God Is Trustworthy

Knowing God  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  53:24
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INTRO: Who here likes amusement parks? (Disney World, Six Flags, Adventureland, etc.)
I love rides that give the adrenaline rush! I wouldn't say that I am an adrenaline junkie now, but there was a time when I did some pretty foolish things just to get the rush of being in danger. A lot of that changed after Ian was born, but I still enjoy the excitement of crazy, fast, and tall rides that shoot you forward, whip you backwards, and spin you in loops!
You know how you can tell who is a happy rollercoaster rider, right? It's the person with all the bugs in their teeth!!
I was not always like this though. I can, however trace my love for rollercoasters back to ONE event in my life. I was eight years old or so, and my family and I were visiting some friends that lived not too far from Tampa, Florida. These friends took my family out to an amusement park called Busch Gardens. This was not the first time I had been to an amusement park. I had gone quite a few times to Six Flags Over Texas and ridden many of the rides there. But Busch gardens had ride called the KUMBA. At the time, the Kumba held the record for the ride with the highest vertical loop. This loop was one of seven times that it would invert the riders during the three minute ride. It was crazy! The Kumba was fast, too. It reached speeds of 60 MPH and at that time, that was pretty fast. The fastest roller coaster now days tops out at 155MPH, but still, to an 8 year old, 60MPH was fast.
We were so excited to go to this amusement park! My brother and I talked about it all night the night before. He said something to the effect of, "Don't chicken out when it's time to ride the KUMBA." I, of course, was NOT going to let my older brother have the opportunity to cal me a chicken. So I psyched myself up and was genuinely excited about riding this ride.
Until we got to the park and I laid eyes on this ride... No other ride had ever seemed so big or fast to me. We had ridden some other rides to "get warmed up" before approaching the Kumba. As we got in line, fear started to creep into my mind. The line was sooo long, as is the case with any new and exciting ride. As we slowly moved our way toward the loading area, I couldn't take it anymore. I started to tell my dad that I did not want to ride the Kumba. The closer we got, the more scared I became. My dad tried to assuage my fears; he told me not to worry and that the ride was completely safe. I just knew that something bad was going to happen though.
None of this convinced me that I should ride the ride, however. We were next in line, and I began to cry. I begged my dad to not make me ride the ride. He tried to calm me down, but nothing worked. Not even when he told me that if I could stomach this ride, that no other ride in the world would ever make me scared. He was a little upset at this point, and I could tell, so when it came time to get in the ride, I got in and the attendant secured the harness and the buckle. I continued to cry though. As we waited in our seats for the ride to start, I closed my eyes so tightly!
Then, the ride began to move forward, and I began to scream as loud as I could! I was terrified, but something happened about thirty seconds into the ride...
We climbed the steep incline right before the first major drop and I could see the whole park and beyond, and I was terrified! As we flew down my screams of terror turned to laughter, I raised my eight year old arms as high as I could and felt the safety of the harness as it kept me in my seat securely. This was NOT going to be the death of me, THIS WAS LIFE!!!
The ride soon ended, and I did not want to get out of the seat. I wanted to ride this ride ALL day! I begged to go again, and we waited in the hour long line two more times, but now, it wasn't fear that gripped me, it was this new sensation of adrenaline! It felt DANGEROUS, but I knew everything was going to be ok.
All my dad could say was, "See, I told you you would love it. If you would have just trusted me, you wouldn't have been crying all that time."
You see, my dad knew me. He knew that I would enjoy this ride. He knew that the fear conquering that I would have to go through would open me up to a whole new world of riding rides and enjoying amusement parks. Let me tell you without any hesitation, from that moment, I have never had a fear of riding another roller coaster? I have ridden taller and faster ones than the Kumba now almost 30 years after that day, but there has been none that I have shied away from. I fell in love with the sensation of adventure and the rush that it brings. Still on my bucket list is bungee jumping and skydiving. My birthday is in August, if anyone is wondering... JK!!!!
But listen, I found out that day that I could trust my dad on things like this.
This morning we are continuing our series on KNOWING GOD. Last week we studied that God Is Good.
Today, we will study the fact that God Is Trustworthy.
So many Christians live their Christian life like my pre-Kumba, eight year-old self. Scared. Scared about what God may bring into their life.
This Bible is filled with stories, true stories, of men and women that believed God, that obeyed God, that followed God and they were better for it and those around them were better for it. The reason that they followed God is because they learned at some point that God Is Trustworthy.
A couple weeks ago we talked about FAITH. We looked at the impossibility of
faith, right? The impossibility of Biblical faith. Let's go back to our verse there in Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Two weeks ago we talked about the seeming impossibility of these two statements, but came to the understanding that when we place our faith in God, even when it is little faith, He is BIG and can do BIG things. HE produces the substance of things hoped for and He IS the evidence of the things not seen when we trust and obey Him. We also saw last week that GOD IS GOOD. Because of this, we can trust Him.
