Trusting the Lord: A Deep Dive into Faith and Reliance - Proverbs 3

Join Harold as he leads a sermon focused on trusting in the Lord, drawing from Proverbs chapter 3. He discusses the importance of trusting God in times of fear, confusion, and when feeling in control. Harold supports his message with various Bible passages that emphasize God's power, wisdom, and love. He encourages the audience to remember God's omnipresence, mercy, and the transformative power of faith. The sermon concludes with an invitation to trust in God for salvation and live a life aligned with His teachings.

00:00 Introduction and Welcome
00:52 Scripture Reading: Proverbs 3
01:18 Trusting the Lord: An Overview
02:38 Trusting God When Afraid
05:56 Trusting God When We Don't Understand
08:37 Reasons to Trust in God
09:47 God's Love and Sacrifice
11:32 The Power and Wisdom of God
16:10 The Assurance of God's Word
17:48 God's Mercy and Grace
21:36 Trusting God's Justice and Fairness
24:19 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

You have your Bibles, I'd be inviting you to turn to the book of Proverbs in the third chapter, Proverbs chapter three. We'll read a passage in just a moment. It will serve as our lesson text. While you're turning to the book of Proverbs in third chapter, let me express my word of appreciation for the presence of each of you.

We do have visitors, and we thank you for being here. We know that we have joined by some online, and we thank you for putting forth that effort. We pray that we give you an opportunity to worship God and spirit and truth and pray that we can say some things that will enrich your life in some way and help you as you seek to serve the Lord.

In the Book of Proverbs, in the third chapter in verse five. The writer says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him. He shall direct your steps. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. I want to talk with you, if I may, this morning about the subject, trusting the Lord.

And I wanna start out by telling you that I'm not trying to persuade you that you should trust the Lord. I think that I know the audience well enough that I know that you trust the Lord. I didn't think about it till this morning. I guess when I was thinking of the lesson in my mind and about knowing the audience.

Probably 39 years ago today, I stood in the pulpit of Timberland Drive the first time as full-time preacher.

You've treated me well, and I thank you for all of the blessings that I have enjoyed, but I do think that I know the audience and that I do know that you trust the Lord. And what I'm gonna do is just try and remind you that there's reasons for us to trust him and to remind you of his power and of his might and glory.

I do want to suggest to you though three things about when we need to trust him. I want you to know that one of the things is that we need to trust him when we are afraid. The psalmist in Psalms, the 56 chapter and verse three. Would write and say, whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word.

In God, I have put my trust. I will not fear. There's never a time that we're out of the sight of God. In fact, if you'll turn over to the Book of Psalms and the hundred and 39th chapter the Psalmist makes it clear that we're always in the presence of the Lord. He says, oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thoughts so far off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways for, there's not a word in my tongue, but behold, oh Lord, you know it all together. You have hedged me behind and before and laid your hand on me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high and I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or wince? Can I flee from your presence? If I as send them to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold you are there. If I take wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the sea, even there, your hands shall leave me and your right hand shall hold me.

And so wherever we are, wherever we go, the Lord is going to see us and know us. There's never a time that that he forsakes us. There are passages like the Book of Psalms in the ninth chapter, verse 10 where he, he says He'll never forsake us. And the writer of Hebrews and Hebrews, the 13th chapter in verse five, repeats the, the same sentiment that God's never going to forsake us.

And in the book of two Corinthians and the second chapter or fourth chapter, verse eight and nine, he declares that again, that, that he's always there with us and forest. And so we can not have to be afraid. The Almighty is with us. There's never a time that we're out of his reach. Man can do only so much in Matthew, the 10th chapter of the writer tells us how that the most that man can do is, is to kill us or take our life, but they can't touch our soul and that God is in control of that.

There's never a time that Satan is not limited. In one Corinthians 10 and verse 13, that that he. Is with us in our times of temptation. And he limits Satan so that he can't tempt us above that which we are able to destroy. And then one John the fourth chapter in verse four, when he tells us that, that God is greater than any and all and even Satan.

