Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 14, 2024 | Enchanted - Ladder of Trust

Transcript

January 14, 2024 | Enchanted - Ladder of Trust · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, good morning, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good to be with you.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Jason and I are starting a new series this morning called Enchanted.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: But before Jason preaches this morning, I just wanted to talk with you about the little piece of paper you got coming in.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if you've been with us, this is the third time we've gone through it this year, so it keeps getting quicker.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: But for those who are also uh watching from home, just wanted to make sure we were able to walk through it.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: So we have our um quarterly statements going through Sept or from September through November.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: You say, why are we getting this on January 14th?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's because uh we get basically our finalized numbers at the end of December, and um it's been two weeks since we got those, and this was apparently the best day to do it.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it's been on the calendar for a while.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, um if you look at that September through November, um our actual uh giving uh the to the general fund was about 99.5 percent of our operating expenses, so that is everything that we need to keep the lights on, keep the heater going, keep everybody working here in the offices and on top of everything else.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it's very close to what we were needing.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But if you look at the year to date, which runs our fiscal year runs March 1 through the end of February, uh, we're at 105%.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's fantastic.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's great, especially considering where we were about a year ago.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but what you should also know as you look down that piece of paper is whenever there's money that is given over and above what we need to just keep the lights on, keep everything running.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, right now it is going into the student ministry project.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so if you look then down at that lovely little bar at the bottom that just continues to creep to the right, uh because of the financial blessing and your generosity during the Christmas season, uh, we're at about 84% of our goal for the student ministry project.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so what that means, yeah, that's fantastic.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: What that means then what that means is that probably here in the next you know, few months, you'll start hearing us talking about what this means to get the project started and bidding and all of those super exciting things that I know everybody loves to get updates on.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um finally, just a little announcement there, you'll see that uh uh our missions, it says 18% of last quarter's budget went to supporting 56 missions workers.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um our goal is always to have 20% of our budget going towards missions.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: The reason that's a little bit lower right now is because we've had a few people in the mission field who were older or retired pass away, um, or some people who left the mission field.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we always update those numbers at the beginning of the fiscal year.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, anyhow, the broad strokes here is we want to thank you for your generosity.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to thank you for um continuing to support the needs of the church, and uh, we pray that you would continue to do that so that we can lead people to life in Christ.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So would you bow your heads and pray with me?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, we know that ministry does not require money.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but God, we thank you for being able to um bless our church, to be able to have us continue to carry out the ministry that we feel, Lord, that you are guiding us towards and leading us towards, and Lord, to even look at growth and what it means to continue to expand so that more people might be led to life in Christ.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: God, we just thank you for how you continue to take care of our church.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, as uh we hear Jason this morning uh preach from your word.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: God, I just ask that you would be with him, that he would speak the words that you have given to him, and God, that our spirit, your spirit, uh would be stirring within us as we look to see um how you might be calling us to grow and change and draw deeper to Christ as well.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, we love you and we thank you for these things.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's in Jesus' name we pray.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, welcome everyone.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: How's everyone doing today?
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: All right, welcome to winter.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: If for those of you that don't know me, my name is Jason, and I am the children's pastor.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: I have the immense honor of being the children's pastor here at Topeka Bible Church and have been for over eight years now.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it's also a great honor today that I was asked to come and preach and teach from God's Word.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: So thank you so much for that opportunity.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Also, before I get started, I thought I should probably answer a few pressing questions that you may be asking yourself.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Since I'm a children's pastor, no, there will not be any flannel graph board or felt boards up here on the stage during my preaching time.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: We will not be using any slime or shaving cream, and no, we will not be stopping halfway through the message to have a snack of goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, or graham crackers.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you got a donut because we're gonna power through the whole message without a snack.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: But today I'm I'm so excited to be here because I get to talk about a topic that I think is vitally important, about a problem that I see as commonplace in our culture today.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that problem is a trend of giving up our ultimate trust in God for untrustworthy practices.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: And when I talk about ultimate trust in God and untrustworthy practices, when I hear that word trust, I can't help but remember the first time that I remember in my life learning about trusting God.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_01: And that time was when I was about five or six years old.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I remember it was nighttime, and uh I had my pajamas on, my brother and my sister had our pajamas on, we're getting ready for bed, and my dad kind of all circled us up, and my mom and dad said, Come and come into the living room, and my dad got out his guitar and he started strumming a few chords and he taught us a song, okay?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the song went, and I'm I try not to sing this, but it's just in a grain to me, and I'm sorry if it's a bad thing, I'm not that great of a singer, but the song went something like this Trust in the Lord with all of thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, and all of thy ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct thy paths.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: And we would sing that song.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know, but yeah, don't, yeah, easy, easy audience, I tell you.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: But we would sing that song, and I remember just singing it and singing it.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually asked my dad about this because um, you know, when your your son gets to preach, and you have a kid that gets that son gets to preach, you know, my mom and dad get kind of nervous sometimes because you don't know what's going to come up, you know, and I've I all I have nothing but great things to say about my parents, and obviously him teaching me that song, I am so grateful to have parents that wanted to instill the love of Jesus and the love of the Lord in me and my brother and sister at such an early age, right?
