In All Thy Ways Acknowledge Him

Introduction: The Common Concern for Divine Guidance

0:04 If you have your own Bible with you, I would encourage you to follow as I read two very familiar verses from the book of Proverbs as we continue to work our way through these early chapters of this collection of the sayings of the wise man Solomon, particularly couched in the context of a father to his son or the teacher to his pupil, and in this third chapter we are considering the third of these directives given, directives enforced with very practical and powerful motives, Proverbs 3 verses 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct. Thy paths, if only I could know the will of God, how can I be sure that I'm doing the will of God, I'm afraid I'm taking God's second best, statements and questions of this nature

1:24 are common among the people of God, and they reflect that deep concern in the hearts of all of God's people relative to the subject of divine guidance. Now it's because of that. A common concern that the text which I've read in your hearing has been a very well known and oft proven text in the lives of God's people.

The Climate of the Text: Essential Doctrinal Foundations

1:51 Thus far in our study of the text we have observed that the text basically is a series of commands enforced by a very gracious promise, and in our study we have tried to sense something of the climate of this text. Often we fail to see the woods for the trees, and I suggested to you that in approaching a text like this it was impossible to understand the mind of God in it, unless we were sensitive to the climate of the text. And it's a climate that breathes of the biblical doctrine of God, the biblical doctrine of man, and the biblical doctrine of communion with God, and apart from some acquaintance with those three fundamental biblical doctrines. You cannot really understand this text of scripture. Until we see God as the one worthy of our absolute and unquestioned trust, we'll never enter into the spirit of the text. Until we see him as the God vitally concerned with every detail in the lives of his people, the God of particular providence, we'll never be led to acknowledge him in all our ways.

3:05 Unless we see man, the creature whom God says he is, utterly dependent on the divine power of God. Utterly dependent upon God. Hence, it is right for him to lean not upon his own understanding, to acknowledge his God in all his ways. Unless we understand the possibility and the reality of communion with God, we'll never know what it means to acknowledge him, to be directed by him.

Review of Previous Commands: Reliance and Repudiation

3:29 And so the climate of the text is vital. And now for two nights we've been studying together the commands of the text. We looked at the first. The first one.

3:40 A command to reliance. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart. Then we considered the second. A command to repudiation.

3:48 Lean not upon thine own understanding. A command to turn away from resting upon human wisdom as the basis upon which we govern our lives. And now tonight we come to the third of those commands. A command to recognition.

The Third Command: A Command to Recognition - Overview

4:06 In all thy ways acknowledge him. Now as we think our way through this part of the text, we shall consider, first of all, the object of this recognition. Whom are we to acknowledge in all our ways? Secondly, the nature of this recognition.

4:25 What does it mean to acknowledge him? And then thirdly, the extent of this recognition in all thy ways. Acknowledge him. And then if time permits, I want to draw some practical implications.

The Object of Recognition: Jehovah Jesus

4:38 First of all then, in this whole matter of wanting to know that our ways are being directed by God, the writer of the Proverbs tells us it is not only necessary to know what it is to trust in the Lord, to lean not upon our own understanding, but in all of our ways to acknowledge him. Well, who is the him of the text? Who is the object of this recognition? Who is the object of this recognition?

5:07 Who is the object of this recognition? Who is the object of this recognition? Who is the object of this recognition? Who is the object of this recognition?

5:11 Well, the him of course refers to the Jehovah who is the object of trust in verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, lean not upon thine own understanding, in all thy ways acknowledge him. Now in the mind of Solomon with his great Old Testament heritage behind him, with a father like David to instruct him in the way of God. The subject of this record of faith.

