Trust in the Lord (sermon text)

 February 7, 2021

Trust in the Lord

 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 3:5,6

 

I do not understand how anyone can live with hope, especially when we face terrible storms as other Christians in the world right now are facing.

 

“Trust in the Lord.” But for what can we trust the Lord? Well, there are lots of things for which we can trust God, such as our daily bread, the forgiveness of our sins, and to deliver us from the Evil one. But I will focus today on at least five things that fall into this broad category of what we can trust God for.

 

Number one. For what can we, trust in the Lord with all our heart and not lean on our own understanding?

We can trust Him to always love us. We can trust that nothing will ever separate us from His love. This is quite important because so many Christians live without the confidence that God actually does very much love them.

 

Here is passage familiar to many. It is from the last verses in Romans 8: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, ³⁹ nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

I don’t often address God in my prayers as ‘God.” To my mind – and likely because of my life-experience – the word, ‘God’ seems distant. Like he is ‘out there’ somewhere. That’s why I find ‘Father’ more comfortable. Because I never had a father who cared about me, calling God my ‘father’ helps me visualize him as the father I never had. I am able to visualize Him as someone who really cares about me. 

 

But then – and here is where I probably sound weird, I have trouble addressing God simply as ‘Father’ because then I feel as if I am neglecting the other two Persons of the Holy Trinity – Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit – I feel as if I am neglecting the other two Persons when I focus my prayers to the Father.

 

Yes, I know that is silly. Jesus Himself taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father.’  But, as I say, this is just me. So what I have done in the past during my prayers is to speak to the Father, and then I speak to Jesus, and then I speak to the Holy Spirit. But that was getting too complicated for me.

 

So I changed it all up. I now address God as simply “Lover of my soul.” And so, in the morning, I simply say, “Good morning, Lover of my soul” as I start my prayers.  

 

Yes, we can trust God to love us with an unfailing and undiluted love. I always go back to Calvary as God’s demonstration of His matchless love for me. For ME. And for YOU.

 

God doesn’t love us any LESS when we sin, nor does he love us any more when we obey him. And even on a human level that makes sense.

 

Did we as parents – and this analogy is not perfect because human parents are imperfect – but did we as parents love our children any less when they disobeyed us than we did when they obeyed us?  Did our love for our children come and go like the weather?  Of course not. Every loving parent would very willingly die for their wayward son or daughter as much as they would willingly die for their obedient son or daughter.

 

And oh, by the way, isn't that exactly what our Parent in heaven did? Again the Holy Spirit reminds us through the apostle Paul: God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

 

For what else can we trust our Lover in heaven with all our heart and not trust on our own understanding?

 

Number two. We can trust Him when He tells us He forgives us when we repent. He forgives us for everything and for anything.

 

Last week I shared this following incident, but because many of you did not see it, let me share it again because it makes my point well.

 

As part of my memory work I reviewed this portion of Psalm 103: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always contend with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him.”(vv. 8-11).

 

And the Lord reminded me of something He’d told me some time ago. I’ve shared it with others before, but I think I should now share it again. Someone might need this reminder of the Lord’s love for them, too. 

 

Several months ago I had sinned the same sin for the hundredth time. I felt guilty, ashamed, dirty, unworthy, helpless, and hopeless. I couldn’t even look to heaven when I said, “Father, I’m so tired of having to apologize for the same thing again and again. I’m so tired . . . . 

 

Before I could finish my confession, the Lord stopped me in mid-sentence. And He said to me, “But I never get tired of hearing you say it. Nor do I tire of forgiving you and loving you.” 

 

Listen. He forgave David his adultery and murder. He forgave King Manasseh for his horrific idolatrous evil, for promoting the nation’s child sacrifice. He forgave Paul for his bloody persecution of Christians. He forgave Peter for denying Him not once, but three times. AND He forgave those who crucified Him, who stood at the foot of the cross jeering and mocking and sneering at him while he suffered and died.

 

Knowing all this, what does ANYONE think they could have done that our merciful God would not also forgive of those who ask for forgiveness? Why does anyone who has repented of sin – whether murder or sexual sins or blasphemies or whatever evil people can do --- why do some insist that the lover of their soul would not extend to them His forgiveness?  I’ve met people like that. And I suspect you have met people like that, too.

 

And that point brings us to the third thing for which we can trust God with all our heart – and not trust our understanding.

