Getting God’s Guidance | Proverbs 3:5-6

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Morning, South Folsom Church Morning. It’s good y’all- to see you all this morning. If you’re tuning in online, thank you for joining us there. We hope you feel connected as well in some way there on your living room. Hopefully not … I guess you could listen and drive, but hopefully you’re not driving right now and looking at the screen.

But welcome nonetheless. If you are new or new-ish around here, my name’s Aaron Bjorklund. I’m one of the pastors here. And if that is you, we have that space in the lobby, it was already mentioned, for you to just check out and ask questions and see if this might be a community that you’d wanna plug into and give some more of your energy to and then receive more from by actually plugging in.

So today, if you are new or if you’re a regular, it’s an exciting day ’cause we’re kicking off a new series. We just finished up our series called The Space Between, where we talked about wilderness things. And a lot of the times the sermons ended up on a lot of things around suffering. And full confession, I’m, it was hard to talk about that for six or seven weeks in a row so I’m excited to start a series on Proverbs. But we have to lay some ground rules around the Book of Proverbs before we dive in, and so I’m gonna start with that. But before I get into the subject of Proverbs in general, let me just ask this.

How many of you grew up with a father or a grandfather or a crazy old uncle that had a bunch of wacky sayings that they would use all the time? Anyone? Does anyone wanna share one of the wacky sayings their f- dad used to say or something? My way or the highway. My way or the highway. Yeah, there is to get

Any others? Mess with the bull, you’ll get the horns. I like that, yeah. So my dad had all these sayings too. Growing up, he had so many sayings, and I was trying to remember some of them this week because they’re so contextual. And I use them a lot myself now but they’re so contextual and I asked my siblings, “Can can you remind me some of these?”

And some of these are really fun for me childhood memories. It’s like beating your head against the wall ’cause it feels so good when you stop. Ah, some of the staff have heard me say this around the office. It’s wow, that was hard work. I know. i worked once and it was a lot like that Ship up or shape out.

What he meant, it was actually shape up or ship out, but he would always say ship up or shape out. Mind your P’s and Q’s. It’s like cutting off your nose to spite your face. These are just fun little sayings that stuck in the me- in my memory. Ab- about w- when I got married and we started having kids and they started understanding language, I started using these phrases that my dad like, said when he…

But I would always preface it. “Papa used to say. Papa used to say.” Or his nickname was Papa Truck “Papa Truck used to say. Papa Truck used to say.” My, w- when my youn- or my oldest got to about 12 years old, I had this realization, when do I need to stop prefacing with Pa- Papa used to say? This is something I say now.

I just own it. I thought it was dorky things that my dad said, and now I’m just the dorky dad that says these same so- sort of things. There’re these memorable phrases that stick in my mind because they conjure funny thoughts or they visualize something for us.

And in a lot of ways, proverbs do the same thing. There’s these short, pithy things that like, really efficiently cast an idea or a thought into your mind. And cultures all around the world have been developing and curating famous proverbs in their culture since the beginning of humanity. So here’s a few of them.

You might recognize some of these African proverbs. If you wanna go fast, go alone. If you wanna go far, go together. Some good stuff, right? Smooth seas do not make skillful sailors. Until the lion learns to write, every story will glorify the hunter. Yeah. Yep, that’s accurate. The best way to eat an elephant, and you might have heard this, some, a variation of this, to eat an elephant in your path is to cut him up into little pieces, or one bite at a time, right?

You might have heard that one. If you think you are too small to make a difference, you have never spent the night with a mosquito. Fair enough. Fair enough. Played. Great little African proverbs, but there’s a lot of wisdom there, right? How about some Asian proverbs here? The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is now. Fall seven times, stand up eight. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. I like this one. Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. These are great little sayings that like, allow the communicator of them sayings to like, really efficiently stick an idea into your brain and help you understand something about how the world generally functions.

My favorite proverb, though, is this one. By the famous theologian Dwight Schrute, “Whenever I’m about to do something, I think, ‘Would an idiot do that?’ And if they would, I do not do that thing.” That’s actually a lot of wisdom right there, if I’m not… I just- we, we could just end the Book of Proverbs there.

