Sermon Series: In God We Trust Colossians 2:6-7 Learning To Trust Pastor Brian Long: January 10th, 2016 1 The practice of trust is absolutely central in our lives. When you stop to think about it in order to live our lives, we are exercising trust in tons of areas each and every day. In chairs and beds to hold us In food to providers or packagers to feed us In cars to drive us In other drivers to avoid us When I fly I trust in The baggage handlers, in TSA agents, in flight crew and especially pilot and all other pilots to avoid us. It s crazy the amount of trust we are called on to implement or exercise in a given day. Last week we also learned that the Bible repeatedly calls us to greater and greater trust in God. We looked at two examples of this: Psalm 62:5-8 Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from him. 6 Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken. 7 My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge. 8 Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. And Jeremiah 17:5-8 This is what the Lord says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord. That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
2 But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Working Definition of Trust Last week we took a looked at various attempts to define trust and highlight a few of the key components of trust. This week I ve taken all those key aspects we looked at last week and tried to craft a working definition of trust. Trust is a subjective confidence/belief expressed in an act of dependency upon another for needs that cannot be met independently. Trust has both perceptual and behavioral dimensions. Perceiving someone as trustworthy and placing oneself in a position of vulnerability due to the possibility of betrayal is trust. You see, without actions that express belief, it is not trust. This is why James says, Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead (James 2:17). Now in both the Old and New Testaments, trust is synonymous with concepts like belief and faith. So, you can legitimately read this James passage as, Trust by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is not trust at all. Now, as our working definition states, practicing trust starts with a subjective or internal confidence or belief in the trustworthiness of another. So as we think about trust in God, the question might be How reliable or trustworthy is God? The Trustworthiness of God There are numerous passages that declare the faithfulness, reliability, and trustworthiness of God. Let me show you a small example. Numbers 23:19 say, God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? The words of Joshua still apply to God and his relationship with us when he gives this death bed speech, Joshua 23:24, "Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your
3 God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed. At the beginning of God s story with us he promises this in Genesis 12:1-3 The Lord had said to Abram, Go from your country, your people and your father s household to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And at the end of the story, the fulfillment is described in Revelation 7:9-10, After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb. So, there are more than enough character witnesses over the centuries to establish the reliability, faithfulness, and trustworthiness of God. As a result, the choice to trust him is super reasonable and justified. The question is how do we develop and deepen that trust? The Growth Process of Trust Typically trust is not an all-or-none phenomenon. Trusting in God is usually a learning process. When we initially come to understand our sinfulness, our need for forgiveness for our sin in order to qualify for heaven, and that God offers that forgiveness through trust in Jesus Christ, we are saved and we become a Christian. Salvation marks the moment when we initially exercise trust in God and begin of a life-long journey of learning to trust him to greater and greater degrees. Colossians 2:6-7 in the Living Bible translation describes this clearly when it words the verse this way, 6 And now just as you trusted Christ to save you, trust him, too, for each day s problems; live in vital union with him.
