Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So if you're in the market for a friend
what do you look for
I think you look for a couple of things
first of all you look for someone that
does right
somebody that
has healthy
behaviors
well when you hang out with them they're not going to get you into trouble
number two you look for somebody that tells the truth
is not a liar
in fact if there are a good friend you want them to not only be able to tell you
the true
but they want
to be you want them to be able to tell you the truth in love
because sometimes there are some loving truth that
we need to hear
that's not easy to share as well as not easy to hear
the third thing is you want a person
whose dependable
somebody who will being there for you in your time of need
you know that's the person you could call at
two o'clock in the morning that's the person that you can call when your car
breaks down and you can ask them to borrow their other car
until your car gets fixed that's a a good friend
when we take those three elements and lay them over a friendship with God it's
interesting to see how God sets
did you know there are three things that God can't do
the first thing is that God can't do wrong
Deuteronomy makes that clear that
that God is very fair he's very just in everything he does
number two is God can't lie
Paul says in Hebrews God is holy and if God is holy means He can't be a
liar
and then the third thing is that God can break a promise
God is always faithful
Numbers records that for us that God is faithful
isn't that what
David is celebrating in our scripture passage this morning I think it is
for the word of a Lord holds true
and we can trust everything He does now I know that's a challenge because
you trust God sometimes I trust God sometimes but I don't trust God
you don't trust God all the time
in everything
in fact
I'll give you a little psychological advice it would cost you please
two hundred dollars at a therapist's office
I'll give it to you for free yes if you want to reimburse me you can put that in
the plate
and it simply is this
if you have experienced distrust in relationships with others
If you've found it hard to trust other people for Good reason
I'm not saying for bad reason
if you have trouble trusting other people
then there's a high corollary
to your distrust of God
some of us have experienced
particularly those in authority in our life
being very untrustworthy
and because of that we project that onto our relationship with God and
We're afraid that somehow God isn't going to Hold up his end of the bargain
that he's not going to be faithful that when the chips are down he's going to
double back on us
just like
that person did or this person did and our life
some of us
are very good at being
self-sufficient
and because we don't worry they're not going to sing so we're alright
there's a few up there they need all the light they can get when it's time to
read those little itty-bitty tiny notes on the page but
They're all right over there don't worry about them
we take that distrust of human beings and we project that on to God
but I don't believe that God has acted in any way that
would cause us to distrust Him
in fact I believe that great example of God's
Faithfulness, God's commitment, God's trustworthiness is the way that He
related to the people of Israel listen to a Joshua says
not one of all the Lord's good promises to the
house that Israel failed
Every one was fulfilled
now Deuteronomy
God is faithful, keeping his covenant
to a thousand generations now
you know that means way more than a thousand generations
He picked a thousand generations because That's so far out in the future
that's the point that forever God is going to be faithful there will not be a
point
in history where God will not be faithful even to a thousand generations
ten thousand generations
then I like what David says David says that the Lord is faithful in all his
promises
God has put
over seven thousand promises in the Bible
and he's good for everyone of them in fact
it's fun to find a promise when you have a challenge in your life
find a promise that God makes and personalize it
put your name
in that promise and then hold on to that promise and
as you pray say God now you promised this
and that's it just the promise I need you to fulfill in my life
It's amazing how God
is faithful in all his promises to us
how do we know God is really trustworthy
or where in our life do we really need to know that God is trustworthy one
is
because he's trustworthy he will always forgive our sins
now I know how
people look at sin
on the one hand they are afraid that God won't forgive them because
they have a repetitive sin what I call my pet peeves sins
you know those are the ones I'm always dealing with and I try to
confessed them in push them away and go in the other direction any
you know, I'm like you and they come back
They seek me out
and it's not as though I want to do
that
but I, like Paul find myself doing exactly what I don't want to do
and a good that I do want to do I have trouble doing that as well
so we think you know
if it's a repetitive sin we think somehow God is not going to forgive us
and then on the other side we think there are sins that we could commit
or maybe we have committed and we think that God can't forgive us or won't forgive
us of that great sin
that's not what the Bible says
Let's look at first John
first John one nine
if we freely admit that's another way of saying if we confess
that we have sinned we find Him reliable and just
reliable and just
he forgives us and make us thoroughly clean
from all that is evil
now the thing that's really good about God is that
when we asked God for forgiveness
he takes the
the slate of our soul and He
cleans it all up
he cleans it all up
in fact what's great about God is
that he forgives us and we don't earn that forgiveness
that's a gift to us, isn't it?