If an idiot would do it, do not do that thing. The, these are all proverbs, right? And cultures have been curating proverbs since the beginning of humanity. Now, a proverb, a… The definition of a proverb is a short, pithy statement that communicates something about how the world generally works, right? But I think we run into, a, like a little bit of a snag as Christians when we open the Book of Proverbs, and I’m gonna, I’m gonna talk about the book and the genre of Proverbs a little bit here in this first sermon so that we don’t make this misstep.

Because we read proverbs like Dwight Schrute here, and we think, “Oh yeah, there’s some truth to that. That’s a nice little nugget I can take,” or whatever. Do not be an idiot. And then we open the Bible, and we think that this text is something completely different. If I do the thing the proverb says, I will always 100% get out the outcome that it says.

But I, I think that’s actually a misstep. That’s to contradict what the nature of a proverb is. A proverb is a short, pithy statement about how the world generally works. But occasionally you’ll run into a moment where you obey the proverb, or you try to apply the wisdom of a proverb, and it doesn’t work.

And then what happens? Before we dive into the genre of Proverbs, let me just say, what’s the difference then? What’s the difference between these African sayings or proverbs, Asia’s proverbs Dwight Schrute, and the scriptural proverbs? The difference is simply this: the source of these proverbs and the sustaining power of the Spirit to give them to us is really quality stuff.

The Holy Spirit sustained and preserved these set of proverbs because they do actually tell us how the world generally works. They are principles, they are not promises So that needs to stick with us. So all right, let’s just set up. The Book of Proverbs finds itself inside of a genre of scripture called wisdom literature.

Wisdom literature, most scholars break these three books into wisdom literature. Some of them include Psalms, some of them includes a couple other even like Sa- the Song of Solomon occasionally. But either way, this is the primary breakdown of wisdom literature: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.

This series, we’re gonna be spending our time in Proverbs. But I wanna let you know, the scriptures actually account for some of the tension that the Book of Proverbs will inevitably create for some of us, and here’s how it works. The Book of Proverbs is the most black and white. It’s the most practical, yet formulaic.

It’s a little bit binary. Do this thing generally happens. Do- don’t do this, and this bad thing generally won’t happen. This is how Proverbs feels to us when we read it. But if you’ve lived any life and walked with God and tried to apply, sometimes you run into situations where I did that and something horrible happened.

Then what? That’s where the rest of the wisdom literature come in. The Book of Job, Job is the warning against turning the Book of Proverbs into a prosperity equation. If I just behave according to Proverbs, I will always 100% get this outcome. Job is like, Job obeyed the Proverbs. He’s this character in the Bible that’s pictured as this person who obeyed the wisdom of God pretty close to perfectly, about as close as any person possibly could, and it went horribly wrong.

Then what? So Job is wrestling with that reality. Sometimes you do the wise thing, and because of the brokenness in the world, it still goes horribly wrong. And so the Hebrew scholars and the writers of scripture, and the spirit of God that preserves it for us accounts for the entire human experience.

Sometimes we need these short, pithy statements about how the world generally works to be a guiding principle for us, and then sometimes you run into situations where it didn’t work. Now how do I function in that? And Job addresses that. By the way, if you read the Book of Job, it doesn’t actually tell you why Just I’ll give you a- an overview of the thesis of the Book of Job real quick.

This is a bonus. We’re gonna do an entire book study right now. Ready? Job actually tells us the number of variables in God’s cosmos are so vast, so complicated, and the brokenness of the world is so vast and complicated that we can’t possibly understand w- how God is pulling it all together for good. Can you trust me?

That’s the thesis of Job . And it’s … So it’s not very satisfying. It’s not there’s the answer. This is why the bad thing happened. So there’s this, the Book of Job, and then Ecclesiastes is like, all right, fine, sometimes the wisdom work, sometimes it doesn’t work, but what’s the meaning of it all? And this is the function of Ecclesiastes.

So much so that the this sort of section of scripture, a lot of Hebrew scholars would instruct o- younger people s- teethed on Proverbs. Because when you start a journey of faith, this is what your brain craves. You fall in love with God, you start walking with God, and you’re just like, “I wanna know what’s the good thing.

What’s the bad thing? Where should I, what should I do? What should, shouldn’t I do?” And your brain craves these sort of slightly more binary, black and white kinda stuff. And the Book of Proverbs really scratches that itch. And it’s helpful. It generally is how the world works. But then as you live more life and you run into situations and things fall apart, then you’re ready to graduate into the murky, gray waters of the Book of Job or Ecclesiastes where you say now what?

