Amen. Amen.
I'm so thankful for that grace. I mean, could you imagine if you
had to try to get to heaven on your own, Imagine what that
would be like? Like you said, I know how that
would go wouldn't go over so well for us, but it's all about
grace. It's all about what Jesus Christ
did for us, and that's an amazing thing.
Turn your Bibles this morning, if you will, to Psalm 119, Psalm
119. It's amazing the difference that
that that God's true work in our lives can make.
And when someone is religious for the sake of being religious
instead of for being right with God, they're not very impressive
to the world. They're not very impressive to
the Christians, they're not very impressive to God, I can tell
you that much. And.
But when God? Does a work in somebody's heart
when somebody truly gets saved, when somebody is truly wanting
to be right with God for the sake of being right with God
because they want to please him. It's the greatest possible
experience that we can ever have.
And I, I, I used that word experience very loosely because
it's not just some experience that you have.
It's not some bright light that you saw coming towards you or
some dream that you had in the middle of the night that your
salvation experience. There has got to be a moment
when you come to the cross, you drop those burdens there at the
foot of the cross, and you give them to Christ.
You take that weight of your sin that you've been carrying for
all of those years, and you give it to him.
He can handle it. His shoulders are big enough to
handle the weight of the sin of the whole world.
He's already taken it on himself.
But Psalm 119, verse #41 Of course, David wrote this Psalm
and, and it's, it's, it's, it's very interesting.
It's an alphabetical Psalm. If you look at the very
beginning, most of your Bibles probably have headings, but
Aleph, Beth, and so on. It goes all the way down through
the Hebrew alphabet and every verse mentions something about
God's word in some way or another.
Either the the talking about his His word or his testimonies or
His commandments or His statutes or something is is mentioned
about those things in every verse and the Bible says this in
verse number. 41 Let thy mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even
as even thy salvation according to Thy word, so shall I have
wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me.
For I trust in Thy word, and take not the word of truth
utterly out of my mouth. For I have hoped in Thy
judgments. So shall I keep Thy law
continually, forever and ever, and I will walk at liberty, for
I seek Thy precepts. I will speak of Thy testimonies
also before kings, and will not be ashamed, and I will delight
myself and Thy commandments which I have loved.
My hands also will I lift up unto Thy commandments which I
have loved, and I will meditate in Thy statutes.
Psalm 119. Is a tremendous passage that
gives us the confidence that we can trust God's Word.
David did that. Many others throughout the whole
course of the Old Testament did that, and even many into the New
Testament. And by the way, there's many,
many times that the New Testament references the Old
Testament. Jesus told them to search the
Scriptures. Obviously they had the
scriptures available to them. You know, many people today want
to talk about the, the idea that, well, we don't have the
originals and the originals are the scriptures and we just have
copies of the originals and maybe they're accurate, maybe
they're not. Jesus didn't say search the
scriptures or Jesus didn't say search the, the copies that you
have and hopefully you can find what you're looking for in
there. He said search the scriptures.
That means they had accurate copies of God's word.
They didn't have the originals then.
They were gone by far by the time Jesus came on to the came
into the world and and the disciples were on the scene.
But he told them search the Scriptures.
They had God's word many times. He referenced Jesus referenced
the Old Testament many times. Peter and Paul and the apostles
and and the writers of the New Testament referenced the Old
Testament. We have God's word in our hands
and we can trust that when he says that he will preserve his
word. He preserved his word even
through all of eternity. He's going to preserve His word.
If He's promised to preserve it through all of eternity, then we
can trust that we haven't even now, because we're not even
close to eternity yet. We've just, we haven't even
started. But Psalm 119, verse 41, let thy
mercies come also unto me, O Lord, even Thy salvation,
according to that word. The first thing to be sure is to
be sure that you have what God gives.
God gives us that mercy. God gives us salvation.
God gives us the opportunity to accept him as our Savior.
Second Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 5 says examine
yourselves. Whether you be in the faith,
prove your own selves, know you not your own selves how that
Jesus Christ is in you, except you be reprobates to the world
offers plenty of options, plenty of of alternatives to the true
gospel of Jesus Christ. There were plenty of things to
distract us from knowing the truth.
The devil has hundreds if not thousands of other religions in
the world that are preaching everything but the truth that we
find in God's word. They're there to keep people
from the true salvation through Jesus Christ.
