Susie is one of the most trustworthy people I know; I trust her with my life. Imagine she is in a long line at the bank. The individual behind her is holding $1,000 cash with a completed deposit ticket. This person is obviously anxious and in a hurry, so Susie politely offers to help; “if you are just depositing your money I could take care of it for you.” What do you think the odds are for a complete stranger to hand over $1,000 and then go on with their day without giving a second thought to their money? Yet is Susie any less trustworthy if the individual refuses to give her his/her money to deposit? No, the person just has not learned to trust Susie. (You say, “What are the odds of something like that happening?” I handed my deposit to a woman at the bank while I was waiting in line on Friday for her to take care of for me.)
Trust doesn’t come naturally to any of us; trust has to be learned. In the same way we learn to trust our parents or other people in our lives we must also learn to trust God.
How can I trust someone I cannot see? A very common used question when it comes between people and God? People all over the world ask the same question when they are told of the love and grace of God, the salvation that he offers in Jesus Christ. Most of the the time when I am confronted with this common question depending on the situation and the person I am speaking with I ask a couple of questions to help validate to them the reality and truth of the Bible. 1st I usually grab my keys throw them in the air and ask them what made the keys drop and they will say gravity and then I proceed to ask them, “do you see gravity, no but you do see the affects of it, correct?” Or look at that tree, what is making the leaves move? They say the wind, I proceed to ask them have you ever seen wind? No, they just see the affects of wind. How about those that work, you trust that your boss is going to pay you for the 40 hours you put in prior to you seeing it but somehow you trust him more than you trust God? Most of the time they are faced with the reality that they have their trust in the wrong places.
Beloved because we have been disappointed from those whom we thought we can trust we have a hard time trusting anyone in our day, especially someone we cannot see, right? Well at least for some, I pray that this morning I can help you understand the importance of trusting the only one who will never let you down, the only one who will never leave you or forsake you the only one who has a perfect promise keeping record, God through Jesus Christ.
Psalms? ?37:3-5? ?NKJV????
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass.”
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The life of a Christian lies much in a believing reliance on God, his favor in our lives and with those around and about us, his providence, his promises of help in times of trouble, his grace to help us when we want to quit, and a diligent care to serve him with all our hearts and our generation even when we don’t want to, according to his will. We must not think to trust in God and then live as we desire if not in a rightful manner. No; it is not trusting God, but tempting him, if we do not make conscience of our duty to him. Nor should we fool ourselves and think to do good, and then trust ourselves other than God and say we do when we really don’t, and rely on our own righteousness and strength and snare at God. No; we must both trust in the Lord and do good.
1st Point “God has so many blessings for you”
In our text there are so many wonderful truths and blessings that God wants to give you, so many promises are at the very cliff of Gods mountain of blessings yet are missed because of our lack of trust in Him. To trust in the Lord is to have total reliance in Him for the things you do not see and yet the things you know He will provide you with, whether it be healing from sickness and regaining good health, repairing a broken relationship, finances whatever it may be, trusting God for something you know you can’t do is critical and much needed but can be difficult.
The problem is beloved without trusting God who will you trust in, who hasn’t let you down, some people place God in the same category as man but God never promised you anything that required or gave you a reason for you to not trust Him, God is not man that He should lie. This was your own thinking and deciding and you gave God optional challenges that helped you make up your mind about God when He refused to answer you when you thought He was supposed to. So this is where our conflict lies, this is where the trust that was never built has been broken. When you are against an individual you do completely opposite of what they ask of you, the Bible says trust in the Lord and do good, but we don’t trust in the Lord and do bad, and this beloved completely stops our blessing from God.
God is a good God and a good father who wants to bless His children with good things, but because we have turned our back on God His hands are tied and we are no longer recipients of this blessing. Yet He has so many good things in stored for us. Think with me for a moment with what the promises of the Bible say to us those who will and can trust in the Lord.
But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8
Commit to the Lord whatever you do,
and he will establish your plans.
Proverbs 16:3
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
Throughout scripture God has so many blessings waiting for you, but how can God proceed with such blessing if you have your heart turned from Him? But Pastor there are so many bad things happening in church, let me ask you a question how many people here have a perfect family? Let me ask you this question did Jesus come from a line of a perfect family? (Explain) Yet He being one has changed the whole legacy of that family line and so can you. But let us look at what is keeping you from this.
2nd “What is keeping me from trusting God”
1. Past Betrayal: All of us have been betrayed before, whether it was from someone that we trusted or someone our parents or family trusted especially if it were a male figure who had some type of authority and abused it we look at God as a male figure and subconsciously put God in the place of that individual and think the same way about God as we do that person who has betrayed us.
