Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Trust God" by Hiram Kemp

Transcript

"Trust God" by Hiram Kemp · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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We tend to trust people based on experiences, and that's
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a good thing. If you know a person's been doing something for a while,
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you tend to offer them trust. Think about a surgeon who's
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performed surgeries for a long time, become an expert in the field. If you're
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going in for surgery with the same surgeon, your confidence will be boosted.
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Ben Carson had been performing complex brain surgeries for decades,
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and in 1987, he became the first lead surgeon to separate
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joined twins. If you were going in for brain surgery, and you saw Ben Carson,
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you'd be comforted, and rightfully so. If you're getting
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ready to get on an airplane and they tell you, we're about to experience some
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heavy turbulence, but you know that the person flying the airplane's been doing
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it for a long time, turbulence will be turbulence,
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but there's a certain calm, a certain assurance that will be yours as a result.
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Chesley Sullenberger landed a plane where the engine completely
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failed, but he'd been flying for thousands of hours. 30 years
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of experience, and for good reason. The people that were on the plane
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in that moment, they trusted Chelsea. And as a result, he's gone
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on to talk and discuss his success in flying through difficult situations and
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how to keep your calm. You think about sports, and if you
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have a favorite sports team and you know you're down and there's a
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little bit of time left in the game, but you have a coach who has
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time and time again delivered and brought victory, it just brings at
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least a sort of peace even in a moment of high anxiety and stress
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as you're wondering how the game's going to go. Love him or hate him,
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Nick Saban for a long time has been leading teams
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back from deficits with discipline and with this tenacity
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that says the game isn't over until it is.
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And let's just say your child had to go to a school and they were
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underperforming and you needed somebody to help them get over the hump,
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somebody to bring them up to the proper level, and you heard that they were
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enrolled in a class with a teacher who's been doing that very thing. You'd have
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confidence that though at the moment their scores aren't reflecting what they should, in time
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they rise to the surface and they succeed. And Jamie Escalante for
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20 years developed this reputation for taking underperforming kids in
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mathematics and getting them up to speed. I'm telling you, we trust people
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often based on experience and it's right, it's a good thing.
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We see their discipline, see what they've accomplished and we say this person
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in this field especially is worthy of my trust.
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We do it throughout our lives and you can clearly see yourself doing it in
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various areas that we haven't even mentioned. But what about God?
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Isn't it true that every one of us in various ways in our lives fails
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to trust God who's been faithful to us and never given us
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a reason to doubt him? We trust people with 20 years of experience
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in their field, and then we'll doubt the eternal expert. The Bible
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reveals God as a God who's never forsaken or failed anybody, Deuteronomy 31:8.
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He's a God who always does what's right, 2 Samuel 22:31.
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He keeps all of his promises, Joshua 21 and verse
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45. And as far as experience goes, his experience goes all the way
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back to eternity, Psalm 93 and verse 2. And yet, if we're honest,
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sometimes for us we'll trust Carson, we'll trust Sullenberger, but as it relates
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to God, that's just not good enough for us. As we start engaging with God,
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we want a bigger sample size. Okay, maybe God delivered last time,
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but how can I be sure that that wasn't a fluke or
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Or maybe just luck. Maybe God's running out of blessings and maybe he's not going
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to come through for me like he has in the past. And we struggle to
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trust him even though we know we should. In the
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end, all of our lives, our Christian lives, is going to boil down to what
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we're going to talk about this morning. And this is simply it: whether or not
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we trust God. Whether we trust God to be who he said he's going to
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be and do the things that he says he's going to do. Because belief
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in God will make you a theist if you believe in God But believing
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God can make you triumphant if you believe that God is capable
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of doing exactly what the Bible says that he will. The Bible talks
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about things God has done in the past, great feats that he's accomplished. The Bible
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also talks about things that God is claiming to be doing in the present.
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And at the very same time, the Bible looks toward the future and says
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that God's going to do amazing things in every one of our lives. But all
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of your life, not just the Christian portion of it, all of your life and
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my life really comes down to this one point. Do we believe him?
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Because if you don't believe and trust in the God of the Bible,
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that's just the same as trusting and believing in no God at all.
