July 21, 2025 • 34 mins
Pastor Joe Liles takes us on a transformative journey of understanding what it truly means to trust God. Moving beyond surface-level faith, Pastor Joe challenges listeners to develop a deeply personal relationship with Jesus Christ that encompasses every aspect of life.
Key Themes:
- The difference between believing in God and trusting God
- How trust grows through personal relationships
- Surrendering completely to God's promise, not just individual prayers
- Developing an actionable, obedient faith
Powerful Quotes:
- "We are not here to believe in something. We're here to have faith in someone and to trust God fully with our lives."
- "When you have trust in the promise, you know that you're leading your entire life towards God, full surrender."
Scriptural Foundations:
- Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight"
- Psalm 56:3-4: "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you"
Practical Takeaways:
- Identify the people you trust and understand why
- Have honest conversations about trust in your relationships
- Surrender fully to God's plan, not just your personal desires
- Practice trusting God in both big and small moments
Who Should Listen:
- Christians seeking deeper spiritual growth
- Those struggling with faith and trust
- Individuals looking to strengthen their relationship with God
Listener Challenge:
This week, tell someone why you trust them and ask if they trust you, then reflect on how this mirrors your relationship with God.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Pastor Joe Liles (00:04):
So we've been a series now for a couple of
weeks called Mountain mover, andit is a series that really
started with our youth missiontrips. So we went on mission
trips to North Carolina, and wewent on mission trips to
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Don'tknow if you've heard of it. We
went right down south a littlebit, and worked with Ozark
mission project. And in thosetrips, there are transformation
(00:24):
that happens. Youth aretransformed. They do worship
every night, and they do, likethe candlelight worship, where
they really bring it out, andthey do foot washing ceremonies,
and they just do this part ofyour faith that is, like, I
crave it, but can't have it allthe time, like it's deep and
intentional every single nightof the week and so but there are
these moments when these youthare just transforming, and we
(00:44):
really thought about, like, whatis this adult discipleship that
we've missed? Like, I think alot of us fell in love with the
identity of being a Christianwhen we went through these youth
programs and these camps, and wecentered ourselves on mission,
and then we became an adult, andwe ran out of time. We ran out
of time, and all of our faithgot, kind of got put into Sunday
morning on one hour, and I said,what would it be if we really
(01:04):
talked about bringing our faithback alive into our daily lives
today as adults? What would thatlook like? And so then formed
mountain mover, which was thisidentity of learning to trust
God again in all the differentways in our life, during all the
different times in our life,right this kind of moment that
we move through things. And wefirst interviewed our youth, and
we call that beyond comfort,because we have adult leaders
(01:26):
that are going for a weekoutside of their jobs. And we
interviewed youth, and it was agreat experience. They talked
about meeting the housinginsecure. They talked about, you
know, walking through thedowntown. They talked about
doing these projects out in theheat, and what this meant to
them, and the foot washingceremonies. And so that was
great. It was really wonderful.
And then we moved on from beyondcomfort into you of little
faith. You of little faith waslast week when we were talking
(01:47):
about this identity of what doesit mean when Jesus says you have
little faith? And last week'smessage was really about being
grateful that we have a littlebit of faith, because we have
room to grow, right? We alwayshave room to grow when we have a
little bit of faith. And that'sexactly where the disciples
were. So we are there in thisalso. And then today is all
about trust. Today is all abouttrust and how to trust God. So
(02:07):
how many of you feel that youtrust God, right? Okay, raise
your hand if you feel you trustGod. That's great. How many of
you could define trust right?
Now, biblically Interesting.
Okay, that's really interesting.
So what do you mean when you sayyou trust God? So I thought,
let's just start there. I wantedto center everyone right, and
just give us a moment. I guess Itrust God. What does it mean? I
(02:28):
have no idea. It means I havefaith, or I believe, or I walk
by faith, and my belief in JesusChrist through faith and great
grace, grace is in there. Solike, we're going to define this
a little bit today, but I wantedto break it down into personal
relationship first. So I wantyou to think about the
relationships that you have inyour life right now, the
(02:48):
relationships that you have, whodo you trust in your life right
now? I just want you to thinkabout that, who in your life
Unknown (02:59):
do you trust when you thought of that
Pastor Joe Liles (03:03):
person, I want you to raise your hand just so I
can see where everyone's at. Ifyou thought of the person that
you can trust, raise your hand.
Okay, that person, that's great.
Okay, all right, you can putyour hands down. Now think of
this two additional questions.
One, why do you trust them? Howdid you move into a place of
trust with this person? BecauseI can tell you, it didn't start
(03:27):
there. You didn't walk into arelationship and go, I trust you
completely. This is awesome.
Here's my life. Everything youwant to know about me, I trust
you with go back into the world.
Be faithful with it. Somethinghad to happen of when you began
to trust them. So the nextquestion that I want you to ask
is, why do you trust them? Whatdoes it mean in your life that
you would trust them? And thatprobably leads to the third
(03:50):
question, which is, when did youstart trusting them? In the
moments that we talk about, whendid you start trusting people?
There's usually an experience, amoment, a surrender, a
confession. There is somethingthat begins in our cycle of
trust with people, where we havestepped into a trusting
(04:12):
relationship. We have moved froman acquaintance with Hey, we
kind of pass by each other.
That's great. We know eachother, and then something
happens, where it goes, Hey, I'mgoing to trust you with this I'm
going to trust you with thisinformation, this role, this
responsibility, I'm going totrust you with this part of my
(04:33):
life is where I'm going to trustyou, and I'm going to start in
this way. So if you're thinkingabout who you trust, why you
trust them. Look back to whenyou started trusting them, and
what was the start of that. Sowith this, part of the reason we
did this series was to really,kind of show you what they do at
camp when they do like trust.
And they want to teach you abouttrust, they do very visible
things, right? It's usually likeyouth camp counselors up there,
(04:55):
and they do visible so I wantedto do one of those today. I feel
it'd be really good. And so I'mgonna call up a couple of people
that I think can help me out.
One, I want to find someone thatI've known for a while, someone
that's been in the church formany, many years, that's been
out, yeah, yeah. Tom You looklike a good candidate. I'm sorry
the light was shining off yourhead. And so I just wanted to
make sure that's I looked overand it was like, God was like,
(05:18):
oh yeah. It was really good.
Give it up for Tom coming up tohelp out. Great to see you. Tom,
it's wonderful. Thanks forcoming up. Appreciate that. It's
great. So just stand right uphere. That's good. Okay, just
stand there and look like youknow what's gonna happen. Okay,
now with that, I need one otherperson that I've only known for
a couple years, right? And thatmaybe not as long, how long have
we known each other, right?
1015, years. 15 years. This isgreat. Okay, let's go. It keeps
(05:42):
on going all the way back. Allthe way back to the beginning. I
mean, you were the firstfamilies that we met. Landon
wasn't here. Landon wasn't hereyet. There you go. So that's
where we start from. Okay, sowith that, I'm gonna bring up
one more you know what? I'mgonna bring up a person who
wants to go running with me buthasn't yet. Oh yeah. Michael
Herm, let's go. Michael Herm,bring it up. Let's go. Give it
up for Michael. Herm, okay, sowith this, I'm gonna see this
(06:02):
here. Okay, so, yeah, okay. Now,when did we meet? So I'm gonna
be on think it's just black, butwe're gonna work there, so you
can grab the mic. It's okay.
When did we first meet? Longtime ago, when you first got
here, when I first got here,right? So, like, church wasn't
even planted yet and we met,okay? So before the beginning of
the neighborhood? Yes. Okay, sothat's 2011 right? Okay. Okay.
Now, can you introduce toeveryone who you are, Hi, good
(06:22):
morning. I'm Michael. HermEveryone say, Good morning. That
was a very nice way to greeteveryone. That's great. Everyone
say, Hi, Michael. That's great.
