A Compass for Life's Journey | Timeless Truths – Dr. Charles Stanley

[Music] timeless truths a collection of classic sermons from dr charles stanley today's selection recorded in 2005 a compass for life's journey i have in my hand a compass and i have had it for 25 years it has never failed me it's always pointed north always pointed to the north pole so i can always tell by looking at this which direction i'm headed in now if i put it in my pocket and i don't look at it it doesn't do me any good but if i will take it out and look at it i will always know which direction i'm headed in and i have been in some places a few times without it i wish i'd had it because i needed it and on one occasion when i was with a guide i told him i thought we were heading in the wrong direction he said oh no i've traveled this a path many times and i know it's not the wrong direction i pulled out my compass and i said well sir either i have got to believe you oh i've got to believe my compass and i'm going to believe my compass because it never fails well finally he admitted that we were right and so we finally got where we were going and when i think about how many times i pull this out to look at it to check up on myself to be sure i'm going the right direction and one of the most valuable things about it to me personally for photographing is that uh when i want to be sure i have a warm morning light when it's the most beautiful and sidelight i can take this the night before and okay check out where's east because i know the sun's coming that direction well i want to get a beautiful sunset then i want to check out and see where it's west because i know that's where it's going to set so there's some things i know for certain not going to ever lead me wrong always going to tell me what's right and so when i think about this it points in eight different directions this north and northeast and east and then there's southeast and south in the southwest and west and in this northwest so there are eight different directions it's going to point me in and just to know that i can trust it all the time is a great sense of security well that's good for a travel this is a better compass for living and as surely as that compass will always point watch this will always point to the north pole this compass always points upward every single time and what i want to do in this message is this and i want to talk about a compass for life's journey and what i want to do is simply this i want to take a passage of scripture one of the most important passages of scripture in the bible to me personally because right after i was saved somehow by the grace of god and his goodness i came across this passage of scripture and there are two verses primarily that god spoke to my heart about and then after a few years when i realized that there was so much more here and so what i want us to do is i'm going to read this passage of scripture and then here's what we're going to do i'm going to show you why this bible and this passage of scripture is an awesome guide for your life and mine and this passage alone will always keep you headed in the right direction and then when we talk about how it directs us i want to talk about the value that following this listen this compass that never points us in the wrong direction but listen i want to show you the value of simply doing and following the compass so i want you to turn if you will the proverbs chapter 3 and i usually don't read a long passage of scripture but there are 12 verses in this passage but it's a wonderful passage so beginning in verse 1 my son do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments the length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you do not let kindness and truth leave you bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart so you'll find favor and good report or a good reputation in the sight of god and man trust in the lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight or direct your path do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and turn away from evil it will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones honor the lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will overflow with new wine my son do not reject the discipline of the lord or loathe his reproof for whom the lord loves he reproves even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights now i believe this number one because it is scripture i believe it for the second reason because i was saved when i was 12 years of age right after that these two verses trust in the lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your path those two verses became like an anchor to my own thinking and then as i began to read later on in life a little later on these other verses help me to realize that here in one passage it's a compass for living and i can tell you in these 60 years that i have attempted to live by this passage of scripture god can be trusted to be faithful this passage will always keep you walking in the right direction so let's think about it for a moment let's look at the direction of this compass this the word of god this bible compass and the first thing you'll notice is that it points to the scripture itself listen my son do not forget my teaching but let your heart keep my commandments listen this compass is our moral guide for this life you and i live in a world that is very immoral full of difficulties heartache pain troubles trials and immoralities this compass will keep you heading in the right direction all the time and notice what he says don't forget it that is don't put the compass in your pocket and head out on some trail because remember this if it's an overcast day and very cloudy and you're out in the woods or up in the mountains somewhere you can't look around at the trees and the mountains and tell which way you're going if the sun is shining you can at least some people can most people could but you see how many of our days are overcast in our life how many days are there difficulties in hardships and trials in life and we have to ask oh god which way am i going and there's so many things in life listen that cloud our thinking so many voices we hear that would try to convince us and persuade us this is right and that's right the word of god meditating upon the word listening to the word taking notes on the word applying the words to our heart so he says my son do not forget my teaching let your heart keep my commandments let the word of god be uppermost in your thinking daily it is your compass for living the second thing i want you to notice is this this compass points us listen to what he says do not let kindness and truth leave you bind them around your neck and write them on the tablet of your heart kindness kindness listen this compass is always going