"In God We Trust Really?
Pastor Chris Glenn
The Community Church
11/7/10
Hebrews 11:1
On the face of our money are the words: "In God We Trust." A few years ago, the use of those words on our currency was challenged in court. The case reached the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia where the court ruled that the words could remain on the façade of a government building in Lexington, North Carolina. That was good but I want you to listen to Judge Robert King's ruling on the matter: "The Fourth Circuit has heretofore characterized the phrase, 'In God We Trust' when used as the national motto on coins and currency as a patriotic and ceremonial motto with no theological or ritualistic impact whatsoever.'" what the court said was that those four words has no more meaning than if we had "In Mickey Mouse We Trust." But the real question is; do the words mean anything to you? Do you really trust God as a normal part of your life? The truth is that faith comes down to one word and that one word is - TRUST. We can know something in our heads but never experience the reality of that thing in our lives because there is a world of difference between belief and trust.
• I want you to look closely for a moment at this stool
• Belief without action is pointless. That is where trust comes in.
Example from the Indiana Jones film, "The Last Crusade." Step of faith.
Proverbs 3:5-6.
I. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart"
A.I Will Be Confident in God's Care for Me.
1.The word trust in the Hebrew language literally means "to lie down on" or "to stretch out on."
a. When I go to bed at night, I lie down on my bed and put my whole weight on that bed without ever giving a second thought about it.
2.Now get this: The same way you trust your bed or a chair is the same way you demonstrate trust in God.
a. That means - looking beyond what we see to what God sees.
b. God has your very best interest in mind no matter who you are, where you are, or what you may have done or not done.
3.But you have the awesome power of choice to either live according to your feelings and live, taking cues from your five senses OR to live by faith, trusting God daily for whatever need you may have.
a. Now having said that; when things are going our way, trusting the Lord is not very difficult is it?
b. But when painful trials come our way, when we are being crushed by pressure and disappointment it is easy to sink into despair and frustration.
c. It is pretty easy in those times to at least wonder, "Does God really love me - Does he really have my best interest in mind?"
B.So I want to tell you, even when we cannot understand why God would allow certain situations to occur, there is an essential truth that forms the basis for trusting God.
1.This is big: God is perfect in his love.
a. In other words, he ALWAYS does what is best for us.
i. Now if you really believe this, you will trust him even in the midst of terrible adversity and difficult trials.
b. And you can depend on God's unconditional love because of his character.
i. He IS love and in him there is no darkness at all.
c. That means he is absolutely righteous, holy, and perfect and therefore would NEVER mistreat one of his children.
i. He will ALWAYS do what is best for our lives.
ii. And the cross of Jesus is positive proof of God's love for us.
iii. Every action he performs or permits in our lives is an expression of his love even though he allows some situations in our lives that we think could not possibly be for our good.
• Stranger walks up - "Would you do something for me" The first question out of our mouths would probably be: "What is it?" Well, what if this stranger said, "Never mind what it is, just trust me."
• But if Mom said to me, "Would you do something for me?" I would say, "What is it?" And if she said, "Never mind, just trust me." I would trust her. And the reason I would trust her is because I love her enough and know her well enough to know that she would never ask me anything that would harm me, embarrass me, or put me in a position that would not be in my best interest. But if I did not love her as a result of knowing her, it would be difficult for me to trust her.
C.Watch this: You do not KNOW the Lord if you do not LOVE the Lord.
1.You absolutely cannot know the Lord without loving the Lord.
2.And you will never really love him without spending time with him.
D.So here it is;
• To know him is to love him.
• To love him is to trust him.
• To trust him is to obey him.
• To obey him is to be blessed!
1.We have to remember that God sees the end of every situation in your life before the beginning ever starts AND HE KNOWS what fruit will come from our pain and challenges.
II. Then we are told, in the second part of that verse: and lean not on your own understanding."
A.The word for "lean" here is a word which, out of the Hebrew means, "To support yourself by leaning on something or someone else."
