Trust in the Lord!

“The Bible Top 40”

Trust in the Lord!

Proverbs 3:5&6

Who do you trust?

Do you trust your government?

This week in Wisconsin we have three legislative leaders bound over for trial on felony charges of misuse of office. These three republicans follow the indictment of the Democratic Senate leader, who was charged last fall with extortion and policy selling.

On the National level, things seem to be pretty stable at the moment, but there have been plenty of examples of scandal and abuse on a national scale, haven’t there?

Do you trust Corporate America?

Bankruptcy, fraud and theft seem to be the hallmarks of business these days. Companies have lied to their stock holders, inflating the value of the stock, then sold off their shares, pocketing millions while the worker and the public are left penniless.

Do you trust your local police?

In Florida, eleven police officers are on trial for conspiracy in four shootings where they planted weapons on victims they had killed, and then backed each other’s stories to prevent discipline. It only came to light when two of the officers agreed to testify against their partners.

Do you trust the internet?

Did you know that 1) Madelyn Murray O’Hare was trying to keep any Christians from getting FCC lisences? 2) That Janet Reno once told 60 Minutes, "A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a Christian cause; who homeschools their children…" 3) That Al Gore once got mixed up and said his favorite verse from the Bible was John 16:3 instead of John 3:16, and John 6:13 reads, “And they will do this because they have not known the Father nor Me." 4) That if you send a certain email to ten of your friends, you will get a free meal at Applebees, shoes from Nike, bath oil from Bath and Body Works, AND a check from Bill Gates?

None of the above is true (no matter how badly we want the Al Gore one to be true, it isn’t!)

Do you trust the church?

Are you kidding? With all the abuse, fraud, theft and heracy – with bishops, Bennies and blonde bombshells, I think I’d rather take my chances with the Internet!

Do you trust money?

As you came in this morning you were each given a dollar bill. If you look on the back side of that bill, you will find what is called our Nation’s Motto. It reads, “In God We Trust.” I heard Chuck Swindoll once say that he felt the motto should be changed to read, “In This God We Trust,” meaning that the real god we trust in is the money itself.

You might be familiar with sign that hangs in some stores, “In God We Trust, Everyone Else Pays Cash!”

In the days and months that followed the attacks on America on September 11, 2001, that motto showed up everywhere. Billboards touted, “IN GOD WE TRUST, UNITED WE STAND!” Bumper stickers, newspapers, wristbands, T-shirts, hats and even pens followed. And for one brief, shining moment it seemed that we as a Nation had returned to the faith in God that is the cornerstone of our heritage. But soon we were back to our old ways, trusting in anything and everything but God – especially our own strength and abilities - to get us through our days

So what can we trust? Our government, police, big business, the internet, money or even the church have proved themselves unworthy of our trust. But our text for today tells us that our instincts in the days following September 11 were right on the mark.

Let me say before we go any farther, that if you are visiting with us today, we don’t always have the Bible text for our message engraved on the podium. But today’s text is found right here. It is Proverbs 3:5&6, and is found on page 429 of the Bibles you will find on the seats around you. If you don’t have a Bible, I invite you to pick up one of those, and turn to page 429, and follow along, and feel free to take that Bible home with you when you go.

In our study of the Bible’s Top 40, we are down to the last two. This week we look at Proverbs 3:5&6, and next week we look at the Number One hit on the Bible Top 40 list, so don’t miss it.

For today, we take a look at two verses that are a couple of my personal favorites. These are verses that I have returned to time and again throughout my life. These are words of comfort and encouragement, they give confidence and direction. I quote them in almost every wedding I officiate, I have shared them with my children since they were very young, (I remember sharing them with Andrew when he was maybe 6 years old, and he said, “When it says, ‘God will direct your path,’ is that like when we went cross country skiing, and I followed in the trail you made in the snow?”) When asked what my favorite verses were 5 years ago, this was my answer, and that’s how they ended up carved into the front of our podium.

Obviously, these verses rank pretty high on my list of the Bible’s Top 40 – and I think you will see why as we dig into them.

