Sermon for 5th January 2014.
See this picture – Let’s just say each of us is standing at
this fork in the road today.
On the left hand side you can see it goes off and you can’t
see where it’s going. On the right hand side you can see an opening at the end.
At this moment with a show of hands without knowing what I
am going to be talking about if you could choose who would choose the left
path? –
And who would choose the right path?
Today I want to bring some encouragement for the New Year.
New Years is a time of reflection and a time of resolutions…. I have been
thinking about how my 2013 went and what I would change for this year. – I am
at the fork in the road – I have a decision to make.
Proverbs 3:5 says this
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your
own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make you paths
straight.
Last year was a good year for us. It was great to get here
and start the work God had laid on our hearts. The first 7-8 months were really
good, I felt like God was with me all the time and I was happy, then all of a
sudden something changed. I started to get tired and wasn’t going to God first
as I should. I began relying on my own strength and wanting to do things my
way. So because of that it became harder and I was less motivated and all
things became negative.
This scripture is my life verse and God always brings it up
at the right times.
The word lean has the sense of putting your whole weight on
something, resting and trusting in that person or thing. When we have an
important decision to make we can feel like there is no one to trust –
sometimes we feel like we can’t even trust God.
Which in turn makes us rely on our own strength and that
gets us no where!
So leaning on our own doesn’t really make sense now does it?
How can we lean on ourselves? We could lean on a wall – but is that really
leaning on ourselves – not really because there needs to be something there for
us to lean.
So how about we change this scripture to ‘Trust in the Lord
and lean ONLY on his understanding.’ How would that be? When I think of it like
that it makes sense. I need something to lean against, if there isn’t anything
there then I would fall over!
In all your ways acknowledge him:
That part of the verse uses the word all.
Who knows what all means? Here are some words from the thesaurus that kind
of tells us what all means:
Completely
Entire
Fully
Totally and Utterly
All embracing
All encompassing
All inclusive
Everything
Widely
The works
Whole
The dictionary says ALL: - the whole of, the greatest
possible, everything
So this is saying – Totally and utterly, completely,
entirely, fully, with everything, acknowledge him. Give him everything you have
got.
So after that explanation looking back on 2013 how and when
did we acknowledge God? Did we only acknowledge him things were good? Did we
say thank you even when times were tough? Did we give him credit for absolutely
everything?
The last part of the scripture says: and he will make your
paths straight.
So going back to the picture - The left hand I see that as a
representation of us making our own decision and going on our own way, the path
will become curvy and bumpy making it difficult to see the end result. It looks dark and choosing the wrong path
does bring darkness.
The right hand side represents us trusting God. We can see
what is in the end. When we have made the decision to follow Jesus we know
where we are going and we can have total peace in that. We know the light is at
the end. Now, choosing this path can be hard work because we know there are
hard times and there are bumps and curves in the road but we know at the end there
is light, not darkness.
I often find that when I am getting too far in my own ways
there comes an overwhelming darkness on my life. It becomes a time of deep
anxiety, depression. That darkness brings judgemental and negative towards
others.
Thankfully, I believe in a redemptive God. I believe in a
loving, caring God who helps. When I have gone onto the wrong path he will
bring me back to the right path.
Have you ever been in a forest similar to this? While we
were in Upper Hutt we found this really cool
walk way we would take the boys in because it was only short and we knew it was
safe. It was kind of similar to this.
The right hand side was a straight path that went straight
towards the river, but the one on the left went off into the walk. You would be
walking then there would be another fork and you would have to decide on what
one to take. One side would head towards the straight path towards the river,
and the other would take you another way.
I see God like this – we are allowed to make mistakes. We
are not perfect but God still loves us anyway. So those times we do take the
left hand path – eventually they there is another path that can get us back on
the straight path. God is a redemptive God and he gives us more than two
chances.
So today we are at a fork in the road. It’s the beginning of
2014 where we can make the decision to go our own way and or we can choose the
right path and acknowledge God in everything we do.
I know I don’t want to be on the same path as the last few
months. I need to get back on the right path, and make some changes in my life.
Who’s coming on that journey?
Trust in the Lord, lean only on his understanding and in
totally and utterly, completely, entirely, fully, acknowledge him in
everything. Give him everything you have got and he will make your path
straight.
As we finish up I want to give a chance to respond, to make
a new years decision. Down here is a path you can take. One path leads to the
door for this moment this represents us making the decision to go in our own
strength and not giving God our all. The second leads to the mercy seat/prayer
corner, if we make the decision to acknowledge God in our totally and utterly,
completely, entirely, fully, everything, acknowledge him then take the moment
to give to him what we need to. Give up the stuff that needs to be let go from
last year. This is a new year and this is an opportunity to tell God ‘I trust
you, totally and utterly, completely, entirely, fully, in everything I do.’
