# Trust in the Lord with All Thine Heart

Category: Faith & Trusting God
Key Passage: Proverbs 3:5-6
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

But Miss Gatorre was out there yesterday with the three little ones passing out door hangers. And just going after it. So praise the Lord for that. That’s great.

Turn your Bibles to Proverbs chapter number three. Proverbs chapter number three in God’s word.

I was wanting to complain a little bit. Some of us were a little bit. And he said, well, Miss Gator is out there. I guess we can’t complain. You know, I’ll tell you what. In Proverbs 3, these are very familiar verses. In fact, we just sang them Wednesday night. And I love it that we’re singing Bible verses. A great way to learn Bibles by singing them. And that’s a great thing.

But these are just familiar verses. If you’re in the Christian world very long, you’ll hear these verses. Maybe you go to a Christian bookstore, you’ll see these verses on a plaque or whatnot. Great verses. The Lord just wanted us to focus on them for just a minute or two tonight. Proverbs chapter 3, verse number 5 and 6. How many know those by heart? Proverbs 3, 5, and 6. A good number of you, good, and that’s wonderful.

We’re going to have you stand and quote it individually out loud then, if you would. Would you please stand? We’ll read it together, Proverbs 3. We’ll start with verse number 5, Proverbs 3 and verse number 5. Let’s read it out loud together. Many of you do know it. Let’s just read it or quote it out loud together. Would you please? Here we go:

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

And would you pray that God would work in our hearts tonight to do the same? Father, Lord, I do pray. You talk about over there your rod and your staff that comfort me. And Lord, I’ve been told that one of those represents your word and your spirit. So, Father, tonight, would you take your word and your spirit? Would you send your spirit and just bring comfort and security and strength to your people, Lord, please? Do it I cannot, Father. And we’ll thank you and brag on you and praise you for what you do, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.

Years ago, I was a semi-driver for North Florida Shipyard for about 10 days, I believe it was, not long. I never left the shipyard. We always drove. I don’t have a Class A. You have to have a Class A CDL to drive a semi. I don’t have that. Never had. But we had a ship coming in. It was a cargo ship. Some cargo ships have just huge doors, bay doors that cover the top of the ship, and it’s just long. In fact, they’ll put all kind of things down inside the ship, then they’ll close those doors, and they’ll actually stack containers and whatnot on top of those. But those doors will fold up kind of like an accordion. You’re talking about huge, huge doors. Those doors will roll up and roll down, and when they’re rolling, they sometimes will get stuck, and they’ll get cocky, and they’ll get bent, just where they won’t open or close properly.

And so a ship was coming in like that, and we knew it ahead of time, and it had to get fixed and repaired quickly. It was going to take a week—maybe it’s a week, 10 days, I’m not sure. And those bay doors are just huge. Now, we typically ran first and second shift. Sometimes just first shift if things were slow. But when that ship was in, our section, our department, we were going to run three shifts. We didn’t typically have a third shift. So I worked third shift then. I always avoided third shift all I could. I mean, I just like to sleep at nighttime. Lord bless those some people who like it, amen, you know. But I like to sleep at nighttime.

But I worked third shift for just a little bit, and we were just starting up a shift for just a short time while that ship was in. Different people doing different positions during that time. So they said, “Paul, now, you’re going to be our semi-truck driver.” They would take those big—they have big cranes—they’d unload those big bay doors off of there. And then they’d put it on the flatbed truck, semi-trailer. They put it on there, and I had to hang off very, very far on both ends. They would chain it down to the trailer of the semi. There’s no way you could drive it to a neighborhood. I mean, every mailbox in the neighborhood would be gone, and some cars, and maybe a house or two. I mean, just huge. It was just kind of teetering on the trailer of that semi. It couldn’t flip over because it sticks out too far, you know, but…

So I drove on the third shift when we were transporting those doors. We would take them off the ship and transport it down to a certain section with overhead cranes, and they would repair it and bring it back and all those things. But here’s the thing: those doors of that ship were so huge. They would stand out on both sides of that trailer.

Now, semi—some of you guys probably drove a whole lot more than me on semis, I don’t know—but you use your mirrors a lot. You really couldn’t use your mirrors because that door, that ship door, is just sticking way out on each side, and so you really can’t see it. And sometimes you’re driving down these little alleys in the shipyard, and sometimes on one side would be the St. John’s River, and then on the other side, big buildings. You can’t hit the buildings, you don’t want to go on the river, you know.

And so here’s the thing, here’s the thing: they would have four spotters: one up here on this corner, one on this corner, one on the back corner over here, and then one of the foremen would be in front of the semi with a flashlight, and he’d be guiding me.

