Trust In the Lord At All Times (Part Two)
Trust In The Lord At All Times • Sermon • Submitted
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· 9 viewsContinuation of message about putting our trust in men, versus in God and the progressive downfall that takes place when this happens.
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Transcript
Welcome everyone and “AGAIN”, welcome them back from winter weather this past week!
SPEAK ABOUT HOW HARD THE CALL IS AS FAR AS CANCELLING CHURCH FOR THE WEATHER! WE NEVER REALLY KNOW EXACTLY WHEN THE WEATHER IS COMING AND WHEN IT WILL START. AND SO WE TRY TO MAKE JUDICIOUS CALLS ON WHAT WE SEE AND WHAT IS HEADING OUR WAY. WE WATCH AND WE WAIT AND TRY TO MAKE THE RIGHT CALL FOR ALL PARTIES INVOLVED.
Mention about The Chosen series on Wednesday evenings and because we have been off by a couple of weeks in discussions, what we are going to do is continue with the next episode and then immediately following each episode thereafter, we will have a brief 10-15 minute discussion about what we just watched and we will discuss our thoughts about each episode together.
Open in prayer!!!
HAVE EVERYONE TAKE THEIR BIBLES AND TURN TO PROVERBS 3:1-12, and then have everyone stand and prepare to read the “Bible Declaration” together.
“This is my Bible. I believe that this book and every word found within it are truly the living, breathing Words of almighty God! I know and believe that when I speak the words written in this book over my life and over my family, that I am literally bringing the authority and power of heaven into the midst of our lives and into whatever situation may be taking place. I believe that Jesus the Christ, is the Son of the living God and that He is the living, breathing Word of God! The Word of God is life, it is love, and it is power! This book was written with me in mind! Thank you God for your Word! Amen!”
Now, while you’re standing would you please open your Bible to the passage that I gave you a moment ago, which was Proverbs 3:1-12.
Now, while you’re standing would you please open your Bible to the passage that I gave you a moment ago, which was Proverbs 3:1-12.
We will read the passage together, as we did last week.
I will start off by reading verse 1 and then I will read every odd verse thereafter. You guys will begin by reading each subsequent verse thereafter, which will be the even verses.
We will do this until we stop at verse 12!
1 My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
2 for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
3 Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil.
8 It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
9 Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
10 then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof,
12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever! Amen!
The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever! Amen!
Thank you and you may be seated.
Thank you and you may be seated.
(Unless of course the Holy Spirit of almighty God comes upon you and you suddenly have the spontaneous and rapturous desire to break out in praising our great God and Savior right where you’re standing, AMEN!!!!)
(Unless of course the Holy Spirit of almighty God comes upon you and you suddenly have the spontaneous and rapturous desire to break out in praising our great God and Savior right where you’re standing, AMEN!!!!)
OK, so we are going to pick up from where we were at last week. As a recap for everyone, last week we looked at a particular situation that took place in the book of I Samuel.
OK, so we are going to pick up from where we were at last week. As a recap for everyone, last week we looked at a particular situation that took place in the book of I Samuel.
I mentioned last week that I have been stuck in reading in the book of I Samuel for the past few weeks now, with particular emphasis on chapters 7-16.
I mentioned last week that I have been stuck in reading in the book of I Samuel for the past few weeks now, with particular emphasis on chapters 7-16.
I shared with all of you that what Holy Spirit was saying to me in reading this particular book of the Bible, was that what was happening at that particular time in the history of the nation of Israel, is what is happening right now in this nation.
I shared with all of you that what Holy Spirit was saying to me in reading this particular book of the Bible, was that what was happening at that particular time in the history of the nation of Israel, is what is happening right now in this nation.
This is what I mean. In those chapters, we read about the rise and the progressive fall of the first king of Israel, the great king Saul.
As we read together last week in the opening of chapter 8, we learned of how and why Saul was put into place as king over Israel to begin with.
Up until that point, Israel had never had a king and they had never been under the rule of a monarchy.
They had always been under a theocracy and led by and governed by almighty God.
