Show Notes
Proverbs 16:3
Pastor Stephen Laurer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Our God and Father in Heaven, we thank you that you know our weakness.
[00:00:09] That as we confess our sins, our frailty, our problems, you already know them and you'd forgive them for Jesus sake. Oh, how our hearts are full then of peace and comfort as we come to hear from you in your word. For we know that we come to a God who has received us and made us his own.
[00:00:37] We come to our Father who loves us and who desires to provide for the needs of our soul.
[00:00:47] And what a wonderful provision you have given us in Jesus Christ, your Son, the bread of life, the one from whom streams forth living waters.
[00:01:02] O Lord God, we ask that this morning, as we hear from you in your word, you would tend to the needs of our souls.
[00:01:11] Each of us has our particular concerns and problems, our weaknesses.
[00:01:19] So we ask that you would grant healing strength, that you would quiet us, that you would help us, that we might receive the Lord Jesus Christ the bread of life, that we would feed on him by faith, and that believing in him we would have life eternal and that we would find in him all that we need in abundance.
[00:01:52] Grant us this and more for Jesus sake, by the power of your spirit. Amen.
[00:02:01] Our sermon text this Morning is Proverbs 16. 3.
[00:02:11] Proverbs 16.
[00:02:34] We'll read the first seven verses together of Proverbs. Proverbs 16.
[00:02:40] The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.
[00:02:47] All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.
[00:02:56] Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established.
[00:03:04] The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble.
[00:03:11] Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord.
[00:03:16] Be assured, he will not go unpunished.
[00:03:20] By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for.
[00:03:25] And by the fear of the Lord. One turns away from from evil.
[00:03:31] When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
[00:03:38] Please be seated.
[00:03:58] Again, our sermon text is going to be from verse 3, Proverbs 16. 3.
[00:04:07] Well, we've made it all the way to March.
[00:04:10] I think this is the first fully two months in beginning our third month.
[00:04:16] How many of you made plans for this year?
[00:04:21] How are they coming along?
[00:04:25] We make plans, don't we? Maybe you made plans for Bible reading goals this year. I'm going to read through the Bible again or I'm going to start this new study plan. Maybe you make plans for personal development.
[00:04:38] Maybe there's New skills you want to learn. You want to do better in maybe managing your finances or something, right?
[00:04:48] Maybe it's plans for your children and their education, new school that you want them to start at in the fall, maybe a new curriculum that you're going to work with them in your home school.
[00:05:03] Or maybe it's family plans.
[00:05:06] We're going to have a better chore system, or we're going to go on a fun vacation this summer, or maybe it's a little bit more serious. You begin the year and you say, I know I need to work on certain areas of my sanctification, my Christian life. There's areas I need to grow in.
[00:05:28] I need to be more joyful. I need to learn to trust the Lord more rather than worrying and fretting. Maybe there's particular sins you want the Lord to help you conquer and put off.
[00:05:40] We make all kinds of plans about the things that we're going to do.
[00:05:47] And this proverb teaches us that the things that we do, actually all of the things that we do, whatever it is that you can think about doing as a person, as a family, as a Christian, all of the things you do, God wants you to commit them to him, to commit your works to God.
[00:06:10] It's a command, committing your works to God. So this morning, as we look at this proverb, I want first to look at this command, commit your works to God.
[00:06:20] Secondly, we want to look at a blessing that God attaches to that command. Those who commit their works to God, God promises a blessing that your thoughts will be established.
[00:06:31] So first the command. Secondly, a blessing.
[00:06:35] And finally, I want to look with you at the reason why God will bless you.
[00:06:42] Why is it that God will bless you should you commit your works to Him? So first the command, then a blessing, and then the reason why God will bless you.
[00:06:53] So the command to commit your works to God.
[00:06:59] There are three things I want to look at with you.
[00:07:02] What we commit to God, what are the works in view.
[00:07:05] Secondly, how is it that you commit them to God?
[00:07:10] And then thirdly, why we need to commit them to God.
[00:07:18] So God commands you to commit your works to Him. What is it that you are to commit to him?
[00:07:26] Everything.