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: But I asked him about this, and he said, Yeah, honestly, that was the very first song I ever learned on guitar.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: My dad learned guitar after I was born, but he said he started learning guitar about when I was born, and he actually sang that song to me for the first time when I was one month old.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Which I don't remember that one.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I remember this one by five or six, and we would sing that song, and I remembered singing with it with such energy, right?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And such enthusiasm and such conviction.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I was when when you're little, like when you're young, you know, kids have the most amazing faith.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I hear, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yes, I am going to trust in the Lord with all my heart, right?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know for a while, honestly, that that wasn't like a song that my dad just kind of made up, right?
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: It actually, if I can get this to work here just a second, technology.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: That actually comes from the Bible, right?
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: It's Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding, and all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the way we sang it had the dynes and thighs in it.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was the King James Version, but it means the same thing, right?
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I just remember love is singing that song and just understanding how I needed to trust the Lord with everything I had, right?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Then I started getting older, and as I started getting older and growing up, there were things in life, it kind of got harder to trust in the Lord with all my heart.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't as easy as when I was a kid.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: And it was, I felt like that everywhere I went in my life, in the world, in society, there was like a pulling, someone's trying to grab my trust and take it away from God.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Like almost like a pulling, a tug of war.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: That taking away our trust to other things.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to be taking our heart towards other things.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: In our society, that happens a lot.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that pulling and tugging of our hearts to go against what Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says in our culture, some of that pulling is pulling us towards things that are spiritual in nature, but are not necessarily uh Christ-centered or God trust-centered, if that makes sense.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, there is a trend that's been going on uh in our society uh for quite a while now, and it's gaining steam.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: And this trend is for somebody to say, I am spiritual, I love spiritual things, but then not put their trust in God, not be concerned with the Bible, not be concerned with trust in Jesus.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And this, like I said, this movement is gaining speed, it's picking up steam.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And uh interestingly, in research for this sermon, I read a couple studies, and one study that is from a place, uh, an institute called the Pew Research Center, they just finished up a spirituality among American survey.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And this is a survey of adults in America, and the Pew Research Center conducted a survey that says they report that 22% of U.S.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: adults consider themselves spiritual but not religious.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: We want the spirituality aspect, but we don't know about this whole trusting in God kind of thing.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: The the ministry, uh, answers in Genesis used this study and and and made a report and made a wrote a paper on it, and they conclude in that paper uh the Pew Research Center recently released the results of their spirituality among American survey, and the results highlight a trend we've been seeing for years.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: The rise of the spiritual but not religious.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: These are individuals, mostly younger people, who don't identify with any particular religion or faith, but who believe themselves to be a be a spirit spiritual uh using poll uh using, usually polling from a variety of religions to create a personalized belief system.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you see, that is kind of the backdrop of our society that when we set when we start this new uh new series, enchanted, exploring spirituality, right?
