Episode Transcript
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Hi, my name is Paul, and I'm a member with Restored Church. If you're new, we want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in. We believe that the church is not an event, but a family that you belong to. So we'd love the opportunity to connect with you. If you want to learn more about our church or if we can help you in any way, please please Visit our website, RestoredTemecula Church, and click on Contact.
We also have a mobile app with resources, including our Sunday messages, information about upcoming events, and other ways to connect. You can download our app on Apple or Android app stores. With all that said, we hope you enjoy the message.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: Okay, before I introduce Maria, there's something that I need to do. If you ladies in the room, would you just stand to your feet for just a second?
Just the ladies, regardless of your age or stage of life, would you just stand up for just a second?
You scared, Portia?
Healthy fear is not a bad thing.
Okay, so really quickly. I don't typically do things like this. Oh, that's not true.
Sometimes I do things weird, but I feel like it's led by the spirit and I want to obey God. I'm standing over here and I'm just kind of observing the room and observing this church, and I feel like Jesus gave me just a bit of his heart for you women in the room.
Pardon me for just a second of just, like, the reality of the weights that you carry and the responsibilities that you have and how so oftentimes you can feel overlooked in the sacrifices that you make.
And I feel a responsibility and even a call from God to just tell you that he sees you this morning, and in a unique way, that this morning is for you.
And so I just want to pray over you women just for a minute. And then I'm going to invite Maria up and we'll get into God's word together. But I think it's important.
Okay, Father, I just thank you for the ways that you give us eyes to see things and people from your perspective.
And even now, ladies, if you feel comfortable, you just open your hands. I feel like God wants to deposit something into your heart this morning. Personally, Father, I just pray that your heart for these incredible ladies in the room, I pray that you would help them experience more of your personalized love for them. Today.
You've deposited bravery in them, encourage in.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Them.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: In compassion in them. Even some of these younger ladies, these teenage ladies, these preteen ladies, even.
I just see the work that you want to do in and through them. And I'm just. I feel like.
I feel kind of humbled in this moment of, like, what an incredible collection of women and emerging women. And I just pray, Father, that your grace and your love and your mercy would come alive in a fresh way in them today, and they'd experience joy and peace and power to step into the things that you have called them to and the things that you will call them to. So we collectively, as a church, pray blessing over them now in the name of Jesus, and we say together, amen. All right. Thanks for letting me do that for a bit, guys. You can take a seat.
Okay. Speaking of ladies, we have a wonderful lady with us, Maria Horta. She's incredible. Come on up. Yeah. So here's what you need to know about Maria.
Maria, for years, has been a gospel partner with us.
We don't just, like. We haven't just, like, supported her ministry in the past. Like, she's family to us. She's not. I just touched your hair.
She's not like a guest speaker. Sorry. She's not just like a guest speaker coming in. Like, we love to have her in regularly throughout the year, because God has a way of, like. I don't know.
There's a power in her. There's God's spirit in her. He's writing an incredible story in her life, and this morning is a unique one, because I feel like oftentimes, if you can relate to what I'm about to say, God has a way of kind of changing things up in ways that we don't always expect.
But one of the things that I really love and appreciate and admire about Maria is her faith, her ability to trust God to do sometimes crazy things, sometimes difficult things, and sometimes just simple things.
And so this morning, I'm so encouraged for you to be able to hear. I think that God's been taking Maria through a journey. And I think that the journey that God's taking Maria and is very similar to the journey that God's taking many of us in the room in. And so before I hand things over to her, I just want to pray over you. Is that okay? All right. Jesus, we're so thankful for our sister Maria, for the work that you, for the instrument of your kingdom that she is, for the work that you do in and through her, and for the ways that you.
Oh, man. For the ways that you grow and extend and advance your kingdom through this wonderful lady.
So we pray that you, Holy Spirit, would you teach us this morning? Would you highlight things to us?
Maybe some areas in our lives that you want access to, maybe areas of our hearts even that you want access to.
So we yield to you now. We're thankful for your word and we pray that your word would transform us more and more today.
We love you, Jesus. We bless you. There's nobody like you. In your name. Amen. Bless you, girl.