to point us to being kind that's considerate and thoughtful and giving and helpful and warm about our feelings toward other people and the bible says that kindness makes a man or a woman attractive that is god uses that character quality in our life to attract people to the lord jesus christ who lives inside of us and so this compass is always going to point you and me listen to be kind to other people to be helpful to be a servant to be giving when necessary to be an encouragement to them in some way or the other and so kindness is one direction we'll always walk in if we follow this compass but notice if you will what he says also he says and truth that is when you think about truth this compass will always lead you to truth why because it is inspired by the living god it is the infallible inerrant compass it makes no mistakes it always points listen it always points godward just like the physical compass always points northward to the north pole this compass always points toward god heavenly and it will always lead you in the right direction that is to be truthful to other people and to act in truth with integrity then if you'll notice what he says he says he says trust in the lord trust in the lord with all your heart lean not listen lean not to your own understanding which simply means this this compass always always points us to trust to faith that our god is trustworthy he never makes a mistake he will never mislead you under any condition and sometimes we have difficulty trusting god and sometimes a person will say well uh well i i trust him sorta listen carefully you don't trust him sort of you either do trust him or you don't trust him you don't trust him sort of and oftentimes we have difficulty when god requires of us something that we see is difficult for us and we say well god but how and because we can't figure it out we don't trust him and when we do not trust him in any area of our life we're insulting god what we're saying and what we're implying is this he's not trustworthy to deny him his rightful place in your life of trusting him you are saying to him i can't trust you i don't believe you so i never tell god that your actions shouted to him think about his this here's this righteous god who never makes a mistake who loves you unconditionally who would never mislead you and you're telling him you don't believe him you know what it says you you've closed the compass you've got it laying on your table beside your bed are you having on a desk somewhere in your house you have the compass but you're not reading it it's one thing to put it in your pocket it's something else to read it and here's what you're going to find every single time it's always trust trust trust this compass is always going to need you to trust him but i want you to notice something else about it and that is it will always lead you to seek his mind and his will about things listen to what he says he says now trust in the lord with all your heart lean not to your own understanding and then he says in all your ways acknowledge him this compass is always going to point you in the direction of seeking the lord that is what does god think about the question before you how does god want to intervene in this decision to give you the right sense of direction in all your ways acknowledge him which means listen if i acknowledge him i'm recognizing him as my lord i'm recognizing listen his infinite and perfect wisdom i'm recognizing the fact that he will only lead me in the right direction i'm recognizing the fact that he loves me unconditionally i'm recognizing the fact that he only has the best for me so therefore in all your ways acknowledge him that is look to him seek him now think about this what is it in your life that you would say now god has nothing to do with that not a thing in all your ways in all your decisions we're to seek him we're to ask him and you see if if you're not if you're not into the compass daily you can mark it down you're going to step off the path you're going to head in the wrong direction because there's so many pitfalls out there what you have to do is check the compass you cannot name a single solitary experience in life in which this compass will not give you clear direction if you will meditate upon it if you ask god to give you direction you see because there's no area in your life that you can exclude god so he says in all your ways in all your ways acknowledge him and then if you will notice look at look again here in this verse he says do not be wise in your own eyes fear the lord and turn away from evil now this compass always points to obedience always there's not a single verse to be found in scripture that would entice us to do evil that's not who god is this compass always points to obedience why because the god who created you created a plan for your life you may be in the plan or not in the plan listen he has a pathway for us to walk this pathway is the pathway created by a loving god who loves us unconditionally it's a pathway that leads to the best for our life it's a pathway that has difficulty on it hardship troubles trials but he's going to use every single one of those to do what to build character into our life and to make us christ-like and to make us more useful listen to make us a more valuable vessel of his because the more those difficulties and hardships and trials we've been through listen the more capable we are of less tenderly listening to others and being able to discern what's really going on in their heart and being able to identify with them and hurt with them and so all of those things are part of his plan and so when you think about well god if you if you really loved me you'd eliminate all these things no he wouldn't it's because he loves us and so if you'll think about it he would never leave you to do and it leads you to anything that's disobedient so when you ask god to show you his will and you deliberately willfully listen step off the path what you're saying is i'm smarter than god what you're saying is god i know that's i know that's what the compass says but i'm going to do something different you can pick up any compass anywhere it's going to point to the north pole that's just the law of nature now there's one thing i can do to make it point in some other direction if i took this compass and i held it up here it's always going to point north but if i have a piece of steel and i pulled it over like this and moved it around like this that needle is going to move wherever that steel is because you see it's a magnet listen carefully there are many of you who have something in your life that's drawing you off course off the path and soon as i said that you already know what it is because you know it doesn't fit who you are it's not contributing to your life it has you confused frustrated