The
"Psalm 37" Series #2
"TRUSTING OR TIRED?"
TEXT: Psalm
37:3,10-17; Matt.
22:34-40
INTRO: One of the
essential qualities of life in all spheres of living is TRUST! Without it we
could neither function nor be at
peace.
Deals and contracts are made on
trust to some degree ... the items we purchase in stores are bought because we
trust them; the importance of this reality is not lost on any company that takes
seriously their product. After the
Tylenol poisoning many years ago the company that makes Tylenol developed
commercials to again build trust in the product. The banks we put our money in require a
certain trust in our part on that bank and our system of government. We even call them “Trust
companies!” All healthy
relationships are built on trust!
Being a Christian, this same ingredient is necessary ... TRUST IN
GOD!
Trust is a synonym for faith ...
it means absolute confidence in the object of it, in this case
God!
ILLUS: The
trend of government is to undergird us with material securities from the cradle
to the grave, providing all kinds of insurances -- health, old-age, education,
unemployment and so on. In
addition, we insure ourselves against fire, earthquake, hurricane, accident and
old age. These safeguards are not
wrong, but they can very easily become a serious hindrance to our complete trust
in God. Undoubtedly, if our debts
are paid and our refrigerator full, if we have money in the bank, we have a
tendency to feel secure in ourselves and to sense our need of God less. Herein lies the danger. My greatest need is to feel and know my
need of God every hour. -- C. Stacy Woods in Some Ways of God. Christianity Today, Vol. 35, no.
5.
PROP.
SENT: The Scripture will teach us that the 2nd
step to abundant life in Christ is “trusting in God;” and with this an
absolute commitment to God and His
kingdom!
I. TRUSTING IN GOD Psalm 37:3a,
10-17
A. Looking to Christ Psalm
37:3a
1. The thing we trust in most is where we
turn to first!
ILLUS: For
decades, anyone living within five or six miles of the hat factory in Denver,
Pennsylvania, set their clocks and watches by the sirens the factory set off
five days a week. At 5:30 a.m., the
wake-up siren would begin the day followed by the starting, lunchtime, and
quitting sirens at the designated times.
When the siren system was eventually disbanded, a friend of mine was
reminiscing with the timekeeper about his job. "What did you use to determine the exact
time?"
With a twinkle in his eye, the man
reached in his pocket and pulled out a child's Mickey Mouse watch. -- Erma Landis,
a. In the moment of crisis, where do
you go first?
b. God's people should turn to God
first!
2. Trust also does not
demand!
a. When you turn to God ... do you let him
know what you want Him to do about it? …
Or,
b. Do you trust Him enough to accept what He
will do about the situation even if that is quite different from what you
want!
3. Test of
Trust:
a. Reactions: The following are some
reactions that reflect a lack of real
trust:
(1. Self pity ... long
term.
(2. Confusion ... long
term.
(3. Frantic attempts to solve the situation
in any way possible!
(4. Broken fellowship with God and man ...
long term.
b. Initial reactions to problems may
be those responses sometimes, this is not wrong, just when they continue to be
long term responses does it reflect the lack of trust in
God.
B. Lordship of
Christ Psalm
37:13,17
1. God is in
Control!
a. Of the
wicked!
b. Of the
world!
c. Of the
worshipper!
2. Nothing in our lives is without God's
knowledge and God's approval! (accept of course approving
sin!)
a. He is not merely a spectator of our
live.
b. He is actively and personally aware and
active in our lives!
3. We need to submit our lives to His
Lordship.
ILLUS: When my
son was a toddler, washing his hair was always a problem. He would sit in the bathtub while I put
shampoo on his hair. Then, when I
poured on the water to make a lather, he would tip his head down so that the
shampoo ran into his eyes, causing pain and tears. I explained that if he just looked
straight up at me, he could avoid getting the shampoo in his face. He would agree; then, as soon as I
started to rinse his hair, his fear would overcome his trust, and he would look
down again. Naturally the shampoo
would run into his face again, and there would be more
tears.
During one of our sessions, while I was trying to convince him to lift up
his head and trust me, I suddenly realized how this situation was like my
relationship to God. I know God is
my Father, and I'm sure He loves me.
I believe that I trust Him, but sometimes, in a difficult situation, I
panic and turn my eyes away from Him.
This never solves the problem; I just become more afraid, as the
"shampoo" blinds me.
Even though my son knew I loved him, he had a hard time trusting me in a
panicky situation. I knew I could
protect him, but convincing him of that wasn't easy, especially when all he
could see was water coming down.
His lack of trust hurt me, but it hurt him more. He was the one who had to suffer the
pain. I'm sure my lack of trust
hurts God very much, but how much more does it hurt
me?
