LIVING A TRUSTFUL LIFE

PREACHED: December 9, 1956

SCRIPTURE:. Matthew 6:24 - 34.

'•

LET US PRAY: Help us, Our Father, .to be master of ourselves that we may become the servants of others. Taite our lips and speak through them. ·rake our minds and think t hroutzh them. And take our hearts and set them on fire. Amen. -

"LIVING, A TRUSTFUL LIFE"

There's a story of a six year old boy visiting the seashore for

the first time. 'rhe first day out on the beach, he received a terrible

sun burn. A few days later after the sting had left his sun-burn, he

not iced that he was beginning to peel. This was all very new to him.

He had never been sun-burn before; he had never had the experienc·e of

having his r.:kin peel. He stood 1n the bathroom before the mirror and

remarked: ONLY SIX YEARS OLD •..• AND .I'M GOING ALL TO PIECES l

His words serve to remind us of the feelings of frustration that so

often come over us. The experiences of life Jar us and shake us until

we feel that we're going all to pieces.

Family problems may be troubling som·e people •••••

Uncertainty and insecurity may be pressing in on the minds of others •••••

Feelings of Loneliness may be tearing at the hearts of some individuals •••••

Our daily pattern of living is often broken into by thinze we hadn't counted on.~ •••

And while we face such problems as these, the great enemy of FEAR takes

bold. It comes into our li vee in the form of worry. We all known what

a destructive thing worry is!'

It ruins digestion ~~A ~au2es stom8ch ulcers •••••

It interferes with sound sleep and forces Ufl to face another day unreeted and irritable ••••• ·

Worry and fear bring on heart disease, high blood pressure and nervous disorde.rs ••••

JESUS knew well this universal plague of fear. He was witness to the

effec:t of fear on the minds and the bodies of men. Many times he spoke

on the subject. He had the only real solution to the problem of fear. I

is complete trust in God.

.------------------------

- 2 -

Jesus yearned to establish the faith of .men in a loving, powerful

and trustworthy God so that they might escape the ill effects of worry and

fear. rtis prescription for livin~ a trustful life, a life free from

tension, is preee.nted to us in the ten verses o.f the Sermon on the .llliount

which was read for our scripture lesson this morning.

There are three aspects of this trustful life that Jesus surely

wanted to bring to our attention.

·GOD PROVI.U~S AND The first thought is that the TRUSTFUL

CARES FOH .Q!lli NEEDS • LIFE is based on the recognition that God

provides and cares for our needs.

Jesus understood people. He knew that the passionate desire for

the goods of life often produced worry and fear in the minds of men. He

also recognized that when people begin to depend on THINGS for support,

their sense of need for the support. of uod is lepsened:

A modern proof of the extent of such fear was seen in the result o.f

a Gallup Poll held in the spring of 1952. A cross sect ion of men a.nd

1 women living in all parte of the country were asked the following

quest ions:

WHA'l' WOULD YOU SAY IS YOUR BIGUES'l' WORRY T.HESE DAYS?

WHAT IS IT THAT DISTURBS YOU THE MOST? • • • • • • • • • • • • Nearly half of those questioned indicated that money was the source· of

their chief fear in life. Money was the number one cause of worry. 'l'he

number two cause of worry was the threat of future war. This was listed

by 21% of those polled. IN O'.L·rtl!.:lt VVO.t:WS, MOM 'tHAN 'l'WIOE AS MANY PEOPLE

WERE WORRIED ABOUT MATERIAL GOODS AND MONEY THAN ABOU'l' WAR. And this in

one of the mpat prosperous periods in our nations history. Taken

together then, money and the future added up to 6o~ of our worries. lt•s

no wonder then that Jesus sought to release men from the grip of fear.

AN.u .ttOW .uiD rl~ .uo IT? He did it by assuring them of the greatness

and the prov:idenc·e of G.od. God provides and cares for our needs. Jesus

3

Jesus pointed to the world of' nature around them. The birds of the

air are fed ••••

the flowers or the field are clothed •••••

l!Jven the perishable grass is not forgotten •••••

J.f God ta·kes care of these humble objects, then he surely will not fail

man.

