This past Sunday was our Fifth Sunday pulpit swap and below is the message Pastor Debbie shared with you. I pray you were blessed, felt the presence of the Holy Spirit, and experienced God as Pastor Debbie lead you in worship!
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Introduction
Blondin was a 19th century acrobat, famous for his tightrope act 160 feet above Niagra Falls on a rope which was over a thousand feet long. In 1860 a Royal party from Britain saw Blondin cross the tightrope on stilts, and again blindfolded. After that he stopped halfway and cooked and ate an omelette. Next he wheeled a wheelbarrow from one side to the other, and returned with a sack of potatoes in it. Then Blondin approached the Royal party. He asked the Duke of Newcastle, "do you believe I could take a man across the tightrope in this wheelbarrow?" "Yes, I do" , said the Duke. "Hop in, then" , replied Blondin. Well, the Duke declined Blondin's challenge. He might have believed Blondin could do it, but he wasn't about to trust him with his life.
The call on the Christian is to have the sort of trust that makes us prepared to get in the wheelbarrow – to put our entire lives into God's hands. That’s the theme I want to explore with you today. Simply believing in God is no good. We are to have faith, and trust is the practical outworking of faith. For it is when we trust God that we show that our faith in Him is real. So how can we make sure that our trust is in the right place, in the God who created us and loves us? Our first Scripture lesson from the morning tells us. There are three commands here followed by a promise and we’re going to go briefly through each of them this morning.
Trust In the Lord With All Your Heart
The first command is "Trust in the LORD with all you heart." What does it mean to trust in the Lord? At the root of the Hebrew word for trust is the idea of lying helplessly on the ground. We see animals doing that sometime – small dogs especially will often lay down in the face of bigger aggressive dogs that approach them.
We are to put our trust in the LORD. The God who is our Creator, who holds the whole world in his hands, who loves us through his son Jesus Christ. He’s never given us a reason not to trust him. This God has never given us a reason not to trust Him. He has never let us down. He has never disappointed us. He is unlike every other god. When we compare them to God we quickly realize none of them are worthy of trust:
-For only God sent his only son to die for me and stamped “pardon” on my soul to save me from hell
-For only God gives me a peace that passes all understanding.
-For only God provides my every need and gives meaning and direction to my life.
-For only God brings healing and restores health.
Search the Scriptures – God has proven time and time again that He can be trusted.
"Trust in the LORD with all your heart." Heart here does not mean the organ inside Sally's chest that needed a valve replacement. It means the inner person. It means the center of our intellect and emotion and will and conscience and personality. It means that everything in us and about us is to trust in God. Total trust – not holding back any area of our mind, will or feeling. Can’t be piecemeal. We are not to pick and choose - OK, Lord, I will trust you with my marriage, but not with my career—, we are to trust him with our whole hearts and put our whole lives in his hands. The Christian, who has put his or her faith in God has to get into that wheelbarrow when God challenges us. We are to trust in the Lord with every fibre of our being.
Do you trust in the LORD with all your heart? Have you thrown yourself at His feet? Are you helpless before Him? Do you depend on His mercy and His love?
Lean Not On Your Own Understanding
The second command is "lean not on your own understanding." We see the Hebrew word for "lean" when blind Samson leaned against the huge pillars supporting the Philistine temple (Judges 16:26). We see it again when King Saul leaned upon his spear for support (2 Sam 1:16). It represents the idea of resting one's weight upon something.
"Lean not on your own understanding." We cannot rest our weight upon what we think or feel or dream or imagine. We need to admit we don't know everything, we don't understand everything, and too often we are just plain wrong.
Our second Scripture lesson from Jeremiah reminds us that the trouble starts in our own heart - “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." (Jer. 17:9-10).
We see this with Sarah. God told the elderly Sarah she would have a child and become the mother of many nations. What an incredible, beautiful promise! But Sarah's human understanding quickly rose up and said, "Me, a mother at 90? Why, my womb is dead. My husband is an old man. It is impossible!" She laughed at the thought! A lot of what God says to us in His Word is simply too wonderful, unbelievable and incredible for us to believe. So our human understanding begins to ask, "How can this be? It is impossible!" Suddenly, our human understanding builds a hedge against God!
But Jeremiah also reminds us of what happens when we learn to follow God and not lean on our own understanding: But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." (Jer. 17:7-8).
"Lean not on your own understanding." Have you learned to do that? Do you take God at His Word? Do you listen to what He says in His Word? Do you spend much time with Him in secret?
In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him
The third command is "in all your ways acknowledge him." The Hebrew word translated "acknowledge" literally means "to know." We are to demonstrate that we know God in all our ways. We do this by keeping His commandments, by doing things His way. So in everything you do, in everywhere you go, in everything you think, in everything you plan, at all times keep on confessing and recognizing God as the Lord of your life. Surrender yourself to Him so His plans becomes your plans, His will your will, and His desires your desires. He wants to rule supreme in your life.
"In all your ways acknowledge him." Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego acknowledged Him and were thrown into the furnace. Daniel acknowledged Him and was thrown into the lions' den. Paul and Silas acknowledged Him and were stripped and beaten and whipped and thrown into prison with stocks on their feet. Stephen acknowledged Him and was stoned to death. Joseph acknowledged Him and spent 2 miserable years in an Egyptian jail.
"In all your ways acknowledge him." Do you acknowledge Him? Have you surrendered to Him completely? Regardless of the cost? Regardless of what people say or think? Regardless of what you yourself might want?
And He Will Make Your Paths Straight
What is the promise that we find in our text? Verse 6 states the promise: "he will make your paths straight." The Hebrew term means "to make smooth, straight, right." Obstacles that are in the way are removed. Roads that curve back and forth are straightened out. Valleys are filled. Mountains are made low.
"He will make your paths straight." I think of Israel at the time of the Exodus. The Egyptians are behind them. The Red Sea is in front of them. And the Lord God divided the waters so the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground. That happened again at the Jordan River as the children of Israel entered the Promised Land.
In the Book of Daniel we read about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They refused to bow before the golden image made by King Nebuchadnezzar. So they were thrown into a blazing hot furnace. But when the king looked, he saw four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out without a burn mark on them, and they didn't even smell of smoke.
We can think of the time Paul and Silas are in jail. They have been stripped and beaten and flogged. They are in an inner cell and their feet are fastened in stocks. But instead of feeling sorry for themselves they are praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners are listening to them. And God sent such a violent earthquake that the foundations of the prison are shaken and all the prison doors fly open and everybody's chains fall off.
If we do things our own way, we are responsible for the outcome. But when we do things God’s way, He takes responsibility for the outcome. The result is that “...He will make your paths straight.” Do you see what God does? He opens a path through the sea and across the river, He stands with His children in a fiery furnace, He breaks the chains of bondage and opens the doors of captivity.
Conclusion
Every time you handle a piece of money, the inscription reads “In God We Trust.” Do we really? Faith is believing without seeing. Trust is putting our faith into action. More than anything else, trust is the true reflection of our relationship with God. It’s not automatic – it needs to be nurtured and grow over time.
And the promise of God to you is this – that if you follow his commands to trust, lean and acknowledge you will end up with straight paths. The choice is ours. Either we can trust in ourselves or in others and be cursed, or we can put our full trust in God and be blessed in spite of the circumstances around us, or the obstacles in our path. Which way will you choose?
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