In God we trust? 7/25/2005
Proverbs 3:5-6
I have a riddle for you. What words do we share on a daily basis without even opening our mouths? In God we trust. Those are the words that you will find in all of our current currency.
Our money may have it stamped on it, but do our hearts? It is one thing to say we trust God and then it is another thing to actually trust Him.
A man was out jogging one day and as he passed a cliff, he got too close and fell. Grabbing hold of a branch he was stranded. No way up and certainly no way down. He began to scream, “Help, help, is there anyone up there who can hear me.” He yelled for hours and was about to give up when he heard a voice.
“Can you hear me?”
“Yes, Yes, I can hear you I’m down here.”
“I can see you, are you alright?”
“Yes, but...who are yo and where are you?”
“I am the Lord, I am everywhere.”
“The Lord? You mean God?”
“That’s me.”
“God, help me, I promise that if you get me down from here, I’ll stop sinning. I’ll be a really good person and serve you for the rest of my life.”
“Easy on the promises. First let’s get you down, then we can discuss those.”
“I’ll do anything, Lord, just tell me what to do, okay?”
“Okay, let go of the branch.”
“What?”
“I said, let go of the branch. Just trust me, let go.”
PAUSE
“Help, Help, is there anybody else up there?”
I can give you a lot of reasons why we should trust God. But our text hits the nail on the head. King Solomon tells us the main reason why we should trust God is when we trust God, He guides us. Our part is to do the trusting and His part is to do the guiding. When you trust in God it will make a huge difference in your life. So this morning let me give you three things that will help us to put our trust in God.
We need to be Confident in Gods Care (Vs.5)
Trust here in the Hebrew means to put all of your weight. An example would be like when you go to bed tonight, you lie down trusting that the bed will fully support your weight. Kids will run and jump into bed, and then when you get my age you just fall into bed, but either way you don’t give it a second thought. You don’t keep one foot on the floor so that you can get up if the bed won’t support you. You put all of your weight on the bed.
When you put your trust in God, you put all your weight on Him. And that is why God says in our text, “with all your heart”. You either give Him all your trust or none at all. Half hearted trust is like wholehearted doubt. But did you ever ask yourself why you don’t give God your complete trust? Ask yourself, has He ever given you a reason not to trust Him.
I think about as a parent raising a child, especially a teenager. You want to trust them but if they give you any reason not to, like you catch them lying to you or something. Then it makes it hard to trust them. But God never has or will never let you down. He has never forsaken you or misleads you. So we should be confident that He is only after our best interest (Even though you might not understand His will) and we should be able to give Him our full trust.
That is why the verse finishes with, “And lean not on your own understanding”. If you put what you think ahead of what God thinks then you will be living in the darkness and not in the light. So you have to ask yourself, am I going to trust God or am I going to lean on my own understanding.
Think about instances we read about in the Bible. When a little boy named David was getting ready to go up and fight someone who was 9’9” tall. He can dunk a basketball and never even jump. So King Saul went and brings his own armor and puts on David and Saul was a full-grown man and David says, “Look Saul, I can’t even walk in this”. So I’m sure that Saul was thinking let me see if I can find one your size. But David said no I don’t need them. I trust in the God who killed the lion and the bear to protect me more than I do your fancy armor.
So David when out and chose five smooth stones and he took his sling to go out and face this giant and he took one stone and stuck him in the forehead and killed him. Now that was not under nobody’s understanding, just David trusting in God.
You have Noah building a boat in the middle of the desert without a drop of water in site. And can you imagine how the neighborhood mocked him for 40 years? Nobody understood what he was doing, not even his family, and not even Noah. He simply trusted in God and did what God had given him to do. And because of his trust, he and his family were saved from the flood.
Can you imagine the thoughts of Joshua’s army when the battle plan to destroy Jericho was to simply march around the city and blow horns? I can imagine by the third day of doing this, many probably thought that Joshua had been out in the sun to long because of their own understanding. But on that seventh day they marched around that city and blew their horns and then he gave the command to shout and the city fell inward and the city was theirs. Joshua didn’t understand but simply trusted in God.
And that is what King Solomon, the wisest person to ever live, is telling us to do. Trust in God, don’t lean on what you think is best. Just obey Him and do as He says. There might be times in our lives that don’t make sense and we don’t understand but we must simple trust God.
Not only should will we be confident in God’s care but also we need to be…
Committed to God’s purpose (Vs.6)
This is more than reading your Bible and praying.
I heard about a little boy who had an older brother who got a new bike. The little brother was intrigued as to how he had gotten this new bike. The older brother told him that he had prayed for it and God gave it to him. He then told the younger brother if he wanted a new bike then he should try to do the same. The little boy walked away and then came back and told his bigger brother that sense he was so good at this; he should give him his new bike then pray for him to get another.