4 7 Let your roots grow down into him and draw up nourishment from him. See that you go on growing in the Lord, and become strong and vigorous in the truth you were taught. Let your lives overflow with joy and thanksgiving for all he has done. (The Living Bible) As is clear in this Colossians passage, Christians are called to grow and mature in our relationship with God by continually learning to transfer the weight of our trust off unreliable, uncertain things and onto the reliable, stable person, promises, and plan of God. Now, as we grow as Christians discerning where the weight of our trust is really leaning is sometimes difficult, as verse 9 of the Jeremiah 17 text states, The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? Often our insights on this in our lives come gradually, overtime as wisdom grows in our lives. But the actual experience of that shift might be better understood by using the ladder metaphor I introduced last week. 1. When we first come to Christ our trust is primarily leaning on ungodly things. I have this person backwards on the ladder because the majority of his weight is leaning on the wrong things when he or she first comes to Christ. The Bible says we are prone to misplace our trust in all sorts of things: False gods and false religions (Ps. 40:4), untrustworthy alliances and relationships (Isaiah 31:1), Human strength and resources (Jeremiah 17:5), outward religious performance (Micah 6:6-8), one s own goodness and righteousness (Romans 3:19-20), and finally people like you and me are always at risk of misplacing our trust in wealth (1 Timothy 6:17). 2. As we begin to read our Bible and grow in Christ we learn that God is calling us to transfer our trust from godless things we had always perceived to be reliable, onto God. As we set out to do that we soon discover that is not always an easy endeavor. 3. What we have been leaning on feels comfortable, stable, familiar, and reliable to us. We ve learned to trust in these things from our childhood and they have been reinforced through the culture. We ve leaned on it
5 for so long it feels solid to us. 4. What God calls us to is unfamiliar, untried, counter-intuitive, and less tangible. 5. Now, as we begin to try and transfer our trust to God, the most difficult part is the space in between it feels scary, unfamiliar, and uncertain. 6. And too often those feelings motivate us to foreclose on God s promise and shift our weight when I back to our tried and true perceived stable rest. And so we stay stuck trusting in things and leaning on things that are unstable and will ultimately disappoint or wound us. 7. But as you remain resolved to trust God, his plan, and his promises you come to experience rest, peace, confidence, and fruitfulness all the promise of Psalm 62 and Jeremiah 17 we looked at last week. In fact, the Bible explicitly states several blessings that come from resting the ladder of your life on God, his plans, and his promises: Peace (Isa 26:3-4), security (Ps 37:3), protection from danger (Ps 25:1-3), freedom from fear (Ps 27:1), prosperity (Pr 28:25- In the OT material prosperity is often seen as a sign of the spiritual wealth that belongs to those who trust God), strength (Isa 30:15), physical life (Ps 25:20). Middle 19 th 1 Century Brittish preacher Charles Spurgeon : Whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe: From the damning and conquering power of sin. From the overcoming force of temptation. From the deadening effect of sorrow. From the destroying force of Satan. From death, and hell, and every evil. From all injury which men can inflict. Now, to make sure we understand this trust growth model, let me step through a real life example using as an example one of the areas that is sometimes sensitive in church but an area where we all need to learn to develop and deepen our trust in God [trusting God s plans and promises regarding the stewardship of money] C. H. Spurgeon, God Worthy of Our Trust, in Sermon Outlines on the Attributes of God, ed. Al Bryant (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel 1 Publications, 1992), 32 33.
6 Conclusion: 1. When we first come to Christ we are unaware of God s money management principles. All we know is what we ve seen modeled by our family and culture. 2. As we begin to read our Bibles we learn that God calls us to: a. Recognize he is the owner and provider of everything we have. b. As a clear and tangible sign of our trust in him, God asks us to cheerfully give a regular portion back to him for his work in the world through tithes and offerings. He calls this storing your treasures in heaven and investing in his Kingdom work. c. God says giving as he calls us to demonstrates he is first in our lives. And it keeps us from becoming addicted to wealth. d. God also promises to bless, guard, and protect those who are faithful stewards. 3. At some point, our understanding is clear enough that we decide to trust God s money management strategies and obey his commands regarding how we manage our money. And we start to tithe or give ten percent of our income which is generally understood to be the Bible s standard. But, as we begin to practice godly stewardship we get nervous, scared, and apprehensive. In other words, giving becomes emotionally uncomfortable. And so we face a choice. Are we going to trust God s plan and promises or are we going to shrink back and shift back to what we ve always trusted in. Cash is King not Jesus is King. 4. If we press on however, and trust God, his plan, and his promises regarding money, the Bible actually gives a whole host of promises for faithful stewards. You will be blessed in every way 2 Cor. 9:11 You will experience God s provision and protection in an abundant way Malachi 3:10-11 We will have enough to live on (8). having all that you need. Our ministry will multiply (8,11). You will abound in every good work [God] will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. We will have enough to give more (10-11). [God] will also supply and increase your store of seed {11} You will be made rich in every way
7 so that you can be generous on every occasion People will thank for supplying their needs (12) your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God supplying the needs of God's people People will praise God for your obedience to God and generosity (13) Men will praise God for the obedience and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. People will pray for you (14) And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you." Next week we re going to look closer at the reality that not only does God call us to trust him but he actually puts his trust in us to be his trustworthy stewards of all he s given us. Church of the Foothills 2015