Will You Trust Him?

Ended my message this morning in the middle of my message this morning. Seemed like a good place to stop and the the clock agreed. So, we're going to finish the sermon from this morning, this evening. As we look forward to the revival services, if we're going to have revival in our life, if if we're going to be drawn close to Lord, if we're going to be used by him, if we're going to experience all the joy and blessing and peace that he has to give, We must learn to what? Trust him.

We must learn to trust him. If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior, you've never put your faith in him to save your soul from sin and hell, then you must trust him. It's the only way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.

Neither is there salvation in any other for there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. That is no other name but Jesus. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believe, believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. That word believe encompasses more than just an assertion that he is. It is a faith and trust that he is and that he will do what he says he will do.

He will save your soul based upon his death on the cross for your sins and his resurrection from the dead. But when you get saved, that doesn't end it. Salvation isn't the end. Salvation is the what? Beginning.

The beginning. The just shall live. By faith. By faith. We're to grow in our faith.

Grow closer to our Lord. Grow in our trust in him. Our knowledge of him. Our relationship. With him.

We sometimes allow things into our life that stunt that. That hinder that. Lord would like to take those out of the way. The Lord would like to to bless his children. Such wonderful ways but we need to learn to trust him.

We need to be able to let go of some things in our life that we think he we can't live without. We need to get pass the lies of Satan in our life that you can't beat that sin in your life. The Bible says, you already have the victory through Jesus Christ. Claim it. Trust him.

Turn away from it. Repent. Follow him. That's what the Bible says to do. And it's the only way to experience the fruit, spirit, joy of Christ in our lives.

We need to learn to trust him more. Proverbs three beginning in verse five, we read this morning, trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways, acknowledge him. He shall direct thy paths.

We began the message this morning by reading those those two verses. And there's a lot in those two verses. They're they're simple yet they're very profound. Amen. We need to learn to trust the Lord with all our heart, to trust him sincerely, to trust him completely, to trust him in every area of our life.

That's what it means in all your ways acknowledge him. Trust in the Lord. Lean not on your own understanding. Our hearts deceive us. They'll lead us astray.

Christ will never lead you astray. He will never lead you astray. Trust in him. Proverbs fourteen twelve, it says, there's a way which seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. Jeremiah seventeen nine, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Who can know it? If you wanted to get from point A to point B, let's say you want to travel from here to Buffalo, New York. I don't know why Buffalo just I watched a little bit of the football game, the Buffalo Bills play this afternoon. Or maybe I was thinking of Ron Van Horn who comes to our church during the winter who lives in Buffalo. But anyway, we're going try to get from here to Buffalo and you didn't have GPS and you didn't have a map.

Then how would you know how to get from here to Buffalo? Well, chances are you would ask somebody, right? You'd ask, well, how do I get from here to Buffalo? Well, you'd want to make sure that you ask somebody that knew how to get from here to Buffalo or it gets you lost and you'd never get there. You see, here's the problem.

We often trust in who to get us from here to heaven. For for who to to do God's will. Who do we trust in to bring us happiness? We trust in ourselves. We ask self, self, what do I need to do to please God?

Self, what I can do to to get to heaven? Self, what I need to do to be happy and self answers and self answers deceitfully. Because self is only concerned about who? About self. About self.

And self doesn't know the way. But you know something God did not leave us without a road map. Amen. God gave us his word. Most of the time, when you, many things, we do not even have to go ask him because he is already what?

Spelled it out right here in his word. All he asks us to do is to quit trusting self and start trusting him. That's all we need to do. It's so very simple. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean unto your own, lean not unto your own understanding. That's where that will get you. In all your ways, acknowledge him. Acknowledge him as Lord. Acknowledge him as all wise and all knowing.

Acknowledge his care, his love for you. And he will direct your paths. He will direct you on the right path, the good path. He will direct you on the path that leads to success. He will direct you on the path that leads to security.

But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, his word, his will, his way, and all these things, what? Help me out. Shall be added unto you. Everybody else out in that world, out there in the world, they they're longing for security and peace and joy and hope. We have it.