But true salvation is God's gift, which is His mercy to us,
but we have to be saved on His terms.
We can't do it the way that we want to.
So many man made religions and so many man made ideas and so
many things that men have come up with that you have to do this
and you have to do this and you have to do this and this and
this in order to get to heaven. And if you don't keep those
things throughout your entire life, then there's no chance for
you. You have to go before some man
and ask him to forgive your sins.
You have to go do all of these sacraments and do all these
different things, and you have to keep them faithfully
throughout your entire life if you expect to have any chance of
getting to heaven. That's not what the Bible says.
I'm thankful that it's not based on my works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to His mercy.
He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the
Holy Ghost. It's all about Jesus.
It's not about me. We have to turn from our sins in
repentance to Him, and He'll pardon US based on the promise
that He will. And repentance is a change of of
mind that leads to a change of heart that leads to a change of
direction. I don't stop sinning in order to
be saved. I stop sinning because I have
been saved. And there ought to be a change
in the life of somebody who knows Jesus Christ as their
Savior. When you're truly saved, then
you have something in your life that the world needs to hear.
Verse 42 of Psalm 119. So shall I have wherewith to
answer him that reproacheth me. For I trust in thy word, that
behind that word reproacheth is the idea of contempt and
mockery. The wisdom of the world is
opposed to the wisdom of God's Word.
But what are your answers when somebody scrutinizes your
so-called relationship with God? Emotion, excitement, more
blessings than they have. Well, I'm a member of the
church. I I live a sinless life because
I know Christ is my savior. Now I'm a Sinner just like all
of those people are sinners. I'm not any better than they
are. Jesus Christ died to save them
just as much as he died to save me.
We're just beggars. Telling other beggars where to
find bread doesn't make me any more loved by God.
But that's the whole point of the gospel.
We all have sins, but where are my sins now?
Are you still living in them? Are you still drowning in them?
Or are they under the blood of Jesus Christ?
Because to be saved means to have your blood, your sins under
the blood of Christ, to have them covered.
So when you stand before God, he doesn't see the list of all of
your sins. He only sees the blood of Jesus
Christ covering your sins. That's what I'm that.
That's what I'm excited to present to God on the day that I
stand before him. Can imagine what it must be like
for somebody that doesn't know Jesus Christ as their Savior.
And know that you've got all those sins that are on your
account and have no way that you can ever get them taken care of
because you've never been to the cross.
You've never had the mercy extended to you because you
haven't accepted it. Oh, he's extending that mercy to
everybody. The mercy that that that comes
from somebody who was condemned to die and condemned to spend an
eternity in hell. But that mercy that gives us an
opportunity to escape that punishment and to have a eternal
life in heaven. It's there for everybody.
You just have to accept it. And those who have never
accepted that mercy, those who have never accepted that grace,
those who have never laid the burden of their sins at the foot
of the cross, never can understand what it's like to
have those sins forgiven. They can't understand the peace
that passes all understanding. They don't know what it's like
because they're living as a natural man.
And the Bible says the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them because
they are spiritually discerned. But those who do know Jesus
Christ as their Savior, Their eyes have been opened, they've
been turned from darkness to light, and from the power of
Satan unto God. They've received forgiveness of
sins and inheritance among them, which are sanctified by faith
that is in Jesus. Christ and oh, to know Jesus
Christ as your savior is the greatest thing in the world, the
psalmist said. I trust in Thy word, which
literally means I have confident expectation because of your
word. I know that You're not going to
pull the rug out from under me. Means to attach yourself firmly
to something for support. John 3 verse 16, probably the
most memorized verse in all the Bible.
For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. A little boy read that verse,
and he'd heard it many times in Sunday school.
But he was laying in his bed one night and that he was reading
through that verse, and somehow it just hit him like it had
never hit him before. And he realized that he was a
Sinner and he was on his way to hell.
And he'd heard many times how to accept Jesus Christ as his
Savior, but he'd been putting it off and he had been, he had been
neglecting to do that because he was just a boy.
He didn't need Jesus Christ, did he?
He wasn't that bad of a Sinner compared to the adults that he'd
heard about in his life. But that night, that.
Verse hit him differently and he dropped down onto his knees
beside his bed and he accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior.
