Trust Beyond Understanding

Come on guys, you excited? Ready to go? Yeah, not really. This morning, join me as we welcome Sara for the word. Excited to hear from Sara this morning. [Music] Good morning. How are we doing church? Are we good? You can answer. Are we good? Hey, good.

Right, I'm going to waffle because John's got my notes. He's multitasking. Great. Well, I love it how the worship has led us in to what I want to speak about today. So I'm going to jump straight on in and I want to look at trust beyond understanding.

Trust beyond understanding. Who thinks trusting is always easy? Anyone want to put their hands up? I don't think it's always easy. Sometimes it's hard to trust in someone or something. We get hurt, don't we? We get let down. We can get betrayed by systems, processes, people.

Might be unintentional but we experience those things. And is anyone with me when they think, you know what? I'll just trust on myself. Anyone? Think, you know what? I've got this. I can do this. I can sort it. I don't need other people. I don't need other things.

I can do it. I've certainly had that thought in my life on a number of occasions. We get bombarded by information, don't we, in today's world, whether that's through news, whether that's through social media channels, whether that's just through gossip or whatever it might be, we get a whole load of information hurled at us every single day. And sometimes we might want to put our trust in that for whatever reason. We might think, well, actually, maybe that makes a bit of sense.

Maybe I'm going to put my trust in that theory or that idea or that potential solution for whatever it might be. We might put our trust in things like money or governments or maybe people that we look up to, even if they're not people we know but people we see online, celebrities or people in the public eye, we might take on board some of the things they're saying, some of the ways they're behaving because actually I can relate to that. So I think I'm going to align myself to that and maybe put my trust. in that. But whatever we feel, whatever we go through, whatever we think we might want to trust in, there's someone who ultimately we need to be putting our trust in. And that's God.

Ultimately we need to be putting our trust in God. And we're going to spend just a bit of time looking at two verses in the Bible that we might be familiar with. They're quite popular verses that get mentioned a lot. Some of you might even be working it out already about which book and where I'm hidden. But I want to look in the book of Proverbs.

Ah, yeah. Where am I going, Ruth? I want to look at Proverbs chapter three. Verse five and verse six. Six, seven. Yeah, not quite six, seven. Five, six. Doesn't really work, does it? Yeah. Six, seven. Actually, that might come in handy a bit later. Six, seven.

Okay, so I'm going to read this in the new King James version. So, I'm going to go back to the screen behind me. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. And the Bible's got loads of different versions and translations and I want to read to you how it's phrased in the message version.

We can't go through lots of different versions today, but sometimes I love just looking at a couple of verses and seeing what different translations and how they've interpreted it, because sometimes it gives you a new idea and a new perspective on what it's talking about. And that's partly why I want us to look at this as well, because it just phrases it slightly differently. So in the message version, exactly the same section, trust God from the bottom of your heart. Don't try to figure out everything on your own. I am speaking to myself, Sara, but all of you as well.

Don't try and figure it out on your own. Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. He's the one who will keep you on track. He's the one that will keep you on track. It doesn't say your partner. It doesn't say your family member.

It doesn't say your best friend. It doesn't say your neighbor. It doesn't say that influencer. It doesn't say social media. It doesn't say that theory. It doesn't say that power. It doesn't say that government or that influence. It doesn't say any of that.

It says, "He, God, is the one that will keep you on track." There's so much that we could delve into in this and so much that I'm excited about, but I am going to try and whip through this. Are you ready? We are going to go through this. I'm going to be bold and brave and say I'm going to finish on time.

I mean, that's hard enough when I, you know, on a good day, but I'm looking at the time now, but who's just singing God that I can finish on time? Hey, come on. I'm bold. I'm feeling brave. Come on, God, we can do this. So I'm going to break it down and I'm just going to scratch the surface on some little bits of hopefully what we can take from this passage today and apply to our own lives.

So firstly, trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. I've said sometimes that's not easy. I get that. I've had times in my life where I didn't want to trust anyone. No, thanks. I can do this on my own. I've been hurt enough and let down enough. I've got this.

So trust can be really difficult when we're facing different situations, different struggles, different circumstances, whatever it might be, decisions. It can be really hard, but God says trust in the Lord. You know, this book, the Bible, is jam packed of evidence of people putting their trust in God. This encourages us. That's one of the reasons God wants us to read the Bible, read the Word, because when we read it, we are faith increases.

Because we think, hang on a minute, God did that for them. He can do that for me today. It is jam packed of stories of people, ordinary people, putting their trust in God. We can encourage one another by sharing stories and testimonies of when we've put our trust in God and we've seen Him answer. We've seen a result.

