(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - All right, good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. I hope you had a wonderful Christmas this week, remembering and celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. As always, let us begin our service this morning with worship through song. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) Light of the world. ♪ Light of the world ♪ ♪ You step down into darkness ♪ ♪ Open my eyes, let me see ♪ ♪ Beauty that made this heart adore you ♪ ♪ Hope of a life spent with you ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ King of all days.

♪ King of all days ♪ ♪ Oh, so highly exalted ♪ ♪ Glorious in heaven above ♪ ♪ Lovely you came to the earth you created ♪ ♪ All for love's sake became Lord ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ And I'll never know how much it costs ♪ ♪ To see my sin upon that cross ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ Here I am to worship ♪ ♪ Here I am to bow down ♪ ♪ Here I am to say that you're my God ♪ ♪ You're altogether lovely ♪ ♪ Altogether worthy ♪ ♪ Altogether wonderful to me ♪ ♪ Wonderful to me ♪ - All right, good morning.

We have some announcements. New Year's Eve service is this Tuesday at 11 p.m., so please come and join us for that. Prepare your hearts. Come with a heart that's ready to reflect on the year. And then we have a Jubilee Fellowship Lunch in a couple Sundays on January 12th at 1 p.m.

in the Youth Chapel across the courtyard there. It's going to be $10 for adults, $5 for children above 10. And then in three weeks, we have Berean membership class starting. That's an eight-week course. And so if you want to know a little bit more about what we believe here at Berean, if you would like to become a member, you have to go to all eight of these courses.

And so please sign up for that. The QR codes are there for you. And on that same day, we also have a members meeting. So if you are a member of the church, please come to that. It is something that we require four times a year. And so it's 2 p.m.

in the main sanctuary right here. In between, there's going to be a fundraiser lunch, so just kind of keep that in mind instead of just kind of going off and eating on your own. And then lastly, BAM Retreat. There's only a little bit of time left now before the sign-ups will close here.

So if you can come to that, if you're a part of the BAM ministry, please make sure to highlight that. That's one of the bigger events of the year. Friday, January 31st to Sunday, February 2nd. Today, after worship, we're going to be spending some time watching our brother Lawrence get baptized.

If you have offering, we have an offering basket back there, or you can give electronically. Would you bow your heads with me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we pray, God, that you would really take offering from us in a way that brings honor to you. Lord, that is so contingent on us, understanding and recognizing who you are, what you've done, and God, the reality that all of what we have belongs to you.

Father, I pray, especially at the end of the year like this, would you impress it deep in our hearts about how much it is that you mean to us. God, that you are our everything. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Would you please stand and take a moment to greet those around you before we continue our worship?

(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ Hallelujah ♪ ♪ Our hope's praise eternal ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Now and ever we profess ♪ ♪ Christ our hope in life and death ♪ ♪ What truth can calm the troubled soul ♪ ♪ God is good ♪ ♪ God is good ♪ ♪ Where is his grace and goodness known ♪ ♪ In our great Redeemer's blood ♪ ♪ Who holds our faith when fears arise ♪ ♪ Who stands above the stormy tide ♪ ♪ Who sends the waves that bring us nigh ♪ ♪ Unto the shore the rock of Christ ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Our hope's praise eternal ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Now and ever we profess ♪ ♪ Christ our hope in life and death ♪ (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ Unto the grave what shall we say ♪ ♪ Christ he lives ♪ ♪ Christ he lives ♪ ♪ And what reward will heaven bring ♪ ♪ Everlasting life within ♪ ♪ There we will rise to meet the Lord ♪ ♪ And sin and death will be destroyed ♪ ♪ We will face in endless joy ♪ ♪ What Christ desires forevermore ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Our hope's praise eternal ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Now and ever we profess ♪ ♪ Christ our hope in life and death ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Our hope's praise eternal ♪ ♪ Oh sing hallelujah ♪ ♪ Now and ever we profess ♪ ♪ Christ our hope in life and death ♪ ♪ Now and ever we profess ♪ ♪ Christ our hope in life and death ♪ (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) ♪ Should nothing of our efforts stand ♪ ♪ No land or sea survive ♪ ♪ Alas the Lord does raise the house ♪ ♪ And make its builders strive ♪ ♪ To you who boast tomorrow's gain ♪ ♪ Tell me what is your life ♪ ♪ Amidst the banishes that die ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ our King ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ His rule and reign we'll ever sing ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ His will be done ♪ ♪ His kingdom come ♪ ♪ On earth as it is above ♪ ♪ Who wills himself a daily bread ♪ ♪ Praising the Lord above ♪ ♪ Let living water satisfy ♪ ♪ The thirsty without price ♪ ♪ We'll take a cup of kindness ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ our King ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ His rule and reign we'll ever sing ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ On the day the great night ♪ ♪ And the fateful and the true ♪ ♪ The Lamb who was for sin ♪ ♪ Is made for you ♪ ♪ All our lives shall live ♪ ♪ Because of him we must stand fast by ♪ ♪ And we shall ever be ♪ ♪ His people be ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ our King ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ His rule and reign we'll ever sing ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ our King ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ ♪ His rule and reign we'll ever sing ♪ ♪ All glory be to Christ ♪ - Please be seated.