[00:06:07] Speaker C: Thank you.
Good morning everyone.
I love being here, like, so much.
Your church is so special to me. I was telling Tom I don't plan it. I just cry every time I'm here. So it's kind of like, you know, when you get into an airplane and the stewardesses are like, locate your nearest exit. I come in here and I'm like, locate your nearest tissue boxes. I'm like, okay, one to my left, one to my right. I'm ready.
So. But seriously, you guys are like the best extended family I could have ever asked for.
And it's such an honor and a privilege to like be here with you guys. And I genuinely feel like every time I come here, I come expectant for like what Jesus wants to do in me because I always feel like I leave with like, way more than I could ever give you guys. And so just like, thank you for like loving me and for following Jesus and for giving me the opportunity to like a part of your story in this way.
So like Tom said, my name is Maria and I am one of the Restored Family of Church's gospel partners.
And most of you here know that for the last 10ish years on and off, I have been doing ministry in and around South Asia. But for the last four, maybe five, I have been doing so with the Restored Family of Churches.
And since I was just here in Temecula in November, you might be wondering, Maria, if you are doing ministry in South Asia, why are you still here?
Which is a very valid question. I'm glad you asked.
I shared a bit at our Family of Churches retreat in October. But basically due to some unexpected changes in visa regulations, completely out of my control in the country I was working in over the last nine months, it has become clear that I will not be able to continue in my role as a cross cultural missionary who lives in the country.
And this has created a season of significant uncertainty for me.
How many of you guys just like love uncertainty?
I didn't think so.
Now if you know my story and many of you here do, you know that Since I was 16 years old, I had set my sight on living and working and making disciples overseas. Long term, I have in like a very real way known nothing in my adult Life, but a desire, a drive and a dream to make disciples in the most unreached corners of the world.
And I gave all of my life to this because I believed it was living fully for Jesus looked like for me.
Which also means I have had a sort of unconventional American life, meaning, because I had this calling, I didn't consider many of the things that make up a life in this country for myself.
I had no need to get a degree as soon as possible, no temptation towards, like, accumulating wealth, no hopes of ever owning a home.
You see, I exchanged the American dream with its white picket fence, tall, dark, handsome husband. In case you're wondering, my type, two and a half kids and all for a life that I thought would look a whole lot different.
And I did it because following Jesus in this way seems so beautiful, like the calling was so exciting. And I felt honored to be called into it, to partner with Jesus in going overseas to share the gospel, to make disciples, and to see the gospel grasp the hearts of a people that I had yet to meet.
But now, like I mentioned, with these changes in visa regulations, that work is not continuing in the way I had hoped, which means the end of a dream for me, in the way I envisioned it, in the way I wanted it to look and be like.
Because in many ways it has not yet amounted to what I had hoped for.
The end result isn't what I wanted and it isn't what I work towards.
An abrupt exit with the people I have been discipling seeming to need so much more from me. It doesn't feel like a fair ending.
Like it doesn't feel like the ending that I believe in, my self righteousness, that my work deserves.
And if I'm honest when I consider all of this at my worst, I have wondered if instead of giving 14 years of my life on this missionary calling, if I should have pursued a different path.
You see, in my disappointment and in my disorientation, in the unknown and uncertainty of my future, I have had to wrestle with the reality of things not going the way I planned, of God not doing things the way I thought he should, or making the moves I thought he would, despite all of my efforts to follow and obey Jesus.
Can anyone here relate?
Anyone here ever had something not go the way you planned or prayed for?
Maybe a business venture never made it off the ground, a relationship or friendship didn't go the way you expected?
Or maybe you're like me and a season of formal ministry ended more suddenly or more painfully than you ever thought it would Whatever it may be, the odds are high that we have all, at one point, come face to face with the reality of setbacks and disappointments that we frankly did not sign up for.
So then what do we do with that?
Like, what do we do when things don't go the way we planned?
And this is the question we're going to look at today. And to do that, we're going to look at what the author of Proverbs has to say as he offers us timeless wisdom and answers this for us in a few short lines that may be familiar to you.
He says in Proverbs 3, 5, 6, which is our text today, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
Now, in context, the book of Proverbs is found within the wisdom literature of the Scriptures alongside the books of Job and Ecclesiastes.
