Commitment To Trust - Part Ii

INTRO.- ILL.- A man pulled up next to a little girl walking home from school and said "If you get in, I’ll give you a lollypop." The girl kept walking.

Following along slowly, the man said "Come on and get in the car with me and I’ll give you two lolly pops." She kept her eyes on the sidewalk and continued on her way.

The man said "Get in with me and I’ll give you this whole bag of lollypops!" Finally, the girl turned and said, "Look daddy, YOU bought the Ford, YOU ride in it!!!"

I thought this way after I bought my first Ford. I bought it and now I must ride in it: good, bad or otherwise. You know that old saying: You made your bed, now lie in it.

ILL.- Someone said: Buy a Ford and you buy the best. Drive the first mile and walk the rest. Or that old one: F-O-R-D = fix or repair daily. Or found on road dead.

I never exactly found my 1999 Ford Taurus on the road dead but I did find it badly bleeding one day. How’s that?

ILL.- One day I noticed that my transmission seemed to jerk a bit. It only happened once or twice and it was very minimal so I never thought anything about it. My daughter and her family came to visit us and Chris wanted to go play golf. I took him to play golf and almost immediately my transmission started acting up again, jerking and slipping a bit.

When Chris and I returned to the house, we got out of the car and Chris said, “Look at your driveway.” MY CAR WAS BLEEDING ALL OVER THE DRIVEWAY, or so it seemed.

What had happened was the transmission line from the radiator had broken and transmission fluid was pouring out, all over the driveway. It looked like my car was bleeding to death. Fortunately, it wasn’t bleeding and it didn’t die, but it was pretty expensive to get it repaired.

In what do you trust? What is absolutely dependable to you? My Ford wasn’t completely trustworthy. Of course, I’ve discovered that most material things are not trustworthy.

ILL.- Did you ever see the 2000 Tom Hanks movie “Cast Away”? If so, you know who Wilson is. Wilson was a volleyball that floated ashore in a package after the FedEx plane crashed into the sea during a bad storm.

Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a fast-paced FedEx executive who gets stranded on a remote island in the South Pacific after his plane crashes, with little chance for survival. In trying to survive, he tries to start a fire with a sharp stick and cuts his hand severely. In anger, he takes the volleyball and throws it as hard as he can. When it lands he sees that his bloody hand has made an imprint, which looks like a fiery head.

With his finger he draws a face in the blood. He talks to his new friend. You could even say he prays to Wilson as he attempts to make a fire. All through the film he communicates with this volleyball, asking for his help and friendship. The interesting thing is that nowhere in the film does Tom Hanks ever talk to God. He talks to the volleyball, but never to God.

Now, you have to ask yourself why would he have more trust in a volleyball than God? It just doesn’t make good sense.

But then you have to ask why other people trust in all kinds of things rather than God. They will talk to their friends. They will listen to Oprah and Dr. Phil. They will read self-help books. Or read “Ann Landers” and “Dear Abby. But they will not come to Jesus.

Dr. R.G. Lee, Baptist Pastor, who preached at the Bellevue Baptist in Memphis for many years, once said, "If you trust in administration; you will get what administration can do. If you trust in hard work; you will get what hard work can do. If you trust in your sparkling personality; you will get what personality can do. If you trust in prayer; you get what God can do."

I would say that if you trust in prayer that is directed toward the one, true living God, you will get what God can do!

Our trust needs to be in the Lord God! Not man, not material things, not our manliness or our humanness!

PROP.- Let’s consider some more blessings or benefits of putting our trust in the Lord.

1- Desires of the heart

2- Direction in life

I. DESIRE OF THE HEART

Ps. 37:3-5 “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this.”