Father, your word calls us to be very countercultural.
And Father, we confess before you that we breathe in the air of our culture
and we're formed by our culture.
And it makes us hard to understand your word sometimes.
And it makes us, Father, not even want to understand your word
or to give advice which goes against what you've said.
And so, Father, we confess that before you.
We ask that you would bring your word home to us in a powerful way,
that you would bring Jesus home to us in a powerful way,
that you would make us disciples, Father, of Jesus,
who are gripped by the gospel and who are learning to live for your glory
and the furtherance of your kingdom.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So just a bit of a warning. I'll talk about this more in a second.
I'm going to take a very big risk in the service today,
so hopefully you'll all like me by the end.
But I'm going to take a big risk.
But before we do that, if you could put up the scripture text for today.
Let's just read this and then we'll say something.
If you could all read this text with me, that would be great.
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.
I gave my life to Christ and became a Christian when I was in grade 12.
And just after I gave my life to Christ, I met an older man and he gave me a little book.
And in the book, it was sort of like first steps in following Jesus.
And some of those first steps were that I was encouraged or basically told or admonished to memorize.
I think it was 10 different scripture passages.
I have to confess I cannot remember what most of those 10 scripture passages were.
But I actually do remember three of them.
And I can't quite always.
I sort of when I say them, I get them a bit mixed up.
But I remember three of them.
One of them, in fact, would sort of almost, if I was to have a life verse, some Christians talk about having life verses.
And if I was to have a life verse, it would be this.
It was the very first passage of scripture I ever memorized.
Because I took the older man's advice.
I did try to memorize some of these Bible passages.
And one of them was this one.
Romans 12, 2.
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.
That by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
And I memorized that text.
I come to it many times.
And in many ways, I definitely don't live that verse perfectly.
But if there was to be a verse that was the theme of my life, it would be that one.
All because this older guy told me that I should try to memorize the Bible.
Another text, which I do remember, was part of, I think, that was 10 different texts.
It's actually the scripture text we're going to look at next week at the end of our sermon series on looking at different verses that we could memorize.
It's 1 Corinthians 10, 13.
Many of you have probably memorized this text as well.
And it goes like this.
Oops.
It would be helpful if I had the right page.
There we go.
It goes like this.
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to human beings.
God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
And I've memorized that text.
I say it.
I get it all messed up.
But I'm old, so I've read this text and sort of memorized it in the King James Version, the Revised Standard Version, the NIV, the NASB, and the ESV.
So I often get texts all messed up when I try to say them off by heart.
And the third verse, which has been really, really, really, really important and precious to me, is this verse up here.
Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
In fact, I really have only one goal for this sermon.
And so if you sort of catch this goal right now, and then you all fall asleep because I put you to sleep, I've at least accomplished what my hope is.
And my hope is that this verse will become precious to you.
That trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight.
That that will be a verse of scripture that you'll want to memorize, that you'll want to pray, that you'll want to live.
And that's my whole hope of this sermon, is that you'll recognize how important and precious this verse is.
Now, there's a big, big, big, big problem with this verse, which I'm going to try to bring out a little bit.
Because, you see, the problem is when we all Christians get together, it's all simple to say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That sounds good.
But then we go out.
And this verse is profoundly countercultural.
It's deeply, deeply, deeply countercultural.
For old Christians like me, I've been a Christian a long time now.
Grade 12 was a very, very long time ago for me.
And so for old Christians like me, it's comforting to read this and to pray it and to think about it and to try to live it.
And I really do try to live it.
I often fail, but I really do try to live it.
And often when I'm getting messed up, it's as if the Holy Spirit says, George, you've got to get back to that verse.
You've got to read that verse.
You've got to pray that verse.
But it's deeply, deeply countercultural.
Just this week, I was in a conversation in a coffee shop.
Somebody just suggested to me that to make it sound more holy, it should be called St. Arbuck's rather than Starbucks.
But I was in a coffee shop and a fellow was talking about this.
