a. As I watched the headlines last week of a school being destroyed by a tornado, and numerous communities having been flattened, church building wrecked and countless homes ruined, the Lord took me to a place in my heart that said, “what would you say to your church if that was your community?”
i. I had to ask myself the question, “what if that was my house?” How would I respond? With anger, bitterness, or gratitude for having survived? How about my church family, how would they respond?
1. Hardly a day goes by that there is not some tragedy or natural disaster or terrorist attack.
2. It doesn’t seem as if we can escape the possibility of tragedy in our lives.
3. How will we prepare for such a time as that?
4. Will we as Christians turn outward, (to care for others), instead of inward (caring only for ourselves), in that eventuality?
5. Will we turn toward God or away from Him when terrible things happen?
6. Folks, we need to stop living as if it will never happen to us, but rather recognize that it is not if but when that trouble will strike our lives.
7. We all live as if things will always be okay, but my experience has taught me that we all go through seasons of trouble.
a. I think you will agree with me that life is never normal for very long.
b. I am beginning a sermon series about “living a life of trust in God in times of uncertainty.” Today I will introduce the subject and build on it week after week. I urge you to practice what you hear today and during this series.
Psalm 31
1 In you, O LORD , I have taken refuge; let me never be put to shame; deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
3 Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me.
4 Free me from the trap that is set for me, for you are my refuge.
Verse 1: IN YOU, O Lord, I have taken refuge.
i. A refuge is a place we turn to for shelter from danger, something we trust to protect us. A source of relief, help or assistance. The Psalmist says IN GOD he has taken refuge.
ii. A refugee is the one who is running from danger and seeking safety somewhere else.
iii. You may be a refugee this morning. Seeking RELIEF from the circumstances and pressures of your life.
iv. Is your life in chaos? Has sickness, finances, relational troubles, or job woes burdened you down? Do you feel beyond beaten down and maybe crushed as well?
v. There is a refuge! He is the Lord! The Psalmist describes it in v2
Verse 2: BE my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.
i. He cries out for God to be his refuge. He asks God to be his refuge in the midst of his troubles.
1. Folks, this is what God wants more than you or I can ever know.
2. God isn’t interested in giving you stuff, He is more interested in being the One in whom you find solace, comfort, relief. He desires to be the One in whom you take refuge, the One whom you run to when you are in trouble, the One in whom you can trust.
ii. We take refuge in a cave, a house, a fortress, because we believe it is where we will be safe.
iii. In times of trouble or during a tornado warning, you take refuge in the safest place you know of. You look for an impregnable fortress. It is little wonder that in Oklahoma, tornado shelters aren’t built above ground. There is really no building made that can withstand the forces of an F5 tornado. So they all retreat into safety below ground while the storm passes overhead.
Verse 3: Since you are my rock and my fortress…for the sake of your name, lead me and guide me
Did you see the subtle change in wording? The psalmist moves from asking God to BE his rock and fortress, to now declaring Him to BE his fortress (since you are) and then appeals to the “sake of His Name.”
1. In the very act of ASKING God to BE his fortress, his faith is strengthened to the point of believing God to be His rock and fortress. This is what happens when we cry out to God.
2. He also makes a fascinating appeal to the character of God with the words “for the sake of your name, lead me and guide me”
3. God’s name represents His reputation.
4. This is an appeal found 6 other times in the bible.
1. When one appeals to God’s name, you are appealing not only to who He is, but to His very nature and character.
2. When we pray in Jesus Name, it is not a “magic formula” to sign off a prayer with.
3. When we pray in Jesus Name we are DECLARING that it is through the righteousness of Christ we are asking for what we are. We are declaring that what we are asking for in prayer is on account of Jesus and in line with what Jesus Himself is asking for at the Father’s right hand.
5. Why do you protect your reputation?
1. Because it is what goes before you. It describes who you are and what you do. If it is impugned or maligned, you are duty bound to correct it, lest others be kept from associating with you.
