Total Trust
How to Trust God Completely
10.18.06
I. Introduction
In preparation for the message tonight, I thought to myself, “What great wisdom shall I impart this time?” “What incredible nugget of truth should I communicate with such vigor and passion to serve as an inspiration to all who hear?” “What life-changing message should I craft that would tug at their hearts and spur them on to action?” And after over an hour of pouring over a message I thought would surely do the trick, I was reminded of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 2:4 4 And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And so I prayed this prayer right from the Scripture, “God, may the message I share not be about human wisdom, but rather a demonstration of Your Spirit and power. In Jesus’ name, Amen.” And suddenly my office was filled with a bright light and a voice from heaven spoke so clearly in a loud, booming voice…No. Actually, nothing happened. No bright light. No loud, booming voice. Nothing but the subtle hum of my computer piercing the silence.
Then, as I got quiet on the inside, I sensed the Holy Spirit’s whisper nudging me in one particular direction. So we’re going to talk about “TOTAL TRUST.” One of my favorite Disney movies of all time is Aladdin and there’s a scene in that movie that I want to show you.
(Show clip)
Aladdin asks the Princess one question, “Do you trust me?” and he stretches out his hand and waits for her response.
I love the picture that this scene paints…not because of the romantic love story that unfolds, but because it’s symbolic of our relationship with God. He has stretched out His hand and asked us, “Do you trust me?” and He waits patiently for us to step out in boldness and take His hand by faith.
Let’s pray.
II. The Trust Picture
There’s a Scripture that I memorized years ago in Sunday school and I imagine it’s still being used as a memory verse today. You’ve probably memorized it yourself, but I wonder if we really grasp the truth contained in this passage.
Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Perhaps reading it in a different translation may breathe some new life into its meaning.
Proverbs 3:5-6 MSG 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.
Hmmm…the familiarity of this passage disappears as we see it in a new light. It’s no longer a verse committed to memory. It’s a fresh Word for us today, right now.
Let’s break it down piece by piece.
That word TRUST in the Hebrew has the meaning of putting all your weight on something. If you think about it, we put our trust in things all the time. Even now, you’ve put your trust in that pew you’re sitting on to hold you up. I don’t see anybody squatting over their pew worried that the pew is going to break if they put all their weight on it. Well, when you put your trust in God, you put all your weight on Him.
When you were a kid, did you ever move someone’s chair away just as they were about to sit down? Did someone ever move your chair?
Well, we’re going to play this same game tonight to see who we can trust.
I’m going to choose someone to come up here and then that person has to choose someone who isn’t going to pull the chair away when they sit down with their eyes closed and their hands over their eyes. Now, be very careful who you choose because your fanny is on the line!
Let’s try it with someone else. This time you’re going to fall backwards and that person you choose has to catch you.
That was just a little game of trust. You put your trust in someone you knew wouldn’t let you fall – that was a good choice.
So, there you see a clear illustration of what it means to trust. We have to put our complete TRUST in God knowing that He’ll always be there and we can rely on Him. Ok, let’s move on. How do we trust?
III. With All Your Heart
The NKJV says “Trust in the Lord WITH ALL YOUR HEART.”
Well, what is the heart? The heart here and in many other instances in the Old Testament refers to the spirit. Not the Holy Spirit, the human spirit, the real you on the inside. This means that you’re trusting God from the very depths of your being…not just merely agreeing mentally that the Bible is true and God is good and all of that, but really KNOWING it. The MSG says “Trust God from the BOTTOM OF YOUR HEART.” The imagery here is that your trust in God has DEPTH. It’s not just some shallow, “oh yeah, I agree with that.” It’s a TRUST that goes down deep on the inside, a trust that is deep enough to count when it truly matters. Alright, what’s the next part?
IV. Not Your Understanding
The NKJV says “Lean not on your own UNDERSTANDING.”
Well, what is the understanding? The understanding is your soul, which includes your mind, will and emotions.
It’s significant that this verse mentions both the heart and the mind, the understanding. The mind and the spirit can and do work together to help us follow God. You’re using your mind to hear and understand these words right now, and at the same time, they are touching your heart- your spirit- as well.
The problem occurs, however, when we put our minds above our spirits. The spirit, the real you on the inside, should be honored above the mind. For example, let’s say that you’re facing a tough test at school. A fellow student hacks into the school’s database, scores the answer key, and emails it to everyone in the class. What is your spirit, the real you, saying on the inside?
If you’d get quiet enough to listen in the midst of your rejoicing over having the answers, you’d hear something like “it’s wrong to cheat.” In your spirit, you feel the magnetic pull to action, to do the right thing.
But, what happens if you start second-guessing and rationalizing using your mind?
You might say, “If everyone has the answers, it’s really not cheating. Cheating is when you have an unfair advantage over other students. That’s not the case here.”
Or, “I really need a good test grade in this class. It will help my GPA, which will help me get a scholarship, which will make me less of a financial drain on my parents.” And with reasoning like that, you may even get your parents on board.
Or, “The teacher is lousy. I hate her style—it makes it hard for me to learn. I deserve some kind of advantage here.”
Or, “If I’m the only one who doesn’t cheat, it’s not fair to me. Why should I be the only one to suffer?”
