On Purpose with Trust

Well, guys, for the last few weeks we've been in a series, kind of a topical series.

If you're new, normally we're going through scripture.

We're going through the book of a book of the Bible.

Um, we spent all of last year going through the entire book of Matthew, and we'll get back to that, but every once in a while, we'll pause and just do kind of a topical series in between those studies.

Right now, we're in a series called Life on Purpose.

And we're exploring what it would mean to live life really intentionally.

Jesus lived on purpose.

He did everything on purpose.

Even the things that we often do by accident, like offend people.

Jesus, when he offended people, he did it on purpose.

Usually when I offend someone, I'm like, I'm so sorry.

I did not mean to say that.

I didn't mean to do that.

When Jesus offended someone, he's like, yep, I said exactly what I meant to say, and I knew it would offend you.

He lived on purpose.

Even when Jesus got arrested, almost no one does that on purpose.

Jesus did.

Everything he did was on purpose for a purpose.

And we want to live life with such intentionality, recognizing that God has a purpose for us and wants to do something through us, and our lives are meant to be a reflection of his love and his goodness, we want to live life with that kind of intention.

And so we've been studying what it means to live on purpose.

Ephesians tells us to be careful how we live, not thoughtlessly, not foolishly, but careful.

So that's what we've been studying.

We've covered a few things.

We talked about being intentional with our time, on purpose with our time.

And that wasn't about time management, it was about discerning the season of life that you're in and what matters most in this season.

It could be day by day, but if you started every day with Lord, what matters most today?

What is the most important thing that I accomplish or that I set my mind to?

Even if, by the way, that is rest.

Do that.

Be on purpose with your time.

We talked about being on purpose with your words, recognizing that what you say has the power to destroy, but also the power to create.

You can inspire people, you can create confidence in the people around you with the way that you speak to them, or you can tear them down.

So be intent be very intentional with that.

Last week, Madison did a phenomenal job as he talked about being intentional and on purpose with the way we look at other people.

And we got to announce last week that we've kind of promoted Madison into this new role that we've never really had before.

Um he's still gonna be working with the youth, by the way.

If you're a parent, don't be like, oh no, no, Madison's still gonna be there, but he's he's just his responsibilities are growing, and he's been really faithful here for years, so we're excited about that.

But he did a phenomenal job talking about being on purpose with the way we look at other people.

And today we're gonna talk about being on purpose, essentially with let me find the best way to put it, with with how we trust people, to the degree with which we are willing to trust others and trust God.

Is that hard for anybody?

That's why I was trying to find the right words.

Like, is it hard for you?

Who here would say, I have trust issues?

Hey, I have trust issues, all right.

Um, maybe some of you are like, I don't, but I should.

I've had I've lived enough life, I've been burned enough times, I should have trust issues.

It's so funny.

This has been a week for me.

And I'm sure we've all had weeks like that, I'm not complaining.

It's been a good week, but it the last 48 hours have been like insane for me.

And a lot of it's because of something that I'm working on that has nothing to do with his hands, just kind of a thing that I'm doing with some friends.

And it sort of like blew up for a minute because of a person involved, and I had to scramble and figure out like, Lord, what are we supposed to do here?

And all of it happened in the midst of me planning this series on, or this message rather, on being intentional with who you trust.

And I was like, all right, Lord, I see what you're doing.

I see what you're doing.

You're teaching me things.

This is good, but it's hard.

Sometimes it's hard to trust.

But but we're gonna look at Jesus as our model and then unpack what he has to teach us about being intentional with trust from that point on.

Jesus is always where we should put our eyes.

In fact, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says that the Son, talking about Jesus, radiate, he radiates God the Father's glory.

Hebrews 1:3

And he expresses the very character of God, God the Father.

Oftentimes in the New Testament, when you see God, it's shorthand for God the Father, because Jesus is God too, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.

But Jesus, the Son, he radiates the glory of the Father.

He expresses the character of the Father.

In other words, if we want to know what God the Father is like, we just look at Jesus.

When you look at Jesus and you see him clearly, it's like anything fuzzy about God becomes clear.

And even if you can't articulate it, you're like, I can't quite describe how God would respond to this situation or what would God say in response to that.

But I know that Jesus would do it this way.

Well, there you go.

Right?

If something doesn't sit right with you, if like if Jesus would never be for that or do that or approve that, whatever it might be, then you just know God the Father wouldn't either, because Jesus and God the Father are united.

And so when we want to know what God is like, we look at Jesus.

We want to know how to adjust any aspect of our lives, if we want to know how to orient our lives in a way that honors God, our Creator, we look at Jesus.

And Jesus gives us a really interesting blueprint for trust.

I want to look at a couple of interesting moments in Jesus' life, and then this very interesting teaching that Jesus has to sort of paint the picture for us to get us started.

So let's look at Matthew chapter 14, verses 13 and 14 for context.