And I really couldn’t see if, you know, you’re taking a corner and it’s going to hit that building or not. I couldn’t see if it would. And I’m not a typical semi-driver, you know, and it’s way out there. But here’s the great part for me: they were directing me. I mean, all I had to do is follow the directions.

There was a time or two going around some corners. It was tight. I can’t remember everything. I think maybe there’s a time or two we had to back up. And somebody could say, “Hey, no, you should have took that turn better.” But I never heard that because everybody knew. It wasn’t me; he was directing me.

And he’s a foreman. You don’t get the foreman too hard a time. He’ll fire you, you know. And he just—all I had to do is just, I mean, he’s directing everywhere. And then he said, “Go a little bit to the left.” I go a little bit to the left. And, “All right, stop here.” I just—it was pretty easy, to be honest with you, my part.

I mean, all I had to do is push the gas a little bit, you know, let out the clutch a little bit and so on, and that’s about it, and just do what the guy told me to do. I know it was a huge job, maybe it looked like that, but honestly, my job was pretty easy because he was directing me. Now, there’s a comfort when he says, “And he shall direct thy paths.” All we have to do is just go when he says go, turn a little bit to the left when he says turn. I mean, it’s just not really that hard.

Friend, there’s a security in the promise, “He shall.” I learned years ago from Brother Humphreys: If God says will in the Bible, you can bank on it that’s going to happen. But when he says shall, that’s a little bit stronger. And he says, “He shall direct thy paths.”

2020. I don’t know how in the world we’ve got two months left, but I’m just sick and tired of 2020. How are we going to make it two more months? He’s going to direct our paths. That’s all we’ve got to do. Somebody says, “Well, what if the election don’t turn out real good?” By the way, I think it will because of God’s people pray, because of Genesis 12, and he’s been good to Israel. I thank him for that. But no matter if whatever happens in the election, you know what? He’ll direct our paths.

If their own people get in power, are you all nervous? No, no, no, no. He’ll direct your paths. How am I going to raise good godly kids in 2020 and this end of the times in such a sinful world? He’ll direct your paths. What am I going to do when the doctor says, “I got cancer,” I got these problems, and you’ve got doctor bills coming in. What are you going to do without? He’ll direct your paths.

How am I going to make an impact at work? It’s a dirty place, preach it, man. It’s just all kind of filth at work. How am I going to shine for the Lord? He’ll direct your paths. Preacher, it’s a dark, dark day and time. What am I going to do about it all? Hey, the brighter—excuse me—the dark of the night, the brighter the light. I got the light guiding it. He shall direct thy paths.

How am I going to build a building over there and for all this play out? How are we going to do all that? He’s going to direct their paths. It’s just “He shall direct my path.” There’s comfort there. I love it in Psalm 23, the shepherd psalm there, when it says, “He leadeth in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.” He shall direct thy paths.

Friend, boy, there’s just such a hope you grab a hold of that. By the way, you can squeeze that thing and you’re never going to squeeze it all out of there. It’ll last forever. He shall direct thy paths. Young people, you’ve got so many decisions. It’s amazing when you’re young that all the major decisions for the most part of life are made when you’re young. I don’t quite understand why God does it like that, but he shall direct the paths.

There’s comfort there. Security there. You say, “This task just seems bigger than me, and there’s no way I can climb that mountain in front of me.” He shall direct thy paths. There’s comfort there. There’s no storm he can’t direct you through. Nothing too complicated for God. Now, I’m in a maze. That’s all right. God sees from down, from up top looking down; he can guide you through every little bit of that maze. He knows it all. He shall direct thy paths. Every angle.

David Green, the owner of Hobby Lobby. His dad was a preacher, pastored a church about 35 years. All of his siblings are either preachers or preachers’ wives. But this is work God’s called me to do, and he started Hobby Lobby. In 1985, I think it was, they went through a very dark time and a very bad time for their company. Not near as big, only 11 stores at the time. Just very, very tough. And he said, “I was a little bit successful. He said, ‘I’ll be honest with you, I was proud.’” And he said it was just a bad, bad time. And he said the bank wanted to liquidate everything, just get rid of it. He said the power companies were threatening to turn power off. He said, “We were paying the power companies out of the cash registers.” That’s how tight it was. Man, just get it, go pay that bill so we can keep the lights on.

