Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Trust and Obey Pt.4

We'll be sharing tonight some reports from Africa. There is a lot of good news, and great things are going on. They're already excited about the team that's coming. Many of you are getting ready to go. There is a lot of work to be done there and much fruit that is being evidenced in all of the fellowships-exciting things going on. Continue to hold Cha Cha up in prayer. Our brother needs that strength and that grace at this time in his life. He's doing very well at the moment, so praise God for your intercession! The church in Umoja had its first wedding. We're excited about that, as young people are being joined together. Two are better than one, and I think they've got a couple more in the offing. In Tony's letter, he was talking about a class going on in Eldoret, and I think there are about four or five young couples being counseled and prepared for marriage there. There are a lot of good things that are going on in that aspect of the ministry also.

Let's go back to Romans, Chapter 6. We want to finish up this morning and this evening on the topic of "Trust and Obey." For there is no other way to be happy in Jesus (as the little Sunday school song says) but to trust and obey. Many of us have trouble with obedience, and we're trying to become more obedient, and we're trying to become more disciplined. Obedience is the byproduct of trust. If we're having trouble with obedience, it's because we are having trouble with our relationship with Father. We don't believe that He intends good for us. We can say we do, but we don't. We're keeping things under our own control. We're second-guessing His counsel and wisdom to us through the Word of God and through the divine order that's been set in place. We're trusting one person: ourselves. When we come to realize the real problem that we're facing (that problem of pride, of rebellion), then we can begin to approach it from a different way. And, hopefully, we can take care of this problem in our lives of self-induced separation from God and His great promises and intentions for us. As Deuteronomy 28 says, He wants to do you good, man! He wants to bless you. He wants to bless everything you touch. He wants to bless every place you put your feet. He wants to make you the head and not the tail, praise God! But the devil's got us duped into thinking, just like Adam and Eve, "He's trying to hold out on you, so you'd better take care of yourself." Because of that, we say, "Well, since nobody else is going to watch out for me, I'm going to watch out for myself. I'm going to be my own man."

We took a long time on Wednesday night and showed that no man is "his own man." You're either a slave of God or a slave of the devil. "Don't you know," Paul said in Romans 6, "that to whom you yield your members to obey, his servants (or slaves) you are?" So, we came to the understanding on Wednesday that obedience isn't really the issue. It's who we're obeying. We're obeying somebody. Now, some of us seem to think, "Well, I was disobedient to God, and that's not good." We saw also that it's not a matter of just being disobedient to God; you were being obedient to the devil. You were saying that the devil is better than God and that he intends better for you than God. There is no middle or neutral ground. It's an absolute: light or darkness, God or Satan. When we begin to see that, it should be very offensive to us, who really love our heavenly Father, when any thought would enter into our minds contrary to the Word of God, contrary to our counselors. Let me say it again. To disobey your parents isn't just to disobey your parents. It's to worship Satan. To move out from under the authority of your husbands isn't just to express a little bit of independence. It's to worship Satan and say, "He's good. His ways are best." We need to begin to see this in a different light. See it for what it is, and it will cause you to hate it and not just see it as a little problem in your life. "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." Rebellion, disobedience, and broken order are idolatry, the worship of Satan, and the worship of self.

We saw then in Romans, Chapter 6 what it means to really trust God and the great benefits of it. Romans 6:12 says, "Let not sin therefore reign [dominate] your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof." We were talking about obedience to Satan, obedience to the flesh, and obedience to the lusts; for all that's in the world is lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The world's system is continually calling you to itself, and then you obey. Obedience isn't the problem. It's whom you're obeying-that's the problem, because we're all being obedient to someone. So, when I use the term "disobedience," I'm really talking about the rejection of God's wisdom and a departure from God's presence. When we use the term "disobedience," it's with the assumption that God's Word is truth and His ways are right. It's with the understanding that the wages of sin are death. So, don't let sin reign in your mortal body. "Neither yield ye [as free moral agents, with free will] your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead [those who have been regenerated], and your members [your life, your energies, your talents] as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin [to the believer, the truly regenerated man, the true Christian-not the churchgoer, not people who say, ‘Lord, Lord,' not people who say, ‘I believe in Jesus] shall not have dominion over you..." (verses 13-14). If you're truly saved, sin doesn't dominate your life. It's very important that we understand that.