- Good morning, Berean family. I'm Lawrence Moon, and I'm currently in BAM. I'm grateful to talk about my walk with God and how he's relentlessly working in my life. I hope this testimony conveys the power God's love has over someone undeserving like myself. As a second-gen Korean American in Orange County, I grew up sheltered, privileged, and very comfortable.

Everyone I knew attended a church and professed to be a Christian. Needless to say, Christianity was everywhere, and I wanted to fit in with the crowd. The abundance of church and Christian identity made me spiritually pampered. The earliest memory of my faith was when my grandmother dragged me to church and had me join her congregation.

I quickly became familiar with all of the praise songs and the songs' respective body motions, the larger-than-life stories in the Bible, and an oversimplified explanation of the gospel. As I got older, I remained in the church and ritualistically attended Sunday service. I learned about sin and what Christians ought not to do.

I applied the things I learned to benefit only myself. My heart was overwhelmed with self-pride, and my mind was hardened with a legalistic attitude. There was no question about it. I had the heart and mind of a Pharisee. Throughout high school and college, I accepted Christ as my Savior and showed my outward Christian self on my own terms and conditions.

I was a Christian when it was convenient and beneficial for me, and never when it truly counted. I nitpicked scriptures and ignored the scripture that exposed my faults and foolishness. Whatever convictions I had were self-satisfying rather than being obedient to God's will. I continued to walk down this path and focus solely on my own values, wants, ambitions, and vices.

In the moments when I really needed to rely on God, I chose my own independence. I deferred obedience or self-satisfaction, and rather than having remembrance of Christ, I carelessly neglected Him. It came to a point where I purposely left no room for Christ in my own heart. Several years ago, I experienced a season of constant failure, loss, and pain.

Everything I did out of my own abilities led to failure. Whatever I considered important was now meaningless. All my efforts and endeavors ended in pain and loss. I was in a perpetual state of failure and humiliation. I had never been as desperate as I was to get out of it or make it stop.

As foolish as I was, I could not realize that this was the result of my own sins, the sin of prioritizing myself over Christ and rejecting Him over and over again. At this time, I thought I was a genuine Christian because I would never reject Christ, but my repeated actions showed otherwise.

Despite my never-ending sins and failures, I soon learned that God is a God of redemption and deliverance. Although the season led me to brokenness and humility, Christ revealed that it is only Him who can overcome my self-rooted pride and depravity. I came to truly understand that Christ had already loved and redeemed me in regards to my sins, shortcomings, and inadequacies.

Before I was able to know and experience God's redemptive power because I did not allow myself to fully participate in the process of His redemption, God revealed that my convictions were self-satisfying and that I was not obedient. The desperation I was experiencing was truly a desire to be loved, accepted, and restored.

It was at this point Christ revealed that I needed to be intentionally honest and faithfully obedient. The act of giving up control and letting go to gain everything that is Christ was so contradicting and uncomfortable to me. Nonetheless, I surrendered myself to God and desired a true relationship with Him.

I realized that this relationship required obedience and consistency. It was through obedience I got to experience a relationship with God, a relationship unlike any other. I came to walk with God and my faith in Him grew exponentially. I came across Ephesians 1:7-9 and finally understood the love, grace, and dedication God had for His people.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us, and all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of His will. According to His purpose which He set forth in Christ, it was through these experiences I got to truly experience and perceive Christ and joyfully walk with Him now.

Thank you. (audience applauding) (water trickling) - Friends, you understand by going into the water uniting with Christ in His death, coming up out of the water uniting with Christ in His resurrected life. (speaking in foreign language) (audience applauding) - Thank you so much, Lawrence. Would you turn with me to Proverbs chapter three?

We'll be looking at verses five through six. Proverbs three, verse five through six. This is the last Sunday of the year. We'll go to one of the most memorized, one of the most recognized passages in scripture. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight. Heavenly Father, I pray that we would be able to see. Would you give us eyes? Would you give us ears? Would you give us hearts that are ready to receive? Not from the word of man, but from the word of God.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. - My children, my older two children especially, have been asking a lot about like what is faith? What does it look like to have faith? And it's been a challenge to convey faith. And one of the things that I have regularly been like kind of trying to help understand is using synonyms.

I like synonyms. And so like two of the words that I commonly begin to use is something like belief. Like faith is having, like believing something or faith is also trusting something. It's all kind of the same thing. So when we come across our faith, when we first become a Christian, if you're a Christian in this room, that's a moment of faith that launches into a life of faith.

And it's hard to really define faith. It's difficult to help somebody to understand it because it is exactly what it says it is. It just means to believe. So if somebody asks, how do you believe? How do you answer something like that? You say, well, you believe. You know, like you just do.

Remember somebody asked me once, how do you feel desperate for God? And I say, well, if you're drowning in the middle of the ocean, would you ask that question? How do you feel desperate? Well, you don't ask that question because it just is. It comes as a result of sight.

So this belief that we're talking about, there's a surrender to it. It just, it knocks over the next domino right away. Your trust is going to be something that your will is forfeited to. If your beliefs change, then your life changes. So for example, if you believe that a catastrophic disaster was on its way here, then your decisions and the things that you think and the next steps that you'll take and even the fact that you're like, should I even be sitting here in a service, it would begin to change.

If somebody told you that some stock would quadruple, if you believe that, if you trusted that, if you had faith in that advice, then something would change. You would do something about that. And so what God is doing here is he is asking us to place our faith in him, to believe in him.

