I want to begin this sermon by reminding you of a very well-known passage from Proverbs and one that contains a vitally important truth for all disciples of the Lord. We are given the promise that the Lord will direct our paths if we trust in Him.
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Jeremiah 17:7 says that the one who trusts in the Lord and places their confidence in Him, will be blessed. In 1 Chronicles 5:20 we are told that God answers the prayers of those who trust in Him. In Romans 15:13 Paul implies that God will fill us with joy and peace and that we will overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit if we trust in Him. In fact, if you do a word study on trust in the Bible you will find hundreds of references from Genesis to Revelation. The issue of trust lies at the heart of our relationship with God.
In our journey down the discipleship road in this series, I believe the trust test is one of the most crucial and, like many of the tests we face, it is a daily challenge. Without question, we are called upon every single day to trust God in some way. In whom or in what do we place our trust each day as decisions are made; as issues are faced; as circumstances, good and bad, come our way? If we are honest and brave enough to evaluate where our trust lies, we may be found wanting some days.
I believe at the heart of many issues that face us as disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, is this issue of trust. The writer of Proverbs says we are to trust in the Lord with all our heart, which means with our whole being we are to trust Him and not to lean on our own human understanding. But how many times each day do we face issues, people and circumstances and apply our own understanding and wisdom? How often do we turn to God first; and how many times is He pushed aside, only to be called upon when we can’t work it out ourselves?
The Bible is full of warnings against trusting in anything but the Lord. In our affluent society, one of the things we can place our trust in without even knowing it, is our riches and wealth and our material possessions. If our trust in those things comes above our trust in the Lord – we are in trouble. You will recall the famous words in Psalm 20:7 which have been put to song more than once: “Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we will trust in the name of the Lord our God.”
Psalm 49:6 speaks against those who trust in their wealth and boast in their riches. Psalm 52:7 talks of the sad plight of the man who did not trust in God but rather in his wealth. There is a strong warning in Psalm 62:10 where it says that even though our riches may increase, we are not to trust in them. Proverbs 11:28 is even more direct when it says whoever trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
Now I am sure that we all know we are not to place our trust in riches, wealth or material possessions or those things made by the hand of man. We know it in theory, but what happens when those things disappear? It’s easy to say we don’t trust in wealth if we are wealthy. It’s easy to say that we don’t trust in material possessions we are blessed with so many. How do we stack up when they are gone?
The Bible also warns us against trusting in man. At times this becomes even harder because we have a great deal of respect for those around us and those in authority and even those we love and who are close to us. But we are warned that our ultimate trust must still be in the Lord. He is the only One we can be sure of in the final analysis. He is the only One Who cannot fail us and will never leave us. His love is unconditional and unfailing.
Psalm 9:10 says, “Those who know Your name will trust in You for You O Lord have never forsaken those who seek You.” Psalm 13:5, “I trust in your unfailing love and I rejoice in your salvation.” Psalm 40:4, “Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud or to those who turn aside to false gods.”
There are so many Bible references which compare man to God. Some of them are hard to swallow because we find it easier trust someone with skin on; someone who is there in front of us each day. It takes faith and trust and courage to trust in an unseen God. But God is the only One Who has the power over every person, every problem and every circumstance. How often have we placed our trust in human beings only to discover they are powerless to help?
Psalm 118:8 is crystal clear when it says it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. Proverbs 29:25 tells us that the trust of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord will be kept safe. Isaiah 2:22 says we should stop trusting in man who has but a breath in his nostrils, of what account is he? Put your trust in the Lord. Jeremiah 17:5 is even more pointed when it says: “Cursed is the one who trusts in man and who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord.” The strong inference here is that we have a choice between trusting man and trusting God. Now this doesn’t mean for one moment that we immediately become suspicious of everyone around us. Trust in the kingdom of God is essential. We must continue to give our trust to those around us – even when they betray it. That is the way of the Kingdom. What I am talking about here is the underlying and undergirding trust that we must have in God alone, above and beyond any trust we have in human beings.
In other words, our trust in another person must never come above our trust in God. Where does our highest allegiance lie? Is God the One to Whom we ultimately turn? A good example of this is found in Acts 14:23 where Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in each Church. It says they appointed these men with prayer and fasting, committing them to the Lord in Whom they had put their trust. There is no doubt that these new elders had the trust of Paul and Barnabas or they would not have been appointed. However, underlying that trust was Paul and Barnabas’ trust in God. Regardless of the qualities and integrity of these men, they were still sinful, fallible humans who had the ability to fail and disobey and even turn on those who appointed them. Paul and Barnabas had to trust God more than they trusted these men. Only then could they make this appointment with peace in their heart knowing that God had it all in hand.