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And so we need to. This morning though, I want to get specific. I want
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to talk about specific areas in our lives where we need to make sure that
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above all things we put our trust in God. Because maybe you sing triumphantly
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about God's power and you sing it as well, but deep down inside there's
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some trepidation. Because you don't believe God will come through like he says that
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he would. Maybe you think you trust God, but deep down inside you really
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trust yourself. And when things start getting out of your control, you get a little
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panicky because you really like to have your handle on things, and you feel
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like if you can't control it and ensure success, you just don't
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know that things are going to work out. Maybe deep down inside we think God
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was great back then, but right now I'm really not sure of him. But the
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totality of our Christian life will be summed up in whether or not we have
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ultimate faith and trust in God, but especially the God of the Bible who's never
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disappointed and never let down anybody. This morning, here are a few of
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the areas in our lives, a few of the places and circumstances specifically where every
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one of us needs to have our faith stretched and be sure that we trust
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God no matter what. Number 1, trust God to repay the wicked.
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In Deuteronomy 32, Moses is offering up this song to ancient Israel,
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and in Deuteronomy 32:35, He has God saying on
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this occasion, vengeance is mine and recompense. The Septuagint stretches
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this, vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. And when you get to
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the New Testament in Romans 12, Paul picks up this language.
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Romans 12:19, dearly beloved, Paul says,
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do not take vengeance for yourselves as it is written. And then
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Paul quotes in Romans 12:19 this verse, vengeance is mine,
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says the Lord, I will repay. And because that's true,
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Romans 12:20, Paul says we can be kind to our enemies.
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When they're thirsty, we can give them something to drink. When they're hungry, we can
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feed them. In Romans 12:21, Paul says, don't be conquered
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by evil, but instead you conquer evil with good.
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Trust God to do what he says, especially in relation to
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repaying the wicked. And if this is true about you and me, if we trust
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God to repay the wicked, that means it's not your business or my business in
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our own personal lives with people who have wronged us. And maybe on a global
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scale with people in the world that do evil. It's not our responsibility to monitor
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those situations and make sure they get their just due. Instead, it's our
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responsibility to commit it to God and trust that he's going
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to do exactly what he said that he will. Galatians 6:7-8,
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Paul says, be not deceived, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows,
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that also will he reap. Those that sow to the flesh will from the
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flesh reap corruption. Solomon warns us in Proverbs
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chapter 20 and verse 22. He says, don't say in your heart, I'll repay the
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wicked. Wait on the Lord and he will deliver.
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The Bible says the reason why Jesus was able to endure hardship,
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persecution, being slapped and spit upon was because of this principle.
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He committed himself or entrusted himself to God who judges
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righteously. 1 Peter 2 and verse 23. We need to trust God
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to repay the wicked. Because that's exactly what God says that He will do.
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Scripture holds Him up as a God that's a God of vengeance and
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who will by no means clear the guilty, Nahum chapter 1, verses 2
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and 3. He's a God that will strike the adversaries for the wrong that they've
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done, Isaiah 59 and verse 18. Even if it doesn't
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happen in this life, Ecclesiastes holds out that God will bring everything unto
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the judgment with every secret thing, Ecclesiastes 12 and
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verse 14. He repays the proud according to what they deserve. Psalm 94:1-2.
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But all of those passages mean nothing if we don't really trust
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him. And so the question is, do you trust God especially to
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repay the wicked? And one of the ways you know this isn't true for you,
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that you don't trust God to repay the wicked, just think about some small areas
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of your life when you're mistreated or misrepresented. If you're the kind
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of person who always has to defend yourself, always tell your side
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of the story, always get your lick back, make sure people see it from your
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vantage point, you don't trust God to repay the wicked. If you
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must always defend yourself and say, well, wait a minute, I would hate for somebody
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to get the wrong idea about me, you don't really trust that God's going
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to make things right. What about the world? How do you engage with politics?