And biblical wisdom literature is essentially the accumulated insight of God's people through the generations. And as a whole, it deals with practical skills of how to live well in God's world.
The proverbs are not promises or formulas for success, but rather more like probabilities. They deal with the general rules, not the exceptions of life. That's how we have Ecclesiastes and Job.
But the wisdom of the Proverbs is that it holds timeless truths and sheds light on the things all of us worry about, like for ourselves, for our families, our wisdom on how to choose friends, how to live ethically and financially well. And the list goes on.
The Proverbs are, put simply, spiritual guides for ordinary people on ordinary days. They're concerned with giving us wisdom and guidance as we seek to live well in this world.
So, with that said, back to our text. Proverbs 3, 5, 6.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
Do not depend on your own understanding.
Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.
The author of Proverbs here instructs us to do three things. To trust, to depend, and to seek.
Again, the author of Proverbs instructs us to do three things. To trust, to depend, and to seek.
First, to trust.
He says, trust in the Lord with all of your heart.
So, two things to note here. One, the type of trust the author is commanding here is not passive, but deliberate and ongoing reliance. It is a relational and personal term that assumes activity like it assumes we are continuing to grow in our confidence, in the reliability of of who we are trusting.
He's not calling us to trust just anyone but the Lord.
For early Jewish readers, this would have likely brought to mind the moment when Moses, on a mountain in the deserts of Egypt, experiences the Lord telling him exactly who he is and exactly what he is. Like God says of himself there, I am the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
These words to this day are still widely considered one of the clearest and most profound biblical passages where God reveals His own character.
And out of all of the words he could have chosen, he chooses to define Himself with words that emphasize his mercy, his grace, his patience, his love and his faithfulness.
Why?
Because these are words that in context, were reminding Israel, God's chosen people, of his proven character and his trustworthy track record throughout human history.
So to be clear, the author of Proverbs is not calling us to trust just anyone.
He's calling us to trust a God who has proven himself in history to be good and gracious and trustworthy. This is who we are called to trust.
The other thing to note here is that he calls us to trust the Lord with our whole heart.
In the Scriptures, the heart is more than an organ. It is at the core of who we are. It's where choices, emotions, thoughts, faith and character converge.
Now, a heart, it can be hardened or softened, broken or renewed, faithful or deceitful, it all depends.
But only a softened, renewed, open heart can trust the Lord in a room this size.
It's safe to assume that there may be some of you in here today that don't trust God anymore, whether because of past letdowns or disappointments or unanswered prayers. And I actually want to let you know that is okay.
He is a big boy who can handle your distrust.
As one author says, Jesus is the most understanding person in the universe, but he doesn't want us to stay in our distrust. He wants us to learn to trust him again.
And the first step, often to moving towards trusting God again, is to get real with our grief and our disappointment.
I mentioned at the beginning that because I had this calling overseas, I never really considered many of the things that make up a life in America for myself.
The degree owning a home, a car, a family, etc.
But when I realized I was moving here and this calling, like, no longer covered over this multitude of desires, it led to a deep, deep grief.
Like, not only did I no longer have this calling, but in this new life, I felt behind, I felt forgotten, I felt jealous of those around me who had the home and the degree and the family.
And in my fear of falling further behind, instead of opening up to God, I began to try to fix it.
Like to panic, plan how I was going to fix my life myself, my way, which is never a good idea, by the way.
And before you judge me, isn't it such a default human move in hard moments to depend on our own understanding and try to fix things ourselves instead of opening up our hearts to God and to ask for his understanding?
Softening for my hardening heart came not when I tried to fix my life myself, but when I came to God with my grief, with my jealousy, with my disappointment, and then allowed him the space to exchange my grief for his grace.
And the same can be true for you.
Which brings me to the second thing the author of Proverbs calls us to do when things don't go our way.
To depend.
Or rather to not depend, do not depend on your own understanding.
So, as you've gathered by now, my life has gone through a lot of changes recently.
But one thing that has not changed is I am still single.
You can laugh. It's funny.
Now, I'm not trying to shoot my shot with anyone in the room this morning.
