Trust in the LORD with all your decisions and he will lead you on the right path.

Sermon Transcript

How do we make wise decisions in the myriad of circumstances where the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what to do? Perhaps you’re a young man and for about a year you’ve been dating a godly woman who loves Jesus and the church. You can see some great reasons to marry them, but also some significant reasons why it might be better not to. Both options are legal, moral, but both options may not be equally wise. How does he make a wise decision? Or imagine that you’re in your early thirties, you’ve established yourself well in your career, and you’ve been offered a promotion that will require moving away from Philly and a rich Christian community. Do you stay in Philly and pass up the opportunity for advancement or do you leave Philly and pass up the opportunity to keep building up your church? Both options are legal, moral, but they may not be equally wise. How do you make a wise decision? Or perhaps you have the opportunity to undertake a new ministry in the church, parachurch, or on the mission field, but it’s not clear that now is the right time or that this opportunity is the best fit. Do you take the risk and step forward or continue on your current path? Both options are legal, moral, but they may not be equally wise. How do you make wise decisions in the myriad of areas where the Bible doesn’t tell you exactly what to do?

There are many decisions in life – the most important ones – where you can simply open the Bible, read what it says, and know the right or wrong decision. It’s most important to marry a godly spouse, not which specific one, it’s most important to work hard to the glory of God, not which job you take, it’s most important to join and serve a doctrinally sound and lovingly warm church, not which exact one. It’s most important to use your gifts to serve some God-honoring ministry, it’s less important which exact one you choose. The most important decisions in life are clear from the Bible. But how do we make wise decisions in the myriad of circumstances where the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what to do? Proverbs helps us here because Proverbs helps us become wise people who make wise decisions in the myriad of areas where the Bible doesn’t tell us exactly what to do. The heart of what Proverbs says about decision making is found in Proverbs 3:5-6, which says, “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.” That brings us to the big idea from Proverbs on decision making: Trust in the LORD with all your decisions and he will lead you on the right path. Trust in the Lord with all your decisions and he will lead you on the right path. How do we do that practically? Proverbs doesn’t tell us everything that the Bible has to say about how to trust in the Lord with all your decisions. However, Proverbs provides three unique, massively significant ways to trust in the Lord with all your decisions, so that he will lead you on the right path. 1. Don’t lean on your own understanding. 2. Do lean on wise counselors 3. Trust the LORD.

DON’T LEAN ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING

I want you to notice the second half of Proverbs 3:5 again. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.The opposite of trusting in the Lord with all your decisions is leaning on your own understanding. So, the first and perhaps most counter-intuitive way that Proverbs advises us to trust in the Lord with all our decisions is this: do the exact opposite from what the speaker at your high school or college graduation told you to do. To trust in the Lord with all your decisions, do not be true to yourself, do not walk to the beat of your own drum, do not follow your heart, and for goodness sake, don’t lean on your own understanding. This point of not leaning on your own understanding is so significant and counterintuitive that the author of Proverbs makes it in the exact same way on two different occasions. Proverbs 14:12 – There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. And notice on your printout that Proverbs 16:25 says the exact same thing again!

Why does Proverbs emphasize not leaning on our own understanding when it comes to making plans and decisions? Well, remember that Proverbs was originally written from a father to a son who is being trained for royal leadership. And what do young people often do when they lean on their own understanding? They make hasty, even impulsive, decisions without sufficient knowledge. While many of us may feel like we struggle with indecisions, Proverbs is primarily concerned with correcting our tendency to make rash decisions without sufficient knowledge and wisdom from God, His word, and his people. Proverbs 19:2 – Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. Proverbs 21:5 puts it this way: The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance, but everyone who is hasty comes only to poverty. Why do we do that? Why do we hurt ourselves by leaning on our own understanding when making significant plans and decisions? Proverbs 18:1 diagnosis the heart of leaning on your own understanding: Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment. Why don’t we consult God, his people, and his word when thinking through our plans? Because we want to do what we want to do, plain and simple. But “You do you” is not in the Bible.

