"SIMPLY TRUST"

Look Up:     Luke 1:11-13, 18-20, 34-38, 45

         Sermon preached by:   Dr. Wayne Poplin, Carmel Baptist Church    (Copyright 2006)       

INTRODUCTION:  I realized this week in preparing this message, perhaps how partially and how infrequently I trust the Lord.  There are times when I say I am trusting and think I am trusting, but I have my paddle in the water.  I am trusting in the Lord, but not fully, because I am trusting in myself at the same time.  But then there have been those times, I’ll call them “trust crisis points,” when I didn’t have a paddle in the water.  I didn’t even have a paddle to put in the water.  I was trusting God as if He were all I had—and He was.  I was clinging to Him moment by moment.  I knew that He was my only hope.  Have you been there?  Do you understand what I am saying when I describe partial trust and full trust?  Maybe trust that is partial should be called something besides trust.  Maybe we have used the word “trust” too loosely.  I think that it is the “trust crisis points” that teach us the real definition of trust—fully depending on God and fully believing God to do something, which if He doesn’t, it won’t happen.

             This is where the Christmas cast found themselves.  They found themselves in the “trust crisis points”—deciding if they would believe and trust God for what only God could do.  Let me give you some examples. 

1. Zechariah.  God sent the angel Gabriel to Zechariah to tell him that he and Elizabeth were going to have a baby.  Was that a crisis point of trust?  Absolutely.  Zechariah and Elizabeth had prayed for a child, but did not have one.  Now they are “both well along in years” [Lk.1:7] and had abandoned that hope.  Now God says that a child is on the way. So why is this a crisis of trust?  Because the ovaries had quit working.  Because they are too old to have children naturally.  This is not in the realm of what self can do.  This can only be a God-thing.  So in that crisis of trust, did Zechariah trust God to do what only He could do?  Not at first.  He came to trust, but initially, His God wasn’t big enough.  When it comes to total trust, we find out how big our God really is.   

Read the scripture, Luke 1:11-13, 18-20.      He said “This is impossible.”  Of course it was apart from God.   

2. Mary.  The same angel appeared to Mary a little later and told her that she was going to bear a son even though she was a virgin.  But there was more.  He would be called the Son of God [Lk. 1:35 ].  Was this a crisis of trust?  Absolutely.  This is totally a God-thing.  If He doesn’t do what He said, there is no way this can happen.  Did Mary trust Him?  Yes.  She didn’t fully understand but she said:

May it be to me as you have said” [Lk. 1:38 ].       

3. Joseph. Then there was Joseph. An angel appears to him in a dream.  This is different—an angel in a dream rather than an angel in person.  Listen to his crisis of trust.

"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name of Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” [Mt. 1:20 -21]. 

Only God could do this.  So he had the choice to trust or not to trust.  In fact, Joseph had to decide if he was going to trust the message and the messenger.  Joseph had to decide if it were really God who had given the message [or if it were MSG in his food] and, if He had, would he trust.   

4. Simeon.  Simeon had to trust that God would keep him alive until to saw the Christ Child.  Is this a crisis of trust?  Absolutely.  Only God could match up those two things.  You could be given a long life but that didn’t mean that Jesus was going to come before your life ended.  But Simeon trusted God to intersect the two.    

       So, in looking at that first Christmas cast we discover another key ingredient for SIMPLE CHRISTMAS in addition to worship—it is the ingredient of TRUST.  Trusting God for what only God can do.  Over and over again in the Christmas story you hear God saying—“Trust Me.”  Trust me, Zechariah.  Trust Me, Mary.  Trust Me, Joseph.  Trust Me, Simeon. 

And here is an unmistakable lesson for us from their lives and the Christmas story:

            GOD CAN BE TRUSTED.
            God is God and can do the impossible.  He can be trusted to do what He said He would do.   

When we go back and look at the ageless story and look for those basic ingredients to Christmas, this is what we find:  Christmas is about simply trusting God.  That’s what makes Christmas, Christmas.  And simply trusting Him surely makes things simpler.        

Zechariah.  Can you imagine Zechariah and Elizabeth trying to figure out how at their age they could have a child?  Every news show and tabloid in America would be all over that.  There would be all kinds of hypotheses suggested.  Scientists and doctors would weigh in.  Everybody would have their opinion about how it could happen.  But Zechariah did not have to understand it.  He just had to trust and believe God. That made it simple.   

Mary and Joseph.  Can you imagine Mary trying to understand how the Holy Spirit would come upon her and how the power of the Most High would overshadow her?  She and Joseph didn’t have to figure it out.  They didn’t have to figure out how to deal with the gossip and social fallout.  They didn’t have to explain the stable instead of the inn.  They didn’t have to understand “why” Egypt .  They just had to trust.   

Simeon.  Simeon didn’t have to worry about how the coming of the Messiah and his life span were going to dovetail.  He just had to trust.   

Trust makes it so much simpler. 

When I trusted Christ as my Savior and Lord, I didn’t have to know it all nor figure it all out.  I still haven’t figured out everything about salvation.  How do you understand the incarnation?  Early Councils and theologians have struggled endlessly with that.  How does God make us a completely new creation?  How does He live within us in His Holy Spirit?  There is nothing wrong with trying to understand that.  There is nothing wrong with being a student of the Word.  But folks the reality of Christ in me the hope of Glory [Col. 1:27] is not based on me understanding it all, but on Trusting God.  Trusting God makes it simple enough to become a child of His.   

When I was in a crisis of trust at one point in my ministry, I had no idea how I was going to make it.  I didn’t know what to do?  The situation was so complex I could not figure it out.  And God spoke to me and told me to trust Him.  I didn’t know how He would handle it.  I didn’t know how long He would take in handling it.  I could have died several deaths in trying to figure out the details.  But I chose to trust.  And that made it so much simpler. 

When I was struggling with what God wanted me to do with my life, it was so complex for me.  I prayed.  I prayed.  I worried.  I agonized.  I felt pressure of time.  Nothing would clear up for me.   One day I told the Lord, I don’t have to figure this out.  You know I am willing to do what you want me to do and I trust you to tell me.  I quit fretting and started trusting.  That sure made things a whole lot simpler.     

When I die, even though I have preached a series on heaven, I really cannot fully explain how God is going to get me from here to there and what all I will experience.  I don’t have to figure all of that out.  I just trust Him.   

I am not trying to be simplistic.  I am just want you to understand when you trust God it makes complex and tough situations much simpler.  Trust brings our focus to one place—to one Person.  That simplifies it.   

So as we come to Christmas this year, we need to know that Simply Trust makes for a Simple Christmas.  The Christmas story is a call for us to trust Him.  So what do you need to trust Him for?  What is the situation that you cannot understand?  What is it that you just don’t know how He can handle?  What is it that you don’t know how He can be glorified in it?  TRUST.  JUST TRUST.  What about you?  Is it your salvation?  Is it a job?  Is it your life’s direction?  Is it having a family?  Is it a money issue?  Is it aging parents?  Is it sickness?  Why not trust Him?  Trust what you know about Him.  Trust what He said He would do.  It surely makes it simpler.  And when you trust, He has a blessing for you.
            Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished [Lk. 1:45 ].  

Wasn’t that true for the Christmas cast?  It will be true for us.  That trust will lead to encountering Him, experiencing Him and rejoicing in Him.  It will lead to worship.