Stories of Trusting God

Overview

• I’ll tell six stories
• We’ll think about what these stories are telling us and how they are challenging us.

Genesis 12

1. Now the LORD said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.
2. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
3. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
4. So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.

Questions to ask

1. What was God asking them to do?
2. What might make them reluctant to do it? (any blockers?)
3. What did trusting God look like? (negative and positive)
4. How might this relate to us today?

II Kings 5

9. So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean.
11. But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.
12. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

II Kings 5

13. But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
14. So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
15. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel…”

Luke 18:18–22

18. Now a certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
19. Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone.
20. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honour your father and mother.’ ”
21. The man replied, “I have wholeheartedly obeyed all these laws since my youth.”
22. When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Six stories of Trust

1. Abraham
2. Naaman
3. Rich young ruler
4. Zacchaeus
5. Herod
6. Paul

Luke 19

1. He entered Jericho and was passing through.
2. And there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
3. And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small of stature.
4. So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
5. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”

Luke 19 cont’d

6. So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
7. And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
8. And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
9. And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
10. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Philippians 3:4–7

4. though mine too are significant. If someone thinks he has good reasons to put confidence in human credentials, I have more:
5. I was circumcised on the eighth day, from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I lived according to the law as a Pharisee.
6. In my zeal for God I persecuted the church. According to the righteousness stipulated in the law I was blameless.
7. But these assets I have come to regard as liabilities because of Christ.

What about your story?

1. What do you think God asking you to do?
   • We will pray about this in a minute
   • What would have to change if 2019 was to be the year I followed Jesus like never before?
3. What actual changes would you have to make? (negative and positive)
2. What might make you reluctant to do it? (any blockers?)
4. Can you trust Jesus that it is worth it?