Are you nervous? Yes, okay,that's great. Okay, I appreciate
that. How long have we knowneach other?
Unknown (06:36):
We came and talked to you? Probably
2021, when we had just hadCecilia and we're looking for a
church to join,
Pastor Joe Liles (06:45):
yeah, that's right, that's right. Okay, so
2021 so that's about four yearsnow we've known each other, so
we got 15 years and four years,and you both made it up here. So
we're going to do a trustexercise, right, which is going
to be great. So Tom, do youtrust me? Sure? Is Sure? A
confident, confident. Trust issure. No, I didn't feel that was
gone. Tom, do you trust me?
Absolutely, absolutely, okay.
(07:06):
That's great. Michael, do youtrust me? Yeah, you know what?
You didn't even say anything.
Okay, this is great. Okay, sonow here's what I want to do.
Have you guys heard of a trustfall? Have you guys heard of a
trust fall? Okay, that's great.
So now, Tom, you said you trustme, correct? Okay, so I want you
to step out here, right? We'regoing to, I want you to turn
this way, right, and we're goingto do a trust fall. Okay, so now
I'm going to catch you, and Iwant to make sure that that you
(07:28):
know that I got you, okay. Iwant to make sure you know that
I got you, and I want you toclose your eyes, okay, I want
you to put your hands over yourchest, right, just that. It's
perfect, okay? And I want tomake sure that I'm going to
count back from five, that Iwant you to fall. Okay. Now,
does full trust? All right. Sowhat? It's 54321, and then you
fall. So after one, you hearone, then go back. Okay, now the
(07:50):
goal is not to move your feet.
That's how much you trustsomeone. If you take a step
back, then you don't trust allright. You ready for this? Okay?
And then Michael, you stay overthere and you wait, because
you're up next. All right, okay,here we go. Okay, so I'm gonna
count back from 54321,fall back. Oh, you did really
good. Okay, come on now. Okay,did you know I was in front of
(08:12):
you? No, oh, that's good. Allright, give it up for who I can
talk. Come on here. Come on.
Give it up. All right, you guyscan head back. So here's part of
what I want to get at. Tomtrusted me. Tom, I've known for
years. Michael, I've only knownfor a little bit. The trust
(08:33):
exercise was not the beginningof that relationship. The
relationship happened 15 yearsago. The relationship happened
four years ago. The first thingthat I had to do was invite them
into the relationship of trust.
Sometimes we think that themoment when we start a trusting
relationship begins with thistrust fall in the scenario. The
moment that Tom and I startedbegan so many years ago, when I
(08:56):
said Tom, would you come up? AndI invited him up. That was the
beginning of that trustingrelationship. And now I want you
to think about that in yourrelationship with Jesus Christ,
your relationship with JesusChrist is not only the big
moments in your life. Therelationship with Jesus Christ
begins at the very beginningwhen you are born, and it
continues in all the people thatare forming around you, up until
(09:17):
the moments when you have tolearn that you have to place
your full trust in Jesus Christ,that everything you do has to be
placed there, even when it seemslike Jesus is not in a place you
want Jesus to be, even when itseems like Wait. You said that
this was going to go a certainway, but I don't feel your
presence in the way I thought itwas going to be. I need to shift
this around and make sure thateverything's in the way that I
(09:38):
understand it. That's not whathappens in a trusting
relationship. In a trustingrelationship with Jesus. It
begins in the beginning bywalking with God throughout
every part of your life and inthe big moments, to lean into
that trust in every part of yourlife. And I want you to hear
that in Scripture today. Solet's open up the word we're
going to be in Proverbs. Sowe're going to be in Proverbs.
(09:58):
Today, and we're gonna be inchapter three, I read verses
five and six. So if you find jobPsalms, Proverbs, you can kind
of look, it's a it's gettingtowards the front side of your
Bible, and it's in the OldTestament. And really, proverbs
are these wonderful kind ofpoetry and sayings that kind of
lead us back into relationshipwith what is the God of Israel.
And so as we're praying throughthese things. The part of this
(10:20):
section is admonition to trustand honor God in all that we do.
Now I want you to listen tothis. This is Proverbs, three
verses, five and six. And itsays this, trust in the Lord
with all your heart and do notrely on your own insight in all
your ways, acknowledge Him andHe will make straight your paths
(10:47):
one more time. Trust in the Lordwith all your heart, and do not
rely on your own insight in allyour ways, acknowledge Him and
He will make straight yourpaths. So trust is a confident
reliance on someone's characteror ability with someone that you
(11:15):
know or something. That's whattrust means. It's a confident
reliance. So imagine that trust.
Trust is kind of a layeredreality in our life. We have to
have a confidence, right? Wehave to have a little bit of
hope in there, and then we haveto trust in that part, that
there's an ability, that thereis, there's a character
(11:37):
definition of someone orsomething in our life that we
are entrusting our lives to, andwe have to move with that
relationship. And so we start totransfer that to Jesus Christ,
and we realize that our trustingrelationship with Jesus Christ
begins by saying that we have aconfidence and a hope in our
personal relationship with JesusChrist. Now this is where a big
(12:01):
distinction comes in. We canhave multiple relationships with
Jesus Christ, but I am talkingabout a personal relationship.
Now here's what that means. Manyof you in church today have a
church relationship with JesusChrist. Can I get an amen? And
what that means is that churchis your faith relationship to
(12:22):
Jesus Christ, and that is abeautiful place to be. That is a
church relationship to JesusChrist. Many of you even have a
prayerful relationship to JesusChrist, and that's a beautiful
place to be. Many of you haveBible study groups and small
groups and life groups, and havethat relationship to Jesus
Christ. Some of you get out, andyou serve out in the community,
and you have this servanthearted relationship to Jesus
(12:44):
Christ. But what we just heardin our text is that it is your
full heart trust in the Lordwith all of your heart. So it is
not just one area of our lifethat trust in the Lord. It is
all areas of our life and thatbecomes a personal relationship
to Jesus Christ. A personalrelationship to Jesus Christ
(13:06):
means that Jesus knowseverything in your life, and
that's hard, because wecompartment, compartmentalize
everything in our life for thedifferent people that we know.
When you thought about thepeople that you trust earlier.
How many of you trust people incertain areas of your life, but
not with all of your life? Can Iget a hand raise for that
(13:28):
certain areas, but not all ofit? And when you go to that
person, you trust them withinformation in that area of your
life, but you're not going totell them about this area of
your life. You're not going tomove in a direction that would
be that vulnerable to trust withall of your heart. But this is
the personal relationship thatwe have with Jesus Christ that
we need to begin by saying thatwe have all of our heart leaning
(13:50):
into Jesus to begin trust. Thisis the start. Now we're going to
jump over into Psalms. We'regoing to jump all the way into
Psalm 56 Psalm 56 and we'regonna read verses three and
four. So just jump back a littlebit. So that's before proverbs.
Now we love Bibles in thechurch. So if you're new with
us, we love to bring Bibles tothe church. There's a couple
(14:11):
ways you can follow along withus today, too. So if you got a
Bible, raise it up. We loveBibles. There's Bibles all
around the church. Yes,absolutely. You can also be in
the Bible app. So that's on yourchair back in front of you. Yep,
there you go. We got Bible appsout there so you can follow
along there too. So we're goingto be in Psalm 56 and we're
going to be reading verses threeand four here. And I want you to
listen to this. And this istrust in God under persecution
(14:37):
when I'm afraid I put my trustin you, in God whose word I
praise, In God I trust I am notafraid. What can flesh do to me
one more time when I am afraid Iput my trust in you, in God
whose word I praise, In God Itrust I am not. Afraid. What can
(15:01):
flesh do
Unknown (15:03):
to me?
Pastor Joe Liles (15:06):
Harder question. When you are afraid,
who do you put your trust in?