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If you trust God, it'll make a difference. Are you
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the kind of person that watches the news to be informed, or do you watch
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it instead to be indoctrinated? Do you think that certain people
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and parties and countries and personalities actually have
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the power to ruin the world, and as a result You constantly engage in hand-wringing
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and worry and fretting because you behave like an atheist,
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that maybe God won't do what he says he's going to do and people are
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going to get away with something. See, if you— the people that always have to
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get revenge, the people that always have to make sure nobody one-ups them, they're doing
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that because they don't believe that there's a God that's going to make it right.
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Jesus says you can pray for your enemies, Matthew 5 and verse 44,
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because I will make it right. Even the Archangel Michael didn't perform
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an accusation against the devil. In Jude 9, he says, the Lord rebuke
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you, because he trusted. And we need to be people that do the same
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thing. There's a story told about these 2 farmers. They were
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good friends. One was a Christian and one was a nonbeliever. And they sometimes
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would joke about their success. And the nonbeliever said to the Christian, if I had
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a field like yours, nothing could ever keep me out of my field. I'd be
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in it 7 days a week. I don't know why you pause every Sunday and
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go down there to worship. It's really a waste of time. And the Christian said,
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no, it's not. Nobody's getting ahead of me. I'm doing God's work and I'm working
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in my field. It'll all be fine. The non-Christian challenged him. He said, okay,
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this year let's work our fields and let's see whose field will do the
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best when it comes harvest time. And so they did. Every Sunday like clockwork,
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the Christian went to worship, left his field untended, and the non-Christian
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worked in his field and slaved and labored. And when October came,
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just as you might expect, the non-Christian's field was better.
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And he couldn't help but bring it up to his friend. He said, see,
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I told you, you lost ground by going to church all those Sundays. Here it
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is October and my field is harvested more than yours. My yield my profit,
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my increase has been better. The Christian made no excuse,
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no defense. He said, you're right, your harvest is better and so is your field,
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but God doesn't always settle all his accounts in October. And the
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thing that every Christian needs to realize is God doesn't always settle
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all of his accounts in October. Trusting God won't make you indifferent or
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uncaring about things that are wicked in the world. It'll make you invincible toward those
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things because you know there is a God who's going to make everything right
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in the world. Psalm 9:8. The kingdoms of this world are becoming the kingdoms
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of our Lord and of his Christ, Revelation 11:15.
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Trust God to repay the wicked. Make sure we're not among that number,
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but leave vengeance in his hands. Here's number 2: trust God
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to provide your daily bread. In Matthew 6,
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Jesus is giving the model prayer. He says, when you pray, say these things,
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and one of the things he mentions in Matthew 6:11 is you should pray to
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God and say, Lord, give us this day our daily bread. This is a prayer
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we have God's permission to pray. Jesus commands us to pray it, and we should
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expect him to answer it and to honor it. The people Jesus was
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speaking to on this occasion, they knew all about the fragility of life.
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They knew all about the way things fluctuated in their economy, in their world,
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and how sensitive and fragile life was. When Jesus says pray
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for your daily bread, they get this. But maybe Westerners in 2026
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with retirement accounts and weeks and months and sometimes
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years of saving, maybe we need to be reminded that we still need to
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be trusting God to provide for us on a daily basis every 24
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hours. Paul says in Colossians 1:17,
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in him all things hold together and in him all things consist.
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Trust God to provide your daily bread.
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This is a principle that God taught ancient Israel in the wilderness. In Exodus 16,
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God could have loaded them down with months or years of bread. Just think
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about that. But in Exodus 16:4-5, he says, this is how it's going to work.
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Every day I'm going to rain down the manna from heaven, twice as much on
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Friday. You're going to gather it up. Why take them through this slow process on
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a daily basis, every 24 hours? Because God was trying to teach them a lesson.
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It's not up to you. It's not about your industry. It's not about your hard
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work. Israel, I need you to trust me.
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Paul says, my God will supply all of your needs according to his riches and
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glory in Christ Jesus, Philippians 4:19.
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David says, I've been young and now I'm an old man. He looked back over
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his whole life. He says, I've never seen righteous people abandoned or God's descendants
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begging for bread. Psalm 37:25. Psalm 145:16,
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the psalmist says, God stretches out his hand and satisfies
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the desire of every living thing. Trust God to
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provide your daily bread. Think about Israel in the Old Testament.