Matthew 14:13

This is a big moment in Jesus' life.

His friend, his cousin, his ministry partner, John the Baptist, was murdered, was executed by Herod.

And so Jesus is absolutely devastated.

And he goes to be alone.

He takes his disciples, they go, they try to find a remote place, and word gets out that they're there, and Jesus was very popular.

Everyone wanted Jesus to do a miracle for them, and so he's trying to get away to have some time to mourn, and thousands of people show up.

And here's how Jesus responds.

As soon as Jesus heard the news, he left in a boat to a remote area to be alone, but the crowds heard where he was headed and followed on foot from many towns.

Jesus saw the huge crowd as he stepped off the boat.

Just imagine, like you're getting off the boat.

You just want to be alone.

And oh, there's thousands of people.

He had compassion on them and healed their sick.

He didn't tell them to leave.

He loved them.

This lines up also with Matthew chapter 9, verse 36, says that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless.

Matthew 9:36

Some translations will explain it with like sheep without a shepherd.

Oh, it says that actually right after that.

So I probably should just read a few feet.

There you go.

Um confused and helpless.

Sheep without a shepherd.

Jesus loved people a lot.

He loved everybody.

He loved people that you were not supposed to love.

In his culture, there were people that you're not supposed to love that person.

And we have that in our culture too, depending on certain persuasions or certain lines of thinking.

There's people who should be excluded from love.

There was no person, no person that Jesus excluded from his love.

And that was actually scandalous.

Jesus loved scandalously.

The Pharisees would come and be like, how can you have dinner in that person's house?

How can you be hanging out with those people?

Do you know who they are?

And he's like, I do.

I do.

That's why I'm with them.

I'm here to help them, I'm here to change them, to transform their lives.

Jesus loved everybody.

But then it gets a little more nuanced.

If we go to John chapter 2, it says that because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him.

John 2 · chapter mention

But Jesus didn't trust them.

Because he knew all about people.

No one needed to tell him about human nature, for he knew what was in each person's heart.

Okay, so Jesus loves everybody.

Even when they interrupt his grieving process, he loves them so much, he has such compassion that he serves them no matter what, but he didn't trust them.

Interesting.

There's a teaching of Jesus that if you've never heard this one before, you may be like, that doesn't sound like Jesus.

That's one of my favorite things about him, by the way, is you think you haven't figured out, you don't.

There's always something where you're like, ooh, there's a new angle.

I gotta learn about him more, I've got to understand him better.

It's kind of like being married.

So Matthew 7, 6.

Don't waste what is holy on people who are unholy.

Huh.

Don't throw your pearls to pigs.

They will trample the pearls and then turn and attack you.

Doesn't sound very Jesus-y, right?

It's an interesting illustration.

It would have been for the people that Jesus was talking to, because in their culture, pearls were the most precious thing.

It wasn't diamonds, it was pearls.

In fact, Jesus tells a story in Matthew 13.

He said, The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls.

And when he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it.

A pearl of great value.

And Jesus says, Don't give pearls to pigs.

Who would do that?

Well, in other words, who would share the most precious parts of their life with people who would not honor it, respect it, and who actually might abuse it?

And the answer to that question is lots of people.

Lots of people.

And I'm sure many of us have stories where we have been hurt deeply, we've been burned by doing that.

And Jesus would say, love everybody, love without reservation.

But trust carefully.

Be discerning.

So let's unpack this together and kind of understand what it would actually look like to trust so purposefully, so intentionally that we are trusting people, trusting God, trusting ourselves in a biblical way, in a way that's going to work.

So let's start with this.

Let's look at some categories and we'll kind of gauge the trust level we ought to have in these different categories.

Let's start with other people.

Low, mid, high, other people.

What level of trust do you think we should give other people?

Who here says hi, trust other people?

Yeah, just trust them.

No one's got their hand raised.

Okay.

Mid?

Mid?

Low?

Answer like it depends, right?

It totally depends on the person.

But please, show of hands, who's been burned before?

Ah, there we go.

Who's got some scars?

Man, it's amazing how trust works with us as people because when you're a child, you are children are so trusting we have to tell them not to do things that sound dumb.

Like if someone ever comes up to you and says, hey, come over here and I got candy, you're like, don't ever do that, because kids will be like, okay.

I even think about my own kids.

I every one of my kids at one point in time trusted me so much that they would let me throw them in the air, trusting that I would catch them.

None of them would do that anymore.

And it's not just because of the weight ratio thing, it's because I've messed up.

In fact, man, um when my son, my oldest son, was two, two or three, we we drove across halfway across the country together to visit my parents in Missouri.

And it was just me and him.

And so we're on our way back, and he was, you know, this is before uh iPhones, or at least we didn't have an iPhone, so there was no like entertainment on hand.

So, you know, 14, 15-hour drive with a two-year-old in the back seat is a that's a journey.