You've probably seen it in the news, this huge new sex abuse scandal in the Roman Catholic Church in Pennsylvania.
Absolutely shocking, the decades-long systematic abuse of mainly young boys and young men.
Just mind-bogglingly evil.
And so one of the guys that I have regular conversations with in this particular coffee shop, he was talking about it.
And this fellow, he's an immigrant to this country.
He's an immigrant from a Muslim-majority country, although he himself is not a Muslim and he himself would now say that he's an atheist.
And he was talking about this.
He asked me what I thought about it.
And he said, listen, this is the problem of religion.
This is the problem of religion wedded to powerful institutions.
People kiss their brains goodbye.
They kiss their consciences goodbye.
And he said, listen, I'm not dumping on the Roman Catholic Church here.
I said, the problem is in Orthodox Jewish circles.
The problem is in Islam.
The problem is wherever you have religion and you have institutions and people just kiss their brains goodbye.
They harden their hearts.
They submit to all of these things.
And people need to think for themselves.
People need to strengthen their own consciences in the face of institutions like that.
And that's what they need to do.
And you know what he said?
That's so common in our world, isn't it?
Nobody can make you happy but yourself.
Don't trust in other people to make you happy.
Don't let other people's version of happiness tell you what should be happy.
You need to discover happiness for yourself.
You need to discover what's true for yourself.
You need to be true to yourself.
You need to be the captain of your own ship.
You need to chart your own path.
You need to be unique.
Nobody can set any terms for you.
You need to think for yourself and be who you are meant to be and struggle with it.
And that's the message of the world.
Isn't it?
In fact, you know, if you think about it, we still have this text up here.
It's very, very interesting.
Let's just all say this text together.
And then just think about this text.
Here, I better get it in the scripture so I can read along with you.
Say it with me.
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.
Imagine if I was to say to my friend, that's how I live my life after he's complained to me about this.
Give me that little rant.
Like that would fly like a lead balloon.
In fact, you know, if you think about it, here's what's happened in the world.
You know, we know that God doesn't make straight your paths.
So why don't we get rid of that?
Can you get rid of that, Andrew?
There you go.
And you know, the fact of the matter is, is that we know that what you should do.
I mean, look at the sex abuse scandal.
We shouldn't be trusting the Lord with all our heart.
Get rid of that.
And you know what?
Why on earth should we acknowledge him in all our ways?
Isn't that just part of the problem?
Could you get rid of that too?
And now that you got rid of all of it, could you get rid of that first three words?
That's the motto of the world, isn't it?
Lean on your own understanding.
That tattoo will fly.
Nobody will think it's odd.
That tattoo will fly.
Lean on your own understanding.
Don't trust authority.
Don't trust religion.
Don't trust the Lord.
Your own.
Your own heart.
The captain of your own soul.
Lean on your own understanding.
It's the motto of the world.
And it's very, very, very, very, very powerful.
Here's where I'm going to take a big risk.
If you could start to cue it up, we're going to listen to the theme song from Frozen.
And we're going to watch the video in the sing-along version.
I don't want you to sing along.
Some of you, it might be hard not to want to sing along.
I'm taking a risk with this.
You have to give me a bit of mercy.
But remember, what is the motto of the world?
Lean on your own understanding.
This UK version has 1.6 billion views.
The US version has something similar.
That doesn't count just watching the video.
That doesn't count buying the downloads.
That doesn't count Spotify.
That doesn't count owning the album or having the song.
This is billions and billions of views.
So let's listen to it.
Those who are going to be listening to this online, if you go and Google Frozen, the sing-along version,
you can watch that because we can't put it on the tape of the sermon for audio for copyright reasons.
Now listen, that's billions and billions of views.
If you're a guest here, Christians see that the Bible is divided into two parts.
There's the part of the Bible that was written before Jesus came that talks about, sort of sets the stage for Jesus coming.
And then there's the part that tells about Jesus coming and explaining what it means.
The part before Jesus is called the Old Testament.
And the part with Jesus and after is called the New Testament.