This is a very important concept for us to grasp. Our ultimate trust in any human relationship must still be in the Lord. This applies to the appointment of Church leaders, the selection of our friends and even our marriage partners! In those decisions we make regarding who will lead us or who we will be friends with or who we will marry, if we don’t trust God more than we trust those people or even ourselves, then we are in trouble. Even more pointed than trusting in man generally, we are warned against trusting in ourselves. Psalm 49:13 warns us against trusting in ourselves and that includes trusting in our abilities and gifts and talents and the work that we do for God.
Speaking of Abraham and his faith, in Romans 4:4,5, Paul says: “When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work (in the power of the flesh) but trusts God who justifies even the wicked . . his faith is credited to him as righteousness.”
How often do you and I race off ahead of God without prayer, in our own strength, with own abilities, without His wisdom or guidance – only to find ourselves on the wrong path? It is true that God has blessed us with abilities, gifts, talents and experience, and we are to use those for His glory. However, we need to make sure that those things are used in a prayerful, careful, Spirit-directed manner. If we stop trusting the giver of the gifts and start to trust the gifts themselves, we are in trouble. If we stop trusting the One Who gave us our abilities and wisdom and start trusting in our abilities and wisdom alone, we are in trouble. We must trust in Him and in Him alone. Our trust should never be in God’s creation, including ourselves, including our own wisdom and knowledge and experience and gifts; our trust should always be in the One Who created all and sustains all by the power of His Word.
OK Let’s put some meat on these bones and ask ourselves some pointed questions about trust.
In whom do we place our trust when circumstances change and our wealth or riches or possessions are taken away or lost?
In whom do you place your trust when you find yourself in a marriage that is less than perfect?
In whom do you trust when people oppose you or come against you?
In whom do you trust when the people who oppose you or come against you are friends or family?
In whom do you trust when you find yourself in disagreement with the boss at work, the lecturer at college, the teacher at school or even your own parents or adult children?
In whom do you trust when you find yourself in disagreement with your Pastor or Church leaders?
I could go on for a long time with examples. Our lives are full of them. The bottom-line question is this: how big is the God you trust?
Is He bigger than the tragedies of life that strike us? Ask Job.
Is He bigger than those who oppose us and attack us? Ask Stephen before he was stoned to death.
Is He bigger than our wealth and our possessions and those things this world offers us? Ask Job again.
Is He bigger than the pain our betrayal? Ask Jesus.
Is He bigger than the most oppressive leader? Ask David.
How big is your God? How powerful is your God? How much do you really trust Him in every area of your life? I know we are all fail in this area and I believe that we need to face the fact that what lies at the very heart of our lack of trust in God is the sin of unbelief. The mother and father of all sins – unbelief. We don’t trust God because we really don’t believe He is who He says He is and that He can do what He says He can do. If we really believed that – we would find it easy to trust Him.
Hebrews 3:12-19 “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.”
Romans 4:18-22 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead – since he was about a hundred years old – and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why “it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Belief lies at the heart of our faith. The world says, “Show me the evidence and I will believe.” Faith says, “I will choose to believe and then I will see the evidence.” On this discipleship road, we must learn to trust God more than we trust ourselves, our friends, our experience, our money. Everything else must fall in behind our trust in God. That kind of trust is only possible when we believe that God is able to do all that He said He would do.
– He will keep us safe.
– He will provide for our every need.
– He will vindicate us against our enemies in His way in His time.
– He will fulfil His plan and purpose through us and build a Church that He promised to build.
God will fulfil every last promise He has made to us, we just need to trust Him and not let any circumstance or any person get in the way of that total trust and confidence in Him. He knows how hard it is some days. Jesus has been there. Alone, cold, battered and friendless, He climbed Calvary’s hill and was tortured to death. He had to trust the Father to raise Him. The resurrection was essential if God’s plan of salvation was to be fulfilled for us. Jesus died, trusting the Father to raise Him in three days. He had no guarantee – other than His trust in the Father. Jesus knows how hard it is to trust in an unseen God when everything around you tells you not to. He can identify with us at every point in this journey, and He will empower us to trust the Father like He did. His spirit will give us that ability, each and every day.
Many years ago a famous tightrope walker set up a cable across Niagara Falls and amazed crowds as he walked back and forth across the roaring waters. The people cheered as he performed daring tricks – walking blindfolded, carrying a sack of potatoes, and even pushing a wheelbarrow across. Then, he turned to the large crowd and asked, “Do you believe I can push a person across in this wheelbarrow?” The people all enthusiastically shouted back, “Yes! We believe!” Then he pointed to one man in the front and said, “Great! Hop in.” The man froze. He had believed with his words, but when it came to actually trusting the tightrope walker, fear held him back.
This is often how we are with God. We say we trust Him, we sing songs about faith, but when He asks us to fully surrender – whether it’s with our future, our finances, or our fears – we hesitate. Genuine trust isn’t just believing that God can take care of us; trust isn’t just believing His Word, it’s being willing to step into the wheelbarrow and let Him lead.
Isaiah 26:3-4 “You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord himself, is the Rock eternal.”
Will we simply say we trust God, or will we truly place our whole lives in His hands?