[00:07:27] Everything that you do, from the time you wake up in the morning until the time you go to bed at night, even your sleep, you are to commit to God everything, from the biggest of things, the things that we tend to make big plans about, to the littlest of things, the most mundane of things. God wants you to commit everything to him, whether it's Playing with your toys, doing your schoolwork, cleaning up your room.
[00:07:59] God wants you to entrust all of this to Him.
[00:08:04] Maybe it's taking out the trash, doing your part time job, making decisions about what college to go to.
[00:08:13] Making a decision about whether this man or this woman I'm dating is the mate for life. Is this the man or woman that God wants me to marry?
[00:08:25] All of those things he wants you to entrust to him.
[00:08:32] How shall we raise our children? That's a really important one.
[00:08:36] How will I be a good husband or wife?
[00:08:41] That's both of those things.
[00:08:44] Deal with big things and they deal with the little things. How we treat each other on a day to day basis, all of it.
[00:08:53] God wants us to commit to him our worship.
[00:08:58] Think about that.
[00:08:59] Is it possible to come to church and sit in the pew and not commit your worship to God? Most of us have done that on most on here and there, haven't we come and we spent the whole time thinking about ourselves or something else.
[00:09:14] Your plans for the future, retirement, whatever it is, all of it. God wants you to commit to him the way the New Testament says this.
[00:09:24] Therefore whether you eat or drink, those are the little things or whatever you do do all to the glory of God.
[00:09:35] Now what do we not commit to God?
[00:09:38] That's everything, right? There are things we're not to commit to God.
[00:09:43] The sinful things, right? If we tell lies, if we cheat, we steal, we cause trouble, we scheme and make plans to get back at this home. Obviously we're not to commit those things to God.
[00:09:56] But it isn't just the sinful things in and of themselves. But we also can do a lot of good things from a bad attitude for the wrong reasons.
[00:10:09] We go to work, but we're feeling lazy and grumpy about it.
[00:10:14] That's not committing our work to God.
[00:10:17] We have family members over for Thanksgiving maybe, but we don't want to see them. And the whole time that they're there we're resenting them. Not committing that day and that hospitality to God, those are grown up things. But children who don't want to share their toys with their siblings.
[00:10:41] But mom says you got to do it and so you hand it over but you're upset the whole time. Well, you can't commit that to God.
[00:10:52] So we can't commit sinful things or things that we do from a sinful attitude to God.
[00:11:00] There's one more piece here, one more idea on what we're called to commit to God. I've argued that it's everything we can add everything that we do from the right motivations, a good heart. And everything that we do that we're called to do that's good, we commit to God.
[00:11:17] But there's one more thing. We're called to entrust the outcome to God that we commit. When we commit our works, everything from taking out the trash to going to work and putting in the long hard hours to provide for our family, to our plans for the future, to our getting married, all of it, we entrust not only what we're doing, but the outcome we're called to entrust to God.
[00:11:44] Leave these things to God.
[00:11:49] That's the what.
[00:11:51] Now, how are we called to commit? What is the command here calling us to?
[00:11:57] The English word commit can have a couple different senses, right?
[00:12:01] We can talk about committing a crime. Obviously, that's not what's in view here. We talk about committing a person to a prison or an asylum.
[00:12:10] That's not it.
[00:12:12] The idea here is that of entrusting what we do to God.
[00:12:18] All the things that we do all day long, all lifelong, we're called to entrust to God.
[00:12:27] The Hebrew word here. Sometimes you wish that the words were literal because you would get the image.
[00:12:35] It's a word of imagery. It's an analogy word.
[00:12:38] The word here is literally to roll your works to God. Like it's a big stone or a ball that you're rolling in a particular direction.
[00:12:49] Roll your works to God.
[00:12:55] You get the idea of rolling something onto God.
[00:13:01] God wants you. Then all day long, every day, with everything that you think about doing as you go to do it and as you think about doing it, to roll those ideas and those thoughts and those works onto him, committing it to him, entrusting it to him, putting it in his hands and saying, God, this is for you and God. You've got this. And I trust you to guide both my work as I do it and its outcome.
[00:13:35] How do you do this? How do you roll your works onto God? There's at least two ways that we can commit or entrust our works to God.