And this becomes our springboard for today's message. Does anyone know what this chapter (Hebrews 11) is often called? It is called the HALL OF FAITH. You Bible may even have this as the title or heading to this chapter. I really like this! As we read through this chapter this morning, you will noticed people that are mentioned, and each of them has a singular characteristic about them- THEY TRUSTED GOD. They knew He was trustworthy.
Hebrews 11:1-3
1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
"The worlds were framed by the word of God." In Genesis 1, we see that God spoke creation into existence. He formed this physical world, he formed the spiritual realm that we cannot see. His words from His mouth did that, but we also see in the book of John chapter 1 that Jesus was the agent of creation. As God spoke it, Jesus, the second person of the Godhead, the living Word of God, formed the things and holds them together by His power.
We look at Hebrews 11:2 and see that the elders, the men and women of God of antiquity, they obtained a good report because of their faith. The Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God. These people that we are about to read about obtained a good report of God. So let's read on.
Hebrews 11:4-7
All these men had faith. They trusted God. They acted as though what they expected was a sure shot. Anyone here ever done a trust fall? They are scary!!! If you want a good laugh, go to YouTube and search "trust fall fails." This will entertain you for... several minutes... at least.🙂
But seriously, trust falls can be scary! Why are they so scary? (You never know if they are going to catch you or even if they CAN catch you!)
There are people that you do NOT want to do a trust fall exercise with because they are either NOT trustworthy or not strong enough to catch you.
But Abel, Enoch, and Noah all had faith in God and knew He was trustworthy.
Now we come to the person I really want to discuss today: Abraham (Abram).
Hebrews 11:8-12 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.
Here we see 3 areas of incredible faith for Abraham and his wife Sara.
1. v8- God tells Abraham to leave his homeland and his family, to uproot his life and to go somewhere. Where? Who knows, certainly not Abraham! God didn't give him the destination, He just said, "Go." You know what Abraham said? He said, "Okay," and went. He just let God guide him like some heavenly GPS without knowing where God was taking him. (Genesis 12)
2. v9-10- God instructs Abraham that He will lead him to a land that will belong to Abraham's descendants. You may think that this would be great. Maybe Abraham thought that he would be able to start building a city, but all Abraham did was live like a wanderer in tents. The only land he ever owned was land he bought to bury his wife.
3. Speaking of descendants, he and Sara both had faith in this area. Sara couldn't have kids. And by the time that God spoke to Abraham the first time, Abraham was seventy-five! He and Sara were both way past the "have babies" stage of life! How would Abraham be able to father a son, let alone nations? Well, let's look at v11-12. Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born!! (Genesis 21)
V.14 tells us that Abraham died without receiving the promise! But he died trusting a God that would one day fulfill the promise of the promised land and a nation from His son Isaac.
That is not the end of the story of Abraham's faith, however. Hebrews 11:17-19 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead;
[TELL STORY OF ABRAHAM SACRIFICING ISAAC] Genesis 22
Abraham trusted that God would keep His promise. The Bible says that when Abraham was commanded to go and offer Isaac up, Abraham got up early in the morning. He prepared everything necessary for the sacrifice. He didn't argue, he didn't go unprepared, he didn't hesitate, he fully and promptly obeyed because GOD IS TRUSTWORTHY!
APPLICATION:
So that is a nice story and all, but why is that important to us? Because GOD IS STILL TRUSTWORTHY today.
Last week we studied about two different narratives. An ancient narrative that was skewed. This false narrative describes God as vengeful and petty. But we also looked at the narrative that Jesus taught. You see, Jesus knew God the Father intimately. One of the primary reasons that Jesus came to earth was to be a visual representation of God; to correct false narratives that had been imagined by people who knew of God, but never had a relationship with Him. Jesus described God as good. Always good and always out for good.
Today, we will look at 2 sides of a single narrative. God as a Father.
There are so many people that did not have or do not have a very good father figure in their lives. Nobody has a perfect father, I think we understand that, but so many people have terrible father figures or that father figure is missing altogether.
This creates a conflict when we see that Jesus describes God and refers to God as Father, or when Christians are referred to as children of God.
We must understand this: Fatherhood is defined by God and His only begotten Son, Jesus, not by sinful and imperfect men and their relationships to their children. If you have been wounded by your earthly father or any father figure in your life, the solution is not to abandon the term father, or even imagine that your father is a representation of the character of God the Father, but to let Jesus define what a Father truly is and should be as He showed God to the world.
Jesus' most common way to refer to God was by using the term Father or the term of endearment ABBA, which is best translated "dear father."
When he taught his disciples how to pray, he opened up the model prayer with the phrase, "Our Father."
Let us analyze this prayer as we see how God's fatherhood is described in this example given by Jesus, the Son of God.
Matthew 6:9-13
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
1. v.9 God is near. To us, the phrase "Our father which art in heaven" might not make it sound like God is very near. In fact, heaven seems very far away. But in Jewish traditional thought of the heavens, heaven was the air around them. Remember when Jesus was baptized and the heavens were opened up? This was a description of God being present, like our atmosphere that is constantly surrounding us.
