R 1577 What Can We Really Trust

God has some encouraging words for each of us, some proverbial wisdom from the book of Proverbs and Dr. Don's teaching today. It is so good to welcome you into this broadcast of The Encouraging Word featuring Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, and pastor.

And in just a few minutes, he'll be taking us straight to Proverbs chapter 3, beginning in verse 5. But before that, he wants me to remind you we're here for you. We'd love to pray with you and for you during this broadcast. Or do this, jot the number down, store it in your cell, 866-899-WORD. We'll connect you with us 24 hours a day, happy to listen and talk and pray and encourage you, especially during this unique time of the coronavirus.

We're here for you. 866-899-9673 or meet us online at www.tewonline.org. Now today's message, Who Can We Really Trust? with Dr. Don Wilton. I'm going to ask you today to open your Bibles to the book of Proverbs in chapter 3. Who can we really trust?

Who do we go to? I'm telling you, there are a lot of wonderful people in our world. Did you know God uses people? I've had some conversations with some incredibly godly physicians this week.

People who are on the medical field that are on the cutting edge, people who are giving of themselves, people who are sacrificing so much. I've had conversations with men and women whom God speaks through and I'm listening to. We've got the government speaking. We're listening to the opinions of China and South Korea and Italy and Spain.

We're listening to the World Health Organization, to the daily briefings in the White House. But who can we really trust? Who can we really trust? That's a good question, isn't it? It's a good question. Who can we really trust?

Where do we go? God's got something to say about this. And my friend, I want you to know as I open God's Word and I'm setting the table this morning, God is going to speak to us. Now, this is what the Word of God says in Proverbs chapter three and verses five and six.

You need to read this for yourself. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean. Unto your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him.

Now watch this. And He will direct your paths. Some of our Bible versions say He will make your crooked paths straight.

He will stop the swerve. He will straighten out your way. He'll give you a very clear picture. He'll show you the end from the beginning.

He'll leapfrog you. He'll take away all that fear. Trust in the Lord. That's what the Bible says. Put your trust in God.

I think it's time for America to show up. In God, we trust. Our founding fathers got it.

They knew. You see, my friends, when it comes to trusting God and who we can really trust. God did not say this to us as a special announcement just for a virus. He's always said that. God didn't call a special meeting under unique circumstances and say, Now, listen, people, I love you all and I recognize that you're going through a very difficult time.

Here's something you need to try. Trust me. You see, God always is, isn't He? He's the Alpha and the Omega. He's the beginning and He's the end.

He's the first and the last. He's our eternal God. Someone said to me one time, Pastor, when did God begin?

God never began. He always is. He's unchanging. He says, put your trust in me because I always am.

I'm the great I am. He even told Moses when Moses had to go and confront the ugliness of Pharaoh, this pagan man. He was doing what he did to God's people. He said, just go to Pharaoh and tell him, I am sent you.

I am? Moses said, Yes, I am. That's spelled Yahweh.

Yahweh. It has no vowels. You cannot pronounce it. I'm the unpronounceable one. I'm almighty. I'm magnificent. I always am because I always is.

I never have not been. You can trust me. Trust the Lord in God we trust.

Our founding fathers told us what to do long before the coronavirus arrived. And I'm going to submit to you today, my friends, as believers in our churches, in our lives, with our children, with the elderly, as we pray for the government, as we pray for the nation, as we pray for the people in the world. Let's put our trust in the Lord. Now, let's just try and understand this, because in this passage, God's word tells us how we trust God. And he tells us three ways how we trust God.

Forgive the interruption. We'll be back with the rest of today's message, What Can We Really Trust, with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. And as we talk about and understand, as Dr. Don unpacks these three ways on how we know we can trust God, I pray that you realize that we are available for you. Dr. Don insists I interrupt to remind you that we are here at the other end of this phone number, 866-899-WORD. You know, one of the joys of television is we can put that number in the small corner and you can be available to call anytime. But I pray you, instead of letting it be on the video, since this is an audio, that you would jot the number down or perhaps store us in your cell as what Dr. Don would say, one of your 2 a.m. friends.

