Acknowledging who God is has less to do with having knowledge and everything to do with knowing him in an intimate way.
Sermon Title: DIVINE DIRECTION: MAKING WISE DECISIONS
Sermon Text: PROVERBS 3:5-6 (NIV)
Sermon Series: SCRIPTURE SNAPSHOTS: TIMELESS TRUTHS IN A FEW WORDS
By: PTR NESTOR SY
Sermon Notes:
PROVERBS 3:5-6 ESV
5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Our decisions today determine the stories we tell tomorrow.
Four key expressions:
1. Trust in the Lord with all your heart
trust | Heb: batach
“to lean with the full body, to lay upon, to rest the full weight upon.”
JEREMIAH 17:9 ESV
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
MATTHEW 15:19-20 ESV
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.
“Our hearts were never meant to be followed, but to be led.”
Jon Bloom
2. Do not lean on your own understandaing
lean | Heb: shaan
“to lean, support oneself.”
understanding | Heb: binah
“understanding, insight, discernment.”
Use your mental powers, but do not lean on them for total support.
3. In all your ways acknowledge him
acknowledge | Heb: yada
“to know, perceive, understand, acknowledge.”
PROVERBS 3:6 YLT
6 In all thy ways know thou Him, And He doth make straight thy paths.
GENESIS 4:1 NIV
1 Adam lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth a man.”
GENESIS 4:1 ESV
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.”
Acknowledging who God is has less to do with having knowledge and everything to do with knowing him in an intimate way.
2 PETER 1:2-3 ESV
2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence,
Knowing God in Christ should be our greatest desire and delight.
4. And he will make straight your paths
make straight | Heb: yashar
“to be smooth, straight, or right; to make it easy, manageable.”
The best place from which we make our decision is when we are walking closest to our Lord.
Some thoughts on decision making:
IT IS NOT WHAT WE KNOW AS MUCH AS WHO WE KNOW.
Unfortunately many of us want to reduce our relationship with God into a formula.
IT IS NOT ABOUT THE DECISION AS MUCH AS IT IS ABOUT WHAT YOU BECOME.
The person you become is more valuable to God than the decisions that you make.
IT IS NOT ABOUT WHAT WE SEE AS MUCH AS WHAT GOD SEES.
The best place from which we make our decision is when we are walking closest to our Lord.