Trust in the LORD (2)

Trust in the LORD

Introduction

Today’s sermon title is a common theme you hear often in many different situations and season in life. Trust God, and simply believe. Trust God and you will make it through this situation. There are many ways in which we can trust God. Today’s sermon though is about the two ways in life: trusting our ways and trusting God’s ways. They both have quite different results.

Today, I encourage you ask listen for where you may not be trusting God or afraid to let go of control and trust God.

Two ways: human way

Verses 5-6 do not paint a pleasant picture. Listen again to Jeremiah 17:5-6

Jeremiah 17:5–6 NRSV

5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. 6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.

The Israelites had a tendency as I mentioned last week to waver back and forth between following God and following other gods. In some sense, they followed whoever the king encouraged them to follow. They also paid dearly for making poor choices. Jeremiah’s prophecies all focused on God’s judgment of their wayward tendencies and the consequences ultimately would be them exiled from their promised land. In some ways, they were always trusting in human ways by following whatever the king decided they should. I don’t want to ignore that sometimes it was to your detriment or demise to go against what the king wanted but nonetheless. They spent their time in the promised land following after human ways and they ended up in exile.

Leaders take note, you will answer for when you lead others astray. The same goes for us today. Are we following God’s ways or human ways? I can’t help but wonder when church is popular in the culture then the pews are full but when it is not because of controversy or inconvenience or just general unpopularity, the pews are open and plenty of space is empty.

I can’t help but wonder if some of our challenges today with church numbers on the decline is because of church becoming unpopular in society and other things replacing the status it once held. Today we struggle just like the shrub in the desert with raising up the next generation when so many are absent from the church.

Two ways: God’s way

On the flip side though, God’s grace is never absent in human history. If you look at Jeremiah, there is another picture painted in verses 7-8. Listen again to Jeremiah 17:7-8

Jeremiah 17:7–8 NRSV

7 Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. 8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.

Here we have the opposite of what we had with people trusting in human ways. Here instead of parched dry places where nothing thrives or grows, there are roots that reach into a stream that brings the water into the tree that makes it strong and the roots going into that source of water make the tree strong. If you look at certain people in the Old Testament you will find this example. In bible study on Wednesday night, we read about Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. These four people who were sent to exile still trusted in God in a very difficult new world they found themselves in. These four people were preserved through various trials and tribulations and came out ahead because of trusting God. Many others perished and many others compromised their beliefs yet these four special people we read about in the first few chapters of Daniel demonstrated what this trusting looks like in the face of unpopular opinion and going against the king and other leaders of the land.

Where do we find ourselves facing the same challenges? Where are we able to demonstrate our trust in the LORD? While we may not be facing a leader making us bow down to a statue made in his image, are we facing more subtle challenges that make us compromise our beliefs?

Think about making an unpopular statement where you say culture is demanding we compromise our beliefs. There are many today going around but you probably can think of one or two that you personally have been faced with. Consider James 1:2-4

James 1:2–4 NRSV

2 My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; 4 and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

Think about having to face up to others who tell you to compromise your faith and be reasonable. Think of this as opportunity to reaffirm your trust in the LORD. As James says, these opportunities help us to grow our faith muscle which is based on trusting the LORD. Think about being challenged on something you have believed your whole life and someone or some article or post comes along that challenges it. There are two outcomes possible: (1) your knowledge and faith on that matter becomes stronger through being challenged or (2) you decided to compromise or change your belief. This is not to say that you can’t learn anything new or grow in your understanding of what you believe but rather when it causes you or requires you to compromise or stop trusting God or believing in God, this makes you grow.

Do you remember the roots by the stream? They were feeding that life giving water to the tree. Those roots which connected the tree to the water held the tree firmly in place. Our commitment to trust God and stay in touch with him throughout the day means we stay rooted in God. This is the way we grow and weather any storms or challenges that come our way.

The deciding factor

In all these things, there is one part of us that helps make this possible or causes us to falter. This is our heart. Listen again to Jeremiah 17:9-10

Jeremiah 17:9–10 NRSV

9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse— who can understand it? 10 I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

What Jeremiah is saying here is that God searches our hearts and flushes out the deceptions the lies we compromise by or the other gods we secretly believe in. We cannot hide our heart from God so instead of fearing what may be exposed, let God in to clean your heart and remove the false idols, remove the lies we believed in, and then put in us a clean heart and mind to trust God by.

We try this often on our own which is still trying to follow the human way. Yet, God’s way is simply about trusting God to complete the work in you and trusting in this work rather than your own ways to fix your heart. God’s healing comes from within and the heart is where it starts. Today let God into your heart to create in you a clean heart that trust only in God.