Do you trust in God?

 

Many times when we  read the story of how God worked through Moses and Aaron to free the children of Israel for  Egyptian bondage and all the Miracles he did and then when see how the children of Israel kept on having a weak faith by wanting to go back to Egypt even though they saw all the great miracles that God had done. We usually shake our heads in disbelief on how these people could have such a lack of trust in God after they had experienced the hand of God in their lives.

 

We have the same thoughts when we read in the N.T. about the life of Jesus and how he did so many miracles that proved that he was the son of God, yet so many did not believe or trust in God even though they saw these things with their own eyes. It is easy for us to  think this way because we get to read about all the events that took place and what happens next but its whole different situation whenever you are there experiencing the moment at that time not knowing what the outcome may be or the amount of influence the others are having on you because of their negative ways and fears they are expressing.

 

While it is true that these people certainly should have had trust in God especially since they were seeing first hand the miracles of God, we today are not much different then those people back then. For instance, our nation was built upon the foundation that there is God and that our nation would thrive if we put our trust in him. In fact many of our forefathers understood that our nation would be great if people would live by the principles found in the Bible. Beginning in the late 1800’s our nation began putting the phrase “In God we trust” on coins at first, then in 1956 president Eisenhower made this phrase our national motto and it was also put on our paper money as well. While this is certainly a wonderful motto, as you look around our nation today do you think we really trust in God?

 

I think it’s very obvious the answer is no. In fact, there are people who are even trying to get this phrase taken from our money and our nation seems to be coming more and more like Rome was in the first century where just about anything goes. We have more and more people who are seeking other God’s and who have turned there back on the only true God which again reinforces the idea that as a nation we don’t trust in God.

 

But lets take it a step further. As a Christian do you find yourself trusting in God in every aspect of your life or do you find yourself trusting more in yourself and or someone else to help you with your problem. When there are big decision to be made do you make them on your own or do you trust in God enough to pray to him for guidance? I believe every Christians today struggles with putting their full trust in God in every aspect of their lives because it so it easy for us with our modern day technology and the attitude that our society has on taking care of things yourself to take matters into your own hands.

So, again I ask you do really trust in God in every aspect of your life?

 

To help you answer this question we are going to look at several examples of people from the Bible and I want you to do the best you can to put yourself in their shoes and try answer to the best of your ability what would you do. Lets begin with the story of Abraham.

 

Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said to Abram: "Get out of your country, From your family And from your father's house, To a land that I will show you.  2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing.  3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."  4 So Abram departed as the LORD had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.  

 

Now I realize that God does not speak to us directly as he did to some of those during the Bible times, but in a way he does, because the Words that we read in our Bibles come from God and there are many things he tells us to do and we must trust him enough to obey those commands. So, as put yourself in these peoples shoes you have to pretend that God was saying these things directly to you. So with that being said, imagine yourself being 75 years old and God telling you that he is going to make you a great nation and he wants you to leave your home and go to place you have never been before. Would you trust in God enough to follow his command or would you start making excuses of why couldn’t go? Well, as you see Abraham showed he completed trusted God because he went.

 

Next, I want you put yourself in the shoes of Sarah. She knew that God said that Abraham would become a great nation, yet as many years went on and it was past time for a women to be able to have children, she had still not bore Abraham any children. We find out in Gen. 18 that Abraham has some heavenly visitors and one them is the Lord. As he prepared a meal for the them notice what the Lord says starting in verse,

 

Genesis 18:9 Then they said to him, "Where is Sarah your wife?" So he said, "Here, in the tent."  10 And He said, "I will certainly return to you according to the time of life, and behold, Sarah your wife shall have a son." (Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him.)  11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.  12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, "After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?"  13 And the LORD said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh, saying, 'Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?'  14 "Is anything too hard for the LORD? At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son."  15 But Sarah denied it, saying, "I did not laugh," for she was afraid. And He said, "No, but you did laugh!"  

 

Think about this ladies, if you were pushing 90 years old and God told you that you were going to have son, don’t you think you might laugh as well. Well, this is the beginning of Sarah’s lack of trust in God and even though she was told nothing was to hard for the Lord she decides to take matters into her own hands as she give her maid servant Hagar over to her husband so that she can bare a child for Abraham. Again, I have to ask you, what would you have done in Sarah’s position? Would you have had enough trust in God to know that you would have had a child or would you have done like she did and try and make your on solution? This is what many people do today. Instead of trusting in God with whatever problem they are having they immediately start trying to fix things themselves without God’s guidance and many times our quick fixes are the wrong thing to do.

 

Of course we find out that Sarah’s fix was nothing more than a lack of trust in God and sure enough it ended up being the wrong thing to do. If she had only waited she would have seen that God means what he says because she gave birth to a son just a God said she would.   

 

One last example I want to look at from Abraham’s life comes from,

 

Genesis 22:1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."  2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."  3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

 

Friends this is as extreme as it gets. Again, think about how Abraham had waited for some 25 years just have this one son. You can imagine just how precious he was to him and how much he loved him. But now God is asking you to kill your son and offering him up as burnt sacrifice. Now this is not the kind of thing that most would do without hesitation and it would take every ounce of your being to trust God enough to do such a thing. Our text doesn’t give us any details of Abraham’s thoughts. It simply shows us that that he does exactly what God ask him to do. He was putting his full trust in God in this situation but of course we have the benefit of knowing the whole story and that is that God would never and has never had anyone offer up another person especially a child as a burnt offering and he was only doing this to test Abraham and even though Abraham was willing to obey this, God did not allow it to happen. Instead, he provided a ram to take the place of his son.