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God shows up through Moses. He does these signs. He performs the 10
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plagues. He leads them out of the the bondage
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of Egypt through the Red Sea. He provides food for them, gives them everything
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they need. Does God love Israel? Exodus 7 through Exodus
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12, God's performing these plagues, blessing their lives. Does God love ancient
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Israel? The answer is obviously yes. When they're delivered from Egyptian
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bondage and they're on the other side of the Red Sea, what's the first thing
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they worry about? What's the first thing they fret about? Food, Exodus 16:2-3.
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Water, Exodus 15:24. Even if you don't know
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the rest of the story, even if you've never read the book of Exodus,
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does God look like the kind of God that would deliver these people
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from bondage and leave them to die in the wilderness?
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The God that provides divine salvation is the same God who will
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provide daily sustenance, Isaiah 41:10. But Israel
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might have been thinking, we saw those signs, we saw those wonders, but this setting
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is different. Our circumstances are foreign. We've never been in the wilderness before.
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And that's both comical and it's insulting to God. If God could
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deliver you from all of those things, do you think he would abandon you now?
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And before we're too hard on Israel, we need to think about our own lives.
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The Bible describes Jesus as becoming a human being, living in our place,
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dying for our sins, and rising again for our justification,
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Romans chapter 4 and verse 25. Does God love us? Does God care about
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us? The answer is obvious. But what are the kinds of things that keep us
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up at night? What are the kinds of things we worry about? Oh, we're some
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10,000 years removed from the events of ancient Israel, but we're not any better,
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are we? What do we worry about? We worry about food and shelter and sustenance.
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All of this history, all of God's track record and what he's done
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for people, and what do we worry about? We worry about the job market.
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We worry about our business and profits fluctuating and falling.
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We worry about home repairs and raising our kids and medical bills, and God's
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saying through these events and others, Trust me, do I look
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like— even if you don't know the rest of the story, does God look like
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the kind of God that would deliver you from all of those things and leave
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you out here to die in the wilderness? No, the God
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who provides divine salvation is the very same God who will provide
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daily sustenance. Romans 8:31-32,
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Paul says, what shall we say to these things? If God be for us,
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who can be against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him
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up freely for us all, how will he not with him also freely give
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us everything we need? The question is, do we trust him? Or do
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we really think it's all up to us and our hard work and our industry?
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Ancient Israel needed to learn this lesson, and modern Israel needs to learn the same.
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And if you know this lesson, it'll change the way you engage with your material
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possessions. You'll give freely, as Chuck read from 2 Corinthians 9:6-8,
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because deep down inside you believe it all belongs to God.
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This is my Father's world, Psalm 24:1,
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and God's got me. Listen, if you trust God
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in this resolve, in this point, to provide your daily bread, it will never
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matter how little you have. And if you don't trust God to provide your daily
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bread, it'll never matter how much you have. You'll never have enough.
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Proverbs 37 through 9, the wise man said, give me
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food convenient for me because God, I trust you.
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God says, I want you to trust me to repay the wicked. I want you
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to trust me to provide your daily bread. Here's number 3: Trust me to work
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all things together for good. If you have your Bible, turn it to Romans chapter
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8. Third area in our life we need to trust God is trust
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God to work all things together for good. Romans 8 is a Bible chapter
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about assurance. In Romans 8 and verse 1, Paul says there's no
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condemnation to people that are in Christ Jesus. And Romans 8:9-11, he says
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the Holy Spirit dwells in you, and the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the
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dead one day will raise you. But then in Romans 8:28, he gives this promise
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about God's providence. He says And we know that all things work together
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for good to those that love the Lord and to those who are called according
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to his purpose. This is a providence promise. This is about God working
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all things together in our lives for good, and we've got to trust that God's
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going to do that no matter what it looks like in our lives. Trust God
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to work all things together for good. And the only way to do this is
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to change the way we view the world. We've got to change our theology from
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a windshield theology to a rearview theology. A windshield
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is in your car so you can see where you're going, and rightly so.
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You can see what turns are coming up. You can see the stop signs and
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the stoplights. Windshields tell you, look out, here's what's ahead.
