Sermon preached by Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr.
June 3, 2007
Copyright© 2007, John A. Huffman, Jr.
All rights reserved.

THE BEST ADVICE I EVER RECEIVED

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Wasn't last weekend wonderful with Joni Eareckson Tada preaching at all three services!

I introduced her as a person who, for the last forty years, has been of increasing encouragement to me. Every time I begin to indulge in a bit of self-pity for the non-solvable problems in my life, I think of her. I'm reminded, however difficult my problems are, I'm able to get myself out of bed and get a running start at each day. For forty years, she has been confined within the body of a quadriplegic. Yet, with all the ups and downs she has emotionally, spiritually and physically, with God's help, she has prevailed and modeled what it is not only to find God's help on a daily basis but also to help transform the lives of others through her writing, singing, speaking, painting, radio ministry and now the profound international ministry she has with disabled persons.

What struck me was that she, in a fashion similar to me, was thanking God that she was not in as difficult circumstances as others she knew. Isn't that an interesting twist on life? Here, a quadriplegic person who is dependent on others to help her make it through a day at a time was telling us how grateful she was to be able to serve others in more difficult circumstances than hers.

Remember she talked about that one person, the young woman suffering from childhood diabetes who had had both legs and some of her fingers amputated, had a kidney transplant and other physical problems, including blindness, and how that person was helping others. As Joni put it, if someone worse off than she could do all this good, how much more could she do in her better circumstances?

I know we all were deeply moved by what she had to say. Some of you at the door of the church chided me for not alerting you in advance to bring extra Kleenex. We all were moved to tears of pain and joy, as she and her husband Ken ministered so eloquently to us. I do hope that we will be able, as a church, to expand our servant ministry outreach to help Joni in her ministry to disabled persons. If you were not here, you can purchase a CD or cassette of her message. It is also available, orally streamed, on our website at www.standrewspres.org.

I've been engaged in a lot of introspection recently. Although I bear responsibility as your pastor and head of staff, I'm learning new lessons in stepping to the side and encouraging, in a generative way, a younger generation of leadership. Although I see no theology of retirement in the Scriptures, Anne and I are very much aware that these last slightly less than three years with you are years to consolidate what is good about this ministry and strengthen the areas that are weak. It is our opportunity to write a final chapter in this ministry. Our love and prayers are with the Visioning Together Task Force, as they are engaged in an intensive process of reflecting on the materials received through the congregational survey and the various focus groups.

And attending the dedication of the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte on Thursday only accentuated these musings. What an experience it was to walk through his boyhood home and observe some of the exhibits in the museum and to be present for that two-hour ceremony under an open-sided tent in ninety-degree-plus weather. There were three past presidents on the platform--George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton--each of whom gave eloquent statements of how Dr. Graham had touched their lives long before they got to know him personally and then continuing on to the present. What an experience it was to hear George Beverly Shea, ninety-eight years old, sing "How Great Though Art" and to have the fifteen hundred of us invited guests be led by an aging Cliff Barrows in singing the chorus. Then there was Billy Graham himself, eighty-eight years old, with prostate cancer, Parkinson's Disease, a hydrocephalic condition of the brain, macular degeneration of his vision and nearly deaf. He shuffled to the rostrum steadied by his walker. His opening words were, "I feel like I've been attending my own funeral. . . ." This made me ponder the aging process, to realize even the greatest among us is subject to human frailties.

Then one other matter caught my attention this week as I was preparing this message. I thought I was fairly well versed in what happened in that horrible Virginia Tech massacre. But I learned something new this week. Perhaps you knew, but I didn't. Franklin Graham, who, along with a Rapid Response Team, was present at the scene not long after it happened, described a macabre aspect that he said didn't get much coverage. Because it was a crime scene, the bodies had to remain where they were, so there could be a full investigation. He said what was amazing to observe was the fact that practically every one of those students who had been killed had a cell phone in their hand. Parents and friends who were concerned for their safety were calling them to warn of what was happening or to find out how they were. Those there at the scene at the time told him that there they were, young men and women already dead, but holding in their hands cell phones that kept ringing and were unanswered.

It's in the context of all these impressions and others I'll not take your time to mention that I've been reflecting on "the best advice I've ever been given," which is as helpful to me today as it was when I first received it as a teenager.

I.

Being a young person or a person of any age committed to Jesus Christ isn't easy.

