Proverbs 16:3

Alright, well, turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 3. This is just continuing a short series through Proverbs chapter 16. We're just looking at one proverb per week, and tonight we come to verse 3. So Proverbs chapter 16 verse 3 says, commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. So let's break this down. First of all, what does it mean to commit our work to the Lord? Well, our work just means everything that we do in life, all our efforts, our activities, and our striving. And then what does it mean to commit our work to the Lord? Well, I think a good way to sum it up would be to say it is to do our work in reliance on God's strength and for His glory. Some versions translate the word commit in this verse with entrust, which helps convey that sense of reliance. In fact, the Hebrew word itself derives from another Hebrew word meaning role. as in you would roll a heavy stone. So it kind of conveys the sense of committing our work to God by rolling it like a heavy stone into God's strong arms. This same word appears in Psalm 55 verse 22, where it says, cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you. Right? So we commit our work to the Lord by doing all that we do in reliance on him and his strength. But also, I think committing our work to the Lord needs to be connected with doing our work for the Lord and for His glory. To commit our work to the Lord would be kind of like dedicating our work to the Lord. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 31, So, to commit our work to the Lord means to do all things in reliance on God's strength and for his glory. Well, what then does it mean that our plans will be established, right? Commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established. Well, first of all, remember that Proverbs are generally true maxims that apply situationally. So we need to be careful about universalizing this promise or pressing it to mean that every possible plan we could make will necessarily come to pass if we can manage to commit our work to the Lord. In fact, I think we could say that God often has better plans than we ever imagined. So we should be thankful that God remains sovereign in the end. And as verse 9 here says, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Right? So sometimes our plans just aren't meant to be. But nevertheless, this proverb is saying that in general, if we commit our work to the Lord, our plans will be established. they will succeed or come to pass. So the next question I want to consider is why? Why is it that if we commit our work to the Lord, then in general, our plans will be established? And I think there's two main reasons. And the first is this, if we're truly committing our work to the Lord in the sense of working for his glory, then I think we'll generally desire what God desires, and our plans will tend to align with His purposes, right? And of course, to the degree that our plans begin to align with the unshakable purposes of God, they will be established, because God's plans never fail, right? They align with God as we seek God's glory. But then secondly, I think that it's true that if we commit our work to the Lord, then our plans will be established, because if we're relying, if we commit our work to the Lord in the sense of relying on his strength for all that we do, well then God himself will be energizing and establishing the works of our hands by his almighty power. And therefore the plans toward which those works are ordered will come to pass. I think in that sense, this is similar to what Jesus told his disciples in John chapter 15, where he said, I am divine and you are the branches. Abide in me. Apart from me, you can do nothing. But if you abide in me, you will bear much fruit." So commit your work to the Lord and your plans will be established because as we truly commit our work to the Lord, our plans will become aligned with His purposes and our works will be enabled by His strength. That's the basic logic of the proverb. Now, what I want to do for the rest of our time is apply it. And there are three particular applications I want to point out. And the first is this. Consider the folly of not committing your work to the Lord. Consider the folly of not committing your work to the Lord. Because the negative implication of this proverb is that if we don't commit our work to the Lord, we have no good reason to think our plans will succeed. As James 1.11 says, the rich man fades away in the midst of his pursuits. I mean, the very man with the most worthy opportunity and potential, he's chasing after his goal, and then in the very midst of pursuing it, he perishes. He's gone. Right? And then even if you do manage to achieve your plan, but you have not been committing your work to the Lord, well, is that plan really going to be established for eternity? I mean, is it really going to matter in the end? Or will it be more like the man in Luke 12 who, you know, gained that great harvest and the great riches and said, I'm going to build bigger barns, I'm going to take it easy, everything will be great, and then God says, you fool, this night your soul is required of you. And whose will all these things be? You see, in the end, We're dust. We can't even breathe without God. We can do nothing apart from Him. So how foolish it is to think that our plans will be established even while we refuse to commit our work to Him. Just a few weeks ago, I was talking to a young man about following Christ, and basically he said, well, I want to follow Christ. And in almost, I'm going to follow Christ, but I need to get this school thing figured out. I need to get my career figured out. I need to get, you know, my family stuff figured out. Then I'll commit to following Christ." You know, we hear that and we think, how foolish! Put Christ first! But I think even as believers, we too often do the same kind of thing where we sort of reverse the order of this proverb. And we think, basically, well, once I get my plans established, then I'll commit my work to the Lord. You know, maybe I think of talking to college students who may say something like, my semester