Dealing with Adversity-Developing Trust

PASTOR PHILLIPS' SERMON

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Please pray with me. Heavenly Father, today we talk about something that's very challenging for us. It's called trust. Trust. We like to trust in things we can see and touch and know we can go to for recourse if things don't work out, but to trust you with every aspect of our lives is a challenge. Lord, we pray that beyond our human reason, beyond our rationale and our ability to calculate, that you by your Holy Spirit working through your Word will give us trust. In Jesus' name, Amen.

The basis for our meditation is Mark 9:14-27, the story of a man whose son was possessed by a demon. Trust. It's a word we use all the time. “Trust me.” “First Bank and Trust.” All kinds of words like that. “In God We Trust.” It's on our money. I think that's pretty ironic. It's on our money. Now which one do we really trust. There's a Persian proverb that says, “Trust in God but tie your camel.”

We often have a difficult time trusting God. The First Commandment identifies this very clearly. “You shall have no other gods.” You ever wonder why God put that first? It's the hardest one. If we could just keep that commandment, all the others would fall in place. Dr. Martin Luther wrote the Catechism in 1529 to help us understand these commandments. In the explanation of the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods,” the explanation is “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” It's a challenge for us to trust God.

I think it's not so hard for us to trust Him for our salvation, although that's the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. It's sort of something out there, down the road, and not so challenging as the things that are right in front of us, the crisis or the tragedy or the difficulty or the mountain that's right in front of us. Our salvation, that's a long ways off. We don't really have to be too concerned about that until we die. Then by faith, we are saved. But to trust God now above all else is a challenge.

There's a story that illustrates this. There was a tourist visiting the Grand Canyon , and he got a little too close to the edge. He slipped off and he was scrambling down falling off the cliff, and he crashed into a bush sticking out of the side of the cliff and he grabbed it with both hands. And when all the debris had fallen past him, he said, “Is anyone up there?” And a calm voice said, “Yes, I'm here.” And the voice called out again, “Can you help me?” “Yes, I think I can. What seems to be the problem?” “Well I've fallen off the cliff and I'm hanging by a bush and I'm about to lose my grip.” “Do you believe?” “Yes, I believe.” “Do you have strong faith?” “Yes, I have strong faith.” “Then let go of the bush and everything will work out fine.” “Is anyone else up there?”

It's hard, isn't it, to trust in God? And just to take Him at His word. Why is it so hard to trust God? I think it's hard to trust God because we've had so many experiences in our life of people betraying our trust, of promises not kept, of high hopes and low results. Our lives are marked by pain and disappointment and suffering. People we put our faith in let us down. This is the model we see around us, and it's hard for us to look past our experience and trust God.

The second reason I believe it's hard to trust God is that faith, also translated trust, is created by the Holy Spirit. It's not something we come to as a result of our calculations or our intellectual acknowledgment. “Yeah, that makes sense to me, okay, I'll trust God.” It's not like that. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. So no matter how many times you look at and turn it over in your mind and calculate it, trust doesn't add up. It doesn't make sense. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. It's a miracle of God when one heart trusts in Jesus. It's a huge victory over the devil. Jesus' victory with a personal application to our lives.

Romans 10:17 says, “Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.” God creates faith in our hearts. God is the author and perfecter of our faith. God sustains it and nourishes it. We can't do it on our own. We can't muster it up. We can't pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. God works it in us to trust Him.

I think the reason we have a hard time trusting God is because seeing is believing, and we can't see Him. We can't see Him. At least we can't see what we're looking for. We're looking for some big powerful guy to come in and help us out with anything and everything, somebody to bail us out of every situation. We don't see that guy. We just see normal people around us. We just see our own circumstances and troubles.

But just imagine if you were there when the man with the son who was possessed by a demon came to Jesus. Listen to this story, Mark 9, “When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people went to Jesus or they saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to meet Him.” You see there's a huge need. People are just desperate looking for somebody to trust in and here they see Jesus. Visually, they see Him so they run to Him. “‘What are you arguing with them about?' He asked. A man in the crowd answered, ‘Teacher, I brought you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth and gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit., but they could not.' ‘Oh, unbelieving generation,' Jesus replied. ‘How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.' So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, ‘How long has he been like this?' ‘From childhood,' he answered. ‘It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.' ‘If you can?' said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for him who believes.' Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, ‘I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.' When Jesus saw that the crowd was running to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirits. ‘You deaf and mute spirit,' He said, ‘I command you come out of him and never enter him again.' The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently, and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, ‘He's dead,' but Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet and he stood up.” That's a miracle.

When God delivers somebody from demonic oppression, that's a miracle. When God delivers somebody from the guilt of their sins and gives them eternal life through faith in Christ, that's a miracle. When God answers our prayers, which He always does, that's a miracle.

I've often said my biggest complaint, probably my only complaint, with God is that He's never early. I'm sweating it out. I'm praying. I'm exasperated. I'm just not sleeping. I'm going through all kinds of agony, and I'm wondering, “Is God even paying attention? I don't get this. Explain it to me, God, why is this pain necessary.” The prayer of the man who met Jesus was, “Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” I think that's a great prayer for us, because we all believe. We all trust in God for our salvation. It's the day-to-day struggles and devastating tragedies that come our way and stretch us and challenge us to trust.

We know why it's so hard to trust God, but how do we grow in our trust? How can we get stronger? Well, the beginning point is praying that prayer. “Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.”

This is not a tragedy, but I'll tell you the reaction I had a few years ago. I was playing basketball in a driveway, and I didn't even plan to play. You know how that goes. The father of two teenagers was out in the driveway. He and I were shooting baskets. I was probably about 37, and the teenagers came out and they said, “Hey, come on, let's play a game.” And I said, “No, I'm going to get hurt. These are big kids.” And I wasn't really a basketball player. But finally they challenged us and ridiculed us to the point where we gave in, and we played a game with them. And we were winning quite well, because we were cheating. We bounced the ball off the garage. “It's good.” Things like that. I was going to shoot for the last shot, and I faked and then I jumped and, as I jumped, my Achilles tendon tore in half. And I remembered why I didn't want to play. And I knew what had happened, so after surgery and everything a few days later, I was sitting on the couch and I said, “God, you got my attention. What do you want?” And I think that's really a good response to our tragedies. “Okay, God, somebody I love has just died. What do you want me to learn? What do you want me to see? How are you going to work something wonderful in this situation?” “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.”

A good way to grow in our trust in God is to get to know Him better. If you encounter a stranger, you're not likely to hand him your car keys. You have to get to know a person. We have to get to know God in a more intimate and wonderful way. And that begins with our worship time. Dedicating ourselves to being faithful in worship. Coming Sunday after Sunday, hearing His Word proclaimed, praying to Him, pouring out our sins and asking for His forgiveness, hearing the beautiful music offered as a gift back to God for all He's given us. It nurtures us. It strengthens us. It builds us up when we come together and worship Him and get to know Him.

We also get to know Him when we participate in group bible studies. There is a variety of ways of doing that. We have bible studies all over this church, all through the week, mornings, evenings, wonderful groups of people getting together. These aren't all experts in God's Word. These are just people like you and me, just gathering in Jesus' name with a hunger and a desire to know Him better, to have His power and strength to live through the days' challenges.

And finally, the third way to grow in our trust with God is daily devotions. That might be a strange thing to you. You might not be familiar with that. So I'll just show you what I mean. This is a little book called, “Portals of Prayer.” This is produced by the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod by Concordia Publishing House, and each day there is a devotion, each day of the month. There's a little theme. Today is January 30. Let's see what today is. “Give Up,” it says. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21.” And then it has a devotion, just a small portion. It would probably take you a minute and a half, maybe two minutes to read that. And there are some bible verses, and, at the end, there's a little prayer. “Lord Jesus, strengthen us for service to one another, especially those nearest and dearest to us.” That's a devotion. Now you don't need a book. You can just be with God on your own, day by day, offering up your prayers, opening up your bible, and reading a few words. Growing in your relationship with Him, getting to know Him better, learning that you indeed can trust Him. God's Word says, “No matter how many promises God has made, they are all yes in Christ Jesus.” That's a guarantee if you trust in God for the forgiveness of your sins, if you trust in God for your eternal salvation, if you trust in God to get you through your daily life, He will not disappoint you. He will never abandon you.

There are some other ways of growing in your faith. This is the Today's Light Bible. This is a two-year Read Through the Bible Program, and our church has done this in the past few years. It's a wonderful way to sit down and read God's Word. Each day there's a reading. There are some words of commentary to encourage you and help you in your understanding of it. Here's another great resource, the Self Study Bible. It's a little bit different than a normal bible. It has notes at the bottom of the page for each verse, and you can look them up. A lot of times the bible is a strange book to us because it was written 2,000 years ago and it's foreign to our understanding in the way we speak. So if you're new to studying God's Word, it's a challenge. But having these kinds of helps really is a blessing. Being in a small group really is a blessing, because then you hear other people speak. You don't even have to talk. You can just sit and listen and say, “Wow. I didn't know God did that. I didn't know He felt that way.” And He can guide you and shape you and teach you more and more to trust in Him.

Finally, there's a scripture passage that sums up this whole concept of trust and this is from Philippians 4:6 and 7. It comes right after the “Rejoice” passage. You remember that one. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.” These are the next couple of verses. “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving present your request to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” You notice there's no limitation there? There's no limit to what God can help with. There's no limit to your problem that is too big for God. It's not one of those deals where you say, “Dear Lord, I need help with this,” and He says, “Well, that's out of my league.” He doesn't do that. God is bigger than all of your problems. His love is greater than all of your pain. His ability to heal is greater than your wound. God is able to do all that we ask, even more than we imagined He can do in our lives.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, day by day, we have ups and downs. Some things that happen in our lives we rejoice and we're so thankful, we turn to you and praise you. But other things we just cannot see how we're going to make it through. The sadness of losing loved ones, the difficult disease that threatens our life, financial challenges, different events, pain and suffering, yet through it all, you have promised to be with us. The ancient Israelites cried out in their slavery in Egypt , and you were concerned about them so you sent them Moses. And we have someone far better than Moses. We have Jesus. You sent Him to die on the cross for us, that we might have forgiveness of sins and eternal life, that even at the occasion of our death, we can celebrate because we know it's simply a transfer from this temporary existence to a wonderful and glorious place in existence with you. Bless us by your Holy Spirit to trust you, God, to know we can let go and fall into your loving arms. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Copyright 2005 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church