On October 3rd, 2021, Pastor Eric asked us a very important question:

Do we dare to trust God?

Pastor Eric recounted how he came to trust in the Lord in 1999. He stated that he stopped relying on his own understanding and began to rely on God. Even though he had little knowledge of Jesus at that time, he knew he had to accept Christ as his personal Saviour. At the lowest point of his life, when he hit rock bottom, Pastor Eric put his trust in the Lord and invited God into his heart, asking Him to forgive him of his sins, and began to trust Him alone for salvation. As time progressed, Pastor Eric began to give Christ full control over his life. As a result, he became fully reliant on God to provide for his needs and to fulfill the calling the Lord placed upon his life. It was difficult for Pastor Eric to trust God at first, but as his relationship with the Lord grew, and as he gained a deeper understanding of Christ, he developed a more personal relationship with Him and his trust in Jesus increased.

There is no need for us to wait for a great miracle to start believing in God. Many people are led to faith following a miracle, but this is not always the case. It does not take a miracle to start trusting the Lord. Nature provides us with ample evidence that God is good and that He takes care of His creation.

The late Reverend Thomas Boston once said,

Every pile of grass is a preacher of the loving-kindness of the Lord.

People are currently struggling with trust issues as a result of unprecedented changes taking place in an increasingly untrustworthy world. American author, speaker, researcher, pastor and Christian missiologist, Ed Stetzer, claims that we are following the same trend as in 1968. At that time, there was much division within the church. It was also the year of Martin Luther King Junior’s assassination and Kennedy got shot. According to Ed Stetzer, in the five years that followed, people were hesitant to trust again. The same pattern is being observed by Mr. Stetzer today.

Amidst broken promises and moral failures in an increasingly untrustworthy world, Pastor Eric urges us to place our trust in the Almighty.

A man named Charles Blondin made history in 1859 by becoming the first person to walk across Niagara Falls on a tightrope. He then walked the narrow tightrope once again pushing a wheelbarrow full of rocks across the gorge. He subsequently asked the crowd below whether they believed he could cross the Falls with a person in the wheelbarrow. Despite everyone’s trust in his abilities, when Charles turned to a man and said, “Get in”, he refused. To trust God is to sit in the wheelbarrow and entrust our lives to Him. Unlike Charles’ wheelbarrow, God’s wheelbarrow is completely safe. The Lord will never let us fall. He can be trusted with our lives.

The Bible tells us that when we trust in the Lord, we are compared to Mount Zion: the place where God dwells.

Read Psalm 2:6

In Psalm 2:6, Mount Zion is described as God’s holy mountain. Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion: They are like a mountain where God dwells. In other words, Christ draws near to those who trust Him. As our circumstances become more challenging and as we trust in the Lord more, He draws closer to us.

In the New Testament, Jesus is amazed on two occasions.

Read Luke 7:7,9

In the above verses, we learn that Jesus was amazed by the faith of a centurion, a Roman officer, who demonstrated great faith in Him. Due to this man’s pagan upbringing and Gentile heritage, he was the least likely of all to amaze Christ. Moreover, Jesus stated that the faith of the centurion far exceeded that of His own people.

Read Mark 6:4-6

In this chapter, Jesus was in His hometown surrounded by people who knew Him well. As much as He wanted to help them, He only laid hands on a few sick people due to the people’s reluctance to believe that He could perform great miracles. Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith.

On one hand, Jesus was amazed by the centurion’s faith and on the other hand, He was surprised by the lack of faith of the people in his own hometown. This should lead us to examine our own lives to determine whether our faith impresses Jesus – if our lifestyle is pleasing to Him.

Read Psalm 125:1-2

As Psalm 125:1-2 states, those who place their faith in the Lord are like Mount Zion. In the same way Jerusalem is protected by mountains, so too are the faithful to the Lord safe and secure, because they are rooted in Christ. Due to God’s presence among his people, both now and for all eternity, His people will not be shaken or moved by the trials they face, and they will endure forever.

In this day and age in which many people distrust God, Pastor Eric challenges us to dare to trust Him. God is calling us to jump in His wheelbarrow and say, “Lord, take me where you want me to go.”

Are you willing to trust Him?

Watch the sermon here.