[00:13:44] First has to do with that big doctrine that we call the providence of God.
[00:13:50] This is the idea that everything that happens in our lives, everywhere, in fact everything that happens in the whole universe, God governs by his almighty power.
[00:14:05] Everything that's happening all the time. God is governing. He. He's guiding it. He's caring for it. He's making sure that it happens in the way that he wants it to happen.
[00:14:18] God guides everything in your life 24 hours a day. When you're awake and when you're asleep, God never sleeps. He who keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. God is watching over you all the time and everything that you plan to do and then that you put your hands to do.
[00:14:38] God is watching over and he's guiding.
[00:14:43] Proverbs 16, 9. We didn't quite read that far, but 16 verse 9 says, A man's heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
[00:14:53] There is nothing in your life that you do that God is not guiding, where he is not there governing what's happening.
[00:15:04] And so the first way that you are called to entrust yourself to God is to trust his providence, trust his care and guiding of you.
[00:15:15] Commit your works, the plans and the things that you're going to do. Think about this every morning I get up and I know all the things that I have to do for my children, with my schooling, playing with my brothers and sisters or my friends, my work that I'm going to do, the business, that I'm going to run all of these works. You contemplate them and you say, I'm going to trust that God is caring for me and guiding me, and that he will help me through these things and that he will bring about the right outcome, whatever that is.
[00:15:48] Commit roll your works to God and His providential care for you and trust that he's going to bring good from it. Sometimes it's painful, sometimes it's hard.
[00:16:00] But God promises us that he works all things for our good, meaning that even the difficult things, even the outcomes we didn't want, are for our good.
[00:16:12] So first, we commit our works to God by trusting his providence, depending on him as we go through those things.
[00:16:22] Secondly, we're called to commit ourselves, our works to God not just by trusting the doctrine of Providence, as wonderful as that is, but by entrusting our works to him in prayer.
[00:16:38] We're called to pray every day, yes, but the New Testament tells us we're to be watchful in prayer, to be praying without ceasing, that our whole lives are to be lives of prayer.
[00:16:53] Think of it this way.
[00:16:55] All the things that we're called to do every day, we're called to pray about them. Yes, as we start our day, we pray about our day. We say, God, I've got this I have to do and that I have to do. Please keep me from sin as I do them, and give me success and strength so that I can do them to your glory. And then as you go through your day, you're constantly turning to the Lord, in prayer, here comes a big task. God help me through it. Help me to trust you. Help me to trust your providence in this particular matter.
[00:17:27] The little things and the big things.
[00:17:31] First, John 5:14 says, now this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
[00:17:42] If the things that you purpose to do are good, they're what God calls you to do, then you can pray about them, anything, whatever it is, all day long. And it isn't just that you can, but God calls you to do so, and in doing so, to roll those works to God, to entrust them to Him.
[00:18:08] Now why do you need to do this? This is the command. Commit everything, everything you do all day long to God, no matter how mundane, no matter how big, to commit it to his providence, to commit it to him in prayer.
[00:18:22] Why do you need to do this?
[00:18:25] As mundane as playing with your toys or taking out the trash. Why do you need to commit everything to God?
[00:18:36] Well, certainly God calls us to do great things every day, things that are beyond our strength.
[00:18:44] If you're a Christian, then you've been called to turn from sin, to put it to death, and to pursue righteousness and peace and holiness.
[00:18:54] Those are big things, things that are beyond your power as a human being who's fallen.
[00:19:04] Those are things you cannot bear up under.
[00:19:09] And God commands you to commit those things to Him. That's a great blessing in and of itself. God says, come, bring those burdens to me. Put them on me, and I will carry them for you. And trust your struggle with sin to me, and trust your the struggles you have with belief and faith. Can I do what I'm called to do? Entrust it to me and I will carry it for you.
[00:19:37] Don't hold back.
[00:19:39] What are the things that weigh you down the most? Your very heaviest burdens.
[00:19:46] Carry them to God and leave them there.
[00:19:48] He will carry them for you.
[00:19:54] But I need to convince you here it isn't just the heaviest things that you need God's help with, that you need to commit to Him.
[00:20:03] It isn't just the things that are hardest for you.
