There is a story that always stirs my
heart's friends in relation to honoring God a
Very wealthy man had an only son whom
he loved dearly The son also loved and
honored his father But one day to his
father's inconsolable grief the boy died The devastated
father never forgot his son and eventually the
old man himself passed away When the lawyers
came to settle the estate no trace could
be found of the old man's will They
searched unsuccessfully for some time until finally the
authorities Ordered that the property should be sold
and the estate settled according to law At
the estate auction One of the articles put
up for sale was a portrait of the
son who had died The picture had little
or no value to most of the people
present But among the bidders was an old
woman who had nursed the wealthy man's son
when he was a child She bought the
picture for a very small amount and she
cherished this reminder of the little boy She
had loved and cared for years before one
day while cleaning and repairing the Picture frame
the old lady discovered a document on the
back of the picture Which turned out to
be the old man's will?
He had left all of his property to
anybody who thought enough of his son to
Want his portrait the old lady became rich
overnight Well that story always stirs me friends
and our text today speaks of ways we
can honor God with our lives We will
be in Proverbs chapter 3 and in verses
5 through 10 You may turn in your
Bibles there now friends and may God attend
the reading of his holy word But trust
in the Lord with all thine heart and
lean not unto thine own understanding in all
thy ways Acknowledge him and he shall direct
thy paths Be not wise in thine own
eyes Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be held to the navel and
Merrill to the bones Honor the Lord with
that substance and with the firstfruits of all
thine increase So shall that barns be filled
with plenty and that presses shall burst out
with new wine I will stop there friends
In our passage today.
We see ways in which we can honor
God in our lives You see friends when
you preach a God-centered gospel then your
hearers will want to live their lives to
the glory of God But if we preach
the man-centered gospel, so prevalent in our
day Then your congregation will want to live
unto themselves and please themselves This passage from
Proverbs is for the God-centered crowd that
follows Jesus along the narrow way There are
four ways spoken here in our text of
how we can honor the Lord with our
lives number one By honoring him with our
whole heart in the seat of our affections
number two By honoring him with our whole
allegiance in our daily actions number three by
honoring him with our whole obedience in a
life of consecration and Number four by honoring
him with our whole tithe with our finances
You see friends God wants all our heart
Too many fail here and try to serve
God with a divided heart and I can
tell you I've tried it And I can
assure you friends a half-hearted worship of
God will only result in a half-baked
Religion that has no witness to the world
and no power from on high like that
rich man Who left his entire estate to
the one who would honor his son?
so to God will open heaven's blessings and
Resources to the person who honors the son
with his life as it is lived unto
God for his great glory Let us pray