And thus we don't have to be afraid. And so we, when we fear, we need to remember, we can trust God. I think also when we do not understand that we need to remember to trust God. Go back, if you would, into the Book of Job for a moment, and as you turn, let me remind you, that job suffered great loss in the beginning of, of the passage or of the beginning of the book, and

sits in mourning and so forth and, and questioning. Why and what's happening and so forth is three friends come and they just sit still for a while. Can't try and even comfort him at that time, that they just know they don't have the words is the idea. But they later try and mount up the fence and, and try and justify God and the things that he's doing, and, and Job realizes that their answers are not right.

They're not presenting a, a accurate picture of God, and so he answers them Finally in chapter 13 and verse 15, and he says, though he slay me, yet I will trust him. They were trying to give reasons why things had happened as they did, and, and Job recognized that they weren't representing God correctly.

This passage, Joe is really just saying, I don't understand it all. I can't answer everything, but I know that I can trust God. We can trust his wisdom for his wisdom As far above ours, Isaiah talks about that his wisdom is far above the earth, is at or far above ours as the earth is the heaven is the earth.

His pleas and and plans are past finding out. If you look at the book, CLE es in the third chapter when he's talking so much about life and, and he says, we can't understand it all but the answer is still trust him. Still trust him. And then I would suggest just one other idea before we actually get into the part about why, and that is be careful.

Be careful when we think everything is in our control and, and we have the powers because we don't, we're always looking to God and always should be depending on God. But let me move in and, and just tell you some things why it is that you and I can put our trust in God and should put our trust in God and, and hopefully comfortable.

And comfort to us too as we think about these things. First of all, we can put our trust in God because he loves us. You know, most of us can quote John three 16, for God so love the world that he gave his only begotten son that who ever believe in him should not perish, but have an everlasting life.

That passage is full of hope and meaning. It is telling us that we have the possibility of, of not a limited life on earth, but we have the possibility of eternal life. Life that goes on and on and on. That just no end. It's, it is really beyond our comprehension, but more than that, that passage is just telling us why, and he says, God so loved the word.

There he is talking about people. As we mentioned, he's talking about people that will be saved. God so loved the world and wanted people to be saved, and the emphasis on the passage should be God so loved the world, that this is what he did. He gave his life or gave his son's life so that we could be saved.

That's how much God loves us. You know, there's passages that talk about if the man would give his wife and what, what wouldn't he give? And we've illustrated before, you know, if somebody were to, were to come and say, you know, give me this, we'd be glad to give it in order to spare things. And if somebody would give his son.

To spare somebody else or save somebody else, then you know that they'd give up any other possession they have, and this is the point of God. He says, I love you so much that I'm willing to give my son to die on the cross for you. When we stop and think about what love is, love is really an act of goodwill toward others.

You can define it in lots of different ways and means, but if you get down to the Bible definition of love, it comes out that it means you have another person's interest at heart and that you act upon that interest or you act in the best interest of that person and what God is telling us. He so loved us.

He loved us so much that in the interest of what was good for us. He gave his only begotten son for us. And so what won't God do for us? That is within right and and righteousness and so forth. And the fact that he loves us so much should be a comfort to us and should cause us to trust him. A second thing I would suggest to you is that we need to remember that God is almighty.

You would find him being referred to as the Almighty one in the book of Isaiah, the 26th chapter in verse four, almighty just means there's no limit to his power. That whatever he thinks to do that is in accordance to his will. He can do it. And you find that not only in the beginning, in the Book of Genesis, in the 17th chapter, when he is given promises unto Abraham and he's called the God Almighty.

The reason being because he's making these promises to Abraham that stretch years and years and years, and the end result will even be even out further and looks even to Christ eventually. And he's saying, this is God Almighty that's able to do this. And he tells us this early in Genesis, the 17th chapter, that God is almighty.

