Alexi rejoices, right? They're freed, they're liberated.
Now, you probably didn't realize it, but that scene sums up about 200 plus years
of intellectual and cultural history in the West.
You didn't know that when you were watching Star Wars.
Here's what I mean.
What is the message in that sort of critical moment
when the freedom and the happiness of the universe hang in the balance?
When it's all on the line, what's the decisive thing you have to do
to find and win happiness and real and lasting peace?
Well, here's what you have to do, right?
You have to trust your feelings.
You have to look inside of yourself, and in the right moment,
you just have to do what you feel is right.
Now, here's the thing.
That belief is so woven into the very fabric of our thinking
and our living today that we almost never even notice it.
We take it for granted at such a deep level that we rarely consider
whether or not it might be a belief worth having in the first place.
In fact, we have a hard time thinking of what the alternative might actually be.
We're sort of like fish in the ocean, breathing the water,
not really able to imagine what it might be like to do anything else.
Of course trusting my feelings will lead to my happiness and flourishing.
What else is there?
Of course we breathe the water.
What else is there?
Well, our passage in Proverbs this morning shows us that there is actually a different air to breathe.
And it's an air that leads to a flourishing so comprehensive
that it makes our natural desires seem not too big but too small.
So let's come to Proverbs chapter 3.
And our focus this morning is going to be on verses 1 through 12.
Later in our Proverbs series, we're going to come back to some of the themes
that we find in the second half of chapter 3 in verses 13 and following.
But this morning, we're just going to concentrate on verses 1 through 12.
Let me read this for us.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.
For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
Bind them around your neck.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.
Be not wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce.
Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.
My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof.
For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.
Let's pray together.
Father, we do ask that you would help our hearts now to be receptive and open.
Help them to be soft soil, we pray, to the seed of your word.
And Lord, we ask that by your spirit you would speak powerfully to us as we consider and meditate on this text together.
And Jesus, that you would be seen with the eyes of faith this morning in a fresh and beautiful way.
Capture us and our affections, we pray, Lord Jesus.
In your name we pray.
Amen.
So quite simply, I think, as we look at this passage, it shows us two big things.
First, it shows us a greater flourishing.
And second, it shows us a better trust.
A greater flourishing, a better trust.
Now notice briefly how this passage is put together.
Another, the 12 verses actually form six pairs.
Six pairs of four lines each.
So verses 1 and 2 go together, then verses 3 and 4 go together, and so on.
And you'll notice that in each of these pairs, the odd verse gives an exhortation, an admonition, a bit of fatherly counsel.
And then the even verse, the second verse, gives an incentive, a sort of motivation for taking it.
So look at the structure in verses 1 and 2.
You see it there.
Here's the admonition.
Here's the counsel.
Verse 1.
My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.
Then comes the motivation, the incentive to do that.
For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
So these 12 verses are all working together.
All the counsels, all the incentives to try to lift our heads out of the water.
So that we can catch a breath of a greater flourishing.
The flourishing that only God can give.
And so that we might see that there's a better trust.
A trust aimed not inside ourselves, but outside ourselves.
So let's look at the greater flourishing.
You know, if you run down, if you just sort of read down the passage and just read the even verses,
you sort of catch the sweep of how comprehensive this is.
It's a bit breathtaking, is it not?
First, we see that it's not just personal, but it's also social.
In verse 2, we're told about length of days and peace.
There's a personal element.
But in verse 4, we're told about favor and good success.
And good success there could also mean a good name, a good reputation in the sight of God and man.
So it's personal.
We live a long life.
It's also social.
We enjoy a good name.
Then it goes on.
There's more to it.
In verses 6 and 8, we see that it's not just a flourishing that's ethically sharpening,
but it's also deeply rejuvenating.
He will make straight your paths, we're told in verse 6.
Now, in Hebrew thought, your life was pictured as a walk, as a journey.
Your life was headed somewhere.
And the word straight there means correct or right or even upright.
Not just smooth as in sort of the right way, but actually ethically, the upright, the correct
thing to be doing.
So this is an image of one's life, one's path, one's journey becoming more and more upright.
In other words, that you reach the goal of becoming a person of character, of integrity.
But at the same time, in verse 8, this growth and moral character, this ethical sharpening
is not ultimately something that wears us down or tires us out.
Just the opposite.
It's healing to our flesh.
It's refreshment to our bones.
Imagine that.
Where your character is actually being refined, and yet it's also bringing refreshment to you.
Like a cool drink on a hot summer day.
Except this drink doesn't just cool your tongue, it brings refreshment down into your very bones.
But then we see in verses 10 and 12 that this flourishing is not just material, it's also spiritual.
In verse 10 we're shown barns stacked high and wine vats just bursting at the seams.
An image of prosperity.
But then in verse 12, we're shown the crown of them all.
We're told that here, that God, the Lord, will delight in us the way a father delights in his son.
And of course, that's worth all the barns and all the vats in the world, isn't it?
To know that God delights in you.
That he loves you.
Worldly wealth fades, doesn't it?
But you see, friends, the fatherly love of the eternal God can never grow old.
God's delight in his children, that's the true satisfaction of our souls.
Do you know that this morning?
Have you been chasing barns full of grain?
But it seems empty, no matter how high it gets stacked.
Perhaps you're missing the fact that it's really the love of God that is meant to satisfy you.
Now, maybe as you take stock of these six verses that we sort of quickly have run through here,
these six motivations, these six incentives,
maybe this starts to make you feel a little uncomfortable.
I know it sort of does for me when I first read it.
It sort of sounds a bit like some kind of prosperity gospel, doesn't it?
Is Proverbs telling us that if we just play our cards right spiritually,
or have enough faith, or act in the right ways,
God will make us healthy and rich and comfortable.
Is that what this passage is saying?
Well, in a word, no.
That's not what this passage, or the book of Proverbs as a whole, is saying.
You know, first off, nowhere in the Bible is a believer promised a life free of suffering or trouble, right?
Read the Gospels.
Jesus tells his disciples time and time again
that you're going to experience trouble and conflict in this life.
Look at every single believer in the rest of the New Testament.
And they didn't live a life just merely of health, wealth, and happiness, right?
There was hardship.
There was trial.
There was suffering.
Now, the book of Proverbs does give us a pattern
for how wisdom generally works in the world, right?
That if you're a person of integrity,
your relationships tend to work out better than if you're a person who's deceptive,
on the whole.
But we also have to remember another wisdom book in the Old Testament, don't we?
The book of Job.
And the book of Job is sort of like a helpful counterbalance to the book of Proverbs,
reminding us that sometimes life is more complicated than we understand,
and sometimes unexpected afflictions come our way.
And in fact, Proverbs itself isn't even ignorant of that fact.
Even in our passage here this morning, don't we see that tension?
Look at verses 9 and 10.
Everything's going great there.
Barns are filled.
Vats are bursting.
But then in verses 11 and 12, everything's not so great.
There's discipline.
There's reproof.
There's suffering.
There's affliction.
As if to say, sometimes your days will be cut short,
and sometimes your good name will be trampled on,
and sometimes your paths will seem crooked,
and sometimes your bones will feel worn out,
and sometimes your barns will be empty.
But through it all,
the Lord does not and has not and will not
disown his children.
We're still, as verse 1 and verse 11 say,
kind of bracketing this whole passage,
we are still his sons, his daughters.
And what that means is that even if we don't find
all these patterns working themselves out
in our lives here and now,
we know that the comprehensive flourishing
described here will still one day be ours.
Because you see, it's not just for this life
that we hope.
Our hope and our goal isn't just for 70 or 80 years
of relatively good health,
a full bank account,
and a comfortable lifestyle.
If that's all we're living for,
then are we not most to be pitied?
Now, friends, take a step back
and catch a glimpse once more
as we take it in its entirety
of what's being held out for us here.
Are not all these incentives,
are not all these motivations
pointing us to something even more lasting?
Don't they speak of a peace,
as verse 2 says,
a shalom that can only finally be realized
when God comes and makes all things new?
You see, any favor we experience now
is just a foretaste of the new creation,
of the eternal life
that Christ won for us
in His death and resurrection.
And one day, all who are in Christ
will share in His resurrected life
in the new heavens and the new earth.
And then the motivations of chapter 3
won't just be general patterns anymore,
but they'll be certain realities.
Then God's children will experience peace
and favor and healing without measure.
So do you see how this is a greater flourishing
than we often imagine for ourselves?
C.S. Lewis famously said,
we're busy making mud pies in the puddles
when God is there beckoning us
to come to a holiday at the sea.
But now here's where our passage
becomes very countercultural.
Surely the path to that sort of holistic flourishing,
that kind of happiness,
must be, we think,
through some sort of self-discovery,
through some sort of just self-expression.
Surely it's got to come through
some sort of trust of our feelings
to lead us on the right path.
If we look inside of ourselves,
then we'll get the key, right?
But that's not what the writer of Proverbs says,
not at all.