I'm so impressed by the youth of St. Andrew's. Being a young person is not easy. My earliest memories were World War II blackouts we had in Boston, as we lived in fear of Nazi submarines. There were nights when all the lights were to be out and our curtains drawn. Then the challenge turned from German and Japanese totalitarianism to the Cold War and the rapid spread of Communism throughout the world. Granted we had similar challenges with underage drinking, premarital sex, out-of-wedlock babies, child abuse, but I don't remember them as being as intense a topic of conversation as they are today. Drugs were not as easily available. Divorce is now much more common, and date rape, hooking up, cheating, abortion are coupled with intensified peer pressure. And the list goes on.

I'm convinced that one of the biggest temptations, not only to young people but to all of us today, is the unrelenting political correctness pressure to theological relativism and pluralism.

When I grew up, it was different. The lines were more clear-cut, theologically and morally. People were entitled to their personal beliefs. They could hold them quite firmly. They didn't tend to be matters of public expression.

Today, it's sort of a free-for-all, isn't it? Political leaders are welcome to express their faith. But God pity any teenager or person of any age who publicly comes out in declaration of what is right and what is wrong in terms of biblical values and who succinctly states truth of a theological or moral nature. Even those of us in the ministry can get in trouble for declaring truth that is divinely revealed and final in nature. Anything can be believed, as long as it is not expressed in a way that clashes with the beliefs of others.

Whereas people used to argue with me saying that my theological positions, based on divine revelation of Scripture, were absurd and my lifestyle, which was endeavoring to square with the ethical teachings of God's Word, was out of date, I find very few people today who would tackle me on those grounds. Where I run into trouble, as a person endeavoring to flesh out my faith in the early part of the twenty-first century, is when I express honestly my convictions as educated by the Bible and am confronted with the quiet but forceful admonition that, "Huffman, if you want to believe those things and live that way, that's okay for you; but you have no right to express those opinions in a pluralist society."

Society sets the standard. We live with a separation of church and state, with which I emphatically concur, so there is the freedom of individual conscience. The constitution of the United States does not emphasize separation of church and state but actually protects religious expression from control and inhibition from government. This separation of church and state was never meant to silence the free expression of personal commitments and the advocacy of one's understanding of eternal truth. One of the basic underlying tenets of our American constitutional rights was the freedom of speech and the opportunity of persons to publicly argue for their convictions and the truths to which they held, as long as they do not force those viewpoints on others.

What has evolved in our present society in the last few years is this relativistic notion that sort of accepts everything and everyone as long as no one expresses any viewpoints that come into clash with the viewpoints of others.

As recently as yesterday morning in the Daily Pilot, an article appeared in which a writer attacked the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ, in fact stated that, in the spirit of Jesus, we should accept all religions as valid ways of finding God. She referred to this as the "new Pentecost."

I remember when I first came here as pastor, I was invited to give the baccalaureate address at Newport Harbor High School. I challenged the graduating seniors to take a good, hard look at who they were and where they were going with their lives. Then I asked for the personal privilege, acknowledging that there were those present with different religious commitments, to give a brief statement of my own spiritual odyssey involving my personal faith in Jesus Christ. I noted that I would be happy to sit at a future baccalaureate and hear representatives of other faiths declare, in a similar and straightforward fashion, their bottom-line commitments. I later heard through the grapevine that there was great displeasure among some with what I did. Historically, a baccalaureate has been an occasion to reflect on spiritual values. Several years later, our then minister of youth, Steve Murray, gave the baccalaureate address. He also honestly shared his own personal convictions, and there was a similar expression of displeasure on the part of some, as well as deep appreciation expressed on the part of others. Then, I was again asked to speak at the baccalaureate. This time, I was warned what I could say and couldn't say. And I was just as forceful in saying that, if I was to be there, I would have to at least be free to speak honestly of my own experience and not just in general pious platitudes. They finally agreed that I could. It's interesting now to note that, for almost twenty years, there have no longer been baccalaureate services in the Newport-Mesa School District. Succumbing to the relativistic culture of our time, it has done away with that occasion and has substituted for it a "senior reception."

The same thing has happened at City Hall. We pastors are asked to give invocations. But we are specifically told we cannot pray "in the name of Jesus Christ." I would not ask a Jew to pray in the name of Jesus Christ. I would not refuse the right of a Muslim to pray in the name of "Allah." To be told I cannot mention the name of my Lord and Savior is a violation of who I am and the bottom line of my faith.

II.

I defend the separation of church and state but not the establishment of the religion of relativism.