Often in the Bible, we are told to
lift up our head to God when problems come. He knows how to protect us if we
remember to listen to Him. Now,
when I find myself in a situation where it would be easy to panic, I picture my
son sitting in the bathtub, looking up at me, learning to trust me. Then I ask God what I should do.
Sometimes the answer may seem scary, but, one thing I'm sure of -- He'll never
pour shampoo in my face! -- Jeanette Strong -- James S. Hewett, Illustrations
Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p.
479.
a. The good
times,
b. The bad times too ... even those times of
suffering!
c. Jesus suffered ... and in God's
will! (And He was
perfect!)
4. Suffering and trials does not mean just
passive acceptance on our part, to just sit back and trust God, it means to get
going for God and actively live out His
will!
a. For instance: you really can't say He is
Lord of your life and not do His
will!
b. An example: If someone isn't a steward of
his own money he hasn't really submitted to God's Lordship over his
finances!
c. An example: Christ is not Lord if you
hate someone ... you haven't submitted to God's
love.
5. This is why the next phrase in Pslam 37:3 after telling us to "trust in the
Lord" is "and do
good!"
a. What is
good?
b. Answer: God's principles and His
Word!
c. It is not a suggestion here, it is
a command!
II. TRYING TO DO GOOD Psalm 37:3b, Matt.
22:34-40
A. Laziness
Condemned Psalm
37:3b
1. It doesn't say -- "Believe the
good," it says, "do the good."
a. God is not just listening for “Amen!”
b. He is looking for
action!
2. “Doing good” is tied to
trust!
a. Example: You didn't just look at
the chair and trust it, you sat down in it and proved your trust in it by the
action of sitting in it!
b. Here is what James is saying: "Faith (trust)
& Works go together!"
Certainly not to get saved, but because we are
saved!
c. You not only trusted your gal, you
married her! It culminated in committed
action!
d. Action resulted from
trust!
ILLUS: My
favorite way of illustrating [trust] is to recount what I'm told is a true
story. I don't know that it is, but
I've read in several places that it is.
A
famous tightrope walker once strung a cable across
As the story goes, one day while
pushing the wheelbarrow back and forth, he called out to the crowd on one end,
inquiring whether or not they thought he could successfully push the wheelbarrow
across with a human being riding in the wheelbarrow. The crowd went berserk: "Surely you
can. You're remarkable. We've watched you for days. We understand and appreciate your
skills. We believe in your
abilities. You are the
greatest." On and on they went, to
which he responded, "Then someone volunteer. You come right up here, single file,
form a line, and get in the wheelbarrow to prove your trust in my ability." A deafening silence overtook the
crowd. There were no
takers. -- Bill Hybels, "Christianity 101," Preaching Today, Tape
43.
3. If we trust God we will do “good” ...
they go hand in hand!
a. God wants more than pew warmers!
b. He wants pew
fillers!
4. It is scripturally impossible to trust
God and be lazy!
a. Trusting God doesn't mean to sit down and
just let God do it all IF we can do something!
b. Trusting God means to stand up and do
what we can, and God will do what we
can't!
B. Living
Commandment Matt.
22:34-40
1. Here is how we do good ... by living
love!
a. The law is fulfilled in
love.
b. Ever see love that was
passive?
2. When I fell in love with Bevie Jo it
wasn't passive!
a. I gave her
flowers!
b. I sent her notes, love
letters!
c. I kissed her and held
her!
d. I sent her tapes! (Well, it was
over 40 years ago, no such thing as “cd’s”
yet!)
e. I couldn't do enough to show her my
love!
3. John
3:16 ... "when God so loved the world ...
He gave!"
a. He couldn't sit
still!
b. He became active in showing us His
love!
ILLUS: I think
about a man I met in
Bosada said, "Surely, you're my neighbor. You're my friend. Our families have lived together here
for 500 years." What he didn't know
was that every Serb in that Croatian village was doing the same thing. They had been told by the army to get
out; the army was coming to blast them to kingdom come the next
day.
What happened? The tanks
came in and blasted all the houses, leaving just shells. Only two houses out of 39 were left
standing: half of his house and a house across the street (which was then used
as a prison to torture people).
Then a peace accord was signed -- an uneasy peace. When the United Nations came, this little
enclave with Serb houses sitting up on the hillside began to be repopulated by
Croatians headed by Bosada. Bosada
is a Christian and was acting pastor of the local church. He said, "We must show the way. We must go back and rebuild the
church." And so, he did. He took his 17-year-old daughter with
him.
Even though the UN was there, the soldiers came out of the forest and
took him and his daughter up among the trees. They took his 17-year-old daughter away
and raped and tortured her. They
took a bayonet and thrust it through him seven times, but he just wouldn't
die.
