Trust To Live
Pastor Glenn Newton
Oct. 3, 2004
Psalm 37:3
Trust in the Lord and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness (nkjv).
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper (nlt).
Suggestion: Have someone read Psalm 37:1-7 followed by your spending a few minutes interacting with the congregation asking the following questions:
· How many of you would be interested in a little success in your life today?
· What about some positive results?
· What would that look like to you?
Alternate suggestion: Prepare video of an “On the Street” interview with members of your congregation asking the question “What is successful living?” and show it after the scripture reading.
Introduction to Series and Today’s Theme
The passage we read from Psalm 37 outlines some biblical principles that govern a successful and victorious life. These principles were put in book form almost 30 years ago by a pastoral couple named Earl and Hazel Lee, of whom some of you may have heard. Their book, The Cycle of Victorious Living, has had an incredible impact on the lives of many who have read it. In fact, it has sold over 100,000 copies since it was first published in 1971.
These principles of victorious living will help shape how we’re going to spend the next few weeks, because we’ll be exploring how they can be applied to one specific area of Christian living—stewardship. It has been said that if we want to discover what is really important in our lives, we should take a look at our checkbook and our calendar. How we spend our money and what we do with our time say a lot about those of us who call ourselves Christ-followers.
Though stewardship includes our talents as well as our time, treasure, and touch—and all are equally important—during the next four weeks we’re going to focus mainly on our treasure. I know talking about money makes many people uncomfortable—perhaps you find yourself fidgeting at the mere mention of it. But God’s Word contains more than 2,000 verses that directly address the topic of finance. Jesus himself found it important to teach on the topic. He knew that wherever your treasure is, that’s also where you’ll find your heart (Matt. 6:21).
Recently, Pastor Stan Toler and his wife Linda wrote a book in which they apply the same principles of the “cycle of victorious living” to what they call “the cycle of victorious giving.” Dr. Toler first described how he began to learn these principles in an earlier book, God Has Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times. I wonder if anyone here today can identify with that statement? What began as an initial act of trust for the Tolers ended with totally unexpected results.
When Dr. Toler was a college student in 1971, he worked part-time at a barbershop. After hearing Earl Lee speak in a chapel service, he felt impressed to make a $100 faith promise commitment in the annual missions conference. At that time, $100 was a considerable amount of money, so it was truly a step of faith. Shortly after, he took the last of his cash, leaving his pockets empty, and gave the full amount in the offering. To his amazement, God fully supplied his need in a most unique way. His boss pulled him aside one evening after work and gave him a $100 bonus instructing him not to tell the others. Now there’s something to take to work and share with your supervisor.
For him the experience marked the beginning of a great journey during which he and his wife learned to live out the practice of giving, receiving, and giving again. The pattern proved to be more than a theory for the Tolers. They learned, as we can learn, that one can never outgive God. The lesson became for them, as it can for us, a successful way of life—the cycle of victorious giving. And we begin, just as they did, by trusting.
Trust Is the Doorway
The doorway to successful living and giving is found in the text for today. Verse three reads, “Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper” (nlt). I like that. What a promise! The result of acting out of trust is the promise of safe and prosperous living. If we want to really live, we must first trust. And we can put our trust in the Lord because He is certainly worthy of it.
Psalm 24:1 tells us God is a God of abundance. “The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” Now that’s what I call true wealth. God created it all, and He owns it all; He created all of us, and He owns all of us. Like it or not, it’s all His. Scripture teaches us, as Earl Lee wrote, “to lean hard on the Lord” and “put all your weight on all of Him!” We can lean on His power, His presence, and His provision.
Yet in spite of all this truth, we find it difficult to trust. Why is that? It’s because trusting God is contrary to human nature. We can see it repeatedly throughout history. Since the beginning of time in the Garden of Eden, men and women have preferred to depend on their own judgment and do things their own way.
The children of Israel were a prime example of exercising their own will rather than trusting and obeying God’s instructions. When it came time for Moses and the Israelites to enter and possess the land God had promised, they sent spies to explore it. The spies returned, however, with a mixed report of a good land where the people were stronger and taller than they were and the cities were large, with walls up to the sky.
