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.”
ILL.- I remember when I was small that mama would say something like, “You don’t get your dessert unless you clean your plate.” And what was on my plate? Probably something like greens, spinach, or some other horrible, no-good food!
No, everything mama fixed was good for me, but I didn’t always eat it. Sometimes when she wasn’t watching or else went in the other room I’d feed it to the dog. That way I was sure to get dessert and mama always made a good dessert! DESSERT WAS WHAT I WAITING FOR!
And I have noticed that at our church dinners some of you are simply waiting for your dessert, but you don’t wait! You head for the dessert table while everybody is in line for the main meal. Many of us are dessert-oriented people. We love sugar! We love chocolate! We love our sweets!
I have discovered, however, that many people miss out on the dessert in life because they don’t clean their plate. What am I talking about?
I am talking about the desires of the heart. Sound good? It does to me. Desires of the heart could well be considered God’s dessert for our lives. And desires and delight go hand-in-hand. Desires of the heart are in direct relation to our delight in the Lord. It seems that you can’t have one without the other. No delight, no desires.
Now, what are the desires of the heart? Perhaps not what you think.
ILL.- An angel appeared at a faculty meeting and told the dean that in return for his unselfish and exemplary behavior, the Lord would reward him with his choice of infinite wealth, wisdom, or beauty.
Without hesitating, the dean selected infinite wisdom. ’Done!’ said the angel, and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and a bolt of lightning.
All heads turned toward the dean, who was sitting surrounded by a faint halo of light. One of his colleagues whispered to him, ’Say something.’ The dean sighed and said, ’I should have taken the money.’
When most people think in terms of the “desires of the heart” they often think of money. This is why multitudes buy lottery tickets. They think their hope of a better life rests in winning the lottery. AND MOST PEOPLE THINK ALONG THESE LINES.
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.”
Great passage of Scripture. However, this is not your normal “health and wealth” gospel in this verse of Scripture. This is not some preacher declaring that if you are in the will of God you will get everything your heart desires, money included.
ILL.- Preacher Henry Ward Beecher once said, "The strength and the happiness of a man consists in finding out the way in which God is going, and going in that way too."
When this scripture talks of getting the desires of our hearts, it means that when we trust the Lord and follow Him as best we can His desires will become our desires! Not the other way around. This means that we will receive the desires of our heart because they will be HIS DESIRES!
Most of the time, our desires are quite self-centered. But the Lord’s desire deals with ministering to others and serving one another in love. How do we know this? We know it by examining the ministry of Jesus. In Acts 10:38 Peter said that Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil.
Jesus wasn’t interested in wining and dining himself at the best restaurants in town. He wasn’t concerned about luxury hotels. In fact, He didn’t have a place to lay his head. He wasn’t interested in making himself comfortable or acquiring a comfortable home. He wasn’t interested in retirement so he could take life easy.
His focus was on ministering to hurting people who were enslaved to sin and Satan! And the more we put our trust in the Lord the more our desire will be to help hurting people and minister to them. And the greatest delight in life comes from helping others, from serving one in love!
II. DIRECTION IN LIFE
Prov. 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 will make your paths straight.”
ILL.- Someone suggested that we imagine this dialogue between Abraham and God. “Abraham, this is God speaking. I want you to leave everything and go to the land I will show you.”
“Where’s that?” “If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” “Try me.” “It’s 1500 miles from here in a place called Canaan.”
“Never heard of it.” “I know, and guess what else?” “What?”
“I’m going to make you the father of a great nation.” “That’s impossible. I don’t have any children.”
“Don’t worry.” “What do you mean, don’t worry?” “Just trust me.”
“Let me see if I’ve got this straight. You want me to leave everything, travel across the desert to some place I’ve never heard of, and become the father of a great nation.” “Right.” “Is this some kind of joke?” “No.”
“What am I supposed to tell my wife?” “That’s your problem.”
Hebrews 11:8 “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.”
Abraham received direction in life because he was willing to believe God, to trust God, to walk by faith. He didn’t know where he was going and what was going to happen but he believed that God would direct him and bless him. WE NEED THAT KIND OF FAITH AND TRUST AS WELL.
Many people have little or no direction in life. Or else they are headed in the wrong direction.