Question: How are you leaning on your own understanding when it comes to making decisions and plans? Now please understand, I’m not asking if you’re leaning on your own understanding when you go grocery shopping or something. You don’t need a word from the Lord or peace in your heart about the decision to buy a sweater or the plan to have someone over for lunch after church. God loves you, he gave you a brain, just do something. I’m really talking about your plans; your life-shaping decisions. Where are you making plans based on your own understanding? Are you making your financial plans, your marital plans, your child-rearing plans, or establishing your doctrinal beliefs on the basis of your understanding? Don’t lean on your own understanding. Don’t be true to yourself. Now, I need to nuance this a little bit. The wonderful news of the gospel is that though we were born dead in sin, we are born again through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. All who repent and believe in Jesus Christ are born again with a whole new self and understanding. Don’t be true to your old self in Adam, but do passionately follow your new heart in Christ. As Kevin DeYoung has said, “You should be true to yourself, but not your old self. You should be true to yourself if you have died to your old self, and your new self has now been raised with Christ and is now seated with Him in the heavenly places. The real you is worth letting out if the old you is dead to sin, and the real you is alive to Christ.” Lean on your new understanding, not your own understanding. If we don’t lean on our own understanding, what do we do when we need to make plans and significant decisions?

DO LEAN ON WISE COUNSELORS

Now that you’re not making hasty decisions leaning on your own understanding, don’t become indecisive. Instead, lean on wise counselors when making significant decisions and establishing plans. Proverbs 11:14 – Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety. Proverbs 15:22 – Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed. Notice the positive and negative there. Without many advisors, your plans will fail. Now, you might be thinking, “I don’t have many advisors for my plans, but I pray about them.” Well, as the saying goes, “I prayed about it” doesn’t mean “I’m right about it.” God opposes the plans of the proud who make plans without counsel. Positively, these proverbs tell us that with many and an abundance of counselors we are safe in our decision making and our plans will succeed. It’s important to note that when Proverbs uses the word “counselor,” it isn’t using the word like we often do, to refer to a professional therapist. Many counselors today won’t even advise and counsel you, instead they draw out what you feel and think. This approach only hurts you because it simply aids you in leaning on your own understanding. That’s not what Proverbs means by “counselors.” When Proverbs refers to an abundance of counselors, it’s talking about having a myriad of wise, godly, fellow believers in Jesus Christ who know us and can help us. In special cases a Christian may need to see a professional, biblical counselor who is willing to actually advise you from God’s word, but in those cases the counselor’s godliness and love for Christ is still paramount. After all, Proverbs 12:26 says, “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” To trust in the Lord with all your decisions, lean on an abundance of godly advisors who know you.

Where do you find these advisors? Well, one of the beautiful things about the gospel of Jesus Christ is that it provides us with wise counselors. Consider two verses from the New Testament. Ephesians 2:18-19 – For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. [19] So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…When we receive and rest in Jesus Christ alone for the forgiveness of sins, we are both reconciled to God as our Father and brought together as family in the church. Look around. These are the many advisors and counselors that God has provided for you at the high cost of the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Therefore, step one toward leaning on wise counselors is to repent of your sin, believe in Jesus Christ, be baptized and become an official member of the church family. Step two is to begin intentionally cultivating close friendships with wise, godly people who have also joined themselves to this church family. Leave behind surface level niceties and really get to know one another. Step three: start asking for one another’s counsel as you make your plans and major decisions. Then watch as with many advisors your plans succeed. Let me give you some examples of ways this could work. One: this year before you finalize your budget, before you make decisions about how much money you will save, spend, and give to support your church, sit down with two other godly couples who you know make their financial plans based on God’s word and sound wisdom. Bring your plans and ask for their advice. Two. Invite wise advisors to speak into your most important relationships. If you’re dating, invite wise people in our church who really know you to speak into it. Ideally, these would be respected married people. If you’re a married man, ask other married men to observe the way you treat your wife and speak into it. And vice-versa for women. I love it when younger moms ask my wife to advise them in their parenting because Andrea is an extraordinary mother. Three. When you have major decisions in any area, slow down, and get the input of many godly advisors who know you well and are willing to be honest. I love when younger men in sales and business ask Pastor Gordon to speak into their business decisions based on his biblical knowledge and decades in the marketplace.