And I want the first action whenyou are afraid, who do you put
your trust in? Think about thatin your life, does it go to God
first? When you are afraid? Whodo you put your trust in? When
(15:34):
we're leaning into arelationship with God? I think
when we get into the times ofour life, then we're afraid. We
lean into those who are closestto us, but it's not always God.
We lean into those into our lifewho can handle that part of our
life that we compartmentalizeand we bring them this trusting
relationship to handle a fear.
But do you know what means isthat we're leaning in on our own
(15:56):
insight when I get afraid, andadmittedly, when I get afraid,
what do I do? I lean into my ownstrengths when I get afraid? I
said I can handle it in this wayand this way and this way and
this way. And it is not alwaysGod first. It is not always on
my knees in prayer. What it isis saying, Hold on a second. Let
me take a deep breath. I can seefive outcomes here. Let me walk
through every one of theseoutcomes. Am I gonna see what I
(16:16):
can do? How many of you do thatin your life, that you lean on
your own insight? Can I get anamen, we need to learn to trust
God. And it doesn't mean that wedon't have action in this. It
doesn't mean that we don't walkforward saying that we don't
have knowledge of who God is.
That that's belief. Belief saysI have knowledge of who God is
in my life. Belief is anunderstanding of the word.
(16:37):
Belief is an understanding thatGod exists in our life, but it
is not an action. It is abelief, it is an understanding,
and it is not a relationship. Sowhen I say I believe that that
doesn't necessarily mean that Ihave this personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. It means Ihave knowledge of God, and I
have knowledge of the Trinity.
And sometimes I get stuck there,and then I go back to my own
ways, and I say, great. And thenI hear about we've been saved by
(17:00):
grace in Jesus Christ throughfaith. And I think, well, I have
faith. I definitely have faith.
And I realize that faith is agift of the Holy Spirit. Faith
is a gift of the Holy Spiritthat's imparted to me, that that
I live out. And then I realizethat when I get to a trusting
relationship, what it means is Ihave actionable faith, that I'm
in the life of my faith. Saying,Hold on a second, I have been
saved by grace, through faith,and every response that I have
(17:25):
is my trust in God, my obedienceto that faith through the Holy
Spirit, is my trust in God, butmy trust wants to be handled
right now, when I trust In Godand I have a hurt or a pain or
I'm scared or I'm fearful, Iwant that to go away, and that's
(17:45):
not how trust grows. Trust growsin your personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, when you havetrust in the promise more than
you have trust in your prayersbeing answered. And what I mean
by that is this, when you havetrust in the promise, you know
(18:08):
that you're leading your entirelife towards God, full
surrender, entire life towardGod. It means that when you have
a fearful moment, yes, thatmight be an up and down and a
doubting and worshiping momentand coming back to God. But you
know that the promise is whatmatters. The kingdom is what
matters. That when Jesus Christconquered sin, death and the
(18:28):
devil, that's the promise. Itwasn't to handle this one tiny
need and answer this specificprayer. It was to say, I died
for the promise, not just theprayer. And so we sit here
sometimes saying, I don'tunderstand where you're at, and
I'm having trouble trusting, andI'm fearful and I'm anxious, and
we hear these things like, Don'tbe anxious, and in everything,
give to God and supplication andprayer. And I'm like, That's a
beautiful verse, but it's notworking for me right now. I need
(18:50):
more, and God's going but wait,I gave you the promise.
Sometimes we get stuck in thisfear, because it's in the
moment, but our trust, ourpersonal relationship, our
reliance on God, will grow whenwe trust in the promise.
Unknown (19:12):
The promise is what sustains you. It's what gets you
through the hard times
Pastor Joe Liles (19:18):
when you are down, you feel like life's on
top of you. You have to rememberthere's a kingdom waiting for
you.
Unknown (19:26):
That's the promise.
Pastor Joe Liles (19:28):
And so when I hear I trust God in this psalm,
and it says, When I'm fearful,when I'm hurting, and I trust
God, I believe that, but I don'ttrust that God's gonna handle
every one of my fears. I trustthat God has a promise, and I'm
going to walk through lifetrusting God over and over and
over again. We begin thistrusting relationship with God,
(19:48):
and then we have to trust in thepromise. That's where it begins.
And so lastly, I want you toturn over into Psalm 62 just a
verse over. As we're thinkingabout this, I'm. And this is
verse eight, and here's what itsays, Trust in him at all times.
(20:10):
O people pour out your heartbefore Him. God is a refuge for
us one more time. Trust in himat all times. Oh, people pour
out your heart before Him. Godis a refuge for us. You know,
(20:33):
the trust exercise that we didis like the first trust exercise
and the easiest one. Did youguys know that like a trust
fall? How many have ever done atrust fall before? Have you guys
done a trust done the trust?
Okay, beautiful. Okay, there'sanother level from a trust fall,
right? And it's called lowropes. Has anyone ever done low
ropes? Right? Okay, it'sbasically wood on the ground, is
what it is, right? And someropes and everything so that,
(20:55):
and you have to step over thewood, and you have like, team
activities that you can do, andyou're about six inches off the
ground, it's a little bit ofheight, but basically you have
to move people through what theycall low ropes. It's kind of a
it's kind of a myriad ofdifferent obstacles and
everything else like this, andthere's a lot of trust. And
sometimes you have to close youreyes and understand what's
happening, and you have tolisten to other people, and
other times you have to feel foryour way, or you have to use
(21:16):
other people to make it to otherobstacles. It's a beautiful camp
scenario, beautiful campscenario. And then that's the
second level of trust, and thenthere's a third level of trust,
which they call high ropes. Hasanyone ever done high ropes on a
level? Okay, we got a couplepeople out there. High ropes
looks and feels different in arelationship of trust, because
(21:37):
instead of just saying, Hey,we're gonna walk out here as a
team. They have a thing called aharness, and they put a harness
on you, and then they hand you ahelmet, basically anything in
level three of trust that startswith an H is a bad thing. It's a
harness and a helmet, and you'reputting these on, and you're
looking 30 feet in the air atthese giant logs that have ropes
and different things on it, andthey have little cables that go
(21:58):
across, that they're gonna hookyou to. And there is some happy,
go lucky, joyful counselor upthere that has no fear of man
made heights that is up on thetop of this thing, going, hey,
it's gonna be great. You'regonna love it, right? He's
looking that's a level threepart of trust. And when you
climb up to these high ropes,you're on top of these high
ropes, and you're looking down.
(22:19):
And I don't know about you guys,but I love creation, and God's
creation, and everything thatGod has done in creation. I love
mountains, and I love climbing,and I love all those things I do
not like man made heights. Doesanyone else have a fear of
heights? Anyone else out there acouple fear heights out there?
Great. Or we can all go to theBentonville climbing gym after
this, and we can just discoverhow to overcome our fears. It's
going to be wonderful. But inthese high rope sections,
(22:41):
there's a moment in this whereyou have to understand that the
next step that you take is not astep that you can go back from
in your trusting relationship.
When you take a step to go fromsomething that's farther than
you think you can get to, orwhen they call something a leap
of faith and you realize there'sa cowbell eight feet out there,
and you just have to jump outand trust that the ropes are
gonna catch you. The next stepyou have is not something you
(23:01):
can come back from. And I wantyou to think about this in your
relationship with Jesus Christ,when you surrender fully to
Jesus Christ, that is notsomething you come back from.
When you surrender fully, you'resaying, I'm giving you all of my
heart, all of my love, everypart of who I am, and I'm taking
this next step with you. I'mtaking this next step and I
(23:23):
cannot go back
Unknown (23:26):
to who I was.