How do I continue to live a faithful life even when I can’t understand what’s happening anymore?” There you go. There’s the wisdom literature, and I love that the scriptures account for all of it. But in this series, we’re gonna be spending our time in the Book of Proverbs, and here’s our ground rule that we’re gonna try and revisit throughout the series, and it’s this.

We need to remember, because our risk is because it’s in the Bible, we’re gonna not do this. Proverbs are short, pithy sayings about how the world generally works. They are principles, they are not promises Now, as a preacher, I kinda just undermined my whole text, right? So they kinda work sometimes, doesn’t work other times.

It almost softens the entire text, right? Just remember this. The creator of the universe has sustained this body of short, pithy statements because it does such a beautiful job articulating how the world was designed to function. In many ways, the Book of Proverbs will help us understand, why does this happen and this doesn’t generally happen?

It’s like the blueprint of how the culture of God’s economy and cosmos works. So this is quality wisdom for us. Try to elevate the weight of this text for us a little bit after saying it’s generally true and principles rather than promises. Hopefully, that’ll help us not make any missteps, because if you start to obey these and occasionally they don’t work, it doesn’t mean they’re broken.

It just means it’s a principle that’s generally true. It’s not a promise. How we feeling? We okay? Yeah. Are we ready to dive into this week’s passage? Before we do that, I just wanna pray, reset myself, and then we’ll actually dive into our first set of Proverbs for to- this morning. Father, I just thank you for this group of people that you’ve preserved that you’ve drawn together this morning to sit before your Word.

Give us ears to hear and eyes to see your truth. Help us to see your heart in this text. Lord we sang that we need you multiple times this morning, and we do We have tendencies in our s- souls, Lord, that I confess now. I have a tendency in my soul To be dull of hearing. Open our ears to your scriptures, we pray.

Amen. Amen. So this morning, our proverb is addressing a question that I think many of us have had. It’s the question of, how do I know if I’m on the right path? How do I know whether the decision, the life path that I’m on, the job journey I’m on, the- the relationships that I’m in are the right ones for me?

And wouldn’t it be nice if God would just tell us? This text is gonna give us some guidance, some principles that help us understand whether we’re in alignment with His plan and His path for us. Sounds pretty good, right? Here at sc- at South, we oftentimes like to stand when we read scripture.

It’s a short passage, but would you mind standing with me as we read Proverbs 3:5-6, this famous, maybe the most famous, potentially set of verses in the Book of Proverbs. It says this When you’re trying to understand and make decisions, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways submit or acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated

So You know the title I gave this message is around guidance and discovering God’s guidance and path for us. And in many ways, this text gives us a maybe s- a step-by-step program to, to discover God’s wisdom for us. And I actually learned a ton this week from this passage, because I’ve used this text in that way, but it blossomed for me as I studied this.

And I think that this text has more wisdom and nuance to it than I ever saw prior to this week studying it. And so I just wanna show you se- the sort of step-by-step path of discovering God’s straight way for you and for me, and then we’ll just walk through it together. The first thing I wanna highlight is this word trust.

This word, trust is this fun little word in Hebrew, and it’s got this flavor of to be confident in, or this interesting word in one of the encyclopedias or de- definitions of this unsuspecting attitude. So why unsuspecting? As I was studying it it’s this idea of your armor is down.

Your fear is lowered. You’re not worried about anything. I’m fully at peace, if you would. So here’s a couple of examples of what that might feel like. And maybe if you’ve ever gone home to your childhood home, and you had a good childhood, or you have certain environments where you go to that place and suddenly, oh the anxiety reduces.

Have you ever had that kind of environment? Maybe it’s your home now. You come home from work, and you’re just unsuspecting of bad things, and your intensity lowers. The lyrics of this Jackie Evans, who’s a jazz artist and singer-songwriter she wrote this little song, and I love this line, “Every time I go upstate, I sleep for days.

Maybe I just get tired when I feel safe.” Have you ever had a place like that, where you go there, or maybe you run home and you’re busy and running around at work, and the adrenaline’s going, and you get home, and you’re just suddenly “Oh, my goodness, I’m exhausted.” Some of what’s happening there is the intensity is gone, and you feel safe, and suddenly the actual feeling of your body of exhaustion enters in.