When we talk about sin dominating your life, we're not talking about people who have besetting sins or are battling with an ongoing area that they're overcoming. We're talking about sin having dominion in your life. It's when you justify it, and when it's dealt with in your life by the Holy Spirit, by the Word of God, or by brothers and sisters, you try to somehow minimize it, justify it, and make provision for it. Then you're under its power. But we're under the power of love, we're under the power of forgiveness, and we're under the power of grace, he goes on to say. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves [slaves] to obey, his [slaves] ye are to whom you obey; whether of sin [Satan] unto death [the soul that sinneth shall die; the wages of sin are death], or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the [slaves] of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the [slaves] of righteousness [slaves to obedience; slaves to the sonship, love, grace, mercies, and the presence of God]" (verses 16-18).

We see, then, that this is part of the consequence of regeneration. We're bought with a price and no longer our own. When man is born, he's born into the kingdom of darkness; he's born into this world's system where Satan is lord. Regeneration is the only thing that brings us out from under that. The truly regenerated man who's renewed in his mind (old things pass away, and all things become new) is no longer going to be able to identify with or take pleasure in that former life. The things I used to love, I now hate. It's not, "Well, you know, I dislike them a little bit; they don't have quite the attraction to me that they used to." It's, "I now hate them!" Do you hate sin? Do you hate the old man? Do you hate the fact that your Father is being mocked by His own creation? What's more offensive than watching a child get in the face of his parents and be disrespectful and hateful? "I hate you!" I've seen little kids do that do their parents. I wanted to go over there and knock them out! Yet, every time we choose to worship Satan through our disobedience to God, that's exactly what we're doing in the face of our Father. We're just throwing one of those little tantrums and saying right in the face of God, "I hate you!" "Why?" "Because I can't have my own way; I'm not able to do what I want." Isn't it vile?

When we understand the price that was paid and the love that God has for us, we can actually, through our obedience, become that sweet-smelling savor to God (that worship, that incense) as we offer up our lives as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable unto God. Obedience is better than sacrifice. Obedience is that offering of a sweet-smelling savor that recognizes the worth of God, not just embracing the mercy of God. Sacrifice is saying, "I've transgressed; I've devalued You. But now I draw on Your mercy, Your love, Your grace, and Your compassion through this offering, which represents my acceptance of the work of Jesus Christ. I confess my sin, and You are faithful and just to forgive me." Sacrifice has been made for us, and provision is there for that. However, obedience offers up the worth or worship ("worth-ship") of God. Obedience is an incense before God that makes Him great in the eyes of His creation. Every angel and every demon stands in awe, because we're the only creatures that can worship Him. Think about that. Others praise, and others sing, and all of His created beings are around the throne. But man is the only one who can bring true worship and recognize the worth of God and what He's provided for us through the blood of Jesus. It's our obedience-through recognizing His worth and because we want relationship with Him, not blessings-that causes Him to be great in the eyes of His creatures. How important that is!

How do we come to that place? How is it that we can come to this life of habitual obedience? We talked about obedience being a decision, and it's a decision made before the circumstances arise. I choose to obey before I have to make this specific decision. I choose to obey. Abraham chose to be obedient before God asked him for Isaac. If that's when he had to deal with the issue of obedience, it would have been a very difficult thing. It was hard as it was, but it would have been a very difficult thing to arrive at the right decision. We see in the life of Abraham the same thing that every one of us experiences in our lives. God brings us to that place, through different circumstances in our lives, where He allows us to choose to obey. Abraham's life of obedience began when he was called out of the land. The Scripture makes it very clear, if you'll study the life of Abraham-in fact, let's turn to over to Hebrews for just a moment and look at Chapter 11. We want to see what it is that Father's doing in your life right now. These things that may seem to be small things to you are not small. It's God preparation; it's training. He's strengthening you in the area of making right choices, of becoming a child who habitually obeys. How is it done? Just like everything else in our lives, it's done through repetition.