I would be the first one to resent someone forcing me to accept their religious beliefs simply because they were in the majority. What I believe today, though, is that we have allowed a new religion to emerge--the religion of relativism. That religion refuses to encourage the free expression of personal religious conviction and faith. There is a new sense of homogenized expression, where it is acceptable to tip one's hat to the divine but is increasingly unacceptable to give any specific definition to the divine. That becomes labeled as right-wing fundamentalism. Increasingly, those of us who hold to the truth once delivered to the saints are going to be pushed aside as providing a dissident, nuisance sound to a culture that would rather talk about values without answering the question "Whose values?" in a society that is unwilling to deal with the reality of divinely revealed truth.

So what has emerged in our culture? What has emerged is a society with three basic relativistic notions.

Notion 1: Do what the crowd does.

We want to be accepted. I want to be liked, don't you? So when I address a public gathering outside of this church, I will no longer mention my biblical faith and my God whose name is Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross? I want to be liked. So I will no longer pray in the name of Jesus Christ at a public gathering? I want to be a person acceptable in the media. Therefore, I will no longer specifically describe my personal faith in Jesus Christ?

Just imagine, if I face these issues at my age with decades of commitment to Jesus Christ, what young people face when they are prepared to stand up and declare their faith in Jesus Christ, when they want to say "no" to addictive substances, when they are trying to flesh out a sexual ethic that conforms to God's Word, which is smart, right and the best protection from all sexual disease, unwanted pregnancy and shattered dreams. Yet, it is so easy to do what the crowd does, isn't it?

Notion 2: Do what feels good.

You and I don't want to be viewed as psychologically inhibited and tied up in legalistic moralism. Plus, the temptation is such that we do have urges to do some things that are contrary to God's Word. Why not just go ahead and do what feels good? It's the easy way, isn't it? It takes a lot of guts to be a young person who knows what is right and wrong and to live by that standard, postponing immediate gratification for the ultimate good that comes. It's the same for us adults.

We intuitively know that God's way is best. Look how we treat people who have gone through life doing what feels good. What do we say at their memorial services when they die? Have you ever heard anyone stand up at a funeral and say, "The one thing I like about good old Joe is that he never missed an opportunity to have sex with an attractive woman. He cheated everyone he could in business. Good old Joe, you could never trust his word. He said whatever was convenient, and he did what he felt like doing, no matter what the cost!" No, even at good old Joe's funeral, someone will get up and try to figure out something good to say about him, if only it is that he was a good friend, fun to be with or was loyal to his alma mater. At the time of death, we really discover what goodness is, even if it has been neglected through life. We don't eulogize the person who did whatever he felt like doing, do we?

Notion 3: Do what you want to do, and do it now.

The relativist has no sense of the future. Relativists have no sense of where they came from, why they are here, or where they are going. How my heart breaks for any person--young, middle-aged or elderly--who is living strictly in the now. You can see their life as it unravels before them. Such potential, and yet one decision after another is made that cripples them in terms of their opportunity for the future. Fortunately, God is in the business of giving you opportunity. It is never too late to get right with Him and to experience the fullness of life that He promises. How pathetic it is to see what happens when a person simply does now what is most convenient and ends up having to live with the consequences.

I'm reminded of the story of Sherman McCoy, the primary character in Tom Wolfe's best-selling novel The Bonfire of the Vanities. McCoy was a bright, young Wall Street investment broker living on the fast track. Married to an attractive woman with a lovely daughter, we observe his behavioral patterns. He couldn't say "no" to his sexual urges and therefore involved himself in multiple adulteries. He couldn't say "no" to his greed. He earned more and more money and purchased more and more toys. He got himself in a jam, where he was ultimately accused of being in a hit-and-run accident. Instead of telling the truth from moment one that, yes, he was in the car accompanied by a woman with whom he was having an affair and that, no, he did not hit the young man and, in fact, was not even driving the car, he fabricated a story of multiple deceptions, saying what felt good, that which was expedient at the moment. Tom Wolfe described the social life of this man, his wife and their friends. It was a high-energy life in the most sophisticated of New York business and cultural society. It was a lifestyle so appealing, so seductive but one so opposed to the best advice I have ever been given.

III.

The best advice I have ever been given.

In contrast to this relativistic, do-whatever-feels-good approach of our day is an alternative way of doing business.

As a young man at age fourteen, I had to make some decisions. Already a believer in Jesus Christ, I had to decide whether or not this would simply be a faith that would provide provision for the life to come or whether it would be a faith that would stay by me in this life. Somewhere along the line, my thoughts were directed to the Book of Proverbs and two verses that I established as my life verses. They read, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

This is the best advice I have ever received. It has three parts to it. Very simply stated, if you want to live the most creative life you can possibly live, if you want to live the life you were designed by God to experience, whatever age you are, take seriously these three prescriptions.

