Today I conclude our series “Pop Verses.” I hope it has been a useful and inspiring series for you. For the last few weeks we have looked closer at some of the most popular Bible verses. We have discovered why they are so popular and how they apply to our lives.

If I did not cover your favorite verse or passage, email me and let me know. I have a feeling I will do a sequel to this series. So, if there is a verse you love and you would like to hear a message on it, let me know. It might make the sequel!

Our last set of pop verses in this series comes from the great book of wisdom, Proverbs. Proverbs is a member of the family of books in the Bible called the Wisdom Literature. The others are Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, and that passionate book of love called the Song of Solomon.

Earlier this year for my devotional time each morning I did something useful with the book of Proverbs. It really edified me. There are 31 chapters in Proverbs, one for each day of the month. So every day for a month I read, reflected and prayed on a chapter of Proverbs. It really helped me on many levels. I encourage you to do the same thing. Start today or start the first of August. The chapters are not long and they are filled with wonderful wisdom that will make a difference to your life.

What is wisdom? It is more than knowledge. It is the right application of knowledge. And Proverbs is filled with it. Today we focus on one of the most popular pieces of wisdom in Proverbs. We find it in chapter 3, verses 5 and 6. Let’s read it together:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. –Proverbs 3:5-6

Growing up this verse was all over my house. It was on pillows. It was hanging on the wall. It was on key chains. In fact, it is my older sister Jill’s favorite bible passage. It makes sense. Many religious scholars agree that these two verses encapsulate the spiritual principles of Judaism and Christianity.

But why are they so popular and highly regarded? What makes these verses stand out?

I believe one of the reasons is that this passage helps us with a common problem in life: Coming to a dead end.

A “dead end” in life can come in many different ways. It can be a relationship that has come to a dead end, like a marriage with no more intimacy or a friendship that has fizzled out. It could be a dead end at work. You were let go or your job is not very fulfilling anymore. Maybe it is a financial dead end. Money is running out and you don’t know how you are going to survive. Or perhaps it is an emotional dead end, a mid life crisis where you are questioning the worth of your life and what you have done. Maybe it is loneliness or sadness that has taken over for various reasons. Whatever it is you feel like you are at a dead end. You are stuck in life and don’t know how to get out of it.

Perhaps you are at a dead end in your life today. Or maybe you know someone who is at a dead end in life. Either way, I encourage you to listen to today’s message. Because the wisdom of our pop verse today can get anyone out of a funk in life. No matter what it is! Today’s text can move anyone from a dead end to a new beginning. If you want to get unstuck in life and find joy and freedom again, listen up! Let’s dive in to Proverbs!

The very first thing this passage in Proverbs tells us is simple, but not always easy:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. –Proverbs 3:5

The word trust in this verse literally means to “rely on” or “depend on” God. We can talk a big game about trusting and relying on God. But when we are stuck in life being patient and trusting God is very difficult! Or am I the only one who feels that way?

When I get to a dead end in my life, you know what I find much easier to do? Get impatient! Let’s move! Let’s do something different! Let’s get out of this mess. Do anything! Anything! Come on God, let’s move! Anyone with me? Anyone have a problem with patience?

I don’t think I am alone because our world is so impatient that we have developed a new measurement of time. It is called the “honk a second!” Have you heard of it? It is that one second between a traffic light turning green and the person behind you laying on their horn! Or you laying on your horn!

I was at a traffic light in Lakeland one time, probing the depths of eternity. I was in deep prayer. I was in another world. Well, the light turned green. A Honka second later the man behind me began to lay on his horn. So I woke up and went forward.  Two seconds later, he passed me and I saw a bumper sticker on his car. Guess what it said? “Honk if you love Jesus.” Scouts honor. And I remember thinking, “That man must be the most religious, the most pious, holy man in Lakeland! The way he was laying on his horn.” It made me think of another bumper sticker that said, “Tithe if you love Jesus. Anybody can honk.”

We can get so impatient in life, especially when are at a dead end and can’t see a way forward. Any place is better than where we are now. The grass is always greener. The other side is always better. We feel so miserable, so alone, so stuck that we will do anything to get away from where we are. Trusting God and his timing is not always easy to do.

But I want you to consider something. If you are at a dead end in your life, has it occurred to you that God may have something to teach you? I believe God has something to teach us at every stage of our lives. It is in the present that God prepares us for our future. And if we get impatient and try to move ahead of God, we may miss the valuable wisdom that is crucial for us down the line. You may be this close to something amazing God has in store for you so don’t get impatient. Trust God’s wisdom and timing.  

You may be in a job that seems hopeless. You may feel like you are in a bad marriage. You may want to end a friendship. You may want to shut someone out of your life. You may want to get a new job, move to a different city. But trust God and say, “Lord, this situation I am in is difficult, but I there might be something you can something teach me that will prepare me for the wonderful things you have for me in the future. I will be patient and rely on you.”

A curious man once approached the desert father Abba Anthony. He was really curious and asked, “Father, what must one do to please God.” The Father said something very wise. He said three things. The first two were expected. He said, “Always be aware of God’s presence and always obey God’s word.” But the third thing was surprising. He said, “Wherever you find yourself, do not easily leave.”

It is in the present that God prepares for our future.