That’s this unsuspecting trust. You’re in a safe place. So yesterday, I saw a great example of this. I was playing with my daughter Clara, in this little sort of stream area in Highlands Ranch. There’s little stones there. And I saw this dad and maybe a two-and-a-half-year-old little girl, and she was young enough that she could maybe walk on super steady ground, but she couldn’t walk on these rocks, so he’s holding- her hands.

And in this little stream there’s one point in the stream where there’s this itty-bitty waterfall. We’re talking two or three, two feet drop. And so the four-year-old kids and the five-year-olds, they’re able to step down, sit down, and step down into it and keep on playing. I see him walking with his daughter and holding her hands, and she approaches this little waterfall, and she starts to patter up onto the largest little stone at the, at this little waterfall.

And he go- And he just says, “Where you going? Where you g- where you going? What do you think you’re doing?” And then she proceeds to continue, and she just goes like this, as if she’s just gonna step off the waterfall. It’s like a two-foot drop. She can barely walk, and he just, lifts her up and sets her back in the pond.

This is trust. It’s unsuspecting of danger It’s she ha- my father’s holding my hands. I don’t have any worry whatso- probably she’s never fallen and skinned her knee yet, and maybe she’ll develop that healthy sense of fear of falling later, but right now, she’s got her father holding her hands, and she just is willing to unsuspectingly drip- step off of a little waterfall.

And so that’s the idea of trust here. So there’s another word I wanna highlight. So trust, sort of trust fall, if you would. Trust fall in the Lord, on the Lord, with all of your heart. So the word heart in our cultural context usually means our emotional world. It’s like, how do I feel? Deep. It’s like some combination of emotion/gut feeling stuff in our culture.

In the Hebrew context, this word heart, had a little bit wider expanse to it. It’s the seat of the will, intention, and inner self. So it includes some emotion, but it’s actually our intentions, our desires, our will. You might even say your soul, this deep, inner, who-you-are-as-a-person self. That’s what’s trusting.

It’s an all-of-you sense in this world. So trust fall on God with all of your will, your heart, your emotions, your self. So the first thing I see in this text, the first if you wanna call it step, to discovering straight paths in the way of God, is to do this. Lean your will against God’s wall. It’s an image of a ladder, right?

You lean it on a wall, and you put your entire weight on that ladder, and you trust that wall won’t fall over. That’s this first phrase. So you can sorta evaluate, am I trusting God with all of me? What else do we see as these step, maybe step-by-step guide to discovering God’s straight path for us?

We see this. Lean not on your own understanding. You may notice there’s a leaning element in these two phrases. Trust has this sort of unsuspecting trust fall kind of image in it, and then lean not. So do lean on the wall of God, on the character and the goodness of God. Do lean yourself there, but do not lean on your own best possible thinking, strategizing scrutinizing self.

Don’t lean there. Have you seen some of these kind of images?

The precarious ladder placement. I love this one. It’s a r- a rolling trash can and a rolling cart. He’s got a ladder on top of both of those. Terrifying, right? I don’t know it’s pretty pixelated. That guy on the top of that ladder looks 70, at least. I don’t know th- would… I don’t know, maybe he’s done this before.

Maybe it’s safer than it looks, but it looks terrifying to me. This is what we do when we lean our own understanding. It’s a precarious place to lean your ladder. In our culture, there’s a f- a famous sort of maybe proverb or saying that goes around that you may have heard. It’s this: Follow your heart Incorrect.

This is not the biblical worldview. Do not do that. Now w- I know what we mean by that, but it’s actually a pretty dangerous statement, and the biblical worldview around our heart is actually that we would be slightly skeptical around our own natural inclinations, because and I know if you just scrutinize follow your heart just for a few minutes, you’ll know that sometimes that steers you horribly wrong.

Confession, I didn’t say this in first service, but it just dawned on me just now. Last night, my family went to bed, and I went downstairs to kinda look over my notes, and then I proceeded to make the cheesiest nachos ever and consume a obnoxious quantity of nachos. I was trusting and I was following my heart, right?

Was that a good, healthy decision? No. Sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we follow our heart, we follow our will, we follow our gut, and we land in positions that are deeply unhealthy for us as human beings. Do not follow your heart. Now, it doesn’t mean it’s not an element. It is a variable in the conversation around decision-making.