And he slipped back into bed. And as he lay there thinking
about what he had just done, he said, I don't don't feel any
different. Don't feel like anything's
happened to me. He said, I wonder, I wonder if
God really did save me when I called out to him.
And as he lay there, he started to think that it was probably
the devil that was putting those thoughts in his mind and, and,
and Satan that was tormenting him about his, about accepting
Jesus Christ as his savior. And so he had been told that
Satan loved darkness and he, he kind of thought that Satan was
lurking somewhere around his bed.
And since the darkest place in his room was under his bed, he
opened up his Bible and he. Turn to John 316 and he dropped
that Bible down on the floor and he slid it under the bed and he
said, see what the Bible says right there, Read it for
yourself. You see, that's essentially the
same conclusion that the psalmist came to here in this
passage here. Read it for yourself.
That's the best answer to give to Skull for this.
There's power. There's mighty power in God's
Word. So shall I have wherewith to
answer him that reproaches me For I trust in thy word for
those who know Jesus Christ that as their Savior, we're saved.
We're on our way to heaven. We've taken care of that part of
our lives, but we need to make sure that we're completely
trusting God. And that's that's what the rest
of this passage is about. The psalmist writes here.
There's there are ways for four tests if you will.
That I want to share with you this morning to help us
determine whether or not we are completely trusting God with our
lives. That's the title of my message
this morning, Four ways to know that you are trusting God.
Let's pray and then we'll look at this passage this morning.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
We thank you for the opportunity we have to study your word
through this passage this morning.
And God, may you help us. May you help us to evaluate our
own lives. May you help us to do to
determine whether or not we are completely trusting you with
every aspect of our lives. First and foremost, that we're
trusting you for salvation. But beyond that, God, may we,
may we have the confidence that we can trust in you completely.
Well, thank you again for all that you do for us in Jesus
name, Amen. First thing I want you to see
from this passage. And by the way, we're going to
jump around to a few different passages this morning, but we're
going to keep coming back to Psalm 119.
So maybe put a ribbon or a bookmark in there and we're
going to come back to it. But I want you to understand
this first of all, four tests. How do you know if you're
completely trusting God? Well, first of all, is the way
we wait. We can tell if we're completely
trusting God by the way that we wait.
Psalm 119 and verse #43 the Bible says.
And take not the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I
have hoped in thy judgments. The psalmist wanted nothing in
his life or his circumstances that that would give his enemies
a handle against him. And often we find ourselves in
situations where it seems as if God's word has failed, where it
seems like God has failed us, where we prayed and we asked God
for something and and it just seems like God didn't come
through for us. The enemies of God are quick to
pounce on those things. And the skeptic picks out some
grave injustice that's been done to some believer.
And he says, there, look at that.
Look, God let you down. Imagine the the the skeptics and
the scoffers against Job. Oh, they came.
They were, they were in the form of his friends and they scoffed
at Job and they said, look, look what's happening to you.
I believe they, in fact, I know they trusted God.
God came to each one of Job's friends at the end of the book
of Job and he told them, you, you, you, you spoke as foolish
men. You need to go make a sacrifice
and you need to go ask forgiveness for the things that
you said to Job. But there are many out there who
are looking for opportunities to just throw it back in God's
face. Oh, you, you gave everything to
the Lord. You trusted on him.
You, you gave up that old wicked lifestyle.
You gave away all those things that you used to do and now look
how God's treating you. And they try to throw it back in
the face of those who are trusting in God.
And they say there explain that many things in life seem to
nullify the truth of the Bible to the satisfaction of the
unbeliever. God, however, is not working on
the puny time scale of microscopic man.
He's working for eternity, and his word is made of the stuff
that eternity is made of. When God made a promise you can
take, you can bet that God is going to see that through to the
to the end. You can be sure that he's going
to keep his promise if he made one to you.
And there's so many Bible examples that that that point to
the fact that the ultimate truth of God's word may sometimes be
seen right away, but sometimes it may be decades or even
centuries before God's promise comes to pass.
But God will always keep His promise.
Would your trust have wavered if you were Noah pounding nails
into that ark for 70, five, 8090100120 years?
Noah sat there laboring on that ark, did not see God's promise
come to pass for all of that time.