Anytime, day or night, if you'd like to have someone pray with you and for you, we stand ready to do that. 866-899-WORD is the phone number. That's 866-899-9673.

But some of us would prefer keyboard to keyboard or texting. There are a lot of ways to connect. You'll find those on our website at www.tewonline.org. And we're about to have a wonderful new face look or kind of really a revamping of the entire website coming up, you'll find it at the same spot, www.tewonline.org.

A great spot for wonderful resources as well, like this. This month at The Encouraging Word, we would like to spotlight a new ministry resource, the book of Daniel DVD. By viewing this DVD, you will experience Daniel like never before. It is an adventure of faith, courage of conviction and miracles. We hope this resource will encourage you to stand strong in your convictions and to be still and listen for God's instructions.

Then obey those instructions. Call us at 866-899-WORD and request the book of Daniel for your gift of twenty dollars or more in support of The Encouraging Word. Thank you for listening today.

Now back to today's message. Who can we really trust with Dr. Don Wilton? Because in this passage, God's word tells us how we trust God.

And he tells us three ways how we trust God. I want to encourage you to write these down and then I'm going to unpack something here that's very, very helpful. I promise you, get ready with your pen and paper. Get ready with that notepad. Take notes. And as you take notes, why don't you perhaps even think in terms of your daily devotional with your sons and daughters, with your small children? Have a start something new.

If you haven't done this, do it. God maybe is giving you an opportunity to have a family tabernacle. Maybe every morning at breakfast, get out the Bible, reread this, write down some of these points, talk over them.

In addition to all the other wonderful resources that you've got made available to you. This is what God says when he says trust in me. He tells us how to do this.

So I'm going to be very simple. Number one, he tells us to trust him totally. Trust the Lord. Look what he says right there in verse five. Trust the Lord with all your heart. All your heart.

Trust him totally. You know, many of you heard my some of my testimony how I came out of the deserts of Africa and on the first morning I was back. Went off to church. The only reason I went to church and I'm just confessing to all of you back there in my youth. And after being gone for quite a long time was because I knew the best looking girls went to church.

I'm telling you that I'm just admitting it. And I sat way up in the balcony. Now, when I look at my church today, there's nobody in our church excepting for a few people. I look up, there's nobody there, but I see them.

I see you. And that day I went to church, sat up in the balcony, looked down and there she was. She was on the second row. You say, how did you know it was the second row? Trust me, I knew. I've never forgotten.

All I could see was the back of her. But, you know, the day that I went and introduced myself didn't get much response from her. And I remind her about that for a lot. But, you know, she's been my wife and the love of my life for over 44 years now. And I love her dearly.

But I'm going to tell you what happened that day. I gave my heart to her. It got into my heart. You and I know what it means to give your heart. And then she gave me her heart.

We gave our hearts to one another. When you give all your heart, it means you just totally, it means to be completely given over. It means to be entirely given over. It means to be wholeheartedly engaged in the one to whom you've given your heart. That's what it means.

Isn't that fantastic? You say, how do I do that? When you trust him with your whole heart, just tell him that it begins when you give your heart to Jesus. That's the starting point. Do you know the Lord Jesus? I'm going to invite you right now to give your heart to Jesus.

That's where it starts. Because if you don't give your heart to Jesus and confess your sin and trust him as your saviour and your Lord. Yes, you might have a deep affection for him. You might respect God. You might tolerate him.

You might use him from time to time. But when you give your heart to him, you know what he does? He comes all of him back into your heart. That's why I want you to give your life to Christ today, right there where you are. You can pray a prayer like this. Lord Jesus, I know that you are God and I know that you love me and I believe that you died for me. I confess my sin to you and I receive you into my heart.

I give you my heart. And when you do that, that's the starting point. Boom! There it goes. That's the initial total trust and capitulation.

That's what he said. You want me to be involved with you. I'm not going to make this announcement that's going to suit a time or an issue in your community.

This has always been the case. Follow me. He says you give your heart to me completely entirely. All right.