You need to be aware of your heart. You need to, all of those sorts of things. But let me just say this. One of the consistent messages of the Bible is that the human heart or impulse or desire is not a reliable source of wisdom. So I’ll say it this way. Your best thinking is worth noting, but I would not hang my hat on it.

What we hang our hat on, what we lean our ladder on, is the understanding and the wisdom of God on things like the Book of Proverbs. That’s what it means to lean not on your own understanding. And this little verse is where I spent the majority of my time this week, because it actually shifted pretty significantly for me as I studied.

He says in this next verse, “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” So the next step, first step that I if you wanna call it a step, is to trust in the Lord. In other words, place your entire life, every amount of who you are, your will, your volition your desires, your emotions, lean them on God.

Step two, do not lean on your own best thinking. Step three is in all your ways, submit to him This word ways here and this little phrase is this idea of every single day, your path, the things that you are walking into every day. So when you get up out of bed and you make coffee In that way, in that path, submit to Him.

As you get dressed for work, as you say good morning to your loved one, as you head off to work, as you drive down the road, as you do all these things, in all of them, ongoing, every single day, every kind of mundane activity, in all of them, submit to Him, and then you’ll get out this straight path. So the reason that was different for me is that I kinda treated this on the big decisions, I’m going to fi- try to acknowledge Him.

I’m gonna try and factor in God’s wisdom. And that’s not bad advice. Yeah, do that, but that’s not what this verse says. It says all the time, always, in every single path, every single step. It has this idea of every tr- step you take on a day, submit or acknowledge Him. All right. This word submit, it can be translated acknowledge, but it’s a fascinating little word.

It’s this most intimate relational language of yada. This is the word that the Bible use, uses in the Old Testament when it says a husband knows his wife. You know what I’m talking about. It’s that naked and unashamed experience of intimacy between a husband and a wife, or the knowing of God deep down, where you know their personality, you know how they’re gonna react to a situation.

It’s this deep, intimate knowledge of something. So this step is a lifelong, every single moment, every day, when you’re waking up, in your making of coffee, in you’re going to work, in you’re coming home from work, in you’re hanging out with friends. It’s a deep, intimate, I’m going to try and know, to yada, God.

And then and only then do I get this wisdom and intuition around straight paths and guidance. That’s a very long step. Step one, step two, step three. Step three is like a lifetime pursuit of intimately knowing the heart of God. That’s not something you cultivate for that one big decision you need to make this week, is it?

Instead, it’s a reflexive training program. So I’m a disc golfer, and many some of you are golfers and play different sports, and they talk a lot in these different sports about developing muscle memory. A, an athlete who’s a really good athlete, part of the reason why the game slows down for them is they’ve actually taken these very s- specific movements, and they’ve internalized them into muscle memory so that they can, their brain can function beyond that, and they can a- play the game at a higher level.

This is what it means Trust in the Lord. In all your ways acknowledge Him. It’s every day, develop a muscle memory of spending time with Him, knowing Him intimately, understanding His heart and how He ticks, and what things delight the heart of God and what things don’t delight the heart of God, and then you’ll develop a muscle memory around decision-making so that when that big decision comes along, you’ll know exactly what’s going on.

So my translation of that would be, make the intimate knowledge of your loving Father the primary aim of your everyday life. Or Get to know God like the back of your hand. I asked this question at the beginning of the message. I asked these, this sort of idea, how do I get the straight path of verse six?

Or how do I know if I’m on the right path? I used to think this was the formula. Step one, trust in the Lord. Okay, so I’m trying to make a big decision. Am I trusting him now? And this is not bad advice, it’s just not fully what this text is saying. Am I trusting him right now? I think I am. Like, I’m gonna evaluate my heart and all this sort of…

Step two, don’t over-trust m- myself. Okay, have I spent too much time considering, and charting, and plotting, and pros and cons, a- and I have not spent as much time with the Lord and asking him, and seeking wise counsel from people who love God? F- fair enough, right? That might be very good advice. Step three, when I’m trying to make an important decision, consider God, and then I’ll get this straight path, whatever that means.

The straightened path. This is actually what the text says . Step one, trust in the Lord deeply by getting to know his love so intimately that you actually believe it and are not scared of God, but instead feel most safe with him. That’s a very big first step, right? This intimate just trust fall, willing to step off the waterfall ’cause God is for you, and he loves you, and he cares for you, and he’s paying attention to your very life, and you feel that down deep inside.