That's not the only time that we're told that You can go over to the Book of Revelation in the fourth chapter in verse eight. And again, the passages tell us that God is almighty. And if you just stop and think about it, here he is in the very first book of the Bible telling us God is Almighty, and here he is telling us at the end God is almighty.

Then right in the middle about two Corinthians six chapter verse 18, he is again referred to as the Almighty God and declared to be almighty. And so it's obvious that he doesn't want us to forget that he can do anything and everything, that nothing is outside of his power. That's right. And that's good and that's holy.

And so we can trust him. We know that the power is there and we need to remember that the strength is not in us, but in God and look to him and, and draw upon his strength and not ours.

His word is powerful. We see his power. I didn't mention it, but we see his power in creation. A God that could speak the, the world in existence. We can see his power in the resurrection. You'll remember when Paul's writing to the book of Ephe or writing the book of Ephesians in chapter one, and somewhere around verse 15 or so, he begins to make a prayer and he's praying to God and and praying for these people in behalf or praying to God in behalf of these people.

But one of the things he does as he gets to the end of that prayer is he makes mention of the power of God again. And he's telling us that his, he has great power and he demonstrates that, or, or tells us or tries to get us to see the power of God by reminding us of the resurrection. Can you imagine the power that it takes to, to raise somebody from the dead, the power and, and the just overall world to say this is what's going to happen, and it happened.

To take that that is dead and, and make them live again. And yet that's the power that he has and that he's telling us, you can trust me. I'm almighty. And his word also, he, he talks about the power of the word. Look over, if you would, for a moment to the book of Hebrews in the fourth chapter

and drop down to about verse 16, I think it is that I'm wanting.

And he, he writes to say

I'm not putting my eyes on the passage yet right now, but he will talk about how that all things, I mean, the word is powerful and that. Whatever he wishes, you know, don't let that slip from us is the idea because of the power of his word, that that dwells in us. He talks about

so, and also along with the power, we just really need to realize that. He guides us and protects us and leads us, and we can believe in him because of his word. Again, if we were to go back to the Book of Proverbs in the third chapter, he, he talks about trust in the Lord and in his word. And when you look at the scriptures, we see why we can trust in his word.

John 17, 17, thy word is truth. We don't have to worry about what God says about testing it and seeing whether or not it's true. Everything that God says to us is true, and what that means is we can put our faith in it and we can believe in it. We can believe this, as was mentioned in one Thessalonians four, the resurrection.

We can believe in his plan of salvation. He says that if you do this, then then I will cleanse you of your sins and you'll be my child. We can believe that because that's what the word says and his word is truth. Then you look at the book of two Thessalonians or two Timothy II chapter in verse 16 and 17, and he tells us, he's given us this word, these scriptures by inspiration, they're God breeded.

And he says that they furnish us unto every good word. And the point I want you to know is that we can trust him because we have his word and his word directs us and tells us everything we need to know about life and godliness. We'll just submit to his word and obey his word. We know that everything's going to end in a good way.

Now, if you don't do that, then you don't have those promises. But we, we know that we can

put your trust in God and read the word and study the word. Let the word guide you. We can trust God for his mercy and his grace. One of the Psalms talks about thelens grace of God or pious mercy, that he's merciful and plen in it.

That's very comforting. And if we talked about this morning in, in our class that here's David that. We see in his life various mistakes that he made, and yet he went to God confessing his FALs in the Book of Psalms in the 32nd chapter and, and in Psalm 51 and God cleansed him other's sins. In fact, Paul would use David as an example in the book of Romans in the fourth chapter and trying to get us to realize about.

Salvation by faith that that we can't earn it. That it is our faith that is counted for us as righteousness. And in Romans, the fourth chapter, he's using Abraham as the example, but he doesn't go into detail with Abraham. He just tells us that Abraham was justified by faith. And several verses, he does that.

But then in about verse five of Romans four, he says, likewise David. That's when he points out that David committed these sins, but David was forgiven of his sins and therefore counted righteous. And that's the promise unto us through his word, that, that we can have this righteousness, that we can be saved because of that and because of his, our faith and his mercy and his grace.