The reason I share this is because just a couple of months ago, I met this guy I know. Fresh tea. Get ready.
I met this guy, let's call him Jose. Not his real name.
Okay? We met in one of my Bible classes. Ideal.
He's from the Dominican Republic. So tall, dark, handsome.
Also ideal.
And we had a really great first call over Zoom.
We had a lot in common. He loves Jesus. He's cute. We have similar cultural backgrounds. He's funny. I'm funny. The chemistry was there.
I mean, I was excited, you know?
And after the first call, we planned to have a second call where we had agreed to talk about what it could look like to potentially move towards being more than friends in the future.
So we set a time and a date. And again, I was genuinely, cautiously, but genuinely hopeful and excited, as one would be in this scenario, especially in 2025 dating scene. Because let me tell you, it is hard out here.
Okay?
So anyways, the day comes, I put on my cute outfit, I do my hair, I set up my laptop, like right where the natural light comes in in the window in my room. It's important.
And I wait.
10 minutes go past nothing.
20 minutes go past nothing.
45 minutes go past nothing.
The guy never shows up.
To this day, I have not heard from him.
I know, I know. Pray for him, guys. You don't know his real name, but God will know who you're talking about.
But for real, like, it was tough for me.
I was sad. I was ghosted. I knew what that word meant, but I never wanted to experience what it felt like, you know?
But more than my sadness being about this guy, like, not showing up, my disappointment was in what felt and can feel like a continued delay of my desire to be married.
A persistent pattern of my prayers not being answered in the way that I want and when I want.
And I realized, like, in my wrestle with this, that this is ultimately because God and I often have different priorities.
Here's what I mean.
A couple of months ago, I was in Houston, Texas, and I got to spend one of my days at NASA. And I got to do a tour of their astronaut training facilities at the Johnson Space Center. And it's where NASA prepares astronauts for space missions using different specialized training and equipment specifically designed to simulate the conditions they'll face when they're in space.
I know it's all a bit nerdy, but stay with me.
One of the coolest training tools, in my opinion is called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, or the NBL. And the NBL is basically a giant pool, we're talking 6 million gallons of water, where astronauts practice spacewalks underwater.
They wear their full space suits. They experience neutral buoyancy, which mimics, like, the feeling of weightlessness in. In space.
And inside the pool are like full size mock ups of parts of the International Space Station. So astronauts can rehearse repairs and maintenance. It's epic. And that's not even including the medical and fitness facilities, the survival training, the flight training. Then on top of the facilities, there are the people, the engineers, the technicians, the medical staff, psychologists, the IT guys, the mission planners, whoever makes the coffee, et cetera.
Now, every piece, every part, every person in this part of NASA is perfectly positioned to assist in making the astronaut into the kind of person that is well prepared for their future mission in space.
That is their priority.
In the same way in our lives, every piece, every part, every person is perfectly positioned to make us into the kind of people that are well prepared for our future life with Jesus that is God's priority.
Our lives are designed to be the very facility, if you will, in which God trains us into holiness and makes us into the image of his son.
This does not happen like somewhere else. It happens here, like in the midst of our ordinary lives and our ordinary days.
In the church that we belong to, in the home we live in alongside the neighbors and teachers we interact with every day in the rhythms we've created in the city we call home, with the personality traits and perspectives that God has uniquely given you.
All within the seasons and rhythms of life that come and go, and all under the watchful guidance and love of a sovereign and good God.
Even Jesus himself was shaped into the man he became in his seemingly ordinary life as a carpenter. He was shaped by his ordinary days in a small village that most people overlooked.
So what does that have to do with not depending on our own understanding?
Not depending on our own understanding requires a humility that acknowledges our limited knowledge and God's ultimate wisdom when it comes to the way he shapes our lives and the ways he answers our prayers.
The late Tim Keller often said that God always gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows.
Again, God always gives us what we would have asked for if we knew everything he knows.
We often pray for and petition God for what seems beneficial from our perspective.
But without knowing the full scope of God's knowledge, we may not understand the long term consequences of our requests.
In contrast, God, being all knowing, has a comprehensive view of the world and of our lives like he can see the outcomes and potential challenges that we cannot.
