Sermon Cloud

5/4/2008

Garfield Community Church

In God We Trust

Psalm 37:1 - 8

 1 Do not fret because of evildoers,
         Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
 2 For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
         And wither as the green herb.
         
 3 Trust in the LORD, and do good;
         Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
 4 Delight yourself also in the LORD,
         And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
         
 5 Commit your way to the LORD,
         Trust also in Him,
         And He shall bring it to pass.
 6 He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
         And your justice as the noonday.
         
 7 Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;
         Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
         Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
 8 Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
         Do not fret—it only causes harm.

If you look at any currency printed or coined in the United States, it has “In God We Trust” on it. This is not by chance or by mistake. Our founding fathers knew that it was by God's grace that this country existed. It was by God's grace they had the abundance that was flowing. We sing about God's grace when we sing songs like “My Country 'Tis of Thee” and “America”. The founding fathers had reason to place “In God We Trust” on everything from our currency to the Great Seal of the United States. They trusted the Lord with everything.

Last week we talked about robbing God. We talked about how being selfish is the chief motivator when we rob God, consciously or sub-consciously. Another major motivator is distrust. For some reason people do not trust God. They ignore His signs and wonders all around them. They ignore His instructions. They ignore His desire to see us do our best in what He has gifted us and created us to do.

Let's look at our text.

David is writing here. He has made some observations. If you read this entire psalm you will see contrasting ways of life. You will see those that trust God, and those that do not. Believers and evildoers. I want to focus on the believer today. I want to focus on trusting God today. Because when we trust Him, we reap benefits unequaled anywhere in this world. There are three things in this passage of scripture I would like to key in on.

• Delight yourself in the Lord

• Commit your way to the Lord

• Rest in the Lord

Let's look at verses 3 and 4. “Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.” It takes trust to do that. God has put each one of us where we are at for a reason. I believe that Kelly and I are in Garfield for a reason. This may not be the most glamorous town to live in, or the most wealthy. We don't even have a Starbucks here. Of course, some count that alone as a blessing. No one comes to Garfield to get rich. However, we are rich, when we trust God and feed on His faithfulness. At first glance someone might look at a town in the middle of wheat fields and wonder why anyone in their right mind would want to live there. Let me tell you folks, after living here 2 weeks, I can't imagine why anyone would not want to live here. But not everyone sees our town the way Pastor Kelly and I do. There are some who want to get out of here as soon as they can. Kelly and I are feeding on His faithfulness here, as most of your are. The budget numbers don't seem to always add up, yet there's always food on the table. We're always warm. There's always fellowship with folks around you that truly care about your well being. You only see it though when you are delighting yourself in the Lord.

When we make God's purposes our purposes, when we completely trust that He knows what is better for us, our deepest desires are met. The thing is, when we have made God's purposes our own, and His ways our own, our desires are as selfless as He is, and He can grant us those desires.

In verse 5 David tells us to commit our way to the lord and again to trust Him and He will bring it to pass. Again, when we trust God to do what is best for us, and we have aligned our will with His, He is going to bring about our plans. We'll prosper. We will be a shining example of what the Lord can do in someone's life. We can be a blessing to those around us. And, in being a blessing to those around us, we open a door for God to be a blessing to those around us. But again, we have to trust Him. We have to trust Him with everything.

Have you ever had a hero? Have you ever had someone you looked up to and wanted to be like? Maybe it was a great basketball player. Well, try as I might, even if I trusted him to do so, if I committed my life to Michael Jordan, I will still never play basketball like Michael Jordan. What David is saying here is trust God and commit your plans to Him. He'll make it happen.

You're sitting there saying, “Now pastor, I committed my last plan to start my own business and make a lot of money and build my family a bigger and better house to God. But look at me, I'm unemployed half the time, all of my credit cards are maxed out, I can't afford to put gas in my truck, and my wife is getting on my case about finding work.” To me, that plan sounds a bit selfish. It sounds a bit self serving and a bit self reliant. In other words, it's all “me, me ,me”. Where's God in that plan?

When we commit plans to the Lord, they must be plans that line up with His word. They must be plans that line up with His teaching. There is not one thing that is selfish about God. There is not one thing that is selfish about the way God blesses. When we commit a plan to God, He will cause it to happen. He will make it prosper, when it is in keeping with His word and ways. We have to trust him to do it though, too.

This leads me to the last point. Verse 7 says it. Rest in the Lord. REST IN THE LORD, and wait patiently for Him. Oh there's that nasty “P” word again, patiently. We're to wait patiently for Him.

I remember being a kid on Christmas morning. My dad worked third shift or some call it the graveyard shift driving a truck. He would get home and want to take a short nap before we opened gifts in the morning. Man that was almost impossible to be patient. I remember my mother telling my sister and I to wait patiently for dad until he was ready. “Don't worry”, she would say, “the presents aren't going anywhere.”

Rest in the Lord and wait patiently. The Lord's blessings will come upon you when you trust Him and commit your plans to Him and present the desires of your heart to Him. You can not watch the other guy, the guy living in the world and want what he has. What you can't see is the debt load he is carrying, or the stress he is carrying because of the job he has to have to maintain the lifestyle you are wishing you had right now. Look at the anger we see in our worldly neighbors. In our neighbors that do it themselves. It's no wonder we have the violence in our world we have today.

I saw on the news that someone was caught blindly firing a gun as they were going down a road north of Spokane because the driver in front of them was going too slow and they wanted to pass him.

We can't lament over how the world seems to succeed and succeed quickly when we are left behind. Let me tell you folks, there is one day when the world will be left behind and it will be left behind by those who have placed their trust and their very lives in the hands of the Lord and they are caught up in the air to meet Him. The world will be left behind then.

“In God We Trust” must be our moment to moment motto. It must be our life. We must trust God even it doesn't make sense and all the world around us thinks we are a fool. When we trust Him, He will grant us the desires of our hearts. He will sustain us. He will give us rest.