Trust I Robert Madu I Social Dallas

Devotional

Day 1: God's Word: A Promise to Be Formed in You.

The word for this year is not something arbitrarily chosen, but a divine revelation intended to shape us. God often gives us a word not because we are already strong in it, but because He desires to form it within us. Just as He spoke creation into being and declared destinies for Abraham, Moses, and David before they saw any evidence, He is declaring a process for us. This word is a promise of what He intends to cultivate in our lives, transforming us to become more like Him. It's about His creative power at work within us, even when it feels uncomfortable or premature. [09:22]

Hebrews 10:35-37 (ESV)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

Reflection: When you consider the word "trust," what initial feelings or resistances arise within you, and how might God be inviting you to see this as an opportunity for His transformative work rather than a personal weakness?

Day 2: Confident Trust: Anchored in God's Character.

The call to trust is not for an ordinary, blind, or borrowed faith, but for a confident trust that is deeply rooted in the unchanging character of God. This kind of trust is forged over time, often in seasons of waiting, as we come to know His faithfulness firsthand. It moves beyond transactional expectations—where we expect God to act a certain way because of our actions—to a reliance on who He consistently is. Confident trust understands that God is good, sovereign, and always true to His word, regardless of our immediate circumstances. [33:05]

Hebrews 10:35-37 (ESV)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

Reflection: In what specific area of your life have you been operating with a "transactional" trust, expecting God to respond based on your efforts? How might shifting to a "confident trust" in His consistent character change your perspective and actions in that area?

Day 3: Trusting God's Plan, Not Our Understanding.

In a world that often demands complete understanding, we are invited to embrace a different path: trusting God even when we don't have all the answers. The greatest exhortation to trust in God comes from an unknown author in Hebrews, reminding us that our focus should be on God's message, not the messenger or our need to know every detail. Sometimes, our strength to trust is sabotaged by an obsession with knowing "why." This year, we are encouraged to lay down our need for full comprehension and simply declare, "God, I trust You," even amidst unanswered questions or unresolved pain. [24:03]

Hebrews 10:35-37 (ESV)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

Reflection: What is one significant "why" in your life that you've been holding onto, feeling unable to fully trust God without an explanation? What would it look like to intentionally lay down that need for understanding and choose to trust His goodness anyway this week?

Day 4: Discerning Where We Place Our Trust.

Trust is foundational to every healthy relationship, yet in our current culture, it is an eroding currency. We often find ourselves placing our trust in unreliable sources: our own plans, fleeting emotions, changing systems, or platforms that profit from division. The invitation this year is to intentionally throw away trust in anything that was never meant to carry the weight of our confidence. Instead, we are called to anchor our trust solely in the Lord, recognizing that He alone is worthy of our complete reliance. This discernment is crucial for navigating a world filled with skepticism and artificiality. [17:49]

Hebrews 10:35-37 (ESV)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

Reflection: Reflect on the past year. What specific things or sources did you find yourself placing significant trust in that ultimately proved unreliable or couldn't bear the weight? What practical steps can you take to intentionally shift that trust towards the Lord in the coming days?

Day 5: Patient Endurance: Trusting Through Every Season.

Trusting God is not always easy; sometimes, it can be exhausting, especially when life hits us with unexpected trials or when promises seem delayed. The writer of Hebrews encourages us not just to endure, but to do so with patience. This means finding the strength to wait, to keep believing, and to maintain our confident trust even when the light seems dim or completely out. It's about trusting God in the dark places, when betrayed, when resources are scarce, or when facing difficult diagnoses. This year, we are called to cultivate a trust that is anchored and secured, not just for a moment, but through every season, knowing that God will never fail. [41:52]

Hebrews 10:35-37 (ESV)
Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.”

Reflection: Think about a current challenge or a long-standing prayer request where your trust feels exhausted. What small, tangible act of patient endurance could you commit to this week to demonstrate your continued reliance on God, even without immediate answers?

Sermon Summary

Social Dallas unveils 2026’s guiding word: Trust. Drawn from Hebrews 10:35–37, the call is to “confident trust” — a faith that endures when evidence is thin, circumstances darken, and human systems fail. The congregation is invited to recognize that God often gives words not to describe present reality but to form future character; Abraham, Moses, and David are held up as examples of promises spoken before the visible proof. Trust is reframed here as a spiritual discipline more than an emotional response: foundational to healthy relationships, forged in waiting, and rooted not in institutions or personalities but in the person and work of Jesus, the superior high priest whose sacrifice secures access to God.