Or, “I’m a decent student. If I don’t cheat – and then get the lowest grade in the class—the teacher will be suspicious. I could get everyone else in trouble. I almost have to cheat or there’s gonna be a big blow-up.”
Do you see what can happen if we allow our minds to detour us from following what God has impressed on our hearts?
Your mind can get you in a heap of trouble if you talk yourself out of doing what you know you should do in your spirit.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the inner depths of his heart.
God is going to lead you and guide you through your own spirit!
God doesn’t lead you through your body or your mind. He leads you through your heart! If you’re leaning on your understanding, you’ll surely fall because believe it or not, you and I don’t know everything.
The MSG puts it this way, “Don’t try to figure out everything on your own.” When you’re faced with a problem or a choice you have to make, the first thing you should do is pray and get quiet on the inside, not make out your list of pros and cons. The pros and cons are all about figuring it out on your own. So many times trusting with our heart is the last resort only when the understanding gets so frazzled that we can’t even think straight. But trusting in God with our hearts should come first and foremost.
Do you realize how much stress you could bypass if you’d just trust God with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding? You could literally pull your hair out trying to figure things out on your own.
I don’t know about you, but I want God to reveal things to me in such a way that I know in my spirit what I should do. I don’t want to mentally run around and around an issue or problem until I am dizzy and exhausted. I want to experience the peace of mind and heart that comes from trusting God, not my own understanding.
Alright, what then?
V. Acknowledge Him
Verse 6 says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him,”
How do you acknowledge something?
First of all, acknowledge has this connotation of knowing. You have to KNOW someone in order to completely trust that person. In our game earlier, if you didn’t know someone was behind you to catch you, you wouldn’t have fallen back. But, because you knew that person was there, you trusted.
Acknowledging someone is knowing that the person is there, but it’s also more than that, you actually have to say something.
For example, you walk into this room. I hear the door open and close. I know somebody is in here. I may even see you out of the corner of my eye, but have I acknowledged you? No. Until I say, “What’s up, homeslice?” I haven’t acknowledged you.
Acknowledge is to admit to be true, to confess, to recognize the authority or claims of, to express thanks for, to state that one has received something.
When you acknowledge God in all your ways, you’re constantly aware of His presence and you are saying it out of your mouth. What do you say? Say this verse, “I acknowledge that I trust in the Lord with all my heart and do not try to figure out everything on my own.” Say what He’s already said about you. Constantly thank Him for leading you and guiding you. Boldly declare that you have received the mind of Christ, you have an unction from the Holy One and you know all things.
The MSG says, “Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go.” You see, God is speaking all the time, the real test is whether or not we’re listening. When I acknowledge you, I don’t just give you the Pez and say howdy. I also listen to you when you speak. So, part of acknowledging God is listening for His voice.
Liz told us this at prayer last Friday, and I hope she doesn’t mind me telling this one on her, but she had a doctor’s appointment Friday morning for the little LizBen that’s growing inside her and she left the house and locked herself out. They didn’t have a spare key under the mat and Ben was out of town, so she took a brick and busted out a window so she could get in her house. After she got inside, she realized that her keys were in her back pocket the whole time. She readily admitted that if she would have taken the time to listen, God would have showed her where her keys were. Acknowledge Him by LISTENING FOR HIS VOICE!
VI. The End Result
When you do all these things:
Trust God with all your heart.
Don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Acknowledge Him.
The end result is that He shall direct your path. The MSG says he’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t you want God to direct your path and keep you on track? More than anything in this world, if we trust God with directing our paths, telling us when to zig and when to zag, we’ll always end up at the right destination.
VII. TRUST
So, we’re back to the question, “Do you trust me?”
They tell the story of a mountain climber, who, desperate to conquer the Aconcagua, initiated his climb after years of preparation. But he wanted the glory to himself, therefore, he went up alone. He started climbing and it got later and later. He didn’t prepare to camp, so he decided instead to keep climbing. Soon it got dark, and at that high altitude, visibility was zero. Everything was black. There was no moon, and the stars were covered by the clouds. As he was climbing a ridge at about 100 meters from the top, he slipped and fell. Falling rapidly, he could only see blotches of darkness that passed. He felt a terrible sensation of being sucked in by gravity. He kept falling and falling…and in those anguishing moments good and bad memories passed through his mind. He thought certainly he would die. But then he felt a large jolt that almost tore him in half. “Yes!” he thought.
Like any good mountain climber, he had staked himself with a long rope tied to his waist. In those moments of stillness, suspended in the air, he had no other choice but to shout, “Help me, God! Help me!” All of a sudden he heard a deep voice from heaven.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Save me,” the man said.
“Do you really think that I can save you?” God said.
“Of course, God.”
Then God said, “Then cut the rope that is holding you up.”
There was another moment of silence and stillness. The man just held tighter to the rope. The rescue team said that the next day they found him, a frozen mountain climber hanging strongly to a rope…
TWO FEET OFF THE GROUND.
How about you? How trusting are you in the rope? Why don’t you let it go? I tell you, God has great and marvelous things for you.
Cut your reliance on the ropes of this world and your mind and trust Him with the details of your life!
