Proverbs 11:28,  He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch.

The inference of this proverb is that the righteous man does not trust in the riches of this world.

The riches of this world that are trusted in come in many forms but all of these kinds of riches are things that are perceived sensually, that is with the senses.

Lately, because of the faltering economy, we have been inundated with pleas to buy precious metals such as gold and silver so that we do not have to trust the paper that our government prints.

We are not called to be without trust but we are called upon to transfer our trust from one thing to another.

So we transfer our trust from words on paper, which include "In God we trust" to trust in medals that can be touched and seen.

William Devane, the actor, who represents Rosaland Capital pitches it this way "I buy gold every chance I get, I even like the feel of gold."

He is comforted by the feel of gold.

Perhaps, while ignoring his wife’s outstretched arms welcoming him home from work, he goes and opens the door to his safe and feels his gold for several minutes in order to relax.

"Ah!" He says, "That feels so good!"

Perhaps he lets the gold coins fall from hand to hand and finds great satisfaction in the jingling sounds he hears.

No doubt his wife, when seeing him enjoying such satisfaction, is comforted herself, don’t you suppose?

Donald Trump, the real estate magnate, likes to buy golf courses for the vast lands they occupy for he says land is something that you can walk on, and see and enjoy.

These men find comfort in trusting in gold and lands but our proverb tells us that these are not in what righteous men trust.

One thing I know is that all of us are engaged in the act of trusting something or many things every minute of our day.

You came into this room today and in sitting down you trusted the seat to hold you up and when you get up from that seat you trust your legs to support you in walking.

That trust in some of us is wavering in direct proportion to our years.

You drove to church trusting that your steering wheel would follow exactly the directions given it by your hands which trusted your mind to move your hands the right way.

You sat down at the breakfast table and trusted that which was to come out of your cereal box to match the picture that was printed on the box.

You trust the gallon of milk that comes from the refrigerator to be truly only 1% or 2% fat as the label declares.

You have come here today trusting your Pastors to preach the Word of God faithfully, not preaching error even one or two percent.

We are always trusting for nothing in this world is 100% guaranteed.

Some say death and taxes are guaranteed but that is not even true for you may be taken up in the rapture and if so, you will not have to pay your property taxes for the U. S.  Postal Service does not deliver tax notices to Heaven.

The recent Reason Rally by the Atheists about which Pastor Watt spoke was filled with the promotion of reason but most of life is lived without the use of reason.

Most of life is lived by trust.

The first thing that happens in a baby’s life is trust.

Babies do not have abilities to reason but they are given the ability to trust.

No baby has the ability to reason why he or she should yield to this one who holds him or her so dear.

God has not given that ability but he has given babies the ability to trust.

And that ability stays with us our entire life as our lives are built around trust.

Proverbs 3:5 tells us to,  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

God doesn’t talk much about reason in the scriptures but His great emphasis is on trust.

So the conflict is not with reason but the conflict concerns trust.

God knows the battle and the battle is not with reason contrary to what the atheists say.

We are all limited in our ability to reason but we can all trust and we do all trust.

But the question is in what or in whom do we trust?

Well our proverb tells us that trusting in riches is not a good thing.

So one thing is eliminated but there are a multitude of other things to consider.

But we do not have to spend much time doing that for our God makes it clear to us in whom we should trust.

Who do babies trust? They trust the one from whom they came.

They cling to mother in whose womb they grew and whose heartbeat they have heard for almost nine months.

And we too are to trust in our maker.

He and he alone knows how we tick. He knows every moving part.

He knows all about the parts of us that have no moving parts.

He knows about our body, our soul and our spirit.

He knows where one stops and the other starts.

We know very little about ourselves but he knows everything.

His wisdom, faithfulness and love are well proven.

His word is always right and will never fail you.

One of the marks of the natural man and anathema to his creator is the desire to go it alone.

It does not take long for a little child to pull away saying I want to do it myself.

We are so prone to figuring things out for ourselves as we lean to our own understanding.

But there is such a cost to pay when a person has the attitude that I can do it myself.