And I was doing everything I could to keep him entertained, and so we stopped at this little gas station, and this gas station had these cheap plastic instruments, like a little mini guitar, and I was like, whatever, just play with this and keep him occupied.

And so he's in the back and he's strumming, and he started singing, and he's making up a song, and he goes, Ooh, my dad loves me, ooh, he'll never hurt me, and uh, he was wrong.

He was wrong.

He would never sing that song today.

He would sing the My Dad Loves Me part, but he would sing there there's expanded verses, okay, that would be added now that are more nuanced because I have hurt him.

I have, I've messed up.

I've to all my kids.

I've crossed lines, I've said things I shouldn't have said, I've lost my temper, I've I've been out of I have hurt him.

And that's the unfortunate thing about us being people is that we're we're born with this nature to trust.

And we get our hearts broken sometimes by the people who love us most and that we love most, and so it makes trust really hard.

Trusting other people, man, it really depends on the person.

Sometimes even depends on the person in the situation.

There's people that I would trust immensely in some areas of life, but I would I wouldn't trust them in other areas.

It's tough.

It's tough.

Let's listen to what Scripture has to say about trusting other people.

And there's some context to this, so just go with me.

Let's start in Jeremiah chapter 9.

Jeremiah 9 · chapter mention

Beware of your neighbor.

There you go.

Don't even trust your brother.

For brother takes advantage of brother, and friend slanders friend.

They all fool and defraud each other.

No one tells the truth.

With practice tongues, they tell lies, they wear themselves out with all their sinning.

They pile lie upon lie, utterly refuse to acknowledge me, says the Lord.

Micah chapter 7, verses 5 and 6, echo this.

Micah 7:5

Don't trust anyone.

It's a little dark.

Not your best friend or even your wife.

For the son despises his father, the daughter defies her mother, the daughter-in-law defies her mother-in-law.

Your enemies are right in your own household.

Okay, so context.

Um the prophets, when you're reading the prophets, you have to understand that prophets were called to often convict a group of people at a specific time and place.

And so when these gentlemen are writing, the audience they're writing to, these are people living incredibly disobedient to God.

They've rebelled against God intensely, and it's so intense that the entire moral fiber of their culture was like degrading.

And God would rise up, he would raise up prophets like Jeremiah, like Micah, and he would say, I have a message for the people.

And those messages were often intense.

They were intense.

And so when we read this, that is not necessarily a universal truth, like don't trust your wife.

That's not a universal truth.

But it's it's definitely indicating that there can be times where things are so bad that people can't be trusted.

Maybe a more universal and timeless application of this that isn't as specific as what was going on in Israel at that time would be Jeremiah chapter 17.

Jeremiah 17 · chapter mention

This is what the Lord says: cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

They are like stunted shrubs in the desert with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited, salty land.

Cursed are those who rely on mere human strength.

If we put all of our trust in people, we will be deeply disappointed.

If we are not discerning in that department, we will be deeply disappointed.

And that's not a cynical take.

That is not some dark, low view of humanity.

Like we all have ample experience to know this, but God is calling us to be discerning, deeply discerning with who we trust because the stakes are high.

Sometimes the stakes are higher than we can imagine.

In fact, look at the story of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah was a king in the Old Testament.

He was a good king.

I mean, the kings, none of them were perfect, but if you're making a list of the kings who can be called good, Hezekiah would be on that list.

And Hezekiah did something pretty amazing in that he resisted the king of this nation called Assyria.

The Assyrian Empire was the first empire that really conquered the people of Israel.

And they took over the northern kingdom, but the southern kingdom stayed independent.

And King Hezekiah was able to, with the help of the Lord, uh, repel the Assyrians.

And this was a big, big deal.

Okay, so in 2 Kings chapter 20, after this happens, after Hezekiah's had victory over the Assyrians, the Babylonians come to visit.

2 Kings 20 · chapter mention

They're another nation, they're kind of an up-and-coming nation, and they're not enemies with him at this point or his people.

They're just envoys, diplomats.

And so it says in chapter 20 that Hezekiah received the Babylonian envoys and he showed them everything in his treasure houses: the silver, the gold, the spices, the aromatic oils.

Just imagine he's got these envoys from Babylon and he wants to show off a little bit.

He's like, I'll show them all my cool stuff.

And that's what he does.

He also took them to see his armory.

He showed them everything in his royal treasuries.

There was nothing in his palace or kingdom that Hezekiah did not show them.

Then Isaiah the prophet went to Hezekiah and asked him, What did those men want?

Were they, where were they from?

And Hezekiah replied, They came from the distant land of Babylon.

What did they see in your palace?

Isaiah asked.

They saw everything, Hezekiah replied.

I showed them everything I own, all my royal treasuries.

Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Listen to the message from the Lord.

The time is coming when everything in your palace, all the treasures stored up by your ancestors until now, will be carried off to Babylon.

Nothing will be left, says the Lord.