In our last session, we talked about the example of the military and what it is that's behind the military thought processes. They want to tear down individualism. They don't want you to think for yourself. You don't have the right to make fashion choices, do you? You go, and depending on what branch you're in, they give you a bag of clothes, and that's it. Having been in the Navy, I got my sea bag, and that was it! You've got one bag, and that's you; that's your clothes. You go into boot camp, and as you go in there, everybody has the same clothes. Everybody folds their clothes the same way. They have to be exactly the same dimensions as everybody else's in there. Everything has to look alike. There's no individualism, no choices of hairstyle. You don't have any hair, man! It's not about style. It's about Dana! (I just happened to look down there and see him. He's looking sharp this morning!) Everybody looks like Dana. We've shared with you before the joke of the barbers. Back when I was going in, the long sideburns and everything were the big deal. Those barbers got a kick out of it. They'd say, "Would you like to keep your sideburns?" Of course, you'd say "Yeah!" Then they'd say, "Hold your hands out!" You could keep them all right. They'd just drop into your hands! And they loved to take that first hit right down the middle of your head, didn't they? So, there it is. Everybody looks alike. Everybody dresses alike. Everybody's clothes are alike, and everybody folds them alike. Everybody gets up alike. Everybody has to march to breakfast. You march two hours before sunrise, and you're marching to breakfast. You're hurrying up to wait, and you stand in line. Now, I was like everybody else. I'm sitting there going, "This is stupid! I could really do without this." The loss of individual worth. Then you begin to learn through repetition the tasks that are at hand, to where it becomes second nature. Is obedience that way to you? We haven't learned obedience until it becomes second nature. You do it so many times.

We're having a softball team here in church for the first time in 14 years. So, they asked me, "Do you want to play softball?" I said, "Yeah." Then I realized that I had not thrown a ball, until Kevin and I got together here in the gym last week, for about 14 years. So, I take the ball, and it went right where I was throwing it. I was a little bit surprised, since I hadn't thrown one for such a long time. There was one thing that was strange. I never heard all that creaking before! The Lord should have made us with little lube nipples on there, like our cars. Not too long ago (and I hadn't swung a golf club in...I couldn't even tell you how long), my brother and I were hitting some balls. I took a three wood and just slapped it about 230 yards right down the middle! Then I put the club down, in case it was luck. (You don't want to press it, do you?) What am I saying? It's like riding a bike-you never forget, right? What do they mean by that? How can you just pick up a softball and throw it, not having thrown one in 14 years? I can't tell you how many times I've done that. Even though it takes a little longer to loosen up, all of the muscle memory is still there. The muscles aren't still there, but the memory's still there!

Have we done that in our lives through habitual obedience to where, without thinking about it, the Word of God is our choice? Without thinking about it, the Word of God is what comes out of our mouths. Let's say it according to the scriptural principle. Out of the abundance of the heart-what you've put there in abundance, what you've spoken out in abundance, the decisions that you've made in abundance, the things that you've meditated upon day and night in abundance-that's what comes out. It's not an obedience problem. It's a pursuit problem. It's a relationship problem. It's a preparation problem. You want to do the right thing, but you don't have the capacity. You haven't prepared. Now, the muscle memory is the same. It's like I said-I could go down there right now, and I could want to bench press 400 pounds with all my desire. It's not going to happen today! I know how to do it. The muscle memory is there. Experience is there. The knowledge is there. What's not there? The preparation. Now, if I really wanted to do it badly enough, and you gave me a little while, I could do it again. But it costs, doesn't it? There's a price to pay. There's a commitment to be made. What's your treasure?

It comes down to this passage in Hebrews, Chapter 11, verse 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." If you're going to come to God, you've got to believe that God is. That God is what? That God is Who He said He is-that God is good, that He is the Father of lights, that He is the giver of every good and perfect gift, that He is light, that His Word is truth, that there are no other gods beside Him. ("Oh, go ahead and eat it. You won't die. Your eyes will be opened, and you'll become as gods," the serpent said.) Believe that He is Supreme, the Almighty, the infinite Creator, the non-caused Cause of all that is. Do we believe that? Or have we been duped by the father of lies into thinking that there is an alternative course, another acceptable way? Have we believed the lie that there is a liberty to where, as individuals, we are absolutely free? That's a lie of the devil. For you to think you're free makes you a slave of Satan. Don't ever forget that. That's what the Word of God teaches. Those who come to God must believe that He is and that He's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Our pursuit must be a diligent pursuit, according to how badly we want to achieve whatever the goal might be. Here, it's the knowledge of God.

As Father is causing us to pursue Him, by His grace He's drawing us, and He's revealing Himself to us through His Word. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, Romans tells us. This is where we begin to understand His good intentions toward us-that He wants to bless us, that He wants to be present with us, that He wants and sees us as His sons. He's called us heirs and joint heirs. He's not ashamed of us, the Scripture says. That relationship that He's pursuing, He reveals in His Word. As we spend time in the Word, and we meditate upon it day and night, and we begin to hear His promises and that every promise of God is yea and amen, and that becomes a reality-now faith is the ability to trust God. Faith is trust. Faith is reliance and assurance that God will do what He said He would do. That's what faith is. It's the assurance (the trust) that God will do what He said and that God is Who He says He is.