2. God is all the more concerned with His reputation. He vigorously protects His reputation, His Name, because He wants no barriers for people to come to know Him. His character is at the root of His name.
3. When we trust God, what we are doing is trusting that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do.
c. His declaration is a statement of faith, but faith can mean many things to different people.
i. It means positive thinking for some people.
ii. To others it means denial of evidence to the contrary of what one chooses to believe.
iii. To some it means to believe something enough to act on it.
iv. And others, faith means to cling tenaciously to something hoped for.
d. Faith (and its partner trust) have to do more with the character of the one whose care they place themselves into than about believing you will get the result desired. (see what we have been talking about with God’s name and reputation and character?)
i. Let me illustrate: If you go to the doctor and he says he must operate to save your life (or that life of a loved one) from a cancerous tumor, at some point you will have to evaluate if this is the doctor and hands you want to put your life into.
1. You will want to know that this doctor has the professional training and experience to do your surgery. You will want to know if he has ever done this before. You will want to know what the outcomes were of the previous surgeries he has performed. You will want to consider any malpractice suits he might have had filed against him.
2. In other words, you will want to know whether or not you can trust this doctor.
3. Putting your life into his hands is more about his CHARACTER than it is about his promises or prognosis of a cure.
ii. When you place your faith in God, it is about God not about your result.
1. We don’t need great faith in God, but faith in a Great God.
2. When
iii. In fact, the word "trust" (according to the Webster’s Dictionary) means, "to put in the care of another
1. v14 But I trust in you, O LORD ; I say, "You are my God."
2. What our Psalmist was doing in declaring that God was his refuge, and in Him he trusts, he is essentially placing himself in the care of God.
3. His trust is being placed in the most TRUSTWORTHY Being that exists.
4. This is why Faith is only as good as the object in which it is placed.
a. If I believe a home is safe from a tornado but it isn’t, then my faith is useless. My faith will not protect me any more than the quality of the structure that it is being placed in.
b. We need a reliable, trustworthy source to place our faith and trust, otherwise our faith is a vain exercise.
c. In the upcoming weeks we will look at the unreliable things we put our trust in, BECAUSE…
d. Faith that is exercised in something useless will result in disappointment.
2. TRUST IS A LEARNED BEHAVIOR
a. Do you know why a baby cries when its mother places it in the arms of another for child care? It hasn’t learned to trust the “other” like it has its own mother!
b. Trust is something that we must learn through a RELATIONSHIP.
i. Whether we learn to trust a person or we learn to trust God, it is done in the context of relationship.
ii. Jennifer is one of the most trustworthy people I know; I trust her with my life. Imagine she is in a long line at the bank. The individual behind her is holding $1,000 cash with a completed deposit ticket. This person is obviously anxious and in a hurry, so Jennifer politely offers to help; “if you are just depositing your money I could take care of it for you.” What do you think the odds are for a complete stranger to hand over $1,000 and then go on with their day without giving a second thought to their money?
1. Yet is Jennifer any less trustworthy if the individual refuses to give her his/her money to deposit? No, the person just has not learned to trust Jennifer.
2. The person doesn’t have the relationship I have with her, that person doesn’t know her like I do.
iii. It is the same with God.
1. Just because you haven’t learned to trust God doesn’t mean God is untrustworthy.
2. It simply means that you haven’t learned, in the context of a relationship with Him, to trust Him for all He is capable of doing on your behalf.
3. You simply have not yet learned of God’s character.
b. Trust develops best in an environment of love.
i. The nation of Israel had to learn to trust God.
1. These are the people who called out to God for deliverance from the land of Egypt; “Oh God save us!”
2. God responded to the cry of the people and sent them a deliverer named Moses (maybe you’ve heard of him?). After 10 plagues upon the Egyptians the nation of Israel is finally given their freedom.
