How & Why to Trust God August 12, 2018 Series: My Favorite Bible Verse: Jeanne Mathias Scripture: Proverbs 3:5,6; Isaiah 26:3, 4 (pg. 1059) Theme: Learning to Trust God. [Jeanne Mathias testimony] Trust may be the single most important word in the book of Isaiah the prophet. Some of us have had the good fortune of studying this book during the last season our Discover Bible Study season We didn t finish and will resume in a few weeks But we came to understand that the prophet Isaiah set out to challenge the Jewish people w/ a single, allimportant question: Whom do you trust? Isaiah knew there were many ways to trust wrong, and all of them would lead to disaster He also knew there s only one way to trust well, and this was the only hope for Israel and Isaiah desperately wants his people to trust well In the end, they choose the way of the fool and their nation would perish because of it. So, I think today, Isaiah s message still rings true and relevant: Whom do you trust? is the single-most important question of a lifetime. Obviously, Isaiah would want you to trust well and wisely And that means learning to trust God. -2- So, I trust that Isaiah is right and that the question of trust truly is the most important question you will ever answer So I would like to be as basic as is possible and answer two very simple questions: A) What is trust? B) Very practically speaking, How do we do it? So, What is trust? Well, there is, at least in part, a semi-definition in Isaiah 26:3, 4 so let me read it: [ISAIAH 26:3,4, pg. 1509 - SLIDES] Now, do you see that last phrase in v. 3: All whose thoughts are fixed on you? The idea of having your thoughts, or your mind, fixed on someone Or having your mind firmly anchored on someone Is, in part, a definition of trust. [SLIDE] Whether you are looking at the Bible or Google Trust is a mind that is firmly fixed on someone.. Trust is the firm belief in the reliability, the truth, the ability, or the strength of someone. Trust is confidence placed in a person. [OFF]
-3- Now, let s go a little deeper: If trust is a firm belief in the reliability of another: Then trust is both an emotional and logical. Trust is emotional because you risk, right? You are exposing yourself and making yourself vulnerable to failure and disappointment. Because trust is not thinking about trusting It is actually trusting. It isn t saying, I think I d like to go skydiving. There is no trust involved in sitting in a Panera booth and reading a skydiving brochure & thinking @ it. It is actually strapping on a parachute or, for most of us when we do it the first time, you actually strap on an expert person and he is wearing a parachute, and then jumping out of a plane. But trust is also logical because you do a kind of mental assessment about the potential gains and losses 99.5% of the time, the parachute opens, so let s do this. So, it s both emotional and logical. It s an emotional and logical decision that the other person is trust-worthy. Now, since we re talking about God, let s ask: From an emotional & logical perspective, is God trustworthy? Well, this is why in v. 4, Isaiah says, Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is an eternal rock. -4- Now, for those of you who have spent some time in the Bible, you know that the idea of God being the rock is a favorite expression of Bible writers, right? And when they say God is the rock? What do they mean? Well, not this: [Slide of the rock ] And not this: [Slide of hand holding rock] But this: [Slide of Tetons] That s the Tetons in Wyoming and I will wake up to that view on Thursday morning and probably take the exact same picture all over again because I can t resist. The Jews were mountain people (not beach!) their Temple was built on top of spine of mountains that runs north to south from the top of Israel to the bottom Which is why the mountains are so important in Scrip: [3 SLIDES] Psalm 95: He holds in his hand the depths of the sea, and even the mightiest mountains Psalm 125: As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people, now and forevermore. Psalm 121: I will lift up my eyes to the mountains From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.