To honor this principle of leaning on wise counselors, the Citylight elders and staff have sought to establish a culture of collaboration and feedback. For example, on the Sundays I preach, I may stand up here by myself, but I never preach alone. After a few hours of studying the passage of Scripture I am going to preach, but before I write the rough draft of the sermon, I meet with the other lead pastors of the four other Citylight Churches and we help one another get the passage right and get across. After I write the rough draft of the sermon manuscript, but before I edit it, usually about three members of Citylight Church who are part of a large sermon review team will read the manuscript, provide comments, and even meet with me in person to provide feedback on the sermon so that I am in the best position possible to edit the sermon into a final draft that glorifies God, edifies you, and makes sense to those of you who are just checking Christianity out. Does this mean that writing a sermon takes longer than it would if I did it alone? Maybe, but who cares?! Sermons require a lot of decisions. Trust in the Lord with all your decisions; don’t lean on your own understanding, but do lean on an abundance of wise counselors.

TRUST THE LORD

What do I mean by that? I mean to trust that God’s plan for our decisions is that they can never ultimately thwart God’s good and perfect purposes for his universe and everyone in it. Proverbs 19:21 – Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand. God’s plan for our decisions is that they can’t topple his perfect providence. What is God’s providence? The 1689 London Baptist Confession says, “God the good Creator of all things, in his infinite power and wisdom, upholds, directs, arranges, and governs all creatures and things, from the greatest to the least, by his perfectly wise and holy providence, to the purpose for which they were created…All things come to pass unchangeably and certainly in relation to the foreknowledge and decree of God, who is the first cause. Thus, nothing happens to anyone by chance or outside of God’s providence.” We make decisions and plans, but it’s ultimately the Lord who is in control and whose purpose will stand. As Proverbs 16:33 says, “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.” The practical value of trusting the Lord’s plan that our decisions cannot thwart his purposes is that it lowers the temperature on our decisions. One of my responsibilities at home is turning the thermostat down in the evening so that it’s cool enough to sleep well when it’s time to go to bed. But the other night I didn’t turn the heat down early enough. It was terrible. The temperature was too high for us to sleep well, so eventually I had to get up and open the window so that the winter night could bring the temperature down to a peaceful level so that we could sleep. When the temperature is too high you can’t sleep well. Similarly, when the emotional temperature is too high, we make bad decisions. When we believe that our decision basically determine our lives, then we load way too much pressure onto our decisions, especially big decisions, and the result is that we’re frantic, unhappy, peaceless, and make poor decisions. However, when we trust the Lord’s plan that our decisions can’t wrestle his perfect providence out of his hands, then the temperature comes down and we have peace and joy even when we aren’t sure what to do and have to make a difficult decision. When we believe the doctrine of God’s providence, as taught in Proverbs, it brings the temperature down on our decisions so that we can enjoy the peace of God even when we don’t know exactly what to do. The other practical upshot of the doctrine of God’s providence as taught in Proverbs is that you can forget your past. Some of you are haunted by the sins or life-decisions of your past as though they have somehow ruined God’s purposes for your life. Impossible. You may have committed grave sins in the past or made bad plans, but the purpose of the Lord will stand. If you’ve repented of your past, then it’s time to forget it because the will of the Lord will stand. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones once wrote, “To get rid of ‘spiritual depression’ you must say farewell to your past! No matter how dark the stains may be, they have all been blotted out! It is finished! Never look back on your sins again! They will only ‘depress’ you! If you focus on ‘your sinfulness,’ you will only conclude that ‘you’re not good enough!’ And whether you believe it or not, nobody is good enough! The issue is not our goodness…the issue is God’s goodness.”

Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the ultimate reason why we can trust in the Lord’s perfect providence. In Acts 2:23 – Peter said, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. The most wicked decision anyone ever made, crucifying the sinless Son of God, was all done according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, in order to provide forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all who receive and rest in Jesus Christ. In fact, God’s perfect plan is to exalt his Son forever, and your decisions will never thwart it! So, take the temperature down, walk with Jesus daily so that you become a godly person who more naturally makes godly decisions, study the Bible, pray for wisdom, consult wise counselors, gain knowledge, and then just do something. And live free from second guessing and then sleep with the peace of knowing that God’s got this and he will work your decision together toward his plan to unite all things in Christ. Ephesians 1:7-10 – In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.