guilty mixed up and some of you are in depression because you've been off the path so long you've chosen not to obey and just like that piece of metal would cause this needle to do other than what it is created to do and pawn in the normal direction it is a foreign object that should not be in the path and should not be held close to this compass so ask yourself the question what is it in my life that has so attracted me that i find myself slipping over here off the path oh i know what the word of god says but somehow in some way all i want to say is this if you don't get on the right path if you don't get back to following the leadership of the compass you're going to make a horrible mistake he says fear the lord and turn away from evil the next thing i want you to know is this it ponson's also listen the financial wisdom look at this he says in this um uh eighth verse or ninth verse honor the lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so that your barns will be filled with plenty and your bats will overflow with new wine what does it mean to honor the lord it means that i respect him and revere him it means i acknowledge his lordship and when it comes to finances here's what it means i honor him as the creator of all wealth i honor him is the source of all of my wealth it may be very very very little but it falls in the category of well honor the lord with your with your wealth listen honor the lord from your wealth that's very simple now my wealth and your wealth is not only dollars and cents it's your abilities your talents your skills your opportunities honor the lord from your wealth then listen to the last direction of this compass and that is my son do not reject the discipline of the lord or loathe his reproof that is don't hate his reprove for whom the lord loves he reproves even as the father corrects the son in whom he delights you know what he says he says here's what this compass says this compass says listen accept god's reproof accept his discipline because it came from the father's love now all of us have had to discipline our children and all of us had had to be disciplined by god why did you if you were a godly father or mother why did you discipline your children you didn't discipline because you were angry and you should not have done it then if you were angry you should discipline them because you love them and because you want them to do what get on the right path to grow up to be sons and daughters with character so that they can be used of god so what happens we are to accept he says don't reject don't reject it do not reject the discipline of the lord or loathe his reproof that is when god comes down upon us for our disobedience we turn with hatred and i must say god why are you allowing us to do do this to me and if he answered you know what he'd say i'm loving him well this is not a way to love me wisdom says it is well god why are you doing this to me because i have this awesome path i've created for you and i want you to get the full benefit of walking according to my will now watch this in all of these eight directions from this compass in essence here's what it says stop trying to live in this fantasy world of becoming what you want to become doing what you want to do being what you want to be in violation of the word of god that's a fantasy world and come back to reality and look at the compass and begin to follow it now i want you to see the value he says soul you will find favor and good repute in the sight of god man think about this have you ever thought about how god smiles upon you we think of god as this awesome something somebody somewhere up in heaven who is judgmental and keeping a record of everything that i do wrong start overlooking the good parts and that he never has a happy thought that is so absolutely unlike god how could he love me unconditionally how could he love you unconditionally without smiling on you when you listen when he sees you face a big issue in your life or even a small one and he sees you wandering between the two and thinking okay god i choose to follow you god must smile so to speak upon you when you say yes i'm going to do what you say no matter what i'm going to be obedient to you and trust you for the consequences what is he saying he says that you and i will find favor and we'll have a good reputation in the sight of god man think about this do you want the favor of god in your life personally do you want the favor of god upon your family you want the favor of god in the life of your children do you want the favor of god bestowed upon you when you follow the compass as we've just mentioned here what happens is he says listen we have the favor of god that listen that means the good things of god god's plan his provision his best comes our way and now we can handle it why because we're on the right path doing the right thing then if you'll notice trust in the lord with all your heart lean not your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him he will direct your path one of the values of following the compass is he will direct your path and he will make it straight you know what you can't choose about a path in god's path there's no compass like this one and if you take the compass and lay it down what you're doing is you're positioning yourself to get off the path and i want to challenge you i want to challenge you to read the scripture over and over again let it be the compass of your life to keep you on the right path so that you'll have god's absolute best blessings for your life for the future it's a choice you make and i trust that you'll make a wise choice you say well i'm not even a christian well you're on your own you've said i don't fear god so i want to encourage you to ask him to forgive you for that sin and to tell him that you're placing your life in his hands now you've messed it up you're placing your life in his hands and watch god work in the most awesome way in your life it's a choice you make and i trust you'll be wise enough to make it and father how grateful we are that you could pack so much in such a few verses to give us a sense of direction for every aspect of our life and just encompass us with so many blessings and the assurance and the peace that we have knowing when we follow this compass always head in the right direction and know that one of these days will stand before you having looked back to see when we got on your path it was the best part of our life in jesus name amen you

Channel: In Touch Ministries

Views: 29,487

Rating: 4.9232473 out of 5

Keywords: Charles F. Stanley, Charles Stanley, In Touch with Dr. Charles Stanley, In Touch Ministries, Preaching, Bible teaching, Dr. Stanley, Intouch ministries, intouch

Id: 1Orw6Ls3Nw4

Length: 25min 16sec (1516 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021