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command. Three times it is given to put the emphasis to
the end of the chapter where it says in Verse number 37,
“The end of that man is peace.”
Now I can use this message—told you it’s for me—out of
God’s Book. I got up fretting this morning. I’ve
preached this message every year, except this year, for
the last 12 years and it must need to be repeated
because I still fret. How do you get from here to
here? Let’s see. Now, you know what the message’s
about? Let’s do it.
“Trust in the Lord.”
Now you’re gonna find there’s about four or five things
that we’re told to do. Now the trouble is getting it
started. Not a one of these things are beyond our
ability to do it. But you’re not gonna turn loose
anymore than you can get current into the light unless
you plug the cord in. You will not turn loose God’s
contribution to this movement from fretting to peace
until we do the very few things I’m gonna outline—basic
Christianity it is! But I forget every year. You
ready? You came to sit back and have the mystery of the
‘Whore’ unveiled. And here I am with one of those work
messages. Well, you gotta follow me before God turns
loose. You know the story. This is typical
Christianity: “Oh God, let me win the lottery!” Week
after week the guy prayed. Here comes another
import—comes into this country two weeks, wins another
twenty million. So you sit here and say, “God, it’s not
fair! Why don’t you let me win the lottery?” Remember
the story? After several weeks God finally said, “Gimme
a break, man. Go buy a ticket!” This is the
ticket-buying part.
One. “Trust in the
Lord.” Ah,
yeah! Old stuff! Well let’s just analyze that word for
a minute. There are only two words in the Old Testament
original that’re translated ‘trust’ or ‘faith.’ You’ve
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over this with me. One is to run to the shelter of a
rock or to the shelter of a mother bird’s wings. You
can stand there all day while the threat is on you and
you’re not trusting or having faith until you run to
that rock or run to the shelter of the mother bird’s
wings. That’s action, friend. Not just thinking about
it—it’s action! The other word is when you lean upon a
staff and put your entire weight on it. Those are the
only two words in the Old Testament that are translated
‘trust’ or ‘faith.’ You go through every book, that’s
it. There is no word translated ‘trust’ or ‘faith’ that
means creed or belief or even thinking about something.
You do not have what the Old Testament words translate
into ‘faith’ or ‘trust’ until you’ve gone beyond belief
and hung your body on that which the mind has agreed
within an act conforming to what you have believed. Run
or lean!
What’s the New Testament word for ‘faith’? Huh? The
Greek—it’s an act, based upon belief, sustained by
confidence. Nothing ruined the Biblical meaning of
faith and trust like the English language that has a
verb ‘to believe’ that involves only the mind, when in
every case, both the Old and New Testament, the word not
only involves the mind, it involves the emotions at the
level of confidence, and it involves the will in
grabbing hold of the body and forcing it to hang itself
on that which the mind has agreed to and the heart can
believe in. I can watch an airplane take off and know
every single theory of aerodynamics and believe it’ll be
airborne. That is not faith. That is not trust. I’m
not trusting, neither am I faithing, until I get in that
plane, buckle on that seat belt, and hang my body on it.
Now you say “I’ve
heard that a thousand times.” Well you’re luckier than
most churches—“but I know that.” You think I don’t know
it? I’ve heard it a thousand times. But the fret takes
over because the primary focus of my life…. And I
forget it every damn week! And when
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