Lighting the Future | Part 1

We'll be right back. Turn now to Proverbs chapter three. We'll begin in verse five as Adrian Rogers begins part one of lighting the future. Did you know what question is asked more than any other question when people ask counselors and Bible teachers a Bible question? What is the number one question?

Do you know what the number one question is? How can I know the will of God for my life? That question, more than any other question, is asked, How can I know the will of God for my life? And that is a great question. That is a wonderful question.

And it applies to Adrian, it applies to you, it applies to all of us. Now man is a clever creature, but he has lost his way in the darkness. The atom has been split and man is now able to destroy himself and the environment with him. We've had the exploration of space.

We put up those first meager satellites and now we have the space stations orbiting the earth and we sent probes to Venus and Mars and Jupiter and beyond all of that. I mean that's just in our lifetime. We now in our lifetime have instant communication by radio and television and we can watch news as it happens across the ocean.

Just in our lifetime, an amazing thing. And now we have the internet and the information superhighway and some of our kids are becoming roadkill on that information superhighway, but we have instant communication. I was speaking in Neyland Stadium at a promise keeper's rally in Knoxville. I was on the platform, came from the platform and went right up to the speaker's place where the speakers were sitting. By the time I got back to my place, I had received an email from Australia, a person who had just heard me speak and was responding to my speaking.

While I was speaking there on the platform, this man was listening and responded by email. That's the information age in which we live. And in our lifetime, we've seen a cashless society that is coming and it is coming on very, very strong.

It is just around the corner. The automobile began in 1903, but we have now automobiles that can travel 600 miles an hour. We have airplanes that travel 2,000 miles an hour, spaceships 24,000 miles an hour. And we can get there quicker, but we still don't know where we're going. We have all of this that has happened in our lifetime. And the Bible says in the last days, knowledge shall increase, and that has happened, but we live in a day of guided missiles and misguided men. We have lost our way in the darkness, and that is a pity, and that is a shame, for God has promised to guide us. I want to give you some verses, and I want you to listen to these. Before we get into our text that I'm going to read in a moment, but this is just to set the stage for the text, Proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6. We'll read that in a moment, but listen to these Scriptures that tell us that God wants to guide us. In Isaiah chapter 58 and verse 11, And the Lord shall guide thee continually. Is that not a great promise? How would you like to say day by day, moment by moment, Almighty God is guiding me? That is what he says. The Lord shall guide thee continually.

Now, either that is true or it is not true. Let me give you another verse. Psalm 32 and verse 8, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with my eye.

Do you know what guiding with the eye is? That's the most intimate guidance. Have you ever been with your wife in a restaurant and started a conversation and she looked at you and you shut your mouth? She said, don't go there.

Just be quiet. I can guide my kids with my eye. When they were little, they'd be sitting on the front row and I'd be preaching away and nobody else would know it, but I'd look at them and say, you're going to get it when you get home, and then just go right on. That is guidance with the eye. That is the most intimate kind of knowledge that God wants to guide us that way that he can guide us with his eye. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, the Bible says, therefore, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he hath before ordained that we should walk in them. That is that God created us for a plan, the good works that he has before ordained.

That is, he's laid out a plan for us. He wants to guide us and we are so blessed. There is a Father above us controlling all things.

There's a Savior before us so we can walk in his footsteps and there's the Holy Spirit within us impressing our hearts so that we can find a way in a dark, dark day. I want to say something else, that God has a special plan just for you. Now, God doesn't deal with us en masse. He deals with us as individuals. God makes no duplicates.

Everything that God makes is an original, just like every snowflake has its own specific pattern. God made you as an individual and God has a plan just for you. And the Bible says in Psalm 37 verse 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord.

Is that not incredible? The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Every step you take is to be in his plan and in his purpose. And you say, well, that's true for those like you, Pastor Rogers, that God has called into a service.

No. Listen to me. It is true for you. The same plan that is true for the preacher is true for the plumber. The same plan that is true for the missionary is true for the secretary. God has a plan for every individual life. Now, God called me to preach. But you see, a plumber who is being a plumber in the name of Jesus is more pleasing to God than a preacher who's not been called to preach. You have to understand that. You see, it's not that some things are higher than others.

Do you know the highest place? The will of God. The will of God, whether it's in business, whether you're a homemaker, you know, whatever you are, the will of God is the highest place. Now, to preach when you've been called to do something else would be to take second best. But on the other hand, if you have been called to preach, and I have, you'd have to step down to be the president of the United States because that is God's plan for you.

God has a plan for your life. Do you believe it? Say, amen. Amen. Now, I want you to believe this.

Now, don't let this just blow past. God loves you. God has a plan for you. God says, I will guide you continually, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Now, God deals with us as individuals. Dr. Stephen Oldford said that God's great plan is for us to find, to follow, and to finish the will of God for our lives.

That's what it is. So, let's talk a little bit about how to light the future. Now, go to the text that you turn to there in Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. It says this, trust in the Lord with all your heart, with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him.

Now, listen. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will direct thy paths. Now, that's God's Word. I submit to you it's either true or false. I believe it's true.