Here, we have it in Jesus Christ. We have it in the Holy Spirit that he has given to us. We have that hope, that peace, that joy, that security, and the security and peace and joy and blessings that God has to give far exceed anything. The world has to give. You or me.

But seek you first the kingdom of God. Trust in the Lord. Put him in his proper place. He is the sovereign Lord. Is he your sovereign Lord?

And if he is your sovereign Lord, then why is it we don't listen to him sometimes? We need to learn to trust him, to trust him more. We saw in scripture what happened when people didn't trust him. Eve listened to the serpent. She was deceived.

And she chose to listen to herself, to her eyes. She looked at the fruit. Says here in Genesis three six, when the woman saw the tree was good for food, that was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave it also under her husband with her and he did eat and all of humanity was plunged into sin because of it. She looked at it. It looked good.

Not too much later in the word of God. We read in Genesis 13 that Lot lifted up his eyes on the Plain Of Jordan. It looked what? Good. It looked pleasant.

It seemed like the right place to go especially if you were a herdsman and you had all kinds of livestock. You would seem to be that the plain that was well watered and had all kinds of grass would be the perfect place to go. But it wasn't. Because amidst all that grass and all that feeding ground were some very wicked cities. And Lot got sucked into one of them.

The city of Sodom. And as a result, Lot lost pretty much everything including his peace and his joy. Because he chose poorly. The Bible tells us that Lot was a righteous man. Why was he a righteous man?

Because of his faith. He had trusted in the Lord He had trusted in God to be his savior but he made some very poor choices because he didn't trust God to point him to the right direction to feed a sheep. He didn't trust God to keep to to to didn't listen to God and stay away from those wicked cities. So, he suffered because of it. There's a lot of Christians out there that are suffering.

They're suffering because of decisions they have made. They are making or they will make and the problem is the reason we're many times is because we haven't learned to trust, to listen, and to heed God and his word. If we would just listen to the Lord, he would save us from so much of the suffering. We put ourselves through. People come to me all the time.

They pastor, this has happened and that happened. This terrible thing happened. That terrible thing happened and it just seems like the whole world's kicking in and the sky is falling all the time. And sometimes those things do happen. Sometimes, those things are completely out of our control.

But a lot of times, those things happen as a consequence to our actions and we don't even we don't even realize it. There's a way that seems right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not unto your own understanding and all thy ways acknowledge him. He shall direct thy path.

Turn in your Bibles if you would to Psalm 37. We didn't get there this morning. Psalm 37. We'll come back to Proverbs chapter three to finish up but if you would turn to Psalm 37. Psalm 37 and let's read beginning in verse three down through verse six.

It says, trust in the Lord and do good. Do right. So shall thou dwell in the land and barely thou shalt be fed. Delight yours thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord.

Trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noonday. We could continue on. The Psalm continues similarly for quite a ways into the Psalm but we'll stop there. Trust in the Lord. Delight in the Lord.

Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in him. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgement as the noonday. Who will? You will?

He will. He will. He will. We try to make things happen. I would love to have this auditorium filled for revival next Sunday.

Try as hard as I might. I cannot make that happen. I would love to see two dozen people saved next week. It could happen but try as I might, I can't make it happen. But if I will humble myself submit to the Lord, if you'll humble yourself and submit to the Lord, we can see great and mighty things happen but it won't be us.

It'll be who? It'll be God. It'll be God that does it. To him be the glory, great things he hath done. Not that we have done but that he hath done.

What he asked us is that we commit our way to him. That we let him call the shots. That we trust him. That we delight to please him. And to serve him.

If we do, he will show us great and mighty things. As we pour our hearts out to him in prayer and as we yield ourselves to him. We looked at some examples this morning very quickly at the close of the service, Noah. Noah trusted in the Lord. For over one hundred years, he built an ark.

People laughed at him. People wouldn't listen to him. But his family was the only family that survived the flood. Humanity continued on because of the grace of God and the faith of Noah. We talked about Abraham and Joseph of Moses and Joshua.

Gideon, I didn't spend any time on this morning. Gideon's an interesting story. Take time to look in the book of Judges at the life of Gideon. The first thing I think you'd probably be impressed with is this, Gideon was not a man of great faith. Gideon was not a man of great courage and bravery.

When we meet Gideon, he's hiding out in a cave threshing wheat because of the Midianites. When God asked him to go do something, he says, well, well, first, give me a sign and then he goes and does it and it goes well and then, God asked him to do something else and again, Gideon says, give me a sign. You know, that's the fleece, wet on one side, wet on one side where the ground is dry and then that wasn't enough. The ground had the the fleece had to be dry and the ground had to be wet. And then he calls an army together to to defeat the Midianites at God's bidding and I think he felt pretty secure in the thousands of men that came.

God said, I don't want you to feel secure in the thousands of men that are here. I'm going to send some home. Send them home. They don't want to be here, send them home. Bunch of em left And then God said, oh, there's still too many.

Let's let's give them a test. I have them go drink at the brook. If they drink one way, they go home. If they drink the other way, they stay here. Only 300 drank the way that God said, only the way that God was testing them to and only 300 was the army that he went with.

But you know, God strengthened his faith. God allowed him to sneak down to the camp of the Midianites during the night and he overheard a dream that God had given one of these enemy soldiers and how that he was already this the army was already shaken in their boots because of the God of Gideon and so he went back and he got his 300 men together and they followed God's instructions. And when they broke their lanterns and they blew their trumpets, their horns, Midianite army went crazy. They defeated themselves. Gideon's faith was strengthened.

He was a lot like us we a lot like him. God did mighty things through him. Gained a great victory as he learned to trust God. Talked to David, Elijah, Joseph, and Mary, the 12 disciples. That's a interesting study right there.

Those 12 men had some issues. Their faith started out very small but their faith what? After the day of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, those men became 12 of the greatest missionaries the world has ever seen. They learned to trust in who? Learn to trust in God When they did, God did some incredible things.

Their lives, and then the lives of others. If we want to see revival we need to put God in his proper place. We need to trust him. He is the Lord. He is all knowing.

He is all wise and he does care for us. We need to learn to trust him. Let go of some things we're holding on to. Step out in faith to do some things he has called us to do. And to believe that he is able we pray.

We need to learn to trust him. In Proverbs chapter three There are three things that The Lord points out here before we close this evening He expounds upon this trusting in the Lord in three different areas and we want to mention. When it comes to changing revival, salvation, it's all an issue of trust and faith in God. In verses seven and eight, the writer says this, be not wise in thine own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil.

It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones. A lot of our issues some of our issues with our health is a result of something terrible called stress. And if you've ever had a job position where you're over people or have to make decisions for people, there's something that comes with that called stress. If you've ever had any amount of money that you're trying to invest and watch over and keep track of, that brings along stress. If you have a family and little kids, you have stress.

Okay? There are many causes of stress in our life. They affect us. Many other things that affect us as well. One of the problems is, God says, be not wise in thine own eyes.

If you want to have peace, not stress. Then you need to learn to trust God and quit trusting who? You. You need to give up on you manipulating and making everything happen the way you want it to happen and keep everything in line. Because you're not.

I start days with an agenda and my agenda always is disrupted and changed. If you can earn a person that can flex, don't go into the ministry because the ministry is flex. You have to learn to be flexible. Because things change. Minute by minute, hour, by hour.

The same thing really happens in life to all of us. And we try to hold everything together. And we think that we can manipulate and maneuver and we can plan and schedule and we can get everything back in a row and it's like herding a bunch of sheep just when you get them all back in a row, here comes one going the wrong way again. See. We think we can handle it.

I'm here to tell you, alone can't handle it. But praise God, you're not alone. Neither am I. Be not wise in your own eyes. Don't think so highly of yourself and of your ability and of your smarts and intellect and that you've got all the answers.

You don't. Neither do I. But I know the one who does. Be not wise in your own eyes. That's a definition by the way of pride.

Thinking more of who? Yourself. And ought to think. Thinking more of yourself than others. Don't be wise in your own eyes.

Don't think yourself so wise. Bow instead to the wisdom of who? God. God. When you read this phrase fear of fear the Lord in the Old Testament, it's saying this, Trust him.