This Hebrew word for acknowledges means to see Him. So in everything we need to look for His guidance. Whether it is going to vacation or our vocation. Whether it is when we are praying on playing. Acknowledge Him. Always keep God in mind. Always means in your marriage and your family. Always means see Him in your recreation and your vocation. Always means see Him in your finances. Always means from the time you get out of bed, all through the day, you look for God. What would He want you to do? How would He handle it?
How would our lives be changed if we would see what He wants in all aspects in life?
Sometimes we get confused about bringing the little things to God. We think that He only wants to be bothered in the big decisions in life.
I heard about a lady who went to her pastor and asked him if he thought that God would want to be involved in the little things in her life. The pastor replied, do you really think that God thinks that anything you go through is big to Him?
Here is what God want us to do. He wants us to sign a blank contract and then let Him fill in the blanks. No one would sign a blank contract, we might not always understand the contract but we act like we do and at least read it. But God says you trust in me and give me your life then I will fill in the blanks.
Then we need to be…
Controlled by God’s will (Vs.6)
You do your part, by bringing things to Him, and He will do His, which is directing your path. This is a conditional promise. He will not force us to make the right decisions. He created us with free will. We bring it do Him, and then He will in His own time, not ours, direct us.
But how many people mess up their lives but making their own decisions. This happens a lot when it comes to selecting our spouses. We think we are in love and we never consult God as if He thinks they are the person we need to marry. You know how I know this. The Bible is very plain when it comes to the marrying of a believer and a nonbeliever. But yet they feel like that is the one that God wants them to merry so they go ahead and then they make a mess of their lives and their kids lives and wonder why.
Psalm 32:8-10, I will instruct you and reach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. Do not be like the horse on like the mule, Which have no understanding, Which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, Else they will not come near you. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked; but he who trust in the Lord, mercy shall surround him.
Have you ever seen the bumper stickers that say, “God is my co-pilot”? That might be intended to be good, but God does not want to be your co-pilot; He doesn’t want to co-pilot anything. He wants to be your pilot. Now He may give you a seat in the first class but He wants total control of your life.
You see you are in one of three levels. Level 1 is I do what I want to do. I don’t care who it effects or what the circumstances surrounding it. Level 2 is I do what I think I ought to do. And this is the level that most Christians are at. But the 3rd level is the one we should all strive to be at. That is the level that say I will do what He leads me to do.
So how do I know what He is leading me to do?
a. His word, the Bible. He will show us through His word. 95% of Gods will can be found in His word. God’s direction will never be contrary to His instruction found in His word. That is why when someone comes to me and says that they feel like the Lord wants them to divorce their spouse. Can’t be because His word says that He hates divorce. But you have to read His word to be able to understand His will.
b. Though Godly people. Sometimes I preach a sermon that I feel that God is leading me to. And as all preachers, we have some sermons that we enjoy preaching and then we have some sermons that we don’t understand or enjoy preaching them but we feel like God is leading us to. Every time I have one of those sermons, it never fails; someone comes up to me and says that sermon was for me. I needed to hear that.
c. Then sometimes God will just open and close doors. The Hebrew word for direct found here means like cutting a highway or clearing a path. He says I’m going to clear all the doors for you. I’ll be the fullback and create the path and you can be the tailback and just follow me. I am not just going to lead you; I am going to clear the way for you.
One of the most dangerous jobs as pertaining to fatality rates in WWII was being a pilot on an aircraft carrier. The problem was trying to land on this short little airstrip that was traveling away from you. Sometimes there would be waves that would cause the ship to rise and fall up to 15 feet, not to mention the side-by-side waves. And on the tail end of the plane was a tail hook that was to catch a little wire that was stretched across the ship to make it stop. And if you didn’t catch that wire then you was in for a long day if you know what I mean.
So the key to land on this aircraft carrier was to have total confidence in your landing officer who would wave these things that looked like tennis rackets on the ship to guide you safety aboard. He was called the L.S.O. If the LSO would tell you to pull up you was coming in to low then you would pull up. If you were coming in to fast, he would slow you down. And when you came close if you were not right he would wave you off to fly around and try again. But if you were ok then he would give the sign to cut off and that meant that you were not to touch anything again till the plane hit the ship.
This was not like it is today. They did not have the instrumentation that we have today. In fact they put heart monitors on the pilots and they found out that their heart rate was higher while landing then it was in combat. So you had to have complete trust in your LSO.
And each day when you take off the USS God, you will fly though some battles and some storms. And when you keep your eyes on God, your LSO then He will guide you safely home.