Ultimately, the word that he uses in this passage is to trust, to trust in him. A trust means that we surrender to the trust. A trust means that our decisions change, our thinkings change, our emotions change. It's not always easy, but we're going to be sanctified in this. One of my children is very much like me, and they will ask like, what are we going to do next?

That's how I am. I just need to always know what's going to happen next. I need to know what's coming down the pipeline. And one of my children, it's there in a very unsophisticated form. And so all day long, it's like, what are we gonna do? What are we gonna do today?

What are we gonna do tonight? And then what are we gonna do after that? Are we gonna get dessert? And then after that, can we stay up a little bit later? And then tomorrow morning, what time do I have to wake up? Can I wake up early? This kid's a morning person.

And then they'll be like, and then are we gonna do something fun? It's the holidays, it's the break, so what are we gonna do after that? And then on and on. And we learn very early that if we answer, there is no end to this question. So if we say the entire thing we're gonna do today, then there's tomorrow, then the next.

She wants to know what's gonna happen in a week, in a month. And she even says, in a year, this is what I'm going to do. (laughs) This is very unhealthy. This is not something you should be doing. And we tell this child, just at a certain point, it's okay to ask, but you have to trust us.

We will tell you when the time is right, when you need to know. If you need to prepare something, at that moment, we'll tell you, prepare something. Just enjoy life, just be with us, you know? Do you trust that we're trying to do what is best for you? I think very much so, though.

I said that this child is kind of like my carbon copy when it comes to that. We really do want God to provide a turn-by-turn, kind of like a GPS. And until we know, we're not gonna be able to trust. So we ask God, tell me this, and then what?

Are you sure you're gonna do this? Are you sure this is going to be taken care of? I don't think we ask many times because we trust in Him. I think it's because we don't trust in Him. Many times, I think that's the heart we come with. To live by faith and not by sight, to trust God and simply let that be, to hear what He says and so just do.

Trusting in God is not something that just comes overnight, it's something that's grown. And so in this passage today, we're going to be looking at these two verses, but it's in the middle of chapter three, verses one through 12, that all has the same structure. And it's these admonitions that are given and these imperatives where God gives you something to do.

He says, this is my command to you, and then it's going to be followed by a positive consequence or a motivation that's going to cause you to desire to do that. And just a fair warning, the three admonitions are going to be the same thing. You're going to be like, didn't we just hear this?

And I'm going to tell you right now, yes, you did. Okay, we're going to say the same thing three times. And so to look again at this passage here, if we go to the next slide, trust in the Lord, no, go ahead and go to the, trust in the Lord, do not lean, and acknowledge Him, these are the three admonitions.

So we're going to start off with trust, jump to acknowledge, and then go back to do not lean, and then we'll conclude with, He will make your paths straight. Let's go to point number one. The first two we'll look at here is a do. It's a positive admonition. It's something that He says, this is what I want of you.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Every day, every Sunday when we come in here, before service begins, there's something printed on the center of this screen. You guys remember what that is, do you know? It might have become something, just wallpaper.

It says, please prepare your hearts for worship. My question to you today is, did you do that this morning? So it's there, but this is something much stronger. These admonitions are very, very weighty. It's a command to us to trust. It's not just a suggestion. It has an emphatic weight of a command given by God, and she says this word very simply, trust, trust.

We're dependent creatures. We're people that have to trust in things. All of 2024, we've had to trust in something. It's ingrained in us because even though there may be the illusion of self-dependency, the illusion of independence, it's just that, an illusion. We're helpless creatures. Even for those of us who don't see ourselves as generally trusting people, you can have a deep trust in certain things in your life.

Or perhaps you have a great and deep trust in yourself. We even have a phrase that sometimes people throw around, don't trust anyone, only trust yourself, which is terrible advice. So the question is not, do we trust? The question is, what do I trust in? So all of 2024, the question is, what have I trusted in?

What have I been trusting in? What do I trust in right now? This very morning, as you sit down, where is your trust? Are you sure that your trust is where you think it should be? We might trust in our own knowledge, that we've picked up a lot of knowledge, a lot of experiences over our lives.

And so we trust in that, just naturally. We trust in the fact that we are intellectual when it comes to certain places in our lives. Or perhaps we trust in our own intestinal fortitude, in the fact that we are grinders, that I can do something, I have high bandwidth, I have the ability to accomplish many things.

And so we're unable to trust people, we're unable to trust anything else, I gotta do it. We can micromanage as a result. We might trust in our personality, we might trust in our charisma, that we've learned over the years that I'm good with people. And so we trust in that ability.

We trust in our skills, our education. Yes, many of us trust in people, in our spouses, in parents, our friends, our mentors. You might place trust in a pastor, an elder. It might even be people you don't know, a commentator. It could be an online personality, a reviewer, an advisor, a medical professional who gives medical advice and prescribes medicine.

We can trust in all of these things. We might trust in financial institutions. We trust in retirement funds, in insurance. We trust in a country, we trust in a way of life. We trust in a culture, we trust in a politician. We trust every day in things, we trust in experiences that this thing is going to make me happy, that a break is going to make me happy, it's going to give me rest, that this vacation is going to bring me peace, it's going to bring me joy.

Possessions. So what do we trust in? What have you been trusting in this year? This passage says to trust, and then he says trust in the Lord. Now that word Lord is so heavy. That word Lord is a massive word. It's the biggest word we have. The word Lord is the word Yahweh.

