The Matter of Trust
We Can Get There From Here
January 20, 2008

Pastor Tom Millner

Faith – Trust … both verbs – action words. In today’s culture, trust has become a major issue. When I was growing up, we didn’t need locks on the doors because we trusted that no one would enter our house without our permission (forget that the closest neighbor was a mile away). How many here have had a crisis of trust recently? We say; “I can trust Prudence to behave the way she’s always behaved – then, I’ll never be disappointed.” Or, I can’t trust Phillip to be a man of his word.” These statements are so common and familiar that it’s unfortunate for our socie ty that the disintegration of trust is almost of epic proportions. Some of us have said “I don’t trust the Church to be a safe place.” What we’re saying is “I’ve extended myself emotionally and have been hurt by the response I’ve received.” - That is, the response was not the one I felt it needed to be in order for me to feel good. These are all serious issues that each of us in some way has faced in our lives. We hear about the “crisis of intimacy” in our community. People so guarded that they never really reach that point of deep vulnerability with another and thus experience only a glimpse of what’s possible in relationships. Trust is not predicting behavior from another – trust is not analyzing the risk – Trust means making ourselves vulnerable – and that calls for action!

When I read that verse from Proverbs, I’m struck with two insights. 1) I’m to be vulnerable with God – open up all that I am, and 2) Not judge God’s reaction to my vulnerability based on my version of me (my own understanding) – otherwise, I’m not honest with Him. When Jesus said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and likewise, love your neighbor as yourself,” He meant it! We have a poverty of love in action today because we have a poverty of trust. If we don’t trust God with our vulnerability, how can we make ourselves vulnerable to others?

Patrick Lencioni, in his book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” asserts that trust is the foundation of team effort. As we saw last week in our pre-sermon video, the geese flying in formation followed the leader in a way that gave lift to those behind. By becoming vulnerable to the lead of another, all benefited. Because each goose behind is vulnerable, the lead gives its best for the good of the whole. But we’re not geese! God didn’t wire us to be like geese, but He did wire us to be honest – vulnerable before Him and He did wire us to learn… Ignorance isn’t terminal – it’s curable!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding! The heart – seat of the emotions, the desires, the passions we possess. Our “understanding” – how we see things – ourselves and others.

Jeremiah 17:7-10 reads: “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit." The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.”

What’s the Prophet saying here? Trust in the Lord and not be worried, but take care that you’re truthful with what you give Him as your trust.

Message: If we want to see God more clearly, we have to clear up the obscured image of ourselves. We have to get honest and present to God who we really are – not all these things that we’ve fabricated about how we ought to be, look, act, behave – if we’re acceptable (measured up) people. God can’t mold an already perfect vessel … (if there were such a thing)… and He can’t mold one too hard or too soft. Just right is truthful, honest, real about those things that concern, hurt, bother, worry, stump, and or trip us up. That way, He can nurture us, feed us, and lead us in THE WAY that demonstrates His love to all of His creation. That’s remaining in the VINE - Getting our spiritual nutrients from Him. That way, the fruit we bear is truly from Him and not our own fabrication. Which tastes better, the real fruit or the imitation, color liquid?

How do we know we can trust God? After all, He’s perfect – we aren’t. He’s going to judge me unworthy… How can perfection identify with my imperfection? That’s right – but scripture is our resource for reasons to trust Him. You see, the God in whom we trust is the God who loves us so much that He took on the form of His highest creation to experience what it is like being us. And although the form He took on - perfectly open, honest, loving, and pure of heart, the world for which He came to understand and save, but He was rejected, persecuted, condemned falsely and ultimately killed. So He took upon Himself every possible putrid punch of the human experience (Sin) and took it with Him to the grave. But the story doesn’t end there – He arose victori ous over death and thus the sin that would keep Him bound – our sin, for our sake, was forever wiped clear from His vision – His window. All He asks is that we get real enough to let Him see through our dirt as well. Then, we can be honest, open, real – vulnerable with one another, building on love a trust that is foundational to our unity in Him and the mission to which He has called us. When we stop looking at self and one another through the filter of our own defenses – that’s when we find the peace that passes all understanding – that’s when we gain a clearer image of the one in whose image we’re made. That’s where the mountaintop experience holds hands with the valley plunge, bringing us face to face with the Master of the mountain and the valley.

Where do we regain our trust? – Not by fueling our fear – not by our rational thinking – not by yet another mountaintop experience – but by laying down our defenses and giving our whole vulnerable self to the Lord. Embracing God as created to creator!

Why this message? Last week I spoke with you about getting there (our vision) from here - sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ to a world dying to know Him. To get there from here, we need to be in unity with Christ and with each other. That’s based on trust in God and trust between one another. Trust in God means giving up my pretense that I do or even can measure up to the standard of perfection that is God’s domain – and laying at His feet the truth that I’m not even qualified to judge myself – so I must identify myself as the new creation He proclaims me to be in scripture. In so doing, I can then afford, without fear, to be of honest (pure) heart before you and honor you as you respond in kind. That’s true koinea – fellowship in His Sp irit. And this takes us to our scripture in James.

Faith in action takes us to that place daily where we empty ourselves before Him to be renewed and refilled as He sees fit for that day. When we do that, we gain greater understanding of the vastness of God and His mighty workings. When we seek a particular feeling as evidence of His working in us, we limit Him from doing the work in us we need for Him to do – Yet – we need not shy away from deep feelings! They tell us what’s happening inside!

There was once a blind woman who longed to visit the beach here in Fort Lauderdale. Finally, her dream was made a reality when her friends bought her a ticket from her small town in the Midwest. When she got here, she went immediately to the beach, threw off her shoes and felt the warm sand beneath her feet. That feeling was forever imprinted in her memory. A few years later, she was visiting with some friends at a local theme park. The friends told her to take off her shoes and walk with them along the shore of the lake around which the park was built. Upon stepping onto the sand, she exclaimed – “I didn’t know Florida was here – how wonderful to be here again.” Her feeling no more described Florida than our feelings can describe God. Those feelin gs we experience are real, but they don’t contain the whole of who He is. We must each day make ourselves open to the vast expanse of who He is. Each day, wipe clean our soiled glass and let Him see the true reflection of a redeemed Child of God.

Then, we can hold one hand with the creator and the other hand with another as we get there from here.

What is it that you need to wipe away today to get closer to Him?

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