1: Total Trust Intro

TOTAL TRUST - Teaching Plan

Week 1 - Total Trust Intro

Week 2 - Who IS Jesus?

Week 3 - Count the Cost

Week 4 - The Reward of Trust

Week 5 - Evidence of Trust

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I haven’t seen you guys/gals since last year and I wonder how many of you have kept your New years resolutions - that moment that seize the chance to change course after being confronted with the consequences of last year’s decisions. But, by now - March, we have either developed good habits & ditched the bad ones…OR NOT. That might include:

Eating less/Exercising more

Spending less/Saving more

Limiting our time on social networks to less than 10 hours a day

Focusing on self less/Focusing on others more

OR...Resolving not to make any more resolutions

I don’t know what you resolved to do this year, but I am fairly certain of this. Where you end up will be based on where you’re headed...I know, I know - pretty deep huh?

Or maybe we can say it this way:

BIG TRUTH: Direction determines Destination.

Let me add this: Direction (not desire) determines Destination.

The direction you are headed today, will determine where you will end up tomorrow.

When my family goes to see Tonya’s family in NC. We know WHERE we are starting from, and we know WHERE we want to end up. So, we input in our current location & desired destination. Then we followed the directions that take us NORTH.

But what if, instead of taking 95 N or 75 N, we went South?

You might say something like this, “Jackie, you won’t make it to NC going South, because…your direction determines your destination.”

What if I countered and said, “I really DESIRE to go to NC, but I’m going SOUTH” to get there.”? What would you tell me? You would probably use the Greek term for "ordinary” - pronounced e-dee-oate-tase or IDIOT.

And you would be right…because,

BIG TRUTH: Direction [not desire] determines Destination.

So, let me ask YOU a question: What if you were to map out where YOU are going the rest of this year - starting with your current location & ending with your desired destination - what would that look like?

Those of us who want to get PHYSICALLY FIT need to get honest about our current location (too much bread in the bread basket) & change directions to get to our desired destination (slim and trim).

Those of us who want to get FINANCIALLY FIT need to get honest about our current location (more month than money) & change directions to get to our desired destination (spending, giving, saving).

Those of us who want to get RELATIONALLY FIT need to get honest about our current location (broken or surface-level friendships) & change directions to get to our desired destination (making time for buddies and buddettes).

When we get honest about our current LOCATION and look to our desired DESTINATION, we can then begin to move in the right DIRECTION, because...

BIG TRUTH: Direction determines Destination.

But what about our Spiritual Condition? Do you think we should consider

getting honest about our current location

& change our direction to get to our desired destination?

So, what is YOUR current spiritual location? We’re all over the map. On this video chat there are

long-time disciples of Jesus & brand new believers.

Some of us might be checking out the claims of Christianity for the first time.

Some of us are growing, some are stagnant & some of us are skeptics.

What is YOUR current spiritual location? And are you SATISFIED with where you are? My guess is we all have room to grow.

What is the desired destination? While we all start from different locations, the destination is the same...to Know the One True GOD.

What’s our Route to get there?

by TOTAL TRUST: Childlike faith, where we trust God with every aspect of our lives. Like the little boy who prayed:

Dear God, please take care of my daddy and my mommy and my sister and my brother and my doggy and me. Oh, please take care of yourself, God. If anything happens to You, we're gonna be in a BIG mess.

TOTAL TRUST is where we realize - without God, we’re in a BIG MESS.

TOTAL TRUST is where God’s Presence is bigger than our problems.

This idea of TOTAL TRUST is littered throughout the Bible. In the New Testament, the same word for TRUST is often translated ‘believe’ or ‘faith’. Here’s an example.

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)

And without faith [pistis (noun)- meaning total trust] it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe [(verb) trust] that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

Do you believe [trust] God exists? Have you examined the evidence? Design demonstrates a designer.

Do you REALLY believe [trust] that He rewards those who earnestly seek him? Do YOU earnestly seek Him?

Here’s a test:

If you show up to church, but don’t obey Him outside of that building or around those people...you don’t BELIEVE [trust].

If you can spend hours talking, texting, or online but have no desire to open the Bible or pray...you don’t BELIEVE. You aren’t EARNESTLY seeking Him. That’s not TOTAL TRUST, that’s playing ‘church’...and God knows the difference.

