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Whatever You Do, Leave It to the Lord

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To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.
To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.

(Proverbs 16:1-3)

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The 20th Bible in the Old Testament is Proverbs.

The Bible of Proverbs tells exactly how a person must live in order to be truly successful. Proverbs tells us that the most blessed and meaningful life is the one who truly fears the Creator and lives a life of obedience to His Word according to the saving grace He has bestowed upon man.

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We want to learn what God's will is by examining the words of Proverbs 16:1-3.
Let's read the words of Proverbs again.
1. To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply
  of the tongue. [ Proverbs 16:1]

2. All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
  [ Proverbs 16:2]

3. Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. [ Proverbs 16:3]

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Verse 1 says that people make plans with their own thoughts, but the fulfillment of those plans is possible only with God's permission.
There is a person in the Bible who can help us best understand this verse.
That man was David's son Absalom.

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Absalom was a very handsome man with long hair. Absalom made a perfect plan to drive out his father David and become king himself.
Absalom's plan went very smoothly. He succeeded in conquering the city of Jerusalem without bloodshed because his father David had fled the city of Jerusalem.

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Absalom's final plan to usurp the throne was to defeat his father David's army and kill David. But God did not want Absalom to become king in David's place.
Absalom's army was a major failure in the war against David's army.

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Absalom, who had lost the war and fled on a mule, passed under a large oak tree, and his long hair got caught in the branch. The mule didn't know about it and just ran away.
Absalom was caught in a tree branch and he hung in the air.
Absalom just got his hair caught in a tree and he was pierced to death by the spear of Joab, David's commander in the army. Absalom shows that a plan without God can never succeed.

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Verse 2 says that we may think that what we are doing is right, but in the eyes of God,
who knows all things, it is not so.
At the time of Jesus, there were Pharisees who thought they were serving God well.

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The Pharisees were people who strictly obeyed God's law and the rules they had set.
They fasted twice a week. And they prayed reverently in front of many people.
They made a large box of words and attached them to show how much they loved the Word of God. They made long fringes and wore them as a sign that they always remember the word of God.

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People thought they were doing what was right in the sight of God. But Jesus, who searches their hearts, said they had done something wrong. Everything they did was done in the wrong way to look good to people.
[“Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; (Matthew 23:5)]

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We who have been saved by believing in Jesus should not act like the Pharisees.
Whatever you do, you must act without shame in the sight of God who sees the depths of your heart.

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The words of verse 3 tell us the secret of success in everything that a person tries to do.
The secret is to leave it all to Jehovah God. When David became king, the Philistines once attacked Israel.

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In a dangerous situation where the enemy was attacking, David prayed to God first.
David's prayer was to entrust God to be the commander of the war.
God commanded David to go to war and fight.

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David went to war by God's command and defeated the Philistines. Shortly thereafter,
the Philistines attacked Israel again.
This time, as before, David went to God and prayed first.

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God taught David how to win the war.
[so David inquired of God again, and God answered him, "Do not go straight up, but circle around them and attack them in front of the balsam trees. (1 Chronicles 14:14)]
David, who fought according to God's command, won a great victory this time and gave glory to God.

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We, who believe in Jesus and become God's children, must become people who, like David, entrust everything to God. We must act according to the standards of God's Word.
Also, we must have the faith to pray before doing anything.
Then God will help you succeed in everything you do.

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We must always keep in our hearts the words of Proverbs 16:1-3, which we looked at together today. We must remember that it is God who can make everything we do succeed.
We should always be people who seek God's will with humility and act in faith.
To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the LORD comes the reply of the tongue.
[ Proverbs 16:1]

All a man's ways seem innocent to him, but motives are weighed by the LORD.
[ Proverbs 16:2]

Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.[ Proverbs 16:3]

(This is the sample conclusion provided by CTM. Please feel free to change the conclusion to best suit the listeners of your sermon.)