"J.ake there tore no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or wherewithal shall we be clothed? ••••••.••••••

IN ALL o~· ·J:.i:ili;), Jesus is making the point that uod, having given the

gift of life, will likewise sustain it.

i~ow we must be on guard not to misinterpret his words. In the.ee

passages, Jesus in no way is arguing against work or planning or

saving. ne len •t speaking tor idleness or neglect of responsibility.

I think that J. B • .tJh1llips in his translation o1· the l1ospels has the

key to the real meaning of t.he words ol' clesue. ne interpret.s it in

this fashion:

"so don't worry and don 1 t keep saying, 'what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or what shall we wear'i'! 'J.'hat 1s what pagans are always looking for; your rteavenly b-ather knows that you need them all. ~at your heart on His King­dom and nis goodness, and all these things will come to you as a matter of course." ••••••

Jesus is saying that anxiety and worry are totally unproductive. io

be sure, we must take some thought about food, clothing, health and

the f'ul:.ure, BU'J! vvl1i .IVUJi;)'J!N 11.' LE:.i.' THEM BEC-OME THE GOALS OF' OUR LIVING! .

If we do, they will hecome great burdens to our soul and we will be

anxious and fearful. How then is this to be avoided?

The answer is simple and yet profound. "Seek ye first the kingdom

of God •••• and. all these things shall be added unto you." The goal of

life then is to know ~od.

To love him ••••• • 'Jlo give ourselves in service to him ••••

I

\

I

- 4 -

And to trust h1:r •••••

The fact ie that such a trust rAquires a bigger idea of God than

most of us have. Our God is a great God! He is the creator and sustainer

of the universe. He causes the seeds to grow and multiply •••••• the sun

to shine •••• the season to roll. He has established the laws of nature

and life beyond our understanding •••••

This is our God, A GOD S'l'RONG ENOUGH, AND BIG ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF US •••••••

"Shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith •••••• "

God provides and cares for our needs!

DETACHMENT FROM THE DlSTURmiHS

EVE NT S OF' OUR T !ME •

The second principle of the

trustful life which Jesus would have

us see is that the TRUSTFUL LIFE.

REQUIRES A SENSE OF DETACHMENT FROM THE DISTURBING .EVENTS OF THE TIME.

"Don't worry at all then about to­morrow. Tomorrow can take care of itself. One day's trouble is enough for one day. 11 .

Jesus here is not ignoring the existence of trouble. He admits it. What

he is saying is this: THAT TROUBLES CAN .BES'l' BE MET .BY DEALING WITH THEM

ONE AT A TIME. God will give us the m·easure of stre.ngth needed for the­

troubles of tommr1row when they com·e, just is he does for those of today.

When we live with God, we can afford to live day by day, because we have

a divine buffer between us and the disturbing events of today and

tomorrow.

Often we wear ourselves out because we have not learned to do one·

thing at a time. A tennis player could never win a match if his mind

were continually upon the whole match and the number of points he needed

to win. No - he goes out and wins the game point by po~nt. And yet we

get restless, fatigued and worn out because we haven't learned to meet

our work and our problems one by one. That was the method of Jesus -

5

going from task to task; doing one thing at a time, and pouring his

whole energy and personality into that particular task.

"Suffictent unto the day is the tl • evil thereof ••••••••

That is: LEARN TO MEET LI.b""'E A DAY AT A TIME!'

The man who trusts God is in the world, but not of it. He has a

heavenly perspective which enables him to detach himself from the endless

stream of events in order not to be hurt by them •

. Now it must be insisted tb.at this sense of det_a.chment which is part

of the trustful life, doesn't mean isolation from the responsibilities

and pain of living. Jesus never interpreted life that way. He never

retreated from a struggle. He did something far more spirited than that.

