Deo Gloria
Sermon for August 8, 2021
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Proverbs 3:1-10
Theme: Wisdom for All Time
Lesson: Trust in the LORD!
Do you trust God? If you were standing on the shore of Lake Superior and suddenly you noticed a gang of thugs coming up behind you, guns in hand, would you trust that God was going to take care of you? That’s basically the situation Moses was in when Pharaoh’s army had him and the Israelites pinned against the Red Sea. If you were sitting in prison for telling the mayor’s wife that you would not sleep with her, would you trust God and go about your business behind bars, content and happy? That’s basically what happened to Joseph when he refused to sleep with Potiphar’s wife.
Maybe you’ll never have the opportunity to trust God like that. Maybe, like David, you’ll never have the chance to stare down a giant holding only a sling and few small stones. But do you trust God when you’re staring down a pile of bills, a pile that just seems to get bigger and bigger while your income gets smaller and smaller? Do you turn first to God’s Word, or to the casinos and the lottery?
Do you trust God? And do you trust him not just to take care of you if you’re trapped by an army or thrown in prison or staring down a giant—but do you trust him enough to do what he asks and to obey his commands? There’s an old story of a father who took his young son out and stood him on the railing of the back porch. He then went down, stood on the lawn, and encouraged the little boy to jump into his arms. “I’ll catch you,” he assured. “I’ll catch you.” Finally, after a lot of coaxing, the little boy made the leap. When he did, the father stepped back and let the child fall on the ground. He then picked up his son, dusted him off, dried his tears and said, “Let that be a lesson, son. Don’t ever trust anyone.”
Peter and John took a leap of faith and trusted that God would watch over them when they were called to defend their faith in front of the Sanhedrin, the very group that had condemned Jesus to death. Do you jump for joy when you are called to defend your faith in front of your family or your friends? Or do you tend to zip your lip and talk about safer subjects? Do you trust God?
Let me ask that question another way: Would you like to be happy? Would you like to have a satisfying life? Do you trust that God can make that happen? And if so, do you show with your words and your actions that you rely on God, and God alone, to make it happen?
As you know, the book of Proverbs was written by a man named Solomon, a man who was blessed with an extraordinary gift of wisdom. One day Solomon was giving advice to his son. As he did, he acknowledged that trusting God was a bit more difficult than you might imagine; but he also assured his son that placing your trust in God would bring great blessing into your life. Let’s listen to Solomon. (Read text.)
Do you know how to tell if somebody is lying to you? There are a few non-verbal cues you can look for. First, look in their eyes. Watch to see if they start to blink a bit more frequently or if their pupils are dilated. Next, watch their facial expressions to see if they match the tone of what they’re saying. Thirdly, watch their body for unusual movements or hand gestures. Anything out of the ordinary might be a clue that that person is not being straight with you
Is God’s lying to you? As we read through the promises God gives here through Solomon, do you ever wonder if God is lying to you? Of course, you and I can’t look in his eyes; but we can look at his name and what it tells us about him. As you may have noticed, the word LORD appears three times in these verses. And each time it appears in all capital letters: capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. That word LORD stands for a very special name for God, a name that is often translated Jehovah or Yahweh. The word literally means “he is,” and comes from the comment God made to Moses concerning himself: “I am who I am”(Exodus 3:14).
That name, the LORD, tells us some very important things about God. For one thing it tells us that he is eternal. Can any of you name the four presidents whose faces are carved in stone at Mt. Rushmore? That’s right: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. All of them were great presidents. They were great leaders of our country, but not anymore, because they’re dead. God never was anything. He just is. He always is. There has never been a time when God has not existed. There will never be a time when God does not exist. He is the timeless one, the eternal one, the one who always is. As it says in Psalm 90, “Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God”(v. 2).
A second thing that name tells us about God is that he is unchanging. The weather changes. Our health changes. Relationships change. You and I change. We grow up and learn and get smarter. And then we grow old and become more and more forgetful. We never remain the same. God always remains the same. He never changes. As the Bible says, “[He] is the same yesterday and today and forever”(Hebrews 13:8).
What a comforting truth that is, to know that God never changes! The same God who ruled the world last night is the same God who rules it today—same plan, same principles, same love and concern for his people. And if God remains the same, that means his Word remains the same too. What he said more than 3,000 years ago at the time of Moses is still what he says today and what he will say 3,000 years from now. God never changes his mind. God never has to go back and revise one of his statements: “Oh, did I say that I created the world? Well what I meant to say is that I created all the matter in the universe and I triggered the ‘big bang,’ but then evolution took over from there.” People do things like that. People change their minds. People try to change their words or go back on their words; but not God. We can count on his Word. We can rely on his Word.