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's we're gonna be specifically looking at our culture's fascination with spiritual things and seeing if it lines up with God's word, and then kind of trying to figure out how we should interact with those things, right?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get too far into that, I want to tell you today we are gonna talk specifically about spiritual practices that take us away from our ultimate trust in God.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: When I say ultimate trust in God, I mean like what Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says the trust in the Lord with all of our hearts, right?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: That ultimate trust in God.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, as I started making lists of these spiritual practices, I made some lists of the spiritual practices that can take us away from our ultimate trust in God.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: And some of them, I made them into two categories.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: They're not exhaustive, so by the way, uh, and some of them I put in a category of like obvious, and then ones that I felt like were not so obvious.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so let's talk about some obvious spiritual practices that would take our trust ultimately away, our ultimate trust away from God.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Obvious ones, one is like seances, contacting the dead.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: Anyone disagree with that?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully not.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like, okay, starting off there.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: Contacting the dead, consulting fortune tellers, crystals, burning sage, getting your palms read, tarot cars, Ouija boards, and a lot of other things that get put into that, right?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_01: That if we put our trust in those things, they will take our ultimate trust in God away from us, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, you probably those are probably not too shocking to you.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Let's get to some not so obvious ones, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the not so obvious ones uh are mind mindfulness, meditation, yoga, journaling, breathing exercises, and the enneogram.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, I said it.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now you might be saying, Jason, come on.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Do you really think that all those things on the obvious list and not so obvious list that you just read, all of those practices, are those all as equal?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: Are they as dangerous as the rest of them?
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I would say, absolutely not.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here don't hear me wrong there.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: All the items I mentioned are considered spiritual in nature, but some of them have more, uh are more dangerous than others and will take you farther away from your ultimate trust in God faster and more effectively, if that make if that makes sense.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: So let me kind of explain what I what I'm saying here.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: So let's talk about some of those obvious ones, because they're pretty obvious.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'll won't spend much time on them.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like contacting the dead, right?
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Deuteronomy 18, 11 through 17 is very clear that if someone tries to contact the dead, go see the spiritual medium, that that is an abomination, right?
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: The spiritual world is God's to control, and we're not supposed to get special uh privileges or special information from that by doing something like that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Fortune tellers, right?
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Fortune tellers, sometimes we get anxious, we want to know the future.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: So someone might be tempted to go see a fortune teller, but Matthew 6, 34 and 35 tell us that first we're supposed to seek first the kingdom of God.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then it tells us right after that, don't worry about tomorrow.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're supposed to let God worry about that.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: So those are so those are things that if we, in those obvious categories, if we put our trust in there, uh, those are spiritual practices that take us, that will take us away from our ultimate trust in God.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_01: So now let me talk to you about some of the not so obvious ones.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because it might be uh shocking or kind of confusing for people to hear that just list just rattled off, right?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, first before I start that, I have kind of something to say, maybe a confession of sorts.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you know me, you won't be surprised by this at all.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I really, really like to listen to podcasts.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, some of you say you might know that.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm working in the yard, I have my headphones in.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm working out of the gym, I have my headphones in.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: If I had to go for a run without headphones, I would think I would go crazy.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I listen to a whole lot of podcasts, and I have a really, I guess, diverse or eclectic listening uh podcast I listen to, right?
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I listen to sermons and leadership and Christian podcasts.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: I listen to like dieting podcasts and uh just just podcasts that have just specific stories about people's lives and that kind of thing.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I enjoy learning and I enjoy learning about those kind of things.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I have been shocked and overwhelmed in the last couple months of some of these podcasts that I have listened to, or some of them I've even stopped in the middle and have stopped listening to them, because of everywhere I turn, some of these podcasts, whether it's a dieting podcast or an exercise podcast or a productivity podcast, a lot of these podcasts are bringing in spiritual elements into these podcasts.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they're saying things like, what you have enough power inside of yourselves, you're fine just the way you are.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: You have everything you need to achieve everything you want in life, to be the person you need to be.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: All you gotta do is tap into what you don't know is there.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And then they will talk about meditation and journaling and breathing exercises in the sense of letting your mind go, clearing your mind, just letting whatever take over and get to your real truth or your real self.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the type of uh spiritual practices that I think are super dangerous.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Not meditation like filling your mind, meditating on God's word.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a good way to meditate, right?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: Not uh journaling prayers to God.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: That would be a great way to say your prayers to God or to journal about specific Bible verses of God's word.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: But that idea of like turning off your mind and you know letting go and letting whatever take over, that is not putting our trust in God.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's very common, okay?