Would you, would your trust in God have wavered if you were
Joseph counting prison bars? When you trust, trusted God and
you put everything you had, you put all of your confidence in
him. And now here you are, sitting in
a dungeon, sitting in a prison in Egypt, far away from your
friends, far away from your family, seemingly far away from
God. Would your trust have wavered if
you were in that situation? How about if you were Job
watching the destruction of everything that God had given
him, Thousands of camels, thousands of cattle, thousands
of donkeys, 10 children gone in an instant.
Would your trust have wavered in God?
If you were Job sitting there scraping the wounds that God
allowed Satan to pass on your body from the crown of your head
to the sole of your feet, would you have, Would your trust in
God have wavered? If your wife was sitting next to
you saying Job just curse God and die, would your trust have
wavered? Think about Abraham.
God promised to make a great nation out of him, and at 100
years old he was still sitting there without an heir, without a
child to pass that, to make it that that great nation out of.
Would your faith in God have wavered?
But each of these men saw God's through, saw God come through to
them. For them all the way to the end,
because they waited on him and they waited on God's timing.
How do you wait on God's timing? What word is in your mouth?
The Bible says and take not the word of truth utterly out of my
mouth. What word is in your mouth as
you wait for God's timing? Anger God.
Why haven't you come through for me yet?
Bitterness. Doubt.
When we're truly trusting God's Word, then our faith is going to
demonstrate itself through the choice of our words.
And there may be times even when you doubt in your own mind.
There may be times even when you just don't know how things are
going to work out. But what's the words that come
out of your mouth? Are they words of trust?
Are there words of faith? Are there words of anger and
bitterness against God because God didn't do it the way that
you thought He wanted to do it? Listen, God doesn't work on our
timetable. God works on his own timetable,
and He's got all of eternity to make that time work.
Or we look at it through the lens of our own puny
understanding. God's understanding is far
greater than ours. His ways are not our ways.
His thoughts are not our thoughts.
We don't understand it because we're not looking at it from the
heavenly view. We're looking at it from the
earthly view. We we only can look around.
God can look down and see all of it.
How do you trust Him? Proper waiting brings a greater
capacity for service. See that the more we learn to
wait on God, the more God can use us in His service.
Job came to that realization. When he hath tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. Gold is far much more useful
than than than clay. Gold is far more useful than
brass. It's far more valuable than
those things. And Job in that waiting,
exhibited the patience that comes to a man who is fully
trusting in God, fully trusting in God's Word.
And Job said when he tried me, I shall come forth.
As gold, are you waiting for God to show you the next step in
your life? I'll tell you this.
Get busy for God. I don't know what God has for me
next. I don't know exactly what God
wants me to do, especially for our young people who might be in
high school or college or maybe just after college.
I don't know what God wants me to do.
I'll tell you what you do. Get busy for God.
You get busy working for God. He will show you the next step
in your life. But waiting on God gives you a
greater capacity for service to Him.
We're in the waiting process for a building right now.
Oh, man, the the worst thing we could do is hold off on all the
ministries while we wait for God to come through for us.
We're just, we're just going to wait.
We can't start this. We can't do that because we just
don't know what's going to happen.
No, get busy for God. Get busy doing something for him
that this church has been built in the four years that we've
been waiting for God to do something when it comes to a
building. God's built this church during
that time. And if those of you have been
here for, for, for more than five, 6-7 years, know that
that's exactly what's happened. We've been in a waiting pattern
for a long time waiting for God to do something.
But as much as we know how we've been busy for the Lord in that
time and God has built his church because we don't just sit
there and wait and say, oh, poor us.
We don't know what's going to happen next.
Poor us. We have a building situation
that that this building is going to be torn down more than
likely. And then what are we going to
do? I guess we just sit here and
wait for God to do something. No, we wait for God to do
something, but we get busy while we're waiting for him to do it.
Let him work through you. When it passed through the
school of trials were more useful as servants of God.
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 40. Most of you probably know this
verse, but I think it's worth looking at it again and seeing
it with these with fresh eyes when it comes to the idea of
waiting on God and having patience on His timing.
Because this is what God says about those who wait for Him.
Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint. That's what He does for those
who wait on Him. So are you completely trusting
in God? Well, you're going to know, by
the way, that you wait. Are you busy serving him?
Are you busy living, living for Him while you're waiting for Him
to show you the next step? Are you busy living for Him
while you're waiting to tell you what He wants you to do?