5:37 The subject of this record of faith. of God, the mention of the name of God as Jehovah would bring into focus in Solomon's thinking the great God of creation, but particularly the God of covenant mercy and of covenant promise, the God whose attributes of saving love and of power and wisdom and faithfulness had been abundantly displayed in the redemption of national Israel, in the establishment of Israel in the land of promise, and now under Solomon's reign, having brought all of the promises of the extension of that kingdom to their fulfillment, so that the kingdom of Israel had extended to those very recesses which God had promised in his covenant with David. And so the object of this recognition of the kingdom of God was the covenant with David. And so the object of this recognition of the kingdom of God was the covenant with David. And so the object of this recognition for Solomon was Jehovah God of the Old Testament revelation. But for us as the people

6:39 of God, in the light of the New Testament revelation, in which the Lord Jesus is set before us as Jehovah Jesus, many of the promises and prophecies concerning Jehovah finding direct fulfillment in the person and work of Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for us as believers to read this text and to envision anyone other than our Lord Jesus Christ himself as the object of this recognition, is to read the text wrongly in the light of that full revelation that God has given to us. For the Lord Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant. He is revealed to us in scripture as our master, and we his willing and loving bond slaves. So at the very outset, as we contemplate this third command, set as a condition of divine guidance, we should understand clearly that this promise that God will direct our paths is utterly impossible, as far as our having any grounds to claim it, unless we are in a saving relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This promise of divine guidance is not for all who simply

8:01 acknowledge some God, some way. It is in all thy ways acknowledge him, Jehovah Jesus, the one who is given to us to be our Savior and our Sovereign. And so if you sit here tonight, a stranger to personal heart acquaintance with God through Jesus Christ, this promise has nothing to say to you. What you must do is stand up and pray.

8:33 Face squarely the implications of this command in all thy ways. Acknowledge him, and the first acknowledgement which is incumbent upon you is the acknowledgement that you are a sinner in need of the saving virtue of Jesus Christ, and to cast yourself upon him in repentance and in faith. The object of this recognition is to be the Lord himself whom we cannot acknowledge in all our ways until first and foremost. First of all, we've acknowledged him in this way of repentance and of faith.

The Nature of Recognition: An Earnest Penetrating Awareness

9:10 Now in the second place, consider, and this is the heart of our study tonight, the nature of this recognition. When Solomon said, in all thy ways acknowledge him, what did he mean by the word acknowledge? Now it's interesting. When you take a concordance and look up the uses of the Hebrew word, you find that it's the common word for know throughout the Old Testament.

9:38 Sometimes it simply means mere cognition. I know the place of Lincoln's birth. I know where my sister hid my shoes. I know where the flower is in the pantry.

9:52 You use the word know as a word of simple cognition, simple awareness. Sometimes the word is used in that sense. But it has great latitude, and it's used on the other end of the spectrum to describe the word. describe what happens when Adam and Eve experienced that intimacy of the union that God had ordained for a man and a woman. The same word is used when it says Adam knew his wife. It's the word used in 1 Chronicles 28 in verse 9, where David is admonishing Solomon, and I think this probably most closely approximates the usage in this text. 1 Chronicles 28 in verse 9, David is admonishing his son, and he says, And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. Solomon, know thou. Now obviously he is not exhorting Solomon to do that. He is not exhorting Solomon to do that. He is not exhorting Solomon

11:01 to do that. He is not exhorting Solomon to do that. He is not exhorting Solomon to do that. He is not Solomon to have a mere theoretical academic understanding of some facets of God and his attributes.

11:08 He's saying, Solomon, my son, come into a deep experiential acquaintance with the living God. Hence, as we read in one of the best of the commentators who helps us to understand the meaning of the original words, and I'm saying all of that so I don't sound like I'm quoting in the classroom, this definition of the word is given, an earnest penetrating awareness engaging the whole man. To acknowledge him in all our ways means that we give to him a recognition which involves an earnest penetrating awareness of God which engages the whole man. Now let me break that down. Let me break that down into five or six specific categories. What is the nature of this recognition in all thy ways acknowledge him?

Six Elements of Acknowledging God

12:05 Well, it involves in the first place a present surrender to divine authority. Who is this object that I am to recognize? He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Jehovah.