Don't be wise in your eyes. Bow to the wisdom of the one who reigns supreme. Fear him is not a fear that you run away from. It's a respect and an awe at the wisdom and power and position and glory of almighty God that draws you to him, to bow before him, to bow the knee. And to follow him.

For I can't keep everything together but I know somebody who can and I don't know why I don't have all the answers but I know somebody who does and I cause myself all kinds of trouble and all kinds of worry. Myself. I can't. But he can. Be not wise in your own eyes.

Bow instead to the wisdom of God and in so doing, depart from evil. In Genesis chapter four, Cain and Abel came before God. Abel brought a lamb. Cain brought the works of his hands, the crops that he had raised in his garden. God had respect to Abel and his offering.

God did not have respect to Cain and his offering. Cain got mad and angry and depressed and despondent. And God said to him, Cain, what's your problem? Just do the right thing. Bring the right sacrifice and everything will be what?

Will be well. But Cain couldn't do it whose way? God's way. Cain had to do it his way. And his way was the wrong way.

He was wise in his own eyes and he would not bow before the wisdom and glory and authority of almighty God and he was cast out as an exile after he slew his brother and things went from bad to worse to worse and the worst thing of all is that if he never turned from his sin, he will spend eternity separated from God and exiled. In the worst place, one can ever be exiled. A place called the lake, the fire. He was wise in his own eyes. He would not bow before the wisdom of God.

He did not depart from evil. And he suffered and suffers for it. Abraham came to Sarah and said, you know, it it just doesn't seem we're going to have this child. God is is promised us and Sarah said, well, you know, I've got a solution. Hagar, my servant over here.

You take Hagar and you have a child by her. It seemed wise in their own what? Eyes. But was it the right thing? No, of course it was.

Did Hagar have a child? Yes, she did. His name was Ishmael. He became the father of the Arabs nations. They have forever been a thorn in Israel's side.

They have forever been at war with Israel and they are today and they will be until Christ returns. No matter what president makes what promises that he's going to fix it. Do not be wise in your own eyes. It will only get you into into trouble. Trust in the Lord.

Verses nine and ten, honor the Lord with thy substance substance Verses and with the first fruit of all thine increase. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty and thy precious shall burst out with new wine. The world says, in order to be rich and secure and have it, you need to run over anybody and do whatever you need to do to build your stockpile. To take care of yourself in your older years. It's a good thing to have some retirement laid up.

It's a good thing to have savings but I hope that's not where your security lies and it shouldn't be. God says, the way to have your barns filled, the way to be secure, the way to get the blessings of God is not in taking and getting and striving. It's in giving. Now, that runs counter for the world in which we live. It run counter to our own thought process.

But God says the way to get is to give. And if you'll give, God says, I will give. If you will give God his due, in every area of your life, including your wallet. God says, I will take care of you. And he will.

Sometimes, there's a lot, there's a lot of Christians out there that are struggling and it's because they've said this to God. God, you can have everything but you can't have this because if I give you what's in here, then, I won't be able to do other things that I need to do. God simply says, give to me what? First. Give to me first.

What I'm doing. Tithe and offering. Give to me first. I'll take care of Give me your time. Give me your talent.

Give me yourself. It is his right. It is his do. We have it all because of him. And if we'll just trust him with it.

He will show himself to be what? He will show himself to be faithful because he is always faithful. Trust, seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these things shall be added unto you. The way to be first in God's book is to be what?

To be last. The way to be greatest is to be the servant of what? The servant of all. That's what Jesus told his disciples. Was he right?

Yeah. Was he right for them? Yes. The same apply to us? Yes.

And then verses eleven and twelve, my son despise not the chastening of the Lord. Neither be weary of his corruption for whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth even as a father, the son, and whom he delighteth. Finally, this, accept God's correction rather than despise it. And learn from your mistakes. Do we all make mistakes?

Do we all make poor decisions? Do we all sin? Do we sometimes knowing what's wrong, choose to do it anyway. All of the above Question is not, do you sin? Question is, what do you do when you sin?

Do you sweep it under the rug? Do you Do you do it? Do Do Do you do it? God sends chasing in our lives in order to help us to fix the errors, to get us back on the right track. I I find it interesting.

