Don't complicate the simple

 Read Proverbs 21

Solomon continues in his this way, not that way presentation, but for the second chapter in a row, he throws out a unique concept to us.

We don’t really understand our own understanding.

Last week in the first service, I touched on this provocation.  We think we understand our own understanding, but Solomon says, not so fast.

A person may think their own ways are right,

    but the Lord weighs the heart.

Only God knows the heart.  We can convince ourselves of many things thinking them to be best or right or acceptable, but we don’t really know enough to say with certainty, that we’ve got this figured out.

So what’s the point of study?  What’s the point of iron sharpening iron?  Why invest time seeking God’s wisdom?

To affirm our trust—our absolute trust in the Lord —that’s the why of this.  We must trust God with everything we have.  For all of our knowledge, skills, and abilities, without trust in the Lord, we often find ourselves building the Tower of Babel all over again.

This is hard to comprehend.  We think we know what is best.  We think that we know what is right.  We think that we have it figured out, but if it is not completely in agreement with what the Lord has told us, we missed the mark.

We get that God’s ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are so much more than our own.  We get that.

But we are inclined to believe that what we think is the best course of action.  Solomon notes that our thinking is not always in concert with God’s direction. We are not always in step with the Lord.  We think that we are, but that’s not always the case.

The whole iron sharpens iron concept helps.  It’s good to talk things out with another believer.  It’s too easy to convince yourself that your way is the best way.  A biblically sound partner helps,  but often stalls in the red zone.

The quality of humility gives us pause to remember the sovereignty of God and lay our thoughts and plans and thinking before him, knowing that only he has perfect knowledge.  He knows the plans that he has for us and they are good plans.  They give us hope and a future.

Our hearts and minds need to be in sync with each other and more importantly with God’s will.

A person may think their own ways are right,

    but the Lord weighs the heart.

Sometimes we just need to give God credit for being God. We want to know the rules so we can follow them or seek an exception to them or figure out how to game the rules.  That’s just our nature.

Some search the rules and find ones they think are most important or most likable to them, but they do it to the exclusion of others.  It’s called cherry-picking and most have done this at some point.  Some still do, but cherry-picking attempts to fit God into our box, and he just doesn’t fit.

Cherry-picking thumbs its nose at the full biblical witness, saying that other stuff God said doesn’t matter.  Our minds will tell us that we are right, but God sees the heart and it is in rebellion.

But, we like to know the rules…

A goat takes care of this, and a pair of birds for that.  Bring in your sheath of wheat. Show up on this day.  Stay home on that day. Confess to the Lord.  Confess to one another. We think that we have got it all figured out, then discover that God has been talking to our hearts more than our minds.

To do what is right and just

    is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.

We know this thinking.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

    And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

    and to walk humbly with your God.

This is not unfamiliar territory.

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

We are finite creatures.  We like rules.  We don’t always like following the rules, but we like to know what they are. We like what we can understand, but do we really understand what we think we do?

We like the yellow line on the football field that marks the line to gain—the first down.  It’s not really there, but it lets us argue the spot more intensely when we think we know how close we are.  We like knowing the framework that we work within.

For all the mental faculties that we think we have, the Lord is more interested in our hearts.  He wants us to be humble and gentle and to love mercy.

Justice is important.  Mercy is essential.  We have all fallen short of God’s glory and rejoice in our redemption in Christ Jesus, but sometimes we forget that our blessings and favor followed God’s mercy that we did not deserve.

Sometimes the old creature sneaks back into the new creation and we look down on others who have fallen short.  We may think that we are right and just and justified in our condemnation, but God sees the heart.  God weighs the heart, and a condemning heart is not one that is seeking after the Lord, no matter what our mind tells us.

How can we condemn others when but for the grace of God, we would be them?

In the midst of do this and don’t do that or here are the consequences for laziness or wickedness or foolishness, Solomon warns us to watch out for our own thinking.  Watch out for what you think you understand.

Some of you are familiar with Calvin’s TULIP - (Total Depravity, Unconditional election, Limited Atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the Saints).  It’s a five-point doctrinal scale.  You don’t have to agree with it, but most in the reformed tradition consider it and where we fall on the TULIP.  I will only look at the T today.  It is for the Total depravity of humankind.

Ouch!  That sounds mean, but what it means is that every person—every human—has been stained in some way by sin.  Nobody escaped.  We are all touched or stained or blemished by sin.  Most Christians agree with this.

I have addressed the TULIP before and may again.  Perhaps at that time I will do it as a Jeopardy game with the categories being the parts of the TULIP, but not today.

Our human disposition is to judge and condemn.  God gave us a judge, a personal judge, not one for us to use as we evaluate and condemn everyone else.  The word of God judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

God sees the heart.  God knows the heart. We think that we know what is best but if our heart is not in accord with God, we missed the boat no matter how good our thinking sounds to us, and our thinking will always sound good to us.

Sometimes we think ourselves out of accord with God.  C’mon God, you gave me this mind.  Don’t you want me to use it?

I touched on this last week.  The most intelligent, the wisest, the most productive thing that we can do with our mind is to trust God.  Trust God with everything we have.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight.

I think you remember there is God’s way and there is everything else.  God says give me your heart—all of it—and do it my way.  I have already figured out the consequences and sequels to what I have directed your to do.

I have my own personal mantra that I put forth sometimes.  It’s don’t complicate the simple.

Don’t complicate the simple.

It’s along the lines of the Law of Parsimony.  You probably know it as Ockham’s Razor.  Tom’s version is don’t complicate the simple.

Our nature is to say this is what God says, but…

Solomon tells us this is what God says, now put away your other conditions.  No ifs, ands, or buts if you will.  God has already computed the consequences and sequels to what he has directed us to do.

Just do it.  God has factored in what we can and cannot understand and just told us the right answer. He has directed our steps without us having to resolve all the possible contingencies.

I’m going to coopt Frank Sinatra’s lyrics here.

I faced it all and I stood tall

And did it God’s way

Paul wrote a promise to the church in Philippi.  If they would stop being anxious and turn everything over to God in prayer and petition and if they would do it in a spirit of thanksgiving, they would receive peace that went beyond their understanding that peace from God would guard their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

That promise is for us too. Our hearts and minds are linked, but the heart must govern and it must lead the mind to do things God’s way.  God sees the heart. God knows our hearts and is not influenced by what we think is better than his way.

What is Solomon’s point here?  Don’t talk yourself out of—think yourself out of doing what God has led your heart to do. Don’t try to outthink God.  Don’t look for some unique perspective in what God has made plain.  Don’t complicate the simple.  Trust God with everything that you are and you have and you will be.

Don’t think yourself out of God’s way into the everything else.  Trust in the Lord with everything you have—with all of your heart.  It is just that simple.

Amen.