And in the Old Testament, there's a very, very wonderful story about the prophet who has to go and meet with God.
And so he goes to meet with God.
And in the story, there's this unbelievably powerful wind that actually can move the rocks around and break things.
But God is not in the wind.
And then the next thing is there's this earthquake that goes all around and things crumble and God is not in the earthquake.
And then there's this spectacular display of fire.
But God is not in the fire.
And then there's a still, small voice like a whisper.
And it's God speaking in the still, small voice like a whisper.
And in a world where Disney, with its genius and its creativity and its song,
How on earth, here, friends, is the great dilemma for us as Christians.
In a world where we have billions of views of frozen,
how on earth can we ever both live and even share?
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
And lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge him.
And he will make your paths straight.
That is a still, small whisper.
In a world of loud, rushing wind and earthquakes and fire.
That is the discipleship and evangelism challenge right there.
In a very, very powerful way.
Now, you know, here's the thing.
I began by saying that the motto of the world, which is lean on your own understanding.
Lean on your own understanding.
Nobody else's.
It's a very, very powerful thing in the face of so much abuse that's gone on
and so much breakdown that's gone on.
And if you think about it, can't you just see, especially a song like that, you know,
if you're a woman and your husband's just been really, really, really abusive to you,
if you've had to deal with just terrible bosses,
if you're a teenager and you're just in a really unbelievably dysfunctional family,
and maybe it's a very, very religious family, a homeschooling family,
maybe it's a family where you've had three dads over the last few years
because your mom's divorced and has many boyfriends,
but just whatever it is, the family's really, really broken up
and you can see the power that this lean on your own understanding.
Let it go.
No rules.
Be yourself.
Be the self that you were meant to be.
Just embrace the cold.
It didn't bother you anyway.
Just embrace it.
You can see how that's so powerful.
You can see how in some ways, in some contexts, there's some real wisdom in it.
And you can see how it's so powerfully portrayed in our culture.
But here's the problem with lean on your own understanding.
Here's the problem with that.
Is that it doesn't work and it doesn't deliver what it promises.
And that's a really hard thing to say.
And it's something that I could say and most people don't believe me.
But just think for a second of this.
Give you a thought experiment.
Imagine I have a couple and they're in great marital trouble
and they're thinking of separating and getting divorced.
And so they ask me to come and help them and give them some counsel.
And imagine I say to myself,
well, I know exactly the type of counsel I'm going to give,
but I'm going to need my wife to help me.
And I say to this, I'm going to need my wife to help me.
And so basically we come in the house and in one part of the house,
I play the video of Let It Go over and over and over with the guy
and say what you need to do is you need to take this to heart.
You need to take the lyrics of this.
I know it's Ilsa.
I know it's a woman.
But you need to take it to heart.
You need to let it go.
And we spend an hour with him singing along with it.
So he's memorized the words.
He's got the full feeling of it.
And meanwhile, his wife downstairs is with my wife doing the exact same thing.
How do you think their marriage is going to work
after two of them have taken that song in so perfectly?
Do you think it'll fix their marriage?
They'll be divorced within a month.
I mean, unless in an odd way they discover that they both like the song
or something like that.
The lyrics suck, but I like watching the movie.
I don't know.
I mean, in an odd way maybe that will work.
But can't you just see that if you take that advice
and you think about it how so much trouble in our world
is precisely because of the motto, lean on your own understanding.
You see, on one hand, what do we want in the world?
We want to lean on our own understanding.
But at the same time, what do we want?
We want relationship.
We want, you know, I've talked to so many young secular people in coffee shops.
And when you get talking and you get maybe past some of the cynicism
and the despair that some of them might have,
deep down so many of them say, someday I would like to marry.
And when I marry, I'm hoping that it will be for life.
And we want relationship.
We want friends.
We want to belong.
Yet, how on earth is it going to work
if everybody in the marriage is singing, let it go?
How is it going to work if you come in and your boss, that's their motto.
She completely and utterly believes it.