The people’s response was one of unwillingness, rebellion, and grumbling. Then Moses told them not to be afraid and reminded them of God’s faithfulness. “The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you, as he did for you in Egypt, before your very eyes, and in the desert. There you saw how the Lord your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place” (Deut. 1:29-31).
But verse 32 tells us that “in spite of this [they] did not trust in the Lord,” who had gone ahead of them “in fire by night and in a cloud by day,” who had found them places to camp and had shown them the way. Moses reminded them again in Chapter 9 that they had rebelled against God when they “did not trust him or obey him” (v. 23). Even a later generation would be described as “stiff-necked as their fathers” because they “would not listen” and “did not trust in the Lord their God. . . . They did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do” (2 Kings 17:14-15).
Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Some of us have been there ourselves or we know someone who was unwilling to trust in God’s promises—doubting God could or would provide.
Too often our trust is misplaced like those whom the psalmist described when he wrote, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses” (Ps. 20:7). Or perhaps we’re similar to the Israelites who shaped a golden calf and made Asherah poles. Or maybe we act like the foolish rich man in Jesus’ story who tore down his barns and built bigger ones to hoard his grain and goods. Jesus’ warning was to “anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21).
Our trust is often misdirected toward the wrong things such as the government, the stock market, the lottery, education, and even the church; or to other people such as spouses or friends, or political, business, educational, or church leaders. The Scriptures, however, repeatedly encourage us to trust in the Lord. Jesus even instructed His disciples just before His departure, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1).
So on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest, let me ask you, “How would you rate your trust quotient today?”
The Challenge of Trusting What We Cannot See
One of the greatest challenges of trust is that trusting God means we believe what we cannot see. It means God is at work carrying out His purposes even when we do not see evidence of Him working in our lives. Hebrews 11:1 tells us “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” And trust is the basis of faith.
Consider Noah who “built a ship in the middle of dry land” (tm). The seventh verse of Hebrews 11 tells us, “He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told” (tm).
And then there was Abraham. Verses 8 through 10 tell us because Abraham trusted God, he had faith to say “yes to God’s call to travel to an unknown place that would become his home. When he left he had no idea where he was going. By an act of faith he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. . . . Abraham did it by keeping his eye on an unseen city with real, eternal foundations—the City designed and built by God” (tm).
Moses, too, trusted in the invisible. Scripture says when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, “he had his eye on the One no eye can see, and kept right on going” (v. 27, tm). I’m sure when he came to the Red Sea, he had no idea how they were going to cross until he raised his staff over the water as God had instructed.
Hebrews reminds us, “The fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith, is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living. It’s our handle on what we can’t see” (v. 1, tm).
When we exercise our faith in the unseen, the act of trusting God reminds us of who is in control. In The Purpose-Driven Life, Rick Warren suggests three reasons Noah could have doubted.
First, Noah had never seen rain, because prior to the Flood, God irrigated the earth from the ground up. Second, Noah lived hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. Even if he could learn to build a ship, how would he get it to water? Third, there was the problem of rounding up all the animals and then caring for them. But Noah didn’t complain or make excuses. He trusted God completely. . . . Trusting God completely means having faith that he knows what is best for your life (p. 71).
This is true even when we don’t understand.
When We Trust, God Supplies
In his book Trusting God, Jerry Bridges emphasizes “Trusting God does not mean we do not experience pain. It means that we believe God is at work through the occasion of our pain for ultimate good. It means we work back through the Scriptures regarding His sovereignty, wisdom, and goodness and ask Him to use those Scriptures to bring peace and comfort to our Hearts. It means, above all, that we do not sin against God by allowing distrustful and hard thoughts about Him to hold sway in our minds. It will often mean that we may have to say, “God, I don’t understand, but I trust You” (from The Inspirational Bible, p. 1280).
The wisdom of Proverbs 3:5-6 tells us to:
· Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.
· Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths (nlt).
· Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track (tm).
When we depend on God’s understanding rather than our own, trusting God verifies He is our Source. In Deuteronomy 10:14, Moses reminds us:
· To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
· The highest heavens and the earth and everything in it all belong to the Lord your God (nlt).