12:23 He is the living God. Now to acknowledge. To acknowledge him, to know him, to recognize him means nothing less than a present surrender to the divine authority that is in him. He is my creator, my redeemer, my Lord and my God.

12:44 And to recognize him, to acknowledge him means that in the present moment I am glad for him to be precisely what he is. Now the problem comes in this practical recognition. And acknowledgement of these facts and relationships in the totality of our Christian lives. And the problem many times comes when though in theory we would not repudiate one thing that Jesus Christ is in himself, nor one thing that he is in his relationship to us and our relationship to him theoretically, theoretically in practice we come to points of, practical atheism where we say yes he is Lord but, in this particular area our vision is so clouded by the smog of our own carnal desires that we do not acknowledge his lordship at that precise point. Now let no one misunderstand me, I am not saying that is possible for a man to be a Christian who has not bowed to Jesus Christ as his sovereign, that is not taught by the word of God, nor am I saying that its possible for a man to be a Christian who has not bowed to Jesus Christ as his sovereign, nor am I saying that its possible for a man to be a Christian who has not bowed to Jesus Christ as his sovereign, that it's possible to bow once on the threshold and then, as it were, to take the scepter back in our hands, stick it in our pocket, and have Jesus Christ nothing but a king such as you'd have in a limited monarchy. No, I'm not saying that at all.

14:13 If the basic bent and drift of our lives is not one of submission to the authority of Jesus Christ, we have no grounds to claim we are Christians. Now, the Bible is clear. If we say we know Him and keep not His commandments, we lie and we do not the truth. But the problem is, in the area of Christian growth, to a greater or lesser degree, there are pockets of non-recognition of His sovereignty over us.

14:40 There are pockets of rebellion or indifference to His sovereignty and to His lordship. And so to acknowledge Him in all our ways means that we give to Him present submission to His divine authority, saying that everything, at every point, I am not my own. I am bought with a price. I have been redeemed to be His purchased possession to do His will and not my own will.

15:13 Now, so often people say, well, only I could discover the Lord's will. Well, there's where the problem is. The mind is not free to discover the will of God. It is so filled, and as it were, driven and drenched in the din, if I may mix my metaphors, of carnals, blackerings and carnal desires that there cannot be a discerning of the mind of God.

15:39 So to acknowledge Him in all our ways means, first of all, present surrender to divine authority. Secondly, it means present inquiry into the divine mind, or if you like to pronounce it inquiry, you are free to do so, present inquiry or inquiry into the divine mind.

16:01 One of the fundamental principles, of scripture is that we cannot acknowledge the person of God and be indifferent to the word of God. Those two things are always wedded together. Always. Notice in Deuteronomy, how recognition of God's person and God's word are wedded.

16:22 Wedded together is redundant. Don't say that.

16:28 They are wedded. If they're wedded, they are together. They ought to be. All right?

16:32 Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 to 9.

16:39 Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy might. Here is a call to acknowledge God as the one worthy of the unreserved affection of the whole man. Now notice what follows immediately. And these words which I command thee, this day shall be upon thy heart.

17:09 What heart? The heart that is loving Jehovah is the heart upon which is laid the authority of the word of Jehovah. And those two are inseparable. A man says, Oh, I love Jehovah, and is indifferent to his word, is fooling himself.

17:28 And the man who says, Well, I regard his word, but I don't have much regard for him, is fooling himself. These two are inseparable, and they stand, or they fall together. Our Lord in the New Testament made this abundantly clear. He said, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.

17:49 Attachment to my person and attachment to my word, they are inseparable. That's why some of us are so stodgy and unmovable and crotchety about this matter of biblical authority. We're not out to deify a book. No, no.

18:08 We have learned from this book that the moment you relinquish its authority, you relinquish the God who proved it. And the two things stand together.

18:20 In all thy ways acknowledge him. If that comes some kind of a sentimental, some kind of a purely subjective religious experience in which I say, in the present moment, I am acknowledging the authority of my God. No, no. It will always be, I found wedded to a present inquiry into the divine mind as found in Holy Scripture.