Pastor Joe Liles (23:30):
My life has to change in our relationship with
Jesus Christ, if you areconstantly going back to be and
try to be who you were. You arenot understanding that God is
creating you to become who Godintends you to be in the
kingdom. And I feel often in ourrelationship with God, when we
(23:53):
get into a moment of mistrust,what do we do? We step back onto
the platform and we say, I'm notready. And God's like, Just come
with me. I have you. And you'relike, No, but this was
comfortable, this I understoodthis relationship. I wanted this
was everything I wanted to be apart of. I understand this
relationship, and I want to be apart of it. And this is the
(24:13):
beginning of trusting forward.
Is that God's saying you'retrying to trust in a moment. I
want you to trust the promise. Iwant you to understand that I
have full trust in you ineverything. And when we come
together with God, we realizethat trusting relationship with
God is a full
Unknown (24:31):
obedience to our faith.
Pastor Joe Liles (24:35):
When you enter a trusting relationship, a
personal relationship with JesusChrist, you are fully obedient
to your faith. You are obeyingwhat God commanded. And there
are ways in your life where youcan look at this, the ways and
relationships around you willtell you about how trustworthy
(24:58):
you are. You. Uh, becausereally, when we're in a trusting
relationship, it's kind of acircle that we go into. We trust
the people around us, and do weexpect that they will trust us?
Also? How many people trustothers? Expectation that they
will trust you? Also, okay, howmany of you are frustrated when
(25:19):
they don't share with you allthe information that they were
supposed to and you only trustedagain, we got a strong sit right
up. Trust in a relationship ismeant to be this full, trusting
identity in both sides of therelationship, and when we hurt
and we struggle, it's usuallybecause we feel that we trusted
someone and they didn't trust usfully. And the beautiful part
(25:43):
about scripture, it says thatGod is faithful. I love that
piece of scripture, that God isfaithful, which means that God
trusts you to do the work of theKingdom. And the trust that we
have in God is the promise ofChrist. This is our trusting
(26:07):
relationship with God. It is notjust belief in something, it is
faith in someone, Jesus Christ.
This is how we move in ourtrusting relationship. So here's
what I want you to do. I thinkit's great to say, trust God.
And I think every one of us canwalk out of this church today
and say, Yeah, I can trust God,and not one thing's gonna
(26:31):
change. You will go in and say,Yeah, I heard about faith. Heard
about belief. I understandthat's you know, belief is
understanding. Faith is given bythe Holy Spirit and trust is
that obedience to faith, I loveit. Yeah, it's great. And then
you're gonna go right on withyour daily lives. So I think we
need to start in a softerrelationship if we believe that
God is truly guiding our lives,and I know that the people in
(26:55):
your lives are people that Godhas placed in your lives for you
to trust and for them to trustyou. And I think it begins by
saying that to the people thatyou do trust and telling them
why you trust them. So here'swhat I want you to think about
this week. I want you to thinkabout the people at the
(27:16):
beginning of this message that Isaid, Who do you trust? Why do
you trust them, and when did itbegin? And I want you to go to
those people this week, and Iwant you to tell them that you
trust them and why you trustthem, and when did it begin. And
then I want you to ask them aquestion. And if you're bold
(27:39):
enough to do it, I love it,because it's a step off a
platform and you're not comingback. I want you to say this to
them.
Unknown (27:49):
Do you trust me?
Pastor Joe Liles (27:55):
Because I really believe that when we are
in relationship with JesusChrist, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, and we havegiven over our heart. We are
relational, and we havesurrendered
Unknown (28:11):
that the world can trust us,
Pastor Joe Liles (28:15):
that the world can walk with us and say, of
course, I trust you. I wouldnever not think to trust you.
I've seen how you lead yourlife, how you lead your family.
I've seen how you hold me in thedark times. I've seen every part
of this, and I trust you. Butthat might not be the answer at
the start. That's the work ofthis week, to go to the ones
(28:39):
that you trust. Begin there.
Tell them why you trust them,and ask them, Do you trust me?
And if the answers, if theyhesitate, we know, can we just
say an amen to that? Like, let'sjust say, Okay, let's just give
a couple ways that this mightwork out. Number one, they say,
Absolutely not. And then you'regoing, Wow, that didn't work out
the way that I planned. You needto have a thick conversation,
all right, like, if that'ssomeone that you trust
(29:01):
implicitly, you need to have areal big conversation. I am
hoping that it doesn't go routeone. If it does, call me, I will
talk to you. I will spend timewith you, except I'm traveling
this week, so next week, so gothrough it for a week, and then
we're gonna work out. So it'sgreat. Just live into that. The
next one is they say this. Itwas much like Michael did. He
nodded yes, but nothing came outof his mouth like that. That's a
Michael trust, right? We'regonna call that level two is a
(29:23):
Michael trust, right? That'slike, that's a four year trust,
right? Like, it's like, I haveno idea what's gonna happen.
That could be the response.
It's, yeah, I trust you tellingyou, right now you gotta have a
conversation. You gotta have afaithful conversation about
trust. The other side of this isthey say, of course, I trust
(29:45):
you. All of this with the peoplethat you love and trust is meant
to give you an understanding ofyour personal relationship with
Jesus Christ. Here's why yourpersonal relationship with
Jesus. I should feel like that.
You should feel like you can goto Jesus and say, I trust you
completely with all of who I am,and feel that same thing back
(30:08):
from Jesus to trust you in thekingdom. And if Jesus trusts you
in the kingdom, it means he sentyou to people that need to hear
about the Word of God, that needto hear about the promise of the
kingdom, and that is yourmission. We are not here to
believe in something. We're hereto have faith in someone and to
trust God fully with our livesAnd all God's people said, Amen,
(30:30):
let us pray heavenly andgracious Father, we come before
you today knowing that ourrelationship of trust is hard,
this the sure and confidenthope. I mean, it reminds me of
this Hebrews passage, that faithis the assurance of things hoped
for and the conviction of thingsnot seen and And Lord, I realize
(30:51):
that when we are thinking aboutour trust, that it is not only
trust in the times that arehard, but we are trusting you
with our hopes. We are trustingyou with our future. We are
trusting you with every part ofour life that came from that we
are in now and that we aremoving to. And yet, so many
times we walk back from that, somany times we walk back and
Lord, if we cannot trust you,how can we go to others in our
(31:14):
lives and trust them? Lord, Myprayer is that we can walk into
the relationships around us insoft ways, in comfortable ways,
with people who love us and willspeak truth and love to us and
that will talk to us about theways that we have walked in our
life that would allow them totrust us and teach them to trust
us in the ways that we haven't.
(31:36):
So Lord I pray over theconversations this week. I
challenge this community to gointo their relationships and
talk about trust, because if wehave the trust of the people
around us, we can teach aboutthe Kingdom of God and the trust
that we have in Jesus, Christand the promise Lord, our time
is now to begin this trustingrelationship. Our time is now
that we need to move forward andwalk with others, teach them
(31:58):
about God, and it begins withobedience, to faith, to obey
what you've commanded us, totruly share of our relationship
with you and to become atestimony. So I pray that the
conversations this week arefruitful. I pray that the
conversations this week arechallenging, that we don't stay
(32:20):
comfortable in our faithanymore, that we understand
Sunday builds us up to walk backinto these relationships, and
that this would deeply root us,that not only are we relational
with Jesus Christ, that wesurrender and then we get deeply
rooted with Jesus Christ,knowing that these roots are
what will grow us into thefuture. So Lord, I pray over
everyone of these conversationsthis week, and I pray over our
(32:42):
life with Christ as we learn totrust over and over and over
again. And we pray these thingsin your holy and precious name.
And all God's people said, Amen.
You guys enjoying our series sofar, mountain mover. So we
wanted to take time to reallywalk through what is this
identity of things happening inthe life of the church. And the
week next week is really aboutthe close down of what would
(33:04):
happen normally at these camps.