1.That doesn't mean we are to be without understanding or wisdom.
2.It doesn't mean that we are to put our minds in neutral and it doesn't mean that we don't use sanctified common sense.
B.It does mean that we are not to rely on our own reasoning and intelligence, our own thoughts SOLELY as the guiding principle as to how we live our lives.
1.Do you know what I have learned?
a. I have learned in my life that sometimes, the right thing to do is not always the reasonable thing to do.
b. When David fought Goliath, Saul wanted him to use his armor and sword - that was reasonable, but it wasn't right for the situation.
i. Instead, David used the slingshot and a rock.
ii. People though Noah was crazy to build a boat on dry land.
iii. People thought Joshua was a little off to march around Jericho seven times.
c. But every one of those Bible heroes were confident of God's care for them and they responded by trusting him.
2.God wants us to operate as a result of supernatural wisdom and supernatural understanding and that means leaning on him.
III. Proverbs 3:6: in all your ways acknowledge him"
A.I Will Be Committed to God's Purpose for Me.
1.God asks for a complete commitment to him which acknowledges him as the boss who has the right to rule over every area of our lives.
a. That means our business - our social life - our friendships - our habits - our family - every area in our lives acknowledges him as Lord and Master.
2.All of us here have had the experience of knowing we were right on a certain issue and then finding out that we were dead wrong.
a. And the reason is because OUR thinking is never good enough.
• When Charles Kettering was head of General Motors, he used an interesting approach when his engineers needed to solve some real difficult problem. He would bring in his top engineers for a meeting and on the outside of the room where they were going to meet he put a table with a sign on it that read: "Leave calculators and slide rules here."
• He knew that if someone came up with a solution there would be at least one engineer with his slide rule and calculator who would say, "It won't work and here's why." So he made them leave their natural tools outside.
3.Sometimes that is exactly what we do to God.
a. There is a moment in life when we need to see a sign that says, "Leave human reasoning here."
4.Now here is one of those keys: God knows your heart perfectly, he knows what you need perfectly - BUT he often has a different way of giving us what we need than we would normally expect.
B.Jesus said to his disciples, "If one of you wants to be great, he must be the servant of the rest."
1.Now I have to tell you, that's not how I'd do that one!
2.I need to tell you right here that there will come a time in your life when you are going to have to say simply, "God, I'm going to trust your way."
a. And when you get there - that's faith.
3.What is the essential truth that we need to make such an all-inclusive commitment like that?
a. God is infinite in wisdom.
4.Think about it: God never has to poll the angelic host as to what he is to do - he never has to try and get a consensus of opinion from anyone else about the wisest action to take.
a. Because he has unlimited knowledge, he always knows what is IN OUR BEST INTEREST and acts accordingly.
b. Regardless of where you are right now or what circumstances may be causing difficulty in your life, remember this; God knows the optimal course of action in every situation and they are ALL designed to benefit you!
c. I know, sometimes we have such painful difficulties and circumstances in our life, we are tempted to think that maybe God has overlooked something or forgotten something - but he hasn't!
d. See - we have such limited perspective and understanding of things, even in our own lives because we don't see things from God's vantage point.
e. We may have tried to gather every shred of information that is available to us from a human perspective BUT God is aware of EVERYTHING influencing the situation as well as the consequences for you and others.
5.Here's what I do know: God and God alone understands the totality of every single decision.
a. AND - because he is infinitely wise, he simply cannot make a mistake!
b. And yet I need to tell you something; while God alone understands every situation, he is under no obligation whatsoever to EXPLAIN the whys and wherefores of every decision that he makes.
C.Think about it!
1.God never explained to Joseph why he let him be thrown in prison unjustly and stay there for 13 years before he was finally exalted as the Prime Minister of Egypt.
2.God never did tell the nation of Israel why they had to live for 400 years in slavery to the Egyptians before he miraculously delivered them into their own land and made them a nation.
3.And we could go on and on.
a. The fact is, people who know God don't live by explanations, they live by faith trusting our great God because he alone is infinite in wisdom!