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But rearview mirrors work differently. They tell you how much ground you've covered and
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what's behind you. And the only way to really embrace Romans 8:28,
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you've got to exchange your windshield theology for rearview theology.
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Ask Joseph. Joseph's looking out of his windshield, and maybe if
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Joseph does that, all he sees is a pit. He sees Potiphar's house. He sees
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the prison. But in Joseph's rearview, that's what allowed him to say,
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God sent me before you to preserve life, Genesis 45:5.
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You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, Genesis 50:20.
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Joseph, when did you learn that? Well, that was in my rearview. And David's
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windshield, what's out in front of David is a Philistine giant, but what's
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in his rearview? Slain lions and bears, 1 Samuel
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17:34-37. If the church we're studying
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about on Sunday mornings in Bible class looked out their windshield to determine God's goodness
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and what he was going to do, they saw death, persecution,
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opposition. But in their rearview, they saw the gospel spreading
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throughout the world, and they saw churches scattered throughout the Roman Empire,
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to say nothing of Jesus. In his windshield,
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Jesus saw persecution, betrayal, death, and the cross,
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but in his rearview he saw exaltation, resurrection. And if you
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look really closely, in his rearview he saw you and he saw me.
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For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, he despised the
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shame, and he sat down at the right hand of God. Trust God to work
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all things together for your good. And in order to do that, you've got
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to be able to see through your rearview. I mean, how many times has this
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happened to you in your life? You say, you know what, I couldn't see it
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at the time, but what After the fact, I learned, hey, you know what?
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I didn't get this job, but at the time I couldn't see it, but afterwards.
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At the time I thought, I've got to have this relationship with this person,
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but afterwards. Over and over again this happens in our life. I couldn't see it
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at the time. What does that mean? It means we should stop trying to see
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it at the time all the time. It never works out that way. You see
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things and you think, I can't see how God's going to deliver, and then He
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does. Romans 8:28 is a promise. God says, I work
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all things together for good. I think there are 2 roadblocks to us receiving this
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promise and trusting God. Look at Romans 8:28. The first challenge
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is we actually have to read this verse and not read into the verse.
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Look at Romans 8:28 again. Paul does say all things
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work together for good to those that love the Lord, to those who
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are the called according to his purpose. That's what the verse says. Don't read into
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this verse, all things are going to work out just the way I want,
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because that's not what Paul says. The second challenge is— first,
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read the passage, don't read into it. But the second challenge is let
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God define what's good. All things work together for good, but who gets
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to determine that? See, sometimes we think we know better than God, and God,
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if it's really going to be good, it has to go this way. But we
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should be like Jesus. Mark 14:36,
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Jesus is in Gethsemane and he says, all things are possible for
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you, but not my will. But God, instead, your will be
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done. Trust God to work all things
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together for your good. That kind of confidence will set you free
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from wondering about all the details and all the intricacies of your life. Commit your
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ways to the Lord, trust in him, and he'll act. Psalm 37 and verse 5.
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Peace in your life and my life— I know we think we really want omniscience
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and we want to know how it's all going to work. Peace in your life
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and my life will not come from knowing everything that God's doing.
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Instead, peace is going to come from knowing that God is the one that's
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doing it, whatever it is. If it's the God I'm reading about in the Bible,
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it matters not the trajectory, trajectory of my life and how it's going.
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I fully trust him, and it's either good right now or it's
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working toward that end. Isaiah 61 and verse 3, the prophet says God's going to
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exchange your hardship for blessing, your beauty for ashes. And how many
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times has he done that in your life? Keep trusting him to do that.
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And then after the fact we'll look through our rearview and see he knew what
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he was doing the whole time. Here's number 4: Trust God to
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forgive your sins. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 12 is a quotation
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from Jeremiah 31:31-34. This is an Old Testament
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prophecy about the way that God was going to forgive sins in the New Covenant.
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In Hebrews 8 and verse 12, the Hebrew writer says— this is God speaking— I'll
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be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities I'll
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remember no more. That's a promise, and we've got to trust God to do this.
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This is one of the distinctions between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant,
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and we shouldn't take this for granted. The Old Covenant had a yearly sacrifice,
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the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. And what the Day of Atonement was,
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it was a reminder every year of their failings and of their sin.