And in his wisdom and in his sovereignty, he always answers. He always makes moves. He's always at work. Whether we are able to perceive it or not.
God has a way of doing things and a will of his own that is always at work in our world that can and should be trusted.
Which brings us to the third and final instruction the author of Proverbs calls us to when things don't go our way, he calls us to seek.
To seek God's will in all that we do.
And I want to talk about three things that are necessary parts of seeking God's will in all that we do. First, to seek God's will involves pursuing his wisdom.
So one of the things I have enjoyed and am very grateful for since moving back to America is my weekly trip to the greatest grocery store ever, Trader Joe's. If you know, you know there's nothing like it. I'm obsessed and it's probably the most millennial thing about me.
And this last week I was doing my regular run, but this time was extra exciting because I was greeted at the door with a guy shouting to the whole store, free chocolate truffles and cherries.
And as a chocolate lover, I thought his enthusiasm, though a little loud for a grocery store, was well placed.
So naturally I went over, I got my free chocolate truffle as one does. $4.99 if you're interested. Red box. Highly recommend.
And then I went and I stood off nearby, and as I was enjoying my chocolate and cherries, I watched as person after person after person just walked right by the guy.
Didn't even look his way, didn't even glance towards him.
I mean, he's yelling like he has some type of, like free sample quota to meet or something. You have to work to not pay attention to this guy.
And people are just walking by. The blessing I don't get sounds silly because it's a free sample.
But as I watch people just ignore this guy as he called out to them, offering them something both good and free, I realized this is exactly what wisdom is like.
Proverbs 1:20 says, Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square. Verse 23, come and listen to my counsel. I'll share my heart with you, and I will make you wise.
Wisdom is personified in the Proverbs as this woman who calls out to us to take all that she has.
Which means wisdom does not hide from us. It's available to us and wants to instruct us and wants to guide us into God's will.
But she is not the only one calling out.
There is also Lady Folly. This is the personified voice and proverbs of foolishness that calls us to live our life our way and to ignore the wisdom of God. God essentially putting human reason over and above divine authority and revelation, which, to be clear, is the foundation of foolishness.
Like to believe that we are wiser than the one who made the world we are in.
To believe that our wisdom is better than the one who gave us breath.
To believe, like those at Babel, that we can somehow, brick by brick, build a better life for ourselves apart from God than with him.
We forget what those at Babel forgot, that when sin entered our world, it did not just affect our behavior and our morality, but our ability to think clearly, to reason properly, and to perceive truth rightly.
And then, even when we do know truth, Romans 1 says, we suppress it.
We pretend we don't know right from wrong.
And that's why the necessary and basic means for getting wisdom is the fear of the Lord.
It is a recognition of both our need for God's wisdom and revelation and a deep reverence and awe for God that drives us to desire obedience to him above all else.
Again, wisdom is crying out where everyone can hear her.
She's not hard to find, but it does take work to get it.
So in order to become wise, we have to desire it. We have to put an effort. We actually have to open up our Bibles and beg God for understanding and petition him for wisdom, commit ourselves to putting it into practice.
And the promise is, though, that when you seek it, you will find it, and when you find it, wisdom will take care of you.
Second, to seek God's will involves honestly evaluating ourselves.
If this season of uncertainty has done anything to me, it has humbled me, you see, by personality. I have always had a bent towards being a rule follower.
And while that has served me to some degree in my life of attempted obedience to the way of Jesus, in this season it's become a hindrance.
Because my temptation has been to forget the Gospel, which tells me that my true righteousness is found only in the work of Jesus and not my own efforts, and to instead look back at my past obedience, my 14 years, and use it as a kind of permission slip to coast to assume that because I've been faithful before, I can kind of just set my life on autopilot now, to use my past sacrifices as a sort of license to sin, to do my own thing, go my own way.
But following Jesus doesn't work like that.
Obedience isn't a box we check once or twice.
It's a posture we carry every day, especially into the unknown of the future.
Some of us are coasting on yesterday's obedience while the Spirit is calling us to examine our hearts today.
Proverbs 14:8 says, the wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.
But the folly of fools is deception.