That'll determine where you're at and your trust of God the way
that you wait. But also, I want you to see this
back in Psalm 119. How do you know if you're
completely trusting in God? Well, first of all, by the way
that you wait, but secondly, by the way that you walk.
He says this in verse #44 So shall I keep thy law
continually, forever and ever. Temporary delays and setbacks
were not going to undermine the psalmist faith.
He was determined to let his actions line up with his words.
And that's exactly what DL Moody did.
And that explains why he was so successful as an evangelist and
why unlettered man as he was the agnostics, the intellectuals,
the skeptics of that day just could not defeat him.
I read a book about DL Moody just a couple months ago.
It was very eye opening and very insightful into what how God was
able to use DL Moody. But in 1883, DL Moody was in
Britain, and he was he challenged the freethinkers and
the atheists that were in that country to.
Come to a meeting and he was going to speak just to them.
And obviously there was many unsaved in in, in the countries
that that he preached in and many people were saved through
the meetings, but. There were those.
Who who consider themselves to be agnostics or freethinkers and
atheists. And DL Moody wanted to talk
specifically to those people. And so at that time, a guy by
the name of Charles Bradlaw was the the maybe you can call him
the reigning champion of atheism.
He was the one that that that just championed the cause of.
There is no God. And so as soon as this man heard
about DL Moody's challenge, he got all of his clubs together.
He got all of the people that he knew together.
And he said, we're going to go and take over this hall.
We're going to take over this meeting.
And we're going to show DL Moody just who it is that he really
does serve. And so DL Moody, when the
meeting started, turn to his text in Deuteronomy chapter 32
and verse #31 their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies
themselves being judges. And began to pour just broadside
after broadside of incidents where he he gave stories of, of
men and women whose deathbeds he sat by, some who were infidels
and some who were Christians. And he explained to them the
difference between somebody who was dying as a Christian and
somebody who was dying as an infidel.
And one after another, he just told story after story and and
and and challenged them to to to decide which ones had the best
foundation. Which ones had faith that they
could hope and rest in? And before long, tears started
to flow in that audience. Men who were so hardened against
God's word began to soften just a little bit.
But the great mass of men, these dark and determined faces,
defiant against God, they sat there seemingly unmoved.
Deal Moody continued to preach this message to them and.
And hit them really on their most vulnerable points.
And at the end of the meeting, DL Moody said, now we're going
to stand and we're going to sing.
Only trust Him and. We're going to.
Open the doors to the back of this auditorium and if anybody
wants to get up and leave, this will be your opportunity.
Instead of stampeding for the door, 5000 men that were in that
auditorium that night all stood up, mumbled through the words of
that song and every single one of them sat back down and DL
Moody started to explain to them in simple terms how they could
become a Christian. And after a few minutes one of
them from the audience shouted out I can't deal.
Moody said just hang on hear, hear the rest of the gospel for
just a few more minutes. And as he continued on, one of
them stood up and raised his first and said I won't and deal.
Moody, with all those men in that audience, said, it is I
will or I won't. For every single man in this
auditorium this evening, either you will accept Jesus Christ or
you won't accept Jesus Christ. It's a battle for your will.
He said your champion is that man who just stood up right
there in the middle and said I won't.
If you want to join him, then join him.
And there was silence. Nobody, nobody answered.
Yeah, Moody said, man, this was his quote.
You've had your champion there in the middle of the hall, man
who said I won't? Thank God that no man says I
won't. Now who will say I will?
And it seemed like in an instant the Holy Spirit broke loose on
the crowd of Christ's enemies. The men sprang to their feet,
their faces wet with tears, and many of them began to shout.
I will, I will deal. Moody sat all those men down,
and one by one they were able to talk to those men and lead them
to Christ. He knew the value of eternity.
He said. Your rock is different than my
rock. Deuteronomy chapter 32 said that
exact same thing. Their rock is not as our rock,
even our enemies themselves being judges.
He knew he was safe. He had taken hold on the
permanence of God's Word. It doesn't matter what the
infidels say. It doesn't matter what the
atheists say. It doesn't matter what the
Gnostics and the agnostics and everybody else says.
It matters what God's Word says. And we can trust God's Word
waiting is not meant to be a time of doing nothing.
Every moment is a preparation for the next step in God's plan.
If you really believe that everything in your life happens
for a reason and the and that every.