But now in chapter 8, the people of the nation of Israel decided that they wanted a “king” to rule over them, so that they could be like all of the other nations!
In other words, the people had rejected the Lord God as their leader, as their “king” and instead, they were desiring to put a man into that role!
They had removed God from their hearts as their supreme leader and replaced Him with simply another man!
Now, this was a progressive thing that took place in the nation of Israel over a period of time, that coming out of the Exodus period coming forward, the people had acted out of rebellion and tried to follow the actions of the pagan nations surrounding them!
And as they observed the other nations and let their idolatrous ways begin to influence them, its end result was rebellion against God and His will and His Word!
Which is why you and I need to be very careful about who we allow to influence our lives.
One slight doctrinal deviation from the truth of the Word and the gospel message, allowed into your mind, is all that the enemy needs to begin the process of apostasy in the heart of a person!
The Bible warns us about guarding our hearts and minds for this very reason.
The passage that we opened up with in Proverbs 3:5-6, which says,
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
Do not lean on your own “natural” understanding.
As from last weeks message, Proverbs 14:12, which says,
12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Psalm 119:37,
37 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways.
Romans 12:1-2,
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Colossians 3:1-2,
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Time and time again, the Bible warns us and encourages us with scripture to keep our hearts and our minds focused on the Lord and His Word and His perfect will for our lives!
Because separating ourselves from God and His Word and His commands, makes us subject to rebel against Him.
As we read last week, Jeremiah 17:9,
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
In I Samuel 8:7, we read the following passage, “And the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”
The Lord God made it perfectly clear that He knew the heart of His people and of what they had decided and ultimately of what they were going to do!
God knows everything from start to finish and this event of the people demanding a king for themselves most definitely did not take God by surprise.
All the way back in the book of Deuteronomy 17:14-20, God spoke prophetically through His servant Moses of what was to be, when he said to the nation of Israel, “When you come to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you possess it and dwell in it and then say, I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ you may indeed set a king over you whom the LORD your God will choose.”
God was letting the people know that He already knew where their hearts were headed.
Just as God spoke prophetically through Samuel’s mother Hannah in her prayer of dedication over him, where she stated, “The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
This being said, before Samuel had ever anointed Saul as king over the nation of Israel!
Before the people had ever conspired to ask it, God already knew their hearts and what they were desiring!
Friends, always remember that. God knows your heart and your thoughts before you ever act upon them.
How great are the blessings of God upon a people and a nation who serve Him and name Him Lord of their lives!
Psalm 33:12,
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!
But the Bible also says this of those who reject God and His ways. Jeremiah 17:5,
5 Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
The nation of Israel had started heading down a path that was gradually moving further and further away from God and from His commands and His will for them.
You see once a nation begins to move away from Yahweh and from His absolute truth and His will for that nation, then you are looking at a people who are headed down a destructive path.
And eventually that nation and those people, will stand before God and answer for their moral lapse and rejection of the sovereignty of God over their lives and over their nation!
And the point that I made last week was that we have witnessed over the last year, the masses of people in this nation, who have shown that their trust and hope resides in a “man”, in a “position”, in an “office” and in the government, versus keeping their hope and trust in God!
They showed, that in their hearts, they had already rejected God as Lord over this nation and over their lives and had instead, placed a man into that role!
They spent countless hours debating and arguing and fighting over which man would going into the presidency and doing everything possible to defend their personal conviction and belief.
They were more concerned about defending their own political stance, than they were about using that same opportunity to do as Peter instructed the church body to do in I Peter 3:15,
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
And I’m obviously not just talking about the secular world, I’m speaking about men and women who claim to be Christians!
It became very clear over the past several months, that a vast number of people in this nation, within their hearts, were filled with fear and anger over the matter of who was about to become the next president of the United States.
As if that decision and that puny office had any bearing upon the throne in heaven and the God of all of the universe!!!
And I don’t refer to office of the president as puny as if to make lite or belittle it, but rather to magnify the glory and power of our God. The office of the president of the United States of America is the most powerful office and title in the entire natural world.
And yet when compared to the one true God and Lord of all, that office and title is not even worth considering!
These people spent more of their time worrying about the office of a man, than they did serving the God of creation!
Instead of honoring God in their hearts, they were paying homage to a man. They were doing a very similar thing as Paul mentions in Romans 1:25 where he wrote, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
And as I stated last week, because of all of the uncertainty and doubt and fear that the enemy has sown into the hearts of millions, this nation has become a prime and fertile ground for the sowing of the seeds of the gospel message!
We have an unprecedented opportunity in this nation right now for the sharing of the gospel message with others!
Unlike any other time in this nations history!
Never before in our nation’s history, has there existed such a moral bankruptcy as there is today.
In the 245 years of our nation’s existence there has never before been such a complete denial of the absolute TRUTH of the Word of God as there is today.
From the office of the president and our nation’s capital and all of the governing bodies of this nation, down to the individual level and everything in between, you can openly and undeniably see the suppression and denial of the TRUTH.
And where there is an absence of the TRUTH, there lies an opportunity for the declaration of the TRUTH!
Much like where there is a drought and thus the absence of water, there lies the need and the demand of water to sustain life.
So it is with the absence of the absolute TRUTH of the Word of God. It must be given to sustain spiritual life to those who are dying of thirst for it!
The Lord God has promised in His Word in Isaiah 44:3, “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants.”
Through the prophet Isaiah the Lord also said in Isaiah 12:2-3,
2 See, God has come to save me. I will trust in him and not be afraid. The Lord God is my strength and my song; he has given me victory.”
3 With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation!
Isaiah 55:1,
1 “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Isaiah 58:11,
11 And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.
And the fulfillment of these promises came, nearly 2,000 years ago in the Christ! He brought the living waters to this earth.
Jesus stood before the entire world then, just as He still does today and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.”
And the Lord closes out His Word in the book of Revelation, by crying out the same thing to this world, in Revelation 22:17,
17 The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
This world and this nation desperately need to hear about the living waters that can only come through the sharing of the TRUTH of the Word of God.
And we are the carriers of that truth, of that living water, who are to share with all who are thirsty!
Paul said in Romans 10:13-15,
13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?
15 And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”
Have everyone look down at their feet for a moment.
Ask the question, “Would you say that your feet are beautiful?”
I worked in PT for almost 18 years and many times over, I said that feet were ugly. I never thought of the foot as something of beauty.
But, if I was blind and homeless and cold and hungry and thirsty and I heard the footsteps of someone coming towards me, who was declaring that they had shelter for me and warm clothes and food and water, I would think that that person’s feet were the most beautiful things in the world!
That is the condition of the world around you and I. And sadly enough, even within many churches, there resides those who are in desperate need of the TRUTH and its life giving waters.
Isn’t that the condition that Jesus found the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3, where he said to those people who were calling themselves members of His body, “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.”
As we saw this past Sunday and as we have looked at again today, about how the nation of Israel rejected the truth of God and rejected His sovereignty as king over their nation and then put their trust into other men for that position, so to have we seen this nation doing the same thing.
As we saw this past Sunday and as we have looked at again today, about how the nation of Israel rejected the truth of God and rejected His sovereignty as king over their nation and then put their trust into other men for that position, so to have we seen this nation doing the same thing.
The words of the prophet Jeremiah echo and ring true, where he said for the Lord, “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”
The words of the prophet Jeremiah echo and ring true, where he said for the Lord, “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”
The rejection of the TRUTH of God in this nation and of His Word, the living water, is rampant right now.
The rejection of the TRUTH of God in this nation and of His Word, the living water, is rampant right now.
I have never seen the level of rejection of absolute TRUTH, such as exists in our country right now.
It is like some bizarre movie that we are watching.
There are people right now, who are raising their children as what they call, a “theybie”, not a baby.
And what they believe is that this child is neither male, nor female, but rather a blank slate for the child to determine later on what they will choose to identify as!
They can even choose to be a non-binary trans – meaning they are neither a man nor a woman.
I’m sorry, but for thousands, upon thousands of years, mankind has known and understood, that God created us as either, males, or females.
