We were sleeping soundly on a Saturday morning a few months ago when we heard a phone ringing. You never want to hear a phone ringing at 5:30 on a Saturday morning. It’s either a spam call or an emergency. On this day, it was an emergency. Within the space of a few seconds, we learned that Maya’s mother had died. This was totally unexpected news, and it sent my wife and our family into crisis mode that lasted for several weeks. Maya’s mom’s death was a huge source of grief and disappointment within her family that still affects us today.

Most of us have experienced similar kinds of trauma. We or our loved ones have been through diseases, divorces, and deaths. It could be a financial disaster or a family issue. We endure suffering, pain, and loss, sometimes suddenly and sometimes persistently. If you haven’t had such painful experiences yet, just wait; you will. Such things come to virtually everyone; no one is exempt. If such things are not happening to us, they are happening to others we know or others we hear about. Every day seems to bring with it a new crisis for us, our family, or our friends, our community, or our world.

Some people absolutely fall apart under the duress of crisis experiences. For them, life is little more than random chance. They believe that we are the result of uncontrolled events in a meaningless universe. We are little more than molecules bumping together, just animals pursuing our own appetites. Life is hard and then you die. When disasters strike, they often crumple.

But Christians believe that the world and human life has meaning. We believe God created the world and us for a good purpose. We believe that God is for us and that God is love and that God is powerful. So when crises strike, we seek to understand what God is doing through them.

We may be tempted to ask, “Where is God in all of this suffering? Why doesn’t he intervene? Why does he allow so much pain, tragedy, and suffering in the world?”

One of the main teachings of the Bible is that God is in control of human affairs. He has a purpose or a reason for everything that happens to us. We call this idea the sovereignty of God. God is a great king, and he is ruling and reigning over all things, including over the details of our lives.

If that is true, then we must trust God through the difficult times in our lives. In our suffering and pain, we continue to believe that God is good and has our best interests in mind. We can trust God through all the pain, suffering, and sorrow of life. We must walk by faith, not by sight or by sense. We will suffer many tribulations in this life, but this life is not the end; there is more to the story. An eternity in heaven awaits those who trust in God.

Today we are starting our Summer Sermon Series, and I’ve titled this series “Trusting God: God’s Sovereignty in the Affairs of His People.” That title is not original to me. In this series, I’m following the title and outline of Jerry Bridges’ book Trusting God.

Trust means that you have faith in something. Trust is belief or acceptance. It’s a confident hope in a person or in a promise. Trust in God means that we believe in him and in what he has told us. We put our faith and confidence in God; He is the object of our trust.

The primary idea that we must affirm and keep in mind is that God is trustworthy. He is dependable, especially in times of adversity and crisis. Even when it seems like God does not hear your prayers, and even when it seems like disaster has struck, God is still dependable; we can still trust God.

In this first message, I want to consider several reasons to trust God. What does the Bible say about trusting in God?