Trust God

Four Challenges - Challenge #3: Trust God

Welcome to Westerville Christian. It’s a delight to worship God with you in person and online. For everyone watching online, if you fill out our online connect card at the end of this service we will donate $5 in your name to the Pregnancy Decision Health Center. PDHC is a place where people can find hope in Jesus.

Eleanor Turnbull served as a missionary in Haiti. Over the years she collected and translated the prayers of Christ followers who lived in the mountains of Haiti. These child-like prayers are recorded in her book God Is No Stranger. This one short prayer stood out to me. Lord, how glad we are that we don't hold you, you hold us.[i] Do you believe that? Do you trust that God holds you? Being completely honest, sometimes I do; sometimes I don’t. We see that in the lives of people all throughout the Bible.

Today is week #3 of a series we’re calling Four Challenges. Challenge #3 is to Trust God. What does that mean? Trust means “to believe, to have faith in, to place your confidence in.”[ii] You are not going to trust someone you don’t know. That includes God. If someone walked up to you and said, “I need you to trust me.” What would you do? First, who are they? I’m not going willingly trust a stranger. I will trust people I know, but even that gets tested sometimes. There’s a restaurant called Mama D’s, located in North Little Rock, Arkansas. Mama D’s has been serving this menu item known as “My Girlfriend is Not Hungry.” For an extra $4.25 you get extra fries, two wings or three fried cheese sticks. Why? Because the boyfriend doesn’t trust his girlfriend to stay away from his food. He has no confidence in her claim, “I’m not hungry, I don’t want anything.” When it comes to humans, I can’t say that trusting someone is easy. Is that also true of God?

What does it look like to trust God? Let me provide four biblical examples. The first is Job. Here are the first three verses from the Book of Job. (Read verses 1-3) Job fears God, and God has blessed him & his wife with children, wealth and a good reputation. But unknown to Job, Satan makes an accusation against God. Their conversation begins in verse 6. (Read 6-11)

This sounds wrong, but Satan has a point. Will any human trust God even when life is bad? Does Job only fear God for what God can give him? God wants to prove Satan wrong. Here is verse 12. Except for Jesus suffering on the cross, I can’t imagine anyone having a worse day than Job. The Sabeans take his oxen, donkeys and kill his servants except for one. Lightning falls from the sky burning up his sheep and killing his servants except for one. The Chaldeans ride off with his camels and kill his servants except for one. Then a tornado, a desert twister sometimes called a “dust devil”[iii] levels his oldest son’s house. Killing his son plus Job’s nine other children. All ten die at the same time. Can you imagine? I don’t want to imagine. How does Job respond? This is verse 20. (Read 1: 20-21)

I’m not sure I could have said that. Don’t get me wrong. I love God. I trust God, but sometimes his ways confuse me. It gets even more confusing for Job. God uses him as an example to Satan for a second time. Their conversation begins in Job 2:2. (Read 2-10)

Job’s right. His response shows his maturity, but as time goes by, Job gets frustrated. First, it’s his three friends. They believed that anyone who really loved God would not experience the death of their children or get sick let alone be covered with sores. Job had to have sinned to experience this kind of punishment/suffering. Job tells them that he’s innocent but they won’t believe him. His frustration spills over to God. Job said this in chapter 30. (Read 20-21) That’s what it looks like, but Job has no idea that God is using him to prove a point. Satan accused God of not of tampering but of pampering. You hedge people in. Nothing bad happens to them. Let bad happen and they’ll shake their fist at you. They’ll deny you even exist. That’s not what Job does. Did you know that because of the grace of God you can be frustrated with God and still trust him? Job lost his family, his income and his health, but he keeps trusting God. Will you? We don’t know what’s going to happen in the next 4 days, 4 months or 4 years. Don’t stop trusting God.

God is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in love. Do you honestly think your life will be better if you stopped trusting Him? Job is an ancient example. Here’s a 21st century example. This is Pat & Kacey Connor. They keep trusting God as Pat endures his cancer treatments. Job never knew why he suffered. You might not either. Trust God that one day you will find out why.

There’s a similar story in the Bible about a woman named Naomi. Naomi is our 2nd example of what it looks like to trust God and her story is found in the book of Ruth. Let’s meet the family. This is Ruth 1:1. (Read 1-5) What can happen to a person when they experience so much death? We find out in verse 20.