But take a look at what our text says next:

…do not rely on your own insight. –Proverbs 3:5

Again, easier said than done. Why? Because basically this verse is telling us not to think we have all the answers. Or another way you could put it: Stop trying to control everything! Wow! I know a few toes hurt right now. I know mine do!

Trusting in the Lord will sometimes mean going against what you think is right or smart, or common sense. Trusting God will sometime mean giving up control and what you think is best. Because guess what? You don’t have to understand to trust God has a plan.

That’s what it means not to rely on your own insight. God’s ways our higher than our ways. If we could understand everything about God he would not be big enough to believe in. In fact, there are a lot of things we won’t understand until we get to heaven. But what is more important for us to hear now is that when we rely on our own insight, our own understanding we often get into trouble.

Bishop McConnel used to love to be on the land and when he retired, he lived on a farm in Ohio. And he raised Chickens, and he had this chicken house. And everything was fine on this farm, except that every night the rooster would crow in the middle of the night and wake everybody up.

And this frustrated the Bishop so much that he decided to stay up all night one night and find out what was causing this rooster to crow in the middle of the night.  And he discovered what the problem was.  You see, there was a train that would come around a curve around 2 am and flash it’s lights on the chicken house, and the rooster, thinking it was the sun, would begin to crow.

You know, roosters are not the only ones who mistake headlights for dawns. This whole community, this whole world are filled with people who have mistaken headlights for dawns. There are people in prison because they have mistaken headlights for dawns. There are people addicted to drugs because they have mistaken headlights for dawns. There are people buried in cemeteries because they  have mistaken headlights for dawns. There are people with ruined lives because they have mistaken headlights for dawns. There are gravely disappointed people all over this community, all over this world who thought they had all the answers, who thought they knew what was best for them. Trusting in our own insight is not always the wisest thing to do.

As Proverbs 16:25 says, “Sometimes there is a way that seems right to a person, but in the end it is the way to death.”

“Do not rely on your own insight.” You don’t have to understand to know that God has a plan. Trust him. He knows what is best. Take a look at verse six:

In all your ways acknowledge him. And he will make straight your paths. –Proverbs 3:6

As I studied this verse this week, I began to see it in a way I had never seen it before. It was a game changer for me. You see, most folks think this verse means, “Pray to God, ask God for help and he will show you the way. It will be clear which way you should go.” That’s not what it means.

You see, God's path is not the path we would typically take. God's idea of a straight path is not necessarily our idea of a straight path.

Acknowledging God in all our ways means being prepared to go wherever he may be leading us. Where God may be leading you may be the last place you want to go. The way God wants you to go may be filled with obstacles. In your mind, it seems impossible. You may be at a dead end in your life and you think there is no way around it or through or out of it. You may want to run away from it and God wants you to run through it!

Trusting and acknowledging God means even if you don’t see a way, you know in your heart God will make a way. He will remove the obstacles. That’s what it means when it says God will make the paths straight. He will make a way where there is no way. He will make a path where there seems to be no path. He will remove the obstacles and clear the path. But you have to trust him to do it.

Moses did. When Moses got to the edge of the Red Sea he thought he was at a dead end. When the children of Israel were finally set free from Egypt after 400 years of slavery, they started marching out to freedom and the first thing they came to was the Red Sea. There were impassable mountain ranges on two sides of them, the sea in front of them.

In hot pursuit behind them was the Egyptian army. Pharaoh had changed his mind about letting them go. The path the Israelites were on looked like a dead end.

But it wasn’t a dead end to God. He knew exactly what He wanted to do. He could see what they could not see. He opened the Red Sea and they walked through it. Years later, the Israelites looked back and sang,

"Your road led by a pathway through the sea—a pathway no one knew was there!" (Psalm 77:19 LB).

If you are faced with a dead end today, God can see a path that you don't know about. If you will trust God and keep on moving in faith, even when you don't see a way, He will make a way.

Today’s message: Even when you don’t see a way, God will make a way.

(http://rickwarren.org/devotional/english/trusting-god-when-i-don't-understand)

I can’t tell you how many times this has been true in my own life. Every time I have faced a dead end it has come down to this question: Will I trust God to make a way where I see no way? Examples…every time I look back and think. I did not see that coming! I had not even thought of that! How did that happen? How did I get here? It has to be God. And it happened because I was willing to put my life in his hands.

Blondin was a 19th century acrobat, famous for his tightrope act 160 feet above Niagara Falls on a rope which was over a thousand feet long.

In 1860 a Royal party from Britain saw Blondin cross the tightrope on stilts, and again blindfolded. After that he stopped halfway and cooked and ate an omelet. Next he wheeled a wheelbarrow from one side to the other, and returned with a sack of potatoes in it.

Then Blondin approached the Royal party. He asked the Duke of Newcastle, "Do you believe I could take a man across the tightrope in this wheelbarrow?"

"Yes, I do," said the Duke.

"Hop in, then," replied Blondin.

Well, the Duke declined Blondin's challenge. He might have believed Blondin could do it, but he wasn't about to trust him with his life.

If we want to move across the chasm between where we are and where God wants us to be we must trust God with our lives. If we want our dead ends to turn in to new beginnings the only option is to trust God with our life. If you desire for God to remove the obstacles before you, you must put all of your life is his hands. God In all your ways acknowledge him, submit to him, depend on him trust him and he will make straight your paths.