[00:20:06] It's the easiest things also that you need to learn to entrust to your Heavenly Father.
[00:20:16] How does your day go? You wake up, you're feeling strong.
[00:20:21] It's an easy day. I feel great. The work I had to do today is like falling off a log. I've done this a million times.
[00:20:30] And then what happens? Maybe if you're young, you haven't had too many days like this. But Those of us have lived a little while. We've had lots of days like this. You get to about 11 o' clock and then the weakness hits you.
[00:20:42] Maybe it's a cold, maybe it's fatigue, maybe you get a migraine and all of a sudden you don't have the strength to do the very easiest of things. That you said was a piece of cake today.
[00:20:55] Taking out the trash all of a sudden is impossible.
[00:20:59] We only have so much physical strength and we don't know whether going to have it all day long.
[00:21:06] Yes, you need to entrust yourself and your works to God because you may not make it through the day with the strength you thought you had.
[00:21:17] Another way to put this is that you have no guarantee of the outcome of your works.
[00:21:24] Whatever it is that you plan to do, no matter how easy or mundane, you have no guarantee of the outcome.
[00:21:32] You say to yourself, I'm strong, I'm healthy, I'm doing great. I'm in the prime of life, flying high in my career. Everything's going great.
[00:21:49] But you don't know what tomorrow holds. You don't know whether your health will hold. You don't know whether your career isn't going to fall flat next week.
[00:22:04] We have no control over the future, over the weather, the course of nature. We have no power over it.
[00:22:13] We can't control whether a family emergency, say, will arise and whether we'll be able to preach and lead the worship service on Sunday morning. Pastor Chopka, this morning, God had other plans for him and his family.
[00:22:29] What guarantee do you have regarding the things that you plan to do?
[00:22:35] You don't.
[00:22:37] You need to entrust your works to God.
[00:22:42] Now, that's just physical health. Maybe you're still not persuaded.
[00:22:48] I'm doing great. I'm 22.
[00:22:51] I've never had a problem in my life. Everything's going great. The world is my oyster. And I wake up every morning and I fly through the day.
[00:23:00] No problems. Everything's going great.
[00:23:04] I remember those days.
[00:23:07] That was about 20 years ago.
[00:23:12] Not only do you have no guarantee of the outcome, you have something within you that is guaranteed and pretty much guaranteed to trip you up. Especially if you rely on yourself and don't commit your works to God.
[00:23:29] Even if you have strength, even if everything goes off perfectly according to plan outwardly, how do you know that you will do everything well to God's glory?
[00:23:46] What happens when things are going so well and you're so strong and everyone loves the work that you're doing?
[00:23:54] Pride begins to creep up within you.
[00:23:57] Look how good I'm doing.
[00:24:01] What a wonderful job I'm doing.
[00:24:05] What if selfishness begins to take root?
[00:24:12] What if you begin to doubt?
[00:24:16] Does God really love me? Everything's going well. I'm doing great. I'm accomplishing good things. Things.
[00:24:24] But does God really love me?
[00:24:30] All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.
[00:24:34] Proverbs 16:2.
[00:24:36] All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes. But the Lord weighs the spirits.
[00:24:44] Not a one of us, as wonderful as we may seem to be from the outside, that's not me. But none of us has a heart pure enough to make sure that everything we do is done with the right intentions and the right desires and to the glory of God.
[00:25:09] Now you absolutely must. It is imperative that every day, all day long, you learn to roll your works to God, to entrust your works upon on Him. Because of the deceitfulness and the sinfulness of your heart, you need his help.
[00:25:28] You need to entrust things to him humbly, no matter how well they're going, seeking his help, his blessing that he might deliver you from your own heart.
[00:25:43] You see, your fight isn't just a physical problem.
[00:25:48] It's a spiritual heart problem.
[00:25:52] And it isn't just a physical, a spiritual heart problem.
[00:25:56] It's a fight with a spiritual world that surrounds you.
[00:26:02] Remember what the apostle Paul says. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood. As you go out into the world to serve the Lord and to do great things for Him, Paul says, you're not fighting with the people around you.
[00:26:17] You wrestle with powers and principalities, the forces of spiritual darkness. In other words, the devil and his demons.