He kept his life within the focus of the providence of God. In the

midst of everchanging ways on earth, he lived life to its fullest but

always with_in the framework of eternR.l values. In the words of George

A. Buttrick:

"Jesus conquered worry .by keeping his eyes and mind on the main business of life. In this faith, troubles can be met and mastered. Sickness can be tnrnad into sympathy and sorrow into

t " insight....... -

Our detachm.ent from the disturbing events of life grows out of our

atta.chment to the things of G-od. \Kfh.en we venture to live for the things

that are really important, we discover so very much that is unimportant.

The angry circumstances of life cannot touch for long the person who

lives a trustful life with Christ in God.

!_ WILLINGNESS !Q FOLLOW

THE GUIDANCE OF' -GOD.

Jesus, in the third place, would have us

know that the '1'RUSTF'UL LIFE IMPLIES A

WILLINGNESS TO F'OLLOW THE GUIDANCE OF' GOD.

Having faith in God, we must then learn to trust him. Far too often

we want our own way L1stead of be1 "P:' willing to SEEK and FIND and FOLLOW .1.

God's will for our 11 vee. In th1 s sect ion of the Sermon on the -Mount,

J~suc cb.~llA~e;es us to give our liYes and affairs in complete surrender

- 6 -

to God. This is the one sure and final cure for worry and care. It is

the source of personal power and peace of mind.

This principle w2s put quaintly by an old Egyptian sage in these

words:

"The boatman reaches the landing, partly by pulling and partly by letting go. The archer . strikes. the target, partly by pulling and partly hy letting go. 11

So it is. 'l'he reason .we worry so much about the future is that we

ourselves push and pull too hard and too continuously. We strain and'

torment ourselves over our plans an9 our hopes.

we need to let go and let God take over •••••

We need to adJust our plans to his master plan •••••

We need to know that personal achievement doesn't come by human effort alone. It comes as our human powers are harnessed to the divine power •••••

Carl Erskine, star pitcher for the Brooklyn uodgers, learned this

technique the hard way. After a brlllia.nt etart in the major leagues,

he suddenly began to fail and soon was farmed back to the minor leagues.

rte came to the conclusion that his thinking had been just as much at

fault as his pitching arm. He had pushed himself too hard. He had

worried about success too much. When he later returned to the Dodgers,

he had learned the secret of living and working with-out fear. He had

learned to work in partnership with divine resources. Speaking of hie

experiences, he said:

"Once back in the majors, the quest ion in my mind was, 'Could I stick?'. I began to concentrate more on positive thinking. My prayers before a game now are not for victory, but that I be in tune with God's way. If my mind gets a sense of rhythm and coordination, my body does too! Confusion and pressure t.hen bother me less. If I neglect this meditation, call it an inside pitch, m·y mental conditioning is not complete •••••••• 11

so often we pass over this 11Mental donditioning" in our lives. When we

discover its possibilities, we'll never play the game of life without it.

7

We find it when we pray not for what we want, but for what God' wants ••••••

We find it when we pray not for success or health, but that God may use us for his ourposes •••••

we find it when we pray not for the absence of struggle, but for strength to struggle for the will of God •••••

We find it when we pray not for an easy comfortable future, but that God may be our companion whatever the Journey ••.••

When we do this, we will then be free from worry and fear. We will

then be able to stand on our own feet in the confidence and assurance

that God will never let us fall. We will then know that if we take care

of today, God will take care of all the tomorrows ••••••

011., SUCH IS 'fHE T.RUSTFUL LIFE!

F'IRST: It is based on the recognition that God provides and cares for our needs.

~ECOND: It requires a sense of detachment from the distrubing events of our time.

tHIRD: It implies a willingness to follow the guidance of God in all our affairs.

"When by fear my heart is dA.unted Thou dost hold me in 1'hy hand;

Prayerless, anxious, vainly haunted, Thou dost make my courage stand:

Foolish worries, fretting troubles Melt away at Thy command. li

LET. US PRAY:

Our Father, grant that what we have heard with our ears, we may believe in our hearts, and what we bali ve in our hearts, we may practice. in our lives. Am·en.