That’s step one. Step two, cultivate a healthy skepticism of your own wisdom. This may involve learning your own inclinations to prefer things, seek comfort over what is best, and understand your own fears and how they make you tick. This is like getting to know yourself, figuring out, like, why do I have preferences here and not preferences there?

God, what, why do I long for this and don’t long for that? And this is this deep inner work of understanding your own inclinations, and not trusting them because you see the pitfalls in them. And then step three is live your everyday life with God so that you’re fam- you’re familiar with his voice in all things.

Then, when a big decision comes along, your ability to sense his leading is a natural reflex That is a very intense step-by-step program to discovering God’s will, because it’s a lifelong journey. And I realized this week as I was preparing, maybe a little bit of a confession that I have. As a full-time vocational Christian, a pastor, who spends the majority of my time thinking about spiritual things, thinking about churchy things I want everyone in this room to care about spiritual things, and I think they’re important.

But I’ve also become skeptical of my own preference to that because I’m like, of course, I think about it all the time. I think about the church, I think about what’s important, what’s not important. And of course, I’m gonna think about it more than the average everyday follower of Jesus and fair enough.

And so I just need to l- maybe lower my expectations for them because they don’t have the time that I have. Now, full disclosure, don’t get me wrong. Just because I’m a vocational pastor doesn’t mean that I do this work all the time. It doesn’t mean that I’m actually deeply pursuing the heart of God.

Sometimes the things I’m talking about are just churchy things. They’re some of the accoutrements that come along with religion and coming to church and prioritizing showing up on time, and I wish they would show up to this event, and prioritize all these things or serve more or give more or whatever it may be, fill in the blank.

Sometimes it’s that. But I do want the church to long for the heart of God. And sometimes I might have this tendency to lessen the intensity of a scripture passage like this because I’m like I care about it, but that’s because it’s my full-time gig and I have the time to ruminate But this text is telling you, regardless of how I feel about it, Christianity, walking with God is not a halfway endeavor.

You don’t get the clarity of walking with the living God by being halfway in. You just don’t This is a whole life commitment. It’s a thing where you say, “I will cast my very being upon God, and then I will develop a clarity about my world that I can only get by casting my soul It’s not about serving more or giving more or doing other religious things.

It’s about pursuing the heart of God with everything that you have. And if I’ve ever pulled punches to say that to you as clearly as I possibly can say it to you, that’s what this text is inviting you to. Because when you have that, suddenly you find that your Father is there to catch you in moments where you’re about to fall That’s the invitation of this text.

It is not a lighthearted step-by-step program to finding God’s will. It is a lifelong pursuit of the heart of God and of a loving heart of a Father for you, and then you’ll dev- develop this clarity. So how in the world do we do that? How do we actually start developing that for us? Let me give you a few practices some baby baby steps that we can take on doing this on a regular basis.

Here’s a g- example you can do. This is not about legalism. This is not about checking boxes and earning God’s favor. It’s none of that. This is about knowing Him and intimately pursuing Him and d- cultivating this intuition around His wisdom and guidance. Fixed hour prayer, if you’ve ever tried this, just set your cellphone alarm three, three or four times a day, and when it goes off reflexively say, “Okay, this is my chi– my phone just reminded me to consider Him, to think on Him right now.”

And you say, “God, is there anything I’m not paying attention to?” Give Him a second to maybe put something in your heart. And maybe, just maybe, if you do that consistently enough, before you know it, you don’t even need the alarm clock anymore, and you’re sitting at, pumping your gas, and you see someone across the way, and they look like they’re frustrated, and you’re just like, “Hey, God, I don’t know what’s going on in their life, but would you bless them today?

Maybe lower the intensity of their day.” And before you know it, you find yourself talking to Him all day long. You’re considering Him in all your ways. You’re acknowledging Him. So it’s a great little practice that sort of helps train that muscle memory of considering Him. Read the Gospels. I love this one.

I spent… There was a season in my life where I spent seven years reading and rereading large chunks of the Gospel, two, three, four chapters in a, at a time, just because I wanted to get to know the personality of Jesus. If He were here today, would He c- would He think that Dwight Schrute joke was funny or not, right?