[00:26:26] There are creatures, spiritual creatures, who you cannot see, who are out to tear you down, to lead you astray, to cause you to fall into sin by tempting you, tempting that indwelling sin in your heart, to pride, to selfishness, to greed, to downfall.
[00:26:46] The only way that you can face them, the apostle says, is to be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
[00:26:58] How can you face the spiritual realm that's out to get you?
[00:27:02] By entrusting yourself to God and to his power and to his care for you, that he would protect you and keep you from evil.
[00:27:13] Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, and especially from the evil one.
[00:27:22] No, you need to roll your works to God to entrust yourself, your works, your and the outcome to God.
[00:27:31] He will bear you up and bless you. And that's our second point, the blessing that God offers to you, dear Christian, if you entrust Your works to him.
[00:27:45] Now the ESV in this verse translates it. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established.
[00:27:56] It's on the right track with the word plans, but the word here is actually thoughts that your thoughts would be established.
[00:28:10] And that's significant. It's true that your plans will be established, but it's something deeper that the proverb is getting at. God's promise is that your thoughts, the thoughts of your heart would be established.
[00:28:26] Think about our actions, the works that we're committing to God and our thoughts about those works.
[00:28:33] We think about the things that we're going to do. We make plans about things.
[00:28:39] We have intentions, desires to do this or to do that.
[00:28:45] And as we think about the things that we have to do today, when we wake up in the morning, tomorrow morning, next week, next month, next year, as we ponder what's before us, what happens, often we think about the problems in our family.
[00:29:03] We think about that child and doesn't seem to understand the Gospel.
[00:29:09] Maybe that son or that daughter is straying from the faith.
[00:29:14] And we begin to become worried.
[00:29:18] Our health is declining, we're struggling, we're weak physically. We have a job to do. We have a family to provide.
[00:29:26] And where do our thoughts go? As we contemplate the week ahead, the month ahead, the years ahead, Maybe you have 20 more years left of work to do and a family to support. And my. I'm having health problems.
[00:29:39] And our thoughts begin to be troubled.
[00:29:43] Will I have the strength to keep on working, to keep on fighting?
[00:29:48] You get the idea. As our thoughts contemplate the works that we're called to do, they tend to become troubled, anxious. We wonder, we doubt God's promise here is that if we commit our works to him, he will establish our thoughts.
[00:30:12] The word establish here is the word that's used for building a house in other places in the Bible.
[00:30:22] The idea of building a house is that you're standing up a firm, steady structure, something that won't move.
[00:30:31] God uses this word to describe how he establishes King David's reign. Remember when David has defeated the Philistines and his enemies, he's taken Jerusalem, he sets up his kingdom, all 12 tribes are under him, he establishes peace. And David is reigning firmly and securely in Jerusalem over God's people. And it says that God established him in the kingdom.
[00:31:00] The same word established is used of the mountains, how the mountains are established.
[00:31:08] They're fixed firmly and securely. You can look at Mount Lemmon, you can look all around Tucson and you see mountains.
[00:31:16] Do they move does anything move them? No matter how terrible the monsoons are, when they come through, do the mountains move? Nope. Nothing moves them.
[00:31:28] They're established.
[00:31:31] And that's the kind of promise God is giving us regarding our thoughts.
[00:31:39] That he will firmly and securely fix our thoughts. That if we commit our works to God, trusting His providence, entrusting ourselves and our lives to him in prayer, that he will settle quiet our thoughts.
[00:31:59] He will establish them.
[00:32:03] Now, there's something truly deep and profound here that the proverb is offering you. That God is offering you.
[00:32:12] Dear Christian, people, pursue peace of mind.
[00:32:18] We talk about having peace of mind because maybe we got a good insurance policy on our house.
[00:32:27] We have good health insurance coverage, and so I have peace of mind. I can not worry because those risks are taken care of by the insurance.
[00:32:38] People like to have peace of mind.
[00:32:42] Here, God is promising something greater, better, deeper, more secure than peace of mind.
[00:32:51] God doesn't just promise peace of mind because, after all, he's not offering that the Christian won't experience trouble or pain or trials or difficulties or persecutions.