In order to truly know wisdom,
as Proverbs speaks of,
in order to embark on this life,
we must not,
and we cannot look inside ourselves,
but outside of ourselves.
We need a better trust.
Our trust must not be in our own feelings
or our own desires,
but in the Lord.
Look at verse 5.
Have trust in the Lord with all your heart
and do not lean on your own understanding.
Now notice first that this is an intensely personal trust,
right?
Our trust here isn't in some kind of moral code.
It's not in a set of timeless principles.
It's not in a pervasive energy
or force that flows through the cosmos.
No, our trust is in the Lord.
And when our English Bible spell Lord with all capital letters,
you know what that means, right?
That means it's a translation of the name
that God revealed to Moses at the burning bush.
When God showed himself to be the redeeming God,
when God showed himself to be the God
who takes a people to himself,
an everlasting covenant,
that's what this name Lord speaks of,
signifies.
This is the Lord or Yahweh,
as sometimes we pronounce it.
And it's the same Lord who in the fullness of time
took on flesh and lived among us.
That same Lord who redeemed Israel
out of slavery in Egypt
was the same God who came in flesh
full of grace and truth
in the person of Jesus Christ,
fully God and fully human.
It's the same Lord who came
and lived an utterly sinless life
on behalf of sinful people,
fulfilling the demands of that covenant.
It's the same Lord who on the cross
as our substitute bore all the penalties
that we deserve for breaking God's covenant.
And who three days later
was raised from the dead,
demonstrating that his sacrifice
and his work was complete for us
and that forgiveness and new life
had been won for all who would turn
and trust in him.
This is the Lord we're told to trust in Proverbs,
this personal God
who revealed himself to Israel,
who became fully human
in the person of the Son
and who even now is being poured out
into our hearts
in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Trust in the Lord.
Not in a principle,
not in a cause,
not in a set of rules,
but in this very personal God.
You know, it's very interesting
when Jesus was interacting
with the Pharisees once.
The Pharisees were very good
at knowing their Bibles.
You know, they had it down to a T.
And Jesus says,
you know, you spend all of your time
reading and memorizing
and trying to live what the Torah says.
And yet you've missed the point
because it's about me.
Friends, could it be that even us
who love the Bible,
and rightfully so,
and want to live the Bible rightfully so,
can sometimes miss the point
that it's about engaging
with the very personal God.
And the sort of trust
that this God deserves and demands
is a wholehearted trust.
Trust Him with all your heart.
Put your whole weight into it.
Hold nothing back.
Throw yourself upon it.
And the opposite of that
is to lean on your own understanding,
as verse 5 says.
Now picture a person
with sort of a broken crutch
about to lean their full weight into it.
That's the image here.
And to lean on our own understanding
is to do just that.
To put our weight onto something
that just can't hold.
One commentator wrote,
one is a fool
to rely on his thimble of knowledge
before its vast ocean.
Friends, why is it that we think,
why do we think that trusting in ourselves,
ourselves,
with our ever conflicting desires,
not really knowing what we want
one day to the next,
with our limited perspective,
with our finite amount of knowledge,
why do we think that trusting in ourselves
is a better course of action
than trusting in the eternal,
infinitely wise,
infinitely good God?
Unless you're here
and you never have conflicting desires
and you don't have limited perspective
and you have an infinite amount of knowledge.
If that's you,
then this sermon's not for you.
You can listen to something else.
But if you're with the rest of us
who experience conflicting desires
and know that we're limited,
why do we think that trusting in ourselves
is a better idea
than trusting in the God of the universe?
Verse seven goes a little further.
Be not wise in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
So you see,
it's not just about refusing
to lean on our own understanding
in light of God's perfect knowledge.
It's also about refusing
to entertain our own pride
and our own self-will
and things that are evil
in light of God's perfect holiness.
So we're to trust in the Lord
with all our heart.
But what does that practically look like
on the ground?
What does this wholehearted trust look like?
Well, I think our passage gives us
three snapshots
of what that looks like.
Here's one thing that that looks like.
First, do you let the teaching
of God's word in Scripture
challenge, change,
and even overrule your thinking?
You know, it's easy to say
that we trust God
when there's no friction
between our thoughts
and what we think of God's thoughts.
But what about when what we want to do
and what God says we ought to do
are at odds.
In verses one and three,
we get a picture of the Father
admonishing his son
not to forget his teaching,
to keep guard
and to keep his commandments.
To not let steadfast love
and faithfulness,
which are the embodiment
of God's teaching and commands
because they're the embodiment
of God's own character.
To not let steadfast love
and faithfulness forsake you.