So there's number one. It's what he says right there in the Bible. He says trust in the Lord. In God we trust means totally. Number two, trust him confidently. Not only totally, but trust him confidently. It's a beautiful statement that he says do not lean on your own understanding.

Now that word there, lean, is actually a very beautiful description here. What God is saying here is he's saying don't depend on any other understanding to the point at which you have conviction that that is the word that you can take to your heart. Listen by all means.

Assertain. God gives to us a spirit of discernment. God uses us in every believer because we are filled by the Spirit of God. God dwells in us richly by his Spirit and that Spirit of discernment will help us to be able to not lean on our own understanding, but to trust God confidently. God has the final say. It means to trust him certainly, to trust him assuredly, to trust him positively.

That's what it means. That's what he says to us. He says trust in the Lord. In God you trust.

In God I trust. If someone was to come to you right now and say to you, what do you think of this? The single greatest answer that I can give to you. If you were to say to me right now, Dr. Wilton, what do you think about the coronavirus? The greatest answer I can give right now is I trust God. Yes, I'm going to give you my opinion.

I'm going to, I'm going to consider my opinion. I'm going to consider all the wonderful work, man, from medical personnel to people who understand these things, the work that's going on. The incredible genius of the human mind. I don't, I don't lay any of that aside. And God speaks through people. That's how he does.

That's the way he brings these things to us. But I'm not going to lean on my own understanding. I'm not going to depend on human understanding.

I'm not going to put everything that I've got on what we think might be or might not be. I'm going to put it all on God. Amen. Can you feel that?

Wow. You know, I believe that of all the many things we can say about the reason why these things, I don't know all the reasons, but I think God's trying to get our attention, don't you? I think God's trying to get our attention about himself and at the centerpiece on that, that attention that he's trying to get concerning himself has to do with what we believe to be true about God. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Friends, listen to me. God has become just a byword in our communities. He's become gobbled up in everyone's God. Who is God? He's become just whatever anybody thinks he might be.

Everybody's got an opinion. God has given us very clearly what we need to know about him. And he says, trust in me, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Trust in me. Number one, totally trust in me confidently.

And number three, trust him trustingly. Now that adverbial form of the word trust is a very interesting to trust God trustingly. This is what he says to us here.

He says, in all your ways, acknowledge him. I've got to trust God. You and I have got to trust God in a time like this because it's in God we trust. And we've got to trust him totally and confidently and trustingly in all ways.

We've got to acknowledge him, not in some ways. It means when we trust him trustingly, we trust him fully. We trust him confidently. We trust him expectantly. You can expect God to deliver.

So watch this now, folks. This is going to be very important for us today as we worship the Lord Jesus. The Bible says when we trust in the Lord totally, confidently and trustingly, we put everything on God by faith.

It means we don't necessarily understand it and we don't necessarily have all the answers and we don't necessarily get it. But when we trust him, he will make our paths straight. He will direct us. He will direct you.

He will direct. He will show you. He will point.

So here's the question. How does God, how does the Lord direct us? How will the Lord direct you? How? How will he do this? I'm going to give you just five ways today.

You ready? One, two, three, four, five. And I'm going to give you a scripture verse next to each one. When I do this, write that scripture verse down because you can use that as a devotional right there in your own home. You can use that.

Take one of these maybe for the next five days, if you like. Use that as your family devotion in addition to other things that you might have. Those wonderful resources that God has given to us through devotionals and so many different means. You have so many things made available to you, even through your own church. And I encourage you to do that. How the Lord will direct you.

Number one. This is what he does when he makes our paths straight. He will provide for you.

Philippians 4 19. My God shall supply all our need according to his riches in glory. He'll provide for you. I can guarantee that because I trust God.

Who can I really trust? Trust God. He will provide for you.

Number two. He will quiet you. I love this. Listen to Zephaniah chapter three and verse 17.

The Bible says he will quiet you by his love. You know, I have a picture of a terrible storm coming through any community. And I have a picture of a child lying in that child's bedroom. That little girl, that little boy becomes terrified and runs to mommy and daddy's bedroom. Jumps into that bed.

