Trust

Prov 3:5
Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;

A. Jesus teaches us not to worry

Matt 6: 25-34
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

1. Why not worry?
- It ensnares the poor as much as the love of wealth does the rich
- We have a responsibility for the temporal things God entrust us with, but we are not to carry these lawful cares too far
- Don’t let earthly things distract us from our heavenly focus – God’s eternal purpose
- Eph 1
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Our position is in the Heavens, God is still working sanctification in us to make use holy and blameless before Him in love. We have to realize our position as sons with inheritance, requiring nothing to prove our sonship.
- Our life, short or long is something we have to abandon to into the good and loving hands of our Heavenly Father! Leave it to Him to make it bitter or sweet as He pleases.

2. Don’t be anxious for tomorrow
- Tomorrow will come anyway
- As we don’t boast about tomorrow, so we must not be anxious for tomorrow nor the events of it.
- God breaths life into us so won’t He sustain that life? Both physical life and spiritual…. Consider which lives on for eternity? Which then is of greater value?

Gen 1
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

John 20
22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

3. What or rather Who then is our focus?
- Thoughtfulness for our souls is the best cure for thoughtfulness for the body…. Matt 6:33
- Why should we be brought to lowly or base state as a gentile? Matt 6:32…. Aren’t we precious in His eyes?

Exo 19
5 Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

Duet 14
2 For you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

Psa 17
8 Keep me as the apple of Your eye; Hide me under the shadow of Your wings,

- Happy are those who take the Lord as their God and make full proof of it by trusting themselves to His full disposal… total abandonment to His eternal will and purpose for our lives.

Jer 42
6 Whether it is pleasing or displeasing, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we send you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.”

“Well” – to do good, make glad, to make right, to make beautiful

B. Abel vs. Cain

Gen 4
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the LORD.” 2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground

Gen 3
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
18 Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you,
And you shall eat the herb of the field.
19 In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread
Till you return to the ground,
For out of it you were taken;
For dust you are,
And to dust you shall return.”

1. Whose sacrifice that God accept?
- A shepherd’s sacrifice: first born of the flock and of their fat. In Jacob’s case who determined the health and color of the flock in Gen 30 and 31? Didn’t he acknowledge that God was the sole provider?
- The tiller of the ground’s sacrifice: the ground was cursed…. Why did Cain content with the cursed thing? By his sweat he offered sacrifices to God?
- Eph 2
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Gen 22:8,13, 14
8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.
13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of the place, The-LORD-Will-Provide;[b] as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the LORD it shall be provided.”

C. Are we willing to accept His providence in whatever way? Proof of our trust

1 Kings 17
1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

4 And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” 5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.

8 Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, 9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” 10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks.

16 The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.

- Characteristics of a man that trust God to provide in unusual circumstances: prayer answered from the very heavens, call down fire from heaven and provide when all else fails.
- Ravens: dirty animal, unclean. Providence by ravens talks about providence beyond the law….. Grace!
- Woman of Sidon: There were many widows in Israel, why did God lead Elijah to an ‘enemy’? The greater display of heavenly power is not in the miracle of good, but in forgiveness (Jezebel)!
Matt 5
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,[h] 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

D. The last days calling for those who trust in God, not just merely survive through it!

Rev 11
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. 5 And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. 6 These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. 7 When they finish their testimony,

A man or woman who put their unconditional trust in God will
- See the very heavens respond to our prayer
- Be a living testimony when all evil break loose and when all else fails (even in the church!)

Therefore, how done do we trust God in hard times?:
- Worry not, consider the eternal
- Know and experience His Grace
- Quick to forgive
- Be abandoned to God!