This admonition to listen
to the word,
to shape your life around the word.
But what happens
when your will
and God's will
are written in Scripture
at odds?
When God commands you
to forgive,
for example.
Or when he commands you
to be generous
to those who have less than you.
Or when he tells you
not to have sex
outside of marriage.
When his word
runs counter to our desires,
what do we do?
Again, this is what it looks like
to trust the Lord
wholeheartedly.
Be not wise
in your own eyes.
Fear the Lord.
Turn away from evil.
And do you see the reward
in verse 8?
Not misery,
but healing.
Not anguish,
but refreshment.
Ray Ortlund,
in his commentary
on Proverbs,
puts it this way.
He says,
you know,
here's the irony.
The more you fear the Lord,
the less you will fear man.
The more you depend
on the Lord,
the more independent
you will be.
The more you resemble Christ,
the more of an individual
you will be.
The more you obey him,
the freer you will be.
Life will work for you
with healing
and refreshment.
So there's one way
wholehearted trust
takes shape practically.
We obey his word
even when it crosses
our desires.
We see another way
in verse 9.
Verse 9 says,
honor the Lord
with your wealth
and with the first fruits
of all your produce.
When times are going well,
when you're in a season
of prosperity,
of plenty,
wholehearted trust
looks like honoring
the Lord with your wealth.
Now you have to see
that some of the most
spiritually challenging times
that we will face
aren't when things
are really difficult.
It's actually when things
are going really well.
It's in those moments
when our less than
wholehearted trust
in the Lord
can sometimes be revealed.
When we don't
honor the Lord
or even think of the Lord.
But how should we
honor the Lord
when things are going well?
When we're in a season
of plenty or prosperity?
The second half of verse 9
tells us,
we honor the Lord with
or literally from
the first fruits
of all our produce,
from our wealth.
Giving the first fruits
in the Old Testament
meant giving to God
literally the first part
of your harvest.
You were growing things,
the first thing that came up,
that's what you gave
to the Lord.
And that act of giving
the very first of your crops,
whatever the initial thing was,
the best of it,
the first of it,
that act of giving
the very first of your crop
was a symbolic way
of saying that ultimately
it all belonged to God.
That it was all His.
And that we are simply stewards
of what He's given us.
So friends,
do you give
of what the Lord
has given you?
Of your money,
of your time,
of your energy?
Proverbs is going to have
a lot more to say
about our money
and we're going to come
back to it.
But are you giving Him
your first fruits?
Notice again
the motivation in verse 10,
barns full of grain,
vats full of wine.
Matthew Henry said this
about that verse.
He said,
God will bless you
with an increase
of that which is for use,
not for show,
for giving away,
not for hoarding.
Those who do good
with what they have
shall have more
to do good with.
To do more good with.
Again, a principle.
Not a hard and fast promise,
but a principle.
It's not about,
verse 10 isn't simply
about giving
so we can get more.
It's about God
giving to the generous
so they can be generous
all the more.
So what does it look like
to trust the Lord
with all of our heart?
First, in verse 7,
we're shown that it's
fearing the Lord
and living in reverence
of Him and His word.
And then next,
in verse 9,
we're shown that it's
honoring the Lord
in times of prosperity
with our wealth.
And then in verse 11,
last, we're shown
that it's not despising
the Lord in times
of affliction and discipline.
That we don't just trust
Him wholeheartedly
in plenty,
but we actually trust
Him wholeheartedly
in pain.
And the deep reality here,
friends,
in verses 11 and 12
is that God
loves us
too much
to let us alone
in our lives.
In all the trouble
and suffering of our life,
God is working out
His loving,
fatherly purposes
for our good.
As verse 12 says,
it's the Father's
delight in us
that leads Him
to discipline us,
to correct us,
to train us.
Again, I think C.S. Lewis
captured this so well.
He gives the illustration
of an artist
and he says,
you know,
an artist might not
take much trouble
over a picture
that he or she
just sort of scribbles down
to amuse a child.
Have you done that?
If you had a little kid
you were watching maybe,
maybe you're babysitting
your, I don't know,
your brother's kids
or something
and you're like,
what do I do with these kids?
They're driving me crazy.
Here, here's a tic-tac-toe board.
Quick, fill it out.
You don't take much time
to scribble down
a drawing
just to amuse a child,
but
an artist
will take
endless effort
over a great work
of art
that he loves.
Now, imagine,
Lewis says,
imagine this artist
has a magnum opus
and this great work of art.
Imagine this great work of art
actually was conscious,
was sentient,
was alive.