2. We learn that the Father is Holy- "Hallowed be thy name." We will get more into that in the coming weeks, but just like we said last week, God is all good all the time, and there is nothing bad about Him.
3. v.10 shows us that God is King in heaven and in earth. He is sovereign and is powerful. But until this point, we do not see anything that tells us that God is our for our good.
4. v.11 "Give us this day our daily bread." Remember, Jesus is teaching us how to pray to God. He is revealing God's character through this model prayer. Nothing that we read about Jesus, whether in the Bible or comtemporary extra-Biblical writings about Him even hint that Jesus was a cruel or mean person. He is not the type that would tell you to go ask your boss for time off just to hear your boss yell at you and be angry. When Jesus tells His disciples to ask God for their daily bread, what jesus is saying is that GOD CARES ABOUT US! He provides!
5. v.12 Jesus reveals that God forgives. The theologian Richard Foster states it this way: “At the heart of God7 is the desire to forgive and to give.” God longs to forgive man even more than man longs to be forgiven. We understand this because God made the first move in order that man could be forgiven.
6. v.13 "Lead us not into temptation (trials), but deliver us from evil." Jesus is revealing here that God longs to protect us. Even though we suffer accidents, problems, and trials, God gets the final say in everything. Just read how God controls the devil and holds him back in the book of Job.
So through this model prayer, Jesus reveals that God is near, holy, powerful, caring, forgiving, and our protector. Isn't this the thing we all imagine a Father to be? Dads, isn't this what you ideally wish to be?
This is what fatherhood should be. Parents, fathers and mothers, should strive to have these six qualities. When you have these six qualities, you become trustworthy.
See, a small child that is set up on a table by his or her dad and told to jump into the father's arms will typically do just that, jump. I used to do it all the time with my kids. It got to a point with most of them that I had to be careful where I stood them up because if they thought I was playing around, they'd be jumping or falling forward before I could do anything about it. I talked about being an adrenaline junkie before, and I wanted my kids to grow up without a lot of fear.
I don't know if it worked r not, but I would constantly throw my kids in the air and catch them. Not these little puny throws, I would throw as high as I could! They would scream and laugh, and I would wear myself out doing it!
But you know what would happen if I did that to other kids, or tried to do that to other kids, I should say? They would never let me execute the throw. I would pick them up and start to toss them in the air and as soon as my arms were extended and I had let go, they would grab onto an arm tightly and not let go? WHY?
Because in their eyes, i was no trustworthy. In their eyes and in their experience I was lacking one or more of those six characteristics.
If you are saved, God is your Father and he is a good Father! You can count on Him because He is trustworthy. 100%
Let me tell you this though, if you are here without Christ as your Savior, God is not your Father, but He wants to be. The only way for that to happen is to have a personal relationship with Jesus as your Savior.
Jesus said in John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the father but by me.
See we are all separated from God the Father because as I mentioned earlier a bit, He is holy; absolutely perfect. Sin separates us from God.
Romans 3:23 - All have sinned an d come short of God's glory.
Romans 6:23 - The wages, the fair reward for our sin, is death (separation from God eternally), but He offers the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ
Jesus lived a life without sin, because He is God the Son, and therefore He IS holy and perfect. But he laid his life down, and willingly let sinful men nail him to a cross where he bled and died. He didn't deserve death, because He had no sin to of His own to pay. So in His death, he paid for all of our sins. To receive that gift of payment for sin, what the Bible calls redemption, you must believe.
Romans 10:9-10 If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Those two verses talk about believing in your heart. Ephesians 2:8-9 says that we are saved by faith in Jesus alone. It goes on to say that there is no work, no good deed, no nothing that can save you. You have to believe that Jesus is the ONLY way and the ONLY person that can save you and forgive your sins.
If you believe it in your heart, then you must accept that gift of eternal life only comes through Jesus. Jesus offers it, but He won't force it on you. You must receive it. John 1:12 as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
[Example of trying to give someone a dollar or a pen, etc. It is not theirs until they accept it.]
Romans 10:13 - Whoever calls on Jesus to save them SHALL be saved. You have to call on Him in faith. It isn't the words of a prayer that will save you, but you must tell Jesus, "Jesus I believe in you, save me." When you place that faith in Jesus, the promise of Romans 10:13 is yours for eternity. You are in that moment adopted by the most loving Father you could ever imagine. And your personal relationship as a child of the Almighty God begins!
If you have never done that, if you have been trying to work your way into God's graces and into His family, you can call on Christ today in faith and become part of His family today!
Invitation:
I mentioned trust falls earlier. I said that there are two reasons for trust falls to fail:
1. The catcher is not trustworthy - will not catch you because he is mean or thinks it would be funny to watch you fall
2. The catcher is not strong enough
But there is a third reason why some trust falls fail:
3. The "faller" falls in the wrong direction.
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