"LIVING A TRUSTFUL LIFE"

There's a story or a six year old boy

visitin~ the seashore for the first time. The

first day out-on the beaeh, he reeeived a

terrible sun-burn. A few days later after the

stin~ had left hie sun-burn, he noticed that he

wae be~innin! to peel. This was all very new to

him. He had never been sun-burn before; he had

never had the exper1enee of havi~ his skin peel.

He stood in the bathroom before the mirror and

remarked: ONLY SIX YEARS OLD, AND I'M GOING ALL

TO PIECES!

These words serve as a reminder of the

feelin~e of frustration that so often eome over

us. The experienoes of life jar us and shake us

until we feel that we're !Oin! all to pieees.

Family problems may be troublin! some folk •••

Uncertainty and insecurity may be preeeiO! in on the minds of some people •••

Our daily pattern of liv1n! is broken into by thin!S we hadn't eounted on •••

And while we faee problems such as these, the

!reat enemy of FEAR takes hold. It comes into

our lives in the form of WORRY. We all know what

; I

I ..:. 2 -:I

a d~struetive thi~ worry is!

It ruins digestion and causes stomaeh ulcers ••

It interferes wlth sound sleep and forces us to face another day unrested and irritable •••

Worry and fear bring on heart disease, high blood pressure and nervous d ieorders •••

Worry and fear play havoc with one's life ••••

JESUS KNEW WELL this ,universal plague of fear.

He was witness to the effect ·of fear on the minds

and bodies of men. Many times he spoke on the

subJaet. He had the. only real solution to the

problem of fear. It's no psyehol6g1eal trick. IT

IS COMPLETE TRUST IN GOD!

Jesus yearned to establish the faith of men

in a loving, powerful and trustworthy God so that

they might escape the 111 effects of worry and

fear. Hie prescription for living a trustful

11fe, a life free from tension and anxiety, 1s

presented to us in the tan verses of the Sermon on

the Mount which I read for our scripture lesson

this morning.

There are three aspects of this TRUSTFUL

LIFE that Jesus surely wanted to bring to our

attention ••••

- 3 -

GOD PROVIDES AND CARES FOR OUR NEEDS.

The first thought is

that the TRUSTFUL

LIFE is based on the recognition that God

provides and eares for our every need.

Jesus understood people. He knew that the

passionate deeir,e for the goods of life often

produced worry and fear 1n the minds of men. He

also reoogn1zea that when people begin to

depend on things for support, their sense of need

for the support of Q2£ is lessened!

A modern pro~f or the extent of sueh fear

was seen in the result of a Galluo Poll held in

the spring of 1952· A erose section of men and

women living 1n all parts of our country were

asked the following question: WHAT V~ULD YOU SAY

IS YOUR BIGGEST WORRY THESE DAYS? WHAT IS IT

THAT DISTURBS YOU THE MOST? Nearly half of those

questioned indieated tha.t money was the souree

of their ehief fear in life. Money was the

number one worry. The number two eauee of worry

was the threat of future war, wh1eh was listed

by 21 percent of those polled. IN OTHER WORDS,

MORE THAN TWICE AS MANY PEOPLE WERE WORRIED ABOUT

MATERIAL GOODS AND MONEY THAN ABOUT WAR. And

this in one of the most prosperous periods in

our nation's history. Taken together then,

money and the future added up to 66 per cent of

our worries! It's no wonder then that Jesus

sought to release men from the grip of this

enemy fear.

AND HOW DID HE DO IT? He did it by assuring

them of the greatness a.nd the providenee or God.

God provides and earee for our needs. Jesus

pointed to the world of nature around the~. The

birds of the air are fed ••••

The flowers of the field are elothed ••••

Even the perishable grass is nor forgetter

If God takes aare of these humble objeets, then

he surely will not fail man ••••

"Take therefore no thought saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or, 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?' ••...• "

IN ALL OF THIS, Jesus is making the point that

God, having given the gift of life, will like-

wise sustain 1t.

