Trusting God

Introduction

Have you ever thought about trust? As my microphone comes on, I’m trusting that they don’t turn it on too high. Have you ever thought about what it really means to trust? Because I think we throw that word around a little too much. You think about how our money says, in God we trust. Might be a bit of an abuse of the phrase. Have you thought about saying, I trust everyone in this room? Do you? Because I could put some different scenarios before you in which that trust might be tested. In fact, it might be pulled a little bit thin, depending on how much you know the person and how much you trust them. I think the best example of trust, perhaps, is between a parent and a child.

And it reminds me, of course, of a story about a little boy and his dad, whose dad comes home from work, and the little boy is standing up on some rocks, and he yells, Daddy, and he runs, catch me, and jumps, and the dad catches him, and he falls down. Because the dad wasn’t paying attention. And the dad says, Son, can you give me one good reason why you thought that that would work and that would be okay? He says, Sure, Dad, because you’re my dad. See, there’s a trust between a father and a son. Now, there’s also different types of trust, even in that same relationship. There was another father who came home from work one day and said, Son, why don’t you jump down to me?

I’ll catch you. And the son said, Of course he ran and jumped, and the father moved out of the way. And he said, See, son, trust no one in your life. In our relationship with God, we’re fortunate that God wants to catch us. He wants to not only catch us, but pick us up, no matter how far down we’ve been pushed, no matter how hard Satan is tugging at you, or how hard you’ve allowed yourself to fall, God wants to be there for you. And so this morning we’re going to talk about a trusting heart. And to do so, we’re going to analyze a very popular person in the Old Testament. Can you think about what some heroes of trust? Can you think about who those heroes would be in the Old Testament?

1. Abraham, a Man Who Trusted in God

Maybe Noah, trusting that by building an ark the way God said, that he would be saved from a storm that would otherwise wipe out most of the planet. We think about Moses, who led the people who went up to Pharaoh consistently and was begging him. And yet we talked about a couple Sundays ago the excuses Moses made first. But nonetheless, God was with Moses because he trusted him. Or maybe Joshua or Caleb as spies. Or maybe one of the prophets. Maybe Jeremiah, who went through all that Adam outlines last Sunday morning. But this morning I’d like to talk about Abraham. If there was a man who trusted in God, it was Abraham. If you will, open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 22. In the book of Genesis, beginning in chapter 22, I’d like to go ahead and read the story of perhaps a man who trusted in God beyond all reasonable doubt.

Notice how much Abraham trusts in the Lord. In Genesis chapter 22, beginning in verse 1, after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. He said, Here I am. He said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose, and went to the place which God had told him. Can I stop right there and have you look back at verse two? Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.

This was not just another man in Abraham’s life as if that would make it better or make the test harder or even less difficult. This was his son. In fact, there’s more to it than that, isn’t there? What was Isaac? Isaac was the promised son. This is the son that Abraham and Sarah had been waiting for. Let’s keep reading. In verse 4, on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

So they went, both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, My father. And he said, Here I am, my son. He said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them together. When they came to the place which God had told them, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand, took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the Lord called him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am.

He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now that I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Now if you read the Bible with any sort of belief in it, if you believe that what you’re reading is true, in fact, even if you didn’t, can you not see how this would be a very gripping story?

Now the storyteller might not have been as vivid as the text would otherwise allow for. But this is a striking story, is it not? It’s not just a little son running and jumping into his dad’s arm. It is a father who has strapped his son, his only beloved son, to an altar.

Even as they’re marching up, it says that Abraham is carrying the knife and the fire in his hands. And as his only son is spread out, Abraham raises the knife, presumably to slay his son. But an angel of the Lord stopped him. God intervened, and Abraham trusted that that would happen all along. Look back at verse 8. In Genesis chapter 22, in verse 8, Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. If you’re not convinced, look at verse 5. I think there’s a more subtle hint of Abraham’s trust in God. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. You notice what that kind of trust is saying, isn’t it?

2. Do You Trust God Enough to Obey Him?

It’s saying, I know what you’re asking me to do, Lord. I know what you’ve told me before, Lord. So I will do and trust in you. You see, it’s that type of trust that is the ultimate trust. It is the ultimate love, that which says, I will act first, knowing you will be there for me. You see, there’s a difference. I think sometimes as Christians, and you’ll see where the lesson is going this morning, there’s two types of trust, particularly with God, and we exercise the first one pretty well, and that’s a trust in obedience. We trust enough to do most of what God says. Because after all, we see how that pays off. We see that God is good, and we see the blessings that come from obeying that God.

But what about when it gets tough? What about when someone cuts you off in traffic? How much do you obey God when you’re in your car? How much do you obey God when life is throwing you curveball after curveball after curveball? See, we’re going to talk about two different levels. And the first level of trust this morning is about obedience. And the question I would pose for everyone here this morning, and I would like you to truly examine is do you trust God enough to obey him? Look with me in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11. If you look with me in the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews? Note what’s said of Abraham here. Hebrews 11, beginning in verse 8. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance.