"Well, old man," they said.
'We're fed up beating you. I
think what we'll do is let your own people kill you." So they brought the daughter back and
said, "Now off you go home through the mine field. If you make it, your own militia people
will kill you at the other end because it's after curfew." Bosada told us how he took his
daughter's hand and they set off through the mine
field.
While he was being tortured, he had said to his torturers, "You can kill
our bodies, but you cannot kill our souls.
This is the wrong thing you're doing. I will go to heaven, but where will you
go? I know that my Redeemer
lives. Why don't you turn to my
Redeemer?"
God delivered him that night; the
angel of his presence saved them.
As the prophet Isaiah says, "In all their distress, he too was
distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them" (Isaiah 63:9). For Bosada, God saved them out of it in
this life. God could have saved
them out of it into the next life, where he will take us in his arms, and all
tears will be wiped away, and all hurts healed. -- Jill Briscoe, "In the Father's Arms," Preaching Today,
Tape No. 141.
4. This is the impetus for doing good ...
God's love, no substitute will
work!
5. Trust and love go
together.
a. Like coffee and
donuts
b. Like ice cream and potato chips (My
favorite!)
III. TOTALLY GROUNDED Psalm
37:3c,10-11,16
A. Learning
Commitment
Psalm 37:3c,10
1. “Dwell in the
land…” Psalm
37:3c
a. The idea is that you will be able
to stay put!
b. Commitment is this idea too, you
stay put in a relationship, to God, and His
kingdom!
c. Commitment flows out of love, which
flows out of trust.
ILLUS: Gladys
Aylward, missionary to
In
their book The Hidden Price of Greatness, Ray Besson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker
tell what happened: "During Gladys's harrowing journey out of war-torn Yangcheng
... she grappled with despair as never before. After passing a sleepless night, she
faced the morning with no hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl in the group reminded
her of their much-loved story of Moses and the Israelites crossing the
"'But I am not Moses,' Gladys
cried in desperation. 'Of course
you aren't,' the girl said, 'but Jehovah is still God!'" When Gladys and the orphans made it
through, they proved once again that no matter how inadequate we feel, God is
still God, and we can trust in him. -- Jonathan G. Yandell.
2. Commitment is a key word in the
Christian vocabulary.
a. God is “committed” to you; we need
to be “committed” to Him.
b. The Church is committed to you,
don’t be afraid to be committed to it … it makes little sense that any Christian
should be uncommitted to a local church … which is Christ’s
body!
c. Your wife is committed to you,
don’t be afraid to be committed to
her!
d. Where commitment flows two ways
there is great love and joy!
3. Nothing yet in this passage in how
to have abundant life has been about the acquiring of this world’s stuff. Yet there are some “Christians” today
who teach that proof of God’s love and blessings is material prosperity!
Hogwash!
4. Having an “abundant life” with
Christ is not about abundant “things” … it is about His life being abundant in
us; and our walking in an absolute trust relationship with
Him!
a. Commitment is a
necessity!
b. God calls us to commitment in every
area of our life … and it begins with a commitment to Christ first! To “trust Him” … to “love Him” goes
together!
B. Living
Contented! Psalm
37:3c,ll,16
1. "Enjoy" Psalm
37:3c
a. Trust, love, and commitment lead to joy!
And, this is abundant life!
b. "Safe pasture"
...God takes care of us!
ILLUS: A
swallow having built its nest upon the tent of Charles V, the emperor generously
commanded that the tent should not be taken down when the camp moved, but should
remain until the young birds were ready to fly. Was there such gentleness in the heart
of a soldier toward a poor bird that was not of his making, and shall the Lord
deal harshly with his creatures when they venture to put their trust in
him? Be assured that he has a great
love to those trembling souls that fly for shelter to his royal courts. He that builds his nest on a divine
promise shall find that it abides and remains until he shall fly away to the
land where promises are lost in fulfillments. -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon, The Quotable Spurgeon, (Wheaton:
Harold Shaw Publishers, Inc, 1990)
2. "Enjoy" Psalm 37:11 Here it is again! We inherit the land and enjoy ... a
repeat of Psalm
37:3c.
a. Contentment is derived from trust,
love, and commitment!
b. "peace" Psalm
37:11 follows joy ... it is the result of
trust!
3. Contentment is not something that comes
in acquiring this world's goods, but in acquiring righteousness through Christ!
Psalm
37:16
a. Righteousness ... right relationship!
b. This is found when we trust in God!
c. And now, the stage is set for Psalm 37:4 ... next sermon in
series!
CONCLUSION: God has a plan for abundant life ... it begins by not fretting, and is filled by trusting in the Lord. Trust involves 3 things: faithfulness to do good, to absolute love, and to be fully committed!