 

Number three. The Lover of our soul will never leave us. Many of us have heard the counsel: When we feel distant from God, who do you think moved?

 

How often does the Lord Jesus promise us in the Scriptures, “I will never leave you or forsake you”? But I suspect many of us have difficulty believing His promise because we have experienced deeply personal and soul-wrenching rejection in our lives.

 

Some of you know the heartache of rejection by a parent, even though you tried time and again to reconcile together. But your efforts always proved fruitless and futile. And some of you have been rejected by a child. For years you have tried to reconcile, but all your efforts have proven useless.

 

But probably the worst rejection of any relationship is the rejection of a spouse. One day you both stood at an altar before God and others, promising each other to have and to hold, in riches and in poverty, in sickness and in health, to keep yourselves only for each other until death alone parted the two of you. And then, after all those vows and promises, you wake up to the horrible reality that the one you love no longer loves you.

 

Yes, most everyone knows rejection, broken promises, the turning of the back on our pleas for reconciliation.

 

And so many of us very much need the reminder that God’s faithfulness is NOTHING like human faithfulness. What saith God Himself about His faithfulness: Psalm 100:5, For the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting And His faithfulness to all generations . Ps 119:75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me. Ps 119:90 Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations.

God’s faithfulness to us is NOTHING like human faithfulness. Do we think the Father would have offered His only Son to that torturous and merciless death if there was another way to demonstrate His unfailing faithfulness to you for the forgiveness of sins?

 

Oh, thanks be to God for His undiluted faithfulness to you and to me.

 

And now, for what else can we trust in the lord with all our heart, and not lean on our own understanding?

 

Number four: We can trust that He always, always hears us when we pray.

 

Thirty years ago, when my son, Nathan, was eight years old, he and I were walking across the mall parking lot when, at the top of his little lungs, he screamed, "Daddy, Daddy, can you hold this box?" An elderly couple several yards ahead of us turned to see what all the commotion was about. Probably half the shoppers in the mall stared in our direction.

 

Red-faced with embarrassment, I growled in my best ‘can’t-you-see-I’m-standing‑right‑next‑to‑you’ voice, "What are you shouting for?"

 

Undaunted by it all, Nathan's eyes sparkled with childlike composure. "I wanted to make sure you could hear me," he said.

 

In my walk with God across life’s parking lots, how often have I – have often have YOU – acted like an eight-year-old child, worrying: Does my Father in heaven hear me? No wonder we grow anxious when nothing happens, and we wring our hands, convinced He’s not listening.

"Can a woman forget her nursing child?" The Lord chides through Isaiah. "Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands" (Isaiah 49:15‑16, NASB). And again, Scripture reminds, "The Lord's mercies indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness" (Lamentations 3:22,23).

Yes, of course He hears. Yes, of course He knows. As a compassionate and loving Father, He listens. Before our words even cross our lips, He knows our very thoughts (Psalm 139:4).

Because of our relationship with God through our faith in His Son, we don't need to shout as if God is on vacation in some distant part of the Universe. We don't need to pray with an anxious heart, as if He is too caught up with the affairs of our world to give heed to my needs. Delays do not necessarily mean denials.

We can trust that the Lover of our soul ALWAYS hears us. He hears our deepest cry whispered in the furthest recesses of our hearts. That is why we can wait in confident hope for His response – whenever it comes, and whatever His answer may be: “Yes.” “No.” Or, “Not now.”

 

And whatever is His response – yes, no, or not now, we can trust that His response emanates from His love for us. Yes, Father DOES know best.

 

Finally – finally only for the sake of time – for what else can we trust the Lord with all our heart, and not our own understanding.

 

Number five. The true Christian – not the fake ones who are tares and not wheat – the true Christian has eternal life. Our eternal salvation is not rooted in our good works, or our heritage, or in keeping a set of rules. We have eternal life because of God’s choice to forgive the penitent who by faith has come to Him for eternal life.

 

Here is what Jesus said to the grieving Martha: Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.” John 11:25-26

 

Here is Titus 3:4-7 “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope [the confident expectation] of eternal life.” 

 

Christian, please hear this: God our Father, Savior, and Friend loves us. He forgives us. He never leaves us. He hears us. He has given us eternal life.

 

So please, Lord, help us all to “Trust in the Lord with all [our] heart, and lean not to [our] own understanding, in all [our] ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct [our] path.”