Romans, or excuse me, first. Timothy in first chapter in verse 15. This is a fateful saying, worthy of all acceptation Christ came to the world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. That's telling us we can trust His grace in his mercy. And then you look over the book of one John in the first chapter in comforting words to those that are Christians.

Not because we don't sin, but because we can always repent and be. Forgiven of our sins. He makes it clear in one John, it is not our works, it's his grace. Listen, beginning in verse five, this is the message which we have heard from him, and declare to you that God is light and in him no darkness at all.

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he's in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus Christ. His son cleanses the from all sin. I remember reading the story one time and it was about a lady that was about to pass and she was, had somebody reading the scriptures to her and they read First John the first chapter and she said, read me that last verse again.

And so they read it just as we read it and, and said that forgiven of all sin cleanses us of all from all sin. She said, that's what I wanted to hear. Again, all sin, all of our sins can be cleansed because of Jesus and we can trust him for those kind of things that, that we don't have to live perfectly.

We're trying to do the best we can and certainly John doesn't try and tell us we don't, but we fall short anyway. We can trust him for mercy and grace and those things and know that we can be saved in doing so.

I think also that we, we need to remember that he's just, and he's fair and that he doesn't put more on us than we can ever bear. Maybe sometimes we question that and we wonder maybe you underestimate me or overestimate the Lord. But he promises us in passages like the book of first Timothy in the 10th 10th chapter in verse 13, that with every temptation there's a wave escape.

Second Timothy or second Corinthians thing, with every temptation there's a way of escape. And that we are never given more than we can bear. That's comforting. We ought to be able to trust the Lord for that. And I think it goes to other things too, that he's not going to ever put more on us than we can possibly bear.

He may test us and we may at times think we've reached our limit but he's watching and he's taking care of those things and, and it'll all turn out okay and then we can trust Jesus because of his son. We've already touched on this a little bit about how that he gave his son, but again, he gave him so that we could be cleansed of our sins by the blood of Jesus, and this is where the love of God is seen.

As we mentioned earlier, that if he would give his son, what wouldn't he do for us? He would do everything that he can within his limits. Whatever we need. That's what he's going to do for us. But he has a greater understanding than we do, and he is wise and he knows everything, but we can trust him because he gave his son to die on the cross.

We can trust him for the forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ, and we can trust him for his love because. He gave his son to die on the cross.

I want to remind you of a passage in the verse, first Peter, the fifth chapter in verse six and seven. I've quoted it oftentimes and, and it's personal strength for me when he says, humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he might exalt you in due time. We have to submit to him, we have to humble ourselves.

But the promise is if, if you humble yourself, then in due time he's going to exalt you. And the second thing I would suggest to you this evening is, or morning as we close this, trust him for salvation. If you haven't already, see your need for salvation and trust God for that salvation. Don't neglect his promise that he'll give a salvation through Jesus Christ.

Don't seek to change his, his promise or his plan. Just trust it that he's given the plan that is befitting and that is accurate and efficient and just trust God for him and his word. Submit to him and his power in all things. It may be that some here have not trust him, not showed their trust, never rendered obedience unto him.

But you can have the hope of eternal life by believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God. I don't think you would have any trouble knowing this audience, that you would believe that Jesus is Christ and the living God, but. You are wondering about it then see me. I think we can show you quickly that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of living God.

And you can become a believer. And if you believe, then do what He says. Repent, be baptized, rising up for walking, communion of life. And you need to do that. You can't stop short and be saved. And, and notice the last part about walking in newness of life. We can't. Be baptized, say, okay, I'm saved, and then go on.

Living the life that we've lived in times past, he points out in passage like Romans six, that baptism is not just a matter of getting wet, but it symbolizes the death of the old man of sin and the life of a new man in Christ Jesus. And that's what we need. And if we are that new person in Christ, then we can trust him.

And I know that we'll, you're here this morning and need to obey the gospel in some way or need our help with prayers or something. We stand ready to assist you together. We stand the same

Lord.