I read somewhere recently that all we have to do to become a fool is nothing.
That is why the wise person pauses.
The wise person thinks about their life.
The wise person reflects honestly about where their heart is tempted to choose their own desires over God's ways.
And remember, it is not God who tempts us towards sin.
James 1 tells us that God does not tempt anyone.
But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
And then, then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.
And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.
I wonder if one of the main reasons we sin is because of our lack of self. Because our lack of self examination has led to self deception that is unable to see the consequences of our sin with foresight.
Let me say that again. I wonder if one of the main reasons we sin is because our lack of self examination has led to self deception that is unable to see the consequences of our sin with foresight.
So then our convictions turn into compromise and we begin to convince ourselves that our rebellion is just a season, if rebellion at all.
I'm just gonna do things my way for a season.
I'm just gonna ignore the spirit of God speaking to me for a season.
I'm just going to keep doing this thing or treating this person this way for a season.
But that is not the life God has for us.
God has so much more for us than sin could ever offer us.
So I'm asking you today, where have you made peace with something God has called sin?
And to be clear, the invitation to ask honest questions like this one and examine our hearts is never about shame.
Never about shame.
It's about gaining the ability to see clearly again.
Because when we see our sin clearly, we can approach God and we can say to him, God, I see it and I want to want you more than I want to want this sin.
That's not weakness, that's repentance.
And repentance is always the first step on the path of wisdom lived within God's will.
Lastly, seeking God's will involves a resolve to follow and obey Jesus, no matter the path or the outcome.
The last line of our proverb today ends like this in the NLT anyways, seek his will in all you do and he will show you which path to take.
It's interesting to me that the writer here does not continue into a poetic description of what this path that we will take will look like.
We are told nothing of the terrain, the distance, the difficulty, geography, elevation gain, or potential wildlife and safety concerns that in my opinion would normally take into consideration when preparing for a long time journey.
You would think that this path would require thoughtful preparation and so early knowledge of what's coming would be beneficial. A map, a plan, a couple visits to rei, you know what I'm saying?
Like, if we knew what mountains were coming, if we knew the valleys that were coming, if we knew A, B or C, then maybe we'd be better prepared, right?
And yet God does not give us these details.
Instead he simply says that he will show us the path.
But the good news is he does tell us where the path ends.
The path ends with Him.
I began today by sharing with you that after the last 14 years of pursuing and living this cross cultural missionary life, in light of these new and abrupt changes, I have wrestled with and wondered if I should have pursued a different path.
And after many months and countless hours and many tears wrestling with this question, here's the conclusion that I have come to.
Where else could I have gone.
[00:40:02] Speaker B: And.
[00:40:02] Speaker C: Where should I go now?
He has the words of eternal life.
I may never.
I most likely will not have all my earthly desires and dreams fulfilled.
I may never see the fullness of the fruit of my work these last 14 years in my lifetime.
But even if my life were to never amount to anything seemingly significant in the eyes of the world, it is okay, because my significance is found in a sacred.
And the same is true for you.
For the Christian, our confidence is in the fact that even in the uncertainty of our path and of our future, we can be certain that our path leads to Jesus.
And when we reach the end of our path and when we see him eye to eye, face to face on that day, we will be satisfied fully and forever.
And we will find that the words of C.S. lewis were truly true.
That when we find him, we will find with him everything else.
That is our hope.
That is our confidence.
That is our joy.
So then, friends, what do we do when things don't go our way?
We resolve to follow Jesus anyway.
To trust in the Lord with all of our heart, to lean not on our own understanding, to seek his will in all that we do, because he will show us which path to take.
Let's pray.
God, I thank you that though you do not show us the next five steps or the next 10 steps or the next year or the next three years or tomorrow, I don't even know tomorrow, you show us and you remind us that you are good and trustworthy and that as much as in this world we will have trouble, we can take heart.
Because you have overcome the world and you have overcome silence, sin, and you have overcome Satan, that one day we will get to look you in the eyes, face to face, eye to eye. And that is good news.
That is good news because you will welcome us home with open arms where we will be fully satisfied, fully at peace and fully at rest in the presence of eternal, trustworthy love.
We love you, Jesus.
Amen.