Proverbs 3:5&6 read: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

Almost everything we do involves the issue of trust. Personal relationships are based on trust; confidence that the other drivers on the road will be sober and stay on their side of the line is a trust issue; showing up to work on the first of the month and expecting to be paid on the 15th is an expression of trust.

Human beings possess an inborn desire to trust. The politicians know it. The advertising agencies know it. Con men know it. You know it. Guess who else knows it? God knows it. And to the all the voices in the world asking for our trust we can add His.

The Bible says "Trust in the Lord with all your heart ..."

That's what God wants from each one of us. He wants us not only to believe in Him, but to give him our hearts, the very core of our being.

That word “trust,” is the Hebrew word batach, and it means “to trust, to have confidence in, to be secure to feel safe,” (sounds good doesn’t it?) and it also means, “to be careless.” I found that interesting. Wouldn’t it be great to be care-less; to not have a worry or an anxiety in the world? That’s the image here – to be so confident in our Lord that we are care-less – we are confident that He is in control. Like a baby sleeping in her father’s arms in the middle of a storm. Supremely assured of God’s care and provision. Jesus said in Mark 10:15, “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” It is that child-like faith that is described here in this Proverb. Trusting in God with all our heart

One of the predominant characteristics of children is that they trust almost anyone. And Jesus is saying that kind of trust is what it takes to cross the line of faith. So, from time to time on Sunday mornings I offer people the opportunity to do just that. Sometimes it is at the end of a message. Sometimes it surrounds a communion service, but our message is one of trusting God – asking you to place your trust in Him. Recognizing that you alone can not please Him, you need ask Jesus to be your Savior. You are lost, and you need a leader – He will come and be both if you will just ask him.

And some people respond to that. They open their hearts and God comes in. But others say to themselves, "I like the way this sounds. It rings true. But I’m just not quite sure. What will happen to me if I cross the line of faith, if I entrust my heart and my life to God?"

That's a good and fair question. And I want to honor those of you who sincerely ask it, by giving an explanation of what it would mean for you to trust God with all your heart. This verse has five phrases that each reveal a part of what it means to trust God. Let's take them one by one.

The first phrase is "Trust in the Lord ..."

1. Trusting God means you rely more on the unseen than the seen. And that's very difficult.

Take out that dollar bill we gave you this morning. We’ve already pointed out that on the back side just above the middle it says, "In God We Trust." Before you put it away, look around the room. See God anywhere? Now everyone hold up your dollar and look around the room again. What do you see? I see lots of money. (Maybe we should take the offering right now!)

So, we don't see God, but we do see money. And even though the bill carries a warning label to remind us to trust God and not money, most people will still trust the money over God ... because it's easier to trust the things we can see and touch than the things we can't. And God falls into the latter category. So, if you cross the line of faith, you'll have to be willing to rely on a person you never see. That's the first phrase of the verse. The second phrase is "with all your heart."

2. Trusting God means total commitment. "All your heart." And that's not easy.

Trusting God is like bunji jumping, you know, the sport where people attach themselves to an elastic cord, jump off of a bridge or cliff, and come within a few feet of crashing into the face of the earth before the bunji cord snaps them back. You can watch bunji jumping on TV, you can go watch it in person at the Dells, you can have friends who are bunji jumpers, you can own stock in bunji cord manufacturing companies, you can subscribe to "Bunji Jumping Digest" if there is such a thing, you can even stand on the side of a bridge all wired up and ready to go, but you haven't trusted in the bunji cord until you ... jump!

My guess is that there aren't any half-hearted bunji jumpers. That's not to say that the jumpers aren't afraid. There's got to be an element of healthy fear. But they overcome that fear, because they trust the cord enough to literally commit their life to it. In bunji jumping, there isn't any way but wholehearted, total commitment.

Trusting God is like bunji jumping it means total commitment. There is a point where you decide to jump and you let the chips fall where they may. (That may not be such a good way to put it!)

