Trust and Honour God // Wisdom That Works, Part 4

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Many, many people feel as though their lives are - well, like a cork bobbing around in a stormy ocean. True. And often they’re the same people who’ve made an art form out of filling themselves up to meet every desire. But there’s a funny thing about security. It involves trust and it involves honour.

Well it's been an interesting week so far on the program because on Monday we kicked off a new series, 20 messages actually over this week and the coming three called Wisdom That Works. And if you've been able to join me so far this week you'll remember that there are two parts to wisdom.

The knowledge but also the action. We need both to have wisdom. Here's the dictionary definition of wisdom again in case you missed it:

It's the quality of having experience, knowledge and good judgement and the soundness of an action or decision by applying this experience and knowledge and good judgement.

Boil that down and there are two parts. Knowing what to do and then getting on and doing it. Knowing what to do and then not doing it is pretty dumb and that's why I for one have done some dumb things in my life. Sometimes we know the right thing either because we just know or because we've been down that road before or because we've listened to someone else who has.

So sometimes we know the right thing, we have access to the knowledge but we don't get on and do it. And many people know that they should trust and honour God. They just don't. And so knowing isn't enough, knowing isn't being wise. Wisdom is about knowing and doing. That's what gets the results.

Bottom line is that if we take Gods word to heart it will make a real difference in our lives. God will make that difference in our lives through His Spirit and His word. And if we don't take His word to heart, it won't. Can I say that again? If we don't take Gods word to heart it simply won't make a difference in our lives.

The defining moment in me coming to realise that, once and for all, was a few years ago. We were sitting in a home Bible study group with a bunch of well meaning Christians. People who faithfully studied Gods word and gone to Church and we were trying to understand this passage written by the Apostle Paul while he was on death row to his friends in the Church at Philippi.

Just have a listen, Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 and 7. Paul writes to them:

Don't worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks giving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Now the way I read that is that instead of spending time worrying about stuff, Paul’s saying, take that same time, the time you would have spent worrying and instead use that same time to pray and to ask God for what you need and to thank Him and to let Him know your needs.

And if you do it that way instead of wasting your time worrying, if you do it that way then the peace of God which may not make a whole bunch of sense in our circumstances but that peace, that awesome peace will guard your heart and your mind in Christ. That's the promise, that's what Paul learned in his experience, that's what Paul knew there on death row.

Okay so we're in the Bible study, we hedged around this verse in the Bible. Remember, Bible believing Christians and the group came to the conclusion, "Ah well yeah sure but we still worry." And then they're about to move on from it at which point I couldn't help myself.

I was jumping out of my skin and I shouted, 'No, read it again. Do you believe God’s word or not? Are you going to live it or not? Do you believe that if you do it this way God will give you the peace that He promises or not?' And it's the same thing with trusting and honouring God.

Sure, yeah, we know we should do that but most people who believe in Jesus don't and so not only are they not honouring God but they don't reap the dividend, the harvest. Got to know it and do it for it to become wisdom. Knowing it is not enough. Having read it is not enough. We either believe God, we either take Him at His word and live it out or we don't. The knowledge and the doing is wisdom.

So let's get back into that great book of wisdom, the Book of Proverbs and see what Solomon was trying to tell us about trusting and honouring God. Proverbs chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. He says:

Child don't forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments. For length of days and years of life and abundant welfare they will give you. Do not let loyalty and faithfulness forsake you. Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart so you will find favour and good repute in the sight of God and of people.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't rely on your own insight. Instead in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord, turn away from evil. It will be a healing for your flesh and a refreshment for your body.

Honour the Lord with all your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce. Then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats be bursting with wine. My child don't despise the Lords discipline or be weary of His reproof for the Lord reproves the one whom He loves as a father the son in whom he delights.

So we're chugging through life, stuff happens and we get impatient, we want to get ahead and head off in our own direction and here's Solomon with the wisdom of age telling his sons, "Guys, it's just going to happen. You'll want to drift away from God, you just will but don't do that, don't forget what I've told you. Be loyal, be faithful. I know it won't always make sense but listen to me, write these words on your heart."

So stuffs happening and life's not going just the way we'd planned and it's not quite making sense and so we have a wisdom decision point here in this place. We can flap around and carry on, head off in our own way, most people do, or we can say hang on a minute, hang on, remember what God told me through Solomon? That was wisdom that worked:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, don't rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.

Do you see how we have a decision to make? Either we can believe this stuff and take God at His word and Solomon says, "Look honour God, be faithful. Don't let faithfulness run away from you." Either we can take this stuff, take God at His word or we treat it like some useless theory lesson.

Promise - trust in God, don't try and figure it out for yourselves, just acknowledge God in how you live your life, in what you say and what you think and what you believe. And listen, here's the promise, here's the dividend of Gods wisdom. Here's the return on investment. God will make straight all your paths. If you do that God will straighten it all out.

Which bit of that don't we get? Why do we have to make everything so complicated? Are we going to be like those people I was telling you about before at the Bible study? Are we going to spend hours and hours and hours studying the Bible for study sake as though this was some intellectual exercise without really believing it? Without really living it with our lives. Or are we going to take God’s word to heart and do it?

Remember wisdom is not a theory lesson. Wisdom has two parts, knowing and doing. Well now we know, trust God, just honour Him in how you live your life and all the things that don't make sense right at the moment He'll deal with them, He'll straighten them out.

I love, I absolutely love how practical Gods truth is. And when we put it into action in our lives, when we choose to stop mucking around, stop flapping around, stop complaining and doing the ‘woe is me’ bit and just sit down and decide, God come hell or high water I am going to trust you and just do the best I know how. He springs into action and He starts sorting out the mess.

My friend this is not, let me say it again, capital letters, NOT a theory lesson. God’s wisdom is imparted into our lives when we take His truth and we live it out. This is where the rubber hits the road. This my friend is wisdom that works.