It brings into your mind, it brings into all of who you are everything that he has proven himself to be in trustworthiness, in faithfulness. Every page of scripture shows the Lord who he is and what he's done. Every redemptive page of scripture showing how faithful he is. That Yahweh God who pulled Egypt out, who provided, who cared, who loved, who did all of these things, that he has promised, that this is guaranteed.

This word Yahweh, his name, the Lord, he is God, he is master, he is creator, he breathed and everything came to be. He is the reason for all things. He is the purpose of life. Without him all things fall together. You, me, we fall apart. Everything around us falls apart.

There is nothing that exists. He says trust in the Lord as a command, as an admonition to us. As if it would be so difficult for us, a command given to us because we are so prone to trust in other things, to trust in created things. He says trust in God, trust in the Lord.

In your life, if you're a believer, you have reason after reason, experience after experience, testimony after testimony of how trustworthy he has been to you, how faithful he has been to you. It's so sad that he has to command us to trust in him. As if the cross would not prove that enough, that he gave Jesus his son and we still doubt, we still trust in these things that we have erected in our lives.

We still trust in the things. We can say with our words all we want that we trust in the Lord. We still doubt him. We still doubt him to provide, still doubt his goodness, still doubt that his grace is sufficient. Faith is only as reliable, as strong and good as the object we place our faith in.

It makes absolutely no sense to trust in anything else, anyone else. It doesn't matter how proven a record is. It doesn't matter how good a man seems. It doesn't matter how smart a doctor is, how accomplished. It doesn't matter how good I am, how strong I am, how smart I am.

It doesn't matter that these things promise so many good things as a result. The only thing that makes sense to put our trust in is here. To trust him has little to do with the strength of our faith and everything to do with the object of our faith. He is massive in trustworthiness.

It is wise to trust God. No matter how bleak things seem to be, no matter how horribly insufficient we are, and no matter how everything happening around us seems to shake, it is wise to trust in the Lord. We don't falter because he is this big. He is this trustworthy.

Trusting in God doesn't mean you turn off rationality or logic. It means that our rationality and logic is being sanctified. It's being sanctified in truth that we see things differently, that this makes more sense, that I trust in God more than I trust my eyes, more than I touch my senses.

More than I trust my experiences. All of these things, I trust God. And so he says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." What the proverb says here is complete and whole, asking for everything, holding nothing back, no shred of doubt, not a shadow of a doubt. God understands that we are doubting people.

Trusting in God with all the heart means that this is the end to which we work towards. We trust God even if the outcome seems unfavorable. Even though it seems like everything is quaking underneath us. Even if it feels like everything is falling apart. Even if it feels like the consequences are too difficult to bear.

Even if there is a death, we trust in God. Nothing reserved, all our hearts opened up, empty to him, surrendered completely and holy. He says, "With all of your heart." Nowhere in scripture does it say, "With only a part." Nowhere in scripture does it say, "Just do your best to give what you can." He always demands the whole thing.

He says, "Trust with all of it." The heart is made up wholly of the mind, the emotions, and the will. Three things, mind, emotion, will. So first we are called to surrender our minds, the entirety of our thoughts, our logic, our rationale. Even if things don't make sense. Even if it feels like I know better, that I can trust in myself.

That God is not a last resort. That I turn to when all other things go bad. God is everything. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse nine talks about this. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? We can't trust ourselves. Our thinking is faulty if it is not sanctified in truth.

We are called to surrender our emotions. If something feels off, if there is loneliness, if there is depression, if there is anger, we surrender our emotions to him. The reason why those things many times, many times the reason why those things are there is because we do not trust God.

I'm not saying you go to someone and say trust God, you know like that's a command to you. But we have to wrestle with this. We have to grapple with it. That the reason why we have depression is because we do not have this thing that I want and I am holding onto it and that's it.

This is all I have and I need to hold on and I can't let go to God. I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying this is difficult. This is hard for me, this is hard for all of us. Yet we understand this to be a truth that God is there demanding of us.

Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Let it go. Give your emotions to him. We trust him. In our anger, the reason why we hold onto anger is because we cannot trust him. We have to be in control. That this is something that I need to enact, my vengeance, my judgment.

We cannot trust him to his. We need to trust him in places of fear. But even in good emotions, we can't trust those things. Sometimes we have happiness. Sometimes we think that even in a place where we are in sin that we're in a place of peace. There are those of us who are sitting in this room who are living in unrepentant sin, in rebellion, and you can sing songs of praise to God that he loves you and that you live for him.

And so you feel good about it. You're like, I'm okay. I think God's okay with it. We don't even trust in those feelings. We trust in God. We trust in what he says. We trust in the fact that what he says is true. We do not trust in our emotions.

Look at Psalm 13.1. This is a man who feels things and then he does something about it. How long, oh Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart and all the day?

How long will my enemy be exalted over me? And then look at where he comes to. Look at these words. He says, but I have trusted in your lovingkindness. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. We have to surrender our emotions to God.

And thirdly here, we're called to surrender our will, that we trust in application, in action, in tangible acts of obedience, that we do. It can't be something that we just resolve in our minds and it sits there. Good thoughts of how I know I ought to live. It can't be something today that we say, oh, that sounds great, I'll get to it one day.

If you know it to be true, if you are truly trusting in the Lord with all of your heart means you surrender your will. What you do, the decisions you make, it cannot sit there. James chapter one, verse two, but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who, listen to what it says, delude themselves.

