Trust. Trust is the universal currency of much of life. There's trust that you keep in a spouse, or a child puts in a parent, or an employer puts in an employee. Trust is the thread that knits relationships together. If trust is lacking, it can be said that there is no relationship at all. The relationship that exists becomes inauthentic, marked by concern, and can be exposed to hurt. Trust is what gives us safety, security, and stability in relationships. Up until the late 2010s, trust falls, where a common exercise that people would exercise to try and learn trust. If you're familiar with it, there would be a person who would be assigned as the follower, and another person as a catcher. And at random times, the follower would go back, and they would hope to be caught by the catcher. This practice, though it might seem silly to us, was used to help people to see one another as trustworthy, to see that they would be caught. There was a physicality to the feeling and the thought that was expressed in that action. In our passage, we see that Solomon is instructing his son to trust in the Lord. Just as human relationships have tangible ways that trust is lived out, so too is it with the Lord. Trust is what the trust that we are called to here is deeper than a trust fall. It involves obeying God's commands, reflecting God's character, being confident in God's ways, and we even see how our trust is tested. We see this on how we think about wealth and think about God's discipline. We are trusting the Lord, or trusting God with our whole hearts, and if we do, the same way that human relationships come with certain guarantees, our relationship with God comes with them also. If we trust in the Lord, we are to know peace, success, refreshment, abundance, and delight to the full in the way that only God can supply. So in this text, we see why we are to trust in the Lord, how to trust in the Lord, and where trust in the Lord is tested. So this will serve as our outline this morning. You can find it in the back of your bulletin so that you can follow along. Let's look at our first point, why trust in the Lord. Throughout these 12 verses, we are presented with promises for trusting in God. The same way that businesses give warranties and guarantees for their products that we purchase, that we would know that they're trustworthy, we see that Solomon articulates the guarantees and promises of trusting in the Lord. The promises that we see are living long and peace. We see this in verse 2. We see that we receive favor and success in verse 4. That God will make our path straight in verse 6. That we will find healing and refreshment in verse 8. That we would know the abundance of provision in verse 10. And that we would even know God's delight in us and his love in verse 12. The promise and commands that Solomon presents to us here, I believe, are from his reflection on the book of Deuteronomy. If you look at chapters 4 to 8 of Deuteronomy, you'll almost see identical language used between Moses and Solomon. Moses tells the people of Israel to keep God's commandments, and if they do, they'll live long in the land. We see this in Deuteronomy 4. 40. That they are to love the Lord God with their whole heart, mind, and strength. We see this in Deuteronomy 6. 4. That they should honor the Lord with their wealth, acknowledging him for their provision. Deuteronomy 8. 18. That they should not despise God's discipline as it is a mark of their sonship. We see this in Deuteronomy 8. 5. If you would like those references, you can maybe ask me for them after the service. I'm happy to provide them for you. But we see that Solomon here is instructing his son, drawing upon Deuteronomic blessing, telling him, if he trusts in the Lord, he will know God's trustworthiness. As I mentioned last week, for Old Testament believers, these promises were quite literal. Throughout the Bible, we see that the obedient have long, peaceful lives in the land. That they were successful, that they were led on God's path as they fulfill God's plan. That they knew refreshment, that they had prosperity, that they knew God's delight despite his discipline. I want you to think of figures like Noah, or Abraham, or Moses. They truly do fit these categories. Though we move away from the physicality of these blessings as New Testament believers, we do know that God will give eternal life to the obedient. That he gives us favor with himself. That he has given us refreshment and healing. That we have an abundance of provision, and that we can know the Father's delight. But we do not have this on our own merit. We have this by the merit of Jesus Christ, God's own son, who obeyed fully, and was the very embodiment of God's steadfast love inside and out. That we are healed by his life itself. That we are given an abundance of his inheritance. That he experienced God's discipline on the cross, and it led to the Father's delight in his resurrection. The trustworthiness of God is the life that is afforded to us in Jesus Christ. Jesus is the totally trusting Son, who wholeheartedly lived trusting God the Father, making it possible that we can trust in the Lord now. Apart from Jesus Christ, this passage is all law. It is all works that we cannot do or know on our own. As we read this, we can see that there are these moral imperatives that are far beyond our capacity. But God, by his grace, makes us new. He makes us alive so that we can live as those who wholeheartedly trust in God. That we would be able to know God's trustworthiness by trusting in Christ. It is in him and by him that we are called to trust. To know the crossworthiness of God, we must believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. You might be able to read these verses and