The talk refuses easy optimism and names modern barriers: pervasive skepticism, technological fakery, institutional betrayal, and personal trauma that make trusting risky and costly. Yet the remedy is precise — renounce misplaced confidences (in plans, platforms, or self), cultivate patient endurance, and let communal witness renew individual faith because trust is contagious when believers gather. The unknown author of Hebrews is commended for aiming readers away from curiosity about his identity and toward fixation on Christ: “Jesus is better.” The year is cast as a season of formation, not performance; even those who entered uncertain leave with an invitation to surrender, to anchor trust in the promises of God, and to practice a steadfast confidence that perseveres through mystery and pain. Hymns, testimonies, and a public altar response underscore a pastoral strategy: trust grows when people worship, wait together, and keep their eyes on the coming One who will not delay.

Key Takeaways

1. Cultivate confident, not blind trust Confident trust is tested by time and sharpened in the dark places where proof is absent. It refuses naïveté but also resists cynicism, rooting hope in God’s character rather than in immediate outcomes. This trust grows when the believer repeatedly chooses God’s promises over present evidence, allowing what is spoken by God to become what is formed within. [03:44]
2. Trust is foundational for relationships Every meaningful human bond requires trust as its soil; without it, authority, marriage, leadership, and community fracture. Spiritual trust functions as the root-level economy that shapes how one leads, loves, and receives correction. Investing in trust is investing in the durability of communal life and spiritual fruitfulness. [12:25]
3. Discard misplaced sources of trust Much of contemporary distrust comes from having invested confidence in mutable things — plans, platforms, leaders, or self-reliance. Spiritual clarity begins when those misallocated trusts are surrendered, freeing the heart to place weight on an unchanging God. That reallocation is painful but necessary for durable hope and right worship. [17:49]
4. Practice patient endurance in waiting Faith that lasts is not merely an initial assent but the sustained readiness to wait without abandoning obedience. Patient endurance reframes delay as formative, not punitive, and trains the soul to depend on God’s timing rather than one’s timetable. Waiting becomes a crucible that produces trust worthy of the promises. [32:00]

Youtube Chapters

[00:00] - Welcome
[00:30] - Yearly Word Tradition
[01:28] - Verse Revealed (Hebrews 10:35–37)
[04:53] - Congregational Reading
[05:58] - Why “Trust” Was Chosen
[07:23] - God Forms Words in People
[12:25] - Trust as Foundational
[15:47] - Cultural Skepticism Today
[17:49] - Throwing Away Misplaced Trust
[32:00] - Patient Endurance and Waiting
[38:01] - Trust Is Contagious in Community
[49:33] - Invitation to Surrender
[57:02] - Prayer, Response, and Commitment

Bible Study Guide

Bible reading

Hebrews 10:35–37 (ESV)
"Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. For, 'Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay.'"

Hebrews 12:28–29 (ESV)
"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire."

Observation questions

According to Hebrews 10:35, what is the specific result or "reward" of refusing to throw away your confident trust?
Looking at the lives of Abraham, Moses, and David, what was the relationship between the "word" God gave them and the actual evidence they saw in their lives at that moment? [07:36]
What does Hebrews 10:36 say is the necessary requirement for a believer to eventually receive what God has promised?
What are some of the specific "misplaced confidences" or modern systems that people often lean on instead of the Lord? [17:49]

Interpretation questions

The audience of Hebrews consisted of mature believers who had already endured prison and the loss of their property. Why would people with that level of history with God still be in danger of "drifting" or losing their grip on trust? [30:16]
Trust is described as the "soil" or "bedrock" of every healthy relationship. How does a breakdown in trust specifically impact the way a community, a marriage, or a leadership team functions? [12:25]
The central message of Hebrews is that "Jesus is better" than any previous system, prophet, or priest. How does Jesus’ role as the ultimate high priest and sacrifice provide a more "confident trust" than the religious rituals of the past? [25:51]
God often speaks a word to declare a process rather than describe a present state. How does this "forming" process change the way a believer should view a season of waiting or a lack of visible proof? [06:58]

Application questions

God often gives us a word not because we are already strong in it, but because He is shaping us to become it. Is there a promise or a "word" God has put in your heart that feels uncomfortable or "too big" for your current circumstances? [09:22]
We live in a culture where skepticism and suspicion are the "air we breathe" due to technology, trauma, and institutional failures. How has this cultural climate made it harder for you to trust God or the people He has placed in your life? [15:47]
Trusting can be exhausting, especially when you are tired of believing for a breakthrough. Have you felt your "grip" on confidence starting to loosen lately? What would it look like for you to move from "transactional trust" (God, I did this, so You owe me that) to a trust rooted in His character? [31:02]
Trust is contagious when we gather together. Can you share a time when seeing someone else worship through a trial gave you the strength to keep trusting in your own dark season? [38:01]
Much of our anxiety comes from an obsession with needing to know "why" or "when." What is one "unknown" in your life right now that you need to surrender, choosing to have confident trust even if you never get the answer? [22:42]
To truly trust God, we often have to "throw away" trust in our own plans, platforms, or emotions. What is one misplaced confidence you’ve been leaning on that you need to intentionally discard this week? [17:49]
Confident trust is often forged in the dark places where the "lights are out." If you are in a dark season right now, how can this group support you in keeping your eyes on the "Coming One" who will not delay? [41:03]

