Disclaimer: Source material for this sermon has been gleaned from many different sources. I have attempted to acknowledge these sources whenever possible.
TRUST HIM
PROVERBS 3:5-6
“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.”
INTRODUCTION: Trust in the Lord with all your heart. If I were to ask you individually, most of you would say without hesitation that you trust God. Do you. However, if you are honest, you will have to admit that there are times when trusting is not so simple. The way is often perilous and hard, with no end in sight. We cannot see what lies ahead and feel helpless and alone in our struggles. God wants you to trust even when you do not understand, when the future is uncertain, when you feel like you cannot go on. God says trust Him.
I. Trust Him when the way is hard and perilous.
A. Life can be tough. How you can tell when it’s going to be a rotten day:
· You wake up face down on the pavement.
· You call Suicide Prevention and they put you on hold.
· You see a "60 Minutes" news team waiting in your office.
· Your birthday cake collapses from the weight of the candles.
· You turn on the news and they’re showing emergency routes out of the city.
· Your twin sister forgot your birthday.
· Your car horn goes off accidentally and remains stuck as you follow a group of Hell’s Angels on the freeway.
· Your boss tells you not to bother to take off your coat.
· The bird singing outside your window is a buzzard.
· You wake up and your braces are locked together.
· You call your answering service and they tell you it’s none of your business.
· Your income tax check bounces.
· You put both contact lenses in the same eye. – Source Unknown.
B. Job 14:1 “"Man who is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble.”
C. Life can be hard. The trials of life can be intense. Life often throws us into disarray and can cause us to be despondent and discouraged.
D. Consider Job and the hardships of life he endured.
E. Job 1:13-19 “Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house; and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, when the Sabeans raided them and took them away--indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!" While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"
F. Look at his response in verses 20-22 “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped. And he said: "Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.”
G. The ultimate reason, from our standpoint, why God fills our lives with troubles and perplexities of one sort and another -- it is to ensure that we shall learn to hold him fast. The reason why the Bible spends so much of its time reiterating that God is a strong rock, a firm defense, and a sure refuge and help for the weak is that God spends so much of his time showing us that we are weak, both mentally and morally, and dare not trust ourselves to find or follow the right road. When we walk along a clear road feeling fine, and someone takes our arm to help us, likely we would impatiently shake him off; but when we are caught in rough country in the dark, with a storm brewing and our strength spent, and someone takes our arm to help us, we would thankfully lean on him. And God wants us to feel that our way through life is rough and perplexing, so that we may learn to lean on him thankfully. Therefore he takes steps to drive us out of self-confidence to trust in himself, to -- in the classic scriptural phrase for the secret of the godly man’s life -- "wait on the Lord." – James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986
H. Nahum 1:7 “The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows those who trust in Him.”
I. The tree that never had to fight for sun and sky and air and light, that stood out in the open plain and always got its share of rain, never became a forest king But lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil to heaven from the common soil, who never had to win his share of sun and sky and light and air, never became a manly man, but lived and died as he began. Good timber does not grow in ease; The stronger wind, the tougher trees; The farther sky, the greater length; The more the storm, the more the strength; By sun and cold, by rain and snows, In tree or man, good timber grows. Where thickest stands the forest growth We find the patriarchs of them both; And they hold converse with the stars Whose broken branches show the scars Of many winds and of much strife -- This is the common law of life. – “Good Timber” – Douglas Malloch, quoted in Resource, Sept./Oct., 1992, p 7
J. Psalms 62:8 “Trust in Him at all times, you people; Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah”
II. Trust Him when the way is long and tiresome
A. Galatians 6:9 admonishes us “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
B. Some times it seems like the path is just too long. The trials never end. We cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel like we just cannot go on. We become exhausted. Note what Isaiah says.
C. Isaiah 40:30 “Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.”
D. The Greeks had a race in their Olympic games that was unique. The winner was not the runner who finished first. It was the runner who finished with his torch still lit. I want to run all the way with the flame of my torch still lit for Him. – J. Stowell, Fan The Flame, Moody, 1986, p. 32
E. Isaiah 40:28-31 “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”
F. Psalms 9:10 “And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.”
III. Trust Him when the way is dark and unclear
A. There are times that the path we travel becomes very obscure and we cannot see ahead. We travel with a degree of uncertainty of what lies ahead. Fear often seeks to grip our souls.
B. Psalms 56:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. “
C. One stormy night a boat could make no headway, and while the captain was struggling to get into port, a nervous passenger said to him: "Do you think we shall get in all right?" He replied: "This is a leaky old boat, and we may go down; and the boilers are not in very good condition, so we may go up. But, whatever happens, we are going on." – Sunday School Times.
D. Jeremiah 10:23 “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”
E. In 1989 Geoffrey Gorsuch while flying his small plane in the midst of a horrible storm reports that he could: barely see 20 feet in front of the plane. On the ground, signals were being transmitted to the five radios and three navigational aids on board the aircraft. . . . These instruments guided us through the storm to the runway. There were moments when the confusion in the clouds could have been fatal, times when all our senses seemed to indicate that the instruments were lying, making panic and pilot error inevitable. But I had been trained to trust the instruments. And I did… As we broke out of the clouds 100 feet off the runway and in a perfect altitude for landing, all that remained to do was to ease back the power and the stick and let her settle onto the runway. As the emergency vehicles approached with their blaring sirens and flashing lights, I knew they would not be necessary. I had trusted the instruments, I was a pilot -- and that was the day I knew it for sure. And so it is with God. He has endowed us with spiritual instruments to get us through the storm clouds of the human condition. But do we know how to interpret them? And, having received the message, will we trust it with our very lives? That is the essence of faith. – Geoff Gorsuch
F. 2 Corinthians 5:7 “For we walk by faith, not by sight.”
IV. Trust Him when the way is lonely
A. How often as we travel through life do we feel that no one understands, no one cares, and no one is there, that we are all alone?
B. David declared in Psalm 142:4 “Look on my right hand and see, For there is no one who acknowledges me; Refuge has failed me; No one cares for my soul.”
C. Loneliness is a growing problem in our society. A study by the American Council of Life Insurance reported that the most lonely group in America are college students. That’s surprising! Next on the list are divorced people, welfare recipients, single mothers, rural students, housewives, and the elderly. To point out how lonely people can be, Charles Swindoll mentioned an ad in a Kansas newspaper. It read, “I will listen to you talk for 30 minutes without comment for $5.” Swindoll said, “Sounds like a hoax, doesn’t it? But the person was serious. Did anybody call? You bet. It wasn’t long before this individual was receiving 10 to 20 calls a day. The pain of loneliness was so sharp that some were willing to try anything for a half hour of companionship” – Source unknown
D. Psalms 142:5 “I cried out to You, O Lord: I said, "You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.”
E. Psalms 139:7-10 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me.”
CONCLUSION: No matter how long, how rough, how dark, how lonely the way may seem, trust God and His love for you. Remember the words of Job, ‘But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10). For a moment, consider the words of the song, “Follow Me”: I traveled down a lonely road and no one seemed to care. The burden on my weary back Had bowed me to despair; I oft’ complained to Jesus How folks were treating me, And then I heard Him say so tenderly, "My feet were also weary, Upon the Calvary road; The cross became so heavy, I fell beneath the load, Be faithful weary pilgrim the morning I can see, Just lift your cross and follow close to me."
