Trust in the Lord with all your heart...He will direct your steps! (sermon notes)

I Like to start with something funny:
Three boys are in the school yard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, 'My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50.' The second boy says, 'That's nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100..' The third boy says, 'I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon, and it takes eight people to collect all the money!'

Please have patience with me as I struggle through my final sermon series as your pastor….
Because Rogue River is home, every decision, every activity, good and bad has been rather emotional these past 6 years…
I love you all very deeply…you’ll always be in my heart!
I truly believe this change is under the Lord’s direction…It’s the right timing for my family and for our church…
Time for me to get out of the way as a new pastor takes you further in your new beginning...
Almost 6 years ago when the Lord led me to pastor my home church I preached a sermon series based on my mission verse:
1 Timothy 4:12…Let no one despise thy youth, but be an example for the believers in word, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (it applies to old people too)
Today I begin my final sermon series based on my life verse: Proverbs 3:5&6…Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your steps.
Today we focus in on: Trust in the Lord with all your heart…He will direct your steps!

Let’s go ahead and turn together to Proverbs 3 in our Bibles…
I could preach for months out of this chapter!
SO MUCH FOOD FOR THE SOUL
Trust in the Lord with all your heart...
How?
Especially when you’ve been hurt by placing your trust in something or someone that led to failure…
Trust in the Lord with all your heart…
HOW?
If you have allowed bitterness in your heart, trust is impossible…
Trust in the LORD with all your heart…
How?
let go of the failure…learn from it…grow thru it
forgive…I’d rather love and lose than not love at all
Please remember what real success is in Jesus name!
Trust in the Lord with all your heart…
It can’t be a half-hearted thing
God wants every part of you or nothing at all
You want God to direct your path?
You want favor, wisdom, blessing, hope, peace?
Trust in the LORD with all your heart…
That one area you’re holding back from Him has got to be loosed now in Jesus name, or you will stay stuck…

Look at Proverbs 3 again
verse 1
my son, do not forget my law,
but let your heart keep my commands
There it is
The #1 way to Trust in the Lord with all your heart
FEED ON THE WORD CONSTANTLY
why?
verse 2 answers
for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you…
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your paths…
HOW?
#1 Feed on the Word Constantly
daily devotions isn’t enough
find ways to keep your mind stayed on His word all day!
resist the temptation to drift in your thoughts
Let Jesus into every moment

I looked into the Hebrew word used here in Proverb 3:4 for trust…forgive me if I pronounce it wrong, batach
(sounds clingon if you’re a trekky)
Some of the definition surrounding this Hebrew word surprised me…
bold, careless, complacent, confident, fall down, felt secure, have, rely…
Did you hear the word complacent or careless?
Christians aren’t supposed to be complacent…
But, those words suddenly brought new light!
When you walk His path, the world will think you careless…
When He’s directing Your path, you may sometimes look complacent…but your simply falling down securely in His steps…It’s a resting in Him
Batach is also linked to citadel or fortress or spending the night!
That really cranked my tractor!
Next time you can’t sleep, Next time the night seems long, Next time you don’t know where to go, who to trust, Next time you find yourself in transition, in between
Spend the night with JESUS
Batach
Trust in the LORD with all your heart…He will direct your steps…Feed on His word

Have you heard the Bible in 50 words?
God made, Adam bit, Noah arked, Abraham split, Joseph ruled, Jacob fooled, Bush talked, Moses balked, Pharaoh plagued, People walked, Sea divided, Tablets guided, Promise landed, Saul freaked, David peeked, Prophets warned, Jesus born, God walked, Love talked, Anger crucified, Hope died, Love rose, Spirit flamed, Word spread, God remained.