· Look around you: Everything you see is God’s—the heavens above and beyond, the Earth, and everything on it (tm).
When we’ve taken the initial step of placing our trust in the Creator—the invisible Lord—and acknowledged His sovereignty, we find He can and does supply out of His abundance. As Dr. Toler says, “It puts the ball in His court. The pressure is still on—but the pressure is on God, not you. You simply do the daily tasks of life, diligently, faithfully, and skillfully. He’s in charge of the bottom line.”
· Moses didn’t worry about water levels. He simply trusted God to part the waters and get the Israelites through the Red Sea.
· David didn’t worry about proportionate height or strength for his contest with the giant Goliath. He simply picked up a stone and left the driving to God.
· Joseph didn’t worry about on-line courses on protocol or purity. He just depended on God’s wisdom to run Potiphar’s household—and to run away from Potiphar’s wife.
· The woman who touched the hem of Christ’s garment wasn’t concerned with keeping the rules of etiquette. She pushed through the crowd and went directly to the Source of her healing, the Ruler of life and death.
· The apostle Peter didn’t worry about the laws of gravity. He simply got out of the boat and started walking on the water toward the Master. Peter knew he could trust Jesus in the midst of a storm (Toler, p.21).
The wonder of it all is that this God in whom we trust is a “giver,” not a “taker.” James tells us “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights” (1:17). The word every leaves no room for guesswork.
The good news is that this gift-giving God has an abundant supply. And He wants to connect all of us to His giving. Jesus told us in the greatest sermon ever recorded if we would “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,” then all of the other things we need will be given to us as well (Matt. 6:33).
God Pours Out His Blessings
The Scripture tells us God wants to lavish His abundant supply on His children. Jesus told His disciples, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13).
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus and told them that the saints, God’s children, have been blessed “in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (1:3) and that “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (v. 7), He has “lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding” (v. 8). Since “heaven hasn’t downsized, and God’s resources aren’t subject to budget cuts,” (Toler, p. 24) we’ve got a great thing going, don’t we?
But with it comes responsibility. Matthew 25 teaches us God has loaned us what we have. All of the raw materials of life—time, health, family and friends, intelligence, skills, possessions, and so forth—have been given to us to manage. That’s what stewardship is about. You and I are stewards—managers—of God’s gifts and the resources He has entrusted to us.
Conclusion
“God is a wise Heavenly Father. He doesn’t give us material possessions for our detriment. He gives for our good; In return, He expects us to handle His material blessings with a sense of responsibility” (Toler, p. 25). Life is an adventure in spiritual responsibility and provides us with incredible opportunities to handle what God has so freely given us.
When we give back to God, we initiate the flow of His blessings. Paul reminds us of this principle in his second letter to the Church at Corinth. “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” (2 Cor. 9:6). The prophet Jeremiah reflected on God’s blessings, “I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty, declares the Lord” (Jer. 31:14).
The cycle of victorious giving begins with trust. When we trust the God of abundance whose supply is endless, we can accept the giving challenge. Though the church in Corinth excelled “in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us,” Paul felt it was important enough to further instruct them to make sure that they “also excel in this grace of giving” (2 Cor. 8:7).
If we can trust Him with our lives, why can’t we commit all of our resources to Him? Not just our time and our talent, but our treasure and touch also. Let’s “step up to the plate” and give God a chance to pour His blessing into our lives. In the words of the psalmist who found the results of trusting were worth it, “In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them. They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed” (Ps. 22:4-5).
When we give to God, we can expect a return. Jesus taught, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38). The prophet Malachi tells us the Lord wants us to “test” Him by bringing the “whole tithe into the storehouse” (the church), and see if He “will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it” (3:10).
What an opportunity we have to make a spiritual and financial link of faith and trust to God’s abundant supply! It’s time to enter the cycle of victorious giving if you haven’t already. The question is simply this, “How big is your measuring cup? What size is the container you’ll use to dip into God’s supply?”
Let’s stand and pray together this morning.....I challenge you today with what you have heard, what you have heard is the truth from God’s Word.... Will you trust God? Will you get into the cycle of victorious giving? God has an abundant supply...