We must be on guard to not misinterpret his

words. In these passages, Jesus in no way is

- ? -

arguing against work or planning or savin~. He

isn't speaking for idleness or neglegt of

responsibility. I think that J. ~. Phillips

) in his translation of the Gospels has the key

to the real meaning of Jesus' ~ords ••••

In place of the "Take no Thought ••• " passages

so familiar to us from the King James' Vers&oQ,

he says:

Page 12·

Jesl:ls is saying that anxiety and worry are

totally inproductive. To be sure, we must take

soma thought about food, elothin~, health and

the future, ~UT WE MUSTN'T LET THEM BECOME THE

GOALS OF OUR LIVING! If we do, they will become

great burdens to our soul and we will be anxious

and fearful. How then is this to be avoided •••

The answer is both simple and profound.

"seek ye first the kingdom of God •••• and all these

things shall be added unto you." The goal of

life then is to know Goa •••••

To love h1m ••••• serve h1m ••••• and trust

Him ••••

Possessing sueh a faith we oan never be

distraeted by the eares of earthly living ••••

- 6 -

The fact is that SUCH A TRUST requires a

, bigger idea of God than most of us have. OUR

GOD IS A GREAT GOD •••.••

He is the creator and sustainer of the universe ••

He causes the seeds to grow and multiply •••

The eun to shine •••• the seasons to roll.

He establishes the laws of nature and life beyond

our understanding ••••••

THIS IS OUR GOD, A GOD STRONG ENOUGH AND BIG

ENOUGH TO TAKE CARE OF US!

"Shall he not much more clothe you, 0 ye of little faith?tt

God provides and cares for our needs.

DETACHMENT FROM THE DISTURISING EVENTS OF OUR TIME.

The second principle

of the trustful life

which Jesus would

have us see is that the TRUSTFUL LIFE REQUIRES A

SENSE OF DETACHMENT FROM THE DISTURBING EVENTS

OF THE TIME. Once again referring to J. ~.

Phillips' translation:

"Don't worry at all then about tomorrow. Tomorrow ean take eare of itself. One day's trouble is enough for one day."

Jesus here is not ignoring the ex1stenae of

- 7 -

trouble. He admits it. What he is saying is

this - that troubles can best be met by dealing

with them one at a time. God will give us the

measure pf strength needed for the troubles or

tomorrow when they come, just as he does for

those of today. When we live with God, we can

afford to live day by day, because we have a

aivine buffer between us and the distu!bing

events of today and tomorrow.

Often we wear ourselves out because we have

not learned to do one thing at a time. While

vacationing last month, I was privileged to see

a no-hit, no-run baeepall game pitched by Mel

Parnell of the Boston Red sox. The thought came

into mind that Parnell could not have pitched that

perfect game had hie mind been on the whole game •••

on the total number of batters he had to faee

and get out before he had a no-hit game. That

would have ruined him. Instead he pitched that

~ame - piteh by piteh - batter by batter - and

inning by inning. At the end of the game, he had

a no-hit, no-run game. And yet we get worn out,

restless and fatigued - we go to pieces beeause

we have not learned to meet our problems and

- 8 -

our tasks ONE BY ONEt That was the method of

Jesus - going from task to task and pouring his

whole energy a.nd personality into the task that

he was concerned with at one partieular moment.

"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." I

That 1 s, MEET LIFE A DAY AT A TIMEt

The man who trusts God is in the world, but

not of it. He has a heavenly perspeetive which

enables him to detach himself from the endless

stream of events in order not ta be hurt by

them.