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Every year, Leviticus 16, on Yom Kippur, they confess
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all of their sins, and it's a reminder you failed and you fell short.
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But in exchange for that, every week, like we just did a few moments
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ago, there's a weekly meal that Christians partake of. Acts 20:7,
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every first day of the week. It doesn't remind us of our failings and
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of our sins, though Jesus died for those. It reminds us of our forgiveness and
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of our salvation. Jesus says, this is my blood which
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is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins, Matthew 26:39.
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That's what the Bible promises that God does. But we've got to trust him to
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forgive us of our sins. It's ironic. The gospel says Jesus
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died for your sins, and if you turn and repent, God will forgive you.
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And there are people in the world who won't obey the gospel because they say,
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well, I've got sin and I'm too bad. They trust their sin more
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than they trust God. But according to the Bible, grace is stronger than
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guilt. Romans 5:20, Paul says, where sin abounds,
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grace did all the more abound. And even after you become a Christian,
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Chuck read this, 1 John 1:7, walk in the light as he is in the
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light, and we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus will cleanse
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us from all of our sins. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just
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to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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We walk around feeling guilty. We walk around feeling burdened because we don't trust
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God to do what he said. I think everybody has somebody either in their
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friend circle or in their family that's a person that's always trying to remind everybody
23:20
else about stuff that they don't know. Like they're trying to convince you. You remember
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Anthony? Nope, I don't remember Anthony. Oh yes you do, he's Sheila's son.
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I don't know Sheila. Yes you do. Or there's something from— we watched this movie,
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you remember this line from this movie? Surely you watched it. I didn't watch this
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movie with you, that wasn't me. Yes it was you. And this person with the
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ready recollection in your friend circle or in your family is always
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frustrated because nobody else remembers the stuff that they remember. And try as
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they might, they quote lines and scenes and they're telling you, You were there,
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this happened, it was me and you, and you remember this person. And they're trying
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all the connections and no connection. And that's you
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with God. Try as we might, jog His memory about your failings, His memory can't
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be jogged. You can remind Him of events and scenes He can't recall. You can
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cite lines and characters involved and try to get Him to remember. Surely, God,
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You remember when I stumbled and when I fell here. And He won't remember.
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He can't. He chooses not to. I, even I, am he who blot out
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your transgressions for my own name's sake, Isaiah 43:25.
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Because when God tells you it's forgiven, he's serious.
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He says, as far as the east is from the west, that's how far I've
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removed your transgressions from you, Psalm 103:12. I've cast
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your sins into the depths of the sea, Micah 7:19.
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He says, I won't hold your sins or count them against you, Psalm 130:3-6.
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All of your iniquities and shortcomings and blemishes forever forgiven.
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Isaiah— Jeremiah 38:18. Trust God
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to forgive your sins exactly like he said that he would.
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And here's number 5: trust God to direct your path.
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This is the passage that was read a moment ago for the scripture reading.
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Trust God to do all the things he promises, including to direct your
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steps and your path. Proverbs is the book of wisdom in the Old Testament that
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really situates what it means to live a skillful life before God, to be
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God's person and to ultimately live a life pleasing to Him and in harmony
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with His will. And in Proverbs 3:5-6, Solomon says,
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trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding.
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In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight,
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or He'll direct your paths. Notice the totality of Solomon's
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promise. Underline the all in verse 5. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.
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And then in verse 6, he doubles down. In all your ways acknowledge Him.
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Trust God to direct your paths in life. And sometimes
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we think, does this mean God's going to audibly talk to me and communicate?
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Doesn't mean that, but it does mean you trust, you follow,
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and God will make plain the path that you're supposed to take. And throughout
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the book of Proverbs, God doubles down on this idea that true wisdom,
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what it means to really live a skillful life, is stop trying to
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figure out everything yourself and fully trust God.
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There's a way that seems right to a person, but that way leads to death.
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Proverbs 16:25. A man may choose his steps, but God
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directs his way. Proverbs 16:3. Men make choices,
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but the decisions belong to the Lord. Proverbs 16:9,
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Proverbs 16:33. What does all of this mean?