[00:33:06] Those things will come.
[00:33:09] He's not offering you peace of mind as though there won't be risks in life or troubles or trials.
[00:33:17] God promises you peace of heart, a settled heart.
[00:33:23] A heart that is secure and resting in God and in his care for you. Because he reigns, because he governs all and you are resting in Him.
[00:33:37] He governs your life all day long. He governs your future, all of it. He's planned it all out.
[00:33:44] He knows what's going to happen before you do.
[00:33:48] And he's guiding it all according to his good sovereign plan. That's peace of heart, something far greater than peace of mind.
[00:33:58] Not a hair can fall from your head.
[00:34:03] You talk about taking out the trash, being mundane. I don't know when the hairs fall from my head. But my Heavenly Father knows. And it doesn't fall from your head without him allowing it.
[00:34:18] That will give you peace of heart as you rest in Him.
[00:34:25] Now, this is something the world does not know and cannot know.
[00:34:31] All the insurance policies, all the money in the bank, the best doctors.
[00:34:37] Nothing can give peace of heart.
[00:34:42] Nothing can firmly settle the thoughts of your heart and mind fixed, firmly established in God and in his care for you.
[00:34:53] The world will never know that this is only for the Child of God.
[00:35:00] And so the New Testament tells us, be anxious for nothing.
[00:35:05] How is that possible? Possible? How can you have peace of heart?
[00:35:12] Because in everything with prayer and supplication, you've made your requests known to God. There it is.
[00:35:18] Commit your ways to God in prayer. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
[00:35:29] That's the New Testament version of this proverb.
[00:35:33] God will give you peace of heart.
[00:35:37] Jesus Himself says this Peace I leave with you.
[00:35:43] My peace I give to you not as the world gives.
[00:35:49] Let not your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.
[00:35:56] This is a promise the world can't have because it doesn't have God as its God. It doesn't have Jesus as its Savior.
[00:36:05] It's a promise the world can't have because it's a promise that only God can make.
[00:36:12] It's a promise only God can give.
[00:36:16] It's a promise grounded in who God is, in his sovereign character, his power. It's grounded in his love for you.
[00:36:27] And it's something he can put in your heart. Insurance agents can give promises, address risks. This policy will cover this and that.
[00:36:38] But insurance agents and policies can't address the heart. But God can.
[00:36:44] He says, I'm going to settle and establish your hearts and your thoughts and give you peace. And guess what?
[00:36:51] He indwells you by His Holy Spirit. And so he can change your heart and give it peace.
[00:37:00] This is your promise, dear children.
[00:37:04] Look to your Heavenly Father. Commit your works to him and he will establish the thoughts of your heart.
[00:37:14] There's the command, the blessing.
[00:37:18] Thirdly, I said we would look at the reason.
[00:37:20] Why will God bless you? Why does God choose to bless his people with such peace when they entrust themselves to Him?
[00:37:34] Well, I don't deserve this peace.
[00:37:37] I don't deserve to have the thoughts of my heart established. We talked about indwelling sin.
[00:37:44] I've got unbelief. I've got pride. I've got selfishness. I've got greed. I've got all sorts of sins within me. And the result of those sinful desires and tendencies is that my mind is going to be troubled and troubled all the time.
[00:38:01] And because of that sin, I don't deserve any blessings from God.
[00:38:06] And the same is true of you.
[00:38:10] Why does God choose to allow us? He commands us, but he also allows us to entrust ourselves to Him. That command is itself a blessing. And then when we follow through on it, he says, I'm going to give you peace and settle your thoughts.
[00:38:28] The answer, of course, is found in Jesus and in his work.
[00:38:33] We're talking about the book of Proverbs here. That's King Solomon. He writes these proverbs. He wrote the book of Proverbs as you read it. He wrote it to train his son.
[00:38:44] Listen, my son. Over and over again he speaks to his son. What's he doing? He's preparing his son to be the next king, to be a wise king, who would lead God's people, who would reign over God's people in perfect wisdom.
[00:39:01] And Solomon's sons didn't listen.
[00:39:06] They may have read the Book of Proverbs, some of them, but none of them really got it, did they?