It's really this kind of like,okay, how at the end of day,
right? Do you take in everythingthat's happened, and do you talk
about it? So at the end of theday, they had these kind of
fireside sessions, and theselights out sessions, and they
turned on all the Edison lights,and they're like, Okay, now
we're just going to talk aboutour day and what happened in our
faith. And I don't think we dothat anymore. So next week,
(33:27):
we're going to teach you to haveconversations about your faith
at the end of each day. So thatway, as you walk as a family or
as an individual daily, you arewalking into your relationship
with God as we go forward withthat too. So that's next week.
So if you want to learn how tohave a daily conversation with
God and continue that to growand deep root your relationship.
It's going to be incredible weeknext week. So couple things
going on right now. We got the.
So we've been a series now for a couple of
weeks called Mountain mover, andit is a series that really
started with our youth missiontrips. So we went on mission
trips to North Carolina, and wewent on mission trips to
Fayetteville, Arkansas. Don'tknow if you've heard of it. We
went right down south a littlebit, and worked with Ozark
mission project. And in thosetrips, there are transformation
(00:24):
that happens. Youth aretransformed. They do worship
every night, and they do, likethe candlelight worship, where
they really bring it out, andthey do foot washing ceremonies,
and they just do this part ofyour faith that is, like, I
crave it, but can't have it allthe time, like it's deep and
intentional every single nightof the week and so but there are
these moments when these youthare just transforming, and we
(00:44):
really thought about, like, whatis this adult discipleship that
we've missed? Like, I think alot of us fell in love with the
identity of being a Christianwhen we went through these youth
programs and these camps, and wecentered ourselves on mission,
and then we became an adult, andwe ran out of time. We ran out
of time, and all of our faithgot, kind of got put into Sunday
morning on one hour, and I said,what would it be if we really
(01:04):
talked about bringing our faithback alive into our daily lives
today as adults? What would thatlook like? And so then formed
mountain mover, which was thisidentity of learning to trust
God again in all the differentways in our life, during all the
different times in our life,right this kind of moment that
we move through things. And wefirst interviewed our youth, and
we call that beyond comfort,because we have adult leaders
(01:26):
that are going for a weekoutside of their jobs. And we
interviewed youth, and it was agreat experience. They talked
about meeting the housinginsecure. They talked about, you
know, walking through thedowntown. They talked about
doing these projects out in theheat, and what this meant to
them, and the foot washingceremonies. And so that was
great. It was really wonderful.
And then we moved on from beyondcomfort into you of little
faith. You of little faith waslast week when we were talking
(01:47):
about this identity of what doesit mean when Jesus says you have
little faith? And last week'smessage was really about being
grateful that we have a littlebit of faith, because we have
room to grow, right? We alwayshave room to grow when we have a
little bit of faith. And that'sexactly where the disciples
were. So we are there in thisalso. And then today is all
about trust. Today is all abouttrust and how to trust God. So
(02:07):
how many of you feel that youtrust God, right? Okay, raise
your hand if you feel you trustGod. That's great. How many of
you could define trust right?
Now, biblically Interesting.
Okay, that's really interesting.
So what do you mean when you sayyou trust God? So I thought,
let's just start there. I wantedto center everyone right, and
just give us a moment. I guess Itrust God. What does it mean? I
(02:28):
have no idea. It means I havefaith, or I believe, or I walk
by faith, and my belief in JesusChrist through faith and great
grace, grace is in there. Solike, we're going to define this
a little bit today, but I wantedto break it down into personal
relationship first. So I wantyou to think about the
relationships that you have inyour life right now, the
(02:48):
relationships that you have, whodo you trust in your life right
now? I just want you to thinkabout that, who in your life
Unknown (02:59):
do you trust when you thought of that
Pastor Joe Liles (03:03):
person, I want you to raise your hand just so I
can see where everyone's at. Ifyou thought of the person that
you can trust, raise your hand.
Okay, that person, that's great.
Okay, all right, you can putyour hands down. Now think of
this two additional questions.
One, why do you trust them? Howdid you move into a place of
trust with this person? BecauseI can tell you, it didn't start
(03:27):
there. You didn't walk into arelationship and go, I trust you
completely. This is awesome.
Here's my life. Everything youwant to know about me, I trust
you with go back into the world.
Be faithful with it. Somethinghad to happen of when you began
to trust them. So the nextquestion that I want you to ask
is, why do you trust them? Whatdoes it mean in your life that
you would trust them? And thatprobably leads to the third
(03:50):
question, which is, when did youstart trusting them? In the
moments that we talk about, whendid you start trusting people?
There's usually an experience, amoment, a surrender, a
confession. There is somethingthat begins in our cycle of
trust with people, where we havestepped into a trusting
(04:12):
relationship. We have moved froman acquaintance with Hey, we
kind of pass by each other.
That's great. We know eachother, and then something
happens, where it goes, Hey, I'mgoing to trust you with this I'm
going to trust you with thisinformation, this role, this
responsibility, I'm going totrust you with this part of my
(04:33):
life is where I'm going to trustyou, and I'm going to start in
this way. So if you're thinkingabout who you trust, why you
trust them. Look back to whenyou started trusting them, and
what was the start of that. Sowith this, part of the reason we
did this series was to really,kind of show you what they do at
camp when they do like trust.
And they want to teach you abouttrust, they do very visible
things, right? It's usually likeyouth camp counselors up there,
(04:55):
and they do visible so I wantedto do one of those today. I feel
it'd be really good. And so I'mgonna call up a couple of people
that I think can help me out.
One, I want to find someone thatI've known for a while, someone
that's been in the church formany, many years, that's been
out, yeah, yeah. Tom You looklike a good candidate. I'm sorry
the light was shining off yourhead. And so I just wanted to
make sure that's I looked overand it was like, God was like,
(05:18):
oh yeah. It was really good.
Give it up for Tom coming up tohelp out. Great to see you. Tom,
it's wonderful. Thanks forcoming up. Appreciate that. It's
great. So just stand right uphere. That's good. Okay, just
stand there and look like youknow what's gonna happen. Okay,
now with that, I need one otherperson that I've only known for
a couple years, right? And thatmaybe not as long, how long have
we known each other, right?
1015, years. 15 years. This isgreat. Okay, let's go. It keeps
(05:42):
on going all the way back. Allthe way back to the beginning. I
mean, you were the firstfamilies that we met. Landon
wasn't here. Landon wasn't hereyet. There you go. So that's
where we start from. Okay, sowith that, I'm gonna bring up
one more you know what? I'mgonna bring up a person who
wants to go running with me buthasn't yet. Oh yeah. Michael
Herm, let's go. Michael Herm,bring it up. Let's go. Give it
up for Michael. Herm, okay, sowith this, I'm gonna see this
(06:02):
here. Okay, so, yeah, okay. Now,when did we meet? So I'm gonna
be on think it's just black, butwe're gonna work there, so you
can grab the mic. It's okay.
When did we first meet? Longtime ago, when you first got
here, when I first got here,right? So, like, church wasn't
even planted yet and we met,okay? So before the beginning of
the neighborhood? Yes. Okay, sothat's 2011 right? Okay. Okay.
Now, can you introduce toeveryone who you are, Hi, good
(06:22):
morning. I'm Michael. HermEveryone say, Good morning. That
was a very nice way to greeteveryone. That's great. Everyone
say, Hi, Michael. That's great.
Are you nervous? Yes, okay,that's great. Okay, I appreciate
that. How long have we knowneach other?
Unknown (06:36):
We came and talked to you? Probably
2021, when we had just hadCecilia and we're looking for a
church to join,
Pastor Joe Liles (06:45):
yeah, that's right, that's right. Okay, so
2021 so that's about four yearsnow we've known each other, so
we got 15 years and four years,and you both made it up here. So
we're going to do a trustexercise, right, which is going
to be great. So Tom, do youtrust me? Sure? Is Sure? A
confident, confident. Trust issure. No, I didn't feel that was
gone. Tom, do you trust me?