You believe it's true. I trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him and he will, he will, he will, he will, I promise he will direct thy paths. Now, let's just break that down and look at it and the three basic things I want you to see in that text that you and I are to do. First of all, we must let God choose the way.

Now, we do that two ways. How do we let God choose the way? Well, there must be a full confidence in God.

Many of us don't trust the Lord enough to let him guide us. Notice in verse 5, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Now, I'm not asking you to trust in a proposition. Trust a person. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. You cannot trust somebody you do not know and you cannot know someone that you don't spend time with. You see, when you trust somebody, it's because you spent time with them and if they're trustworthy, you've come to love them and if you come to love them, then you can trust them. Trust in the Lord.

Now, do you know him intimately enough to trust in him? Sometimes my wife will say to me something like this, Adrian, will you do something for me? What's my first question?

What is it? Now, that's a legitimate question. But suppose she says, Adrian, will you do something for me? And I say, well, what is it? She said, never mind, just trust me. I gulp and I say, okay.

Why? Because I love that girl and I know her love for me and I don't have to worry. Have you ever had anybody say, close your eyes and open your mouth? Well, now you've got to know a person before you close your eyes and open your mouth.

Is that not right? But if you know them, if you love them and you know that they love you, then you can trust them because you know them and the reason that many of us don't trust the Lord that intimately is that we really don't know him that intimately. There's an old story of a man who walking by a seaside cliff, fell over the cliff, grabbed a scraggly limb and hanging there with hundreds of feet beneath him and waves crashing on the rocks and he is screaming for help and in the darkness, he hears a voice saying, you need help.

Yes, I need help. And the voice says, trust me. He said, I trust you. The voice says, let go of the limb. He says, is there anybody else up there?

Why? If we don't know who's up there, I mean, how are we going to trust? No, you've got to trust in the Lord with all of your heart and in order to trust him with all of your heart, you have got to know him intimately and don't trust your own understanding.

Look at it again. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into your own understanding and always here's the way it is. Over here is God and over here is our understanding, our reason and we're torn between those two things.

We say, well, we take the word of God and we parade it past the judgment bar of human reason, our understanding and we try to weigh it out and see if that is really best rather than just trusting. Frankly, that's the reason people don't tithe. Do you know why people don't tithe?

They don't trust. I mean, look, Malachi 3.10, bring all the tithe into the storehouse and prove me now here with saith the Lord of hosts, if I'll not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing, there shall not be room enough to receive it. Question, if you believe that you tithe, wouldn't you? Of course you would. Of course you would if you believe that. I mean, unless you're insane. God says, you bring that to me and I'll open the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. You won't have enough room to receive it.

The only reason a man wouldn't do that is his head. Wait a minute. If I do that, I've got to da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. That's my own understanding. Over here is the Lord. What most of us do, we just kind of lean to our own understanding, don't we? Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not into thine own understanding.

Now, you can't trust God that way until you know him that way. We want to trust our own understanding, but the Bible says, there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but then thereof are the ways of death. Our minds sometimes don't lead us directly. And again, Jeremiah chapter 10, verses 23 and 24, says, Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Now, most of us, we want to lean, however, to our own understanding. Now, it's not that we're not to have understanding, but the understanding is to come from the Lord, not your own understanding. Go back to Proverbs chapter 2.

We're not just talking about flying blind. God gives you understanding. Look, if you will, in verses 1 through 6. My son, if thou wilt receive my words and hide my commandments with thee so that thou incline thy ear unto wisdom and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou Christ after knowledge and liftest up thy voice for understanding, if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for his treasures, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom, out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. God is not saying that you're not to have understanding.

He's just saying don't lean on your own understanding. Get in the Word of God. Search for God's way just as you would silver and gold, and God says that you will find it. Now, what we're talking about is letting God choose your way and we're saying, first of all, there must be full confidence in God. Trust in the Lord.

Do you have that confidence in him? Not only must there be full confidence in the Lord, but there must be faithful compliance. Faithful compliance. Now, notice again, look, if you will, in this passage of Scripture. In all thy ways acknowledge him. In all thy ways acknowledge him.

In every situation. Now, you don't surrender to a plan. Most people want somebody to give them a plan for their lives. God's plan for your life is not a road map.

It is a relationship. I'm glad that God doesn't just write out a plan, seal it and hand it to us and say, this is what you're going to do the next 50 years, next 20 years. How boring or maybe how frightening. No, no. We are to trust in the Lord with all of our heart, lean not into our own understanding and then in all of our ways acknowledge him. Every time you come into a new situation, just acknowledge God in that situation. Say, Lord, what do you want me to do here? Lord, what do you want me to do here? Now, most of us want to acknowledge God in certain areas of our lives. But what does this verse say? In all thy ways acknowledge him. Question, do you want God to have control of all of your lives?

Do you know what some people think? They have really arrived when they say this, I give a tenth of my money to God. I give a seventh of my time to God. I am a Bible Christian. Yes siree, one tenth is God's and one seventh of my time is God's.

