Sermon for the Seventh Sunday after Epiphany
| Text: Jeremiah
17:7-8 “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They 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.” |
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Trust in God
Do you ever
feel as if life is nothing but one ongoing battle?
Either you are coming out of some kind distressing trouble,
or are right in the middle of a battle,
or you are about to be plunged into more stress and worry.
It always
seems that you are in some kind of fight –
fighting to make ends meet with the constant rise in the cost of daily;
fighting a health issue that won’t go away;
fighting to guide your kids or grandkids in God’s ways;
fighting to stay sane in all the craziness of your hectic life.
This ongoing
battle just wears us out.
We find ourselves
fighting doubt,
fighting discouragement,
fighting uncertainty about God who seems to be “missing in action”.
Does any of
this ring true for you? I know it
does for me and many of our friends who are going through the same thing.
I don’t believe it’s just people my age experiencing battle after battle
because we are the ones with health, financial and family problems.
Counsellors
and psychologists are treating people of all ages from young children onwards –
all trying to find ways of dealing with the ongoing battles in their lives and
the confusion and the inability to cope and the tiredness that raging personal
battles cause.
If you are battle-weary today,
and no doubt that’s probably most of us here this morning, listen to what David
says in Psalm 20. He is talking
about going into battle, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we
trust in the name of the Lord our God” (20:7).
It’s easy to
be one of the ‘some’ – some trust in chariots and some trust in
horses. If you’re going into
battle, it’s easy to trust in the things that you can see – a warhorse, a
chariot. It’s not so easy to trust
a God that you can’t see.
I’m part of the ‘some’. Are
you one of the ‘some’?
One of the ‘some’ trusting in our own abilities,
trusting in what we think is commonsense,
trusting in our own experiences,
trusting in what money can buy,
trusting in the opinions of others,
in other words, trusting what we can see and experience.
David says,
“Some trust in chariots and some trust in warhorses but we trust in the name
of the Lord our God”. God says
through the prophet Jeremiah, “Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him” (Jer 17:7).
But here is the crucial question: why is it so hard to trust God, to believe
that God is loving, that God is in control of what is happening when our own
corner of the world is so chaotic and full of trouble?
Don’t worry
we aren’t the first to ask this question.
Even David asks God in Psalm 13, “How long will you hide your face
from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my
heart? How long will my enemy triumph
over me?” (Psalms 13:1-2).
Even the mighty King David, a superhero of trust in God, has his
moments of feeling that the battle is too overwhelming.
He is saying, “I am walking through the darkest valley of trouble and
doubt and I’m afraid”. “Where are
you God?
So we come to
the question, what does it mean to trust God?
The text
today says that the person who trusts in God is like a tree growing beside a
river. It’s roots draw strength from the
river’s water. Even when the heat
is on, it will not wither, in fact it will flourish.
How can we
have that kind of trust in God? The
psalmist says, “Blessed is the one whose confidence is in the Lord.”
What does it mean to have “confidence in the Lord”?
This might help. One day,
Zac and his father were climbing on some rocks that lined the beach.
Suddenly Zac’s father hears a voice from the top of a big rock, “Hey Dad!
Catch me!”
At the same time, he sees the shape of a small boy flying through air
toward him. His father
instinctively held out his arms.
They both fell to the ground.
When Zac’s father realised what had happened, he gasped, “Zac!
Can you give me one good reason why you did that?”
He responded with remarkable calmness and simplicity, “Sure, because you're my
Dad.”
Zac knew his father. He intimately
knew all about his father – he knew about his love, the protective way he cared
for Zac, the way he helped and comforted Zac.
He knew his dad was strong.
He had full confidence in his dad to catch him as he fell.
Likewise, we need to see our heavenly Dad in the same way.
Whatever life might throw at us and whenever the battles become too
intense, when one battle follows after the other and we can’t see our way
through the smoke and haze, we can throw ourselves into the loving arms of our
heavenly Father with complete confidence knowing that he will always be there to
catch us, to hold us up and keep us going.
To build this “confidence in the Lord” means going to our Bibles and
finding out what is God’s attitude to each of us.
Knowing that, we find every reason why we can trust him.
Let’s look at a few passages that describe God and enable us to have
confidence in him.
We can trust God because of his deep love for us; because his faithfulness is
constant and never gives up on us.
In Lamentations we read, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his
mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your
faithfulness” (3:22-23).