You see, the problem with this is that this song,
and lean on your own understanding it,
the problem is as that becomes deeper and deeper into our consciousness,
what happens, and we see it in our culture right now,
isn't one of the problems in our culture
is that people fracture themselves into little echo chambers.
And it's because for this week, this minute, this month,
this echo chamber is exactly in tune with my understanding,
but then it starts to change,
and then we have to go to another one,
and we send angry tweets and get on social media,
and you can't lean on your own understanding.
You can't have let it go as your anthem
and have a good relationship with your teenagers
or with your husband or your wife
or with your employees or your bowling club,
because that only works if there's only one person in the room
who's like that and everybody else has to put up with it,
but we're all singing it.
And so there's endless conflict and the breaking down of community.
So I just want to suggest to you that it might be,
if you could put up the scripture text again,
could you say this with me?
It's a still small voice, but if you could say it with me.
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.
Now, some of you say, well, what's up, George?
This doesn't work.
Okay, so you showed some problems
with lean on your own understanding.
I can sort of get that.
You showed some problems with it,
but come on, George.
Look at the room here.
I'm going to put you all down.
Do you think this room of Christians
are living this text?
They don't look that successful to me.
They don't look like they're always straight up
about what God's will is for their lives.
Like, what's going on with this text?
Like, how on earth can you,
I possibly believe that this is something
that I could live that points me in a different way?
Like, George, what's up with that?
Well, here, if you could put up the first point, Andrew.
Here's the first thing for us to understand
about this text.
This proverb is not a recipe.
It's not a rule.
It's not a law.
It's not a technique.
It is the Lord's call to embark on a quest.
This proverb, and by the way,
this is what basically all proverbs are.
That's what the literary form is.
They're not recipes.
They're not rules.
They're not laws.
They're not techniques.
Like, what a technique is,
is like if you go to a bank machine,
it's a perfect example.
You know that there's a series of steps
that you follow,
and by the end of the step,
you've got your cash balance
or you've got your money
or you've moved your money around.
It's going to a computer programmer
who gives you all of the different steps
so that the app will work
or the function will work.
And it's not a rule.
It's not a law.
It's something different.
And it's something different
because God wants to do something
with human beings.
He wants to make us more human.
And to be human,
in terms of what God's intention is,
it's going to have to be something more
than just following rules
or just learning techniques
or learning recipes.
In fact, if you think about it for a second,
if you look at this text,
if you could go back up to the text,
Andrew, that would be wonderful.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding
and all your ways acknowledge him
and he will make straight your paths.
This text, which was written before Jesus comes,
it actually launches things,
if you think about it.
It doesn't say trust in the patriarchy.
It doesn't say trust the tribe.
It doesn't say trust the institution.
It doesn't say trust the powerful people.
It doesn't say trust fate.
It doesn't say trust the cycle of life.
It doesn't say trust abstract moral rules.
It doesn't say trust the techniques.
It says trust in the Lord.
And trust is a personal word.
It's a relational word.
It says trust in the Lord.
Trust in a person.
Trust in the one who's created all things
and sustains all things
and will bring all things to their proper end.
And so it doesn't work.
There's a real promise in there
that the Lord will make your paths straight.
But it says something more
and it's a quest
because, you see,
here's what a quest is.
The best example from us moderns
or post-moderns about what a quest is
is if you read Lord of the Rings.
He's not on an adventure.
On an adventure,
you go through an adventure
and then at the end of things,
like basically,
you know,
maybe there's some justice or whatever,
some experiences,
but then life is sort of back to normal.
But in a quest,
not only does the person change,
but the world changes.
And that's what God calls us to.
It's a quest,
not an adventure,
not to be a tourist,
not to be a magician or a technician,
not to be a lawgiver or a rule giver,
but fundamentally,
he calls us to be on a quest.
And in a quest,
at the end of the quest,
the world will be changed
and you will be changed.
And so when God says,
because I believe the Bible is written by God,
ultimately,
trust in the Lord with all your heart,
lean not on your own understanding,
in all your ways acknowledge him
and he shall make your path straight.