Moment in your life is planned by God, then what are you living
for you the the way you live or the way that you walk is going
to back that up. And so we we prove that we trust
God not only by the way that we wait, but by the way that we
walk. What are you doing for God while
you're waiting? What are you doing for God while
you're waiting for that next step?
Every moment is a preparation for the next step in God's plan.
If you really believe that everything in your life happens
because God allows it to happen, then that waiting is helping you
get to the next step that God wants you to do.
It's more important, it's important for us to see the big
picture than it is for us to understand the small.
Parts, right? What we understand is just a
small little piece in that puzzle.
I know that many of you have probably taken the time, whether
recently or a long time ago, whatever happens to be.
You put a puzzle together at some point in your life and when
you pick up a little puzzle piece, it doesn't look like it
makes a whole lot of sense because it's just random little
colors and maybe a line here or a line there.
But you have no idea if you were just pick up that that little
piece of the puzzle what in the world is supposed to be a part
of. But when you take that little
piece and you fit it into the puzzle, it makes perfect sense
and God is seeing the entire puzzle.
All we see many times is that little piece, and it doesn't
make sense to us, but it makes sense to Him.
And so He's expecting us to just wait on him.
And in the process of waiting on him, we're supposed to be
walking in the way that He wants us to walk.
Trusting God means leaving the big picture to His concern.
He understands it all. He knows how everything is going
because he sees the upper side. We can only see the bottom.
He knows the next. Step that we need to take, but
we need to trust Him to help us do it.
My part, as the text says, is continual obedience, or
literally obedience without interruption.
Psalm 119 and verse 45. And I will walk at liberty, for
I seek thy precepts. Most people would not describe
walking according to God's laws the way the psalmist did.
They would describe the life of faith as a life of bondage
rather than a life of liberty. I'm a Christian, so I can't do
that. I can't do this thing.
I can't go here, I can't go there.
I can't do all the things that I'd like to do.
To the unsaved man, it might look like a life that's hedged
in with restrictions, but the psalmist saw God's law as the
perfect law of liberty. It didn't mean that he couldn't
do whatever he wanted. It means that he was free to do
what God wanted him to do with his life.
That is what he says is true freedom.
So shall I keep thy law continually, forever and ever,
and I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts.
How many millions of people are a slave to drugs?
How many millions of people are a slave to alcohol?
I'll tell you what it was. It was some encouraging news
that I read a little bit earlier this week.
This there is a some statistics that had come out that said that
only 56% of people say they drink.
But you know that there's more alcohol being consumed in the
United States than than there ever has been.
Less people drinking, more people consuming alcohol means
there's so many more people in our country that are addicted to
alcohol, people who are, who are addicted to smoking and addicted
to so many other things. Bad temper, pride, evil
passions. That's not freedom, that's
bondage, and I have the freedom in Christ to not have to do
those things. We have the privilege of
following God and walking after His law, and that's where true
freedom begins. And so we prove our trust in God
by the way that we wait, by the way that we walk.
And #3 I want you to see this in verse #46 I will speak of thy
testimonies also before kings and will not be ashamed.
We prove our trust in God by the way that we witness.
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not
be ashamed. You know that means something
when you say that you'll give a testimony of God before kings.
King had the ability to cut your head off if he felt like doing
that. If he was, if you offended him,
you could disappear and he could make it happen.
It's kind of the ultimate test of whether or not you're going
to share the gospel. And God says, Hey, I want you to
go talk to your neighbor and you say, I can't do it right.
I want you to go talk to your coworker.
I'm a little too nervous. I'm afraid of what they're going
to say. I'm afraid of what they're going
to think. I want you to talk to your
family. Oh, but, but, but, but he says,
I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings and will not
be ashamed. We have nothing to be ashamed of
in God's Word. It's it stood the test of time.
It's commanded the allegiance to some of the world's finest
thinkers, and we need not to be ashamed of this book.
It has the answers for all of life's problems.
If we really believe that, then we'll share its message with
other people. Many people in the Bible were
successful for God because they were not ashamed to share God
with others. Oh, look at think of all the
examples. Paul did it, Daniel did it,
Esther did it. So many others in God's Word
shared the the Bible with others unashamedly before before people
who had the ability to take their life.