Whenever, I mean, so often, when you're talking to somebody about their problems and they have this problem, they have that problem and they're really frustrated with life and and the first place in the Bible we always want to run is to who? Who is the great example of suffering in scripture? Job. Job. I heard it.

Job. And whenever something is wrong in our life and and and and we're frustrated and things aren't going right and things are going poorly, immediately, we run to Job. Why is it that we want to run to Job? Is it because the God of Job is a god of of power and a god who's got it all under control? Is it because that that in the end Job got it all back?

Is it because Job is such a sterling example? I don't think so. I don't think any of those. I think we run to Job because we know in the case of Job that God tells us the testing came into Job's life not because he had what? Sin.

And so immediately, we run to Job as our example. Oh, yes. I'm just like Job. What am I saying? It's not because of my sin.

It's not my fault. I didn't do anything wrong. And so we always we like to run to Job. Now, Job is there for a good reason and sometimes things come into our life that are our fault. But a lot of times they are.

And God wants us to learn but we'll never learn if we blame everybody else. We'll never learn if we don't face head on. Whatever is going on in our life that's bringing the chastening. We'll never learn if we get angry with God and say, why me, Lord? I've had some things come into my life, some difficulties in the past year.

I don't think maybe that all of them are consequences of my sin but some of them are. I need to learn from those things. God cares about me. He cares about you. When God came to Adam in the garden and said, Adam, what have you done?

Adam said, Lord, I sinned against you. I ate of the fruit. I know you told me not to and I did a terrible thing. I'm sorry. Is that what Adam said?

No, what did Adam say? He blamed on Eve. Said the woman, the woman here, you gave me the woman. You know, she she gave me the fruit. It's her fault.

He didn't just blame the woman by the way. Who else did he blame? The serpent. He blamed the serpent but he blamed God because he said, God, he said to God, you, this woman that you what? That you gave me, she's the problem.

Wasn't my fault. Wasn't my fault. How many times do we do that? Oh, it's it's it's my parent's fault. Oh, it's the world's fault.

Oh, it's it's anybody's fault but mine. It's anybody's fault but mine. If we're going to have revival, we need to trust God and we need to be willing to admit when we have done wrong. So that we can learn from We need to recognize our failure. We need to accept responsibility.

We do not live in a society that does that. Never ever, hardly ever does our society ever accept responsibility. But as Christians, we need to learn to. Accept responsibility for our actions. Recognize our failure, accept responsibility, and correct it with God's help.

First John one nine, if we confess our sins, means take responsibility for them. Admit that their sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Revelation two five. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen.

And repent. Do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent. What is it? That you need to repent. You say, pastor, there isn't anything right now that I know that I need to repent of.

Praise the Lord. But I'm guessing that come next week on Sunday or Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday or Friday, God is going to find something. In your life. I beg of you. Will you trust him with it?

Will you be willing to swallow your pride? We're willing to confess that before him, to take responsibility for it, and allow him to cleanse you of it draw you close to him and bring revival to your heart. Would you be willing? That's all I'm asking. And that's all God is asking of me Let's pray.

Dear God, thank you Lord for the opportunity that you give us every day. Your mercies are new every morning. You are the God of the second chance and the third chance and the fourth chance. The fifth and so on Lord. We thank you for your mercy and your love and your grace.

We thank you Lord for the salvation you have given us through faith in your son and we pray that you'd forgive us for our failings. And Lord that you would help us to see this coming week some areas that need to change. Some sins that need to be repented of. Lord, to be willing to confess those before you and not hide them and not sweep them under the rug. Let them go, Lord.

Push them on to another day. Lord, help us to deal with them when you call and when you ask and when you point them out, Lord. That you can bring revival to our hearts, our lives, our church, that you can make us a a bright and shining testimony in our life. Brighter than before. The others will see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven.

That we would be bold in our witness for Christ knowing. We have growing in our faith in you and that we have, there's nothing between our soul and our savior. So that many might come. And be saved. Help us expose things in our life Lord that need to be exposed and Lord, make us willing.

For you to do surgery spiritually in our life. Take those things out. No matter how painful they might be. That we might be a better witness, a brighter light, and a greater servant of our savior. In Jesus name, we pray.