We can encourage one another and that helps us increase our faith and put our trust in God. But who knows, trust is hard when it defies human logic, when it goes against human logic. Yeah? Who knows? I find trust really hard when it doesn't make sense.

When it makes zero sense in the natural, I'm like, hang on a minute, that makes no sense. I've shared this story before and so I'm not going to go into all of the details, but years ago I was in a job that I absolutely loved. I had to make a decision, there were job cuts and I had to make a decision of whether to stay in the job, but on reduced hours, or whether to go and be made redundant. So the human logic would say what? What would the human logic say?

Stay and have some money or go into I don't know what? The human logic would say, well stay where you are, Sara. It makes sense. Why don't I just stay here? I'm going to get some money, not all of the money, but I'm going to get some of the money. Surely that makes more sense than going to I don't know what?

Yeah, not for Jo. Okay. There's always one. And you. Yeah, there we go. So you guys there, my human logic was like, well surely it makes sense to stay. I've got income. I've got bills to pay. Surely it makes sense. You know what God's logic was? Go! God's logic was you've got to leave, girly.

What now? Sorry, I don't think I heard that. Hang on. You've got to go. Sorry, God. Lines gone dead. Come on here. I'm getting silly. Don't worry, not long. God's logic was you've got to go. But God, I've got nothing to go to. Yes, still go. But I love this job.

Yes, still go. But what am I going to do in my life? Do I do something completely different? Yes, still go. God said go. So I went. And it was honestly one of the scariest things I've done from a trusting in God and faith perspective because it literally felt like I was stepping off a cliff into darkness because I had absolutely no idea what came next.

Now, if I hadn't have listened to that voice, I might have stayed because I couldn't see what was going to happen in the coming weeks or the months. I couldn't even see what would happen in years to come because of that decision. I could just see the here and the now. This is all I could see. So the human logic well was surely it makes sense to stay.

But God sees all of this. And if there wasn't a wall here, I'd keep going. He sees all of that. So he's telling me to go because he knew what was coming in the next couple of months, because he knew what was coming in the next few years. And I can honestly tell you, I look back and this was 16 years ago.

Today there are still positive consequences of things that are happening in my life that trace back to that decision. There are honestly things that are happening in my life right now that trace back to 16 years ago when I had a decision to stay or to go. We've got a trust in God because he sees the big picture. He sees all of it. He sees from the beginning to the end.

He knows all of the lives of the people that have gone before us. He knows every single detail about the people living on this planet right now, about 7 billion people. And he knows all of the details and the life about everyone who's yet to even be born. I don't even know what cookie I might eat after this. Hint, hint.

Do you get it? I don't know what's going to happen. And so, but God does because he sees all of that exactly at all at the same time. So when he gives you an instruction and a direction, it's not from just seeing this, it's from seeing this. And that's why we can trust in him.

That is why we can trust in the Lord. Okay, I need to roll it on. So we trust in the Lord with all our hearts, with all of our hearts. And what that's getting at is that everything within us, we are trusting in him. With our thoughts, with our dreams, with our hopes, with our fears, with our worries, with the decisions in our lives.

It's everything that's within us. Oh, will, we are trusting it in God. One example I want to just touch on briefly from the Bible was to do with Abraham. And God told Abraham, so Abraham is around right at the beginning of the Bible in Genesis. And in those days, what they would do would be to build an altar and to then sacrifice a lamb as an offering to God.

That was custom in those days. That's what people would do. Okay, but God said to Abraham one day, "I want you to sacrifice your son, Isaac." Again, I'd be a little bit tempted to... Sorry, God, not sure I heard that. This is what it says in the book of Genesis in chapter 22, verses 2 and 3.

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain that I will show you." Early the next morning, Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son, Isaac. When he had cut enough woods for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about.

Now, it doesn't say what Abraham was thinking when he heard God, how he was even feeling at such a thing, but it says right in the text after God told him what to do, it goes straight into early the next morning, Abraham got up and off he went. I mean, that's pretty huge trust, isn't it? You can answer me. Yeah, if somebody said to you, take your loved one, whether that's a child or someone else, go over to the top of mousehole teeth. It's the highest local point I could think of.

Build an altar and sacrifice your child. Oh, okay, off I go. Come on. I mean, that is trusting God, isn't it? On a huge scale. I mean, you all might be there, but I'm thinking, wowzers! That is huge, but that is the kind of trust that God wants us to have in him because he's got all things in his hands.

And if you don't know the end of that story, after Isaac has been tied to the altar, and Abraham's about to lift up a knife over him, an angel from heaven cries out and says, "Stop!" I mean, that's leaving it pretty 11th hour, you know? But that's what happens. But that is trusting in God to know that he has got all things in his hands. That is trusting with all of our hearts.