Some of your very own sons will be taken away into exile.

They'll become eunuchs who will serve in the palace of Babylon's king.

Hezekiah was unwise.

He showed them everything.

But these were not people he should trust.

And these Babylonian envoys go back and they're like, guys, we saw what they have.

We gotta take it.

And not many years later, the Babylonian Empire would get to the point where it would come and completely conquer that nation, ending the independence of the Hebrew people for centuries, taking many of them into exile.

I mean, it was exactly what the prophet said.

Because Hezekiah was not discerning.

He just he trusted these people too much, and it cost him and his people greatly.

Jesus loved everyone, but he was extremely discerning with trust, and we have to be like that.

We have to be like that.

We have to ask the Lord to give us wisdom for who to trust and how much to share with certain people.

That doesn't mean that we don't trust anyone at all.

Like I said, the prophets, those first verses I shared from them, are like, don't trust anyone.

They're making a point with extreme language in an extreme time.

But Jesus was careful.

You know, he had his twelve disciples and he shared things with them he didn't share with others, but even Jesus had three disciples that he shared things with, he didn't share with the rest.

John, James, and Peter got an inside look at Jesus that even the other disciples didn't get.

That's why when you read John's gospel, by the way, it has stories in it that aren't in the other gospels because John was closer with Jesus.

John was there for things that the other guys weren't there for.

Jesus had layers of trust.

And he was wise about that.

He knows what it means to get burned, by the way.

Judas was kind of a big deal.

But Jesus was discerning and careful with trust, not with love, but with trust.

So when it comes to your trust level with other people, just be careful.

Be discerning and ask the Lord to open your eyes.

People don't have to earn your love, but they do have to earn your trust, and you have to take that seriously, or else you often partner with disaster.

But let's look at another category, okay?

Because I think we all understand the people thing.

How about you personally?

How much do you trust yourself?

That's an interesting category.

Because look, trusting in human strength, as Jeremiah said, woe to those who rely on human strength.

Well, that doesn't just mean other people, that also means you.

What degree of trust should I give myself?

And I think the answer is again, it depends.

Anyone ever burned yourself?

Like you want to share, like, wow, I I surprised my not many people.

Wow, okay, I'm like way worse than you guys.

That's good.

Maybe it's just too hard to admit.

Have you ever had a moment where you surprised yourself and you're like, wow, I handled that so poorly.

I thought I was further along than I am.

I mean, sometimes it can be like laughable situations.

Um, you know, I've had moments with my kids where, you know, I flew off the handle and it was not a big deal, but I was tired and, you know, whatever.

And you're like, ah, kids come back.

I'm so sorry.

I shouldn't have yelled.

I shouldn't have.

You know, we have moments like that.

We kind of laugh at because they're not that big of a deal.

But then there can be other things where you're like, whoa, I have some blind spots.

I have a problem.

I hope this isn't me throwing pearls to pigs, but I don't think it is, because you guys are great, because this is our we're a church family.

Um, but I've shared this before.

Like, I had a I had a long struggle with pornography, okay?

Always fun to talk about.

Um, and it I got exposed to it when I was in third grade.

I'm part of that generation that grew up with computers, and we were our parents' IT department, so they didn't know how computers worked, and we did, and that wasn't a good thing because that gave access to all kinds of bad stuff, and you know, you were it was easy to hide it from your parents.

In fact, I remember my mom when I was in college, she said, Justin, I'm so proud of you.

You've just done it all the right way.

You've really kept yourself.

And I was like, Thanks, mom.

Um, but you know, I had this, I had this secret.

I had this secret.

It was really hard.

And, you know, that was a battle that I had for a long time, and I thought getting married would fix it, because then I'm married and you know, it it's all real, and now that's not how that works.

And so it continued even into my marriage, and it really got to a breaking point about 15 years ago, and thankfully, thankfully, I got some counseling and uh and was able to kind of really own it for the first time in my life and experienced freedom.

And I went 10 years, an entire decade.

With no mess-ups.

And then I had one.

And I cannot tell you the level of shame and guilt and just defeat that I experienced in that moment.

And so once that happened, I had to like reevaluate everything.

And I had to trust myself less.

You know, so my phone is super locked.

I don't have it with me, I just point it as a this is a device like a phone.

My phone is super locked up.

Like super locked up.

Because as the course of those 10 years went on, I started bit by bit trusting myself more and some of my guardrails I let drop.

You know, one afternoon, I was like, oh, and I and I had more freedom.

And then that that cost me.

And so I can make a humorous thing out of anything because I can tell it's it feels weird in the room.

So uh so like I was at a I was at a basketball tournament like a year ago, and any of you who have kids that play sports, you know, they charge you to watch your children play.

You pay the fees and then you pay to watch your child play.

It's great.

And so I go to this tournament, we were in Augusta, Georgia, and as I'll never forget where I was because it was such an interesting interaction.

And and usually when you go to these tournaments, you pay with cash or Cash App or Venmo.

I have all those.

Um, but my phone is locked up.

I don't have internet, I don't want it, by the way.

This isn't like if I had it, I would uh, but I don't want it.

I don't, I don't trust my I don't want to trust myself as much as I once did.

Why not be wise enough to have safeguards?

You know, just real quick, quick aside, there's two types of self-control.

There's the self-control that you can have, where you can be like, you could present me with a temptation that is so great, and I know I would say no, and we all hope to be there, and the Holy Spirit will absolutely develop us into that person if we'll let him.

But then there's the self-control that you go, I don't think it would be wise for me to be tempted in that way, so I just won't go.

That's why, by the way, Proverbs, he talked about uh not even going down the street of a disreputable person.

Don't even walk down the street.

Like, be smart enough to safeguard yourself.

That is a version of self-control.

I've always likened it to ancient kings who would build walls around their city.

They'd be foolish not to have walls around their city.

They would build the walls, not because they didn't trust their soldiers, but because they wanted to save their soldiers for the big battles.

And some of us have lives where we have no protections.

We trust ourselves too much, and we have no accountability in our lives whatsoever, and that Satan just gives him more opportunity.

Let's just put it that way.

All right, so I have I have walls, I have safeguards on my devices and all of that, and I and I it'll always be that way.

It just always will for me.

And I'm fine with that.

But it leads to some interesting moments.

So I'm at this tournament in Augusta, and this place doesn't take cash, they don't use, they don't have cards to swipe, they don't use Cash App or Venmo.

They're like, we have an app.

You gotta download our app and buy the ticket.

And I was like, I can't do that.

Because I don't I have all these safeguards on my phone, I don't have app downloads.

I just don't want that.

And he's like, oh no, no, no, just here, go to your app store and download the app.

I was like, no, I know how apps work.

Uh and he's like, no, just just dude, all you gotta do is like, no, no, you don't you don't understand.

It's not I I know I I know how technology works, I understand the app store, but I cannot download this app.

And he can't he just couldn't understand.

He's like, well, all you gotta do, and I said, I had a long edition of pornography, and so my phone is super locked up, and I am not allowed to download apps.

And he went, you can just go in.

And so, you know, just thousands of hours of counseling and tons of awkward conversations, but I got a free uh free basketball game out of it, so you know, I'll take it.

Look, I I share that.

Um not because it feels good to share it, it does not.

But I share that because we have to be careful with how much trust we give ourselves.

All of us have to be careful.

It may not be in that area of life, but but in others.

So if I'm doing pre-marriage counseling for a couple and I'm like, and I hear they're gonna have separate bank accounts, and by the way, this is not judgment if you have that, it's just an opinion.

Um I'm like, don't no, don't have separate bank accounts.

You gotta have trust, you gotta have visibility, transparency is what builds trust.

You've got to see everything.

So we have to be careful with how we trust not only others, but even ourselves.

And by the way, scripture speaks to this, Jeremiah 17, 9.

The human heart is the most deceitful of all things and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

Now that does not sound like the lyrics of a Disney song.

Kind of sounds like the opposite, right?

Aren't we supposed to follow our heart and be true to our heart?

I was talking to my my fourth grade son today, Judah, who, by the way, 17 points yesterday in his basketball game, just gonna put that out there.

He did great.

It was really good, happy for Judah.

And got to give a shout out to his best, one of his best friends, Amos, who uh who also had a bunch of buckets and he plays for my team.

It was just, we're building a little his hands team, it's good.

Um, they're gonna be special.

So Judah and I were hanging out this morning.

I was talking to him about what the message was about.

And I was like, the be yourself thing, you know, be true to yourself.

He's like, No, Dad, you gotta be yourself.

I was like, depends.

And he's like, What do you mean?

I said, Well, what if you're a bad person?

And he just kind of looked up.

I was like, if you're a bad person, don't be yourself.

Be somebody different, right?

And that's obviously a simplistic joke, but the reality is it it hit him.

We talked more.

There's certain aspects of ourselves that if we were honest, if I'm true to myself, I'm pretty selfish.

If I'm true to myself, I'm not I'm not Jesus in that category of life.

And actually, I'm not called in Scripture to be myself.

I'm called in Scripture to die to myself and be transformed into a new person that the Holy Spirit shapes.

And you're not going to hear that in a Disney song, which is why it's important not to like merge our theology with kind of modern pop culture and all that stuff, because it's most of it's just very thin, uh, thinly veiled foolishness at best.

So our heart, the human heart, it's a deceitful, wicked thing.

We have all convinced ourselves of things that deep down inside we knew this is not a good idea, but we're like, no, no, but if you think about it this way, we've all convinced ourselves into doing that.

So be careful with how much trust you give yourself.

Value accountability, value transparency.

Have people in your life that you pull the curtain back from.

