God’s Guide to a Fruitful Life: Embracing God’s Guidance

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Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, October 3rd. Today’s podcast focuses on Proverbs chapter 3 to help us understand and apply God’s guide to a fruitful life.

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When I think about the pathway that is fruitful and fulfilling and contenting and a pathway that will one day lead us to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ and amidst our failures and amidst our faults and amidst all of our difficulties in life, He will be able to say to us, well done, good and faithful servants. You’ve been faithful over a few things. I will give you a position that deals with many. And so we talk about a life of fulfillment and contentment and one that is fruitful and not wasted. Here in one passage of scripture, it’s all there. So I want you to turn, if you will, to Proverbs chapter three. He begins by saying, my son, do not forget my teaching. Why would he say, do not forget it? And so often he warns us about forgetfulness because God knows how prone we are to forget. You can’t afford to forget it. Listen to what he says, do not forget my teaching. but let your heart keep my commandments. And when I think about what he’s saying here, he’s saying not only don’t forget it, he says, but let your heart keep my commandments. That is, keeping his commandments means to obey them. He’s not referring simply to the Ten Commandments, but he’s referring to all the principles of Scripture. All right, look what he says beginning now in verse 5. And this is the core of this passage, and we’ll come back to it later. But listen, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him. And he says he will do what? He will direct your path. Trust in the Lord. Rely upon him. And I think if there’s one thing I have seen God do in my own life, I’ve seen him take me and put me in places that I could never have gotten to. Didn’t even know I was supposed to be there, number one. And in spite of all the obstacles and all the hardships and all the difficulties, God knows how to take you where you are, put you where he wants you, no matter what. Because remember this. He assumes full responsibility for the consequences of your decision when that decision is based on the principles of the Word of God and you’re obeying Him. Therefore, in every single one of our paths, there are going to be obstacles. So what am I to do? Fight the obstacles? No. I’m to look to the God who set the path. I’m to trust Him who allowed the obstacle to either remove the obstacle, show me how to get around it, go over it, under it, or whatever it might be. God will remove that obstacle to the degree that it will not hinder. It cannot impede. It cannot obstruct you from reaching the goals, the purposes God has for your life. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He’ll direct your path. Very, very important two verses. Storms may come, winds may blow, waters may rise, fire may fall. But you know what? When you’re on God’s path, he says you walk through the waters, they won’t overflow you. Walk through the fire. Listen, he didn’t say run through the fire. He said, walk through the fire, won’t burn you. Why? Because you’re on God’s path. He’s just like asbestos, friend. Listen, God knows how to protect you from anything and everything, no matter what. It is foolish to try to live your life outside the purposes, the plans, the goals, and the will of God for your life. Well, look what he says in verse seven. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Now watch this. When he says fear the Lord, that means to reverence him and to be in awe of him and to acknowledge who he is. And so oftentimes the scripture will use the word fear the Lord, which simply means to obey him. That is if I genuinely reverence him and acknowledge who he is, I am going to be obedient to him. And so he says, I’m to obey him. And if I obey him, I will turn away from evil. God would never lead our pathway into evil. He will never tempt us. He will try us. He will test us, but he will never tempt us to do evil. He will never entice us to sin. And so therefore he says. In this particular verse, he says, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. We have a choice. We can either turn to evil or turn away from it. But he says, if you turn away from evil, look at this. He says, it’ll be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones. Well, what’s healing got to do with obedience? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. Now, listen carefully so you won’t say something I didn’t say. Listen and say amen. All right. I am not saying if you’re sick, you’re living in sin. Did you hear that? I am not saying if you’re sick, you’re living in sin. That could be, but I’m not saying because you’re sick, you’re living in sin. But let’s think about something for a moment. I think more than we realize, far more than we realize, there are those attitudes within us that contribute to ill health. For example, a person says, well, you know, I’m trying to be obedient to God. Here I am sick. I understand that you and I and anybody who says that God heals all sickness every time has not read the Bible. I don’t care who they are because if that were true, there’d be some folks in the scripture you can’t explain. So therefore, God does choose to heal many people of very dread disease. And sometimes he chooses to take people home through that sickness. But here’s what I want you to see. What he’s saying here is a statement, I believe, that’s a principle. And let’s think about this. There are people, for example, who have a lot of stress in their life. Because they can’t handle difficulties. They worry. They fret over a lot of things. They’re full of anxiety. Sometimes it’s anger. Sometimes it’s bitterness. Sometimes it’s hostility. Sometimes it’s guilt. Sometimes it’s holding on to things in the past that they cannot yield and cannot give up and cannot be