Absolutely, absolutely, okay.
(07:06):
That's great. Michael, do youtrust me? Yeah, you know what?
You didn't even say anything.
Okay, this is great. Okay, sonow here's what I want to do.
Have you guys heard of a trustfall? Have you guys heard of a
trust fall? Okay, that's great.
So now, Tom, you said you trustme, correct? Okay, so I want you
to step out here, right? We'regoing to, I want you to turn
this way, right, and we're goingto do a trust fall. Okay, so now
I'm going to catch you, and Iwant to make sure that that you
(07:28):
know that I got you, okay. Iwant to make sure you know that
I got you, and I want you toclose your eyes, okay, I want
you to put your hands over yourchest, right, just that. It's
perfect, okay? And I want tomake sure that I'm going to
count back from five, that Iwant you to fall. Okay. Now,
does full trust? All right. Sowhat? It's 54321, and then you
fall. So after one, you hearone, then go back. Okay, now the
(07:50):
goal is not to move your feet.
That's how much you trustsomeone. If you take a step
back, then you don't trust allright. You ready for this? Okay?
And then Michael, you stay overthere and you wait, because
you're up next. All right, okay,here we go. Okay, so I'm gonna
count back from 54321,fall back. Oh, you did really
good. Okay, come on now. Okay,did you know I was in front of
(08:12):
you? No, oh, that's good. Allright, give it up for who I can
talk. Come on here. Come on.
Give it up. All right, you guyscan head back. So here's part of
what I want to get at. Tomtrusted me. Tom, I've known for
years. Michael, I've only knownfor a little bit. The trust
(08:33):
exercise was not the beginningof that relationship. The
relationship happened 15 yearsago. The relationship happened
four years ago. The first thingthat I had to do was invite them
into the relationship of trust.
Sometimes we think that themoment when we start a trusting
relationship begins with thistrust fall in the scenario. The
moment that Tom and I startedbegan so many years ago, when I
(08:56):
said Tom, would you come up? AndI invited him up. That was the
beginning of that trustingrelationship. And now I want you
to think about that in yourrelationship with Jesus Christ,
your relationship with JesusChrist is not only the big
moments in your life. Therelationship with Jesus Christ
begins at the very beginningwhen you are born, and it
continues in all the people thatare forming around you, up until
(09:17):
the moments when you have tolearn that you have to place
your full trust in Jesus Christ,that everything you do has to be
placed there, even when it seemslike Jesus is not in a place you
want Jesus to be, even when itseems like Wait. You said that
this was going to go a certainway, but I don't feel your
presence in the way I thought itwas going to be. I need to shift
this around and make sure thateverything's in the way that I
(09:38):
understand it. That's not whathappens in a trusting
relationship. In a trustingrelationship with Jesus. It
begins in the beginning bywalking with God throughout
every part of your life and inthe big moments, to lean into
that trust in every part of yourlife. And I want you to hear
that in Scripture today. Solet's open up the word we're
going to be in Proverbs. Sowe're going to be in Proverbs.
(09:58):
Today, and we're gonna be inchapter three, I read verses
five and six. So if you find jobPsalms, Proverbs, you can kind
of look, it's a it's gettingtowards the front side of your
Bible, and it's in the OldTestament. And really, proverbs
are these wonderful kind ofpoetry and sayings that kind of
lead us back into relationshipwith what is the God of Israel.
And so as we're praying throughthese things. The part of this
(10:20):
section is admonition to trustand honor God in all that we do.
Now I want you to listen tothis. This is Proverbs, three
verses, five and six. And itsays this, trust in the Lord
with all your heart and do notrely on your own insight in all
your ways, acknowledge Him andHe will make straight your paths
(10:47):
one more time. Trust in the Lordwith all your heart, and do not
rely on your own insight in allyour ways, acknowledge Him and
He will make straight yourpaths. So trust is a confident
reliance on someone's characteror ability with someone that you
(11:15):
know or something. That's whattrust means. It's a confident
reliance. So imagine that trust.
Trust is kind of a layeredreality in our life. We have to
have a confidence, right? Wehave to have a little bit of
hope in there, and then we haveto trust in that part, that
there's an ability, that thereis, there's a character
(11:37):
definition of someone orsomething in our life that we
are entrusting our lives to, andwe have to move with that
relationship. And so we start totransfer that to Jesus Christ,
and we realize that our trustingrelationship with Jesus Christ
begins by saying that we have aconfidence and a hope in our
personal relationship with JesusChrist. Now this is where a big
(12:01):
distinction comes in. We canhave multiple relationships with
Jesus Christ, but I am talkingabout a personal relationship.
Now here's what that means. Manyof you in church today have a
church relationship with JesusChrist. Can I get an amen? And
what that means is that churchis your faith relationship to
(12:22):
Jesus Christ, and that is abeautiful place to be. That is a
church relationship to JesusChrist. Many of you even have a
prayerful relationship to JesusChrist, and that's a beautiful
place to be. Many of you haveBible study groups and small
groups and life groups, and havethat relationship to Jesus
Christ. Some of you get out, andyou serve out in the community,
and you have this servanthearted relationship to Jesus
(12:44):
Christ. But what we just heardin our text is that it is your
full heart trust in the Lordwith all of your heart. So it is
not just one area of our lifethat trust in the Lord. It is
all areas of our life and thatbecomes a personal relationship
to Jesus Christ. A personalrelationship to Jesus Christ
(13:06):
means that Jesus knowseverything in your life, and
that's hard, because wecompartment, compartmentalize
everything in our life for thedifferent people that we know.
When you thought about thepeople that you trust earlier.
How many of you trust people incertain areas of your life, but
not with all of your life? Can Iget a hand raise for that
(13:28):
certain areas, but not all ofit? And when you go to that
person, you trust them withinformation in that area of your
life, but you're not going totell them about this area of
your life. You're not going tomove in a direction that would
be that vulnerable to trust withall of your heart. But this is
the personal relationship thatwe have with Jesus Christ that
we need to begin by saying thatwe have all of our heart leaning
(13:50):
into Jesus to begin trust. Thisis the start. Now we're going to
jump over into Psalms. We'regoing to jump all the way into
Psalm 56 Psalm 56 and we'regonna read verses three and
four. So just jump back a littlebit. So that's before proverbs.
Now we love Bibles in thechurch. So if you're new with
us, we love to bring Bibles tothe church. There's a couple
(14:11):
ways you can follow along withus today, too. So if you got a
Bible, raise it up. We loveBibles. There's Bibles all
around the church. Yes,absolutely. You can also be in
the Bible app. So that's on yourchair back in front of you. Yep,
there you go. We got Bible appsout there so you can follow
along there too. So we're goingto be in Psalm 56 and we're
going to be reading verses threeand four here. And I want you to
listen to this. And this istrust in God under persecution
(14:37):
when I'm afraid I put my trustin you, in God whose word I
praise, In God I trust I am notafraid. What can flesh do to me
one more time when I am afraid Iput my trust in you, in God
whose word I praise, In God Itrust I am not. Afraid. What can
(15:01):
flesh do
Unknown (15:03):
to me?
Pastor Joe Liles (15:06):
Harder question. When you are afraid,
who do you put your trust in?
And I want the first action whenyou are afraid, who do you put
your trust in? Think about thatin your life, does it go to God
first? When you are afraid? Whodo you put your trust in? When
(15:34):
we're leaning into arelationship with God? I think
when we get into the times ofour life, then we're afraid. We
lean into those who are closestto us, but it's not always God.
We lean into those into our lifewho can handle that part of our
life that we compartmentalizeand we bring them this trusting
relationship to handle a fear.