Look, God protected them. Paul shared the Gospel with the
emperors of Rome. The enemies, the avowed enemies
of Christianity. And he ended up ultimately
losing his life for it. But he said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ, for it's the power of God unto salvation.
Daniel did it. He got sent to the lion's den.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did it and they ended up going
through the fire. Esther did it.
God delivered her, God delivered all of them out of the out of
the hand of the King. The list could go on and on, but
boldness is a key and greeting to proving our trust in God.
If we really trust him, if we really believe Him, then we will
share Him with others. So many other religions who
don't even have the truth are willing to share their faith.
How you think about how how devout the Mormons are to get
their gospel out, their young people take two years of their
life and dedicated strictly to the church to try to spread the
message of Mormonism. And people make fun of the
Jehovah's Witnesses because they're constantly knocking on
their doors and trying to share their faith.
But they're sharing their faith. They have a reputation that
they're going to go out from door to door and share that
truth, at least in their mind. And yet here we know that we
have the truth of God's Word. From God's Word.
We know that if people don't accept the truth of the gospel
plus nothing, minus nothing, no works, no anything else, then
they'll go to heaven for all of eternity.
If they don't, they'll spend an eternity in hell.
And yet we don't share it to our shame, Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Why don't we share it?
We ashamed of it. That's what the world thinks.
When you won't share the message of the gospel, you must be
ashamed of it. Or why wouldn't he tell me?
All right, all you think about businessmen, salesman, we're
trying to make a sale. They'll do anything.
They'll say anything they got to
say. They'll they'll promise you
anything. They got to promise you to get
you to buy their product because they believe in it and they want
you to buy it. Yet when it comes to sharing the
greatest message that's ever been given, we shrink away and
we cower in a corner. We're afraid of what people are
going to think. We have the truth.
Are you completely trusting your God?
If you're completely trusting in God, then you'll have no
problem. I'll speak the testimonies also
before kings, and I will not be ashamed.
That's what the psalmist said. Not many people who are willing
to stand up and tell it like it is, regardless of the cost.
They're afraid of political correctness, correctness.
They're afraid of the cost. What's your testimony?
Are you willing to share your faith with others?
Or what? Are you willing to prove your
trust in God by the way that you witness?
But I want you to see one last one.
In Psalm 119, verse #47 we prove our trust in God by the way that
we wait, by the way that we walk, by the way that we
witness. And lastly, we prove our trust
in God by the way that we worship.
Verse #47 And I will delight myself in thy commandments,
which I have loved. My hands also will I lift up
unto thy commandments, which I have loved.
And I will meditate in thy statutes.
How long is the list of the things that you really get
excited about? Oh, you can say, well, I, I love
church more than anything else. But then you go to a football
game and you act like a wild nut cheering for the team.
Oh, that's something that you definitely get excited about.
Or your your favorite show I got to be home to watch this thing
or, or they're coming out with a new episode of this or that or
this movie is coming out and I kind of see it as soon as it
comes out. Tax rebate.
Yeah, a lot of people get excited about that more than
church. Where does God fall in that?
List of the things you get excited about.
I know you're going to show up. You're going to be here for
church. You're going to be here when the
doors are open. You're going to have your Bible
and you can be dressed up and you're going to be you're going
to be here in church. But how excited are you to be
here or as many times I got to go to church again today because
they're going to ask me where I was at if I don't show up, don't
want to be there. But I just got to got to punch
the clock and be there at church.
Got to check that off my list so I can go do the rest of the
things that I want to do with Sunday.
Got to be able to say I went to church today.
So so I don't feel bad for not going.
But when we. Trust God with all of our
hearts. It's not going to be it's not
going to be hard at all to put God at the top of that list.
Not just things that you endure, not just things that maybe you
enjoy a little bit here and there, but things that you get
excited about. Delight.
He says, my hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments,
verse 47 and I will delight myself in thy commandments.
Delight means to have an intense emotion toward.
Do you have an intense emotion toward God's commandments?
Do you have an intense emotion toward God's Word?
Do you have an intense emotion toward the things of God?
Do you have an intense emotion towards sharing the message of
the gospel? Where's your delight?
Is it in the worshipping God? Is it in the opportunity to come
to his house? Is it coming to church?