[00:39:12] Solomon didn't. He knew that his sons were not going to fully get what was in the Book of Proverbs.
[00:39:20] He wrote this son at the Book of Proverbs for his son. He knew that one of his descendants God would bring one day, would read the book of Proverbs, would grow up and be that perfectly wise and righteous king.
[00:39:35] In other words, Solomon wrote the book of Proverbs for Jesus.
[00:39:40] He knew that one day Jesus, that son of David, would come to be the savior of his people. He would read the Proverbs. He would read Proverbs 16, verse 3.
[00:39:51] And Jesus would entrust himself to God, and God would establish him.
[00:39:59] Jesus came. And we're told in the New Testament that Jesus came to fulfill the whole Old Testament.
[00:40:04] Guess what? That includes this proverb.
[00:40:10] Jesus came and he all his lifelong committed all his works to the Father.
[00:40:16] He tells us that. You read John 5, John 6. He came to do the works of the Father. Everything the Father showed him, he came and he did it.
[00:40:26] And he committed the very greatest of his works, his cross work, to the Father.
[00:40:35] Think about that.
[00:40:37] As Jesus went to the cross, as he contemplated going towards the cross, how was Jesus feeling about that?
[00:40:49] Luke 12:50 says, as he thought about the cross, he says, I have a baptism, meaning the cross.
[00:40:56] A baptism to be baptized with.
[00:40:59] And how distressed I am till it is accomplished.
[00:41:05] He was so troubled in his thoughts about the cross that we Read in Luke 22:44.
[00:41:15] Being in agony, he prayed earnestly.
[00:41:18] Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
[00:41:26] But Jesus obeyed the proverb.
[00:41:30] He heard the command. And he entrusted himself and his work, his greatest work, even to the Father.
[00:41:38] He said, father, if it is your will, take this cup away from me.
[00:41:43] Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.
[00:41:48] Father, this troubles me.
[00:41:51] I faced death. He was human, just like you and I.
[00:41:54] And that fear of death was before him. And he said, I will go to the cross. I will entrust myself to you, O God, and commit the end to you.
[00:42:07] And the Father heard him. And the Father kept the promise that you find in this proverb.
[00:42:15] Hebrews 5:7 says that Jesus was heard because of his godly fear.
[00:42:21] And the Father. As the Son prayed to the Father in agony, committing himself to the Father, the Father sent an angel from heaven to strengthen him.
[00:42:33] The Father established Jesus thoughts and sustained him so that he would get up from Gethsemane and go to the cross.
[00:42:41] So, in faith, entrusting himself to God, Jesus got up from prayer and what did he do?
[00:42:50] He went forward to face that band of armed men who came to arrest him.
[00:42:58] And he handed himself over to them.
[00:43:03] His thoughts settled, his heart at peace before the Father. Sustained by the Father and his promise, Jesus stood trial and answered terrible questions, lying questions and false witness against him. He answered all of it with great composure, thoughts firmly established by God's blessing.
[00:43:32] He endured beating, mocking, being spat on and struck.
[00:43:38] He carried the cross with composure while hanging on the cross. Jesus, while hanging on the cross, instructed that his mother would be cared for after his death.
[00:43:55] That's a mind and heart settled because God has firmly established his thoughts.
[00:44:03] His thoughts were established and even at peace, committing himself to the Father even at the very moment of death. Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit.
[00:44:19] Proverbs 16:3.
[00:44:22] He entrusted Himself to the Father and the Father established his thoughts.
[00:44:29] God allows you to commit your works to him and then promises to bless you with peace. You don't deserve.
[00:44:37] Because Jesus first did this for you.
[00:44:43] So how do you obey this proverb?
[00:44:45] You do so in Christ.
[00:44:48] You do so putting your trust in Jesus and in his saving work.
[00:44:55] It's because he went to the cross that your dead works are forgiven and the power of your sin is put to death on the cross. And and it no more has sway over you and you have peace with God and you're forgiven. So now as one forgiven in Christ Jesus because he obeyed the proverb for you, you can draw near to God with confidence and say, father, this is the day that's before me. These are the great works of putting sin to death, of loving others that you have placed before me. And I entrust myself to you. You hear me? Receive me, love me, care for me, for Jesus sake.