First: Trust in God!

You are privileged to "Trust in the Lord with all your heart. . . ." You know what "with all your heart" means. You have said those words to yourself in other contexts. You have said, "I love her with all my heart." You have said, "I want to win that game with all my heart." You have said, "I want that new car with all my heart." You have said, "I want that promotion with all my heart."

Do you know what it is to trust the Lord with all your heart? It means to believe in Him. It means to commit yourself totally to Him. I am trusting that this platform is secure. I trust that chair will hold me up. I trust that everything I have is from the Creator God of the Universe whose name is Jesus Christ. I have committed myself to Him. I am going to trust Him all of the way. I am not going to be like a leaf blown around in the wind.

Have you every had anyone in this life in whom you could trust? I hope you have had parents worthy of your trust. That doesn't mean they're perfect, but that you could rely on them as being persons who would stand by you no matter what. Perhaps that was not the case. Then I hope you at least had a teacher or a coach along the way who saw promise in you, in whom you have been able to put your trust. I hope, if you're married, you have a spouse in whom you can put your trust. No spouse is perfect, but thank God for those who are trustworthy. Or for you, it may be a friend or two you've found to be reliable.

Take that person who is most trustworthy in your life and remember the security that came in that trust relationship. Now realize that the God of the Universe is much more trustworthy than that. He is all powerful. He is all knowing. He is all merciful. He is all righteous. He is never changing. We go right on down the list of those theological characteristics of God, which we read of in Scripture, which only begin to tap the nature of this Sovereign God.

This One is worthy of all trust. The most trustworthy of human beings will let you down. This God of the Universe is capable of walking through all of life with you. He is a friend. We are able to sing, "What a friend we have in Jesus!" Do treat Him as such, whether you are a teenager, college student, beginning a career, newly married, or whether you're at that transition point in middle life where you wonder about some of the decisions you have made. Trust Him. Cultivate your friendship with Him. Talk to Him in prayer. Bring your business problems to Him. Bring your personal struggles and your temptations to Him. Bring your doubts to Him. If you are coming toward those retirement years, trust Him to make those some of the best years of your life. And if you are beset by the maladies of old age, trust Him to see you through to death and beyond into His eternal presence in Heaven. You have the option of trusting the God of the Universe or trusting yourself and other human beings. Which will it be? Which is more worthy of trust?

Second: Rely on God!

The Bible says, ". . .and do not rely on your own insight. . . ."

Other translations state it in words like these, ". . .and lean not on your own understanding. . . ."

Are you aware that everyone leans on something? If you are not putting your trust on the Lord, you are relying on your insight. You are leaning on your own understanding.

One of the great privileges of life is education. I'd love to go back and do some of it all over again, freed from the romantic and economic realities that at times preoccupied my creative energies. What a privilege it is to have an education. Some of us have been able to go on to graduate and are involved in life-long education. There's one warning that needs to go along with this. If we're not careful, we can begin to rely on our own insight.

Knowledge is important. But you and I better understand that, if we lean on our own understanding--that information we've received of a human nature--rather than leaning on the Lord for guidance, we are in trouble. It is important to treat knowledge humbly. Talk to God about everything. Ask for His perspective. Allow the Bible to be an open book to you. He designed it to be the source of knowledge and understanding that will never let you down.

Remember, earning a PhD will not necessarily make you a happier person. In fact, the more you know, the more you know you don't know. I know some brilliant people who are very unhappy. A great education is no guarantee of happiness.

Being successful in business is no guarantee of happiness. There will be people who will define your success on the basis of how good a job you have and how much money you earn. Let me assure you that a good carpenter, a good auto repair person, a good plumber is every bit as important in God's economy as a good doctor, lawyer, real estate entrepreneur or pastor. It's just that we make an evaluation from a human perspective based on either financial income or prominence in the community. Be careful not to lean on your own understanding of what you think is successful, when God has a different set of criteria.

I remember Dennis Prager, the radio commentator, one time at a luncheon meeting saying that he couldn't wait for The Forbes 400 list to come out each year. He asked rhetorically, "Have you ever found a person on that list who is happy?" To make the millions and even billions of dollars to qualify for that list, you really have to work hard. You don't lounge around doing fun things all day and then work for an hour or two three or four days a week. Most of the people on that list have dedicated their life with a passion to their financial success. Imagine how you would feel if you finally made the list and you're number 388. The next year, you move up to 343, then the next year to slide back to 384. All the time, you're working just as hard. You have convinced yourself that, to be truly successful, you must be number one. So all the billions you have really don't mean that much, when you're looking at the 383 who have more than you have. You call it happiness? Financial success alone doesn't bring it.