Do not delude yourselves this morning. We are called to surrender our will. Remember, this trust isn't something that comes overnight. It's built with time. Like in any relationship, it's built with time. So you must not do this in momentary spurts, but you have to exercise this trust consistently in your life.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Wake up the next morning. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Before you go to bed, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Have I done that today? Through the day, am I trusting him? Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Secondly, same thing, do this. Acknowledge him in all your ways. It's literally, this is repetition. Acknowledge him in all your ways. Now what does it mean to acknowledge? In English, we sometimes think of it as giving credit to someone. If you are familiar with social media, sometimes you'll see a picture and it says PC, and that means, I think, I think photo credit.

And that means that somebody has a picture and they're saying, I didn't take the picture, somebody else took the picture. Many times it's of themselves, so I don't know why that makes any sense for me, for people to put that up. And they'll give a name, right? They'll say, Daniel Hsu, or something like that, right?

And so these things are there. And it's like, I'm giving acknowledgement to this man, to this woman who took this picture. Or at the end of an event, somebody will come up, an MC will come up, and what will they do? They'll say something like, hey, can we acknowledge the people who made this event happen?

And then everybody gives them a big round of applause. Acknowledgement. Well, I think this understanding is present in this word here, acknowledge God, but it's not complete. Acknowledge means to know, or to learn to know. That's what acknowledge means. Or more specific to this text, it means to know a person, or to be acquainted with someone.

Basically, acknowledge God means to know God. It means to know who he is. It means to know what he's like. It means to understand, to walk with this God, and know that his character and his ways are true. It means to acknowledge God, to recognize, despite all that's going around me, even if every evidence points away to the fact that God is good, I know that God is good.

This is who he is. I've come to know with all of my experiences, and now, even if everything seems like it's going awry, even if it seems like all my logic and rationale is pointing against that, when I was growing up, my dad, he would pick me up. He was my main picking up person, and he would do that after school, after these events, and things like that.

Now, my dad was also notoriously late. I was always the last one picked up. I hated it. I hated it so much. In third grade, I remember my friend, who was always second to last being picked up, would look up over at me and say like, "Why is your dad always so late?" (laughs) I'd be like, "Dude, ridiculous." And so, I looked over at him, and I'm like, "Well, every time he comes, though," I remember yelling that at him.

I know, "Every time he comes." Now, it would be like a 2.30 pick up, and I remember one day, it was 2.30, and then it was 3.30, and then it was 4.30. I was sitting there, I was like, "Every day he comes, you know, he comes. "He's going to come." I started thinking in my mind, should I start running?

If I run home, it might take only an hour and a half. (laughs) And then, of course, he came. He finally came, because that's who my dad was. He's late, but he always comes. Got in the car, and I yelled at him, "Why? "Why do you do this to me?

"You're taking years off my life, Father." Telling him these things, but this is who he was. Now, who is God? Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and it says acknowledge him, to know him, to be acquainted with him, to understand him, to know that he has pulled through time and time again, that I know who he is, that your friends are coming and saying, "Hey, it doesn't make sense to trust in him.

"You should do this, and this, and this. "Hey, turn your back on God. "He's done nothing good for you in your life. "Why would you continue to follow him?" And we sit here, and it's not just like, "Oh, but I believe in him." No, it's with full confidence. He has proven himself time and time again.

Every page in Scripture, every page of my life, he has only proven himself to be good. I acknowledge him, I know him. I walk with him, I understand him. Romans 8.28. Look at how Romans 8.28, at least in the part that I'm showing you. It starts with, "And we know." Know.

But do we, do we really know? Do we understand the words that come after this? Because I know you know this passage. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. We know this.

We understand this about God. It is not a concept, it is not a theology, it is not a theory. This is who he is. Guaranteed. Take it to the bank. I'll put my money on it. I'll stake my life on it. In fact, I already have. As a Christian, we have staked our lives on this fact that this is who God is, that he will work all things together for good to those who love God, for those whom he foreknew.

And this is the golden chain of redemption. He also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. These whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? Look at what verse 31 is doing to us. He said, we know this is who God is. What are we gonna say? Who's gonna say anything? This is who God is. And so he says, if God is for us, who is against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? God is not missing in our decisions because we acknowledge who he is. We say like we do all things for God's glory. We want every decision we make to be for God's glory.

We wanna raise our children for God. We wanna work in the workplace for God. We wanna do all these things for God. Then we are called to trust in him in these things. That means we must surrender our will. We must surrender our emotions. We must surrender our minds.

We must give the entirety of our hearts and we acknowledge him. And the next one here is in all your ways. He says, acknowledge him in all your ways. Before it was trust God with all heart. Now it's acknowledge in everything that you do. I told you, it's just repetition.

We're gonna say the same thing. In every path, in every decision, small decisions, big decisions, it's not devoid of God. Regardless of massive repercussions, of whether something that I want is gonna be taken away, whether something that I value then is going to evaporate on me, that I learn to trust in everything.

Not just the things that are easy and the medium things. And then some hard things. It's every single thing in all our ways. Regardless of repercussion, we live in the face of God. It's called koram deo. We live living in his presence and understanding who he is. And so all the things that we do, it's God is there.

Everything that we do, we walk into it understanding that God is there. God is there in our workplaces, in our rooms. He is there in our car. He is there with us. He is the reason that we live and we collectively understand this. Faith is not just intellectual. Faith is felt.