3. Just a few days after leaving Egypt these people find themselves trapped. With their backs up against the Red Sea they see Pharaoh and an army of chariots coming to take them back into captivity.
4. Does anyone remember what happened next?
5. Yes, God opened a way for the people through the Sea and then swept Pharaoh’s army of chariots under the waves as the Sea came crashing down upon them.
ii. The result of this loving relationship is described in Exodus 14:31 And when the Israelites saw the great power the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant. (NIV)
1. The people learned to trust God. They began to understand the nature and character of God. God began to develop a relationship with them.
iii. After everything they had been through they finally came to the point where they had confidence in God.
1. Unfortunately this same group of people later forgot the lesson they had learned. When they came to the promised land they did not trust God to give them the land. Instead they believed the “giants in the land would squash them like bugs.”
2. How often are we just like the nation of Israel? We put our trust in God today, only to later think God has abandoned us to figure things out for ourselves.
3. Am I the only one or do you have times when it’s hard to trust God?
a. When life gets tough and circumstances seem out of control, when the waves of life are crashing in upon us and the light of day gives way to darkness do we still trust God?
V 24 Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD .
1. Take heart! Take Courage! Don’t give up! You can trust God to get you to the end of this!
2. At the root of this passage is the concept of trust. Not just “faith” but trust.
3. There are times when we need to just get away. Take a break from the pressures of life and enter the refuge of God.
4. Take fifteen minutes in the morning before you start your day or in the evening to unwind. But don’t do it in front of the TV. Do it in the quietness of solitude before God your refuge
3. Closing Summary.
a. Who do we trust in our lives?
i. Do you trust your spouse, your boss, your family members, your best friend?
ii. How do we judge someone or something to trust it?
iii. SPEAK SLOWLY: Do we judge it by it never failing us, by it always being there when we need it or do we have lesser qualifications for trust?
iv. Today we place our trust in many different things.
1. We place our trust in the government to protect us, to take care of us in our old age or in a time of need, to watch out for us.
2. We place trust in the Medical profession to take care of medical problems. We trust what they say.
3. We place our trust in the Media to report the truth, to tell us the real story.
4. But many of us never place our full trust in Jesus Christ
5. People trust that their dogs want bite them but we can’t trust God to take care of us, or to answer our prayers.
v. The reason why is because we don’t know what God means when He says trust me. We don’t know what the word means. Let me illustrate a life and death picture of what trust is about:
4. Illus: Imagine a ship filled with people crossing the Atlantic. In the middle of the ocean the captain announces that the ship is sinking and that everyone must leave the big, towering ship and get into the little lifeboats being lowered over the sides of the boat into the swelling ocean.
a. One person doesn’t believe the Captain that the ship is sinking, “it doesn’t look like it is” so he stays on board.
i. Will he be saved when the ship sinks? Why Not?
b. Another person doesn’t hear the call to abandon ship. He stays on board.
i. Will he be saved when the ship sinks? Why Not?
c. Another looks at the little boats and thinks, “that will never protect me from this ocean, I’m staying on this big thing, it seems safer.”
i. Will his faith in the ship save him? Why Not?
d. Suppose another man knows about the lifeboat and believes it will save his life, but his handicapped wife can’t get into the boat so he chooses not to get aboard.
i. Will his love for his wife save him? Why Not?
e. Others believe the captain, so they get into the boats.
i. They are saved by faith. However, it is not really their faith that saves them—no matter how much they have.
ii. It is the boat that saves them, their faith, their trust in it and what the captain has told them has simply been the vehicle that has caused them to get into the lifeboats.
f. Saving faith trusts Christ, and Christ saves.
5. This morning God is saying to us, “trust me enough to step off of the big ship of your self-run life.”
a. You don’t feel like it is sinking (yet). But it is.
b. Christ died so that you can be saved from the sinking ship of this life. You may not believe it is sinking, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is. You may not think that Christ can save you, but He can. He alone can make the difference. Will you trust Him today?