Maybe it's on a stage in front of thousands of people and it's going to be on the internet forever, and people can use it against you.

But that's that's my life.

So be it.

But but I will tell you this and we'll move on.

I used to be so terrified of sharing stories like what I just shared.

I was so terrified of it.

Because I can say I don't care what people think, and I don't as much as I used to, but I I mean I'm a person.

I care about stuff.

And years ago, Satan used to, man, the fear of being found out.

If people knew, if people knew the worst parts of you, oh my goodness.

And what I have found is that there is a tremendous power in wisely, again, discernment, and we're a church family, right?

I trust you guys.

There is power in wisely being transparent, not only for accountability purposes, but it also lets Satan know, yeah, you don't have that on me anymore.

Because that whole, oh, if they would new, it's like, well, I just told them.

And only a few of them left.

Right?

Like that's fine.

So have people in your life.

Start small.

Start small.

Have a person, two people who you view as wise, godly people, and have a conversation with them and say, hey, I need someone in my life that I can just be honest with and they can check me.

Because I don't trust myself fully.

That is not, that is wisdom.

That is discernment.

That's my advice.

One last category, though.

We've got other people, ourselves, fairly low to mid levels of trust, depending.

High in some cases, but not all the cases.

What about God?

Like, what level of trust should we give to God?

High.

We all said that with such enthusiasm.

Like, high.

And clearly we all trust God fully, right?

Every single one of us, we never question him, we never doubt him.

We're like, God, I'll do whatever.

You tell me to give all my money away, how fast can I write that check?

Come on, let's go.

We should trust God fully.

I mean, scripture will tell us that.

Let's look at some verses.

Proverbs chapter 3, verses 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Proverbs 3:5

Do not depend on your own understanding, seek his will in all you do, he'll show you which path to take.

That's a promise.

Trust in him with all your heart.

Psalm 118, verse 8.

Psalms 118:8

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.

Hey, if your choice is between God and people, choose God every time.

That's easier said than done.

Psalm 146, 3 and 5.

Don't put your confidence in powerful people.

There's no help for you there.

Because when they breathe their last, they will return to the earth and all their plans will die with them.

But joyful are those who have the God of Israel as their helper, whose hope is in the Lord their God.

Jeremiah 17, we read part of this earlier, the first part, but there's a there's a change.

It says, This is what the Lord said, says, Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.

They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future.

They will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited, salty land.

But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.

They are like trees planted along a riverbank with roots that reach deep in the water.

Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.

Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing fruit.

Scripture says we should put all of our trust in the Lord, trust level unlimited, trust level as high as it can possibly be.

But that is easier said than done.

It's hard to trust God sometimes.

Sometimes harder than we might even want to admit.

And by the way, if you ever struggle to trust God, you're in you're in good company.

Moses, for example, if you know the story of the burning bush.

God calls him and he's like, I don't know about that.

And God says, No, no, you're gonna go tell Pharaoh, let my people go, and I'm gonna give you all the strength you need to do it.

And he's like, Yeah, but what about this?

And God, I'm not very good at talking, and God's like, okay, fine, I'll send your brother Aaron and he'll talk for you.

Is that work?

And he's like, it's like this negotiation with God.

And that doesn't end.

You'd think that after that happens, and then Moses sees all the miracles that God does to free the people from slavery in Egypt, and then he parts the Red Sea and they walk through it, and all this stuff that he, I mean literally manna, like food from heaven rains down and they eat it every day.

You'd think that at that point you're like, I totally trust God.

But no, you go to go to Exodus chapter 33.

Exodus 33 · chapter mention

And it says, one day Moses said to the Lord, You've been telling me, take these people up to the promised land, but you haven't told me whom you will send with me.

You've told me I know you by name, I look favorably on you.

If it's true that you look favorably on me, then let me know your way, so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor.

And remember that this nation is your own people.

He's he's worried that it's not going to work out.

The Lord replied, I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest.

Everything will be fine for you.

And then Moses said, If you don't personally go with us, don't make us leave this place.

How will anyone know that you look favorably on me, on me and your people, if you don't go with us?

For your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all the people on this earth.

It's like God's like, I'll go with you, I'll be there.

He's like, Yeah, but what if you don't?

Like that is so human beings with God.

Oh, I totally trust you, Lord.

Also, I have serious concerns.

Um, like, what if you do this?

What if you do?

What if this doesn't work out?

It is hard to trust God.

And I think it's hard for a few reasons, and and worship team, actually, you can make your way out because I'm I'm looking at the clock.

It's hard for a bunch of reasons.

I think one reason is that God's ways are not our ways.

And we tend to have this need to visualize how things will work out.

And I've tried to do that here at the church over the years, and it's like, well, I can see it going this way or I can see it going that way.

And what I've learned is that God's ways are not ours, and very often he's got a plan that I couldn't have thought of.

So I see it as binary.