The interesting thing about trust is this. There is no trust without an entrusting of ourselves to that one we say we trust. It's like the little child we've talked about. Do you remember that? You're in the pool, or the baby's up in the tree, and you're saying, "Come on; jump to daddy!" The kid is saying, "No, no!" "Come on! You can trust dad!" Some dads [Pastor demonstrates a father moving out of the way and the kid falling and hitting the ground.] "That'll teach you!" You've taught him all right. "I just want him to toughen up." You want him to not trust you. You want him to trust in himself; that's what you're teaching. "Don't trust anybody but yourself." I want to tell you something. When my babies jump out of the tree, I'm catching them! That's what it's all about. You can trust your Father, and you can entrust your life into His care.

Obedience, doing what Dad tells you to do, is the assurance that He wants your best and that He knows better than you. My Father knows better than I do. Beloved, stop for just a moment. I know that these are such simple truths and so obvious, but we miss them. Your Counselor is Omniscient, Infinite, and Almighty. Let's put it in another way that we can come to understand. Guess what? God knows what the Lotto number's going to be tomorrow. That'll put some people to praying, won't it? Anything you need to know, He already knows. He can tell you. "Well why doesn't He tell me?" Probably because you don't need to know! But, you see, we don't like to work on a need-to-know basis, because we don't trust. We don't like a need-to-know basis because we trust only one person, and that's ourselves. When are we going to discover that we make lousy gods? Yet, we all demand worship. We demand that everybody bow before us-to our will, to our perception. Very few of us can cast our care upon Him and believe that He really cares for us. Very few of us believe Romans 8:28, that all things are working together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purposes. We just don't trust that. We don't believe that because, "Surely my perception of these circumstances is right. Surely God is out to get me. Surely God's forsaken me and forgotten me." "I will never fail you," He told us as we looked at Joshua. I believe my God will never fail me. I've served Him most of my life, all of my adulthood. God's good, amen? I didn't say that all of these circumstances were enjoyable. I said that God is good.

We're going to see, as we continue into this study, that the real problem in trusting God is that we're so caught up with and overvalue the temporal. We're so taken up with the immediate, the temporal circumstances that we don't realize that this is all about an eternal abode. It's all about a city whose foundations and builder is God. This life is preparation for eternity. This life is a vapor. These things are going to pass. Everything that men worship and desire is going to burn. God's wise decisions that affect many of our temporal things are for eternal good. Satan won't let you believe that. He'll lie to you constantly. But verse 13 of Hebrews 11 says, "These [heroes] all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." That's what we are here, man! We are strangers and pilgrims. This isn't our home. This is not where our treasures are. My trust is that God has a better place for me. He's gone to prepare a place for me and He's going to come again and receive me unto Himself, that where He is, there I will be also.

What about these momentary circumstances? I may like them, or I may not like them. But it's irrelevant because all things are working for my good. I trust God. I believe that the steps of the righteous man are ordered by the Lord. I believe that the Lord has gone before me to prepare a place. I believe that His glory is my rear guard. I believe that a thousand will fall at my side and ten thousand at my right hand, but it will not come nigh me, praise God! Are you fully persuaded that what God has promised, He's able to perform? Do you trust in God, or are you still in that place where you have to understand? You're on a need-to-know basis. Obey-do what you're told. You're a slave-a slave to righteousness, a slave to His mercy and His goodness to us. There's a better country, praise God!

Verse 17 says, "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son." If you'll read that story (and we're not going to take the time to go there this morning), I think it's very interesting, and this is one aspect of obedience. Do you remember in the story of Abraham, when it talks about God speaking to him about the offering of Isaac? A couple of things leap out at us from that context. One of them is this. As soon as God spoke, Abraham rose up early. Don't think about it; just do it. The more you think about it, the more you'll end up talking yourself out of it. I've had people over the years say to me, "Pastor, it seems like you just do things..." When God speaks, I'm gone! The men will tell you that. There is no, "Shouldn't we really give some thought to this?" or "What about the ramifications?" That's all God's problem. When He speaks, I'm out of the boat. "Shouldn't you put on some scuba gear, just in case? How about grabbing your surf board? How about calling the Coast Guard?" How about trusting God?