And what an example Abraham gives to us. What a huge example of trust. So we're to trust in God with all of our hearts. And thirdly, lean not on your own understanding. Now sometimes I think my logic's pretty good. Just saying. But actually it's not a patch on God's logic.

And it's hard, isn't it? Sometimes we want to be in control. Anyone with me, like being in control, likes to know what's going to happen when it's going to happen. Yeah, absolutely. I'm totally with you. But sometimes we have to come away from our logic and lean on the logic of God.

Ooh, that's a bit frightening. Sometimes, isn't it? But we can lean and trust in God's logic. And by lean, I mean full on leaning. Lean on Him. Don't just sort of... Come on, just a little lean. Yeah, I'm leaning on God's logic. Leaning on God's logic, but I've also got one foot in my logic.

Come on, you know that's what we're like. That's what I'm like anyway. Yeah, yeah, I'm all in God, I'm trusting you. Oh dear, it's the heat, I think. Going to my head. I'm wrapping up, don't worry. But leaning in, and I'm not going to fully lean on this because I'll topple it over, but imagine a beanbag, will you?

Lean in! Fully lean in to his logic because he says this, this is one of my absolute favourite Bible verses in the book of Isaiah, chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. Look at that, Feb. My thoughts, this is God speaking, my thoughts are nothing like your thoughts. And my ways are far beyond anything that you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways. And my thoughts, higher than your thoughts. We don't need to work it all out. We don't need to solve it and sort it and try and make a plan. We don't need to do that because the reality is we never will.

Because God's way of working and God's logic is in a whole different level to anything that we could get to. So if it's just down to us, we're going to be operating over here. If I had stayed in my job, if I had thought I'm going to ignore what God's telling me to do and I'm going to stay in my job, I don't know what the outcome would have been and I'm not saying it would have been an awful one. But man alive, I look back over 16 years and I can see things that are happening and opportunities that have opened up and all sorts of things because I left that place. It meant God could do those things and work those things in my life.

Which is amazing, but we've got to trust Him. We've got to lean on His logic and not our logic or the logic that the world tells us or the logic that social media tells us or the logic that our friends tell us or the logic that we just want to create ourselves because we think well we can create our own logic and that's good enough. We've got to lean not on our understanding but on God's understanding because He has got everything in His hands. He's rooting for us, He's cheering us on and it's for a lifetime. It's not just, "Well, maybe for a few minutes, maybe for a few years I'll be interested."

You know, it's forever. That God's rooting for us, cheering us on. He wants to lead us into good things, not bad things. Now it doesn't mean we don't experience the hurt and the pain of life because we can't escape that. Just because we love Him and know Him doesn't mean we're then excluded from things in life affecting us.

But it means that we can journey through life and do things knowing that we have got a God in heaven, a God who holds the whole universe in His hands on our side, holding us up, never letting us go. Never changing His word, never dropping us a little bit, never just kind of casting us to one side, never thinking, "Oh, I'm done with you, see you later." Never unintentionally hurting us or upsetting us, but we've got a God alongside us going, "I'm rooting for you, I'm cheering for you, I want the best for you because you're my son, because you're my daughter." If you lean on me and trust in me, says God, I shall direct your baths, I shall take you forward, I don't want to let you go, I'm not going to hurt you, God says.

I am here to protect you, to be your restorer, to be your provider, to be your healer, to be your miracle worker, to be your light in the darkness. And so many more things God says to us in this book of who he is and he wants and can be all of those things and more to us. But we have to put our logic to one side, we have to let go of control, we have to let go of the things that might be influencing us that aren't on him. And we need to lean into God and we need to trust in him and we can go forward because he goes before us. We've already said that this morning in the worship, he goes before us.

He goes ahead of us. He knows what our tomorrow is. We don't know our tomorrow as Adi said. We don't know but God knows our tomorrow. God knows our next week and our next month and our next year. So when he speaks to us, when he gives us direction, when he gives us encouragement, when he's shaping us, when he's growing us, when he's inputting into us and he's saying, "I want you to do this, my child, because I want you to go here and I want you to do that."

We can trust in that word because it's a God who sees all things. He sees all things and he's God as he's on our side. So we can trust in him and we can take that step. If he says, "Go," we can go. We can trust in him. We can lean on his understanding, his logic, his way of working.

It doesn't look like how you and I would work. This doesn't look like how you and I would work. This doesn't look like, this book doesn't look like how the world would work. Seize parting. I mean, man alive, what's that about? Seize parting. Food raining down from heaven to sustain a whole nation as they walk around the wilderness.