And he started going. And for a brief time every day—I think maybe he still does this, I’m not sure about that—but he’d go and he’d go in his office. And you know where you can slide up underneath the desk where the chair goes, he would crawl in there and just pray and humble himself and seek God’s direction, his leadership. And God directed his paths. You can see by all the stores, and every lady in the world their favorite place is Hobby Lobby, then Walmart. That was a chance. Yeah, I was waiting for the amen. Net worth, they say, is $4.5 billion. They’re not a publicly traded company. They own it. They’ve given Forbes magazine estimates he’s given. He likes to give to Christian organizations.

Verse number five, he says, “Trust in the Lord.” That’s Jehovah. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.” That’s interesting: all. Now when it comes to trust, God says, “I want all of your heart. All of it.” That’s just amazing to me. He doesn’t want part of your trust. He wants all of your trust. We’re so prone to trust in man or our self or things here. And I said, “No, I want all your trust.” With all thine heart, pretty strong. Trust the Lord with all thine heart. Amazing. That’s what God says. I like that verse. I use it at funerals often: Proverbs 16:20, “Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.”

Jay Vernon McGee tells the story—it wasn’t him, but he’s telling the story of another man that had witnessed to a man that was into drugs, I take it, drug dealing. I’m not sure. And the man said, “Hey, young man, God loves you.” And the young man said, “I don’t need God to love me. I love myself. I have to trust in God. I trust to myself.” Now, I don’t think that man did, but Jay Vernon McGee said, you know, the Bible has something to say about that in Proverbs 28:26: “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” That young man, if he didn’t change, well, he’s regretting that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, all of your heart. Trust in the Lord. Security there.

And what’s the next thing he says? “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.” For me, here lately, this has been the phrase that God spoke to my heart about. For years, I kind of thought, “All right, what does that mean? And what does that mean to Paul?” Can I just say a couple of things about this thing here? It didn’t say you’re not supposed to have your own understanding. It didn’t say that. So lean not on your own understanding. I often say this: “Hey, let’s get all the information we can get before we make a decision.” Let’s make a knowledgeable decision. I use that phrase fairly often. It doesn’t say you’re not supposed to have knowledge or understanding about the situation. It says, “I’m to lean not to your own understanding.”

You ever hear this statement: “Which way are they leaning?” On the decision, which way are you leaning? For the most part, if I’m leaning in a certain direction, if I don’t have something to hang on to, I’m not going to illustrate it. I’ve got to have something to hang on. But I’m not hanging on to something; I’m leaning that way. I’m going to go that way, or else I’m going to just boom, you know.

And he’s saying, look, though you have and you try to gain knowledge and get understanding and trying to make a knowledgeable decision, a friend, at the end of the day, his will always trumps your will by 90 miles. You’re not leaning to your own understanding. Doesn’t mean there’s nothing wrong with you trying to find the best you can, but the end of the day is the Lord. I don’t want what I want; I’m trying to find out any knowledge I can, abide it, and see if it lines up with your word or not, but I don’t want to lean to my own understanding.

I’m learning. I’m not there, but I’m learning. God gives just a little slight impulse, “I want you to preach this.” I’m learning. I’ve spent many a time arguing with the Lord about that. “Well, Lord, I don’t know how to preach on that subject.” That’s my typical answer. “I can’t preach on that verse. I don’t know what it means myself,” you know, that type of thing. Or they’ve heard that and they, you know, and I’m learning. Just trust him. Don’t lean to your own understanding. He’ll open his book. He’ll help you understand it. He can help you do all that.

But lean not. Doesn’t mean you don’t have understanding. You don’t try to search the subject and try to find the best answer. Doesn’t mean that. By the end of the day, hey, you’re not going to lean to your own understanding. You’re all about what he wants. Can I say this in that? Maybe that context: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding.” Sometimes it’s times when you have to trust the Lord. “I don’t understand my wife.” I’m going to slow down. I don’t believe in speaking in tongues like that, amen. That’s all, folks, you know. But it might be times when you say, “I don’t understand why my wife has cancer.” And you just trust him, and you don’t lean to your own understanding of those times. “I can’t figure out why they pulled out of the contract that we’re going to buy those two acres.” You don’t lean to your own understanding. Times you don’t understand why these financial problems or this relationship problem or these health issues, and you can’t really understand it all. You trust him and you don’t lean to your own understanding. You just trust him.

Trust the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding. And there’s a verse right there, verse number six. Look at it if you would please, verse number six, Proverbs 3, verse number six. What a wonderful promise: “In all thy ways acknowledge him.”

Let me just stop. I want to add something. I’ve said this, I think, over the years, but that verse number six, there are 12 words, if I remember right, 12 words of that verse. The first six are our part, our job. The last six is his job. Look, the first six words: “In all thy ways, acknowledge him.” That’s our job. Here’s his job: “And he shall direct thy paths.” Usually our problem is when we get on his six words. He can handle his job.