It is lived. It's breathed. And faith is grown because it is not just a theology that is ingrained in you over and over and over again. It is not a class that you take. We have a class here that maybe we'll make a class, a faith class. Strengthen the faith class.

And we tell you every time, hey, God is trustworthy. You would stop coming to that class because you already know that. That class is every day of our lives. God is trustworthy. And you place your trust in him even when everything feels like it's so hard to do that.

But we do what he says. It makes sense. And so we do it. And wherever it takes us, it takes us. And he proves himself trustworthy and my faith grows. Without obedience, your faith will not grow. When I was teaching my eldest, Addie, how to swim, again, I can't remember if I gave this image before, but it was just helpful for me, where she held on, she was clinging onto the side of the swimming pool.

For most of her swimming life, she had on those things that the floaties, floaties, thank you. She had on the floaties most of her life. And I understand that. Putting myself in her shoes, that is terrifying. You take those things off and you're, you know, so all her trust transferred because she, as a, you know, when she had the floaties on, she was swimming around, yeah, jumping, you know, like all that kind of stuff.

As soon as those came off, her trust transferred from the floaties to the wall. And I saw her fingers, it was so cute, her tiny little fingers clinging to the wall. It was all white. Right here was white and right here was red, you know. And she was like, "Ugh." And I was standing there, in three feet, saying, "Come," and clinging on.

And she was like, we're going back and forth. I was using every trick in the book. It's like, "Do you want candy? "Come right now." You know, like, I was using every trick in the book. And as she's clinging on, the words I would use, it's like, "Don't you trust me?

"You can trust me. "I'll catch you, don't worry. "Nothing will happen. "It's going to be fun, you know, whatever." All that stuff was happening. And for her, I understand, she's clinging on. Daddy's way across the swimming pool. I'm literally two feet away. She needs to let go, turn her body, and that's it.

She said, "Trust in me." Finally, I was like, as we're, like, I was using all my logic with this four-year-old. Tried to get her to understand and see life in a rational way. You know, like, "Do you think you're going to start, "like, drowning, and I'm just going to watch you?" You know, like, do this.

No, she finally turned, and I said, "Okay, do you trust me?" And she said, she nodded her head. And I remember her taking one hand off the wall. She took one hand off the wall, and then she, like, kind of reached towards me, and then she went like this again.

I was like, "Oh, that was so close." Now, a question I have for you is, when is trust born? In this situation, when is trust, when is faith and belief, when is it birthed? Was that trust? It wasn't, right? I'm sure all of you would say what I'm going to say now.

Trust is born when she let go, and she turned towards me. Trust was born when she trusted in me, and she surrendered herself to that fact. She surrendered herself to the will, and literally, she turned, and she clung onto me, and her fingernails dug into my arms. And I said, "Was that fun?" And she nodded her head.

Acknowledge Him in all your ways. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, with everything, and that necessarily means we get to this third point. Don't do this. So the first two are positive admonitions. This is negative admonition. Do not lean on your own understanding. Don't lean on what makes sense to you.

Don't cling so hard onto the things that you feel like you need. You are placing your trust somewhere. Is it on God, or is it on these things? There is no in-between state. In-between state means drowning. It is, you are here, or you are here. Where are you? In your finances, where are you?

In your relationships, where are you? In the things that promise pleasure, in the places that promise rest, peace, joy, happiness. Do you trust in the things of the world, or do you trust in God? He says, "Don't trust in your own understanding." John Piper says, "It is insanity to trust in himself." It is insane, it is crazy.

It defies logic to trust in self. We are fools who live in a world of fools. But fools don't look like fools, to the world looks wise. And that's why we follow these things, because it looks wise. We don't follow foolish things. We don't look like, "Oh, I'm glad "that this is gonna make me crash." We're not gonna do that.

It's promising something, we put our trust in it. But look at what 1 Corinthians 1:20 says. He asks this question, almost as if he's looking around, "Where is the wise man? "Where's the debater, where's the scribe, "the debater of the age? "Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

"For since in the wisdom of God, "the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, "God was well pleased through the foolishness "of the message preached to save those who believe." And look at this, this is the wall. This is what the Jews and the Greeks would cling to.

It says, "The Jews ask for signs, "and the Greeks search for wisdom, "but we preach Christ crucified, "a stumbling block to Jews, to Gentiles' foolishness, "but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, "Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God, "because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, "and the weakness of God is stronger than men." So not leaning on your own understanding means that number one, you cultivate a biblical world view, and number two, you live in accordance to it.

That's what it means not to lean on your own understanding. It's to don't trust in your eyesight. Don't trust in your own senses. Don't trust in your own senses. Trust in the Word. Trust in what God says. You are blind. You are in the dark. He sees everything clearly.

And so when he tells us something, then we say, "That makes sense." So are you sure? It's okay to ask questions. Are you sure? God says, "Yes." You say, "Okay." Not leaning on your own understanding means that we don't doubt God in our lives. In Solomon 14.1, it says, "The fool has said in his heart, "there is no God." So many of us living as practical atheists who profess with their mouth that we trust God, and yet by the fact that we place trust in things, we acknowledge that he is not there, that he is not trustworthy, or something like that.

And we're foolish in that place. There is no God is what we're saying by our lifestyle, by our choices. We're saying there's no God here. And so I cling so hard to people. I cling so hard to things. What does it mean to lean on something? Most of us in here are leaning on something right now.