Even though we are in constant rebellion against God, his love still burns
strongly for us and in his grace saves us through the death and resurrection of
his Son. St Paul says, “Because
of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive
with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions —it is by grace you
have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Psalm 145 says, “The Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and
rich in love. The Lord is good to
all; he has compassion on all he has made” (v 8-9).
God says, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze” (Isaiah 43:2).
The Bible loudly and consistently proclaims God is faithful, loving, and always
present. He is always good; he
never gives up.
In this life we have our trials and difficulties.
We live in a broken world with bodies
that suffer from this brokenness.
He uses our battles to bring us closer to him — to teach us how to rely fully on
him, to strengthen our trust in him, to enable us to help others trust in him as
their helper and strength. Like the
tree growing beside the stream, trusting in God enables us to weather the heat
of a battle and flourish bearing fruit to bless others.
Job was a man who faced immense suffering and loss, yet he never lost his faith
in God. Amazingly he said, “God
may kill me, but still I will trust him” (Job 13:15). Despite his difficult
circumstances, he chose to trust in God’s love for him and his relationship with
God grew deeper.
Trusting God is being like Zac who threw himself into his father’s arms.
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like
little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
Just as children trust their parents completely, Jesus urges that our
trust in God should be simple, wholehearted and free of doubt.
Even when we don’t understand everything that is happening to us and
around us, we can trust God. We see
God in Jesus – loving, caring, compassionate, knowing our hurts and pain,
feeling our deepest need. Even in
our dying moment, he is beside us and tenderly holds us.
When we were baptised, as Billie was this morning, our Father in heaven promised
his love and care and presence through every trial and trouble that will come
our way. He will not give up and
will be with us until our dying day and then take us to our home in heaven.
There is no need to fear. As
we heard in the Psalm today, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and
he will act” (37:5).
David, in Psalm 23 wrote,
“The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. …
he leads me beside quiet waters
he refreshes my soul. ….
Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me” (Psalms 23:1-4)
Okay. We know God loves us BUT we
don’t like his sense of timing.
We are always in a hurry.
We want things to happen now, right away, at this very moment.
We want healing now!
We want change now!
We pray and we want results right away.
We forget that God’s timing is always perfect.
It might not seem like it, but he knows when the time is right.
In the meantime, we can trust that God is always at work behind the
scenes.
Remember Joseph in the Old Testament reading today.
Joseph was a spoilt bratty teenager.
He was hated by his murderous brothers.
He was sold as a slave in Egypt and later falsely accused and imprisoned
with the likelihood of execution.
Joseph confronted one battle after another.
It seemed God was absent.
But God had a plan. He had sent Joseph
ahead to Egypt to rescue his family from starving.
God was behind everything that had happened (Genesis 45:5).
God is always working in the background.
When you think God isn’t there, trust his love.
In Jeremiah we read, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares
the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and
a future” (29:11).
Paul says, “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who
love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
Trusting God is not always easy.
Our reason, our doubts, our impatience, our discouragement get in the way of
trusting God’s infinite love for us when his timing is very different to ours.
When we are in the thick of the battles that overwhelm us and we feel that we
have lost control of the direction that our lives are taking;
when we find ourselves overcome with anxiety, depression, panic, or just want to
give up, that’s when God says to us again,
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths
straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
We are reminded that trusting Jesus gives us peace even when the battle is the
fiercest. Jesus says, “Trusting me,
you will be unshakable and assured, deeply at peace.
In this godless world you will continue
to experience difficulties. But take
heart! I’ve conquered the world.” (John
16:33 Message). And again.
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust
in God, and trust also in me” (John 14:1).
It is
difficult to trust God when trouble is coming at us left, right and centre and
we want things to be resolved our way and in our timing.
Trusting God in the dark times is
learning to trust the love God has for you knowing that he always has your best
interest at heart.
Today we are
encouraged to be like a tree with its roots deep into the life-giving water of
God’s wisdom, love, compassion, hope, comfort, reassurance, forgiveness, and
strength. We will be able to stand
firm in God’s strength when the battle gets tough, and yes, even flourish.
Trusting God in the dark times is learning to trust who God is and
knowing that he always has your best interest at heart.
“Blessed
is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They 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.”
© Pastor Vince
Gerhardy
23rd February 2025
E-mail: sermonsonthenet@outlook.com
