Sunday, January 22, 2006
Trust--Sermon Notes January 15, 2006
Note: post taken from loose outline notes of pastor. No video available of this sermon. Sorry.
Text: Romans 5:6; 7:14-18; see also John 6:44; and Romans 8:15+
The other day I was driving down the road when I sas a sign at another church, discussing the title of the pastor's messaage. The title caught my eye and got me thinking. The result of that thinking and prayer is what we are going to discuss today. Thet title: Can God Trust Us? We will discuss that later, but first let's ask this question: Can we Trust God?
Now, of course we can, you say, we have to. He is God and we are Christians. Well, we havent all had a bed of roses. We have had bad things sneak up on us without warning. There is evil in the world. God doesn't keep us from harm all the time or protect us from being hurt. We aren't all happy. Maybe we can't trust God. Maybe He is just out for His own entertainment.
Well, we could say that if He hadn't warned us ahead of time. When he cast Adam and Eve out of the garden in Genesis, he laid it all out on the line. There would be bad times. We would have to work the land and work hard. There would be pain and suffering. God and His Son have never said life is a bed of roses when following the Almighty. Nowhere was it said that all our suffering would end. However, God did say thru Paul and others that our present suffering is used to sharpen us, to make us more perfect. Indeed, if we trust God, over time, we are shown to be trustworthy to God.
Why don't we trust God? I mean, He made everything, right? He created it all and has given us a plan for salvation. Why don't we trust God? For one, in many cases we are too scared to give up our own illusions of independence. In part taught by the world, in part by the enemy, we are encouraged to "be our own person", "do it ourselves," "be independent." The truth is, we can do no good thing without God. Paul discusses it at length in Romans 7 and 8, the dicotomy. Also, we are afraid of being controlled by another, without realizing that by not trusting in God, we are being controlled by the world. We must be willing to be out there for God.
Another reason we don't trust God is our own arrogance. We want to show we can do it without help. Remember when we were little--"I want to do it myself." Then we promptly made a mess of whatever we were doing and got the help we needed. However, the world teaches us and embeds that impulse of wanting to show we are "independent" to the world. NEWSFLASH--We can do no good thing without God. We can do zip, nada, without God. But, for the Holy Spirit, there would be no good thing done by us. We must move past this arrogance, because arrogance leads to sin. We must throw out this teaching of seeking to prove our "independence" because independence itself is an illusion. If we are not trusting in God and letting Him guide us, we are trusting in the world and letting the other guy guide us. Me, I want to go with God.
Therefore, we must trust God. By trusting God, we are moving past fear and arrogance and seeking to establish a closer relationship with God. And, by trusting God, even in hardship and going through what we do, the strengthening and exercising of that trust makes us more trustworthy to God. Which brings us to the next issue:
Can God Trust Us?
That is a tough one. The answer is yes and no. God trusts our intent, I believe, but not our will. We want to do what is good, we really do. However, we are weak. Paul discusses this in Romans 7 and 8. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We cannot rise above our sinful nature on our own. Anything good we do is by the grace of God, not out of our own ability alone. Also, look at our history as God's creation. Everytime he has asked for our trust, we have turned on Him. In the Garden. In the Wilderness, by making the Idol. Moses striking the stone. And look at the cost. The cost before Christ came was the serious risk of an eternity in perdition. As we are, we are highly untrustworthy, and even the closest to God have been known to betray Him--Judas Iscariot, Peter denying Him 3 times.
So, how are we made trustworthy? God knows our flaws. He sent Christ to make us trustworthy. He sent Christ to draw others to Him. You see, God wants to trust us so much that the only way we can truly come to Him is by being drawn to Him (John 6:44). Once we are drawn, Christ comes and seeks our repentance for our disobedience and lack of trust of God. Then, we place our trust on His promise of salvation and remittance of sin. Also, God wants us to be made trustworthy. Once we are cleansed of our past transgressions, He sends us the Holy Spirit to instruct us. The Holy Spirit is sent to comfort us in our present sufferings, to intercede for us, to help guide us past our present trials to see the truth--our present issues and times are but tasks God has set out for us to be made more perfect, more trustworthy. As we trust more in God, He trusts more in Us, and as He trusts more in us, the Spirit grows in Us, and we get more power over the world. But it is not our power, it is God's power. As it says in Romans 8, our present sufferings and trials are about us being made more perfect, and that what awaits us for laying our trust on God is something that will make us forget our present sufferings, something that is so worth it God himself sent Christ to die so we could get it. That is someone worth trusting in. An omnipotent Creator who seeks merely to have a relationship of trust with us is something worth going through these trials for. God is trustworthy, and with His help and the help of the Spirit and His other children, we too shall be someday.
