Good News People are Trusting People

Psalm 146 NIV

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live. Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord their God. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— he remains faithful forever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked. The Lord reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the Lord.

Introduction: Good News People - growing disciples, living the good news, being good news. It is not Good news unless there is something “Good.”

- Foundational to being Good News people is Trust. Who can we trust?

https://skitguys.com/videos/psalm-146-call-to-worship

People Trust the Temporary.

Story of Israel, Context of Psalm

-Israel’s Kings lead the people away from God.

-They lead the people towards injustice, and towards idolatry

-Became as corrupt as the nations around them, when they were supposed to be different.

-God allowed other nations to conquer them and exile them, the Assyrians and Babylonians

-Those rulers were often harsh and violent, and other nations took them over.

1. “In verses 3–4, the poetic parallelism ‘princes … son of man’ (‘mortals’);

- So We can Understand why the Psalmist says, Don’t Trust in the human leaders. - They have really led them astray

- But we can put our Trust in the Temporary as well.

“For awhile humans were ignorant. They placed all or most meaning and explanations to gods and supernatural causes. Then, during the Renaissance, the writings of Aristotle, which were suppressed for years, were recovered. We began to see explanations through scientific observations and reasoning. We learned that we could grow in the knowledge of natural law and explain things apart from gods and the supernatural. Gaining such knowledge would help humans be able to control economics, politics, psychology, science, and nature in a way that could eventually rid our world of many problems through progress.”

Paul’s Reason for Civic Leaders

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be subject, not only because of wrath but also because of conscience. 6 For the same reason you also pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, busy with this very thing. 7 Pay to all what is due them—taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.

How does that work, Don’t Trust human leaders, but Paul says be subject to them?

Good News People Place Trust in the Eternal.

Belgic Confession: - Article 36

We believe that

because of the depravity of the human race,

our good God has ordained kings, princes, and civil officers.

God wants the world to be governed by laws and policies

so that human lawlessness may be restrained

and that everything may be conducted in good order

among human beings.

For that purpose God has placed the sword

in the hands of the government,

to punish evil people

and protect the good.

Human leaders are delegated authority, and temporary, God is the Ultimate Authority, Creator of All thing. To be good news people is to live according to God’s delegated Authority, “Unless” that Authority makes a grab or claim to God’s ultimate Authority.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego

Peter & John Acts 4 -

Jesus to Pilate - You have no authority over me accept that which is granted by my Father. - John 19:11

Polycarp - His trial quoted https://www.persecution.com/stories/stories-of-christian-martyrs-polycarp-of-smyrna/?gclid=Cj0KCQiA0oagBhDHARIsAI-Bbgf1b7DXqzUJkypiZC4krHRMBGs2HMEOtHoOpUlrKL3j7po-l33YC4gaAisaEALw_wcB

The Nazi Flag and the Heil Hitler in Churches in Germany.

https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/martyrs/dietrich-bonhoeffer.html

https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/protestant-churches-nazi-state

1. “By focusing on the issue of trust, this psalm touches human life directly in every generation. What are the temptations regarding our allegiance? Where will we place our trust? In democracy? In the president? In the promise of science and technology to solve our problems? In military might? In ourselves? In the financial security we build up? From the perspective of the psalm, to be wicked means to be self-ruled. In contrast to the self-centeredness of our culture, the psalms and the gospel challenge us to be God-centered. To be righteous means that one’s life fundamentally depends on God” (James H. Waltner,Psalms, Believers Church Bible Commentary [Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 2006], 698).

What do we have a tendency to Trust more than God? How do we represent that Trust, by placing things above God?

This perspective of Trusting God first becomes the foundation for being Good News people, because we will align ourselves to the good God wants to do in this world and for eternity.

A. It does not place expectations on people that they can not keep - “Savior” mentality.

B. It aligns ourselves to God’s will of justice and goodness he wants to do.

C. It will prevent us from blindly following human leaders who can manipulate.

D. It grounds us in an eternal perspective, that no matter how evil the world seems to get or confusing it gets, God Wins. leaders come and go, nations rise and fall, but the Lord remains.

E. Jesus’ shows us that God is faithful to his promises and will come again to restore all things.

F. And ironically, it allows us to Trust other people more, because it places them in the context of God’s story…made in the image of God, but fallen, and reliant on God for salvation.

In this interview clip, Malcolm Gladwell talks about the necessary, implicit trust we use to operate our lives. In his book Talking to Strangers, Gladwell shows how this implicit trust can sometimes open us up to betrayal. We can’t exist in our world without a baseline of trust, but we must recognize that our ultimate trust can only be placed in Jesus (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcYe9i-kPy4).

Conclusion: What are things or people you are placing over God? Putting in God’s position? How can you put those things in proper alignment.