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: The other one I was gonna talk about briefly is the Enneagram.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, who in here has not heard of the Enneagram?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so for you guys, share, the Enneagram is very popular and has become controversial in most circles, or at least somewhat controversial, but basically it's a personal personality profile.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: To me, it doesn't seem that much different than like the Myers-Briggs test or the animal personality test, if you guys know what I'm talking about there.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: But the Enneagram test is it has it it says that there's nine personality types, and it seeks to help people understand how they navigate life.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, how I see it is that God made us all individually.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: He created us with certain tendencies.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I have read a little bit about the Enneagram.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: I have enjoyed using it because it's helped me understand who I am a little better in Christ.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's helped me be able to minister people a little better and do know who who I am and to understand kind of some tendencies of other people's personalities.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: However, we have to keep in mind that it is not infallible, right?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we can't treat it that way.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: And the Enneagram should not be something that we're like using as a filter to see our whole life through.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: And that is the way that we see life.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: We should see that God, we should see life through God's word and our through our trusting in God, right?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: So any of those things that I said, you know, and the especially on the any of those things that I listed on those lists, if you take them to the extreme, you can put misplaced trust in those things, right?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it can take, and they can become a spiritual practice that take us away from our ultimate trust in God.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: But, you know, as I was thinking that through, uh I I realized trust can mean a lot of things, right?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: So we're talking about ultimate trust, the wholehearted trust in God, but there's a lot, there's like a scale of trust, right?
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: There's like you can trust certain things more than other things.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And so I thought we really need to have a way to uh examine and evaluate based on everything that we partake in, right?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wrote, with everything that we interact with in life, we need to determine how much truth and how much trust we should put into that given thing.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there's two words, truth and trust.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that the more truthful something is, the more trustworthy it can become.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Are we are we tracking with that so far?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so to make that uh a little bit more clear, hopefully, I have decided to use an illustration.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Alright?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: So, right here, I've got a ladder.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Can you see it?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, very good.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: So, remember children's pastor.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, sorry.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: So, this right here I'm going to dub the ladder of trust.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the way it works is that things that you trust go on the ladder.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: But this top shelf is the highest trust that you can have.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: Kind of like that ultimate trust in God that we're talking about, that wholehearted trust, like that we like Proverbs 3.5 says that we should trust in the Lord with all of our heart.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's the most trust we can have, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_01: And down here is like hardly any trust at all.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I've got a couple labels here, okay?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to quiz you a little bit, okay?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: So this is just a little quiz.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy, okay?
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's easy.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I've got I've got two things on here, okay?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: God and God's word.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, based on what I said so far, where do you think this should go?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, who said top?
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone say it real loud on three.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: One, two, three, top.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, let's see if I can rip this tape up and put this up here and see how this goes here, right?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: Because we just we just learned that Proverbs 3, 5 and 6 says we should trust the Lord with everything, with our whole heart, right?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And then God's word is given to us so we can know God.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's our guide, it's a lamp into our feet and light into our path.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's God breathed.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_01: It helps us, it can rebuke us and change us and help us convict us in life.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's living and active, right?
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So God's word and God and God's word goes on the top rung, and no one disagreed with that, right?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: Good.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: So there, let me ask you something.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: This one might be fun.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so this is a different thing.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you're not going to expect it probably, but maybe you will because of the time of year it is.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, the next one we're gonna put up there is the weather.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or more specifically, like the weather report.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's talk about weather.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: I should have put report on there.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's what I really was talking about, right?
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the weather report.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Who in here pays attention, you know, has a practice of checking the weather?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand, don't be shy.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Who in here checks the weather and trusts the weather report when you hear it?
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so there's like three hands that went up, and that's not true because like sometimes on Thursday, I'll get a call to the church and they'll say, hey, I've been looking at the weather forecast.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Someone just called randomly, and next Wednesday, we're gonna have some snow, so are we gonna have fed and let are we're gonna have club catapult?
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, no, so, so, and I I mean, I have to admit, I kind of trust the weather report, right?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: I certainly would not put it up here, okay, you know, or or even yeah, no, but we're not surprised when the weather report's wrong.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, sometimes we're surprised when the weather report is right, but when I look at my phone app on the weather and see negative 12 degrees, I do not pack shorts for the next day or pick up shorts the next day.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_01: And unless you're Bill Thompson, I bet you don't either, right?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Not because he doesn't trust the weather report, but just because he likes to wear uh shorts all the time.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't wear shorts today, though, but he does have Bergen socks on, just by the way.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, all right, so where would we put the weather report?