You sat down because you put 100% of your faith in that chair to hold you up. It means to allow something to take your weight. And if the thing falls, you fall. And this thing that we are tempted to lean on is our own understanding. We cling to ourself.

We lean on it. And that's so foolish. We need immediate clarity. We cling to ourselves, and that everything needs to connect, and everything needs to make sense to me, and it needs to happen right now. Or I'll give you a certain amount of time, God, this much time I'll give that I'll trust in you, but if that time expires, then I guess I gotta take things into my own hands.

Or perhaps at that point, anger comes. I've been patient enough. I can trust him for a moment, but if a month goes by and nothing's changed, we can go right back to our own understanding. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding in all your ways.

Acknowledge him. This all means it is perpetually done as we grow in our faith. It is called sanctification. H.P. Charles has given an image of faith that stuck with me once, that sometimes following God will lead you into a raging river. Does that make any sense? Just like with Addie, she was holding onto the side of the pool.

I says, "Come." It made no sense to her. She's like, "No." Something wrestling around in here, but like her actions showed, right? And we see a raging river in our lives, and we lean on our own understanding. It'll take us far from the river that God is trying to guide us through.

On the other side of this river, there is something there that going back this way or this way, using and leaning on your own understanding is going to, you don't see what hides behind that brush. You don't know what's going behind that mountain. Go through the river. It's raging.

And so Isaiah 43, one says, "But now," that says the Lord, and look at all the qualifications He needs to give. He says, "Yahweh, your creator, "He formed you. "He redeemed you. "When you pass through the waters, "I will be with you. "And through the rivers, "they will not overflow you.

"When you walk through the fire, "you will not be scorched, "nor will the flame burn you." Don't trust on your own understanding, your savings, the occupation ladder, building up a life here in this world. Do not trust your brain. Do not trust your heart. None of these things over God's word.

God's word reshapes everything about how we view the world. Notice it doesn't mean we throw out our brain. It doesn't mean we throw out our heart. It means that we are evaluating things so differently. It makes sense, even to the point where Apostle Paul would say, "To live is Christ, and to die is gain." How does that make sense to the world?

Recently, for us, a loved one passed away. And for a majority of these holidays, I've been, or for the last few days, I've been going through his belongings. It's been very sobering. And I realized that you could just so quickly read the story of a man through his belongings.

What he cared for, what he valued, what he trusted and believed in. Came across bank statements and journal entries, pictures. It's going through the entirety of a man's life. I was so sobering because sitting there, looking, poring over these statements, and just seeing what that he, at least for that moment, what he lived for, what he valued, what he desired, what he cared about, what he trusted in, all of that scene right in front of me.

I was thinking about the decisions I make, the fact that I stand on a pulpit behind a mic, expounding on these great and fabulous truths, and I had to reflect upon that and ask myself, man, I cannot be up here saying trust in the Lord if I am not trusting in the Lord.

And I wanna ask you of that. Don't be flippant with your words. We must not be flippant with our words. If we're not trusting in God, let's just say we're not trusting in God. If we're not following Jesus, let's stop just saying like we're following Jesus. Let's just be who we say we are.

Let's let our bank statements, the things we purchase, the things we value, the things we platform on pedestal, the things we dream about, the things we desire, if it is not Christ, then let's just say it. It would make no sense to just sit there and just lie. (silence) We lean on our own understanding.

We appropriate God's word. We force God's word to mean what we want it to mean. We have a set way, and we understand what we want, and we try to find the things to buttress up with God's word what we want. We say here that we don't isojeet, and we isojeet every day of our lives.

You can't say you're trusting in God, following Christ, and yet you live your own way. If you're leaning on your own understanding, you are not leaning on God's understanding. If you're trusting in yourself, you are not trusting in God. If you're trusting in things, you are not trusting in him.

You can say that you believe in God. You can trust in God and yet go after whatever it is that you're going after. Your decisions will show. We are called to surrender, to submit, to yield, to let go. Again, remember the time you gave your faith to Christ. You said you can have it all.

You wanted to give God everything at the time, and it is the same today for every believer sitting in this room. Let's go back. Let's pour over our lives. Let's look at how we're living and surrender, submit, yield, let go of our trust in the things that make no sense to trust in, lest we come to the end of our lives.

We must not live foolishly. He makes a promise for us is the last point. He will make your path straight. It's hard to know, like, is this a promise? The Proverbs are difficult in that way. But this is the positive affirmation that he will make your path straight. What does straight mean?

Does straight mean that it looks like the way I think straight would look like? No, it doesn't, it rarely does. That's why he has instructed us to trust in him because it's like, we're trying to go there. Why are you taking us there? We don't trust in our own heart.

We entrust our heart to him. But many times, because trusting him leads us into darkness and danger, trusting him will lead us into threats to career. It will lead us into threats to our bank accounts, threats to our friendships, threats to our free time, to the things that we want.

It's going to threaten all of that. Trusting him, in him, will sometimes come with great sacrifice and consequences. Philippians chapter three, verse 10 says that, "I may know him and the power of his resurrection "and the fellowship of his sufferings, "being conformed to his death." I wish it just said life.

I wish it would just talk about the fact that there will be blessings and joy and peace in Christ, that he will just take us down and it's going to be green and it's going to be good. You can trust in him, that he will do what is, like, safe for you.