The anthem of the world is that popular song, "I did it my way", sung my a man who refused the way of God

Where did that way get this famed man who was loved by the world, whose life, as expressed by this song, went headlong against the truth that Jesus Christ is the Way.

God says you cannot do it your way.

Jesus Christ said,  Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

In saying that he was telling us that there is no rest in doing it your way.

God says to us as a mother would say to a child, take my hand for I am the way.

You will never find the way apart from me.

Trust me and pull not against me.

Certainly God want us to have confidence in things that He has given and He gives us the ability to know and do many things.

But in the important things, eternal things, spiritual things he tells us to trust Him for you cannot know, apart from Him.

We are to be careful about having confidence in ourselves and in our ability to reason things out by ourselves.

God has ordained it that reason can only take you so far but God is to take you the rest of the way and that takes trust.

No one can make the complete journey of life without trust.

Trusting in yourself is like trusting on a broken reed.

It is building your house upon the sand instead of a rock.

Jesus warned of this in Matthew 7:24,25,   Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Matthew 7:26,27,   And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

What do we have here? We have two builders of houses.

We assume the houses they built were no different from each other.

If they were, Jesus would have told us.

I suppose that both builders used strong materials and both used good workmanship.

Both were strong houses for we know that when one fell the fall was great. It was a mighty house.

Both houses suffered through the same storm.

The rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon each house with the same force.

But one house fell and the other house stood.

What was the difference here?

The difference was certainly not the houses.

From an outward appearance both houses looked substantial, both looked like they were built to survive any storm.

What caused identical houses to react differently to the onslaughts of the storm.

It was of course the foundations upon which the houses were built.

It was not the house that revealed the weakness, it was the foundation upon which the house was built.

The foundations of the houses were hidden from view and were only revealed by the storm.

Before the revealing storm both houses looked safe.

The house that was built upon the rock was built upon the foundation of trust in the Lord with all thine heart

But the house that was built upon the sand was built by a man who trusted in himself and did it his way.

Both house were subjected to a raging storm.

God did not keep the storm from the house built upon a rock.

Neither will God keep the storm away from the righteous but the righteous, whose house is built upon the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, will withstand the storm but every house not built upon the rock will fall.

As recorded in Psalm 127:1,...... Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

So Jesus likens those who build their house on a foundation of rock to those who heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them

Hearing God’s word and doing God’s word is an act of trust.

But the lie of Satan does not concern reason, but concerns trust and his lie is to trust yourself; be self sufficient, be a self made man or woman.

Satan's deceit since the Garden of Eden has been to convince man that he can get along without God.

But man is free only when he realizes that he is complete only when he is God dependant.

The whole march of technology and invention is but an effort by man to become independent of God.

It is the modern building of the Tower of Babel, man making a name for himself.

Who needs God when I can fend for myself, thank you.

But as we have already said you are made to trust.

Only God has no one in which to trust.

Man must place his trust in another for man cannot exist alone.

But God commands himself to be the ultimate trust and anyone else is to be subordinate to that trust.

That is what the wise man did who built his house upon a rock.

He acknowledged God to determine upon what foundation to build his house.

The wise man knew 1 Corinthians 3:11,  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

But the foolish man simply leaned to his own understanding and built a fine house, by all appearances.

Everyone who came by and saw his house thought it just as good as the wise man's house.

But he built it upon a foundation of his own making, the shifting sands of this life, the principles of this world and the world system.

He built it with utter disregard for God and God's will for his life.

He stole from God his very life in order to spend it upon himself.

But the wise man trusted in the Lord in building his house and by that trust insured that the foundation of his life would hold when the time came.

As our proverb tells us the man who trusts in his riches shall fall.

He shall fall as certainly as the house built upon the sand fell.

His glittering gold of which he loves to feel, and hear its jingling sounds, will be melted with fervent heat and the green grasses of the beautiful golf courses accumulated by ways of his own doing will be burned up.

But the one who hears God’s sayings and does them, those who are made righteous, not because of what they are, but because of who they know, shall flourish as a branch.

It is an amazing thing, that God who intends to lift up his children to glories they can never even dream of, simply asks that we put our trust in Him.

That certainly is not too much to ask!