But do you know what means isthat we're leaning in on our own
(15:56):
insight when I get afraid, andadmittedly, when I get afraid,
what do I do? I lean into my ownstrengths when I get afraid? I
said I can handle it in this wayand this way and this way and
this way. And it is not alwaysGod first. It is not always on
my knees in prayer. What it isis saying, Hold on a second. Let
me take a deep breath. I can seefive outcomes here. Let me walk
through every one of theseoutcomes. Am I gonna see what I
(16:16):
can do? How many of you do thatin your life, that you lean on
your own insight? Can I get anamen, we need to learn to trust
God. And it doesn't mean that wedon't have action in this. It
doesn't mean that we don't walkforward saying that we don't
have knowledge of who God is.
That that's belief. Belief saysI have knowledge of who God is
in my life. Belief is anunderstanding of the word.
(16:37):
Belief is an understanding thatGod exists in our life, but it
is not an action. It is abelief, it is an understanding,
and it is not a relationship. Sowhen I say I believe that that
doesn't necessarily mean that Ihave this personal relationship
with Jesus Christ. It means Ihave knowledge of God, and I
have knowledge of the Trinity.
And sometimes I get stuck there,and then I go back to my own
ways, and I say, great. And thenI hear about we've been saved by
(17:00):
grace in Jesus Christ throughfaith. And I think, well, I have
faith. I definitely have faith.
And I realize that faith is agift of the Holy Spirit. Faith
is a gift of the Holy Spiritthat's imparted to me, that that
I live out. And then I realizethat when I get to a trusting
relationship, what it means is Ihave actionable faith, that I'm
in the life of my faith. Saying,Hold on a second, I have been
saved by grace, through faith,and every response that I have
(17:25):
is my trust in God, my obedienceto that faith through the Holy
Spirit, is my trust in God, butmy trust wants to be handled
right now, when I trust In Godand I have a hurt or a pain or
I'm scared or I'm fearful, Iwant that to go away, and that's
(17:45):
not how trust grows. Trust growsin your personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, when you havetrust in the promise more than
you have trust in your prayersbeing answered. And what I mean
by that is this, when you havetrust in the promise, you know
(18:08):
that you're leading your entirelife towards God, full
surrender, entire life towardGod. It means that when you have
a fearful moment, yes, thatmight be an up and down and a
doubting and worshiping momentand coming back to God. But you
know that the promise is whatmatters. The kingdom is what
matters. That when Jesus Christconquered sin, death and the
(18:28):
devil, that's the promise. Itwasn't to handle this one tiny
need and answer this specificprayer. It was to say, I died
for the promise, not just theprayer. And so we sit here
sometimes saying, I don'tunderstand where you're at, and
I'm having trouble trusting, andI'm fearful and I'm anxious, and
we hear these things like, Don'tbe anxious, and in everything,
give to God and supplication andprayer. And I'm like, That's a
beautiful verse, but it's notworking for me right now. I need
(18:50):
more, and God's going but wait,I gave you the promise.
Sometimes we get stuck in thisfear, because it's in the
moment, but our trust, ourpersonal relationship, our
reliance on God, will grow whenwe trust in the promise.
Unknown (19:12):
The promise is what sustains you. It's what gets you
through the hard times
Pastor Joe Liles (19:18):
when you are down, you feel like life's on
top of you. You have to rememberthere's a kingdom waiting for
you.
Unknown (19:26):
That's the promise.
Pastor Joe Liles (19:28):
And so when I hear I trust God in this psalm,
and it says, When I'm fearful,when I'm hurting, and I trust
God, I believe that, but I don'ttrust that God's gonna handle
every one of my fears. I trustthat God has a promise, and I'm
going to walk through lifetrusting God over and over and
over again. We begin thistrusting relationship with God,
(19:48):
and then we have to trust in thepromise. That's where it begins.
And so lastly, I want you toturn over into Psalm 62 just a
verse over. As we're thinkingabout this, I'm. And this is
verse eight, and here's what itsays, Trust in him at all times.
(20:10):
O people pour out your heartbefore Him. God is a refuge for
us one more time. Trust in himat all times. Oh, people pour
out your heart before Him. Godis a refuge for us. You know,
(20:33):
the trust exercise that we didis like the first trust exercise
and the easiest one. Did youguys know that like a trust
fall? How many have ever done atrust fall before? Have you guys
done a trust done the trust?
Okay, beautiful. Okay, there'sanother level from a trust fall,
right? And it's called lowropes. Has anyone ever done low
ropes? Right? Okay, it'sbasically wood on the ground, is
what it is, right? And someropes and everything so that,
(20:55):
and you have to step over thewood, and you have like, team
activities that you can do, andyou're about six inches off the
ground, it's a little bit ofheight, but basically you have
to move people through what theycall low ropes. It's kind of a
it's kind of a myriad ofdifferent obstacles and
everything else like this, andthere's a lot of trust. And
sometimes you have to close youreyes and understand what's
happening, and you have tolisten to other people, and
other times you have to feel foryour way, or you have to use
(21:16):
other people to make it to otherobstacles. It's a beautiful camp
scenario, beautiful campscenario. And then that's the
second level of trust, and thenthere's a third level of trust,
which they call high ropes. Hasanyone ever done high ropes on a
level? Okay, we got a couplepeople out there. High ropes
looks and feels different in arelationship of trust, because
(21:37):
instead of just saying, Hey,we're gonna walk out here as a
team. They have a thing called aharness, and they put a harness
on you, and then they hand you ahelmet, basically anything in
level three of trust that startswith an H is a bad thing. It's a
harness and a helmet, and you'reputting these on, and you're
looking 30 feet in the air atthese giant logs that have ropes
and different things on it, andthey have little cables that go
(21:58):
across, that they're gonna hookyou to. And there is some happy,
go lucky, joyful counselor upthere that has no fear of man
made heights that is up on thetop of this thing, going, hey,
it's gonna be great. You'regonna love it, right? He's
looking that's a level threepart of trust. And when you
climb up to these high ropes,you're on top of these high
ropes, and you're looking down.
(22:19):
And I don't know about you guys,but I love creation, and God's
creation, and everything thatGod has done in creation. I love
mountains, and I love climbing,and I love all those things I do
not like man made heights. Doesanyone else have a fear of
heights? Anyone else out there acouple fear heights out there?
Great. Or we can all go to theBentonville climbing gym after
this, and we can just discoverhow to overcome our fears. It's
going to be wonderful. But inthese high rope sections,
(22:41):
there's a moment in this whereyou have to understand that the
next step that you take is not astep that you can go back from
in your trusting relationship.
When you take a step to go fromsomething that's farther than
you think you can get to, orwhen they call something a leap
of faith and you realize there'sa cowbell eight feet out there,
and you just have to jump outand trust that the ropes are
gonna catch you. The next stepyou have is not something you
(23:01):
can come back from. And I wantyou to think about this in your
relationship with Jesus Christ,when you surrender fully to
Jesus Christ, that is notsomething you come back from.
When you surrender fully, you'resaying, I'm giving you all of my
heart, all of my love, everypart of who I am, and I'm taking
this next step with you. I'mtaking this next step and I
(23:23):
cannot go back
Unknown (23:26):
to who I was.
Pastor Joe Liles (23:30):
My life has to change in our relationship with
Jesus Christ, if you areconstantly going back to be and
try to be who you were. You arenot understanding that God is
creating you to become who Godintends you to be in the
kingdom. And I feel often in ourrelationship with God, when we
(23:53):
get into a moment of mistrust,what do we do? We step back onto
the platform and we say, I'm notready. And God's like, Just come
with me. I have you. And you'relike, No, but this was
comfortable, this I understoodthis relationship. I wanted this
was everything I wanted to be apart of. I understand this
relationship, and I want to be apart of it. And this is the
(24:13):
beginning of trusting forward.
Is that God's saying you'retrying to trust in a moment. I
want you to trust the promise. Iwant you to understand that I
have full trust in you ineverything. And when we come
together with God, we realizethat trusting relationship with
God is a full
Unknown (24:31):
obedience to our faith.