Bitterness is deadly, but did you know that by the grace of God you can be bitter and still trust God? Now I’m not recommending it. Satan will use bitterness to mess you up. Do you ever wonder if you are being tested or tempted? We have two separate English words - tested and tempted. But not in the New Testament. One word, “Peirazo”, means both.[iv] God uses death to test us. God tests you to mature you. To make you more like his son. You can trust him because He has His reasons for doing what he does. Satan uses death to tempt us. Satan tempts only to deceive and destroy you. Satan uses sickness and death to convince you that God is cruel. To get you to believe that God doesn’t care, which means He cannot be trusted. In your life, are you being tested or tempted? Death can push you away from God or draw you closer to Him. Naomi is an ancient example.

Here are two 21st century examples. This is Mike & Cindy Bish. Mike & Cindy have three children. Their oldest, Sam, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and fought for a year. Sam died at the age of 9. Sam would have turned 20 on January 25. This is Justin & Carey Largent. They have five children. This is their little boy Bryer. Bryer was born on October 17, 2012 in Westerville. He spent 233 of his 305 days at Nationwide Children's Hospital before leaving this earth for heaven on September 12, 2013. Bryer would have turned 8 last October. Both of these couples have experienced the death of a child and in spite of that heartache they trust God. Will you? Sickness and death can push you away from God but so can obedience. We see this in the life of Abraham. Abraham is our third biblical example of what it looks like to trust God. God said this to Abraham in Genesis 12:1. (Read 1-4)

God blesses us when we obey. That doesn’t make life easy though. Notice Abraham is 75 when God enters into a covenant with him.[v] Trust me. My people will come though you and Sarah. But time goes by and Abraham gets impatient with God. Why is this taking so long? Why can’t Sarah get pregnant? God reminds him of his covenant in Genesis 15:5. Genesis 15:5-6: “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Believed means trusted, but Sarah doesn’t have a baby until 25 years go by. This is Genesis 21:5: Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. Abraham and Sarah are so happy and then around 12 years later God asks Abraham to do the unthinkable in Genesis 22:2: Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

Isaac is just a boy which means he’s not any older than twelve. But Abraham does what God commands him to do because he trusts that God will provide. God will provide a substitute ( a lamb or a goat) or God will bring Isaac back from the dead. I’m delighted to say that God provided a substitute. This is Genesis 22:13.

I can’t imagine how relieved Abraham must be felt when God told him to stop. God commanded him to be obedient. His obedience proved that he trusted God. What command is God calling you to obey? To be faithful to your spouse even though you don’t want to be. To live on 90% of your income while giving God the 10% that rightfully belongs to him? Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. God tells us that life is precious. From a baby in the womb to a Senior Adult in the Worthington Christian Village. All people, young and old, all colors – red, yellow, black & white – ALL are precious in His sight. God wants us all to know that we have been fearfully and wonderfully made in His image. Our identity doesn’t come from what we do. It comes from whose we are. Our choice to obey God’s commands proves that we trust him.

What command did God ask his only son to obey? Go to the cross. To die on the cross for the sins of my people. That’s crazy! But Jesus obeyed because He trusted his Father. Jesus is our fourth biblical example of what it looks like to trust God. This is Genesis 22:2 one more time. (Read) Doesn’t that scripture remind you of another son? Jesus has been called “the second Isaac.” Ask this practical question! Why? Why should I trust God?

Because God gave Abraham a substitute and God gave you a substitute. His only son, Jesus Christ. Why should we trust God? Because he holds us. Do you remember that little Haitian prayer? Lord, how glad we are that we don't hold you, you hold us.[vi] Do you want God to hold you? Then… Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Trust what his son did for you on the cross. Let’s remember Jesus as we take communion together. For everyone worshipping God online gather some bread and juice when you see the Communion image on the screen. Look at what Isaac said to his father in Genesis 22. (Read verse 6-8)

Pray: Jesus, you are that lamb. Help us to see what you did. You became our substitute. We should have died for our own sins, but you took our place on the cross. Our trust in you did means we have received the forgiveness of our sins. Thank you for trusting your Father by being obedient. Amen

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[i] https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/december/4121211.html

[ii] Logos Bible Software, Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon, Trust

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_devil

[iv] Logos Bible Software, Strong’s Enhanced Lexicon, Tempted, Matthew 4:1

[v] Genesis 12:4 (NIV)

[vi] https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2011/december/4121211.html