What we're seeing here
is God admonishing us
and encouraging us
to go on a quest.
Now,
just as I,
remember,
I was sharing about the,
one of the things,
you know,
when my friend at the coffee shop,
he talked about this great crisis
in the,
another sexual abuse crisis
in the Roman Catholic Church
and
I actually said something to him.
Like,
I,
I said to him,
I said several things to him.
One of the things I said is,
you know,
the Bible is the great critiquer
of religion and institutions.
And I said,
the,
the wonderful thing about the Christian faith,
I said to him,
is that the,
the Christian faith doesn't call you
to put such
confidence in institutions.
That what the Bible does
is the Bible stands,
I said,
as an outside judgment
on human endeavor
and an outside source of wisdom
on human endeavor.
And that any person
who'd been involved in that,
if they merely read the Bible,
that you shall not,
I mean,
the Bible is very clear
that you're not supposed to have sex
with young boys.
It's a rule.
You just have to follow a rule.
You don't have to be wise.
You just have to follow the rule.
And so it's not that the Bible
doesn't have any rules,
but that the Bible calls us
to something more
than just following rules.
Just,
you know,
you don't have to say to this text,
if I'm thinking about robbing a bank
or beating somebody up
just because I feel like it,
I don't have to say,
oh Lord,
should I be beating this person up?
No,
there's rules about that.
You don't,
don't engage in an act of violence.
You don't cheat on your wife.
Like you don't steal.
You don't rob banks.
There's a few rules.
But life is far more than rules,
isn't it?
Life is far more than rules.
It's,
it's,
it requires wisdom
to figure out how to handle a boss
or how to deal with a fight
that's going on in the family
or how to deal with a fight
that's going on in an institution.
It's not that there's no black
and white in the world.
There is black and white in the world,
but there's also red
and green
and yellow
and orange
and purple
and blue
and chartreuse
and all these other colors.
And,
and the Bible's,
the Bible says
that God's going to launch us
on a quest of wisdom
to live in a world
of many colors
where there is black and white,
but of many colors.
And so that's the power
of this text.
And,
and the reason that we know
that it's a,
it's a,
and,
and to try to fully understand
this quest,
we need to know something
about the whole flow
of the Bible.
You see,
the Bible is an overarching story
and it begins in a very,
very,
very powerful way.
It begins with God,
a personal God
who does exist,
who has a character
and a nature
and a,
and purpose
and who loves
and is creative
and he makes everything
that exists out of nothing.
And he makes this world,
this universe,
he makes it to be the home
for human beings.
And,
there's this very,
very powerful story
in the first couple
of chapters of the Bible
that describes
how God makes human beings,
he makes them to be
at home in this world,
he calls them to be
in a relationship
of,
of marriage
and just of,
of family
and all the other things
that flow from that.
He calls them to
tend the garden
and to,
in a sense,
to tend the earth,
to,
to be creative
and to tend the earth
and to develop things
in the earth
and,
in a sense,
to develop castles
and bridges
and,
and poetry
and music
and,
and song
and story
and,
and dance
and,
and business
and,
and he calls
on human beings
to,
to be creative
and to care
and tend for the entire world
and,
and his whole hope
is that every day
at the end of the day
in the cool of the day
that we human beings,
we were made to walk
in the cool of the day
with other people
and with God
naked and unashamed.
That's how God created
human beings to be,
to tend the earth,
to live well with each other,
to live naked
and unashamed
with God
and others
in his creation
and walk with him
in the end of the day.
And the Bible
has this overarching story
that brokenness
and evil
and sin
and shame
and rebellion
and abuse,
that was created
when human beings
wanted to become like God
and rejected
their creator.
We rejected our creator
and that is this
fundamental breaking
or bending
in what it means
to be human
that happened
way back
in the very, very start
of us human beings
actually being human beings.
And the Bible tells
this wonderful
overarching story
both of how we were created
and what God created us to be
of this tragic break
and even in that tragic break
God instantly shared
a severe mercy
how the day would come
when he would send
a deliverer
because we human beings
could not deliver ourselves.