And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Now, I want to look back at our character, Abraham, for a moment this morning. I put him before you this morning as an ultimate example of trust in the Lord. I gotta tell you, I have to ask myself, do I have that kind of trust in God? Or let alone anyone who is not myself? To be told, go somewhere without knowing where I’m going, without knowing what’s there, without knowing how I’m gonna even get by.

Did you do that? I gotta tell you, I had a hard time just following my parents’ instruction as a child saying don’t eat that extra cookie, let alone saying, don’t go over there, go here. That’s difficult for me to do. But let me ask you, hasn’t God done exactly that with us? Hasn’t he called us to a life where we don’t know where its end result is? Hasn’t he called us to a life of change? A life that is different from the rest of the world. A life that encourages us to stand out and to stand up when everyone would sit back inside and lay down quietly. You see, it’s hard to obey God on some things, isn’t it? I use the illustration of a car a while back.

Let me ask you this morning are you a Christian in your vehicle? I just want to use this as an illustration. I think a lot of us agree that shouting things at people is not good behavior. If you walked in this morning and we’re doing something I didn’t agree with, should I yell, no, you are so fill in the blank. Would you do that? No, that’d be horrible behavior. But if we’re in our car, all of a sudden it’s okay. Let me ask you this. Let me take a step further. What if you don’t yell it? What if you just say it quietly? Does that make it better? Somehow does the volume of your voice make the insulting jab, make the lack of Christian love and deference that we owe others because of what God has called us to do change what you have done?

Of course not. It hasn’t. Because it’s difficult to do what God has asked you to do when you don’t want to. Or when it doesn’t match up with what you have designed. But brothers and sisters, we must trust God. Amen? If we trust God, all of a sudden being a good person is easier. Loving one another is easier. Look at 1 John chapter 3. Look with me in 1 John chapter 3.

Something that is difficult to obey God in, to trust Him enough with this. Look at 1 John chapter 3, beginning in verse 13. John writes, Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed of we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

Little children. Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And that is the first benchmark of trust in God, is it not? It is loving indeed and in truth, not in word or talk. This morning it’s easy for me to stand up here and to talk about how we should be giving of our goods. Isn’t that what verse 17 is telling us to do? If I just proposed a system for you where if I said if you had things, you had to give to other people who don’t. Some of us would say, okay. Some of us would say, that’s not fair. I worked for that. You see, that’s when it’s hard to trust in God. I’m getting a lot of feedback here.

3. Allow God to Be in Control of Your Life

Can I get lowered a little bit, please? Thank you. It’s hard to give of what you’ve earned. But do you see the flaw there? You’re not trusting in God that God provided for you. It’s not anything I worked for that I have sitting in my home or in my driveway. It’s what God blessed me with. And that makes a stark contrast. If I trust that God who provided that for me will continue to, it’s easier. I didn’t say easy, easier for me to give to someone else who needs something. But trust goes much deeper than just loving one another, as difficult as that may be. Trust goes farther than being nice and polite in a car. Trust means you would trust someone enough, you would allow them to be in control of your life.

Now, I have to be honest here. One of the things I love about preaching is that I can see the audience. I know who’s sleeping, who’s awake. And when I talk about car accidents, I can see who’s slapping who, so I know who to watch out for on the roads. But I’m going to get to one of those in a minute. How many of you in this audience? I don’t want a show of hands, but I will enjoy seeing some hand pats. Are someone who likes things in your box? You like things to happen the way you have thought them out to be, in the order you prescribe them to be, and with the results that you decided it must have. I gotta tell you, number one sitting right up here before you.

God to take control of your life because that life is very different from one that even just obeys him. Do you realize that? Can I sell you on the fact that truly believing in God and truly trusting in him means you’ll allow him to pilot your own life. And that’s a difficult thing to do. A television program before the 1988 Winter Olympics featured blind skiers being trained for slalom skiing. As impossible as that may sound. Paired with sighted skiers, the blind skiers were taught on the flats how to make right and left turns. And when that was mastered, they were taken to the slalom slope, where their sighted partners skied beside them, shouting, Left, right. As they obeyed the commands, they were able to negotiate the course and cross the finish line, depending solely on the sighted skiers’ word.

It would either be complete trust or an utter catastrophe. Isn’t that a vivid picture of what Christian life should be? Perhaps that’s what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 12. Turn with me there. Many of you may know it. Romans chapter 12. I appeal to you, verse 1, therefore, brothers, by the mercy of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. You see, being a Christian is life altering. It’s not obeying a list of commands, although that’s a part of it.