And accept in our lives that he's going to take us directly into danger. But we already know that. I was looking at a map here of Christ's road to the cross. And Christ's road to the cross, if you go to the next slide here, it's the most useless map I've ever seen.

It's useless because I have no idea, just red markers, Jesus went everywhere. I don't know where it begins. I'm guessing Bethlehem. And then somewhere he goes to Nazareth and then he just keeps going. But this was his road to the cross. And what this passage means, he will make your path straight.

It means that this was a straight line. That this was straight. That God has intentions and purposes that he's leaning us down. That this is the right way. That this is the good way. The safest way. Sometimes it'll feel like a roundabout, but trusting in God is the best path.

Genesis 50, 20 says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. In order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. Remember Joseph's life, how it brought him to this point. How many ups and downs. And now it gives us a comfort.

Probably when you first became a Christian, you read something like this. And now, many years into Christianity, you're reading it again. Nothing has changed. There are times in my counsel to people when they want something so much, they will trick themselves into thinking they know best. And make decisions to get to an end that ultimately ends up prolonging the season of difficulty.

And in my mind, afterwards, I say, he's like, why, why'd you do that? You did that because it was according to your own understanding. If you just waited patiently for God. If you did what was right before him. If you just entrusted yourself to him. You're the one zigzagging.

He would have taken you the straightest, best path. You've prolonged it. This means that we'll have to wait many times actively to trust that God will make your path straight. It means that you'll be living in accordance to his path for you. Not that he will give you whatever it is that you want.

Life may not, and probably will not, look exactly the way you want it to look. But we're okay with that because we trust him. I gotta wrap up the sermon. So there's a quote from Chuck Smith. He says, "Part of the fruit of doing God's will "is the satisfaction and joy of doing it." Many times we trust God as if he's going to just give me the things that are going to satisfy me.

The obedience is the joy. Living for God's will is so fulfilling. And you'll see it. So as we head towards New Year's Eve service, that's in two days. I wanna ask you to consider that. To start to think now, and don't just do it when we get to 11 o'clock on New Year's Eve.

Start to think over the next two days, rest of today, Monday, and Tuesday. What was I trusting in this past year? Can I say that I trusted in the Lord with all my heart? If you have accountability partners, message them. Tell them this is what I had been trusting in this past year.

But remind them that you want to trust in God. You'll be making steps to do so. I have some applications, which we don't have time to go through. But I'm gonna do it. I have some applications, which we don't have time to go through. Yeah, I guess that's what we'll do, okay.

Let's pray. Father, we ask you, Lord, to help us do what it is that we truly want here. God, it is with confidence that we can say you are trustworthy. What lags behind is my trust. And so I pray, Lord, that our church would be one that understands that the same call that brought us to Christ in the beginning is the same call for me today.

It's all yours. We trust fully in you. We love you with all our heart. You are the reason that we live. So we heed, we listen, we hear, we obey, we understand, we acknowledge you, Lord. Help us, God, 'cause I know many of us are in times of difficulty, that they would be able to trust in you fully.

I pray, God, for those who are in time of plenty and that they're beginning to place their trust in those things, that you would not allow them, God, to stray. And, God, I strongly pray that if anyone in here has never placed their trust in you, Father, I pray that you would help them to remember that life is not promised, that tomorrow might not come.

Give them urgency, Lord, to know that the only life is in trusting you, that all things fall apart. So, Father, thank you. For your great truths, in Jesus' name I pray, amen. - Let us stand together for a little closing song. (gentle music) ♪ Christ, our wisdom, we are humble ♪ ♪ When you hide your ways from us ♪ ♪ You have purposes unnumbered ♪ ♪ Each one good and glorious ♪ ♪ Help us trust when we grow weary ♪ ♪ Free us from our anxious thoughts ♪ ♪ Give us grace to see more clearly ♪ ♪ You are God and we are His ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ, our wisdom, be our gladness ♪ ♪ When we fail to understand ♪ ♪ Ordain all joy and sadness ♪ ♪ To fulfill your plan ♪ ♪ Help us know you with power ♪ ♪ Over every raging flood ♪ ♪ Our most uncertain power ♪ ♪ You are God and we are His ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ, our wisdom, we will follow ♪ ♪ Though the way ahead is hard ♪ ♪ As we journey through the shadows ♪ ♪ Grant us faith where sight is blind ♪ ♪ Help us cling to your commandments ♪ ♪ Strengthened by your faithful word ♪ ♪ We'll never be alone ♪ ♪ You are God and we are His ♪ (gentle music) ♪ Christ, our wisdom, we adore you ♪ ♪ For the beauty of the cross ♪ ♪ And foolishness we scorn ♪ ♪ But your plan has passed away ♪ ♪ But see the mercy of your own Lord to save ♪ ♪ Christ, our wisdom, our stronghold ♪ ♪ Our God who lives within ♪ ♪ But see the mercy of your own Lord to save ♪ ♪ Christ, our wisdom, Christ, our glory ♪ ♪ You are God forever and always ♪ - May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, and the love of God our Father, would help us and strengthen us to trust in Him with all of our hearts, both now and forevermore.

Amen. ♪ God sent his Son ♪ ♪ They called Him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to them ♪ ♪ He went forth again ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ My Savior lives ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because He lives ♪ ♪ He will keep you from all egos ♪ ♪ Behind you and before you ♪ ♪ No man before ♪