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: The bottom, okay.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I would, I honestly, it doesn't mean you know, probably each person, I know I heard I'm I'm kind of a beast maker.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I heard bottom and and top middle, so I put it on in the middle of that.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, that's probably where I would put it, but it it but it probably depends on the person, and it probably depends on the weather report, okay?
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so here's another one, real quick, all right, is friends.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_01: Who in here has friends?
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, everyone's hands should go up here.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be your friend, okay?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: So who in here has friends?
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Who has friends that and who in here thinks they have friends that are trustworthy?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, very good.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so and the Bible talks about friends.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: The friends are great, right?
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_01: A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for a time of adversity, right?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So we have friends there.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, now the thing is, is that with this with this illustration, with this with this ladder of trust, you know, we could put it up here, and then they could like not show up for something they're supposed to do or let you down, and you could be like, well, okay, I used to trust them here, but now I'm gonna move them here, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so you can move them anywhere you want.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I would probably put like friends like right here, probably, you know, kind of thing, something like that.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_01: So is this making sense how we kind of can can do this?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: I hope this illustration is tracking a little bit there.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then you know, when we're talking about uh the Enneagram, when I was talking about it earlier, you know, some people will not have it up there at all, and some people will see some value in it, okay?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And I would probably say that as I would as I would look at it with the Enneagram, uh, some people would say, nope, not on the ladder trust at all.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the people would write here or maybe put it here, and you can probably even double up with the weather, you know, kind of thing, right there.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um that's fine, right?
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_01: You can have multiple people standing, not standing on a ladder, but in this illustration, you can, right?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: So a couple illustration, a couple things to point out though, okay?
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: Top rung trust is only for God and God's word.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: So God does not share, right?
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: And when we do, we cause problems, right?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's not the natural order of things.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: Also, we should not be tempted by anything on our ladder to move it up, you know.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: If like say that you have a real relationship issue, and your first thought is, I need to call my friends, and they give you advice that is exactly against God's word, right?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: We should not, hopefully, we would not go, whoop, okay, we're it's right up there, we're equal with them, right?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because we should prioritize our trust in God, our wholehearted trust in God first there, if that makes sense.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_01: My friends are gonna fall down, but that's okay.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say that anything, so God takes the top rung.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: God and God's word, they don't share, we cannot put anything else up there and be trusting God with our whole heart, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Our ultimate trust can be in God.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: We can't, we should not have anything in here that tempts us to put it up there, right?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: If we do have friends that tempt us to go against God's word or that kind of thing, we need to lower them down or maybe even take them off the ladder, if that makes sense, right?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because we don't want anything to take that away from us.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: And if we are tempted by anything on here, it's automatic, it should be automatic.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nope, I'm taking that off to preserve my whole heart of trust in God, right?
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because it's a big deal.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's really, really important to do this because if we don't keep God in his proper spice, if we don't have our trust fully in God, lots of bad things can happen.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that happens is it erodes our faith.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: You can't really have faith in something you don't trust, right?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: The more trust you have in something, the more faith you have in something.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we're supposed to have a whole-hearted trust in God, and our faith should be up right there, but if we drop God down or put something up over there, our faith will erode, it will dip, right?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um it opens us up if we don't have God up in the proper place, if we're not trusting God the proper way, it opens us up to having idols in our lives, things that we put above God or worship alongside God.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: And like we said, God cannot do that, right?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: We cannot do that with God, and that will take away from our relationship with God, and ultimately it will destroy who we are, how got how God made us right a spirit and be in our spiritual being, uh, how God created us to be a spiritual being, it will destroy that, right?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it also, if we don't have full trust in God, ultimate trust in God, it also hinders spiritual growth, right?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's like any relationship.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: If there's not trust in the relationship, it's gonna, it's not gonna grow the way it should, right?
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_01: And if we're putting other things up there with God or taking God down from our ultimate trust, it will hinder our growth in Him.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And which I think it kind of those things kind of lead onto each other, but a lot of times we'll see people in life and in making really bad decisions, people that know who Jesus is, and people that profess to follow Christ, right?
