Trust in the Lord

23 May 2012

Opening Prayer/Worship

HYMN: Trust and Obey

Theme: Connecting with God

Topic: Trust in the Lord

Reading: 1 John 5:9-13

⁹If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.¹⁰Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God^* have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.¹¹And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.¹²Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Introduction

In the past 12 studies, we have been discussing topics based on the theme ‘Connecting with God’. In these preceding topics, we discussed how we get connected to God and the benefits thereof, several benefits of connecting with God and things that can distract us from being connected with Him. In this concluding study, we will focus on how we should trust God even as we get connected with Him. To connect with God is not a one-time event but a continuous process as long as we live. Every day we are presented with fresh opportunities to connect with God. One factor that makes this process smooth and fulfilling is trust. To trust is to place one’s confidence in someone/something. Our ultimate means of trusting God is through the expression of our faith in the power of Christ to save. When we put our trust in the Lord, we find it easier to obey Him, to connect with Him and consequently, experience the abundant life that can only be found in Christ. Trust cements our relationship with God through Christ.

Questions/Discussion

1. What does it mean to trust in the Lord?

Psalm 1:1-3

¹ Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
² but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law they meditate day and night.
³ They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.

Psalm 20:7

Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.

Psalm 22:4-5

⁴ In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.

Psalm 37:3-7

³ Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
⁴ Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday.

⁷ Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices.

Psalm 56:3-4

³ when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
⁴ In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I am not afraid; what can flesh do to me?

Psalm 62:5-10

⁵ For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him.
⁶ He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
⁷ On God rests my deliverance and my honour; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God.

⁸ Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.
⁹ Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion;
in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath.
¹⁰ Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery;
if riches increase, do not set your heart on them.

Proverbs 3:5-7

⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.
⁶ In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.

1 John 5:9-10

⁹If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.¹⁰Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God^* have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.

2. How do we put our trust in the Lord and what are the benefits?

Exodus 14:10-14

As Pharaoh drew near, the Israelites looked back, and there were the Egyptians advancing on them. In great fear the Israelites cried out to the Lord.¹¹They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us, bringing us out of Egypt?¹²Is this not the very thing we told you in Egypt, “Let us alone and let us serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.’¹³But Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid, stand firm, and see the deliverance that the Lord will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you see today you shall never see again.¹⁴The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to keep still.’

Psalm 9:9-10

⁹ The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
¹⁰ And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

John 3:18

¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

Romans 3:21-28

But now, irrespective of law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets,²²the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ^* for all who believe. For there is no distinction,²³since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;²⁴they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,²⁵whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement^* by his blood, effective through faith. He did this to show his righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed; ²⁶it was to prove at the present time that he himself is righteous and that he justifies the one who has faith in Jesus. ^*27 Then what becomes of boasting? It is excluded. By what law? By that of works? No, but by the law of faith.²⁸For we hold that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law.

Colossians 1:22-23

he has now reconciled^* in his fleshly body^* through death, so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him—²³provided that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel.

3. What are some of the consequences of not trusting in the Lord?

Numbers 14:1-4, 20-24, 26-35

Then all the congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.²And all the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, ‘Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!³Why is the Lord bringing us into this land to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become booty; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?’⁴So they said to one another, ‘Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt.’ ²⁰ Then the Lord said, ‘I do forgive, just as you have asked;²¹nevertheless—as I live, and as all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord—²²none of the people who have seen my glory and the signs that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet have tested me these ten times and have not obeyed my voice,²³shall see the land that I swore to give to their ancestors; none of those who despised me shall see it.²⁴But my servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit and has followed me wholeheartedly, I will bring into the land into which he went, and his descendants shall possess it. ²⁶ And the Lord spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying:²⁷How long shall this wicked congregation complain against me? I have heard the complaints of the Israelites, which they complain against me.²⁸Say to them, ‘As I live’, says the Lord, ‘I will do to you the very things I heard you say:²⁹your dead bodies shall fall in this very wilderness; and of all your number, included in the census, from twenty years old and upwards, who have complained against me,³⁰not one of you shall come into the land in which I swore to settle you, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.³¹But your little ones, who you said would become booty, I will bring in, and they shall know the land that you have despised.³²But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness.³³And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness for forty years, and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness.³⁴According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, for every day a year, you shall bear your iniquity, forty years, and you shall know my displeasure.’³⁵I the Lord have spoken; surely I will do thus to all this wicked congregation gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.

Hebrews 3:12-19

Take care, brothers and sisters,^* that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.¹³But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.¹⁴For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.¹⁵As it is said,
‘Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’
¹⁶Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses?¹⁷But with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?¹⁸And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient?¹⁹So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Hebrews 4:1-3

Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest is still open, let us take care that none of you should seem to have failed to reach it.²For indeed the good news came to us just as to them; but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened.^*3For we who have believed enter that rest, just as God^* has said,
‘As in my anger I swore,
“They shall not enter my rest” ’,
though his works were finished at the foundation of the world.

Intercession/Worship

Conclusion

Let us learn daily through the power of the Holy Spirit to put our trust in the Lord that we may remain connected with Him.  

Closing Prayer

Father, You have called us to trust and obey You; grant us your Holy Spirit to help us put our trust in You. Give us a heart that will thirst and yield to Your love and call upon our lives daily through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.