No, it doesn't want to be on the edge or at the bottom or on the side. Wants to be right smack in the middle. And isn't that an incredible thing when that little one jumps in, gets up through those sheets and blankets, gets into the middle between mommy and daddy and is just smothered by the love of her parents. And when she's smothered by the love of her parents, their love quiets her. That's what God says when you trust him.

It's a beautiful picture. He will provide for you. He will quiet you. He will guide you.

Number three. John, chapter 16, verse 13. So many passages about what God does for us by his spirit. He guides us.

You know that word guide. He guides us into truth, into that which is absolute. And that's what God will do for you. When you trust him, he'll guide you.

Number four. He will protect you. Now, I love this. He will protect you. Listen to what the psalmist said in Psalm 32 and verse seven. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me and protect me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance. The psalmist goes on and he talks about the fact that God sings to us.

Isn't that fantastic? What a statement of worship. This morning, before I got up to preach, we were singing. We were hearing, you know, as I was sitting here singing along, it's as though I was hearing God singing to me. Do you know God sings to us? And what he does when he does that, he provides a hiding place for us. He protects us. He pulls us into himself and he holds us in the palm of his hand.

Let me just give you these again quickly. This is very important, folks. So trust in God. Trust him. Trust him in God.

We trust. Put everything on God. Have total faith and trust in him.

He's the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Trust him. Trust him with everything.

Your whole heart. And what will he do? He'll make your paths straight. He will direct your ways. He'll show you. He'll give answers.

He's at the end before the beginning. And how does he do that? Well, he'll provide for you. He will quiet you. He will guide you. He will protect you.

And here's one more. He will answer you. And just get this. He will answer you. 1 John chapter 5. I want you to write this down. 1 John chapter 5 verses 14 and 15. Powerful verse. I've written it down here.

I'm going to read it to you. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have called of him. Just think about that. God answers me.

Isn't that just fantastic? God answers you. So what questions have you got right now?

Yep. Please send them in. Call that number. Text. Send in those emails.

Anything. Let's get alongside of you. We're on duty. We're helping. We're getting alongside.

People are ministering. But above all, put your trust in God. He's the one.

He's the one. So what are we saying today? When we trust God, we're trusting the one that we really can trust. We can thank God for all the incredible wisdom.

Oh, wow. Our teachers and parents, our doctors, people in government. Listen, we can trust. We can listen.

We can take. We can think all of this. We are in this together, but it's in God we trust. Our God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or even think.

Isn't that fantastic? This is who God is. Indeed, that is who God is. You know, you've heard Dr. Wilson from the pulpit as he's been preaching and sharing from God's word right now.

Before we get away, I pray you'd allow him to just speak to you from his heart as he comes in the studio with these last few moments. The greatest thing I ever did was give my heart to Jesus. I want to invite you to give your life to Christ today. Pray this prayer with me today.

Dear God, thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, who came to this earth to die on a cross for me. Today, I put my faith and my trust in you. I confess my sin to you, and I ask you to come into my life by faith in Jesus' name. If you've prayed that prayer, I welcome you today to the family of God.

You are now my brother, my sister in Christ. I have people waiting to talk to you and to welcome you as you begin this wonderful journey of faith. God bless you and be encouraged today.

How we pray you're encouraged today. If you've just given your heart to Jesus Christ, you need to tell someone, and why not tell us? We'd love to speak with you, pray with you, put some free resources.

As a matter of fact, if you've just given your heart to Jesus Christ or rededicate your life to Christ, Dr. Don has a unique package of individual pieces that he'd love to put in your hands, but we need to know. Give us a call, 866-899-9673 is the phone number, or you can meet us online at TEWOnline.org. And again, I challenge you to consider signing up for the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don. You can do it at our website, TEWOnline.org, every single day. A powerful word of scripture, some insight from Dr. Don, and a challenge that will just love you through the day. Literally encourage you through the day. Sign up online at TEWOnline.org, or if you'd like to, you can just text the word daily to 30500. That's right, text the word daily to 30500. We'll send you a hot link and you'll be ready to go. Till next time, take care and God bless.