Did you know that the letters compiled in the Bible itself were written so that those who read it (you & me) would give Jesus our TOTAL TRUST?

John 20:30–31 (NIV)

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe [trust] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing [trusting] you may have life in His name.

Did you know THAT’S the result of TRUSTING Jesus - life in his name?

What does THAT mean? It means we believe WHO Jesus is and WHAT Jesus says, and next week we will answer this question for those who aren’t sure: WHO IS Jesus?

He is more than a good man, a prophet, or a miracle worker.

And what you do with JESUS determines whether you will have ETERNAL LIFE or or NOT.

BIG TRUTH: Direction determines Destination.

You know, I’ve talked with a lot of people about their spiritual condition over the years.

I don’t ever remember hearing someone say, “You know, I’ve been following Jesus for years - earnestly seeking Him - knowing His forgiveness & purpose...and I sure wish I WOULDN’T have done that.”

But OH I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this, “I sure wish I would have trusted Jesus much earlier. The heartache I could have sidestepped. The relationships I could have developed. The forgiveness & purpose I would have found! Why did I wait so long!!!?”

There is a simple reason why we OBEY or NOT: It’s all about TRUST.

Many of us have disobeyed because we thought we knew better. We thought that if there is a God, he doesn’t KNOW or doesn’t WANT what’s best for us.

Know why so many people are sexually impure? They don’t believe God has their best in mind. They think He’s trying to keep something good from them. They don’t TRUST Him.

Know why so many won’t give to support ministry? They don’t believe all they have is on loan from God. They don’t trust Him with ‘their’ money.

Know why so many never share their faith with others? They don’t TRUST that God goes before them to convict & convince hearts.

Know why so many who claim to know Jesus fail to show Jesus with their lives? They don’t have TOTAL TRUST.

Let’s look at one Biblical story of TOTAL TRUST: a story of LIFE CHANGE.

A centurion, a Gentile (non-Jew) responsible for 100 soldiers in the Roman army, had some Jews approach Jesus to ask Him to heal his servant who was about to die. This man had proven to be a friend to the Jews. So Jesus responded to his request and began to walk that way.

Luke 7:6–10 (NIV)

So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: “Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd following him, he said, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” Then the men who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant well.

We don’t know the rest of the story, but I bet you this centurion, his servant - now healed, and many in his household put TOTAL TRUST in Jesus after that day!

Regardless of your Current Location, if your desired destination is to KNOW HIM, you must change directions and begin to TRUST Jesus. We must know WHO Jesus is and WHAT Jesus says.

Next week we will dig deeper and this question: Who IS Jesus?

Until then:

1. Turn from your sin & Trust Jesus with it.

Augustine's Conversion

One day in August 386, a professor of rhetoric named Aurelius Augustine sat despondently in his garden. Although the son of a Christian mother, he had abandoned his mother’s faith in favor of the Persian religion known as Manichaeism. He also took a mistress, with whom he lived for thirteen years.

Abandoning Manichaeism as unsatisfactory, he continued a futile search for truth. Through the preaching of the church Father Ambrose, he became intellectually convinced of the truth of Christianity. Yet he held back, “prevented from accepting the faith by weakness in dealing with sexual temptation” (R. S. PineCoffin, “Introduction,” to Saint Augustine: Confessions [New York: Penguin, 1978], 11).

Now, in the midst of his turmoil, he heard a child’s voice singing the Latin words meaning “take and read”. In his Confessions, he describes what happened next:

“I stemmed my flood of tears and stood up, telling myself that this could only be a divine command to open my book of Scripture and read the first passage on which my eyes should fall. … in silence I read the first passage on which my eyes fell: Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in lust and wantonness, not in quarrels and rivalries. Rather, arm yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ; spend no more thought on nature and nature’s appetites [Rom. 13:13–14]. I had no wish to read more and no need to do so. For in an instant, as I came to the end of the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispelled. (Confessions VIII, 12, translated by R. S. PineCoffin [New York: Penguin, 1978])

After turning from a life of sin and confusion, TRUSTING WHO Jesus is and WHAT Jesus says, Augustine went on to become the greatest theologian the church had known since the apostle Paul.

John F. MacArthur Jr., Acts, MacArthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1994), 261–263.

2. Read the Scripture - write down your insights and questions - and share them with friends or family: Hebrews 11.

And…be sure to watch where you step, because...

BIG TRUTH: Direction determines Destination.