Trustworthy

Before anyone gets upset about this Scout’s Own talk, first understand that the troop is chartered to a Christian Church.

Anyhow, we don’t have a Chaplain, so I tried to create talks for our Chaplain’s Aide to draw on to share during our Sunday service at camp.  Here’s the first one:

The first point of the Scout Law is that a Scout is Trustworthy.

The dictionary says that Trustworthy means dependable or reliable.  The Boy Scout Handbook says that if you are trustworthy, that means that you tell the truth, that you are honest, that you keep your promises and that you can be trusted.

[Ask Audience] What happens if you aren’t Trustworthy in Scouts?  Will you hold a leadership position or make Eagle?  [Get Answers]

 [Ask Audience] If you show that you aren’t Trustworthy in Scouting, how do you regain Trust with your fellow Scouts and Adult Leaders? [Get Answers]

 [Ask Audience] What happens if you aren’t Trustworthy at home?  Will your parents ever trust you again?  What would you have to do to regain their trust? [Get Answers]

[Ask Audience]  What happens if you aren’t Trustworthy in your community? I think someone who commits crimes would be considered untrustworthy.  I would imagine that it would be really hard for a criminal to be trusted again.  If you do something untrustworthy in your community, like break a law, what happens to you? [Get Answers]

Think for a moment about God.  God knows everything about everyone.  He knows what you do before you do it.  He knows what you want to do even if you don’t do it, He knows what is in your heart.

Does God think you are Trustworthy?  Can you be trusted by someone who knows every bad thing you’ve ever done?

Is there anyone here that’s never lied before?  Not even the smallest lie about anything?

God says that it is wrong to lie.

What do you call someone who lies?….  A liar?

Is there anyone here that’s never taken anything that doesn’t belong to them?  Ever?  Not even a pen from school?

What do you call someone who takes things that don’t belong to him?…  A thief?

So by God’s standards, we are all liars and thieves.  Can God trust us?

God also says that if we break his laws, like lying and stealing, then when we die, we have to face his judgment…  We’ll be punished when we die.

The tough thing is that the only one in the whole world that can truly be trusted is God, because he is always good.  He’s tough and firm, but good.   His goodness demands justice for all the bad things we do, every bad deed must be punished.

Basically what God has done is given us a bunch of Laws that show us how good we need to be to walk with Him, and we have really no hope in being good enough…..   on our own.

See God knows everything, right?  He knows we can’t be good enough, and he loves us anyway.  Just like our parents still love us even if they can’t trust us.  So he gave us an out, a get out of jail free card.

Jesus, God’s Son, is perfectly good.  He never did anything wrong. Because of this, there is no way that he would be subject to any kind of judgment; there is nothing bad to judge.

Well, even though Jesus is perfectly good, He still got punished.  He took the punishment for every bad thing that you, or I or anyone ever did, does, or will do.  As a matter of fact, they hung him on a cross and punished him to death.  Because he took this punishment, we are off the hook.

How do we know?  Because Jesus said so, and he is trustworthy and to prove that he is trustworthy, Jesus showed us that He was God and that He is good and has taken our punishment for us by coming back to life, a miracle that is beyond belief, but so big no one could disbelieve it. Our punishment is paid, all the bad things we’ve done have been wiped away in the eyes of God.

If we accept it.

Jesus takes our punishment for free, doesn’t charge us for it, doesn’t make us do anything for it.  But we have to accept it.  We have to allow Him to take it.  We have to believe He did it.

See in the Old Testament it tells about Jesus:  “… he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. “

And in the New Testament it tells us how to accept this gift:  “…If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved”

So… even though we have proven ourselves not worthy of trust, God takes away all of our lies and mistakes, and because of the One, in whom you can place all of your trust, a Scout is trustworthy, if we want to be.