Religion has a way of making God feel distant and disengaged from everyday life. It can be hard to translate what we do on a Sunday into what happens the other 6 days + 23 hours of the week. But Jesus insisted that instead of relegating God to the margins of our lives, we bring him into the everyday challenges we face. That instead of seeing God as distant and disengaged, we see him as a good Father, who is always near, who is filled with love, who sees us even in secret, who knows and cares and responds to our deepest needs. A Father who can be trusted in everyday life.
There is a good chance that you’ve heard of the Lord’s Prayer. It’s often recited in Church services, at weddings and funerals. The prayer is an invitation for us to begin trusting God in everyday life. For example, one of the ways we can trust God is believing He exists. . .
(1) Believing God Exists.
Jesus taught us to begin praying this way: “Our Father in Heaven, your name be honored as holy”. Yesterday was Stephen Hawking’s funeral. Hawking is the Cambridge professor some argue to be the most brilliant scientists of our time. His final research paper warns that just as our universe came from nothingness, so it will fade into nothingness. From nothing we came, to nothing we will return. Everything will just sort of fizz out.
One of the first, and most simple ways we trust God is to believe He exists. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” From God we came, to God we’ll return. We were created by him, and for him. He was before space/time, he is with us now in space/time, we will be with him long after space/time ceases.
(2) Trusting God to Guide.
Jesus taught us to pray: "Your kingdom come, your will be done". Not only does God exist, but he governs, guides, exerts authority and power. There is right and wrong. There is good, great, and excellent but also bad. There is light and darkness. There is the way of love, righteousness, justice, joy and peace. But there is also “the way that seems right to a man.”
The Bible says that God’s ways are not our ways. His ways are infinitely greater, far beyond our ways! As believers, we’re continually looking to God. Better God’s will be done than only my will be done. Better to seek direction from God than set my own. The Scriptures are filled with practical wisdom from everyday life to guide us.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways know him, and he will make your paths straight.”
(3) Trusting God to Provide.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Give us today our daily bread." Friday night I was at Meijer, casually browsing the produce, Lara had run back for some Easter lunch item. But there in front of me was a display of pineapples. I couldn’t help myself. From the thick, deep green leaves… to the perfectly intricate star-like pattern of the bark… isn’t it amazing how God provides for our daily needs?
Could a cold, dark, impersonal universe ever give us pineapple? God doesn’t just “provide” for our daily needs. He goes all out! I mean God could give us canned food, cereal, or MREs. He could give us dry, bland dog food or cat food like we feed our pets. But instead, everything God provides oozes with goodness and is stamped with His uniquely creative touch. James 1:17 says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
My time of worship in the produce aisle came to an abrupt halt when Lara suddenly appeared and asked, “What are you doing with that? Are you going to be starring in a Psych episode?” Every Psych episode has some form of pineapple in it! But hey, I’m just saying faith begins in the mundane, basic things of life. You’re sitting at the kitchen table. You’re sorting bills. You’re trying to put food on the table. You’re contemplating tithing to your church, or giving to a person in need. Do we trust God to care, notice, provide? Do we pray, rely upon him? Is God even part of the everyday equation of our lives? Every single time Jesus broke bread in the New Testament the Bible tells us he “gave thanks to God.” It all comes from the Father.
(4) Trusting God to Reconcile.
Jesus taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors". How much would your life benefit from forgiveness? You owe a debt to people, because you’ve wronged them. But why should they forgive you? People have wronged you. Why should you forgive them?
In our sinful nature, we demonstrate a stubborn inability to forgive and be forgiven. We fixate on the ways we’ve been hurt, offended, and wronged. We’re deeply divided: male/female… black/white… pro/con… for/against… in/out. What tools have we been given to really forgive, reconcile, and resolve all the pain? Maybe this next generation is turning to violence because it doesn’t know what to do with anger.
As believers, we’re trusting God to achieve something in our relationships we could never achieve alone. This is why we call Good Friday, “good.” Ephesians 2:13-14 says, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.” The cross presents us with a new pattern for relationships—one that loves, that suffers offense even curse, that lays down its life for others, that seeks God and trusts God. God offers to heal us, if we’d trust him.
(5) Trusting God to Rescue.
Jesus taught us to pray, "And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." In each of our lives, there are real strongholds, struggles and temptations, areas of failure. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide a way out so that you may be able to bear it.”
In Colossians 1:15-23 we find a picture of the totality of what Christ has done for us, to rescue us.
“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities— all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. 18 He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
“21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard.”
So what I want you to see is Jesus doesn’t allow our faith to exist in this abstract, kind of dead, religious compartment of our lives. Faith invites God to be Father. Faith invites God into our daily decision making. His Kingdom come, his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Faith invites God to the kitchen table to provide for our daily needs. Give us today our daily bread. Faith invites God to reconcile relationships—to forgive as we’ve been forgiven. Faith invites God to rescue/ deliver us from our everyday struggles… to help us do what we're unable to do alone.
Now when you look at this list, it’s a pretty good list, it’s a picture of what it looks like to have a practical, every day, personal relationship with God. In many ways our worship echoes the Lord’s Prayer. When we sing we acknowledge God exists! When we preach the Word, we invite God to give us guidance. When we give offering, we demonstrate that our faith is ultimately in God to provide for our needs. When we celebrate communion, we’re reminded to forgive as God has forgiven, and we pray for strength to do so. When we baptize, we invite God to rescue us from the power of sin and ultimately death. Worship is a dress rehearsal for daily trusting the God.
But here is why we’re talking about this on Easter. If we cannot learn to trust God in these ordinary, everyday things… how are we ever going to trust God in the most ultimate things? You see Easter is about trusting God with something even harder than all these things… Easter is about . . .
(6) Trusting God to Resurrect.
I was thinking about John 11, where Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus died. They’d already been with Jesus, enough that Martha says to Jesus, “I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” That’s a pretty amazing thing to say. Had she not cultivated an everyday kind of trust in God, do you think she would have ever said that? Jesus, God will give you whatever you ask! It’s at this point Jesus announces, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live. Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Last night, one of LCU’s beloved professors Dr. Robert Kurka passed away—the night before Easter! What timing. He was professor of theology. A few weeks ago Dr. Kurka’s health was taking a turn for the worse, and I ran up and spent an hour (maybe two hours) with him. We talked about our hope—that ultimately beyond all this other stuff, we’re trusting God to give us resurrection hope. That just as God raised Jesus from the grave so also our good Heavenly Father will raise us—if we trust him.
What are you trusting the Father for this Easter? Is your faith growing? This morning we're inviting you to begin a 30 day journey… to set aside the next month of Sundays. Come back next week as we explore what it means to Find Peace with God. In John 14:27 Jesus invites us, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.”