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had people, or maybe even in our own lives, we're like making decisions that we know is not is not the right decision, but and we know that decisions aren't pleasing God, we don't really understand why they're making those decisions.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_01: I would say there's a good chance that we may have misplaced our full trust in God.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: So those are some things that can really happen.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I would love to say to everybody here, I would love to say, you know, those examples of people not trusting in God fully are really few and far between.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Our culture hardly has any of those.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: The Bible hardly has any of those examples, but sadly that's not the case.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: But despite the warnings that God gives us repeatedly in his word to trust him with all our heart, there are many examples of people who trusted in other things.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And one of those examples we're going to talk about today is found in 1 Samuel verse 28.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: And 1 Samuel 28 is a very interesting story, but I have to have you understand two people going into it because we don't have enough time to read all 28 chapters to get up to that.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: So there's two people that are main people in the story that I want you to know who are.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: One is Samuel.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone say Samuel?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: And one is Saul.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Does anyone know another name that we call Saul sometimes from the Old Testament?
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, oh, sorry.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is Old Testament Saul, all right?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel and Saul.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Does anyone else it's it's a prefix that goes before it starts with a K.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: King Saul.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so we got Samuel and King Saul.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: And if you know, if you if you don't know about Samuel and Saul, I'm not going to do it justice right now.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: So please, this week go read 1 Samuel.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's an awesome book.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: It has awesome stories, an awesome way for us to grow in Christ, right?
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: And understand who God is and how to trust Him more fully.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: But Samuel, the book of Samuel opens up with Samuel not being born, Hannah his mom, not being able to have kids, at the temple, praying that she can have a child and saying, If I can have a child, God, please, I would love to have a son.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: If I have a son, I will dedicate him to the temple to serve the Lord his whole life.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so, sure enough, Hannah has a baby.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: The name is Samuel.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when Samuel is time to for is of time that he can be away from his mom, he gets put into the temple and given to a priest named Eli so he can serve, learn to serve God and work in the temple.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: And in chapter 3, as a little boy, God calls out to Samuel.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: And from that time on in his life, Samuel is a prophet, is a judge, and a servant of God, and communes with God.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, this is really cool to me.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I this in 1 Samuel 3, 19 through 20, this is said of Samuel.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: And all Israel knew from Dan to Beersheba that Samuel was established as the prophet of the Lord.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that cool?
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: The first part is, I mean, yes, it's cool that he's the prophet of the Lord, but the first part there, that none of his words were wasted.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: None of his words fell to the ground because the Lord was with him.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Man, isn't I just I get goosebumps thinking about uh trusting in God that much that we could say that about us, right?
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: But so that is Samuel, right?
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the rest of his life he serves serves God and trusts God with his whole heart.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: And when Israel needs a when Israel needs a king, it is Samuel that anoints King Saul a saint king.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: When King Saul is not doing what he's supposed to do and not trusting in God, it is Samuel who gets to go tell them about it and tells them what God says, right?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: He rebukes uh King Saul as well.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: And his whole life, he just is serving the Lord and trusting in him with his whole heart.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a great example of someone, it's a shining example of a person who served God and trusted in God's word no matter what, all the way till his death.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in contrast, in our story, we have King Saul, who did have moments of seeking God and wanting to trust God.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: But by chapter 28, we, as you'll see, he's fallen a long way from his complete and full and ultimate trust in God and God's word.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And it says, When Saul saw the army of the Philistines, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: And when Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_01: Then Saul said to his servants, Seek out for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a medium at Endor.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think, man, that is just a way to open a story, right?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, few observations here.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um it says in verse uh in verse 5 that he was uh afraid.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_01: But he was afraid, and it said that it says that his heart trembled greatly, or that he was his heart was filled with fear.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's because of the Philistines and how big their army was.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: He was afraid that his army that was supposed to represent Israelite army that's supposed to represent God's army wasn't strong enough, right?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: He's not trusting in the Lord.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: He is so afraid.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so it says in verse 6, and I don't want us to get confused by this, because it says that he was seeking the Lord, and the Lord did not answer him.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: I want you to know about King Saul, and especially if you go back and read chapter 15, you're gonna see this.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: But Saul had a history of seeking God in the wrong way.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Not with trust, not with his whole heart.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: He seeks God for what God would do for him on his own terms.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so when he says, Oh, I just was seeking the Lord, you know, that was not a wholehearted seeking of the Lord.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: That was not a full trusting in God seeking of him.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, if that if that makes sense.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: And another thing that I noticed when I was reading this is that I feel like that Saul is kind of like knocking around at his neighbor's door for an egg.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I need an egg, I'm gonna go knock on as many doors as I can until I get the egg.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: Does that make sense?