It's either gonna be this or this, and this is good and this is bad, and ah, what if, and God's like, you don't even know all the ways this could work out.

And I've seen him do things that were so surprising and so like, oh, that, okay, that I've had to learn over the years to trust that he has a way I do not see.

Sometimes we struggle to trust God because we just can't imagine what he's gonna do.

And we don't like that.

And we would rather settle for our version of a good plan than have faith in the plan that God isn't even gonna tell us because we wouldn't believe him if he did.

So I think that's part of it.

His ways are not our ways.

Sometimes we struggle to trust God because we have we have misconceptions about what following God is actually like.

We've maybe been led to believe that if you follow God, everything works out for you and life is never hard.

And that is not anywhere in the Bible.

Ever.

And those misconceptions, they can run so deep.

I'll never forget this, and this was not a lack of compassion, at least I don't hope.

But many years ago, I was having lunch with a young man at our church, and uh and we lost contact after after a while, and I haven't seen him in a long time.

Hope he's doing good.

But he was in a dark place.

He was struggling.

And he was really struggling to believe in God.

Like he told me, I don't even know if I believe in God anymore.

I was like, Well man, what has happened to create that crisis in your faith?

And he said that this year he he had lost both of his grandfathers.

They had both died in the same year, which is hard.

Um he was in his mid-20s.

And I asked him, I was like, Well, how old were your grandfathers?

And he said, Well, they were in their mid-80s.

And I was like, Well, that's pretty good.

I didn't say it like that.

That's how I thought.

I had to be more careful.

But but the reality is, I was like, man, I mean, you know, I had a grandfather that died when I was two.

Um, you know, my grandmother died when I was 20, 21, and and she and I were extremely close.

I mean, I was so close with her, and she died really suddenly, and that was hard.

I'd been there.

It's funny when I was 40, my last living grandparent passed away.

And at that same moment, my wife had all four of her grandparents still alive.

At 40 years old.

All of her grandparents.

Or 37.

She's 36, yeah, not 30.

Because she's not 40 at all.

There's no way.

We're only one year apart.

So she was 39.

Let's just say that.

And so uh, you know, that's crazy, right?

To be that that age and have all of your grandparents, that's very rare.

But I had to look at this young man and say, young man, I I think your your crisis of faith is connected to a disconnect with what the Lord has promised us.

We don't we don't live forever forever.

Jesus has defeated death and redeemed death, so now we have life to look forward to.

But if if your faith in God depends on your grandparents never dying, that what's that gonna be like?

Life's gonna happen.

And sometimes those misconceptions of, well, if I give my life to God, shouldn't I be protected from all kinds of this or that?

I can't.

Some of the most incredible people I've ever known have had some of the hardest lives.

And yet they've, like we just shared with Matt and Eliza, they've worshiped God through it, not turned away from him because of it.

Sometimes it's that.

I think a lot of times we struggle to trust God because people do things to hurt us and we attribute it to God.

We're actually mad at people, but we feel like it's it's a God thing.

And I've learned over the years that God can be trusted fully, completely, 100% of the time.

Even when it seems like everything is falling apart.

One last little story, and then we'll take Lord's Supper and wrap up.

But when I was in college, I started interning at this church in Kansas City, Missouri.

When I was in high school, I actually felt my senior of high school, I felt like God was starting to stir my heart to do ministry, even though I was only a senior in high school.

And and if you grew up in youth group, like how many of you grew up in youth groups as a kid, like growing up?

Yeah, so I went to church camp every summer, and so you know that once you've been saved three times, then you get called into ministry.

That's the way it works.

And so, you know, you go and you're like, I get you get saved again because it's emotional.

And no, that's I'm just joking, kind of.

But uh, but yeah, I felt called to ministry, and there's a guy now who's actually a pastor.

Um, he's he's been a pastor in Cherokee County for a while, and he was in Cartersville, and I was back in Cherokee County because his church has expanded.

His name's Will Goodwin, and uh Will has spoken he spoke here at his hands once.

Will mentored me and kind of helped me understand that calling and all of that.

I love him.

And then I interned at this church, and it was like a dream.

I'm I'm interning, I was running their middle school department for about a year and a half, and it was awesome.

And the pastor, I kind of idolized him.

I sort of looked at him as a father figure, and honestly, kind of unfairly to him because I definitely put him on a pedestal.

I was young and I had that tendency.

And then some stuff happened where I just saw the human side of church and it was kind of ugly, and the pastor really disappointed me.

Like he really disappointed me.

And it all came to a head in October or September.

I think it was September rather.

Yeah, it was definitely September of 2005, it all came to a head.

And I was like, I don't think I can be here anymore.

And it broke my heart.

And I'm up in Kansas City and I'm like, God, I don't know what you're doing.

I thought this was where I was supposed to be.

I've been serving here, I've given hours, I was an unpaid intern, I've given my life to this.

How has it ended like this?

