Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.”

Do you ever find what you think and what God says going in opposite directions? Sometimes we look at God’s way and think to ourselves, “That’s not going to work.”  Bible history is filled with examples: the people who lived in Noah’s neighborhood while he was building the ark; the children of Israel waiting on the shores of the Red Sea; the people of Jericho while the children of Israel were marching around their city walls each day; Jesus’ own disciples just before he took five little loaves of bread and two small fishes and started passing them out to over 5000 people. But God’s way does work, doesn’t it, even when it seems to defy our common sense.

Sometimes we want what we want so badly that we tell ourselves, “It won’t hurt anything,” even when God warns us not to. Again, the Bible is full of examples: Adam and Eve and the forbidden fruit; Lot’s wife turning around to take a look back at Sodom and Gomorrah; Israel worshiping the golden calf at the foot of Mount Sinai; David committing adultery with Bathsheba. But ignoring God’s warnings always has consequences. We lose his blessings and invite his judgment– not just now, but forever.

This “Trust in the Lord” approach, then, will be tested in our own lives in many ways. If a financial crisis strikes, will you lean on your own understanding and give in to worry, or will you trust in the Lord and his promise to provide your daily bread? As you arrange your priorities, will you lean on your own understanding and arrange your life to maximize your personal comfort and enjoyment, or will you trust in the Lord and put him first in how you budget your time and other resources? As you raise your children will you lean on the understanding of so many others that the best thing you can give them is every toy and gadget that comes along, participation in all the music or athletics they could ever want? Or will you trust in the Lord and make sure they receive God’s word above all else, and loving, godly discipline next to that?

The Lord has earned our trust in all these little details of our lives by his handling of the one great issue we had. If we were to lean on our own understanding in dealing with our sin, we would try to pay for it ourselves. We would try to earn God’s love and acceptance. And we would fail. But the Lord has that covered for us, too. Who would have thought of asking God to save us from the sins we had committed against him himself? But that is just what he has done. Who would have thought of asking God to sacrifice the only Son he had to pay for those sins? But that is what Jesus was doing when he died on the cross. Who would have thought of asking God to make forgiveness and eternal life a free gift? But that is just the gift he has given to us.

The gift of God’s Son inspires us to trust in the Lord with all our heart, and lean on him, not just with our soul’s salvation, but in all the little details of life as well.

1 Peter 3:15 “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

What our translation calls an “answer” is literally a “defense.” Peter was writing for people whose faith regularly came under attack in the form of persecution. When people asked them about their faith, it was often to challenge them, ridicule them, or condemn them. Peter wanted them to be ready with a defense of their beliefs when such times came.

We may not face the same kind of hostility when we share our faith today. People who ask us what we believe may not be looking to put us down or contradict our position. But every presentation of Bible truth still has a certain defensive characteristic, even if I’m simply telling someone the story about Jesus for the first time.

You see, every one of us, Christians included, is a skeptic at heart. By nature we can’t and don’t believe what God has to say about salvation. It seems unreasonable, foolish, impossible. Remember what Paul told the Corinthians? “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Though you have the Spirit, don’t you find a voice inside of you still questioning much of what God has to say? “How can that be?” “That doesn’t make sense.” Or “Why should I care?” “What difference does it really make?” “That doesn’t seem very important.”

When I write my sermons and prepare my Bible classes, I write with the skeptic in mind. I need look no further than my own perverse heart to find the challenges to God’s commands and God’s promises that haunt every human heart. I need look no further than God’s word to find the answer to, the defense for, those challenges.

If you are a Christian, you are going to have opportunities to defend your beliefs. Be ready to answer the questions that come your way. I probably don’t have to tell you that. In my life I have had real opportunities to explain my beliefs on the swing set and in the sandbox in the backyard of the home in which I grew up, while assembling doors for electrical enclosures during my college years, talking with the person sitting next to me on the airplane, mingling with the customers at my wife’s garage sales, watching my children take swimming lessons, sitting in the waiting room while my son was undergoing surgery, riding in golf carts, attending wedding receptions. I’m sure you’ve had similar experiences.

How can you be ready to answer the challenge of witnessing in those situations? “Always be prepared,” Peter urges. Know your Scriptures. Study them. Think about what they mean to you. And don’t be afraid to say what you know.

Even more, live in the gospel. Read and think about God’s grace in Christ often. Know that you are forgiven. Meditate on it. Nothing so changes our hearts and fills them with fresh expressions of God’s powerful love than the words that claim us as his children, assure us of our salvation, and tell the story of Jesus and his love. Then, “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45).”

I’m not a particularly quick wit. Snappy comebacks are not my strength. Sometimes I’ll think of a great comeback hours later, and all I can do is hope I’ll remember it if ever the chance to use it comes again.

Don’t rely on quick wits when it comes to the challenge of witnessing for Jesus. Give Jesus first place in your heart. Give his word first place in your mind and thoughts. Then you’ll be ready to tell others about your hope.

1 Peter 3:15 “But in your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord.”

What does it mean to set Jesus apart as Lord? The word “set apart” is the same word we often translate “make holy” or “sanctify.” When God sanctifies us, he lifts us up above the rest of the world and gives us a privileged position in his family. We are no longer ordinary, just another face in the crowd, part of a mass of sinful humanity for which he has little use. By the forgiveness of sins we are holy and perfect. By the faith he plants in our hearts we become eminently useful to him. He treats us as dear children and an indispensable part of his plan to save the world.

Of course, we can’t make Jesus any holier than he already is. But just as he has lifted us up to a special place and value in his heart, we can give him a special place in our hearts. We can lift him above all our selfish goals and plans. We can lift him above our investments, bank accounts, and tax sheltered annuities. We can lift him above our dream homes, our fancy vacations, and our 32-valve, leather-trimmed, high-performance vehicles. We can lift him above the manager we kiss-up to, the buddies we hang out with, the children and grandchildren we dote upon. We can set Jesus apart, set him above it all, by giving him first place in our hearts.

The position Jesus then occupies in our hearts is the position of Lord. Now a Lord has two things: authority and power. Our Lord has the authority to set the standard for us. He calls the shots. He makes the rules. With his authority our Lord describes for us what a Christian life will look like. Regardless of your personal gifts, it will look a lot like love, kindness, compassion, humility, and gentleness.

Our Lord also has the power to turn this kind of life into a life of witness for him. Now if he were an earthly Lord or master, that power would come from the outside in the form of threats and force. But Christ is the Lord of our hearts. It was his love that won control of our hearts, and it is that same love that puts the gas in our engine, the wind in our sails, and gives us the power to live in a way that gives a good witness.

At this point someone might ask, “But didn’t Jesus become the Lord of our hearts when we came to faith? Why make the command now?” It is true that he became our Lord when we came to faith in him as our Savior. But each of us also knows that there are ever-present challengers to him for first place in our lives. Nothing wrestles him for first place in my life harder than my own sinful nature.

That means that every day I need to repent and in my heart set apart Christ as Lord. Every day I need to hear a healthy dose of his love and forgiveness by which he made himself Lord of my heart in the first place. Every day I need to have the cross lifted before my eyes, and the hope of the empty tomb, and the power of Jesus’ ascension, so that my heart will be ready to live for him, and be an ambassador for him to others.