And what we call
the Old Testament
from Genesis 4
right on to the end
of the Old Testament
is God promising
and God preparing
for the time
when he would send
the one
who would start
to put all things right.
And we Christians
believe that Jesus
is the answer of God.
He is God keeping
his promise
that God,
the Son of God
takes on human nature
and he lives the life
that we were not able
to live
and he pays the price
that we were not able
to pay
and that he is
God's provision
for human beings
to be made right
with him
and he does everything
that has to be done
for us to be made right
with him
because we were bent,
we were twisted,
we cannot do it ourselves
and we receive it
by trusting in him
and as an act of grace
and mercy
God who has done
all that has to be done
to make us right
with himself
through his Son,
he gives that to us
when we hold out our hands,
our arms in faith
saying simply,
you know,
nothing in my hands
I bring,
simply to you
I want to cling
and God reaches
across that infinite distance
between him
and us
and actually makes us
right with him
and takes us
as his child
and begins to change us
and the rest
of the New Testament
is the promise
that God
who begins
this rescue operation
with his Son
that the day will come
when Jesus will return
a second time
and then all things
will be brought
to their proper end
and all will be judged
and there will be
the new heaven
and the new earth
it's also the beginning
but what's it going
to look like
when the new beginning
is there?
When the new beginning
that's there
we will be human
and we will live
in a created order
that is our home
and we will care
and tend for the garden
and we will make music
and song
and poetry
and buildings
and dance
and we will once again
be naked
and unashamed
with other human beings
and walk with God
in the cool of the day
where he will put his hand
on your shoulder
and mine
and say
I am your God
you are my child
it is so good
to walk together
in the cool of the day
and so to make
the type of person
that God is making us into
it means that we need wisdom
it means that we need
to be launched
on a quest
where we learn
to trust in the Lord
with all our heart
and lean not
on our own understanding
and all our ways
acknowledge him
and he will make
your path straight
see that's why
it's not just a matter
of keeping rules
but some of you
might say
I have to sort of
start wrapping this up
okay George
well okay
look at that text
you know
trust in the Lord
with all your heart
it's just talking
about emotions
and stuff like that
just about spiritual stuff
you know
and I'm a guy
I don't know
like do I even have emotions
my wife says
I have emotions
but I don't know
if I have emotions
you know
maybe I have emotions
when in my case
I haven't had to show
my emotions
in a long time
because the Oakland Raiders
have been a lousy football team
for a long time
but I show my emotions
when they win
or something
but this is just about emotions
can you put up the next point
Andrew
this quest will involve
all of your life
all of what makes you you
and all of what you will become
when we learn to pray
and to think through
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
this is a call
not just to your emotions
not just to the spiritual part
of who you are
it's your mind
it's your creativity
it's your affections
it's your will
it's your family
it's your sexuality
it's your money
it's your aging
it's your memory
it's your desires
it's everything
that's meant to be you
this quest will involve
all of your life
all of what makes you you
and all of what you'll become
and it's in this powerful word heart
you see
in that part of the Bible
that we now call
the Old Testament
before the coming of Jesus
every time you see the word heart
what the Bible understood
what God teaches us
is that there's one sort of
central command center
of who we are
and out of that central command center
of who we are
that's where our mind emerges
that's where our creativity emerges
that's where our humor emerges
that's where our desires emerge
that's where our will emerges
that's where our ability to love emerges
that's where our power to do things emerges
that every single thing
that makes you human
emerges out of your heart
and so when the Bible says
trust in the Lord with all your heart
trust him with your memory
your sexuality
your money
your career
your ambition
your past
your future
your dance
your singing
your entrepreneurial ability
your submission
your initiative
all of it emerges
out of the heart
and it says
trust in the Lord
with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding
in all your ways
acknowledge him
the ways of your mind
the ways of your desires
the ways of your creativity
the ways that you tell joke
in all your ways
it's the Bible
launches you
and says
you are to learn
how it means to trust me as Lord
in everything that makes you you
and all that you will become
that's the quest
it's not just a simple rule
or a recipe
it's a quest
to learn how to live that
but some of you say
I don't know George
it still sounds
a little bit
I know
anti-intellectual
like
it says
do not lean on your own understanding
George
doesn't that make it
sort of
anti-intellectual
if you could put up
the next point Andrew
that would be wonderful
actually
sorry
I'm not quite ready
for the next
well you can leave it up there anyway
but
I had something else
I had to say first
you know
it's
actually
take that
go back to the scripture text
sorry Andrew
this is why you have to always be nice to the sound guy
at the beginning of the service
and all the way through
look at the text again
actually
could you say it with me
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
now
if all the Bible said
was lean
do not lean
on your own understanding
it would be very anti-intellectual
in fact
large parts
of eastern thought
is
do not lean
on your own understanding
Christopher Hitchens
in the 80s
was doing documentaries
on different
eastern gurus
that were coming
to the
to the states
to the west
and one of the things
that it was interesting
that he reported
that others didn't report
is that when you were going
to meet the Swami
the guru
there would be a sign
over the door
he recounts one in particular
and it says
leave your shoes
and your mind
at the door
as you go in
do not lean
on your own understanding
that's what they're saying
but the Bible
doesn't just say that
it says
if you just lean
on your own understanding
you're going to get in trouble
and lean on
means to rely on
it's like what we do
with a ladder
going up a ladder
we're leaning
on our own understanding
the Bible says
the problem
isn't just leaning
isn't your understanding
it's leaning
on your own understanding
you need to trust
in the Lord
and acknowledge
means to know him
it is involved in mind
it involves listening
to his word
it involves
looking at how
he communicates
to the order
and wonder of creation
it's a matter
of using your mind
and of thinking
through what it means
that God exists
and what it is
that he says
in his word
and how this applies
to this problem
and this desire
and this longing
and this yearning
and this fear
and this wound
and this need
and it's profoundly
an invitation
to use the mind
that's why
the heart
refers to not only
where other
like our emotions
come from
but also our mind
but some of you
might say
well George
okay the problem is
this whole straight
thing
I mean not just
I mean in a sexual
sense about being straight
I mean
the fact of the matter
is that Christians
don't have successful
and easy lives
and we don't
if you could put up
the next point Andrew
here's the thing
on this quest
the Lord does make
the path
does not make
the path easy
he makes them straight
the straight path
isn't the easy path
if you could put up
the next point Andrew
on this quest
the Lord will do
more than guide
he will make
the paths
straight
you see
in the book
of Proverbs
and in the Old Testament
and in the Bible
the opposite
of the straight path
isn't the hard path
it's the crooked path
the opposite
of the straight path
isn't the easy path
but the path
away from God
the straight path
is the path
that involves
being in God's
presence
under his rule
being in God's
presence
under his rule
that's why this
verse does not
at all contradict
when Jesus says
take up your cross
and follow me
that we can understand
this verse
in a far more
powerful way
sometimes the straight
path will mean
doing very
very
very difficult
and hard
things
and sometimes
the straight path
will mean
doing things
which are
completely
nuts
Hudson Taylor
said
God's work
done in God's way
will always
receive God's
supply
and that's
a brilliant
summary
of biblical
teaching
and
you know
some of you
might know
we're looking
into whether
God is calling
us to start
two new
congregations
so you look
around the room
that's the
dumbest thing
to even consider
in the world
from an economic
and sociological
point of view
and Daniel
was sharing
with me
he was listening
to a podcast
this week
about what it
was like
and it scared
him because
it's so much
work
but
you know
if all we
were doing
was being
motivated
purely by
economics
and sociological
processes
you don't do
things like
that
but the
question
isn't
always
economics
and sociological
processes
is what's
the Lord
calling us
to do
and you
see
the thing
about
making
your path
straight
isn't
just
that
God
gives
direction
but he
makes
the path
straight
God's
will done
in God's
way
will receive
God's
supply
every
congregation
every
Christian
is often
being called
to take
risks
of stepping
out in
faith
because
God
is calling
them to
do
something
that makes
no sense
now this
isn't an
invitation
for you
just to
kiss
your brains
goodbye
you know
trusting the
Lord
with all
your mind
will start
to mean
that you
do put
sense
into it
but sometimes
you just
gotta follow
the Lord's
leading
you really
do
and that's
what this
text encourages
us to do
just want
to wrap
this up
because I'm
up to
42 minutes
some people
worry
I've just
said that
this text
is gonna
make us
religious
and weird
it won't
make us
religious
and weird
but it
will make
us
counter
cultural
if you
could put
up the
next point
Andrew
on this
quest
the Lord
will make
you more
human
as you
become
more
humble
and wise
on this
quest
the Lord
will make
you more
human
as you
become
more
humble
and wise
and finally
the final
point
Andrew
the Lord
is trustworthy
so this
quest
will end
with you
being
where you
truly belong
see that's
the wonderful
thing that
the gospel
this
when this
text was
written
Jesus
still
hadn't
come
but now
when we
read this
text
and we
read it
through the lens
of the gospel
we have this
powerful
wonderful promise
we know
that God so loved
the world
that he sent
his one
and only
son
to the end
that all
that believe
in him
will not perish
but have eternal
life
we know that
Jesus
is introduced
as the Lamb
of God
who takes
away the sin
of the world
but he also
teaches John
to teach us
to say
in the beginning
was the word
and the word
was with God
and the word
was God
he was in the beginning
with God
all things were made
through him
and without him
nothing was made
that was made
that the same
Lord who's created
all things
and is sovereign
over all things
the same Lord
saw who you were
completely and perfectly
and still loved you
so much
that he would send
the son
and in the person
of the son
both the father
the son
and the holy spirit
all of God
in a sense
takes into himself
our rebellion
that God
the son of God
does what is needed
to be done
so that we can be
made right for God
and he does this
completely and utterly
out of love
and he rises
from the dead
after doing that
and that can be known
and so we know
that the Lord
is deeply
trustworthy
I think it's in Romans 8
that he says
if he who did not
spare his own son
how will he not
give you all things
we can trust the Lord
please stand
friends
the Lord calls us
to be deeply
countercultural
we breathe
the cultural air
of lean on
your own understanding
we breathe
the cultural air
of let it go
and
in the midst
of such
earthquake
wind and fire
the Lord speaks
to us
with such
apparent weakness
and quietness
through his word
and whispers
to us
and says
trust in the Lord
with all your heart
and lean not
on your own
understanding
in all your ways
acknowledge him
he will make
your path
straight
let's pray
father
we can get
overawed
by the thunder
of the world
the crashing
of the world
the apparent
power of the world
and father
it can
it can really
be overwhelming
and sometimes
it can make us
afraid
and just want
to hide
and and sometimes
we just feel like
we should surrender
to the world
because we don't
want to be
counter-cultural
but father
we we thank you
for your word
we thank you
for Jesus
we ask father
that you would
help us to
to lit
and to learn
this passage
of scripture
that you would
help us to pray
this passage
of scripture
that you help us
to live this
passage of scripture
we thank you father
that you are so
trustworthy
that you are still
sovereign
that you are still
present
that you are still
active and powerful
in the world
that you are still
the God
who so loved
human beings
that you sent
your son to die
and that the gospel
still works
and it still has
power
and so father
we ask that your
holy spirit
would draw us
to your word
and help us
to live
and to pray
and to walk
in this wonderful
quest that we do
not do alone
but do with you
who makes our
path straight
that we would
grow in trusting
you
with everything
that we are
that we would
not just lean
on our own
unaided
understanding
but that we
would acknowledge
you in every
aspect of who
we are
and we thank
you father
that you will
walk with us
and never
abandon us
and that you
will always
care for us
and love us
and you will
make our
paths straight
all these things
we ask in the
name of Jesus
your son
and our savior
amen