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It means you're in good hands if you just simply get in God's way,
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follow him, and fully trust him. But your whole life,
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not just the Christian aspect of it, the totality of your life is
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going to boil down to whether or not you'll let him direct or whether
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you think you can. Spurgeon says, you may think to yourself
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you're forgotten by God, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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He that numbers the stars and knows them by name, it is impossible
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for him to forget his own children. He says, your circumstances
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are as cared for as if you were the only creature he's ever created and
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the only saint he's ever loved. God is that deeply interested
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in your life and in what's going on with you. You've got to commit your
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ways to him. The very hairs on your head are all numbered, Matthew 10:31.
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You're more valuable than many sparrows, Matthew 10:30. Trust God
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to fully direct your paths. If you've ever
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moved before, you know how difficult that can be. And if you've ever moved yourself
27:12
before and then had the blessing and the privilege of hiring movers, you know the
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great difference it can be. I mean, sometimes you pack your own stuff, but when
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the movers come in, what do they do? They move everything. They start lifting all
27:22
the boxes, they organize it, even take it to your new dwelling,
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and they set up the stuff for you. Imagine paying for movers though. You've never
27:28
paid for movers before and you say, you know what, I'm gonna box it up,
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I'm gonna pay this company, they're gonna come in and move it. And when the
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movers get there, they start lifting boxes and moving stuff and all of a sudden
27:37
here you come and you're picking up boxes and you're moving stuff almost like you're
27:40
racing the movers. At one point the movers might just stop
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and they'd have to say, hey, if you plan to move it all yourself,
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what'd you call us for? I mean, why did you pay us if you're gonna
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do it on your own? And surely it's happened with me and I know it's
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happened in your life. That God looks down from heaven and he says, if you're
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going to do all the moving, I mean, if you're going to do everything on
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your own, why are you believing in me? If you're going to move it and
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direct all the steps, if you know all the plays, if you know the way
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all the prayers should be answered and the way everything should go, I mean,
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if it's really all up to you, why'd you call on me?
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Solomon says, trust in the Lord with all your heart.
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Don't lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him.
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And let him direct your paths. God is saying, that's my responsibility. It's my
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job to come in and work in your life and help you and direct your
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steps, but you've got to let me. Here's number 6: trust
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God to preserve the church. There is a prophecy in Daniel 2:44
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that one day a kingdom would be established, and Daniel says that kingdom, it's going
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to stand forever. Nothing's going to stop this kingdom. And Jesus in Matthew
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16, he says On this rock, Peter, the fact that I'm the Christ, I'll build
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my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I'll give you
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the keys of the kingdom. Whatever you bind on earth would have been bound in
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heaven, and whatever you loose on earth would have been loosed in heaven. Jesus is
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saying nothing is going to stop or destroy the church of Jesus Christ.
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Daniel prophesied it, Jesus promised it, and you sitting today worshiping
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God in spirit and in truth are living proof that this is a reality.
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Different religions have popped up, religious cults have come and gone. The church
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of Jesus Christ is here to stay, 2 John 2:2. John says the
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truth is going to be with us forever. Trust God to preserve the church.
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We've got plans to make, we've got programs to perform, we've got evangelism,
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and we've got work to do, but the church belongs to Jesus and
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he will preserve her. He's been doing it from eternity's past. Jude 24,
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he's able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before his presence
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with exceeding joy. This means completely trust God
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because various movements and groups have tried to disrupt what God's doing in the world
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through his people and they've all failed. The Roman Empire tried in the first couple
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of centuries through persecution, and the church kept growing. In the Middle Ages,
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some tried through religious corruption, and the church kept growing.
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The modern era has tried it through science and secularism. We'll just kill
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God and get him out of the way. And yet people are flocking to him
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by the thousands because try as they might, the church is
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going to be here forever to glorify his name and praise him, as Paul says
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in Ephesians 3:21. That means you and I have responsibility to
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be in the church glorifying God, serving, doing our business and our work,
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but trust God to do his part and to preserve the church, which is his
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people, like he said that he would. And here's the last
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thing, number 7: trust God to save you in the end.