-5- To the Jews, the mountains were strength and beauty and permanence They were unshakeable and immoveable and fiercely protective [Slide] And although they might some days look like this and the fog of despair means they are barely visible [Slide] And some days they look like this and it is just a tiny sliver of a black wall [Slide] And some days like this and the smoke of the world seems to hide them [Slide] You know they are there you know you know they are there they have not moved or melted away You do not doubt their presence. So, the testimony of 4000 years of trust-ers, from King David to Prophet Isaiah to Jeanne Mathias: Trust in the Lord always, For the Lord God is the eternal rock. So, what is trust? It is the firm belief in the reliability, the truth, the ability, and the strength of our God. It is confidence placed in a person of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. For he is our eternal rock. [OFF] Now, Question 2: How do we do it? How do we trust? 2 lessons in trusting we re going to look at The first 1 is a language lesson and I promise we will get at language but we re going the long way around. -6- [SLIDE] I m borrowing some of what I ve learned here from a language & anthropological researcher named Lera Boroditsky her TED talk is just fascinating, you should Google it [OFF] So I need to ask you to trust me you to do me a favor Close your eyes raise your left hand. Keep hand up & open your eyes. If you look around I think everyone got it. Close your eyes again point south west OK open your eyes Notice people are pointing in every direction. I don t know which way it is either & you re no help, obviously. Now, here s the thing for a long, long time, evolutionary biologists have wondered when humans lost the ability orient ourselves directionally Most other animals have this ability Lots of birds fly round-trip 1.000 of miles to the exact same fields and cliffs every year Salmon swim from the oceans to the same inland streams every year Drop a dog off somewhere & give him a couple hours or days, he ll come traipsing up your driveway. Everyone imagined humans have lost this ability But it turns out, we haven t and it s hidden our language our language which shapes reality for us.
-7- [SLIDE] There are Australian Aborigine tribes one called the Guuguu Thaayorre that do not have words for left and right or front and back Instead, they use cardinal directions for everything that s North, East, South, and West And truly, they use them for everything. If a person says, I hurt my leg and someone asks, Which one? The answer will be, My South-South East one. Which means, in another conversation, the same leg might be West North West one. [SLIDE] If someone wants to say, Hey, can you move your cup to the left a little so it doesn t fall off the table? He will say, Can you move your cup a little to the South-South West? When the people in this tribe greet each other say, Hello or Good morning or whatever the greeting is, Which way are you going? That s their greeting! Answer is not, Fine, but, East North East, how bout you? Ah, me as well, I will go with you. [OFF] Imagine living in a culture in which you couldn t get past Hello without knowing the direction you re facing And every conversation would require you to be thoroughly and completely grounded in directions -8- You d get pretty good at it, don t you think? And these people are! It turns out they have not lost the ability to know directions and navigate that everyone though we lost It turns out get this, it s important: Their language has shaped how they understand their world. There are 7,000 languages in our world, and we think language is just different sounds for the same words But it is not it is not Our language actually shapes how we see and understand our world and our place in it. So, now that you know that and trust me that it s important you re ready to see something Both of the Scripture passages Jeanne shared are written to a person identified as you. [SLIDE] Proverbs 3:5, 6, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understand. Seek his will in all you do, and he will direct your paths. Do you know that in the Bible, almost every You word is the plural form of the word, You and not the singular word? We don t have a plural word, You unless you live south of the Mason-Dixon line and then it s, Ya-all We are entirely individualistic culture and our language has helped to shape this reality for us I guarantee you, if you are engaged in this message-
-9- All morning long you have been thinking, OK, how do I learn to trust? Not, How do we learn to trust? But this isn t how the bible talks about our faith I do not do my faith alone, Biblically speaking. It is done in community in relationships. You and I we look at our world through the lens of individualism We value our privacy and, frankly, if I am going to be completely honest with you it is deadly to our relationships, our lives and our faith It really, really is. Granted, there are good things that come out of our individualism Individualism fosters competition Competition often fosters innovation... And I love innovation I m not going to given up my carbon-fiber bike or robotic surgery Still what suffers from our individualism is far more important to our souls what suffers is our relational skills We ll say things like, I d just rather do this alone it s easier just to do it alone. This is now even true of things that historically been relational, like sex, for example, right? And there are other cultures that would hear you say that and not comprehend easier? Alone? -10- Trust is not it does not work as a solo-adventure. We actually grow in trust by leaning on each other. Some of us are old enough to remember how communism and socialism tried to destroy faith all faith, not just Christianity, all faith, except for faith in the state In the communist Soviet Union, the Methodist Church was almost completely wiped out But in the late 1980 s and 1990 s, we watched this miraculous process of one communist country after another collapsing in on itself And it turns out there was this one place in the Soviet Union Estonia where the Methodist Church survived and today, thrives. And if you ask, Why did the church survive here? They will tell you the story of a Methodist church leader who was imprisoned and tortured by the state as they tried to get him to give up his Church He said, The Church isn t mine; it belongs to Jesus. Ultimately, he disappeared. But the young pastors who took his place all said, If he can, we can and they leaned on each other for courage And although the government took their buildings and turned them into Worker s Halls, they never succeeded in shutting down the church
