Trusting In God - Part #02 Series

Sermon Subject: TRUSTING IN THE LORD --- PART #02:

Scripture Reference: Proverbs 3:1-8

Emphasis on V 5-6

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own undersstanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."

Introduction.

Last Sunday morning I used these same verses as our text and I would like to use them again this morning as we continue to look upon this thought: TRUSTING IN GOD.

Except for the Lord Jesus Christ, these words came from the wisest man that ever lived. Solomon had received his wisdom directly from God. Look at the words of wisdom this man gives us. "TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL OF THINE HEART." Not only are we to TRUST IN GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY --- we are to SERVE GOD WHOLEHEARTERDLY. It’s awfully hard to TRUST GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY unless we first are SERVING GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY. "WHOLEHEARTEDLY" Whatever we decide to do in life --- the only way we get enjoyment from it, is when we put our ALL into it. If we go about it half heartedly --- we fail to receive what could be given if we’d first just put our all -- put ourselves into it. Who would want a half hearted player on their team. Everyone else is puting their all into the game while this one player is just standing there watching the ball go by without making any effort to field it. If by some slim chance this team does win, what kind of victory could the half hearted player enjoy. He did nothing to contribute to the victory.

I remember back to a time when I was a young boy. My father asked me ( no -- come to think of it --he TOLD ME --- there’s a big difference) told me to milk the cow when I got home from school that afternoon. He had something he had to do after he got off from work and he won’t have the time to milk the cow so it fell my lot to it. But when I came home from school I had other things I wanted to do so I only half way milked the cow. I carried the milk pail to the barn and I set it under the cow and I squeezed for a little while but it was taking longer than I wanted to give it. I wanted to do very little and receive a whole lot but it didn’t much matter what I wanted. Unless I was willing to put some time and some effort into milking this cow I wasn’t going to get much of a return. The longer I sat there milking the cow, one sqirt after another, I thought "This bucket will never fill up." And so I milked about a half of a bucket of milk and called it quits. I told my father that for some reason the old cow wasn’t giving the amount of milk she gave the day before. Well, he didn’t believe the story at all. He knew something was wrong but it wasn’t with the cow. So he sent me back to the barn with these instructions, "Now this time put your heart into it and you’ll get a whole lot more out of it." Well, I don’t know if I put my heart into it, but he was right, there was more in the cow than what I was satisfied in receiving the first time. I Received from the cow exactly what effort I had put into it.

I don’t understand WHY anyone would want to just "PLAY CHURCH" or just DABBLE ABOUT WITH LIVING FOR GOD. What reward is there in that? God is the rewarder and He knows exactly what we put into our walk with Him. He is a REWARDER of those that DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM. What if God were to do us that way? What if we approach God in prayer and we desperately need His help, something urgent in our life demands His help and He just casually looks at us and says,"Sorry, I’ve got some things I want to do today. I don’t have time for you." Why we want God to put His WHOLE HEART into Loving us, Caring for us, Providing for us. When we call we want Him to be there sitting by the phone.

TRUST in the Lord with ALL YOUR HEART.

James 5: 16 "The effectual fervent prayers of a righteous man, availeth much."

WHAT YOU PUT INTO IT -- IS EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET OUT OF IT! Recall the account of Jesus taking Peter, James, and John up the mountain with Him and in that mountain He was transfigured before them. They for the first time, beheld His GLORY. And they beheld Moses and Elijah. Then the four of them came down the mountain.