think that you can agnostically believe in some God. But that's just not the truth. You need to believe in Jesus Christ as God, who lived a sinless life, died for sin, and was raised to newness of life. And if you do not, these words here are simply unattainable. They simply become moralistic and therapeutic. In this point, I want us to see not only the why we are to trust in the Lord, but who we are to trust in. It does begin and end with believing in Jesus. The answer to why trust in the Lord is to know the trustworthiness of God, these many guarantees and promises that are provided for us. If you trust in Christ, these blessings of direction, success, peace, they are yours in Jesus Christ. And he calls to us and gives us his grace that we would pursue him wholeheartedly by his Spirit. But this text goes on to not only tell us why we should trust in the Lord, but it tells us how, which leads us to our second point. In verses 1-8, Solomon provides his son a guide on how to trust in the Lord. How to trust in the Lord with his whole heart, with his whole being. It says, though he gives us the nuts and bolts of what this actually looks like. Though the word trust only appears in verse 5, I think we can and should see that Solomon is articulating the life of trust from verses 1-8. Trust, as we briefly reflected on in the introduction, often has more than just a mental commitment aspect to it. There are actions and feelings attached to it as well. Trust is a word, as I preach week over week, I interchangeably use with faith and believing. The reason I do this is because they are synonymous terms. And in these verses, I believe we see the different facets of faith. In verse 1-2, we are called to obey God from the heart, keeping his commandments from the heart. In verses 3-4, we are called to reflect God from the heart, to know steadfast love and faithfulness, to bind them externally and internally. In verses 5-8, we are called to be confident in God with all of our heart, not relying on ourselves. As New Covenant believers, we see this list that Solomon gives here, and it says, Though he got the order wrong, he tells his son to obey from the heart, reflect God's character from the heart, and he calls to him to have faith in God from the heart. We however would say that we are to believe in the Lord from our heart or with our heart. We are to obey him from the heart, and we are to be conformed to God's image from the heart. As much as the order feels odd to us, in these verses we see the fullness of faith. It is by faith that we are to commit to God's ways. It is by faith that we are conformed to his image. It is by faith that we obey. It is this faith that is lived from the heart. Faith affects our thinking, our wills, and our affections as we see. And the reason this is, is because faith is lived from the heart. Jeremy Pierre, the professor of biblical counseling at Southern Seminary, comments that the biblical heart is a dynamic heart. It is a place where cognition takes place, where volition takes place, and affections take place. Meaning, the biblical authors see the heart as not just an organ that's pumping blood through your body, but they see it as a center of your being. It is a place where you act from, feel from, and think. And think. Solomon mentions the heart in all these verses, and at each reference, at their core, he is telling us the core of our being. He is seeking for God's commands, for God's character, and for our commitments to be in the Lord, in our thinking, acting, and desiring. I know this might be confusing, but what I was hoping for us to see is that there is a framework of faith in the heart that is laid out for us in verses 1-8. And so, with that being said, let us look at each facet of trust or faith individually. Let's look at verses 1-2. Solomon counsels his son to trust in the Lord by obeying the Lord from his heart, by keeping his commandments. This is more than just behavior modification on the outside. It is an internal alignment to following God's will from the heart. It is obedience that is rooted in relationship with God instead of fearing God for his punishment. It is living out of a sense of love for God instead of obligation towards God. Many of us live with disordered loves in our hearts. We don't put God at the top of our list, and so we live disordered lives. Our actions, our thoughts, our desires, they often reflect this disorder. None of us who try to love a person in our life will try to do anything that is contrary to what they desire or will. But when we put anyone or anything above God, we will live contrarily to him. When our loves are disordered, we are not keeping God's commandments in our thoughts, actions, and desires. We simply can't. There are some of us in this room who are actually even unfamiliar with God's commands to even seek to obey them. So in a point like this, for you to keep God's word or keep his commandments from your hearts, you must know his commands first. For others of you, you might just start with repentance for the ways in which your disordered loves have led you astray. Let's move next to verses 3-4. Solomon calls to his son to carry God's covenant character in his heart. He tells him to have it seen externally, to bind it around his neck, and internally by writing it on his heart. Steadfast love and faithfulness are attributes of God. In the self-decoration of God to Moses in Exodus 34, we see that these are the attributes that are emphasized. Throughout the Bible, we are actually reminded of who God is, that he is a God of steadfast love and faithfulness. The word steadfast love is what we see in our Bibles here, but it is actually the Hebrew word hesed. We translate it as steadfast love, but it is really a difficult word to encapsulate. It is a love that is not transactional. It is a loyal love. Often, we are familiar with vending machine love, this transactional of that if we press the right buttons, then we will get what we want. Or if people press the right buttons for us, then they will get what they want. But steadfast love is covenant love. It is consistent love. It is more like a fruit tree that freely gives, despite our interactions with it. God's love is like this fruit tree that freely gives to us. And if we live this life of faith, this is what we will embody. It is having God's love transform us from the inside out. That we are not just knowing of God's steadfast love, but we are embodying it. Unto God first and to people second. That we are to embody this consistent love instead of transactional love. As you reflect on that for a moment of maybe where this takes place in your life, we must consider, are you more of a vending machine or a fruit tree? If you are in Christ, if God has changed you, if you are living a life of faith, what Solomon says here to his son is, have this covenant love mark your life. This is what you are to be known by. Lastly, Solomon tells us to put our confidence in God rather than ourselves. To look to God rather than ourselves. Many of us make us or us as individuals the arbitrators of what is right and wrong. That we are the litmus test. That we are going to get somewhere or anywhere in life by saddling ourselves up and trusting in our own competencies and capabilities to get where we want to go. The truth is that that might work for a little while. But ignoring God will lead to death. The Proverbs in Proverbs 14, 12 says this, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is a way to death. The path of pride of trusting in yourself will always lead to destruction and evil. Think back to the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve did not trust in God. Instead they trusted in Satan and they trusted in themselves, ultimately leading to death entering the world. By trusting in ourselves, it is as though the GPS of our lives continues to lead us to wrong turns. It is leading us to dead ends and dirt roads. Whereas trusting the Lord leads us to where we might not want to go, but God is leading us to his will. It is as though trusting in God reroutes the GPS from a destination that is leading to life instead of death, to the straight path instead of the crooked path, leading us to himself. The work of acknowledging God in all of our ways is being in the constant and consistent position of looking to God. As the giver of good gifts, the provider for life, the one who sustains all that we are. The question we must ask is, are we looking to him? Are we acknowledging him? Are we following him? Or are we the arbitrators of our life? Is the arbitrator of your life God or yourself? Are you acknowledging him and following him, or are you acknowledging and following yourself? Are you walking towards life, or are you walking towards death? There are some of you who will say that you've trusted in the Lord, but you're actively disobeying his commands. You lack his character, and your confidence is in yourself. God calls us to a wholehearted trust in him. And if you lack that today, repent. Turn to the Lord. You don't need to stay in that place of despondency and disobedience towards God. You can know forgiveness and faith from the heart. Turning to God and asking him to change you from the inside out. This is a prayer that God will answer. You and I cannot change hearts. We need God to this, and so would you ask him today so that you would truly obey and trust in the Lord from the heart? That you trust in Jesus with your whole heart. Changing not just your disposition, but also your destination. So in this sermon we have seen why trust the Lord. We've seen how to trust the Lord. Now let us consider where trust in the Lord is tested. Our trust in the Lord is tested by how we trust God in the midst of plenty and pain. Look at me at verses 9 to 12. How we perceive God when it comes to money and suffering tells us about our faith. It tells us if we are truly trusting God or not. Trusting in God can be easy when life is lived in a vacuum. But we don't live lives in a vacuum. We live in the real world where there is prosperity and there's pain. Verse 9 highlights for us a test whether we will acknowledge God or ignore God. Honor him by acknowledging him as the giver of good gifts. Or will we say that we've acquired this wealth by our intellect, our gifts and our talents. God is the one who gives us all the means to make the money that we have in our lives. And if we do not honor him it shows that we don't really trust him with our hearts. It's as though our faith is more of a coincidence than it is intentional. If you see in the New Testament there are multiple warnings about wealth and worldliness leading people to deny the Lord. Think of the parable of the sower which we read earlier in this service. There is seed that is stolen by Satan. There is seed that has little moisture and so has a little bit of growth. And then there are seeds that take root but are choked out by riches and pleasures of this world. If you go on to read the rest of the New Testament you'll see how worldliness has shipwrecked the faith of many. Paul at the end of his life will say that only Luke is left with me. Demas has left for the pleasures of this world. The apostasy of this age and in the scriptures is one the scriptures warns us about. Instead of seeing wealth as a gift from God people worship it as it is God. And that's a scary thing. Because in many ways wealth opens up new opportunities, more pathways. It can be a means where we do not rely on God and said we can just rely on money. But seeking to honor the Lord with our wealth is like this weed killer for the sin of worldliness. It is an act of faith that puts to death the temptation to trust in riches. There are some who read these verses though, verses 9 to 10. And they read it and they try and fuel their worldliness with it. They can somehow manipulate God and multiply their bank accounts. That if they give to God then God will give to them and they can live and continue on as they please. But Matthew Henry helpfully notes here that God will bless you with an increase of that which is for use, not for show. For giving away not for hoarding. Those who do good with what they have shall have more to do good with. So it's not something that we are to somehow just spend on ourselves. It is something that we are to give to the Lord and to others. Practically what is honoring the Lord with our wealth look like? I think first and foremost it's giving to our local church or your local church. Giving to the church is the means of honoring the Lord with your first fruits. Giving of your first fruits is a reference to tithing in the Old Testament. It's something that's taken place all the way in Genesis chapter 4 with Cain and Abel. And carried out through the ages revealed in the law as giving 10% towards the temple as an offering. It's reiterated in the New Testament as giving generously and sacrificially to the church. Throughout the New Testament, though the New Testament does not prescribe the particular amount of 10% of our earnings being given to the church. It is I believe a good place to start. The New Testament calls us to give cheerfully and sacrificially in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Which I believe points in a direction of giving more than 10% than less. Beginning at 10% and any extra is just a greater offering to the church and to others. There are some who try and undercut giving to God and seek to keep wealth for themselves. And this is a scary thing given the story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5. That they had an appearance of godliness, they had an appearance of generosity, but they truly were gripped by wealth, not by wealth. The story of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5 shows us that God changes communities from the inside out to make them generous. Where we grip the things of this world less tightly, that we would bless the Lord and others. But if we try and fake that, the Lord sees that. The positive way to say this instead of calling it a test of trust is to call it an example of trust. If you believe that the Lord is God and that our lives are His, this would be seen with our money. That you would see that it's not your own. It's the Lord's that He has made us a manager of His funds to be stewards of His resources. And in this way, we are to give to the Lord as an offering and act of worship. The second way that trust is tested is the discipline of God in our lives. Discipline or correction often is a painful thing. Solomon calls us here in verses 11 to 12 to see that it's not something to be despised, it is something to be cherished. The same way that a parent corrects their child they love, so too is it with God with us. If we trust Him, we will see this as a good and gracious thing instead of a despicable and hateful thing. Not all discipline is corrective. There are times where you need to reprove a child so that they would not continue on in a foolish action. But there's also simply training them, teaching the child that they would not be naive or foolish. In God's case with us, either if we are being disciplined because of our sin and having consequences because of that, or if the difficulty in our life is simply there to teach us and train us in righteousness is a good thing. There is good that God is doing for us in our lives. There are times where God will let us taste the bitterness of our sin so that we would turn from it. And there are other times where we simply suffer. And in those times, God is teaching us to rely on God and is purifying our faith. We live in a fallen world that is stained by sin. And because of this, there will be suffering. But we also live in a world where God purposes all things for good for those who love Him. That pain becomes a tutor, teaching us about ourselves, this world, and God Himself. Just as God used trials in the life of Job to teach him about who God was, so will God at times do with us. Or think of James chapter 1 verses 2 to 4 that tells us to count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds because it's producing a steadfastness of faith. God is doing good for us even in these times of discipline. Discipline is meant to lead us to God, that we would look to Him and acknowledge Him. And whether it's meant for our proof or our teaching, it is for our good. It is for this reason that we can trust in God in the midst of disappointments, doubts, disasters, distress, disease, death, because we know our God is sovereign and good. Even though there are times where this might be difficult from our perspective, our circumstances do not change who God is. God's character is the same today and forever. God our Father took the darkest day in history, the crucifixion of His innocent sinless Son and brought about good from Him. So that all who trust in Him with their whole heart would know the trustworthiness of God. Though we might not know all the answers to our pain or where our paths in this life will lead, would we trust in the Lord with our whole heart knowing by faith that we will know pleasure, peace and paradise to come. So would you look to Jesus Christ, the truly trustworthy one who leads us to trust in God with our whole hearts. Let's pray.