All I have to do is in all my ways acknowledge him. That’s not that hard. You know, I’m big on the thing: the first time a word is used in the Bible, it often defines the word. And I use Strong’s concordance to touch this morning. Nothing wrong with that, but that’s Strong’s definition of that word. I like it if I can get something what God says about it.

And the first time acknowledge is used, it’s found over in the book of Deuteronomy, and there’s Deuteronomy 21:17. Don’t look it up if you would. Just hold off on that if you’re not looking up now. But it’s actually giving some ceremonial law to the nation of Israel. And he said, look, if a man has two wives—he’s not for that, but he’s saying if he does, and over the beginning he made a man and woman, and that’s it: man and male and female. By the way, it wasn’t Adam and Steve. It was Adam and Eve. You’ve heard that, amen, you know.

But he said, look, if this guy has two wives and he loves the one, he hates the other. And the one that he doesn’t like, the one that he hates, she has the firstborn male. That’s the birthright, the firstborn, and he’s supposed to get double portion. And it says, “It’s because that child is the firstborn son of the one that’s hated.” Still is the firstborn. And I want you to acknowledge him and give him a double portion. That’s the first time that word acknowledge is used.

And here’s the thing: “In all thy ways, acknowledge him.” You acknowledge he’s God. He trumps everything. I’m trusting in him. I’m relying on him. I want his opinion. I want his advice in all my ways. I acknowledge him. Finances, I acknowledge him. Health, I acknowledge him. Family, I acknowledge him. Work, I acknowledge him. All the ways, God, you’re God, and I’m going to acknowledge you. I want to follow you in every single area in all thy ways. Acknowledge him.

And he shall direct. Friend, I say this every once in a while, but God’s not a psycho god, if you will. And I don’t say that lightly, playing games and tricks with you. If you’re sincerely trying to acknowledge him in all your ways and follow him, he’ll direct. It might not be in my timetable, but he’ll direct. I may have to stay in there and seek him and acknowledge him, but in his time, he always, always, he shall direct thy paths. You can bank on that. You can rest in that. He’s not a God that’s just playing tricks with you. No, no, no, friend. In all the ways to acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. That’s his promise. God’s word, security, joy, peace, comfort there.

There’s a little child. It was in the city years ago when children were allowed or able to get out on their own. And a child was lost in the city. A storm came up. It was a dark, rainy night. And the little child had lost their way. Couldn’t find the way back to the house. The policeman was there, and the policeman began to ask the child about it and began to try to piece together where the child lived at and whatnot. And the more the child told, the more the policeman was just confident that he knew the neighborhood she lived in. So the policeman told the little child, he said, “Look, go down this street a half a mile, turn and cross over the big iron bridge, then turn to your right and follow the river down a little ways, and you’ll see right where you live.”

Well, the child turned just kind of bewildered. The child didn’t get all that. The child was just thinking, “What am I going to do now? I don’t know how to follow the policeman.” And an onlooker heard the conversation, came up to the child and grabbed the child’s hand, said, “Just come with me.” Well, that little child had all the comfort in the world from that adult. They said, “Come with me.” That little child just reached up the big strong hand and grabbed real tight that adult. That child is home. Hey, “He walks with me and he talks with me, and he tells me I’m his own.” He even goes through the valley of the shadow of death with you. Get to fear. He shall direct.

Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? Would you stand there where you’re at? Would you stand with your heads bowed and eyes closed? I’m going to ask if our instrumentals will come just as soon as they can, a little different tonight. Would you come and just grab a hold of his hand? Would you just rest in him tonight? Would you say, “You know, I’m just going to rest peacefully in his promise. He shall direct.” I’m going to have a word of prayer and our instrument’s going to play. Would you just grab a hold of his hand? Would you grab all the peace and comfort and security? And there’s a whole lot there. It’s infinite. Would you do that? We’ll pray. You come down. It’s great. You come. Father, thank you, thank you, thank you. You shall direct. Lord, you make that promise so real to your people tonight. Give them what they need, Lord. Thank you. They acknowledge you in all our ways, and you shall direct our paths. Would you come as our instruments play? Would you come? Just come grab a hold of that promise. That’s good. Just grab a hold of that. He shall direct that path. Hey, let’s be like that little child tonight. Let’s grab a hold of his hand. Let’s hang on tight. He’ll direct the whole way home. Doesn’t matter what comes down the pike, he’ll direct. Doesn’t matter how dark it is, he’ll give light. Nothing matters how confusing it is, he’s got it all under control.

Original File: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart - Pastor Paul Chisgar Sunday pm 11120