Sermon Clips

And I think that's often how you know that a word is from God. Because whenever God gives you a word, rarely is it something that you see in yourself or that you would have picked for yourself. More often than not, it is something that God desires to form within you. God will give you a word not because you are strong in it, but because he is shaping you to become it. [00:06:33] (29 seconds) #ShapedByHisWord

God is forming the word in you, and that is exactly why this year for Social Dallas, God didn't give us a word that we already feel strong in. He gave us the word trust. Let the church say trust. Trust. Say it with your chest. Say trust. Trust. Put it on the screen. Trust. He's given us that word because that is what he's gonna form in us this year. Deeper levels of trust, confident trust. And if it were me, I'm telling you, I would have picked another word because your boy has trust issues. [00:09:35] (39 seconds) #FormedByTrust

And yet, it is one of the most eroding currencies in the world today. Have you noticed? Have you noticed how hard it is today to trust anyone or anybody? Are y'all gonna leave me out here by myself? It is hard to trust in these twenty twenty six streets and the climate in which we live. Come on. We don't trust institutions the way we used to. We don't trust systems the way we used to. We don't trust leaders the way we used to. We don't trust churches the way we used to. We sure don't trust pastors the way we used to. Oh, ask me how I know. [00:13:10] (40 seconds) #RebuildTrustCulture

So some of you this year need to throw away some trust. You need to throw away trust in your plans. You need to throw away trust in having confidence in yourself. You need to throw away your trust in what happened last year. You need to throw away your trust in your emotions that keep going up and down. You need to throw away your trust in systems that change every election cycle. You need to throw away your trust in platforms that profit from enraging you to keep your attention. You need to throw away your trust in voices that rise quickly and disappear just as fast. You need to throw away your trust in things that were never meant to carry that kind of weight. And hear me clearly in 2026, if you're gonna throw away anything, don't throw away your confident trust in the Lord. [00:17:05] (46 seconds) #DitchFleetingTrust

Ain't that something that you're still here and still got that word in you? That's the thing about trust. Anybody can trust in a day. Anybody can trust in a minute, but can you trust over time? Can you let the word get down in you long enough to trust? See, that's why I gotta be careful. I love that you're here. I am not knocking that you came to church. This is amazing, but the beginning of the year at church is just like Planet Fitness at the beginning of the year. Everybody's up in there. You know how it is. You can't even get on a single piece of equipment. It's like, you go here? Yeah. I go here too. The challenge is not the beginning of the year. Can you keep showing up and keep showing up and keep showing up? And when you don't feel like it, keep showing up and keep on trusting. [00:19:47] (46 seconds) #TrustIsShowUp

Oh, I wish somebody would catch that revelation today because some of you, the thing that is sabotaging your strength to trust is your need to know everything. And God said, let this be the year that you just throw up your hands and say, there's some stuff I'm never going to know, but, God, I trust you. I don't know why my daddy wasn't there in my life. I don't know why my mama still has issue. I don't know why they ghosted me. I don't know why they walked away. I don't know why I'm going through this sickness, but there's one thing I do know. I am not gonna throw away my confident trust in the Lord because it's gonna bring me a reward if I keep trusting. [00:23:08] (41 seconds) #TrustBeyondAnswers

When I pull up, it's still dark. The question is not can you trust God when the light is out. This is the year you're have to find out, can you trust God? Oh, I feel his presence in a dark place. Can you trust God when you've been betrayed? Can you trust God when people that you helped have walked away? Can you trust God when you ain't got no money in your account? Can you trust God when you get diagnosed with the disease? It's in the dark place. [00:41:01] (33 seconds) #TrustInTheDark

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Trust I Robert Madu I Social Dallas

Devotional

Day 1: God's Word: A Promise to Be Formed in You.

Day 2: Confident Trust: Anchored in God's Character.

Day 3: Trusting God's Plan, Not Our Understanding.

Day 4: Discerning Where We Place Our Trust.

Day 5: Patient Endurance: Trusting Through Every Season.

Sermon Summary

Key Takeaways

Youtube Chapters

Bible Study Guide

Sermon Clips

Chatbot

Trust I Robert Madu I Social Dallas

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