18:48 But our Lord gave the great commission. He made this principle very clear. He said, Going therefore make disciples of all the nations. And what is a disciple?

18:58 Someone who's attached to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and love.

19:04 In them to observe whatsoever I've commanded you. A discipleship. Caught loose from the objective perceptual revelation that Christ is unknown in the commission of Christ. The two are joined together.

19:22 David could say in Psalm 119 so beautifully, Thy testimonies are the men of my counsel. And if we are to acknowledge God in all our ways, it means that with reference to all our ways, there is inquiry, into the mind of God as revealed in the Word. Then thirdly, it will involve not only present surrender to divine authority, present inquiry to the divine mind, but present obedience to the divine law. Now some might think that the previous thing includes the present.

20:02 That if there is earnest inquiry into the divine mind, automatically there will be obedience to the divine law. But not necessarily. Notice in the history of Israel how these two things became divorced. In chapter 58 of the prophecy of Isaiah, God says to the prophet, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, declare unto my people their transgression, and unto the house of Jacob their sins.

20:34 Yet, they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of God. They ask of me righteous judgments, and delight to draw near to God. What a strange situation.

20:54 God says to Isaiah, if you were just an innocent bystander who didn't know the score, looking in, you'd say, my, look at that nation. They're really acknowledging God in all their ways. They are constantly making inquiry into the divine mind. They delight to know my ways.

21:11 But the problem was, there was no present obedience to divine law. Inquiry, but not obedience. You find precisely the same indictment in the prophecy of Ezekiel, chapter 33. Ezekiel chapter 33, verses 31 and 32.

21:32 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but do them, not. For with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goeth after their gain. And lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument. For they hear thy words, there is inquiry into the divine mind, but they do them not.

22:04 And the classic statement of this in the New Testament, of course, is found in the words of our Lord in that solemn prophecy in the 13th chapter of Luke, in which he speaks, of a people in the day of judgment will say, Lord, did you not eat and drink in our presence and teach in our streets? Did we not welcome you as a divine teacher? And the Lord will say, depart from me, I never knew you, ye that work iniquity. There was no obedience to the divine law.

22:34 God's law, his precepts, never come to us merely to inform us, to satisfy our curiosity, but always to regulate and to govern us. So to acknowledge him means nothing less than present obedience to his precepts. Now do you see why some of us have problems when we face a crisis and we say, I can't seem to get the mind of God? There has not been the discipline of obedience at lesser points of the revelation of God's divine will.

23:08 In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Present surrender to divine authority, present inquiry into the divine mind, present obedience to divine law. Fourthly, there must be present entreaty of divine assistance. What does Jehovah say to us?

23:30 Jehovah Jesus says to us, without me, ye can do nothing. That's what he says. That's what he says. He says, you stand in need of present supplies of my grace for all that you undertake to do in obedience to my revealed will.

23:51 To acknowledge him means to say, Lord, it's true. And because it's true, I seek consciously present supplies of grace for all that I undertake to do. In all thy ways, acknowledge him to be the one without whom you can do nothing. Doesn't mean you relegate him to your, quote, spiritual activities.

24:15 But in all of our undertakings, there is present entreaty of divine assistance. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. And what God pronounces as his working is to be the very fuel for our praying. Because he works in, I plead with him to yet work in me with greater degree of power and of grace.

24:47 Present entreaty of divine assistance, a fourth element of what it means to acknowledge him. And in the fifth place, it means present submission to divine providence. One of the pervasive emphases of the book of Proverbs and the entire Bible is that God is the God of providence. Now to acknowledge him means that I acknowledge him to be that God with relationship to my circumstances.

25:15 Many times people are praying, Oh God, help me to know your will and all you want me to do is open their eyes.

25:23 And God has made it abundantly clear in the circumstances in which he's placed them but they're not acknowledging him to be the God of providence who has graciously hedged them up to a certain course but rather they're struggling and praying and wrestling and God says acknowledge me. In all thy ways acknowledge him. I love the definition of providence in the Shorter Catechism. The question is what are the works of God's providence and the answer is God's works of providence are his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions.

26:04 If we believe that all is ordered by him then to acknowledge him means a hearty recognition and resignation to the dispositions of that providence. And then in the sixth place to acknowledge him means a present confidence in his divine promise. Has he not promised to be with us to guard us to lead us in paths of righteousness then to acknowledge him means that I trust him. I credit his trustworthiness by an attitude of confidence in his promise.

Personal Testimony: Learning to Acknowledge God

26:44 That's the opposite of fretfulness of peevishness that God doesn't do things my way.

26:51 And I remember how vividly God taught me this lesson initially and I may have shared this a long time ago I guess when you've been any place over ten years you gain the privilege of repeating anecdotes.

27:08 It was coming near my senior year in Bible school and I didn't know what I was going to do the next year.

27:15 I didn't have a clue. I knew God had called me to preach.

27:20 I had every reason to believe from the counsel and advice of those who knew me best that I should pursue a course of some kind of public ministry but where what how I didn't have a clue. And it was in getting embarrassingly near the time when I was going to graduate. You know it wasn't spiritual in the circles I was in to say well you know I don't know I mean to be able to say the Lord led this that was the in thing to do and I couldn't do that.

27:49 And so one Sunday afternoon I said I'm not going out to church tonight and I'm not going out to supper and if I've got to stay in this room on my knees all night through the next day I'm not getting off my knees or away from my Bible till I know what God wants me to do. I was going to get God I say it reverently I was going to get God in the hammerlock and say you show me your will or I'm not going to go.

28:16 And I shall never forget that night as I prayed and searched the scriptures this was the text that God brought home to my heart with power. Are you trusting in me with all your heart? And I wrestled that thing through until I believe I could say Lord I believe I'm trusting you.

28:35 Are you leaning upon your own understanding? I wrestled that thing through until I believe I could say before God Lord I'm not leaning on my own understanding. And I came to the third thing in all my ways acknowledge him and I began to think of the areas of my life where I'd not been acknowledging the claims of God and the promises of God and the provisions of God and the revealed will of God and the law of God and I had some confession to do and some matters to wrestle through and then having settled that matter for the present then that text as it were and I seldom have this happen leaped off the page he shall direct thy paths. He is directing you don't know where but he is if you're trusting if you're acknowledging if you are not leaning he is directing and I shall never forget the joy that came that night when it came as a settled conviction God is leading me. It's stupid for me to be praying oh Lord lead me oh God give me guidance he is leading and that night some three or four hours later I don't know how long it was and someone I guess my roommate that I told don't you come back in for a while you just get lost asked me what had happened and I said well I'm settled now well what do you feel the Lord wants I said I don't have a clue I don't have a clue I don't know anymore now than I knew when I shut that door as far as what I'm to do

30:03 but I said one thing I know this miserable unbelief is done with God is leading me and I said I am simply to walk and take the next day acknowledge him submit to his divine will seek his mind in scripture walk with him that day that's all I need to know well so that you come down off the suspense level what happened is the next day the very next day president of the college said I'd like to see you he said I've been trying to get hold of you for weeks but I've been hindered by one thing or another will you come in and see me and to make a long story short that interview was the thing that opened up the place of God's appointment for the next year when I came back on the staff of that particular college but the vital element in God's dealings was this he had been trying to get to me for weeks but God had a lesson he had to get through my spiritual hide first he said and that lesson was that if by the grace of God these commands are being obeyed not perfectly but but in principle they are before us and we are submissive to them and we're looking to God for grace to comply with them then whether I know precisely how and where he's leading is not the issue to acknowledge him is a call to present confidence

The Extent of Recognition: In All Thy Ways

31:33 in the divine promises and it's losing business twisting God's arm and saying I've got to know this now God says no you'll know it when it's my time to let you know and I'm not going to yeah some of you have been trying that same business haven't you and it doesn't work so the nature then of this reliance is a call to present surrender to divine authority present inquiry into the divine mind present obedience to divine law present entreaty of divine assistance present submission to divine providence present confidence in divine promise now having looked at the object trust in the law in all thy ways acknowledge him having looked at the nature now notice in the third place the extent of this recognition and if there's anything that to me is the separator between the men and the boys if we may use the term in the matter of guidance it's this little phrase in all thy ways acknowledge him thy ways what does that little phrase thy ways mean well a way is a course or a pattern of life and action you'll say of a certain person oh that's his way what do you mean you mean well that's the general course that he follows you're either making reference to something he does

33:01 an attitude he reflects a dispositional quirk or character but that's his way now the ways of a man are the patterns of his life and actions and it includes the designs the aims the intentions and attitudes of the heart and of the mind as well as the actions that flow out of them now notice the extent of this recognition in all thy ways in all the courses and patterns of your life including the thoughts and the intentions which give birth to the actions in all of them acknowledge him no areas to be excluded from the above discipline this present submission present acknowledgement present entreaty present inquiry present confirmation and confidence in all thy ways since he's the God of particular plan and providence he demands a particular acknowledgement of him the psalmist stated it beautifully when he said I have set the Lord always before me always before me now in the light of this let me make several statements by way of application he who would have confidence that his major job are being directed by God must learn the discipline of acknowledging God in all the quote

34:28 minor affairs of his life you see you cannot walk in a course of non-acknowledgement of God and then all of a sudden because a big crisis looms in which you know there's tremendous personal danger if you don't go the right direction and make the right decision all of a sudden you try to get acclimated to a God-centered perspective of God with reference to decision making. It doesn't work that way. It's the person who has cultivated this spiritual discipline of acknowledging God in all His ways, the little things, the inconsequential things, who is prepared by that discipline when he faces a crisis, not to be pushing panic buttons, or be turning to his Bible, looking into it like some kind of a Ouija board, hoping a verse will leap out, and hoping a text will somehow be a finger pointing in the direction of the proper action. Again, in reflecting on this, with regard to God's dealings with us in bringing us here to this assembly, how can I ever forget that God used a very inconsequential thing. Some of you will remember Jerry Gabriel as a work out in Chester, New Jersey, and they bought an old farm. They had some old bullpens, literally.

35:54 I don't mean bullpens where pitchers warm up to come into the game in the sixth inning. I mean real bullpens where they kept real live bulls, you know, with horns and all the rest.

36:05 And they were going to turn that area into a washroom for sort of a gymnasium area in the barn.

36:12 But they were left just as they were when the bulls were using them, which means there was about six inches of old caked-on manure all over that place. And I had four or five days before going to meetings in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and Jerry asked, he said, would you like to stay on and make a little money? As I remembered, I made that a matter of prayer. For $15 a day, I would go out with a hose and soak down those bullpens and scrape them out.

36:39 And it was in the course of doing that and seeking to acknowledge God in my responsibility to provide for my own family that he said, you know, my home church up there in North Caldwell is without a pastor, and if they need a preacher this weekend, will you be willing to go?

36:57 So the Lord called me from scraping bullpens, literally, you see. And I couldn't help but think of that as I was reflecting on what this means. In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Is it your responsibility to provide for your family?

37:13 Yes. If it means scraping manure out of old bullpens, yes. Oh, but that's not preach. Who says?

37:22 Who says?

37:25 Who says? In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Think of David. God called him from tending the sheep.

37:35 David's greater son, who goes from the humble carpenter's bench of his father's shop and then anointed with the Spirit, assumes all the responsibilities committed to him as the Savior of his people.

37:54 Many times, a very minor issue leads to a major factor in guidance. That's why it's so wrong to say, I'll acknowledge God in this thing because that's a big thing. You look back in your own life, some of the most far-reaching decisions were triggered by a very inconsequential issue. Were they not?

38:14 How did you meet your wife, son? It wasn't a big thing that led to that first meeting, just a very little thing. You check back in those great issues, almost invariably, it's a little collection or collection of little matters.

38:30 And God calls us to acknowledge him in all our ways. Now, of course, like the command, be perfect as your father is perfect. It's unattainable. It's unattainable in this life.

38:42 But that's the standard. And it's the standard to which we should press with diligence and by which we should measure ourselves constantly.

38:54 And as we think of it, our minds should immediately reflect upon the greatness of such a God who calls us to this. You could get yourself in trouble saying to even, if you have three kids, acknowledge me in all your ways. Some of you as mothers, you know what it's like. There are three children.

39:10 You are chief. You are chief advisor. Chief foreman for their chores and responsibilities. You are chief resident scholar with their problems in homework and all the rest.

39:24 You are chief nurse when they bump themselves. You've got to put a band-aid on the knee. You're all of these things to those children. Now, what happens if all three of them start acknowledging you in all their ways all at once?

39:36 That's what makes young mothers want to climb the wall. So when the husband comes through the door, they're ready to just scream.

39:42 Why? Because that's too much for one person to bear all at once. Think of our great God. He says to all of his children scattered throughout all the earth, I am to you God's sovereign provider.

39:57 I am to you director, counselor, all of these things. And he says, rather than be disturbed by all of my children all at once, as it were coming to me and expecting me to be all of these things to them, he says, this is what I ask of them. In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Because he is the infinite God, he is able to care for each one of us as though we were his only child in all of his universe.

Cultivating the Attitude of Acknowledgment

40:28 To me, he's one of the maunders. And when you begin to meditate on things like that, you just feel your own mind just is going to stretch to the breaking point. That's the God who calls us to acknowledge him in all of our ways. Let me say briefly, in closing, how can this attitude, this spiritual mentality be attained?

40:53 Let me encourage you by stating that this is an attitude and an activity that must be cultivated and developed over a period of time. Just like many other spiritual disciplines, it isn't learned overnight. It isn't something you go into your closet of prayer and claim from the Lord. No, you go home tonight and say, God, forgive me.

41:14 In so many of my ways, I've not, I've not been acknowledging you. Oh, yes, I acknowledge you in the things that are obviously sacred and religious, but in these, quote, no, no, God doesn't want a division in our thinking. In all thy ways, acknowledge him. Learn to lift the heart up to him in every enterprise, praying for wisdom, asking, Lord, what principles and precepts of your word bear upon this activity, and may I do it within the framework of your revealed will in Holy Scripture that I may know, that I'm bringing glory to you.

41:47 That attitude must be cultivated, must be developed to be able to say with David, I have set the Lord always before me. That's something that is learned and acquired by constant spiritual discipline. Paul had to say, I have learned in whatsoever state I am in to be content. He didn't come to it automatically.

42:10 He had to be disciplined by circumstances to learn it. And in the same way, God disciplines, to teach us what it is in all our ways to acknowledge him.

42:23 And then the last exhortation I would bring tonight is that if you are failing in this whole matter of having some degree of certainty that your life is being guided and ordered by the living God,

42:40 the problem is not an intellectual problem. The problem is basically a spiritual problem of somewhere along the line you are probably either leaning upon your own understanding, walking in unbelief, or walking in a carnal indifference to the claims of God. You are not acknowledging him in all of your ways. Sounds very simple when you read it, doesn't it?

43:08 But oh, that we might learn what it is to acknowledge him in all our ways and thereby know that he is directing our paths. God, God willing, next week we'll look at that phrase, he will direct thy paths. What does it mean? How does he do it?

43:27 Can we expect visions? Internal subjective impressions? Precisely how does God direct the path of that person who trusts him, who leans not, and who acknowledges him? May God grant that he will give us increased understanding and then the grace to experience what he has promised in this portion of the Bible.

Closing Prayer

43:49 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

43:49 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

43:49 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

43:50 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

43:51 Let us pray.