Three Steps to Stop Wasting Your Life
Chapters
0:0 Introduction0:29 Three Steps
3:20 Outro
00:00:00.000 | A few years back, we locked John Piper in a recording studio and told him he could not
00:00:09.680 | come out until he finished recording a series of video devotionals for the YouVersion Bible
00:00:14.000 | app.
00:00:15.480 | And one of those devotions that came out of the recording was on Proverbs chapter three
00:00:19.760 | verses five and six.
00:00:21.600 | What Pastor John delivered is what we're calling three steps to stop wasting your life.
00:00:27.440 | Here's what he said.
00:00:30.160 | Proverbs three verses five and six.
00:00:33.600 | Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.
00:00:39.880 | In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
00:00:47.500 | That verse probably is the one that my mother quoted most often in writing me when I was
00:00:55.380 | in college and graduate school.
00:00:57.720 | She was just put, without even writing it out, she'd put Proverbs three, five, and six.
00:01:02.680 | And I think it's because the main aim of the verse is to walk in a straight path.
00:01:09.680 | That means she didn't want me and I don't want you and God doesn't want us to veer off
00:01:14.920 | the path into disobedience or into a wasted life or into anything that would dishonor
00:01:21.600 | him.
00:01:22.600 | That's the goal.
00:01:23.600 | To make your paths straight, straight to obedience, straight to everlasting joy, straight to a
00:01:29.760 | God honoring life.
00:01:32.060 | And he says there are three steps to get there, right?
00:01:36.160 | First trust in the Lord with all your heart.
00:01:39.320 | So bank on the promises of God step by step in your life.
00:01:43.720 | Make your life a moment by moment trusting in a good, holy, kind, loving, all providing,
00:01:51.520 | all satisfying God.
00:01:53.360 | And then step two, he says, don't rely on your own understanding, which I think means
00:02:00.240 | a conscious choice not to be self-reliant, to say to yourself, "Self, you are inadequate.
00:02:09.120 | Brain, you can't come up with enough wisdom on your own.
00:02:13.200 | You have to turn away from self-reliance."
00:02:15.800 | Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't think and you don't plan.
00:02:18.980 | It just means you don't bank on it.
00:02:22.280 | The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory belongs to the Lord.
00:02:26.760 | So even in the midst of our planning and thinking and using our minds, we're leaning on something
00:02:31.680 | else.
00:02:32.680 | We're not leaning on our own resources.
00:02:35.400 | And then the third one is in all your ways acknowledge him, which I think means, the
00:02:44.160 | Hebrew says, in all your ways know him.
00:02:46.720 | So at every turn, every new choice you have to make, every new conversation you're in,
00:02:51.320 | you're sending up a message, "God, I acknowledge you here.
00:02:54.640 | I know you here.
00:02:55.800 | I'm drawing you in here.
00:02:58.040 | You are decisive here.
00:02:59.880 | I need you here."
00:03:02.240 | And if we follow those, trust him, renounce self-reliance, bring him into every situation,
00:03:08.280 | he's going to make our path straight.
00:03:10.040 | He's going to keep us from wasting our lives or destroying ourselves and others in the
00:03:14.560 | path of sin and bringing us to everlasting joy.
00:03:19.000 | Amen.
00:03:21.000 | Thanks for listening to the Ask Pastor John podcast.
00:03:23.360 | And tomorrow, John Piper is back with us and we have a question.
00:03:27.600 | Really it's a series of three questions.
00:03:30.000 | Should pastors be paid?
00:03:31.760 | Should we meet in church buildings or houses?
00:03:34.080 | And should we have sermons every week?
00:03:36.360 | A three in one bonus episode, all that tomorrow on the Ask Pastor John podcast with author
00:03:40.580 | and longtime pastor, John Piper.
00:03:42.600 | I'm your host, Tony Reinke.
00:03:43.600 | We'll see you tomorrow.
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