Trust God

My starting point for my message this week is Psalms 18:1-3

I will love You, O Lord, my strength.
² The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;
My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
³ I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised;
So shall I be saved from my enemies.

I. Love God: Matthew 22:36-40#

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?”

³⁷ Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

A. Love God: Our relationship with God is meant to be far more than mere intellectual acknowledgement. God desires to have a relationship with us. He has given us His Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts through faith in Jesus Christ. We are called to love God. It is the most important commandment.

B. Love People: We are also called to love people. God loves all people. So should we.

II. Trust God: Psalms 37:3-5#

Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

⁵ Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.

We can trust God. He is worthy of our trust. Whatever we are facing, whatever concerns we might have, God is able to see us through them.

Our greatest delight should be in the Lord. We should desire to spend time in prayer, time in the Word, and time in worship. In all of these things we have the opportunity to develop our relationship with God, to draw closer to Him, to know Him more.

III. Call Upon God: Philippians 4:6-7#

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; ⁷ and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

When we do have problems we can ask God for help. Remember, He loves us. He hears us. He is able to help us. We can trust Him. In fact, you could say that our peace is directly related to our trust. The more we trust Him, the greater our peace. As we live our lives with God we will have increasing evidence that we can trust God.

So, when we have problems in our life, call upon God. We can trust Him. We can love Him, because He first loves us.

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These are the notes from the message preached 1/24/21. All scripture quotes are from the New King James Version of the Bible. The # symbol designates memory verses from the past. Any advertisements that might appear are placed by WordPress. I have no control over them, nor do I receive any money from them.

If you would like to view the message as it was preached for the 8:30 online service, you may view it at: https://www.facebook.com/116005455113481/videos/252114399643119

Focus

In the past week we have seen an outburst of anger that is startling.

I. Anger: Psalms 4:4-5

Be angry, and do not sin.
Meditate within your heart on your bed, and be still. Selah
⁵ Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,
And put your trust in the Lord.

A. Do not sin: It is OK to be angry. Anger can be used to motivate corrective action. Sadly, far too often anger causes people to act in ways that are sinful.

Even in our anger we should not forget that all people are loved by God. We are meant to reach out to them with the love of Christ. Even when it is necessary to rebuke someone, we should speak the truth in love. Our attitude is very important.

As Christians, we must respect the law of the land. I Peter 2:13-15 says:

Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, ¹⁴ or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. ¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—

The only time that it would be acceptable to break the law is if that law was contradictory to God’s law.

B. Meditate: One of the problems with anger is that often people who are angry act without thinking. Meditation is a combination of prayer and thought. It is appropriate when we are faced with a situation that makes us angry to pray about it. We should ask God to guide our steps.

C. Be Righteous: Remember who we represent. We represent Jesus Christ. We may not be able to be perfect but we should seek to live our lives as Christlike as possible.

D. Trust: At the end of the day, we do not place our trust in our government. We place our trust in God He is worthy of our trust.

II. Focus: Matthew 6:19-21*

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

A. Earthly Treasure: Our primary focus in this life should not be the accumulation of material things. We are interested in more eternal rewards.

B. Treasure in Heaven: We should be using our resources to build the kingdom of God. Our words, our time, our talents, our money, all of our resources should be dedicated to the work of God. Now, of course, we have to live. We need to pay the bills. We should be involved in our communities. However, our primary focus should be the kingdom of God.

As we move into the future let us be good citizens of our country, let us be good employers and employees, let us be good neighbors, let us be good family members, but most of all let us keep our primary focus on the kingdom of God.

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These are the sermon notes from the message I preached Sunday 1/10/21. All quotes are from the New King James version of the Bible. Any advertisements that might appear are placed by WordPress. I have not control over them and I do not receive any money from them. The * sign is the memory verse for this week. If you would like to view the message as it was preached on the online 8:30 service you may view it at: https://www.facebook.com/116005455113481/videos/257585822451119

Watch Out!

We live in a sinful world. How did it all begin?

I. One Rule: Genesis 2:16-17

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; ¹⁷ but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

In the beginning there was only one rule. It was clear. It was simple. The consequences were severe. It should have been easy to comply.

II. Broken Rule: Genesis 3:1-6

Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”

² And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; ³ but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ”

⁴ Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. ⁵ For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

⁶ So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

The serpent, whom we know to be Satan, begins by misquoting God. This is a common problem. An example of a misquote today is “Money is the root of all evil.” Actually the quote is “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil…” (I Timothy 6:10)

Eve replied with the correct information, but she added something. In the original commandment there is no mention of not touching the tree. Sadly, this too, is a fairly common problem. God’s Word is clear, but we add something more that we think makes it better.

Then the serpent flatly contradict what God said. “You will not surely die.” He denies the consequences and emphasizes the perceived benefits. Satan is crafty. He mixes truth with error. He twists the truth to serve his own purposes. He seeks to mislead and deceive. He is very good at it.

Eve then considers what the serpent said to her. She relies on her own perception and reasoning and comes to the wrong conclusion. She disobey God’s clear and simple rule.

What about Adam. Apparently, he was right there with her. He should have stopped her. He should have done something. Instead, he stood there silently and ate the fruit with her.

III. Consequences:

It is true that they did not drop dead. However, they would eventually die. They may have remained immortal if they had not sinned. More importantly, I believe that there was, immediately, a spiritual death. The spiritual connection that they had with the Father was broken. This consequence continued not only for them but for their offspring. It is only through Jesus Christ that the connection with the Spirit of God can be restored.

They were kicked out of the garden. Life would no longer be perfect. They were, in fact, cursed. Life would be far more difficult than it had to be. Life would be a struggle.

IV. Lessons to Learn:

A. Watch out! I Peter 5:8*

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

The devil will try to destroy us. We must watch out for his attacks. We should be aware of his tricks and be careful.

B. Study: II Timothy 2:15#

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

I still remember the King James Version which begins “Study to show yourselves approved…” We should be diligent. We should study. We should continue to read, to study, to memorize, to meditate on the Word of God. We should ask God to help us to understand, to apply and to live out the teachings in His Word.

C. Obey: I John 5:1-5

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ² By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. ^3# For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴ For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

We should believe in Jesus. We should love God. We should love people. We should keep His commandments. We do not do this on our own strength, but by the power of the Spirit that He has given to us. We have been restored in our relationship with God. It is because of God that we can do what God desires. Through our relationship with Christ we can overcome.

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These are the notes from the message I preached on Sunday, January 3rd. If you would like to view the message as it was preached for the online service you can view it at: https://www.facebook.com/116005455113481/videos/437195257307315

Any advertisements that might appear are placed by WordPress. I do not receive any money from them, nor do I have any control over them.

The * sign designates the memory verse for this week.

The # sign designates past memory verses.