this school year is just so busy. And I just, I need to get good grades, because I need to get that job, because I have this plan for my life that I need to try to establish. And so, well, I can't do this and I can't do that. And even though they don't quite use these terms, it comes down to almost like, I need to just put my spiritual life on hold. And then once I establish my plans, then, then I can fully commit my work to the Lord. or perhaps even as parents, right? It can become, well, you know, my kids just, they have so many activities and they need these activities for their futures. And there's these plans that just need to be established. And once we get past this season of life, well, then we can commit our work to the Lord. But for now, we just have to sort of let spiritual priorities slide. We just have to make certain compromises. And of course, some seasons of life really are busier. I'm not saying that there aren't legitimate trade-offs in how we spend our time, but there is a real spiritual issue of the heart. Because no matter how busy your life is, all the works you're doing need to be committed to the Lord. And there are so many ways that we fall into this trap of thinking, I just need to rely on my strength to establish my plan, to get this job, to get this opportunity, to have this relationship, to chase after this thing. And if I can just get that, then I'll be content. And then I will fully invest everything for the Lord. I'll fully commit my work to Him. And the warning here is it doesn't work that way. It's the other way around. trust God, don't rely on your own strength. And that brings us to the second application. So first was consider the folly of not committing your work to the Lord. Well, the second is consider the blessing that this verse promises. I mean, it says if you commit your work to the Lord, your plans will be established. what a promise there! You know, sometimes I think we underappreciate the blessing of obedience because it's almost like we kind of think it's an impure motivation. I mean, should I really commit my work to the Lord because I want my plans to be established? Well, certainly we shouldn't think that we can manipulate God or that there's some magic way to make sure that all our plans will always come true. We need to hold everything with an open hand. But I do think this proverb is saying something about the fact that we really can have a good plan of a good thing that God really is willing to give us. And yet what it's saying is if we are going to receive that, if that plan is going to be established, we must first commit our works to Him. You know, I think we should want healthy marriages and happy families. We should want good relationships and good friendships. I think it's okay to want a stable job, to want to do well in school. to have desires to make a difference in the world, to long to see, to be an instrument through whom other people would come to faith in Christ, or to be someone who in the church is, you know, able to disciple other people and see people growing in their faith through you. I mean, I think these are generally good aspirations, and the plans that we may make in hopes of seeing these things come to pass in specific ways can be good plans. But if we want our plans to succeed, we need to be people who commit our work to the Lord by doing everything that we do in reliance on him and for his glory. And just to put that another way, obey the Lord as your heavenly Father who loves you. You know, as a God who takes joy in giving good gifts to you as His child. As a God who has not even spared His own Son for you, but freely gave Him up for us all. Who now is willing to freely give us all things. Like, this is the God who calls us to obey him. How foolish we would be to try to circumvent that, to think, you know, I have to get my plans for myself. God is, I think, perhaps far more willing to fulfill. Some of our plans that we even realize. As Psalm 37.4 says, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. There is a tremendous blessing in obedience. I think we could say in light of the full counsel of scripture, commit your work to the Lord and either he will establish your plans or else you will find his plans even better. So obey the Lord. Now, and then thirdly and final application, I just want us to consider for a minute the way this proverb relates to us collectively as Jefferson Park Baptist Church. You know, what plans do we have as a church body? You know, we get to serve the Lord in this community, We have been given this mission from Christ that we get to be a part of, and I hope that we do consider, that we imagine, even dream, of what this church could be like in 10 years. You know, how we as a church might grow and mature. how we might impact our community, how we may diversify, how we might be united together in Christ and know one another. And I hope to that end, we will make plans. We will think about how we can strive toward that goal. I hope we'll have something of the spirit of William Carey, who said, expect great things from God and attempt great things for God. But at the end of the day, the only way that those plans will be established is if the work itself is committed to the Lord. And I think one of the most practically significant ways that we do that is this prayer meeting. We gather in order to commit everything that we do to God. I mean, to tangibly rely on his strength, to acknowledge, God, we cannot do anything without you. We are asking you for grace because we need you. To gather in prayer to seek his wisdom and say, God, we wanna make plans in accord with your wisdom, and to pray for his glory. And so thank you for being here tonight. It's encouraging to be together. I hope that you'll be able to continue to commit even, you know, interceding in prayer sometimes can feel like hard work, and I think it is. Let's be committed to that because we want to commit our work to the Lord. Let's pray that more and more would be able to join us as a church family for this time. And by God's grace, let's commit our work to the Lord so that our plans may be established. Amen. Let's pray.