Proverbs 3 and the Trust Fund: A Sunday Message in Concord NC
- Solo Faith Church Inc.
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Solo Faith Church came off a two-week hiatus this month, and Pastor Doug Lattimore stepped into the pulpit and told the room he was not going to preach much. A Queen City News crew had been at the church the day before. Travel had stacked up. He said he wanted to talk instead, because God had been doing something in his own faith that he needed to hand to the congregation.
Same God, a Different Place
He opened somewhere other than his text. A few Fridays earlier he had preached a revival in Charlotte on a psalm that begins with God delivering His people and, five verses later, has them asking to be delivered all over again. Same God. Same cry. Different place. His point was that people keep going back to look for God where they last found Him — in the crisis prayer, in the tears, in the version of themselves they were at 25 — and miss that they have moved and that God has met them somewhere new. He pointed to Abraham on the mountain: the same God who told him to raise the knife was the God who stayed his hand and showed him the ram.
“Is your spiritual eye open to the different places God can bless you in?” he asked. Then he told the congregation that was not the message. It was just something somebody in the room needed to hear.
What People With Money Do to Protect It
The text was Proverbs 3, verses three through ten — the opening installment of a series he plans to teach in sections. “I'm going to break this up like baby food,” he said, “so that I can establish you in how you should be approaching God.”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight. — Proverbs 3:5-6
His hook came from outside the text. What do people with real assets do to protect what they own? They put it in a trust — houses, stocks, holdings moved out of their personal name, so that when someone comes looking to take it, there is nothing in their name to take. He spelled the word out loud, letter by letter, and let the room sit with it. Then he turned it back on the verse: trust in the Lord with all your heart. “What's in God's trust for you?”
Praying From Need, or Praying From Trust
That question carried the rest of the message. Most people, he argued, come to God as beggars — unsure whether what they are asking for is even available, hoping that pity might get them a crumb from the table. He read the Lord's Prayer back as evidence: it does not open with “deliver us from evil.” It opens with “Our Father,” then “hallowed be thy name,” then “thy kingdom come, thy will be done.” Honor first, and an acknowledgment that there is something in the account.
He described a friend of his wife's who grew up with a trust fund and wrote checks against it without flinching, because she knew what was in it. “When we go to God, oftentimes we don't go to God with the faith that what we're asking for is in the trust.” He was blunt about the other edge of it, too: some prayers go unanswered because what is being asked for was never in the trust to begin with.
The Markers in Verses 7 Through 10
He walked the rest of the passage as evidence rather than requirement — signs a person is already living inside God's will:
Strength to say no. Verse 7's “shun evil” read to him as capacity, not willpower. “When you are in the will, you have the strength to tell the devil no.”
Health. Verse 8 promises health to the body and nourishment to the bones. He applied it broadly — turning down what is wrecking you physically, mentally, and financially — and counted improvement as a signal rather than a coincidence.
The strength to give. Verse 9's “honor the Lord with your wealth” he framed as an act of faith rather than a math problem. “Not everybody has the faith to give to God's work, and then let that work for them.”
Confidence Was the Whole Point
He closed on why people pray less than they intend to. It is not vocabulary, he said. “You don't pray because you're not confident.” He compared it to being young and talking yourself out of approaching someone you liked, while someone with less to offer and more nerve walked over and started a relationship. “Your confidence is stopping you from getting the things that are in God's will for your life.” The benediction was the text itself, spoken over a standing room.
Where This Was Preached, and How to Watch
Solo Faith Church meets at 587 Old Charlotte Rd SW, Concord, NC 28027. Twice during this message Pastor Doug came back to the people who cannot get there — households “locked out of having a genuine experience when there is no transportation.” The church keeps a streamed sanctuary open for exactly that reason, and he walked viewers through how to enter it on screen.
More about the congregation, its Sunday gathering, and its food access work is at Solo Faith Church. Services stream live, and past messages stay posted, on the Solo Faith Church watch page.
Pastor Doug also used part of the service to talk about the church's delivery-based food work. Donations at solofaith.org/giving sponsor grocery deliveries to Concord households that cannot get to a pantry themselves, and he put the entry point at five dollars — enough, he said, to sponsor a single delivery.
Questions People Ask About This Message
What is Proverbs 3:5-6 actually asking for?
Pastor Doug read it as two moves that travel together — trusting God with the whole heart, and refusing to lean on your own reasoning. His reading of the promise in verse 6 is practical: when you submit your ways, God's direction stops being mysterious. “It will be common sense what God wants you to do next.”
Is this a standalone sermon or part of a series?
It opens a multi-week teaching on faith working through Proverbs 3 in sections. He said he would take up a different aspect of faith each time he is in the pulpit, with the goal of establishing the congregation in how to approach God.
Can I take part if I can't get to the building?
Yes. Solo Faith Church streams its services and keeps an online sanctuary at solofaith.org/watch, where people watching can be seen and spoken to rather than just tuning in. Pastor Doug addressed viewers on Facebook and YouTube directly during this message.
Solo Faith Church shares this message because the hesitation Pastor Doug described — not asking because you assume the answer is no — shows up at our pantry door as often as it shows up in prayer. Concord neighbors should know there is nothing to earn on either end.
You're Invited — Visit Solo Faith Church This Sunday
Solo Faith Church meets every Sunday at 587 Old Charlotte Rd SW, Concord, NC 28027. Come as you are. Learn more here.
Community Support Note: This story is part of Solo Faith Church's community journalism initiative to share what is happening in our congregation and across Cabarrus County. The quotes and details in this post were drawn from a recorded transcript of the message as it was preached, provided directly to Solo Faith Church — not from independent reporting.
Comments