This truth has been known and believed from the religious realm, the secular realm, the scientific realm and most definitely the medical realm of society.
But in the defiance of TRUTH, this fact no longer exists.
In the defiance of absolute truth, we are no longer supposed to refer to a nursing mother as feeding the infant “breast milk”, but rather now it is to be referred to as, “chest milk”, so as to not offend the trans population!
With the absence of and the denial of absolute truth in society, we are now witnessing unprecedented levels of suicide and depression in, not just adults and youth, but in our children as well!
With the denial of TRUTH and that of God being the sovereign Lord of all, there exists paramount levels of fear in our society!
I read a news report the other day about a woman who was considering divorcing her husband, because she was terrified of the COVID virus and that she might contract it, so she wore a mask everywhere at all times, but that her husband didn’t feel the same way and never wore a mask!
Under our new president and his administration, we are seeing new legislation that enables a man the right to view himself as a woman and thus compete in women’s sports!
Under these same new laws going into place, we are again seeing the rights being given to a man/woman who sees themselves as the opposite sex, going into the opposite sex public restrooms!
The words of the prophet Isaiah are screaming out to this nation to wake up, where he decreed in Isaiah 5:20,
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
Today, if you or I try to post anything on social media, or the secular news that is of the absolute TRUTH of the Word of God, they are now allowed to censor it and/or remove it completely!
Never before has such a level of intolerance to the TRUTH been seen in this nation!
Our government knows its going on and even upholds it!
Listen to this: When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the German constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Through decrees and laws, the Nazis abolished these civil rights and destroyed German democracy. Starting in 1934, it was illegal to criticize the Nazi government. Even telling a joke about Hitler was considered treachery. People in Nazi Germany could not say or write whatever they wanted.
Examples of censorship under the Nazis included:
Closing down or taking over anti-Nazi newspapers; Controlling what news appeared in newspapers, on the radio, and in newsreels; Banning and burning books that the Nazis categorized as un-German;Controlling what soldiers wrote home during World War II.
Does any of this sound familiar to you, as to what is going on right now in this country?!!!!
The leaders of this nation today have some major issues with their ability to discern the TRUTH.
They are like the woman who walked into a psychologist’s office with a duck on a leash walking beside her.
The psychologist asked the woman, “Madam, how my I help you?’
To which the woman replied, “Oh, I’m not here for myself, but rather for my husband. You see, he thinks that he is a duck.”
This woman, like millions in this nation today, have perception and reality issues!
We are in major trouble when we no longer recognize the darkness as dark and evil as bad!
And this has been coming for decades in this nation, as the people slowly and methodically began to reject God and His rightful place as the one true sovereign Lord of all!
As an example of what I’m talking about, years ago during President Bill Clinton’s time in office, he was caught in a scandalous affair with another woman. Which he admitted to having inappropriate relations with her.
And what was the aftermath of the whole thing?
His approval ratings actually went up!!
The people of this nation actually enjoyed what they were witnessing!
In closing this morning, we must get back to that place from our opening scripture reading this morning, which said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
In closing this morning, we must get back to that place from our opening scripture reading this morning, which said, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
I asked all of you last week to join with me in prayer about how we, as a church family, can begin to effectively reach the lost in our community, which is the harvest field that we are laborers in.
I asked all of you last week to join with me in prayer about how we, as a church family, can begin to effectively reach the lost in our community, which is the harvest field that we are laborers in.
The Lord may speak to you on an individual level and as to how He wants to use you in personal ministry in this process of praying and seeking His will!
The Lord may speak to you on an individual level and as to how He wants to use you in personal ministry in this process of praying and seeking His will!
I am believing that the Lord, through His blessed Holy Spirit will reveal to us, new and creative ways to declare His TRUTH to the lost around us and begin to let those streams of living water rush out into the streets of Cumberland County and Crossville, TN!!
I am believing that the Lord, through His blessed Holy Spirit will reveal to us, new and creative ways to declare His TRUTH to the lost around us and begin to let those streams of living water rush out into the streets of Cumberland County and Crossville, TN!!