[00:45:41] And you can trust that God will do this, that he will work in you to carry you through the day. He will establish and fix your heart and your thoughts throughout the day. Why?
[00:45:53] Because Jesus. Because Jesus died and he rose and he purchased the right to pour out God's Holy Spirit on you.
[00:46:03] You do these things by the power of the Spirit that He poured out on your heart and baptized you with. He was baptized on the cross so that he might baptize you with the Holy Spirit. He took your judgment and fire so that he might give you life, a well springing up to eternal life from within your heart.
[00:46:24] The Holy Spirit indwells you because Jesus went to the cross.
[00:46:31] And that same Spirit as he empowers you to serve and entrust yourself to God all day long. That same spirit works on your heart to quiet your doubts, to point your doubting heart to Christ, to help you see the Father in every little detail all day long and say, God is with me, he's caring for me.
[00:46:53] Even if my works fail, his works will succeed. My power is weak. His providence is strong.
[00:47:00] And even if there's problems for me in this life, he brings good and glory. Through all of this you see the reason.
[00:47:11] The reason not only you may receive blessings from God, you will receive blessings from God in this proverb. The reason is Jesus and his work for you. Let's pray.
[00:47:26] O Lord our God, we confess first the greatness of our sin as we consider the vast scope of our life, all the many things that you call us to do all day long, the whole future that's before us, we see so much that will be affected by our sin and our weakness.
[00:47:51] And we confess that we need this Jesus. We need his blood to wash away our sin, to forgive us, to heal us and to restore us.
[00:48:01] We confess secondly, the great weakness of our faith. O God, you call us to entrust our works, our whole life to you, all the time, without ceasing to pray.
[00:48:15] But our faith is weak.
[00:48:17] Forgive us. And we ask that by the power of your spirit, you would turn our hearts to Jesus, that we would see in him all of your mercy, all of your love for us undeserving sinners, that we would see all of your mighty power displayed in him, that we would be drawn to him, and that in him we we might find the power, the desire to entrust everything to you, to let go, to give up control, to submit ourselves to your providence, your love and your care for us in everything.
[00:48:59] Help us to do that, for Jesus sake.
[00:49:03] O Lord our God, we come now to you confessing and bringing our petitions.
[00:49:10] Lord God, we ask that you would look upon your creation, upon mankind, as he is spread out across the globe.
[00:49:21] Lord, we see all kinds of strife and trouble. Indeed this week we've heard the tidings of war.
[00:49:29] Lord God, we ask that you who reign over all would bring an end to war, that you would break the bow and spear, cut them in two that you would raise your voice, that the earth would melt, that you would bring peace.
[00:49:50] Oh God, we pray especially for your church. And we ask that you would be with our brothers and sisters who are in persecution.
[00:49:59] Grant them holiness, filled our hearts with visions of Christ. That they might be strengthened in their faith and in their witness.
[00:50:07] And we ask that you would bring an end to the persecution.
[00:50:11] That the gospel might go forward with boldness and power.
[00:50:19] And that the lost everywhere would be brought in.
[00:50:22] Lord our God, we pray for our own congregation and our own needs.
[00:50:29] Lord, we need your help in our marriages and in our families. That we might show forth the love of Christ, that our homes might be filled with your joy.
[00:50:40] We ask that you would put away strife and deal with our selfishness and the things that drive us apart.
[00:50:46] Grant us reconciliation and peace in Jesus our Savior.
[00:50:51] We ask that you would provide for our physical needs, strengthen us that we might work. Bless us in it. Those of us who need better or more work, we ask that you would grant it to them.
[00:51:02] Father, we ask that you would be with those who are sick. Grant them healing those who mourn. Bring them comfort with those who are aging. We ask that you would sustain them, be near to them.
[00:51:15] That they might not be lonely, but that they might be full of joy in your presence.
[00:51:21] We ask, O God, for those who are students, that you would bless them in their studies, for those who teach, that you would grant them grace, wisdom, that they might help those under their care.
[00:51:33] O God, we thank you that you hear our prayers. We commit ourselves to you, body and soul, in life and in death. And we trust that you will give us all that we need and more. For Jesus sake. Amen.