Pastor Joe Liles (24:35):
When you enter a trusting relationship, a
personal relationship with JesusChrist, you are fully obedient
to your faith. You are obeyingwhat God commanded. And there
are ways in your life where youcan look at this, the ways and
relationships around you willtell you about how trustworthy
(24:58):
you are. You. Uh, becausereally, when we're in a trusting
relationship, it's kind of acircle that we go into. We trust
the people around us, and do weexpect that they will trust us?
Also? How many people trustothers? Expectation that they
will trust you? Also, okay, howmany of you are frustrated when
(25:19):
they don't share with you allthe information that they were
supposed to and you only trustedagain, we got a strong sit right
up. Trust in a relationship ismeant to be this full, trusting
identity in both sides of therelationship, and when we hurt
and we struggle, it's usuallybecause we feel that we trusted
someone and they didn't trust usfully. And the beautiful part
(25:43):
about scripture, it says thatGod is faithful. I love that
piece of scripture, that God isfaithful, which means that God
trusts you to do the work of theKingdom. And the trust that we
have in God is the promise ofChrist. This is our trusting
(26:07):
relationship with God. It is notjust belief in something, it is
faith in someone, Jesus Christ.
This is how we move in ourtrusting relationship. So here's
what I want you to do. I thinkit's great to say, trust God.
And I think every one of us canwalk out of this church today
and say, Yeah, I can trust God,and not one thing's gonna
(26:31):
change. You will go in and say,Yeah, I heard about faith. Heard
about belief. I understandthat's you know, belief is
understanding. Faith is given bythe Holy Spirit and trust is
that obedience to faith, I loveit. Yeah, it's great. And then
you're gonna go right on withyour daily lives. So I think we
need to start in a softerrelationship if we believe that
God is truly guiding our lives,and I know that the people in
(26:55):
your lives are people that Godhas placed in your lives for you
to trust and for them to trustyou. And I think it begins by
saying that to the people thatyou do trust and telling them
why you trust them. So here'swhat I want you to think about
this week. I want you to thinkabout the people at the
(27:16):
beginning of this message that Isaid, Who do you trust? Why do
you trust them, and when did itbegin? And I want you to go to
those people this week, and Iwant you to tell them that you
trust them and why you trustthem, and when did it begin. And
then I want you to ask them aquestion. And if you're bold
(27:39):
enough to do it, I love it,because it's a step off a
platform and you're not comingback. I want you to say this to
them.
Unknown (27:49):
Do you trust me?
Pastor Joe Liles (27:55):
Because I really believe that when we are
in relationship with JesusChrist, personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, and we havegiven over our heart. We are
relational, and we havesurrendered
Unknown (28:11):
that the world can trust us,
Pastor Joe Liles (28:15):
that the world can walk with us and say, of
course, I trust you. I wouldnever not think to trust you.
I've seen how you lead yourlife, how you lead your family.
I've seen how you hold me in thedark times. I've seen every part
of this, and I trust you. Butthat might not be the answer at
the start. That's the work ofthis week, to go to the ones
(28:39):
that you trust. Begin there.
Tell them why you trust them,and ask them, Do you trust me?
And if the answers, if theyhesitate, we know, can we just
say an amen to that? Like, let'sjust say, Okay, let's just give
a couple ways that this mightwork out. Number one, they say,
Absolutely not. And then you'regoing, Wow, that didn't work out
the way that I planned. You needto have a thick conversation,
all right, like, if that'ssomeone that you trust
(29:01):
implicitly, you need to have areal big conversation. I am
hoping that it doesn't go routeone. If it does, call me, I will
talk to you. I will spend timewith you, except I'm traveling
this week, so next week, so gothrough it for a week, and then
we're gonna work out. So it'sgreat. Just live into that. The
next one is they say this. Itwas much like Michael did. He
nodded yes, but nothing came outof his mouth like that. That's a
Michael trust, right? We'regonna call that level two is a
(29:23):
Michael trust, right? That'slike, that's a four year trust,
right? Like, it's like, I haveno idea what's gonna happen.
That could be the response.
It's, yeah, I trust you tellingyou, right now you gotta have a
conversation. You gotta have afaithful conversation about
trust. The other side of this isthey say, of course, I trust
(29:45):
you. All of this with the peoplethat you love and trust is meant
to give you an understanding ofyour personal relationship with
Jesus Christ. Here's why yourpersonal relationship with
Jesus. I should feel like that.
You should feel like you can goto Jesus and say, I trust you
completely with all of who I am,and feel that same thing back
(30:08):
from Jesus to trust you in thekingdom. And if Jesus trusts you
in the kingdom, it means he sentyou to people that need to hear
about the Word of God, that needto hear about the promise of the
kingdom, and that is yourmission. We are not here to
believe in something. We're hereto have faith in someone and to
trust God fully with our livesAnd all God's people said, Amen,
(30:30):
let us pray heavenly andgracious Father, we come before
you today knowing that ourrelationship of trust is hard,
this the sure and confidenthope. I mean, it reminds me of
this Hebrews passage, that faithis the assurance of things hoped
for and the conviction of thingsnot seen and And Lord, I realize
(30:51):
that when we are thinking aboutour trust, that it is not only
trust in the times that arehard, but we are trusting you
with our hopes. We are trustingyou with our future. We are
trusting you with every part ofour life that came from that we
are in now and that we aremoving to. And yet, so many
times we walk back from that, somany times we walk back and
Lord, if we cannot trust you,how can we go to others in our
(31:14):
lives and trust them? Lord, Myprayer is that we can walk into
the relationships around us insoft ways, in comfortable ways,
with people who love us and willspeak truth and love to us and
that will talk to us about theways that we have walked in our
life that would allow them totrust us and teach them to trust
us in the ways that we haven't.
(31:36):
So Lord I pray over theconversations this week. I
challenge this community to gointo their relationships and
talk about trust, because if wehave the trust of the people
around us, we can teach aboutthe Kingdom of God and the trust
that we have in Jesus, Christand the promise Lord, our time
is now to begin this trustingrelationship. Our time is now
that we need to move forward andwalk with others, teach them
(31:58):
about God, and it begins withobedience, to faith, to obey
what you've commanded us, totruly share of our relationship
with you and to become atestimony. So I pray that the
conversations this week arefruitful. I pray that the
conversations this week arechallenging, that we don't stay
(32:20):
comfortable in our faithanymore, that we understand
Sunday builds us up to walk backinto these relationships, and
that this would deeply root us,that not only are we relational
with Jesus Christ, that wesurrender and then we get deeply
rooted with Jesus Christ,knowing that these roots are
what will grow us into thefuture. So Lord, I pray over
everyone of these conversationsthis week, and I pray over our
(32:42):
life with Christ as we learn totrust over and over and over
again. And we pray these thingsin your holy and precious name.
And all God's people said, Amen.
You guys enjoying our series sofar, mountain mover. So we
wanted to take time to reallywalk through what is this
identity of things happening inthe life of the church. And the
week next week is really aboutthe close down of what would
(33:04):
happen normally at these camps.
It's really this kind of like,okay, how at the end of day,
right? Do you take in everythingthat's happened, and do you talk
about it? So at the end of theday, they had these kind of
fireside sessions, and theselights out sessions, and they
turned on all the Edison lights,and they're like, Okay, now
we're just going to talk aboutour day and what happened in our
faith. And I don't think we dothat anymore. So next week,
(33:27):
we're going to teach you to haveconversations about your faith
at the end of each day. So thatway, as you walk as a family or
as an individual daily, you arewalking into your relationship
with God as we go forward withthat too. So that's next week.
So if you want to learn how tohave a daily conversation with
God and continue that to growand deep root your relationship.
It's going to be incredible weeknext week. So couple things
going on right now. We got the.
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