I could give you story after story of men or women working in humble situations, both here and throughout the world, serving others, who are truly happy. That's why Mother Teresa topped the list for so many years as one of the most respected people in the world. She was perceived as being truly happy.

I've watched some of our workers in World Vision serving in the most destitute villages, working with the poorest of the poor, and seen true joy. I've seen persons, very successful in business, who do it with a servant heart and deploy tithes, the offerings, the first fruit of their money, their time and their gifts in the service of the Lord and, in the process, discover what it is to be truly alive.

On one occasion, I was a lecturer at the Haggai Institute in Singapore. There were sixty-one men and women from twenty-five different third world countries. They met there for one entire month to be trained in Christian leadership. These were doctors, lawyers, businessmen, political leaders and pastors from countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya and many others. These persons had come to a point in life where they were determined not to rely on their own insights. Highly successful in their areas of endeavor, they wanted to be persons who were prepared to follow God's call. They gave an entire month of their life, taking them away from their families and their work, to be trained from early morning until late at night in the things of God. And I've watched some of them in the last eighteen years reinvest themselves in the service of God and others, building their lives on biblical teaching and faithfulness to the Great Commission. They had learned how to use their money, their influence, their power to the glory of Jesus Christ. They had learned how to provide a higher quality of life for the persons in the communities where they were leaders, instead of just luxuriating in their own education and financial success.

What higher calling is there than to be God's person, saturated with His wisdom, not just our own human understanding and insight?

Third: Walk with God!

The Bible says, "In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."

Acknowledge Him in all your ways. That means to ask the question, "What would Jesus do? What would Jesus think?"

The Apostle Paul put it in this way, "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. . . ." (Philippians 2:5). What he is saying here is in all of your ways, bring them before the God of the Universe, allowing this God to guide you, to direct you in all your ways. He knows what is best. Life lived in relationship with Jesus Christ has a staying power.

The best advice I was ever given is capsuled in these two verses. That's right. Trust in God!

And now there is the promise that follows. ". . .And he will make straight your paths."

Much of our entertainment today is exploitive of our lower nature. Many a movie, television show or novel titillates us at the sensual level without showing the consequences of such activities. Every so often, there's a movie, there's a television show, or there's a novel that is true to life.

That's what I appreciated most about Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities. What I appreciate about Tom Wolfe and writers like him is that the consequences of one's actions are clearly elucidated. In so many of the movies and books on the market today, you just don't see life as it really is. We have airbrushed an antiseptic version of life, which assumes that you can do anything you want to and get by with it. Well, it just isn't that way. Sherman McCoy wasn't able to commit adultery without it catching up to him. He wasn't able to be a crass materialist without it catching up to him and his wife. He wasn't able to lie to the police, his friends and his wife without it catching up to him. Anyone who simply lives for the immediate, trusting in himself not in the Lord, leaning on his/her own understanding not God's understanding, doing his/her own thing, walking in his/her own way, will find that it finally catches up with him/her. It did with Sherman McCoy, and it does with the rest of us.

Look at it from the perspective of someone who is, let's say, eighty years old. The Devil has no happy old men or happy old women. The people who have lived through sin and have followed the Devil's way all of their lives, by the time they are that age, are miserable. They are disappointed. Life is a dismal flop. You check them out. They may have looked like they were having a great time earlier in life, but they, one by one, cut off their options for joy, for fullness of life, for wholeness, by taking the shortcuts. The person who has lived in allegiance to Jesus Christ, who has done the will of God, who has served the Lord and humbly endeavored to follow His way, by the time they come to those latter years of life, is a person whose life evidences the joy of right decisions. No, life hasn't been easy. In many ways, it has been more difficult. But that person is God's person, blessed by Him, as he has trusted Him, leaned upon Him and walked with Him.

I leave with you those three images that have riveted my thoughts this week. A Billy Graham, at age eighty-eight in the sunset years of life. A fifty-seven-year-old Joni Eareckson Tada, who for forty years has been confined in a quadriplegic body. A nameless college student, who early in life had come to know and trust Jesus Christ as Savior, who lies there dead at Virginia Tech with that cell phone ringing, clutched in that lifeless hand.

We're never promised an easy life, but we're promised a quality life. The best advice I've ever received equips me for anything and everything in this life and the life beyond. I challenge you to, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths."