August 6, 2023 Trinity 9 The Sunday of the Shrewd Manager
Trinity 9
Proverbs 16:1-9
August 6, 2023
“Trust in the Lord with All Your Heart”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.” Proverbs 16:1. Or if you like the last verse of the reading today better, “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” Man proposes; God disposes. Man makes his plans, but only if God says so.
In our bulletin this morning we have some proposed plans. Trinity Life Team picked dates for our trip next summer to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter. June 16, 17, and 18. But will it happen? Will we be in Petersburg, Kentucky on June 17? Only if God says so. Man can plan and propose, but God says so. Just this year I’ve heard of at least two different families who had to cancel trips they had planned. They planned but God said otherwise. “If God says so.” The churchly way of saying that is, “if it be according to the Lord’s will” or “Thy will be done, O Lord.”
What’s on your schedule this week? This Fall? Next year? Getting your haircut this week? If God says so. Cutting apples this week and freezing them for pies at the Corn Festival? If God says so. Having a knee surgery? If God says so. Buying a new home? If God says so. Getting a bell into your church’s bell tower? If God says so. “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.”
Now that’s all easy enough. You all know that. That’s why you buy travel insurance if you book a big, expensive vacation. You know things happen to interrupt our plans. But we’re talking about something deeper. Much deeper. God is talking about imprinting Himself deep down into our hearts, “If God says so.” We’re talking about getting rid of all this garbage we hear today like, “believing in yourself,” and “following your heart,” and “you can do anything you set your heart to.” We’re talking about replacing all of that “if I say so” with “if God says so.” We’re talking about the 1st commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” What does this mean? We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.
Our hearts can’t be trusted. The only answer to our unfaithful hearts is the faithful heart of God in Jesus Christ as we’re going to see. And then, with Christ in our hearts, we can commit all our life and all our work to the Lord. If You say so, Lord.
Most of the book of Proverbs comes from King Solomon. He was one of the wisest men to ever walk the earth. Next in wisdom probably only to Jesus Himself. He was the one who famously decreed that a child should be cut in half when two mothers came to him both claiming the child as her own. The false mother said, “Good. Cut him in half,” while the true and real mother said, “No, give the child to the other woman rather than cut him in half.” So was Solomon’s wisdom. The queen of Sheba came to see if he was really as wise and wealthy as she had heard. When she got there and saw everything, she said, “I wasn’t even told half of your wealth and wisdom.”
Here you go, a bit of the great wealth and wisdom of Solomon from 1 Kings 10, “King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. The whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind. Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen. And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone.” Silver was as common as rocks!
Now King Solomon learned, though, something very important. He couldn’t trust his own heart. Listen to the very first verse of chapter 11, “Now King Solomon loved many foreign women.” He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. And Solomon went after the gods of his wives. The wisest man next to Jesus?! 1 Kings 11:4, “When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God.” You can’t trust your heart!
If you believe in yourself and follow your heart, you’ll end up the same place as King Solomon because our hearts can’t be trusted. So Solomon tells us in verse 2 of the reading today from Proverbs 16, “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit.” We can’t trust our hearts because in our own hearts we will always justify everything we do. We’ll always think we’re right. It will always be “if I say so” instead of “if God says so.”
Don’t trust your heart. For one, you and I hold double standards all the time. We can spot the sins of everyone else but never seem to be able to spot the same sins in ourselves. Don’t trust your heart. Certain sins become such habits in us that we don’t even notice them anymore. We become habituated to our sin. Don’t trust your heart. We tend to think that all our sins are “small” sins and no big deal at all. Don’t trust your heart. There are many sins that people get so used to they become totally ignorant of them. How many years did people in the Old Testament live with polygamy? With multiple wives? How many years did people in the United States and many other countries live with forced slavery? They shouldn’t have trusted their hearts. “All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes.”
This is our problem. The problem of King Solomon. Our hearts can’t be trusted. Money and wisdom are good and can do a lot of good things as they did with King Solomon. But we’re always tempted to put all our trust and hope in money and in our wisdom rather than in God. Our hearts aren’t the answer—they’re the problem. So what is the answer?
Proverbs 16:6, “By steadfast love and faithfulness iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord one turns away from evil.” Yahweh is the answer. Every verse except one in Proverbs 16:1-9 has the word Yahweh, the proper Hebrew name for God. You can always spot it in some translations of the Bible because they will put the name Lord in all capital letters. That’s your cue that it’s the Hebrew name, Yahweh, or “I AM”. So we’re intuitively being told that there are two things that belong together – Yahweh and our heart. The faithful Lord is the answer to our unfaithful hearts. The Lord is to be trusted when our hearts aren’t to be trusted.
The steadfast love and faithfulness of the Lord has atoned for our iniquity. He has covered the sin in our heart with the blood of Jesus Christ. Even King Solomon’s great sins are covered in the blood of Jesus Christ. All of your sins are covered, atoned for, in the blood of Jesus Christ. This is why Solomon tells us in Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Don’t lean on your own heart. Lean your heart on the Lord. Trust in Him above all other things because He is faithful and steadfast in His love for you.
Now Solomon has some wise advice for what you ought to do now with your heart and your plans and your work. Verse 3, “Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.” Verse 7, “When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”
Here’s what you do. Take all your plans. Take all your work. Take all your schedule. Take it all and say, “If You say so, Lord.” If God says so, then it will be. I will propose, but God will dispose. The word there for “commit” your work is a Hebrew word than means “roll over” like rolling over your burden onto someone else. So roll over all your plans and work and schedule to the Lord and say, “If God says so. I don’t trust my own heart but I trust the faithful and steadfast Lord.”
Please open your hymnals to hymn #422. We’re going to close the sermon today by singing this hymn together acapella. You know the now-famous slogan of Capital One, “What’s in your wallet?” The slogan of King Solomon and Proverbs is this, “What’s in your heart?” If it’s a bank card then you’re in trouble. If it’s the Lord and if it’s fear of the Lord and faith in Christ—then you’re golden. So this hymn sings, “On my heart imprint Your image, blessed Jesus, King of grace.” Thomas Kingo wrote this hymn about 350 years ago as one verse of 29 total verses on the Passion of Jesus. Remember when Pilate has a sign inscribed above the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews?” Well, Thomas Kingo’s hymn here asks Jesus to inscribe and imprint His image onto our hearts. Why? So that “life’s riches, cares, and pleasures” may never erase the Lord. So we won’t start saying, “if I say so” instead of “if God says so.” Let’s sing this verse together as we ask the Lord to be the center of our hearts.
On my heart imprint Your image,
Blessèd Jesus, King of grace,
That life’s riches, cares, and pleasures
Never may Your work erase;
Let the clear inscription be:
Jesus, crucified for me,
Is my life, my hope’s foundation,
And my glory and salvation! (LSB #422)
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.