accept the way god's dealing in your life do you ever realize did you realize that what's going on in your life's not an accident i'm telling you that changed your life if you listened but you probably didn't and i want to talk to the missionaries because we need strong men here and the strong men here you know here's the deal you'd say well then missionaries they ought to acknowledge god that's right also give it to them no you guys that live here in the house you ought to acknowledge god you get up in the morning if you if you get up in the morning it'll be god lets you get up and if you still have a job tomorrow it'll be god let you still have a job and if there's any money in your pocket if you're going to have a good christmas it'll be god i mean acknowledge him start honoring him honor him with your time and your talent and your treasure and i know we're all going through junk and i've been through junk by the way i have i mean my wife and i have gone through junk our daughter got raped that's that rates pretty high on the richter scale most families we were robbed and attempted to be robbed our house was broken into we've been beat up i mean we've had a lot of junk happen but here's the deal there's somebody bigger than me always in charge father in heaven i love you pray you bless pray you bring glory to your name and i'll give you praise and honor for all you do in jesus name amen you have been listening to austin gardner pastor of vision baptist church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com