Let’s go back to prov 3, verse 3
Let not mercy and truth forsake you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart and so find favor and high esteem in the sight of God and man
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and He will direct your steps…
1. Feed on His word constantly
2. AND ask the Lord to help you in every situation to find the balance between mercy and truth…
This is the bottom line to all of life…None of us are very good at finding the perfect balance of mercy and truth
But God is really good at it, so ask Him to direct you to it…Every decision, every word, every action must be tempered with mercy and truth!
This is THEE great test of life…Am I erring on the side of mercy and being a push over? Am I erring on the side of truth and being judgmental? Ask yourself in every situation, where is the middle between truth and mercy, that’s where God lives…

There is a beautiful story about a child playing with a vase his mother had left on the table for a few moments. When the mother turned at the sound of her son crying she saw that his hand was in the vase and was apparently stuck. She tried to help him and pulled and pulled until the child cried out in pain. But the hand was stuck fast. How would they get it out? The father suggested breaking the vase but it was quite valuable and the child's hand might be cut in the process. Yet he knew that if all else failed there would be no other alternative. So he said to the boy, "Now, let's make one more try. Open your hand and stretch your fingers out straight, like I'm doing, and then pull!" "But Dad," said the boy, "if I do that I'll lose my penny!" The boy had had a coin in his hand all the time and was holding it securely in his tight little fist. And he wasn't prepared to open his hand and lose the penny. But once he opened his hand it came out of the vase easily.
What are you holding onto so tightly as to hinder your walk with Jesus?
That vase can be likened to the entrance to the Kingdom of God. It is narrow but quite easy to pass in, but first you must "open" your hand to God and allow earthly things to fall. If we keep our fists closed and hold fast to what we have and keep it for ourselves, we will be unable to take hold of the "Hand of God"! Open your hand to the hand of God…It’s the only way to find mercy and truth for favor with God and man…
Think about it, That little boy had to deal with the truth of holding to the penny in order to gain the mercy needed to escape the vase...boy, does that speak to today’s focus on Trust…
batach…let go

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and he will direct your steps…today’s 3 point sermon…
1. feed on His word
2. balance truth and mercy
3. choose a healthy lifestyle
look at verse 7 & 8 of prov 3…Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil, It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones…
God cares about every little thing…even what we eat or what we say or where we go or what we think, especially who we are when nobody’s looking…Fearing the LORD applies to every piece of our lifestyle!
I can’t even begin to tell you all that this strict diet and exercise has done for me (lost 40 pounds so far)…
I’m not pushing my breakthrough down your throat, I’m encouraging you to Trust in the Lord with all your heart, every little thing, and HE WILL direct every little thing…
You haven’t even begun to live until you pray(really,truly pray) YOUR KINGDOM COME YOUR WILL BE DONE!

37-year-old Barry Bonds joined Hall of Famer Eddie Matthews as the only players in history to open a season with a pair of homers. Yet Bonds knows there is something even more important than getting a baseball season off to a great start.
"It's not how you start; it's how you finish," he said. "We want to be in the race until it's over. It's early, one game doesn't make a season." What Bonds said about his baseball season could just as well be said about life in general -- and certainly about spiritual life in particular.
Think of the sad history of Judas Iscariot. He was one of those privileged people who saw Jesus in the flesh, heard him teach, and saw the signs he did among mankind. He decided to follow the Son of God and was numbered among the earliest disciples. He was even chosen to be one of The Twelve. He went out two by two with them, healed sick people, and announced the coming of the kingdom of God. But nobody remembers him for any of those things. Judasis remembered for how his relationship with Jesus ended -- as the traitor-betrayer.
How anyone's life, career, or relationship with God ends is more critical than its beginning. Remember Jesus' Parable of the Soils? The shallow ground received seed that sprouted and grew quickly, only to wilt and die in the heat of the day.
AND the Apostle Paul used the imagery of athletic competition to say this about himself: "I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line. I'm giving it everything I've got. No sloppy living for me! I'm staying alert and in top condition. I'm not going to get caught napping, telling everyone else about it and then missing out myself" (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, The Message). If you stumbled out of the blocks, don't worry! It's how you finish the race that counts. If you had all the breaks and got off to a great start, don't be arrogant! In sports, career, family, and spiritual life, it's not how you start. It's how you finish.