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If you trust God for everything else we've said in this lesson— to repay the
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wicked, to provide your daily bread, to be a God
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that's going to be there to forgive your sins— if you trust God in all
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these other avenues, it just makes sense that you would trust God to save you
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in the end. 700 years before Jesus ever showed
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up, the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 25:9 concerning
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the coming Messiah, this is our God, this is our Savior, we've waited for him
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and he will save us. When you get near the end of the New Testament,
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John won't let you out of 1 John without drilling this principle deep
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down into your heart if you let him. He says you can know that you
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have eternal life, 1 John 5:13. You can have boldness and confidence
31:09
in the day of judgment, 1 John 4:17-18. Jesus is
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the propitiation, or the paid sacrifice, for our sins,
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1 John 2:2. Trust God to fully save
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you in the end. Some of us approach death, or maybe we're getting into
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our later years, and we start thinking about, I wonder what's going to happen to
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me in the judgment. We sometimes think about just maybe a catastrophe
31:31
or something snuffing out our lives and whether or not will be approved or
31:34
accepted by God. If you've gone through the proper channels and put
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your trust in Jesus by obeying the gospel, you literally have absolutely nothing to fear.
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The worst thing death can do is promote you into the presence of God.
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And all of your fears and all of mine, all of our insecurities about our
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salvation, if you just think about every time you've ever worried about this,
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every one of them is about your life and not his. And that's proof
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you're looking at the wrong life. Serve, be serious,
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be fruitful, but be sensible. Jesus didn't come all this way for
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it ultimately to depend on how good good of a person you've been and all
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the things that you've done right. We need to look at His life.
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Paul says, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
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He gave Himself as a ransom to be testified of at the proper time,
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1 Timothy 2:5-6. And when you start looking at His life
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and what He's done and your trust and faithfulness to Him more than your own,
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your doubts begin to fall and your confidence begins to rise because
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He is always faithful. And God is saying to you, trust me
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to save you. At the end of Paul's life in 2 Timothy chapter 4,
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he says, everybody's abandoned me. And in 2 Timothy 4:18,
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he says, God stood by me and the Lord will deliver me and preserve me
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into his heavenly kingdom. You can take your Bible and go to 2 Timothy
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4:18, and right under that verse you can write, me too. Because what
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Paul said about himself is true for every faithful Christian. The Lord will deliver me
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and he will preserve me into his heavenly kingdom. That wasn't just true about
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Paul. It's also true about you if you're in Christ, and it's true
33:04
about me. If you've got to have brain surgery
33:08
and you walk into the room and you see Ben Carson, you're relieved. You don't
33:12
tell him how to do his job. You know he's up for the task.
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If you're on the sideline and Nick Saban's your coach and this is the start
33:18
of the 4th quarter and you're down by 3, there's a certain comfort that's
33:22
yours as a result. If your child's struggling with math and you get in
33:26
there and it's Escalante that's the teacher, you know he may not be where he
33:30
needs to be right now, but given enough time, given Escalante's track
33:33
record, in time all will be well. This sermon is
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designed to say, as you step out into life with God's eternal experience,
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you don't just breathe a sigh of relief, you live a life of relief.
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God literally has everything under control. The wicked will get what's theirs.
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I just need to make sure that I'm not My daily bread, come what may.
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No matter what they do with taxes, the economy, God's going to provide.
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He'll forgive my sins. He'll work all things together for my
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good if I look at the rearview and not at the windshield, and ultimately,
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He'll save me in the end. And you know this is true because of how
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directly and delicately He dealt with us on the cross.
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Jesus says, that's my cross. I'll take your place.
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He died for our sins and was raised for our salvation.
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And if you want to fully trust God, you start by giving him your whole
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self. If you believe that Jesus is the Son of God and you're ready to
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repent of your sins and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, Acts 2:38,
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the Bible says that's what you have to do and God will forgive you.
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You just have to trust him. Do your part, trust him to do his.
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If we need to pray with you or pray for you, if the church here
34:35
can be of assistance and help you, the church will be here forever. And yes,
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to glorify God, but also to benefit and strengthen each other. Kason's gonna lead
34:43
us in a song to encourage us. If you need to respond, come now as
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together we stand and as we sing.