ILL.- Ole and Lena were so excited to get a new cell phone. Ole was to call when he was on his way home from town. Ole called Lena when he entered the freeway. "Lena put supper on, I’m on my way home." Lena said, "Be careful because I hear some nut is driving the wrong way on the freeway."
"It’s worse than that Lena, where I’m at there are a hundred cars going the wrong way!" We’ve all made some wrong turns in life and ended up going the wrong way and being in a mess.
ILL.- A deacon in a church wanted to speak tactfully to a young Bible college student who had come to preach at his church. The deacon smiled and said, “I’ll put my remarks in the form of a parable. I recollect Archie Tucker’s first deer hunt. He was kind of green. He followed the deer all night, but he followed it in the wrong direction.”
Many people go in the wrong direction in life. They may, for example, get caught up in the peer pressure business and do what other kids do, which may be totally wrong!
ILL.- For example, I remember on one occasion when I tried my hand at drinking booze because all the other boys were doing it. I remember getting sick and having a terrible hangover the next day. I thought, “Hey, there is something wrong. There is no pleasure in this stuff.” And thankfully, I left it behind early in life.
Many of you have been down that same road and discovered it to be the wrong direction. And why did we choose the wrong direction? Because we weren’t looking up.
It wasn’t until I was led to Christ, to a better understanding of Christ and was baptized into Him that my life began to take focus and go in a better direction. WOULDN’T YOU SAY THAT WAS TRUE FOR YOU AS WELL?
The Lord ALWAYS leads us in the right direction in life!
Ps. 23:3 “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
The Lord always leads us in the paths of right living or righteous living. The problem is: we’re not always paying attention to His leading!
Direction is in direct relation to trust. The more we trust, the more He directs us! No trust, no direction or little direction.
ILL.- Kay Helderman is the manager of the Trees ‘n Trend store here in Jonesboro. Prior to Kay coming to Jonesboro she and I worked together in the Cape Girardeau, MO, store. Steve Welker was the manager. I was the Assistant manager and Kay was an associate who worked the supply aisle. She was considered a department manager. But it wasn’t long before the company sent Kay to Jonesboro to become the assistant manager. And it wasn’t long before they moved her up to manager.
WHY HER? And not me? Simply because I didn’t know as much about home décor products as Kay did. Even though I learned quite a bit about home décor while working in Cape I never knew as much about it as Kay did and does and I never will! The reason? Because I don’t know want to know about home décor.
Most men could care less about decorating the home. Put a picture on that wall and that’s good enough.
At Trees ‘n Trends I never went up because I never went down. I never went down in the sense of doing my homework or throwing myself into learning the products and how to decorate.
This same principle applies to the Lord’s direction in life. Some people may say, “I just don’t know what to do about this problem. I just don’t know what the Lord wants me to do.”
And many people will never find out the right direction to go in life because they don’t do their homework. They don’t seek the Lord. They don’t seek the Lord’s will and wisdom. They don’t seek it in the Word and in prayer! They don’t go down, so they never go up.
James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.” We don’t do humble very well but we must if we ever want the Lord’s direction in our lives.
Prov. 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 will make your paths straight.”
The more we trust the Lord, the more we will follow His word. And the more direction He will give us in life. And if it’s not in His Word then we pray. And somehow, the Lord will direct us in life.
In everything we do, we must seek the Lord’s will and direction. We must consider scripture. We must pray. And good direction, safe direction, and righteous direction will be given.
Ps. 23:3 “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.”
CONCLUSION----------------------------------
ILL.- A small boy riding a bus home from Sunday school was very proud of the card he had received, which had a picture and a caption that read: “Have Faith in God.” Suddenly, the card slipped from his hand and fluttered out the window. “Stop the bus!” he cried. “I’ve lost my ‘faith in God!’”
The driver pulled the bus to a stop, and as the lad climbed out and went to retrieve his card, one of the adult riders smiled and made a comment about the innocence of youth.
A more perceptive adult observed, “All of us would be better off if we were that concerned about our faith."
Brothers and sisters, life is full of concern: work, family, finances, health, etc. But the Lord is trying to tell us that the more we focus on Him, the more He will bless us and the less worry we will have in life. It pays to put our trust in the Lord!
Heb. 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