Just something that we do as a way to make ourselves feel
better on Sunday mornings. Many people across the country,
and maybe even you sitting here this morning are in that exact
position. I got to do my duty, got to show
up at church, got to be there just to make sure that I can
check that box off and make God happy for a couple hours and
then I can go live my life the way that I want to for the rest
of the week. This is something we really look
forward to, and when we don't make it to a service, we feel
like we truly miss something. We can't wait to make it back
for the next service. Now, I'll tell you what happens
with most people. The baby has a runny nose and so
everybody has to stay home. Amazing how that works, isn't
it? Oh, if you were going to a ball
game, doesn't matter what the baby's got going on, the wife
can stay home, right? Well, I'm, I'm going on
vacation. I'm leaving Monday so I got to
stay home on Sunday to pack and I'm going to get.
Back on Sunday, so that way I don't have to be at church and I
can just pick everything up with my life on Monday.
Oh, that's the way a lot of people live their lives.
They're not excited about being in church and oh, I missed it
again. Oh well, I'll catch it next
week. That's not delighting in the
worship of God, that's enduring the worship of God.
And most Christians just endure it.
They don't delight in it. And that proves that our trust
is not in him. It's in all the other things
around us. It's in all the other things
that we rather be doing than sitting here in church right
now. All right, I'll go to church
this morning. It's a good thing there's no
football games on at 10:00. They don't come until one or two
or something like that in the afternoon.
And at least I can go to church and then I can go home and watch
football. That's the thing that I really.
Want to do? On Sunday, man, Sunday night
really messes up my schedule of watching all those football
games right now. You would never say that out
loud, but that's where it's at. That's where you prove your
trust. In Him, that's where you prove
where your loyalty really lies. And maybe it's not football,
Maybe for you it's baseball, or maybe for you it's cornhole or
something. I don't know.
But a lot of us put a lot of things in front of our worship
of the Lord. Turn over, if you will, to
Isaiah chapter 12 and we'll be done.
We prove our love. Prove our love for and our trust
in God by the way that we worship him.
It's just as important on the inside as it is on the outside.
By the way, a lot of people worship on the outside and be
miserable on the inside. Isaiah chapter 12 and verse #2
Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid
for the Lord. Jehovah is my strength in my
song. He also has become my salvation.
There's a man that was being led by a guide over a very dangerous
Alpine trail, and they came to a place where a rock jutted out
into the path and it only left about a little footstep worth of
trail left. And so that guide, he had taken
people many times over that same exact trail.
He got down on his knees and he laid his arm down and his hand,
his elbow was up against that rock, and his hand was extending
out over the edge of that precipice.
And he told the man that he was guiding, step around this rock
and go ahead and step in my hand and use that as your way to get
around. And that man, obviously he said
a little, little, little sketchy that I'm stepping on somebody's
hand instead of on something solid.
And that guide said this hand has never lost anybody yet.
That's exactly what Jesus Christ has done for us.
That hand, that pierced hand of Jesus Christ has never lost
anybody. Yet he says no man is able to
pluck them out of my Father's hand.
Nobody. He's not lost anybody yet.
When you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you have that
eternal security. You know that you're on your way
to heaven. But then comes the opportunity
that you have to prove your trust in God.
AB Simpson wrote this. How often we trust each other
and only doubt our Lord. We take the word of mortals and
yet distrust His word. But oh what light and glory
would shine, or all our days if we would always remember.
God means just what He says. We must trust in God for all the
details of our lives, but can't just be words, it has to be
backed up with our actions. We prove our trust in God by the
way that we wait. We prove our trust in God by the
way that we walk while we're waiting.
We prove our trust in God by the way that we witness while we're
walking and waiting. We prove our trust in God by the
way that we worship. What are those things prove
about your trust in God? What are those things prove
about your trust in God? Let's pray.
Father, again, we thank you so much for your goodness to us.
Thank you that we have your word that we can trust.
We thank you that you're a God that will do just what he says.
Oh God, I pray that you'd help us to be people who fully trust
in you and that we'd prove it by the way that we wait, by the way
that we walk, by the way that we witness, by the way that we
worship you and God where we fall short.
Would you help us? Help us to make the decisions
that need to be made this morning to put us in that
position where we are completely trusting you with everything we
have in our lives. God will thank you for all that
you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.
If you would stand at your seats with your heads bowed.
And your eyes. Closed.
I want to give you an opportunity this morning to
respond to the message. If God spoke to your heart as
the piano plays, the invitations open, you come.