I wanted to see the cadence of His walk. What made Him angry? What made Go- Jesus frustrated? What made Him excited? What things was He drawn to? What kinds of people did He s- hang out with? And I just wanted to get to know the heart of my Father, and that’s a great way. Just read and reread the Gospels and get to know the personality of Jesus.

Start your day with Him. This is a great, simple, low-hanging fruit thing. Just make the decision I’m gonna spend five minutes, two minutes. Just don’t let the first thing you do be checking the mail or your email or s- putting something else in your mind. Just start your day by saying, “Good morning, Lord.

I’m here. My life is yours. I… Sometimes I feel that, sometimes I don’t, but here I am. I’m trying to position myself to trust you today. Help me today to pay attention to your world. Not my world, but your world.” Silence and solitude. This is setting aside just a little bit of extra time, maybe a day or two, where you go away and you turn off all the other inputs and you just be.

You talk to Him, journal, maybe read a little bit, and you give Him an opportunity to strengthen your reflexes around acknowledging Him in all your ways. Don’t miss out on community. Spend some time with people that talk about Him, that think about Him, that communicate about the heart of God and the way of God and the kingdom of God.

Worship. Gather regularly. The Scriptures tell us to gather regularly. It’s a great marker in our weeks where we come together and we worship together and we remind ourselves, “Oh, that’s right, this is true north. That’s right. In my busyness of my week, I’ve kinda, my soul forgot that this is true north.”

So a number of years ago my family got the opportunity to go to Mount Hermon, and we spent a week there at Mount Hermon. It’s a family camp. It’s amazing little family camp, but it’s situated in the Redwood Forest. And in this, in these trees you get to do all sorts of things, rope courses, and there’s a pool, and all sorts of fun activities.

One of the activities that they announced that we decided to sign up for was a night hike. And I was like, “Cool, a night hike in the Redwood Forest. That’s k- interesting. I’ve never done a night hike before.” And so we showed up, ready to go on our night hike, and we were shocked to find out that there was no flashlights allowed.

In fact, they were prohibited. And they gave us a little science lesson. They taught us about this function in your eyes, I don’t know if it’s like a, an enzyme or something, maybe someone could tell me, but it’s this i- function in your eyes called rhodopsin. And rhodopsin in your eye, if you’ve experienced it, I’m sure, if you’ve walked from a very, a bright room into a dark room, and you can’t see anything, and then about 20, 30 minutes later, you can see everything, that’s rhodopsin at work in your eyes.

It’s, it takes about 20 to 30 minutes, but this ability in your eyes gradually becomes… it increases the sensitivity of your sight. But here’s the problem with it. If you even get a flash of white light, you start the 20 to 30 minute process over again. So they said, “Don’t even if you’re a little bit nervous, please try to avoid turning on your watch or the glow of your cell phone or anything like that, because what you’ll do is you’ll ruin the rhodopsin response in your eyes.”

And we’re they tell this “We want you to experience what it’s like to see everything pretty clearly, shockingly clearly at, in the woods in the dark.” That’s what this proverb’s saying. This proverb is saying is we would, we started this little hike, and we were walking, and we were communicating constantly with each other, and they encouraged us to do this.

You’re in a line, and you’re supposed to learn the voice of the person in front of you, ’cause they’re the one that’s gonna warn you about the funny steps. And you start, and you … It’s everything is pitch black, and you’re just following very cautiously. And they’re like, “Okay, there’s a step here.

There’s a step. There’s … Oh, watch out for the root. Okay, now we’re stairs. There’s seven stairs.” And you’d go down these stair, and so on and so forth. And about 20 to 30 minutes in, you didn’t need the voice anymore, because suddenly you could see the river. You could see the trees. The stars were more brilliant than I’d ever seen them before.

And this is the process of trusting the Lord with all your heart and leaning not on your own understanding, in all your ways submitting to him. If you do it, at first it feels fumbling in the dark, but eventually, God has designed your soul so that you have like an internal rhodopsin response, and you’re able to become reflexively able to intuit where his way is and where his way is not I wanna invite Hannah up, and we’re gonna close with a response s- song here

But this is the invitation. Rather than have a big idea or a main point, I’m just gonna read this text to you one more time, and hear this invitation to cultivate a soul that is increasingly attuned to the way of God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all of your paths, every step, intimately get to know the heart of God, and then His way, His paths just become more and more evident and visible to you because you know Him Would you stand with me?

Let’s sing in response.