The one thing we're going to see about this habitual obedience-to where you take the decision making out of your hands, to where it's not even a factor to allow our own wisdom or reasoning to come in, to where you so habitually follow the command-is that causes you to do things that, in the eyes of others, can look to be presumptuous or foolish. And it's because they've never been there. I want to encourage you with this. As God moves in our midst, He's looking for some folks He can raise up. It's not going to be just the young people. Some of you old people say, "Well, you can't teach an old dog new tricks." Well, you're not an old dog. You're a dead dog! We're going to teach you a trick. Play dead, and He'll raise you up. You're a new dog!

The point I was going to make is this. When people begin to want to trust God, stop discouraging them with, "Well, you'd better give some thought to this." I'm not talking about speaking toward things that are secular and could be obvious cases of presumptuousness in different areas. I'm talking about people who are following not their own wisdom, not their own methods, but people who have heard the voice of God. How can we do that, especially when we're around people that we care for? Very simply: by devaluing our own opinions and by realizing that God is moving in the lives of individuals, especially in this hour that we're in. When people are wanting to trust God-"Do you mean in this investment?" God's not in investments! We're talking about eternal things. We're talking about souls. We're talking about the glory of God through faith and through absenting ourselves from all of the cares of this world. So often we intermingle the temporal with the eternal, and many of us don't even have the ability to discern the difference between what's taking place. When God is moving in the lives of individuals, and they're going to go out looking for a city whose builder and maker is God-Abraham went, the Scripture said, not knowing where he was going. Do you want to know something, especially some of you parents? It's easier for many of us to go not knowing than it is to let our kids go not knowing. But I want to tell you something. God is going to take some of us into new realms, and He's going to take many of us out of our comfort zones as we come into these last days. And we need to be very careful that we're encouraging people to trust God, to believe God, to move in faith, to experience the supernatural, and not limit ourselves to our own perceptions or to our own understanding. When somebody hears from God, let them go, praise God! Abraham went out early. "Well, what if it's not God?" Then they'll come back sooner! If you go early, you'll come back sooner and say, "Guess what? It wasn't God." "You say, "Okay. What did you learn?" Has anybody here ever missed God-you thought it was the Lord, and it wasn't? Let me see your hands. Probably everybody, right? The guy that doesn't have his hand up has never even thought he heard from God!

So, we hear and obey, we go out not knowing, the promises become real, and the journey is supernatural. In the midst of all of this, we go through the learning process of obedience so that when the promise finally comes-Abraham, hoping against hope, and now the child is born and the promise is manifested-our next trial is this: not worshipping the fulfilled promise. It doesn't always end there. God can ask for it back, and many times He will, because the object of our worship (what we place our worth upon) can never be anything but the Giver, but God. Did God give you that job? Then it's not yours. God's the source, and He can take it back. Did He give you that house? It's the Lord's. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord! That's where we're supposed to live. "Pastor, I don't like that ‘takes away' part." The faith camp has no ‘takes away' part, do they? The Lord gives! Blessed be the name of the Lord." It got taken away. "Get behind me, Satan!" You're not rebuking Satan when you make that kind of statement. You're worshipping him when you can't learn to obey and accept everything at the hand of God as good. Trust. Do you trust Him? Do you believe that His intentions for you are good? Those who come to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who are diligently seeking Him, the Scripture says.

Psalm 37:3 says, "Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land [promises], and verily thou shalt be fed." We're going to look at a couple of the Psalms here for just a moment. Throughout the Psalms, of course, the psalmist admonishes us to just trust in the Lord, rely on Him, and rest in Him. Remember, we talked about trust. To trust there must be an entrusting of ourselves to His care-casting our care upon Him (for He cares for us) and believing that His intentions are for our good.

I've shared this with you before, but I'll give the illustration again. I just stand in awe of how many times-some of you may have even experienced this when there are deaths in your family. There is an inheritance, and things are being split up, and there are little squabbles and fighting among siblings. As my parents put together a living trust (and these things you do to try to beat taxes), they asked my brother and I how we wanted to do it-who wanted to be executor, who wanted to be primary signatory, etc. I said, "Just put it all in Den's name. He's out there, and I'm back here on the East Coast. So, just put it all in his name, and when you guys are gone, he can divvy it up." I know what some of you are thinking. "Yeah, I could see me doing that with my brother! He'd be like, ‘Yeah, have a good day!'" But I trust my brother, and he's not even a Christian. This is how trust is. I trust him, so I entrust. If it came down to where it didn't divide up equally, who do you think he would give the bigger part to? He'd give it to me. If I were dividing it up, I'd also give it to me! No, I'm just kidding. Why? I know him. We have a relationship. Now, that's just a little natural thing; that's just my brother.