-11- Which continued to meet in basements and apartments. So, when communism collapsed in on itself, these buildings were abandoned And churches moved back in and today, in the same buildings in which communist atheism was once proclaimed, you can walk in one today and find 700 young seekers after truth who are proclaiming boldly what their fathers and grandfathers taught them in secret: That even in the darkest times, God is our eternal rock. He cannot be moved. He cannot be shaken. He cannot be vanquished. He cannot be disappeared. Together together we will trust. How do you learn to trust? You lean on each other practice- every time you read the word, You in scripture, practice telling yourself, This is about us. Not me alone. Surrender your individualism Married couples learn to talk about the hardest things the things you re afraid to bring up. Men, stop letting your pride & ego getting in the way of relationships Learn to do life together. Second lesson: In Proverbs 3 in that lesson on trust, there is a phrase that says, Seek his will in all you do. -12- Now, it turns out, this is a lesson on how to trust, but to learn the lesson, you have to understand what we call the Principle of Indirection That is, there are some thing in life you get to by not focusing on the thing itself but on what makes those things Happiness, for example, is one. You don t get to happiness by trying to be happy, but by focusing on those things that make happiness. Same with self-esteem And the same with trust. Here s what this means --- again, this is important: Usually, when it comes to trust in God, we are usually focusing on a particular outcome for some problem or dilemma and we ask God s help for the outcome we want. Then, when we don t get that outcome the way we want, we think, Well I obviously can t trust God he didn t do what I wanted Him to do. Now, think about that sentence: He didn t do what I wanted him to do. See, most of us want to be in charge we just want God s help in getting our projects done our way. And that s a sure-fire way to dis-trust. Instead, if you want to learn to trust the focus needs to be on God, himself and you trust Him for the outcome. And this is entirely different.
-13- This does not mean that you don t bring to God requests for certain outcomes we re hoping for But even then, the focus is still on following God regardless Not on the outcome. Jesus did this some marvelously Think about his agonizing prayer in the Garden, just hours before his arrest he knew the cross was coming right? So what did he pray? Father, can there be some other way? Who can blame him? Then he said, Nevertheless, Father, Your will be done. And when you read the Scripture s account of what happened during his trials his crucifixion you will discover a man who somehow was in complete peace To the point that on the cross, he said, Father, into your hands, I surrender my Spirit. Into your hands That s the picture of a man who knew whose hands were trust-worthy. Even now, Father, even know, I trust that my life is in your hands even when my breath is leaving my body I trust you with my life. His focus was God not the outcome. -14- Regardless of the outcome, God, I m choosing you. Which is why, the way to trust, is, according to Proverbs 3 To seek his will in all you do. That is, as you walk through your days, What is the next right thing God wants you to do? When you learn to do life the way God asks us to do life We are actually growing in our trust. When we do w/ our money what God asks us to do, we are growing our trust muscles When we do w/ our talk, our words, what God asks us to do, we re growing trust When we to w/ our sexuality, our thoughts, our time, our relationships, what God asks us to do We are learning to trust. A decade or so ago I started biking I started on a mountain bike 2 Mikes, Mike Barnyak & Mike Arner were my rabbis my teachers I kept hitting trees & rocks & I d finish the rides pretty bloody And the Mike s would ask, When you ride, what are you looking at? I d say, The tree! I don t want hit it! They d say, No, on a bike, you look at where you want to go not what you want to avoid.
-15- I went for a ride Friday a quick ride through the parkway The storms 2 weeks ago just made a mess of the trails 3 and 4 foot washouts in the trails On one, on the hill behind the fish hatchery, there was still a 10 wide section of good trail next to this 3 ditch. Now, I did the same trail on Monday and it was no problem I ve done this kind of stuff lots of time Kept my eyes on the 10 no problem. -16- Follow him wherever Regardless And what does Isaiah say will result: He will keep in perfect peace, all those whose trust is in you. But on Friday, for some reason, as I m riding up this hill, I m looking down into the ditch I was actually thinking, This isn t where your eyes belong you know better. And I started to lean I m looking into the ditch thinking, This is gonna hurt And, trust me it did hurt. What your eyes are on that s where you will go in life. So, you want to grow in trust? [Slide- keep on to the end] I will lift up my eyes to the mountains. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord. Learn to take your eyes off the outcome you can ask for one nothing wrong in that But get your eyes on Jesus