Daniel being chucked into the lion's den because he was trusting in God, by the way. Being chucked into the lion's den, spending an entire night there and coming out unharmed the next morning. That's not what the world says. But this book is jam packed of how God operates and he's on a whole different level. And so when we think about those words, trusting in him, that is who we can put our trust in because he is faithful.

He is constant. He is true. He is pure. He doesn't falter. We do, but he doesn't falter. So we can trust in him. We can lean not in our own understanding. In all of our ways we can acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths. Time has gone. But he will direct our paths.

He will get us from A to B. Paths as in meaning in our life of where we're heading, where we're going. If it's left to us, A to B might be A to C. Then it might be over to D. Then it might be back to A again. Then, "Wow, I'm over at S. Are you getting my random pictorial image here?"

Yeah, we get led astray, don't we? Or we think we can do it on our own? Oh, we get distracted. Squirrel! I get distracted. Oh, what was that? And I'm not trying to make light of these things. I'm rushing because of time. I'm not trying to make light of these things because it's not easy.

It really isn't easy sometimes. But when it says about God directing our paths, Jono, you ought to come up because I'll just keep waffling until everyone's finally left and got a coffee. Mine's a coffee, milk, no sugar. I'm not making light of these things, but paths, it doesn't mean life is easy like I've already said. It means we still experience those ups and downs and rounds and rounds and all of that.

We don't get away from that. But it does mean we stay in the direction of heading of where God wants us to go. Whereas when we're doing it on our own or we're putting our trust and faith in other things, whether that's ourself or other things like I've said, we kind of, bit like a pinball machine. We're all over the place. We're all in decisions in our lives.

Let's give them to God. Acknowledge him in all your ways. Sorry, I've missed the point. That's the point before. But acknowledge him. That means putting him central to your life. If you're thinking about what GCSE options you want to do, where do you want to go to college?

What do you want to study? What friends do I want in my life that are good influences? How can I get involved in serving at church? Where should I work? Should I take this job or that job? Should I stay? Should I go? Six, seven. That's where that came in a little bit.

Anyway, do you get what I mean? Every decision in our lives to pick the small. Should I go out there and speak to that person and tell them about Jesus? God is interested in it all. And he, if we acknowledge him and put him central, he guides us and directs us.

So as I wrap up, let's put our trust in God because he has got it all, guys. And in a time of instability that we face in our world right now, when things are up and down and round and round and topsy-turvy sometimes, and so many things going on in our world right now. We have an anchor that we can fully lean on. I don't mean just a little bit, but we can fully lean into God. Whether that's because of stuff impacting us personally or maybe stuff on a bigger scale that we get worried about, we can fully lean on God and trust in him.

And we might be holding on to things that means we're too scared, we're too worried to lean on to him. We can give those things to God and say, "God, I want to let go of this because I want to trust in you. I want to lean on you and follow after you." And even if we feel like there aren't things like that that are holding us back, we think, "Yeah, I'm trusting in God. Yeah, that's great."

But there is always more that we can be leaning on him and trusting in him for and believing in him. So why don't we stand? I'm just going to pray and then we're going to finish. He is a God as we sung this morning that has been so, so, so, so, so, so, so. I think there's one more so.

Good to me. Every time we sing that song, the line in there, "I look back over my life." I look back over my life and I can see that he has been so, so good to me. Because that's who he is. That's his nature. His nature isn't to hurt us or to let us down.

His nature is to love us, to comfort us, to grow us and develop us and shape us, to take us into things that we would never dream of. That's his nature. And so he gives us what might seem such a simple instruction in these verses of trusting in him, but less trust in him because he has got it all sorted. So I'm going to pray. Father, I thank you that we can trust in you.

God, we can absolutely 100% confidently trust in you. And God, it isn't always easy. It isn't always easy, but God, I pray that you help us lean into you. God, I just think of those this morning that might just be holding on to things. It means it stops them leaning and trusting onto you.

And God, you know what those things are and those experiences are. And God, I pray that even in these moments that you can bring healing to those situations, that you can bring comfort and bring peace and assurance to those people that just need to feel that and receive that from you this morning. Because God, you want us to let go of those things and move on into following and trusting in you. So Father, I pray particularly for those this morning that just need to be letting go of stuff. I pray that they can give that to you and that you would help them move on into trusting into you.

And Father, for all of us, wherever we find ourselves in the ability to trust or where our faith level is, God, I pray that we would all receive a fresh outpouring that fills us with faith and with confidence to lean back that bit more, or a whole load more onto you. Because you are so worthy, we can have so much confidence that you have got it all in control. So we trust in the Lord with all of our hearts. We lean not on our understanding, but we acknowledge you in all of your ways and you shall direct our paths.