Title: Trust In The Lord.
Text: (Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV) "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight."
Introduction: Trust is a lonely word in our culture.
--No longer can we shake hands and make a deal and be sure it will stand.
--Politicians make promises that we, most of the time, doubt seriously.
--Even when brides and grooms say, “I do,” they don’t.
--People will say, “Oh, yea, I’ll be there,” and are late, or never show, and then don’t call.
--Children are told, “I’ll play with you,” only to have their hopes dashed be another event.
**It’s no wonder we have a problem with trust in our society.
**Trusting people has always been somewhat a problem, but with God it should be different.
**Do you ever think the lack of trust in God would ever show up among the Lord’s people?
**How many of us tonight trust in the Lord?
**You may ask, “What a question?!” Sure I trust in the Lord.
‒ This is the same God who spoke the world into existence.
‒ This is the same God who opened the Red Sea and closed it at His will.
‒ This is the same God who spoke and the first-born of all of Egypt died.
‒ This is the same God who caused the rains come and the fountains of the ocean break up in order to destroy the whole earth.
‒ This is the same God who caused the sun not to set for three days.
**Those statements and others about our God are all true, BUT, listen to God’s children, the Israelites. The following statements were made.
**They get to the Red Sea after witnessing the plagues on Egypt and immediately forgot the power of God.
(Exodus 14:11-12 NIV) "They said to Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ’Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!""
--Listen to them, after seeing so many miracles of God, murmur about not having meat.
(Numbers 11:4-6 NIV) "The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! 5 We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost--also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. 6 But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!""
**What’s the point? The truth is;
‒ Though we might have seen the miracles in which we believe,
‒ Even if we had seen with our eyes the resurrection.
-- We still have a hard time trusting God.
**Through faith and trust we HAVE seen these things, yet so many times we fail to see God.
**Tonight we will see good consequences of trusting God and bad from bad.
**What are some things trust causes in our lives.
1. True trust in God means trusting in the POWER OF GOD.
A. How big is the God of the Universe? Sometimes we try to limit Him.
‒ Because of other religions and their distorted view that God is working in ways He no longer works, we allow them to take away our faith in a powerful God.
‒ This is one reason Jesus said, “You must become like little children.”
‒ Children do not discount the power of God. They see a God who can do anything.
‒ And we, as God’s children, need also not to discount His power.
B. Believing in a powerful God causes us to pray with conviction.
- James says, "You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." (James 4:2-3 NIV)
- Jesus said, "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."" (Matthew 21:22 NIV)
- Jesus also said "I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."" (Matthew 17:20)
- These verses not only teach us to pray, but to pray and expect God to work.
2. True trust means trusting a GOD YOU CANNOT SEE with your own eyes.
A. How many of you here tonight have seen God literally? NOT ONE, Then WHY ARE YOU HERE?
- If you were not made to come, or are mentally unstable, you are here because of one little five letter word--FAITH.
B. Listen to the NIV rendering of Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."
- Science tells us to believe only the things we can sense. Only things that can be measured.
- How many of us have seen our brain? And even if you could see your brain, how many have seen their mind?
- People in our world who say that it is ignorant to live by faith have forgotten that we all live by faith in something.
- We go to mechanics who say the alternator needs changing, we believe.
- We go to doctor Sockwell he says what we have and we believe.
3. Trusting God means trusting THE FORGIVENESS OF GOD.
A. Forgiveness is one of those things that is so hard to grasp. Let me help us see God’s forgiveness somewhat clearer from scripture.
- (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
- God wants us to trust our in Him for our forgiveness.
- (1 John 2:1-2) "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
- God has provided for our forgiveness.
- (2 Corinthians 5:21) "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God."
- Forgiveness is not fair, but is true. Sinless pays for the sinner.
- (2 Peter 3:9) "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."
- After reading these things about God’s love in forgiveness, it’s no wonder that the scripture says that God is patient.
- (1 John 5:13) "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life."
- God wants us to know about our salvation.
**These are some of the most exciting verses in all of scripture.
‒ It is one of the greatest downfalls in our brotherhood that people (GOD’S CHOSEN, THOSE FOR WHOM HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON, THOSE WHO HE MADE TO BE RIGHTEOUS) look God in the eye and say, I just don’t know if God will save me. I guess we will just have to wait for the verdict.
- We are not putting our lives in the hands of a jury.
- There will be no defense lawyer on our behalf. Jesus is my defense.
- The judge will not have to know which evidence to allow or disallow. God is the righteous, all-knowing, all powerful, judge.
‒ The bottom line is that we know right now, based on our faith in God and His promises, based upon the slain Son of God and our acceptance of Him, not based on how good I am, or how much righteousness I’ve built up on my side, whether or not we are in the Lord and whether or not we are going to be with God one day in heaven.
‒ Brethren, it is a slap in the face of God for us to tell Him that we just don’t know if we will be saved or not. And it is one of the greatest reasons for the downfall of man and one of the greatest evidences that we really don’t trust God to save us.
WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN WE START REALLY TRUSTING GOD?
1. A life dedicated to prayer. No matter the situation.
2. A life committed to believing in the forgiveness of God. No matter the sin. Once we are in Christ, His blood cleanses the person walking in the light CONTINUALLY.
3. A life trusting in the promises of God. No matter how bad things might seem.
Conclusion: What kind of trust should we have in God?
‒ If God says jump, we ought to trust Him to catch us.
‒ If God says, be here when I call, we ought to be there.
‒ If God says, Your forgiven.” Trust Him.
‒ If God says, “Don’t forsake the assembling together....” Be here.
‒ Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commmands.”
I leave you with a promise from Jesus Himself.
–“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I and prepare a place for you I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."
**Are you ready? Do you trust God tonight?