And you can imagine
such a piece of art,
he says,
after being rubbed
and scraped
and recommended
for the tenth time
wishing that it were
only a thumbnail sketch
whose making
was over in a minute.
In the same way,
he says,
it's natural for us
to wish
that God
had designed us
for a less glorious
and less arduous destiny,
but then
we are wishing not
for more love
but for less.
Do you see what Lewis is saying?
God has a destiny
for you,
his children,
that is more glorious
than you can imagine,
and he is exercising
all of his fatherly
care and power
and discipline
to bring you there.
Like an artist
painstakingly chipping away
at a beautiful piece of art.
And wholehearted trust
in the Lord's discipline
looks like neither
despising it
nor being weary of it.
You see,
one is an active
response of anger
the other
is a passive
response of despair.
Aren't those both ways
that we can respond
when we're in seasons
of trouble and trial?
Anger
or despondency.
But rather,
wholehearted trust
says
and believes,
no,
the Lord
reproves
those whom
he loves.
And of course,
that may be
the hardest test
of all,
isn't it?
Yes,
when our desires
are crossed
by God's word,
that can be tough.
And yes,
when we're
in a season of,
you know,
things are going well,
it can be hard
to honor the Lord
and bring our hearts
back to him,
but suffering,
trial,
affliction,
that may be
the hardest of all,
isn't it?
But friends,
here's the good news.
if you are in Christ,
then you can look
to one
who knows
exactly what it's like
to be tested
and to suffer.
Look
to Jesus,
the book of Hebrews
says in chapter 12,
the founder
and the perfecter
of our faith,
our trust,
who for the joy
that was set before him
endured the cross,
despising the shame
and is seated
at the right hand
of God.
Consider him
who endured
from sinners
such hostility
against himself
so that you
may not grow weary
or faint-hearted.
And then Hebrews quotes
Proverbs chapter 3,
verses 11 and 12.
Have you forgotten
the exhortation
that addresses you
as sons?
My son,
do not regard lightly
the discipline
of the Lord,
nor be weary
when reproved by him,
for the Lord disciplines
the one he loves.
Christian,
you have a high priest
in the Lord Jesus
who knows every trial
and every struggle
that you face.
He knows exactly
what it's like
to be perfected
for his task
through suffering.
Just as you
are being perfected
for your task
through suffering.
And he blazed
that trail
before you.
He is the founder
and the perfecter
of your faith.
In fact,
he went to the cross
for you
so that any affliction
that you face
can now only do you good
and never do you harm.
He took the sting
and the poison
out of every bite,
every thorn
that you will face.
And that's what God promises,
your ultimate good,
the joy set before you,
as Hebrews 12 says.
Or as Proverbs 3 says,
the delight
of a father
for his son,
for his daughter,
healing to your flesh,
refreshment to your bones.
Do you long for that
this morning?
life deep down
in your bones
that nothing
in this world
can harm
or take away.
Don't you see
that's the picture
where we end?
Whether things are great
or whether things
are not so great.
You have something.
You have a flourishing
that circumstances
cannot shake.
And if you sense
in your heart
a desire for that,
a longing
for that sort of flourishing,
a greater flourishing
than this world offers,
the flourishing
that only can be found
in Christ,
friends,
if your heart
is longing for that,
then know that God
is calling you,
even now,
to a better trust,
to take your trust
off of yourself,
to stop looking
and trusting
your desires
that you think
will lead you
to happiness
because that hasn't
ever worked,
has it?
and instead
to place your trust
in the risen Lord Jesus,
to go to him
in prayer,
to cast yourself
before him,
to trust in the Lord
with all your heart
and to know
that he will
in no way
cast you out.
Come to me,
Jesus told
the crowds.
You're weary.
You're heavy laden.
Come to me
and I will give you
rest.
I will give you
peace.
I will make sure
that you flourish.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus,
we acknowledge
and we know
that we need
your Holy Spirit
to do what this text
tells us we need to do,
to trust in you
with all our heart.
So, Lord,
help us by your Spirit
to see the fact
that you have died
and risen,
that you,
Lord Jesus,
are an utterly
trustworthy Savior.
and a trustworthy Lord,
that your goodness
and your power
know no limit
and that we can
throw ourselves
wholeheartedly upon you.
Lord,
help us to do that
in the thick
and the thin
and the extremities
of life.
And Lord,
as we experience
that deep joy
and peace
that you bring,
would it roll back,
would it redound forth,
would it ring out
to your glory?
Would our neighbors
and our friends
see in us
a resilience
and a trust
that makes them say,
what a great God
they must serve.
We pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.