It’s not acknowledging that God created the world, although that’s a part of it. It is complete trust in saying, God, this day, this moment, I will do what you asked, no more questions. I will run and I will jump, and I know that you will catch me. And then it sounds all well and good at 9 a.m. on a Sunday morning.

4. God Is Not Bound by Our Minds

What about for you control people like myself? What about when your plans start falling down one by one? And boy, I gotta tell you, life sure feels like a set of dominoes, doesn’t it? Once one’s knocked over, they all kind of fall down. What about then? Do you have the trust in God to let him pick you up? Do you have enough trust in God to let him set you on a completely different course than you ever imagined? Are you transformed by the renewal of your mind? Because if you are, God will get you through and you will trust him every step of the way, like Abraham did. Let’s go back and think about Abraham. Turn back to Hebrews chapter 11 with me. Turn back to Hebrews chapter 11.

This time in verse 17.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, though Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. I want to note the power of what that passage says. Can I get a show of hands this morning? Who’s had something in their life not go the way they expected? Okay. That’s pretty much everyone. Some people aren’t actually listening, but that’s okay. Okay. How many of you trusted truly that God would get you through no matter what, even if it wasn’t a way that you thought he could?

How many times, brothers and sisters, has God done something unthinkable? And sometimes we we limit God to what we know. We say he’s got to come in here. I could see him giving me a raise at work or maybe a different job. But in the grand scheme of things, God’s plan is so much more infinitesimal than we even can begin to fathom. And Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20 says that. The point is, do you trust God? Do you trust him enough to know that if he told you to kill your only son, that he would come back from the dead? That sounds great in study of the Bible where we see a bunch of miraculous things happening. But what if I told you this morning and I read from you from God’s will that you must sacrifice your only son?

Or if you don’t have a son, your mother or your father to please God. Would you be able to do it? We’re not far from a time in this country where we’re going to have to stand up for our faith, even if that means getting absolutely slapped down by people in the public and by people in control in the authority figures. Are you willing to trust God to do what he has asked anyway? See, it’s hard because we think, how could God let this happen? In fact, imagine what Abraham was thinking about his son. We decide in our box how God’s going to help us or how we’re going to get through. You gotta know that Abraham knew Isaac was the chosen seed. He was the promised son.

What do you have in your life that amounts to what the Word of God told you would be your promised son? I gotta tell you, my job, although great, is nothing like God telling me directly this son is from whom your offspring will come and be numerous. I don’t have anything like that. Yet Abraham had the knife in hand and was willing to strike his own son. Because Abraham trusted God. He knew one of two things that had to happen. And if it and if a third, which is a God let him go through with it, it would be okay anyway, because God would provide. The first option was that God would provide a substitute. We need to recognize that God is not bound by our minds.

God can find substitutes for you in your times of trouble. There will be times when your box is so outmatched by the plan and glory of God that something else may come in to hold you up. Just trust in God. Second thing. Abraham guessed was something impossible to the mind. That he might even bring Isaac up from the dead. And that’s the truth. The truth is, another option of God is that he might undo any damage that you’ve done. You might think that you burned that bridge, but God can set that fire out and restore it better than new. Don’t lay anything out. Don’t put anything out of the mind of God. Don’t say he can’t, because brothers and sisters, I promise you that he can.

Conclusion

And that goes for you. If you are struggling, if you are down, God can lift you up, but you have to trust him. Get that this morning. You have to trust in God. And that is more than just obedience to a list of commands. It is truly and totally trusting him with all that you are. So as you go through this week, let me leave you with this before we dismiss in prayer. As you go through this week, as you go to your job, as you go to your school, as you go through your daily life, recognize God is so great. God is so powerful. And God wants to catch you. If you will just reach out your hand, no matter how painful or how difficult the situation may seem.

Let’s go to God in prayer. Our dear God and most gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for your greatness. We love you because you first loved us. Oh God, we are so in awe of your might, your power, your splendor, your glory, and we are humbled by the fact that we come before you in your throne now at this moment in time. Oh God, thank you for having mercy and grace on us. Oh Lord, we beg of you, be merciful to us as sinners. Forgive us of our wrong. Oh God, we’re so thankful for you that you have chosen, despite creating us like everything else, you chose to make us in your image. And beyond that, you’ve allowed us to become children of you, heirs to our eternal spiritual inheritance.

And oh God, we thank you for choosing to watch out for us the way you do. We understand that your plan, your knowledge, your glory is so beyond our understanding, and yet, oh God, have mercy on us when we fail to allow that to come into our lives and our being. Help us to recognize how truly powerful and wonderful you are. Help us to live as soldiers of you, trusting in your might, trusting in your word, and hoping one day to hear those good words enter in, thy good and faithful servant. God bless us as we go through the service. Help us to learn more about how to trust you and how to live out that trust. And it’s in your son’s name we do pray.

Amen. We’re now dismissed for Bible class.