Why did you let this happen?

I walked away from even thinking about ministry.

I got a different job.

And Megan even used to talk to me in those days, like, whatever happened to church and ministry.

I'm like, please don't bring that up.

I don't want to do that.

I've had my fill of that, I'm done.

And she just kept at it bit by bit.

Well, things worked out to where one day Will called me, the guy who had mentored me in high school and helped me understand that calling, and he said, What are you doing?

I told him what I was doing.

He's like, You're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

And I told him about the church and what happened, and then the pastor said this, and it was a lie, and the past and I just was so disappointed in.

This is what Will told me.

He's like, get over it.

People are people.

He said, What that pastor said or did has no bearing on what God called you to do.

He said, I know a church in Woodstock that's just getting started.

They launched last year.

They're looking for a youth pastor, and he made me call here.

He made me call this church.

And I called and I said, Hey, Will Goodwin, you guys know him.

He referred me and they flew me in for an interview, and you know, here I am.

You know what's crazy about that whole story?

You know when this church officially started?

Not here in the building.

We're gonna celebrate our 20th anniversary here next year.

We're gonna have that celebration.

But but we started before this building was done, the church was meeting in a different place.

David Busters, if you didn't know, is where our church first met.

That's weird.

Uh so's a Kmart.

So it's good, it's us.

September of 2005.

The same exact month that up in Kansas City, everything was falling apart for me.

Was the exact same month that this church was starting.

And I had no idea.

And I'm up in Kansas City going, God, where are you?

I don't understand what you're doing, you're letting me down.

I this is a disaster.

I you have what why?

And unbeknownst to me, because of God and his ways are not our ways, here, thousand miles from where I was, he was creating a home that would become the place that I would grow up, because I wasn't that grown up at 23 when I came, where I would raise my family, all of my children have been here their whole lives, where I would develop some of the best friendships I have ever had in my entire life.

And I was questioning him the whole time.

He has taught me to trust him, that we can trust him.

You can trust him fully, truly.

So trust him.

Romans 8 28 says, God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according according to his purpose for them.

He will cause even the bad stuff, all things, not just all good things, even the things that throw you, he will use it.

He'll use it for your good if you trust him.

So, be on purpose with trust.

Trust people depending, trust yourself depending.

Some of us need to trust ourselves less and get some accountability in our lives, some of us need to trust other people less, or maybe certain people more.

I don't know, but that's a discernment issue that the Holy Spirit will help you with.

But you do not need discernment to trust God.

You trust Him completely and watch what He does and know that one day you will understand it all.

One day you will see everything He's done in your life, and you will be like, wow, God, you know what you're doing.

Even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

Let's take Lord's supper together.

And if you're new, we do this every Sunday, something that Jesus followers have done for as long as there have been Jesus followers.

And so at the back, there's tables with these little cups with bread and juice, and you're free to grab one now if you forgot it on your way in or missed it.

But we're gonna take the bread and the juice.

We're gonna do this pretty quickly this morning.

We got a couple people getting baptized, so we gotta get to that.

Um, this bread represents Jesus' body, this juice represents his blood.

He died on the cross to forgive us from our sins, to save us, to create a path for us, to have a restored relationship with God the Father.

He died for us.

I don't know how much more someone needs to do to earn trust.

Like I trust Jesus.

He's earned that for sure.

And as we take this, let's commit in our hearts to trusting Him more.

And if you've never put your trust in Jesus, if you're here and you've never given your life to Jesus, you've put your trust in other things, I'm sure that those things have let you down, or maybe not, maybe right now it's going great.

I'm not trying to be uh mean and hopefully it all works out, but like life's gonna happen.

And scripture is not wrong when it says, cursed is the one who puts their trust in the human things.

But if you put your trust in God, you are like a tree planted by a stream, you grow, drought can happen, you survive it.

Because God is your strength.

And so if you never put your trust in Jesus, do that.

Commit your life to him.

It's a prayer.

You say, Lord, I belong to you, get baptized, take the next step of obedience, start walking with the Lord and see what he does in your life.

He'll change you and he'll make your life into something it can never be without him.

But it all starts with receiving him and the sacrifice that he's made for us.

So let's let's pray to him and thank him.

Father, we thank you for this bread.

This is your body.

It was given up for us.

A sacrifice.

You paid the price.

And Lord, I think I speak for all of us.

I hope I speak for all of us.

You have earned our trust.

What more could we ask you to do than to give your life for us to put our trust in you?

We love you and we trust you.

Let's take the bread.

Now the juice.

Lord, we thank you for this cup.

This is your blood poured out as an offering, a cleansing sacrifice.

You gave your life all of it, you held nothing back, and you still hold nothing back.

We love you, Lord, and we trust you.

Give us discernment in all the areas of our life when it comes to who to trust and who not to trust, but help us put all of our trust in you always.

And we pray this in your name, Jesus.

Amen.