2. A Distorted image of God: Because we do not have a good relationship with God and we do not know God we have a preconceived distorted view of God, He is unfair, He loves us one day and the next we are not sure if He is even listening, we have the same problem with people as we do with God. And because this is like a full continuous cycle it validates in our own mind exactly why we feel the way we do about God and we don’t see Him as a loving and fair judging God instead we paint our own picture that justifies our thinking and when things go wrong we have our aha moment.
3. Perfectionism: We think that God loves those who don’t give Him a problem, so we establish in our minds the thought that in order for us to really give it all in church to God we are to have our lives together, the only perfect one is God and we are never to come to God in our own perfection rather come with a broken and contrite spirit approaching Him through His son Jesus Christ as people who are in need of a Savior.
4. Denial: I don’t need to go to church to show I love God, so don’t go to work to get paid, or don’t go to school to get an education, don’t go to the grocery store to buy food, denial is probably one of the most common stumbling blocks in our lifetime, we need church because it is a reference to all those around you that you are not going to settle for less I’m going to tell the world who I serve.
5. Lack of Godly sorrow: People don’t feel they don’t need to repent. “I’m a good person is a common defense, well have you ever stolen? Have you ever lied? Have you ever cheated? If you did that makes you a lying, cheating, thief that God would love to redeem and save, but because people think that they are okay they feel no remorse over their sin thus refusing to repent.
What are some of the other things that may be keeping you from God? Giving up sin, giving up the things you love to do that God hates? We have trusted in those things for so long those are our comfort zones and we just cant give that up, right? God I’ve been doing this for years and I’m fine, so why do you feel the way you do, not sure of yourself, insecure, battling you identity, if your fine why is it so hard for you to really smile and enjoy life, because God is not involved, His blessings are real, they are sure, they are from a good father, they are life changing.
“The blessing of the LORD makes one rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.”
??Proverbs? ?10:22? ?NKJV??????
“And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:”
??Deuteronomy? ?28:2? ?NKJV??????
“blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.”
??Genesis? ?22:17? ?NKJV??????
God can heal you and His desire is to see you come into His promises for your life, He has a plan for you and a direction of good things for you.
“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.”
??Proverbs? ?3:5-6? ?NKJV??????
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
??Jeremiah? ?29:11? ?NKJV??????
So what’s keeping you from God? Un-forgiveness, you need healing.
3rd Point “God wants to heal you”
Beloved it is Gods will that you come into this wonderful reality for yourself. Minds need to be washed and renewed, Hearts need to be redeemed and set free from guilt, shame, hurt, pain and so forth. Healing is at the cross of Christ, that precious blood that was shed for you and I is the atoning help of healing for all who would be cleansed by it.
Think with me for a moment how much Christ had to trust His Father to continue on with the self sacrifice, I cant imagine what it must have been like, Jesus in the Arden sweating drops of blood, saying father if this cup can pass from me, He decided to trust God in His plan for the salvation of man.
To trust can be a very challenging thing no doubt, I am not neglecting the reality that some have had placed their trust in many who thought were for their best interest but God is not like those who let you down.
"Trust in yourself and you are doomed to disappointment
Trust in money and you may have it taken from you;
But trust in God, and you are never to be confounded in time or eternity."
God is a wonderful healer, but it is going to take for you to allow those holy hands to heal you. Beloved pain is real, disappointments are real but is the God of Heaven. He wants to heal your heart and you mind, your family and your relationships He wants to heal wholly and completely.
“Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,”
??Psalms? ?103:3? ?NKJV??
“He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.”
??Psalms? ?147:3? ?NKJV??
“And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.””
??Matthew? ?8:7? ?NKJV??
Beloved the God that you are hearing about this morning is a God of healing.
A common phrase used in the world of healing is, “time heals all wounds.” I have found this to be more false than true. As a pastor, I talk regularly with people who are still carrying hurts from 30 or 40 years ago. The real truth is, time often makes things worse. Wounds that are left untended fester and spread throughout the entire body. Time only extends the pain if the problem is not dealt with.
If you will begin to build this relationship with God through Jesus Christ and begin to trust Him and allow Him to touch yo and cleanse you He will also heal you. His plans go beyond your thoughts He can do the miraculous you just need to let Him.
Dr. Will Mayo, one of the brothers who founded the world famous Mayo Clinic, claimed to have seen patients that by all standards were dead. “We knew they could not live. But I have seen a minister come to the bedside and do something for them that I could not do, although I had done everything in my professional power, but something touched some immortal spark in them and in defiance of medical knowledge and materialistic common sense, that patient lived!”
Beloved you can start a new life today by offering your heart to Jesus Christ. How many will do that this morning.