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you ever I that's kind of old-fashioned, but do you ever borrow eggs from your neighbor?
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you have nice neighbors, maybe.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, okay.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right, so I just feel like he was knocking on these doors, like, okay, I want a dream, a prophet, I'm inquiring of the Lord.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: That he's not answering.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: So let's go see a medium.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go see, let's go talk to dead people.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: All right, that's a pretty big jump, like, for me, uh if he was truly seeking God with his whole heart, right?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: If that makes sense.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we'll go on.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um verse eight.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments and went.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: He and two men went with him, and they came to the woman by night, and he said, Divine me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: The woman said to him, Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the necro the necromancers from the land, which necromancers means like wizard or magician, uh, from the land.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Why then are you laying a trap for my life to bring uh bring about uh my death?
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: But Saul swore to her by the Lord, as the Lord lives, no punishment shall come, so uh shall come upon you for this thing.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we'll go, we go on.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, we're not gonna go on right there.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: We'll stop there for a second.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So Saul obviously knew what he was doing was wrong, right?
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: He compromised his trust in God for trust in a medium.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: He dresses up so no one knows who he is, right?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Because he doesn't, he knows it's wrong, he knows that he's been the person that was when he was trusting God fully, he got rid of these type of people.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: He knew those spiritual practices would take people's ultimate trust in God away from him, right?
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's crazy to me that the the medium is the one that said, and didn't know it was Saul at this point.
• 37:11
  unknown: What?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Don't you know what Saul's done?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: We can't do that, right?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: Even though that's her jaw, I don't know, business, whatever that is, right?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: She even knows that it's wrong.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: So Samuel uh so he was not trusting in God at all with his whole heart at all.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: He was trusting in whatever means he could get to get the answer that he wanted to get.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, let's go on.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_01: So uh this is actually 11 through 14.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Then the woman said, Whom shall I bring up for you?
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: He said, Bring up Samuel for me.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: And when the woman saw Samuel, she cried out in a loud voice.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: And the woman said to Saul, Why have you deceived me?
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: You are Saul, and she realizes it.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: And the king said to her, Do not be afraid, what do you see?
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the woman said to Saul, I see a god coming up from the earth.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: He said to her, What is his appearance?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: And she said, An old man is coming up, is wrapped in a robe.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And Saul knew that this was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and paid homage.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: So, right here we see, uh, especially in verse 12, Saul is trusting in the spiritual practices, right?
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: And who is he asking?
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have trust in the Lord.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have trust in his heart for the Lord.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: Who is he asking for?
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Samuel.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's asking, he's asking for Samuel because he's the one that did walk with the Lord his whole life and trust the Lord, you know.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: But when he saw, when he knew it was Samuel, it says that he bowed his face down to the ground and paid homage.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I just think that just illustrates how spiritually numb Saul had become because he's doing this awful thing that's forbidden by God's word, and he's not trusting the Lord with his whole heart, and he's actually bowing down and paying homage to Samuel, thinking maybe that Samuel would want that, or I don't know exactly where he's at, but it just shows me how far lost he was spiritually, how numb he was spiritually.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: And as we go on, then Samuel said to Saul, Why have you disturbed me to bring me up?
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Saul answered, I am in great distress, for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore I have summoned you to tell me what to do.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And Samuel said, Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's an interesting way of him saying that God has turned from you.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: So what do you want now?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: You could have trusted in the Lord with all your heart, but you decided not to.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: And now you want to know what's going on, he wants knowledge that he he doesn't have.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then it says, The Lord has done to you as he spoke to me.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: For the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and giving it and given it to your neighbor David.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: Therefore the Lord has done this thing to you, uh to you this day.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Moreover, and it gets worse, moreover, the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines, and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna die.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lord will give the army of uh of the uh Israel into the hands of the Philistines.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: You know, this to me is a very, very, very sad story.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: But is a it perfectly highlights someone who puts their trust in spiritual practices instead of the ultimate trust, uh their ultimate trust in the Lord.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I kind of had to ask myself, why did Saul do this?