I'm found in the house of God every Lord's day. Every seventh day I've given to God every tenth part of my income I've given to God. You think that's good Bible Christianity? I want to tell you it is not.

Listen to me. One tenth of your income doesn't belong to God. Ten tenths belong to God. One seventh of your time doesn't belong to God. It all belongs to God. Don't get the idea that life is like a pie and you can take out, cut it into seven pieces and take one seventh and give it to God and then you eat the rest. Don't get the idea that you take one tenth and give it to God and the rest is yours.

No, the one seventh and the one tenth is only an indication that it all belongs to him. I'm not saying that God doesn't want you to buy groceries. I'm not saying that God knows that you have car payments. God knows all of these things. God knows that you should lay by for retirement. God knows all of that. But friend, when it comes to finding God's will for your life, you must take every red cent that you have and every moment that you have and in all thy ways acknowledge him. In all thy ways acknowledge him. Don't segment your life.

Now, don't say this won't work if you haven't tried it. There must be a full confidence and a faithful compliance. That's what he's saying. Let God choose your way. Are you really ready for God to do whatever he wants to do in your life?

I mean, have you signed the contract at the bottom? Stephen Ulford, I mentioned him a little while back, one of the greatest preachers in the world and recognized him, was a young man, started out, his father was a faithful missionary. Stephen Ulford, as a young man, had a dent, a proclivity toward engineering. He loved automobiles. You wouldn't know this about Stephen Ulford, but he loved motorcycles and could drive one, race them and take them apart and put them back together. He had planned this in his life. Stephen Ulford said, I am going to be an engineer.

I'm going to make a lot of money, and then I'm going to use my money to support missions and the things of God. That would have been fine if that's what God had called him to do, but God had not called him to do that, and down in his heart, he knew he was running from God. He got deathly ill. His father, a missionary in Africa, not really even knowing that Stephen Ulford was deathly ill, and according to Dr. Ulford, two weeks from death, he received a letter from his father, and his father had written to him these words, "'Tis but one life will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." And God used that to pierce the heart of young Stephen Ulford, and he bowed his head there in that hospital, and he prayed a prayer. Three short phrases in that prayer. Listen to it. Anywhere, anytime, any cost, period.

Now, was that just for Stephen Ulford? Come up close. That is for you, for me, for all of us to say. Have you said that? Oh, you say, good night, pastor.

You want me to say anywhere, anytime, any cost? How can I do that? Do you know why you're having difficulty with that? Because you don't trust the Lord with all your heart. See, you're just afraid if you close your eyes and open your mouth, he'll put something in there you don't want.

You just really don't trust him. Now, folks, the only way this is going to work is the way it's written. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct thy path. Point number one, let God choose the way. Point number two, let God confirm the way. Because, you see, it's one thing for God to choose the way, but it's another thing for God to confirm that this is the way he's chosen.

Now, there are a lot of folks here in this building that say, well, yeah, sure, I'll do God's will, but I don't know what it is. Yes, I'll say anytime, anywhere, any cost, but what is the time? Where is the place?

What is the cost? I don't know. All right. Now, the Bible says he will direct your path. If you do this, he will direct your path. Now, how does God confirm the way? Once God has chosen the way, how does God confirm the way? God directs your way by his Word, by the Bible. Let me give you some scripture.

Remember, we're talking about lighting your path, lighting your future. Psalm 119, verse 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. The Word of God. God gave you his Word.

And coming up tomorrow, we'll hear part two of this important message. In the meantime, here at Love Worth Finding, we love hearing how this ministry and the messages of Pastor Rogers have inspired you in your faith journey. If you can, go online to lwf.org slash mylwfstory. There you can submit your own testimony or read others who've shared their stories with us. We often select stories to be shared throughout our Love Worth Finding community and always will protect your privacy if desired.

Let us hear from you today. Again, go to lwf.org slash mylwfstory. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, request one by the title, Lighting the Future, when you call 1-877-LOVEGOD. This message is also part of the series, the Bible, the Book of the Ages. For that complete collection, a dozen powerful messages, call 1-877-LOVEGOD or go online to order at lwf.org slash radio or write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. Well, thanks for studying in God's word with us today. Be sure to sign up for our daily heartbeat emails and you'll get daily devotions and message links sent straight to your inbox.

You can find that at lwf.org slash radio. And join us next time for the conclusion of Lighting the Future right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener wrote not long ago to express how these messages have inspired her faith journey. She said, listening to these sermons, it's like Adrian Rogers could see the truth as it is and the future for what it was going to become. His teachings were of God the Father, even though his home is now in heaven, his legacy will forever reign on.

Thank God for this Christian leader. You know, we are so honored to share the truth of the gospel for such a time as this. That's why Love Worth Finding is proud to present a new documentary, Nothing But the Truth, in partnership with the film's producers. When you donate to the ministry right now, we'd love to send you a DVD copy. Our goal in this project, as in every effort, is to bring people to Christ and help them grow in their faith. Request the DVD, Nothing But the Truth, when you call with a gift at 1-877-LOVEGOD or give online at lwf.org slash radio. And thank you for your generous support of Love Worth Finding.