And we can rely on the promises he has given us. When he says he will provide for us and take care of us, we can count on it. He did yesterday. He is today. And he will tomorrow. When he says that he will be with us, we can count on it. He was with us yesterday. He is with us today. And he will be tomorrow. When he says he will forgive our sins, we can count on it. He forgave us yesterday. He forgives us today. And he will forgive us tomorrow. We can count on God’s promises. We can rely on them with all our hearts.
A fourth thing the name LORD reminds us about God is that he is the God of our salvation. He is the God who planned our salvation already in eternity. He is the God who promised Adam and Eve and Moses and David and Solomon that he would send a Savior one day to rescue them from their sins. He is the God who kept that promise and sent his own Son to be that Savior, to suffer and die on the cross for their sins and the sins of the whole world, that we might be forgiven. Can we trust in a God like that, a God who kept his word and sent a Savior to save us from our sins? Can we trust in a God like that, a God who loved us so much that he was willing to give up his own Son for us, that we might be his both now and forever? The answer is “Yes,” a resounding “Yes.” We can trust in the LORD. We can trust in him with all our hearts.
And that’s exactly what Solomon urges us to do: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”(vv. 5+6). The word Solomon uses for “trust” literally means “to lean on” something or “lie down on” something. Every night when we go to bed, we lie down on our mattress. We stretch out and put our full weight on it, never giving a second thought to what we just did. We don’t keep one foot on the floor just in case the mattress falls apart. We don’t hold on to the bed frame in case the mattress decides to throw us off that night. We just lie down and fall asleep, putting ourselves completely at the mercy of our mattress.
Unfortunately, sometimes you and I put more trust in our mattress than we put in God. First, because we think we know better. We like to think that we can alter that passage a bit. Instead of it saying, “In all your ways acknowledge him,” we change it to “In some of your ways acknowledge him,” as if we can pick and choose when God’s Word is good for us to follow and when our own opinions are better.
Sure, I need a good dose of God and his Word on Sunday morning, but I don’t need him to tell me how to have a happy marriage the rest of the week. Sure, I need an occasional devotion, but I don’t need him to tell me how to raise my children. Sure, I need some good, Godly advice from time to time, but talking to my friends or my neighbors about God, that’s out of the question; or looking to God’s Word for guidance as to how to run my business, that’s just plan foolish; or giving God my firstfruits, the first portion of my income, that’s just crazy.
You know, God had a 100% success rate with his marriage in the Garden of Eden. When more than 50% of marriages are ending in divorce today and many of those who are married claim to be unhappy and unfulfilled, do we think we know better than God? And if that doesn’t apply to you, then look at your own life. Think about the things you regret the most. Do you have those regrets because you spent all of your time learning what God says about that subject and praying for strength to follow exactly what he says, or because you decided to ignore what God says and do your own thing?
The other reason we don’t completely trust God is because it’s hard to imagine that he knows how we really feel. Has God ever had to take out a loan to pay a car bill or a medical bill? Has God ever been laid off? Has God ever worked for an employer he didn’t like? Has God ever had his house broken into? Has God ever had to stare at a pile of bills he didn’t have enough money to pay? Has God ever felt what it’s like to be you? And if not, can you really trust God to give you exactly what you need and address how you feel? Has he ever felt the loss of a job, the loss of health, the loss of home, the loss of security? The answer, of course, is no. He’s felt much worse.
It wasn’t just the pain of the nails in his hands or the thorns in his scalp that he felt. He didn’t just feel the pain of the wood scraping against his bloody back or the agony of his muscles knotted in unrelenting cramps. Whatever you have lost, he lost more, because on the cross he lost heaven as he suffered the penalty for the sins of the world, for your sins and mine. On the cross Jesus felt the pain of having his own heavenly Father turn his back on him and disown him, so that he might never turn his back on us. On the cross Jesus felt the pain of being completely helpless when he needed God’s help the most.
And he wants you to trust him when he promises that you will never feel the same pain; that those who trust in him have forgiveness for all their sins and have a loving Father in heaven who promises to fill them with every good thing.
Does trusting in the LORD mean, then, that God is going to fill your wallet by helping you win the lottery? No, but it does mean that God will provide for you and give what you truly need. Does trusting in the LORD mean I will never lose anything or anyone that is precious to me? No, but it does mean I will never lose the eternal treasures of heaven, and that when I get to heaven, I will be reunited with those precious loved ones who have gone there before me. Does trusting in the LORD mean I will never get cancer or some other awful disease? No, but it does mean that God will be with me and give me the strength I need to deal with my disease. And in spite of my disease, it means that he will keep my soul healthy and strong, and one day he will take me to heaven, where there is no more sickness or pain or death.
This is the second lesson Solomon has to teach us about wisdom, what it means to be truly wise: Trust in the LORD with all your heart! Amen.