And get this: God doesn't ask you to jump just once when you cross the line of faith. No, He asks you to jump again and again in lots of different places, in all areas of your life, because trusting God means total commitment.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart ... [here's the third phrase] and lean not on your own understanding ..."

3. Trusting God means you admit that He is wiser than you ... that your understanding of things pales in comparison to His.

I came across a humorous example of how God's wisdom far exceeds ours. A NASA official at Kennedy Space Center was explaining to a reporter how a manned spacecraft will land on Mars. At the end of the explanation the reporter asked how the astronauts would return to earth. "That involves a highly complex plan," the official said. "It begins with the words, 'Our Father, who art in Heaven.'"

In situations like space travel, it's pretty easy to believe that God might understand some things a little better than we do. It gets a lot tougher when our understanding of how life "should be" collides with how life really is.

Let me explain. Most of us live by a set of "should be's." See how many of these are on your list.

"People should treat me fairly"

"I should not suffer from a terminal illness"

"I should be financially secure."

"God should say 'yes' to all my prayers."

"My children should live longer than me."

"Bad things should not happen to good people ... like me."⁶

However, as we all know, life does not respect our "should be" list. In fact, God sometimes doesn't respect it, either. But trusting Him means that we agree that He knows better what "ought to be" in our lives, even if it contradicts our list.

A few years ago, Buck Buchanan, one of the greatest players in the history of the Kansas City Chiefs and still a relatively young man, passed away of cancer. Shortly thereafter, one of the radio stations ran an interview that they had done several months earlier.

When the interviewer asked him if he ever wondered, "why me?" Buck said, "I used to think that until I started going for treatments and I met a seven year old girl with the same illness I have. That shook me up so much that I began to wonder 'why not me?'"⁷

Trusting God means admitting that He is wiser than you.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding ... In all your ways acknowledge him ..."

4. Trusting God means you live life His way and that's not always easy.

What is God's way? That's a big question with an even bigger answer. Let me give you the Reader's Digest version. God's way is usually 180 degrees opposite of the conventional human wisdom. Jesus’ teachings were radically different from our normal human understanding. For instance ...

When it comes to ...	Human's Way	God's Way
your enemies...	Hate 'em	Love 'em
hurts suffered ...	Fight back	Turn the other cheek
money/materials	Acquire as much as possible	It's better to give than than to receive.
greatness	You get it by winning over others	You get it by serving others
honesty	As long as it doesn't cost you	Even when it does cost you
who matters	The "beautiful people"	The "losers"

Living life God's way means that you swim upstream. It means that you live by a different value system. It means that even though you may not be accepted by whatever group is "in" you stay the course anyway. Trusting God means you live life His way.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him ... and [finally] he will direct your paths."

5. Trusting God means you relax and go with the flow.

That's tough sometimes, because we want to control everything, but when we trust God ... it's like He's taking us on a trip to an eternal destination. The road may not always be easy or smooth, but we can relax and know that whatever happens to us, God's behind all of it. He's the one clearing the path for us. We can say with the writer of Psalm 31, "I trust in you, O LORD; I say, 'You are my God.' My times are in your hands." Psalm 31:1415 NIV

So, trusting God means relying more on the unseen than the seen. It means total commitment. It means admitting that He's wiser than you. It means living life His way even though it's tough and it means relaxing and going with the flow.

That's what God means when He says, "Trust me."

But God also backs that up with a promise. The Bible says that ...

"Anyone who trusts in him will never be disappointed." I Peter 2:6 NCV

Who do you trust? Yourself? Some politician? Your banker or financial planner?

Don’t you think you ought to trust someone a little greater than yourself or anyone else? Trust Jesus. Don’t put it off – place yourself securely in the arms of your Heavenly Father, and allow Him to direct your path through this world.

Prayer.

Acknowledgements:

· Henry, Matthew. "Commentary on Proverbs 3". "Matthew Henry Complete Commentary
on the Whole Bible". <http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/MatthewHenryComplete/
mhc-com.cgi?book=pr&chapter=003>. 1706.

· Rick McGinniss, Pastor of North Heartland Community Church