Do you have people that you trust that way? You say, " Yes, I have friends in the body that I trust that way." But we're frail; we're human. And you can't trust Father, Who says that you're to seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all of the things that pertain to your life will be added unto you? Everything that pertains to life and godliness has already been provided for us in Christ Jesus. It's all available. Then what's this obedience issue all about if we trust God, if we believe that His counsel is best and His wisdom is best?

The fifth verse goes on in that thirty-seventh chapter and says, "Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass." Commitment. That's why there are so many problems in marriages today. Committing means an absolute giving over to the vow, to the contract. I've committed myself. Let your yea be yea and your nay be nay. When you tell somebody that you're going to be somewhere at five o'clock, then be there. When you tell somebody you're going to be involved in this part of the project, then be there and do your part. So many people are so noncommittal that we forget that God is absolutely committed to truth, to His mercy, and to His justice toward us. He is immutable; He doesn't change. We've been living now for generations where absolutism has been eroded. God is absolute. His Words are absolute.

It's interesting that there are certain segments of society where there are still codes that people go by. With the poker fad that's going around today on TV, I heard an interview going on with one of the guys. Among that crowd, it's absolutely not a strange thing for somebody to say, "Do you have a hundred thousand dollars that I can have?" And the guy says, "Yeah," and gives it to him on a handshake. "I'll get it back to you." "Okay." In most of the world today, you'd have to have a thick contract, and even then they could get out of it. Whatever happened with your word being your word? Among many of the racers that are out there today-a guy came by our trailer yesterday and asked for this piece of equipment. We gave him this thing worth hundreds of dollars. He said, "Would you like a deposit on it or something?" I said, "No. Just bring it back." That's kind of the way it is. We were in need of a part one day, and we didn't even know for sure what part it was. And this one fellow gave us a part that was worth a thousand bucks and said, "See if that works." It used to be that a man's word was his bond; it used to be on a handshake. You agree to sell your house, and that's that. We've become so eroded in our society. Now, man has always been a sinner; he's always been depraved. But there were certain biblical principles that people still lived by that they knew were right.

Today, we're living in a generation when men call good evil and evil good. Today, we're living in a generation where there are no absolutes. We're living in a generation of self worship. "I have a right to this." They could steal from you and not think a thing about it. Tragically, Christians live the same way. Instead of just stealing it and saying, "Look at how I ripped that guy off," they say, "Look at what the Lord gave me." We steal by shady business practices. We steal by manipulation in coming up and saying, "Ah, brother, just pray for me. I have such and such a need." You're just begging, man! You're just manipulating. If you want it, just go up and ask them for it. If they say no, then let their nay be nay, and if they say yes, let it be yea. Don't go up there through feigning prayer and a need try to get something out of somebody. Just go up and say, "This is what I need. Can I have it?" If they say, "No," then say, Okay."

This is the society that we're living in. This is the environment that we're living in. And because of that, tragically, God speaks to us, and we treat Him like man. We'd like to say this is not the case, but it is. Psalm 118:8 says, "It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man." I just asked you a question a moment ago, if there were people in here that you would commit your life to. Are there people in here that, if something happened to you, you'd commit your children to? Then why can't you trust God if you can trust man? These are the things that Father is trying to communicate to us through His presence by His Word. Is God trustworthy? If we can't trust Him with our daily bread, if we can't trust Him to order our steps to the proper life's mate, then how can we entrust our eternal souls? Those who come to God must believe that He is and that He's rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Father, we thank You for Your Word this morning. There is only one way that we can come to trust You, and that's just to spend more time with You and get to know You better. That's done in Your Word, because faith (trust, reliance, assurance) comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We have an audience, and Your presence is manifested as we prayerfully commune with You through the Word of God, the revelation of Yourself to us. There can only be one reason, Father, that we don't trust You, and it's that we don't know You. If we could get to know You, we'd surely trust You. Those here in our midst that we've entrusted our lives to, it's because we know them, and yet each of us could change. Any good thing in our character is because of Your grace and Your mercy. We could backslide (any of us could backslide), and everything we've entrusted be taken from us. But You're immutable; You never change. Your goodness is infinite; it's eternal. We've got to believe that You are and that You're a rewarder of those who diligently seek You. We can't rest-worried about the economy, worried about our investments, worried about our home, worried about our children, worried about future-because we don't know You. In Your presence there's fullness of joy, and at Your right hand pleasures evermore.

What can we do practically? Meditate (mutter, boast, say what You say) day and night. How can we get to know You better? By entrusting everything, just putting it all into Your hands, stepping back, giving thanks, and declaring the greatness of our God.

How can we be free from cares, worries, and anxieties? Just get rid of all of it. The poor laborer sleeps well, because he has nothing to lose. You've got too many treasures. Just give them all up, put them into the hands of God, trust Him, and sleep. Rest in the goodness of our God.

We ask that You'd make that real to us, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord.

As they headed up that hill, Isaac said, "Father, we have the wood, and there's the fire. Where's the sacrifice?" Abraham-the wise man, the man who'd known nothing but the goodness of God and the miraculous, the Father who had sustained him as he left his home and went out not knowing where he went, who saw his body empowered, who saw the miracle of the dead womb of Sarah brought back to life, who saw that promised child come forth-was an experienced man of obedience. He said, "I know one thing, son. God will provide Himself a sacrifice." He saw Isaac raised in a figure. He didn't see him raised from that altar. He saw him raised in Jesus Christ. "Even if I offer him up now, I'll see him again, praise God!" "Don't harm the child," He said as he raised that knife. Do you have the knife raised? Is it in the hands of God? That's obedience. That's trust. That's liberty. That's being a slave to righteousness. That's a sacrifice that's a sweet-smelling savor to God.

That's what our desire is, Father.

As Gary plays for us, we'll take a moment. Just worship Him this morning. It's not about the momentary decisions. "Should I take this job? Should I buy this house? Should I marry this individual? Should I go on this vacation? Should I eat that fifth chocolate éclair? Should I watch that questionable movie?" It's not about those things. That is not the issue. "Do I trust God? Do I believe that my steps are being ordered, that I have a purpose that brings eternal glory? That's what I live for; not this momentary decision." Let's sing it together and worship Him.

Lord, You are so good to us. We're a people blessed by Your presence, Lord, and by the privilege of serving in Your kingdom, and by Your showing Yourself mighty among us. Father, we believe that You're preparing us for this hour that is coming. We're just thankful for what You're doing in our midst. Stir us, Lord, by Your presence. Bring about an awe of Yourself and a humility among us. Give us an appetite, Lord, to taste Your goodness. Prepare us, we ask, Father, for what is ahead. Glory to God!

One of the ways Father is preparing us is by raising up leaders in our midst. I'm going to ask Danny and Colette to come at this time, as well as the pastors and their wives. We're going to lay hands on Danny as God has chosen to place him in the office of deacon in our midst for the care of souls. He's a man who can be trusted. He's a man whom we can put our hands on and place our spirit in him. He's a man who's not going to speak his own vision but will run where he's been sent. We thank God for him and many others like him. There are many others in our midst that God is raising up. I believe that Father is going to be adding to us people that are hungry for the presence of God, and we're going to need more care. I believe that there are going to be new people. I believe that people who have left us are going to come back home and realize that we've intended only one thing, and that is their good. So, others are being prepared and raised up, and we thank God for it. We've got great men here serving, and we're so thankful. Just extend your hands toward Danny and Colette and pray, and let's believe God to anoint them this morning and for a special presence of God. Hallelujah!

Father, these are Your children. And Father, I just place my hands upon Danny right now, and I speak Your peace upon him. I impart to him that spirit, Father, that You've placed within us. As Moses took of that spirit and imparted it to Joshua, even so, Father, cause a new heart and a new spirit to rise up, and cause Your servant to glorify Your name. Cause Colette to continue to stand beside him and to lift his hands. We rejoice, Lord, in the work that You're doing in our midst. We thank You for the faithful servants of God. We receive that, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

We're a blessed people, amen? Praise God! Just thank God for what He's doing. Just grab a deacon somewhere, hug him, and say, "Thank you for your service and what you're doing." Go in peace. God's love go with you, in Jesus' name.

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