Text: Romans 5:6; 7:14-18; see also John 6:44; and Romans 8:15+
The other day I was driving down the road when I sas a sign at another church, discussing the title of the pastor's messaage. The title caught my eye and got me thinking. The result of that thinking and prayer is what we are going to discuss today. Thet title: Can God Trust Us? We will discuss that later, but first let's ask this question: Can we Trust God?
Now, of course we can, you say, we have to. He is God and we are Christians. Well, we havent all had a bed of roses. We have had bad things sneak up on us without warning. There is evil in the world. God doesn't keep us from harm all the time or protect us from being hurt. We aren't all happy. Maybe we can't trust God. Maybe He is just out for His own entertainment.
Well, we could say that if He hadn't warned us ahead of time. When he cast Adam and Eve out of the garden in Genesis, he laid it all out on the line. There would be bad times. We would have to work the land and work hard. There would be pain and suffering. God and His Son have never said life is a bed of roses when following the Almighty. Nowhere was it said that all our suffering would end. However, God did say thru Paul and others that our present suffering is used to sharpen us, to make us more perfect. Indeed, if we trust God, over time, we are shown to be trustworthy to God.
Why don't we trust God? I mean, He made everything, right? He created it all and has given us a plan for salvation. Why don't we trust God? For one, in many cases we are too scared to give up our own illusions of independence. In part taught by the world, in part by the enemy, we are encouraged to "be our own person", "do it ourselves," "be independent." The truth is, we can do no good thing without God. Paul discusses it at length in Romans 7 and 8, the dicotomy. Also, we are afraid of being controlled by another, without realizing that by not trusting in God, we are being controlled by the world. We must be willing to be out there for God.
Another reason we don't trust God is our own arrogance. We want to show we can do it without help. Remember when we were little--"I want to do it myself." Then we promptly made a mess of whatever we were doing and got the help we needed. However, the world teaches us and embeds that impulse of wanting to show we are "independent" to the world. NEWSFLASH--We can do no good thing without God. We can do zip, nada, without God. But, for the Holy Spirit, there would be no good thing done by us. We must move past this arrogance, because arrogance leads to sin. We must throw out this teaching of seeking to prove our "independence" because independence itself is an illusion. If we are not trusting in God and letting Him guide us, we are trusting in the world and letting the other guy guide us. Me, I want to go with God.
Therefore, we must trust God. By trusting God, we are moving past fear and arrogance and seeking to establish a closer relationship with God. And, by trusting God, even in hardship and going through what we do, the strengthening and exercising of that trust makes us more trustworthy to God. Which brings us to the next issue:
Can God Trust Us?
That is a tough one. The answer is yes and no. God trusts our intent, I believe, but not our will. We want to do what is good, we really do. However, we are weak. Paul discusses this in Romans 7 and 8. The Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. We cannot rise above our sinful nature on our own. Anything good we do is by the grace of God, not out of our own ability alone. Also, look at our history as God's creation. Everytime he has asked for our trust, we have turned on Him. In the Garden. In the Wilderness, by making the Idol. Moses striking the stone. And look at the cost. The cost before Christ came was the serious risk of an eternity in perdition. As we are, we are highly untrustworthy, and even the closest to God have been known to betray Him--Judas Iscariot, Peter denying Him 3 times.
So, how are we made trustworthy? God knows our flaws. He sent Christ to make us trustworthy. He sent Christ to draw others to Him. You see, God wants to trust us so much that the only way we can truly come to Him is by being drawn to Him (John 6:44). Once we are drawn, Christ comes and seeks our repentance for our disobedience and lack of trust of God. Then, we place our trust on His promise of salvation and remittance of sin. Also, God wants us to be made trustworthy. Once we are cleansed of our past transgressions, He sends us the Holy Spirit to instruct us. The Holy Spirit is sent to comfort us in our present sufferings, to intercede for us, to help guide us past our present trials to see the truth--our present issues and times are but tasks God has set out for us to be made more perfect, more trustworthy. As we trust more in God, He trusts more in Us, and as He trusts more in us, the Spirit grows in Us, and we get more power over the world. But it is not our power, it is God's power. As it says in Romans 8, our present sufferings and trials are about us being made more perfect, and that what awaits us for laying our trust on God is something that will make us forget our present sufferings, something that is so worth it God himself sent Christ to die so we could get it. That is someone worth trusting in. An omnipotent Creator who seeks merely to have a relationship of trust with us is something worth going through these trials for. God is trustworthy, and with His help and the help of the Spirit and His other children, we too shall be someday.
# posted by Mark : 1:39 PM