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the the bottom line answer is Saul gave up his un uh his ultimate trust in God for an untrustworthy practice, right?
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: He put another thing, he trusted up higher than God's word, and he put God way down on the ladder rung.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: But there were several things that we can glean from that that led up to this or that contributed to this.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: And first off, I think that Saul felt trapped by his situation.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: He was getting ready to go to war, and he was afraid because of the size of the army.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: His heart was not filled with trust, it was filled with fear.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: Also, he was impatient with God.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't like the way God was acting.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted God to act in a different way or faster, right?
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: So he went to uh he he decided to go contact a medium and take another spiritual practice on to hopefully to try to get what he wanted to get.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: He had a compromise for control.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: He valued control and knowing the situation, trying to be in control of the situation, that he was willing to compromise what he knew was wrong, going to see a spiritual medium, and like I said, I already said, but I think it's just interesting, you wouldn't put a disguise on if you thought it was nothing was wrong with it, right?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: He he compromised so that he could try to have some sort of control or perceive control.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the fourth thing is that he wanted knowledge that he couldn't have.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_01: There was knowledge, there sometimes there's knowledge that God doesn't want us to have.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's knowledge that we can't handle, or knowledge that we shouldn't go after, right?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that is part of trusting in the Lord with all of our heart.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_01: But Saul didn't do that, right?
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have a question for us as we get close to the end here.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: Are we in danger of giving up our ultimate trust in God?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: Can we relate to any part of King Saul's story?
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: Do we have we ever felt trapped by a situation?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: And are we ever been impatient waiting on God?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Have we ever been tempted to compromise ourselves so we can have control of a situation?
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: Or have we ever wanted knowledge that we really aren't supposed to have?
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I will say for myself, in certain situations that I've been through, I can answer yes to all those things.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: I feel those temptations, I feel those feelings, right?
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_01: But those are the times that we need to trust in God and his word the most.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's not time to try to figure something out and moving something up the ladder or putting God down farther on the trust ladder, right?
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: When we feel when we have those feelings, we need to trust in the Lord and put our ultimate trust in him the most, right?
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like what I learned when I was a kid, sitting around the living room, trust in the Lord with all of thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding, right?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was true then and it's true now.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: Even though it might be sound like a kid's song, that is what we need to do, right?
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it should be time to evaluate our lives and make sure that we have a hundred percent trust in God because we want a hundred percent trust in the God that created us, the God that knows all of our shortcomings, all of our sin, and still loved us enough to present a path of redemption to us through his son Jesus Christ.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I will I think that if we're honest, we all have something in our lives that are kind of pushing up a little too close to the top rung, probably.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_01: I I assume that we all, and I include myself definitely in this, there's parts of our lives that we can use some help giving a hundred percent control to God, to get control to God, to trust to God.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_01: But when we are honest about that, when we realize that something we're doing is taking away trust that we should only reserve for God.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: Or when we realize that we're falling short or there's a part of our life that we're not trusting God fully, that is the time to first confess that to God and then repent.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_01: If it's something on the ladder that is making us stumble, is making us lose our lose our faith in God and our trust in God, it's time to take it off, right?
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's time to get rid of it, it's time to repent, go the other way, and work towards a hundred percent ultimate trust in God.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_01: All right?
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, that is when we can start realizing the full amount of what we're supposed to do in Proverbs 3, 5, and 6.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: To trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and lean not on our own understanding.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_01: In all of our ways, acknowledge Him so that He can make our path straight.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Would you pray with me?
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_01: Heavenly Father, I just thank you so, so much for your word, for your love, for the fact that you love us enough to send your son to die for us, even though he never sinned, he did nothing wrong.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that we would not take those things for granted.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I also thank you so much for you telling us that our standard should be a hundred percent trust in you.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I pray that with your grace and with your power and with your word, that we can all aspire to that and take steps to trusting you with everything that we have and putting our ultimate trust in you.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would help us do that, and I pray that we would take your word and you serious and make it on the top of our trust of everything that we do.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: It's in Jesus' name I pray.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, stay warm out there or get out of the cold and have a good have a great week.