 

If you had been in Abraham’s shoes, would you have trusted in God enough to sacrifice your only begotten child? Many of us might say no, I don’t think I could do that and I would agree I really don’t know if I could have done it either, but think about this, that is exactly what God did for us because he gave up his only begotten son to become the perfect sacrifice so that we could all have the opportunity to live. As you think about this and you let it really sink in, it should really make you appreciate what God has done for us through his son even more and it should increase our trust we have in God that he was willing to do such a thing for us.

 

The next person shoes I want you to step into is Job’s. Here we have a man who was blessed by God. He was very rich and he had a huge family. Everything was going his way. God felt so confident in Job’s trust in him that he allowed the devil to test his faith. The devil seemed to think the only reason why Job had so much trust in God was because everything was going so well in his life. Let’s pick up this story in,

 

Job 1:12 And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.  13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house;  14 and a messenger came to Job and said, "The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them,  15 "when the Sabeans raided them and took them away -- indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"  16 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"  17 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"  18 While he was still speaking, another also came and said, "Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house,  19 "and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead; and I alone have escaped to tell you!"  20 Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.  21 And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."  22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.

 

Now before we discuss what we just read, I want point out that unfortunately the devil is right with many people because there are many that will praise God and trust him as long as things are going well but as soon as a tragedy hits or hard times comes their way, this can be a trust breaker for many. I have known people who have turned against God and blamed him with things happened in their life that they didn’t like. So, I ask you again, if you were in Job’s shoes and you were being faithful to God and all of sudden all your riches were stolen and all your kids were killed all in one day would you have enough trust in God to do what Job did and said? Would you worship God and say a blessing toward him and not blame him for what just happened to you or would you turn your back on God with the intent to never trust in God again? I think this would be the breaking point for many, but it wasn’t for Job and the devil wasn’t finished with him yet because next he strikes him down with a dreaded skin disease thinking that surely it would break his trust in God but it did not. Between his wife telling him to curse God and die and his not so helpful friends, Job did not cease to trust in God and because of this he was rewarded with more children and more wealth than he had before.

 

We need to understand that we will have tragedy in our life and sometimes we may have to face very difficult situations but must learn to be like Job and keep our trust in God realizing that even if we suffer here on this earth, if we remain faithful to God and trust in him, we will receive our reward of eternal life in heaven where there is no more sorrow or pain. We must remind ourselves of this so that we can overcome the difficulties in our life and so that we can always have hope.

 

The final people that I want you to put yourself in their shoes are the apostles. From the day of Pentecost, the apostles were going around teaching about Jesus death, burial and resurrection and the Jews did not like it one bit. Look at,

 

Acts 5:17 Then the high priest rose up, and all those who were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with indignation,  18 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.  19 But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out, and said,  20 "Go, stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life."

 

Now think about this, you have already been arrested for preaching about Jesus and now you are freed from jail only to be told to go back to the temple and preach some more. If you had been in their shoes would you have enough trust in God to go preach so more or would you run away and hide. Well, we learn that apostles had enough trust in God so they went and preached some more and once again they found themselves surrounded by the opposing Jews and being questioned, but this did not concern them after all it was Jesus that said,

 

Matthew 10:28 "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

 

Since the apostles took this saying to heart and they knew that they were doing the right thing when the Jews asked them why they were teaching about Jesus again after they told them not to notice their response in,

 

Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: "We ought to obey God rather than men.  30 "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you murdered by hanging on a tree.  31 "Him God has exalted to His right hand to be Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.  32 "And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him."

 

Again, I ask you, would you have enough trust in God to speak so boldly to a group of people who would love to kill you for what you are preaching? Well, the apostles were willing and more than happy to die if they had to for the cause of Christ. After this they had a private meeting to decide what to do to these men and they decided to leave them alone for now based on Gamaliel’s advice. But watch what happens next in,

 

Acts 5:40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  41 So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.  42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. 

 

Here we see that the apostles were beaten for proclaiming Jesus, but this still didn’t cause them to loose their trust in God. Instead, they rejoiced that they had suffered for the cause of Christ and they continued preaching Jesus daily in the temple and in every house. Again, I ask you would you have done the same or would have decided that you don’t want to be beat any more and kept your mouth shut. Well, that shouldn’t be the case but many times Christians fear of others out weighs their fear of God and they will cave to the peer pressure.

 

Well, so far in this lesson I have asked you to put yourself in the shoes of others for you to see just how much you would have trusted in God. But, now I want ask you some question that will deal with your own personal lives that will help you determine if truly trust God in every aspect of your life.

 

Do trust God with your finances or do you find yourself worrying about how you are going to pay your next bill?

Do you trust God in your marriage that if you conduct your marriage as God has described in his Word that you will have a great marriage?

Do you trust in God when it comes to raising your kids in that you teach them about God and show them how to live their lives by following God’s commands?

Whenever you have a big decision to make, do you trust that God will help find the answer if you pray to him for help?

If you have a great tragedy happen in your life, will you blame God for it or will trust in him enough to help you through that difficult time and realize that he makes all things work out for the good in the end?

Do you trust enough in God to stand up for what is right even though everyone around you is against that truth?

 

Questions like these will help us determine how much we really trust in God. If we find our selves always worrying about things this should be a sign to us that we don’t have as much trust in God as we should. I think Jesus sums up our whole lesson in,

 

Matthew 6:24 " No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  25 " Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?  26 "Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  27 "Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?  28 "So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;  29 "and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.  30 "Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?  31 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  32 "For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  34 "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 

I hope this lesson this morning has helped you determine just how much trust you have in God and I hope that if you have found yourself lacking in some areas that you will try and do your best to trust God in every area of your life.