It must be insisted that this sense of

detachment which is part of the trustful life,

doesn't mean isolation from the responsibilities

and pain of living. Jesus never interpreted

life that way. He never retreated from a struggle

He did something far more spirited than tha.t. He

kept his life within the focus of the providenee

of God. In the miest of everchanging ways on

earth, he lived life to its fullest but always

within the framework of eternal values. In the

words of George A. Buttrick:

"Jesus conquered worry by keeping hie eyes and mind on life's main business. In this faith many

- '::J -

troubles ean be met and maet'ered. Sickness can be turned into sympathy and sorrow into insight."

Our detachment from the disturbing events of

life grows out of our attachment to the things

of God. When we venture to live for the things

that are really important, we discover so mueh

that is unimportant. The angry cireumstanees of

life cannot touch for long the person who lives

the TRUSTFUL LIFE with Christ in God.

A WILLINGNESS TO FOLLOW THE GUIDANCE OF GOD.

Jesus, in the third

place, would have us know

that the TRUSTFUL LIFE IMPLIES A WILLINGNESS TO

FOLLOW THE GUIDANCE OF GOD.

Having faith in God, we must then learn to

trust him. Far too often we want our own way

instead of being willing to ~ and find and

follow God's will for our llves. In this section

of the sermon on the Mount, Jesus challenges us

to give our lives and affaire in complete

surrender to the Heavenly Father. This is the one

sure and final eure for worry and aare. It is the

source of personal power and peace of mind.

- 10 -

This principle was put quaintly by an old

Egyptian sage 1n these words:

"The boatman reaahes the landing, partly by pulling, partly by letting go. The archer strikes the target, partly by pulling and partly by letting go."

So it is •••• The reason we worry eo mueh

about the future is that we ourselves push and

pull too hard and too continuously. We strain

and torment ourselves over ~ plan and our hopee.

WE NEED TO LET GO AND LET GOD TAKE OVER.

V~ NEED TO ADJUST OUR PLANS TO HIS MASTER PLAN.

WE NEED TO KNOW THAT PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT DOESN'T COME .BY HUMAN EFFORT ALONE. IT COMES AS OUR F!UMt~N POWERS ARE HARNESSED TO THE DIVINE POWERS ••••

Carl Erskine, star piteher for the Brooklyn

Dodgers, learned this technique the hard way.

After a brilliant start in the major leagues, he

suddenly began to fail and soon wqs farmed baak

to the minor leagues. He came to the conelusion 1

that his thinking had been just as much at fault

as his pitching arm. He had pushed himself too

hard. He had feared failure too much. He had

worried about success too much. When he later

- 11 -

returned to the Dodgers, he had learned the

secret of living and working without fear. He

had learned to work in partnership with divine

resources. Speaking of his experience, he said:

"onae back in the majors, the ouestion in my mind was, 'Could I stiek?'. I began to concentrate more on positive thinking. My prayers before a game now are not for vietory, but that I be in tune with God's way. If,my mind gets a sense of rhythem and coordination, my body does too~ Confusion and pressure then bother me less. If I neglect this meditation - call it an IN$$DE PITCH - my mental QOnditioning is not complete."

So often we pass over this "mental

eonditioning" in our lives. Vlhen we disvover

it possibilities, we'll never pitch a game in

life without it.

We find it when we pray not for what we want, but for what God wants •••••••••••

We find it when we pray not for success or health, but that God may use us for hie purposes ••.•••••••

We find it when we pray not for the absence of struggle, but for strength to struggle for the will of God •••••••

we find it when we pray not for an easy comfortable future, but that God may be our companion whatever the journey •••••

When we do this we will then be free from worry and fear.

- 12 -

We will then be able to stand on our own feet

in the aonfidenae and assurance that God will

never let us fall. We will then know that if

we take care of today, God will take care of all

the tomorrows.

Of suGh is the trustful lifel

It is based on the recognition that God provides and cares for our needs.

It requires a sense of detaehment from the diaturinb events of our time.

r

It implies a willingness to follow the guidance of God in all our affairs.

"SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS AND ALL THESE SHALL ~E ADDED UNTO YOU."

Let us Pray: