A few weeks ago we enjoyed a wonderful sermon that tested each one of us. The sermon, tested us, made us a little uncomfortable in our seats and gave each of us a path to follow and a choice to make.
The sermon was titled: Trust can only be trust in the dark. What does this mean?
Our Senior Pastor was in India with 51 of our church community. They were working with orphans and churches in and around Rajahmundry, India. His wife Pastor Christina was in the pulpit on this Sunday. She does not often take the pulpit there was an expectation in the air for a Holy Spirit filled direct message. That is exactly what we received a direct convicting and encouraging message on Trust.
Men in Ministry, faith creates trust. Without faith, we cannot trust. I have two lovely grandchildren. They are sisters; Aspen and Colbie. Aspen is 2 years old Colbie is 3 months old. When Aspen stands on the side of the pool and her mother says jump, she hesitates then jumps. Aspen has faith in her mother, from that faith she trusts that jumping into the unknown will be ok.
Mary had blind trust to listen and believe the Angel Gabriel, who appeared to her, told her she would have a child conceived through the Holy Spirit. The complications this caused a young, possibly as young as 14, Jewish girl, who was engaged to be married were considerable. Joseph was her fiance' a fine upstanding man in the community. Mary could have been turned out by Joseph she could have been stoned as an adulteress she could have been sent out of the Temple many things for her to consider. Mary first asks how can this be? I am a virgin. The angel tells her the Holy Spirit will come on her, and the Most High will overshadow her. Mary’s answer: Luke 1:38 “I am the Lord’s servant, May it be as you have said.” Wow!
When Jesus called the Apostles, we are told they immediately left everything and followed Jesus. They trusted Jesus, someone they may have faintly heard about but certainly knew little of Him.
The example Pastor gave, in front of the congregation, was to blind fold an intern then tell her to listen to the her voice and do what she says. The intern went down steps, turned left walked a few steps, turned right walk a few steps, she followed the voice commands perfectly. Trust is following the commands of the Holy Spirit. Trust is following the voice of your Pastor or your ministry leader. The Pastor then turned her head so the intern could not clearly hear her voice. Some of the people in the front row could hear the Pastor’s voice and told the intern what they thought she said. The intern still did not move she did not hear the Pastor’s voice. She did what she was told.
Trust is found in obedience. The intern obeyed and only responded to the Pastor’s voice. We hear from God are given a direction then we do not hear His voice for awhile. Do we then have a tendency to listen to other voices. Did God truly tell you not to eat that fruit or go that way. You have not heard for a while maybe the other voices are correct. Not so: wait on the Lord.
Trust is a sacrifice. Every sacrifice has a cost. 2 Samuel 24: 24 But the king replied to Araunah. “No, I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the Lord my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing.”
Take the faith step, trust in God, trust in those that are in authority over you. All authority comes from God.
A final example in which I had the blessing to participate. We are on a mission trip to Nicaragua. We were supporting our Pastor and the missionaries to put on a Pastor’s conference. Each Pastor who attended the conference would receive gifts from us. Included in the gifts was $50.00 cash for each Pastor. The missionary stepped out of the hall he turned toward 5 of us, who were in proximity. He said: "go and get the envelopes for the Pastors." Twenty feet from us there were 100 envelopes in a stack on a table. All five of us turned and went to get the envelopes. When we got to the table, we laughed, realizing it did not take 5 people to carry the envelopes. More important, we realized we had learned to trust the leaders.
Faith begets trust trust begets obedience obedience then makes us all the followers that Jesus intended.
Glad Tidings Men in Ministry
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