forgiving toward. And so what happens? These poisonous emotions… That flow in a person’s mind and in their soul, which is their conscience, consciousness, their mind, will, and emotions. Those emotions are absolutely destructive in a person’s life. Hostility and anger and bitterness and unforgiveness. Listen, they are not only objectionable, they are dangerous in a person’s life if it goes on for years and years and years. And I do believe that if a person walks in the will of God and is obedient to God and clears up their conscience when something comes along, deals with those issues of unforgiveness, listen, they are going to have a better opportunity of living a healthy life because God created these bodies of ours to operate in a certain way. You know, I cannot tell you that if you obey God, you won’t have this disease or you won’t get sick. I can tell you one thing. God doesn’t lie. And here’s what he says. He says it’ll be healing to your body when you and I turn away from evil and live obedient to him and refreshment to your bones, which is his way of saying, listen, God will energize us. And I think anybody listening to this message will have to admit when your conscience is clear and you’re obeying almighty God and you know that you’re walking in his way and there’s a sense of happiness and contentment and assurance in your soul, your whole body is affected by it. If I want my life to be fulfilling and I want to be contenting and I want to be happy, if I really want it to be fruitful, then certainly obeying God is certainly very, very vital in that issue. Well, let’s look to see what else he says. Listen to what he says in this passage. Verse 9. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce, so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine. What does that have to do with being fruitful in your life? It has everything to do with it. Now you listen and say amen. He’s talking about tithing. Oops. Tithing. Look. Verse 9. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. If to honor him means that I give him the first 10%, which is what he’s always referring to when he talks about the first fruits. If I honor him by giving him the first 10%, now watch this. If I don’t give him the first 10%, what have I done? I’ve dishonored him. Ooh, is that pressure? In other words, if I don’t do what he says, he says, you honor me. Honor me. From your wealth and from the first of all your produce. If I don’t do it, I dishonor him. Now, I want you to think about something. There is no way. You see, because money is a part of all of our lives every day. You cut on the lights. You turn on the water. You buy gasoline for your automobile. You pay your mortgage in your house. In other words, we all have to deal with money in some form or fashion every single day. More verses and more scriptures about money and stewardship than there are scriptures about heaven in the Bible. Why? Because we’re gonna get there once we get saved. We got to live down here till we get there. So now think about this. He says, if you want your life to be fruitful, you want your life to be fulfilling, then it’s not only a matter of treasuring God’s Word in your heart, it’s not only a matter of how you treat other people and trusting the Lord and turning away from evil, but you have to be wise about your finances. And what you do is, you trust the Lord with your finances by giving Him the first tenth. He says, that honors God. Well, how does that honor God? Here’s how it honors God. It says, Father, I recognize that you’re the source of everything I have. And in worship and in all before you, I come to bring to you, as you required of me, the first fruits. I’m not doing it simply because you required, because I want to acknowledge my dependence upon you. I know that you’ve said it. If I sow bountifully, I’ll reap bountifully. If I sow sparingly, I’ll reap sparingly. You see, if you take the scriptures about finances or whatever it might be in the scriptures, you take them and put them together, it is an awesome thing. assurance of God’s blessing to us when we honor him with what belongs to him. So if I expect my life to be fruitful, I can’t be stingy, I cannot cheat on God, I cannot keep from him what belongs to him, and I cannot deliberately, willfully, knowingly dishonor God. You say, well, now, wait a minute. I read the Bible, and I pray, and I go to church, but that’s tithing business I can’t handle. Well, here’s what he says. Honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce. And he says, here’s what you can expect. Look at this. He says, so your barns will be filled with plenty. Your vats will overflow with new wine. He’s using agricultural terms. Now, what is he saying? He’s not saying that you and I will always have all we want. But he does promise that we’ll have all we need. That is, listen, from God’s viewpoint… some people have an abundance and they’re looking at other people and saying i don’t have an abundance look at her look at him it’s an abundance from god’s viewpoint he knows what he can trust you with he knows how much you can handle he knows the effect of wealth or money or even a little bit in a person’s life he also knows how to keep us obedient he also knows how to use our finances to teach us lessons Well, watch this last one. Listen to what he says. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, or loathe his reproof. For whom the Lord loves, he reproves, even as the father of the son in whom he delights. You see, one… of the very basic principles and one thing that’s involved in your life and mine if we’re going to have a fruitful life and a life that’s productive and fulfilling and that is we have to deal that is let’s put it this way Take discipline as an expression of God’s love. That’s really what he’s saying. God disciplines us in love always as an act of protection. It is an act of instruction. For example, let’s say that you and I head down the wrong path. What does he do? He sends something into our life that is a form of discipline in order to protect us from continuing down the wrong path and doing what? Moving us back in step with his will on the right path. And so he’s simply saying this, that when it comes to this whole issue of discipline, accept it. Accept it as a part of the Christian life. Accept it as a part of growing up. Accept it as a part of getting in line with, staying in line with, on the path with Almighty God. And sometimes God sends discipline as if it were from heaven. Sometimes he sends it through others. Sometimes he sends it through circumstance. But the truth is this, I must learn to accept it. Now watch this. When you and I learn to accept discipline from God, we have learned an awesome lesson. Now, let’s put it this way. Most of us would like discipline, but somebody coming to us and say, here’s a book that I would like you to read. And if you just read this book, I think this will help you. Well, you know what? You can lay the book down and forget it. But if somebody comes to you and says, I really think you need to examine this area of your life because I think… Watch that we pull up the barriers. Sometimes God will use people that we don’t want him to use to discipline us, to correct us, to get us in line with his will for our life. Oftentimes he uses people whom we love to do the same thing. So God has, listen, always has a purpose. And if I’m going to live a life that’s fruitful, I have to accept, I must accept, I choose to accept discipline as a part of that. Now, it’s not enough to just accept it. I need to embrace it. That is, Lord, I just want to thank you. I just want to bless you and praise you that you love me enough to stop me dead in my tracks. I want to thank you, Lord, for not letting me head out and keep on going in the wrong direction. I just want to embrace your discipline. I can understand now what you were doing. Or it may be that sometime we don’t understand it for a long time. God’s never disciplined me that I didn’t need it. God disciplines us in wisdom and in love and always the right amount and in the right method. He knows exactly what it takes. So listen, I’m to accept it. I’m to embrace it. And thirdly, I can be encouraged by it. What encourages me by it? God, you love me enough not to let me wreck my whole life. Thank you, dear God. Thank you for sending it. Thank you for the trials. Thank you for the hardship. Thank you for the sandpaper. Thank you for the torch. Thank you for the hammer blows. Thank you for those things, God, that you used to make and mold us into the image of our Savior. So when you and I think about the whole life, think about this. If you want life at its best, you’ll treasure God’s word in your heart. Meditating on it, living by it. You’ll learn to treat others with kindness and truth because that’s the way you want to be treated. You’ll trust him with all of your heart. Not leaning to your own understanding, but all your ways acknowledging him. Let him direct your path, make it straight. You’ll turn away from evil because you don’t want that in your life. Knowing that none of those things fit. And surely you will honor the Lord with your wealth. You’ll tithe your income. That is, you’ll be trustworthy in your finances. And last of all, you will accept and embrace and be encouraged by God’s wonderful expression of love when he has to discipline you. Now, my friend, let me tell you something. You can’t beat that for one passage of Scripture that lays it all out together so beautifully. And right in the heart of that are these two anchor verses. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not to your own understanding. In every single aspect and every way of your life, acknowledge Him. Come to Him. Ask Him. Seek His advice and wisdom and guidance. And He’ll make you a straight path. that no one will be able to interfere with it successfully because God will make a way. Well, how does all that begin? His head all starts. It starts with the recognition that you have sinned against God. It starts with the recognition that you’ve not treasured God in your heart. You’re not kind and truthful to other people. You’re certainly not trusting Him. And there are evil ways in your life and you’re certainly not giving to Him. And you can’t stand this discipline idea. So what happens? You ask the Lord Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins. You tell Him that you do believe that when Jesus went to the cross… that he paid your sin debt in full and at the moment you accept him as your personal savior he’ll forgive you your sins you ask him to forgive you of your sins based on what he did at the cross surrender your life to him and beginning at this very moment your life will change you can start your journey of a life that will prove fulfilling fruitful and very contenting in life. And you can live in the contentment and the joy of Jesus Christ in spite of no matter what. Is it too late for you if you’re 70, 75 or 80? Well, a lot of years have gone by, but it’s not too late for you to be saved, not too late to be forgiven, not too late to be cleansed, not too late to get to heaven. A lot of years have gone by, a lot of wasted time, you have to confess that. A lot of wasted energy, a lot of misdirection in your life, but not too late to be saved. And I want to encourage you, no matter what your age is, if you’re young or anywhere between that time, get on the trail. Start the journey with Jesus now. And at least allow him, whether you’ve got 100 years left or 100 days left, live it to the fullest with Jesus Christ. Father, how grateful we are. I pray that many people will hear this and be saved. Many who are on detours, trying to take shortcuts, will run back to the path and make a full surrender so that the best, they can enjoy the rest of their life. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Thank you for listening to part two of God’s Guide to a Fruitful Life. For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our 24-7 online station. And if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.