4.So let me make this as simple as possible, here is what all that means on a daily basis.
a. It means, always keep God in mind.
b. It means that every moment of your life, you let God think through you - let God look through you - let God speak through you - and let God work through you.
i. Can you imagine how that would change your family if you did that - change your marriage - change the way you approach your job - change the way you handle your money if you would acknowledge God in every part of your life?
5.God wants in on every decision of your life - not just the big ones, not just the ones you think are important, but in EVERY decision.
a. God wants you to turn your life into a blank check.
IV. And He shall direct thy paths
A.I Will Be Controlled by God's Will for Me.
1.IF you do your part - God will do his part.
a. But you will not be controlled by God's will for unless you are confident in God's care for you and committed to God's purpose for you.
B.The choice is yours to live life on basically three levels:
1.Level One - You do what you want to do.
2.Level Two - I am sort-of doing what I ought to do.
3.Level Three - I do what God wants me to do.
C.So how will God direct us?
1.He will direct us through his word.
a. A considerable amount of God's will for us has already been revealed through what his word says.
2.God also speaks to our hearts.
a. There will be a stirring sometimes, a restlessness that you will come to recognize as the voice of God trying to get your attention.
3.God will use godly people to direct your path.
a. Proverbs says that there is wisdom in the counsel of many and I can't even begin to tell you the number of times God has put some wise people to help me know his will for my life.
4.It is interesting that the word "direct" in this verse is a word that is literally translated as "to clear a path" or "cut a highway."
a. That is exciting to think about!
i. While God is leading and you are following, mountains will be melted and valleys will be filled in, crooked places will be straightened, rough places will be smoothed, doors will be opened and walls will fall flat!
b. When you let God take the lead, he will clear every obstacle that gets in your way to get you where he wants you to go!
V. Conclusion - Three Principles to Practice.
A.I want to close this message and this series by giving you three very practical principles to help you trust God.
1.First there is the 80/20 principle.
a. If you will do the 80 percent that God clearly shows you to do in his word, he will show you the 20 percent that is not clear.
b. See - for some of us in this room, at least 80 percent of life is very clear in terms of what God tells us to do and how to act.
c. But 20 percent is not so clear.
d. If you do the 80 percent, it will protect you from stupid risks in the other 20 percent.
B.Second, there is the 90/10 principle.
1.The 90/10 principles is if you give the first 10 percent of your income to God, he will stretch the 90 percent that is left to cover more than the 100 percent you did have.
2.Listen to Malachi 3:10:
a. Why 10 percent?
i. I mean he could have just as easily said 40 percent or 50 percent.
b. I don't know - the point is, he is God and he said 10 percent.
3.Here's what I do know; 10 percent is at least enough to challenge our faith.
a. And to do that, we have to trust God that he will do what he said he would do.
b. This is the only place in the whole Bible where God says, "Try me out on this; trust me and see what I will do."
c. And one of the most practical things you will ever do in trusting God is simply to try him out using the 90/10 principle.
C.Third, use the 100 percent principle (this is going to surprise you!).
1.The 100 percent principle is this: God would rather you struggle with giving him 100 percent of your life than for you to succeed at giving him 90 percent of your life!
2.See - a lot of us in this room have at least one area of our lives that we are really struggling to give it to God.
a. A lot of us have sort of walled off that area and by doing so we have said to God, "God, you can have the rest of my life but not this one area."
b. What is that one area in your life that you have not let God into?
D.If you will trust him today; today will turn into tomorrow.
I want to conclude this by saying what I said in the first message and this is: THE BLESSING OF GOD ON YOUR LIFE IS NOT DEPENDENT ON YOUR FRIENDS - YOUR FAME - YOUR FORTUNE - OR YOUR FEELINGS - BUT IT IS DEPENDENT ON YOUR FAITH!
1.One thing is for sure; you are either going live according to divine revelation with the promise of God's supply for your every need or you will live according to human speculation.
2.The choice is yours.