it's a gift to us that he wipes
clean the slate, now
that's not how most human friendships are, now
the truth is a good human friend is going to forgive you nineteen ninety-nine
Times out of a hundred
you know you that's the person you go to and you say I'm sorry that I
did this or said that and
you know and they forgive us
but there is a limit, isn't there to human forgiveness in fact the limit if
nothing else is
we forgive you but we don't forget
we're willing to bury
the hatchet
but we leave the handle showing
Don't we? yeah
We do and it's hard to believe that we worship a God
who forgives
and forgets
yes he's better than our human friendships
now yeah they'll forgive they
Don't forget
we don't earn it, it is a gift that God wants to
give us
and it's a gift that we need because we're all sinners
we're all imperfect we all make mistakes we make bad choices
and no there isn't a bad choice that you can make
nor is there a bad choice over and over again that you make that somehow
will cause God to no longer forgive you
he will forgive you
each and every time
that you honestly admit that you confess your sins to Him now I was raised in the
tradition
Where in the end you kind of earn your forgiveness
you know were you left a little box and you went out into the
the church and then you had so many of these prayers and so many of these
prayers
and so many of these prayers to pray and I noticed I got a lot of them
you know it wasn't just go out and do one
you know our Father hail Mary I was getting twenty, thirty of each
and then a few other ones that none of my friends had to pray
now that left me with the idea that I had to
earn it
that somehow
you know these sins meant so many prayers
and I and I think for
I think confession is an honest prayer don't misunderstand me
I think it's a very honest prayer
but I don't want you to leave here today thinking you have to earn God's
forgiveness
I think God's forgiveness gives us a great freedom
that causes us to act and think and speak in a more Godly more positive
direction
but that is a gift
it is not something that you earn
Why? because God is our friend
he's trustworthy
And He always forgives us
if we're willing to confess
Our sins to Him
number two is guidance and
I think we're the ones that put the limits
on what we think God wants to give us guidance about
we think well God doesn't really care about this or that circumstance of our
life this or that facet or dimension of our life and that's really just not true
That God's plan and God's purpose for our life it encompasses everything in
our life
our vocation, our avocation
what takes place in the boardroom what takes place in the bedroom
all of it
there isn't any facet or any element of life
that is outside of God's desire
God's guidance God's plan and purpose
for our life
now listen to what Solomon says he was
a pretty smart guy
he said trust the Lord with all your heart now
this is the whole little sermon in itself and
I'll spare you that as I've already preached it
but we're good with part of our heart but not all of our heart
even if you're really great in your nineteen ninety percent good with your
heart
there's one percent that you're not
never rely on what you think you know now, that doesn't mean that you
have to forget everything
that you know
it doesn't mean that you can't exercise wise judgment I'm going to talk about that in
this morning in a
moment yes you can and you ought to
but if you
think you know the answer all the time
then you don't have any room for God to give you guidance
if we don't learn
to trust him
and ask him that he can't answer, can He?
and so we can't be self-centered in all that we think
we need to be God centered in all that we think
remember the Lord in everything you do
and the proof that you
don't remember him in everything you do is
after the fact when you sin that's when you finally remember God, oh no
Right? if you remembered before you sinned you probably wouldn't have sinned
remember the Lord in everything you do and He will show you
the right way
now I do want to say this about God showing you the right way
that would be easy if life was always about a good choice, a good path
and a bad path
Right? we get that
even we humanly understand which is the right path to take because one's
Good and
One's negative, bad or sinful
but I do want to acknowledge that
life is not always like that sometimes you don't have a good and a bad path you
have two bad paths
but you must choose which one
To travel
philosophers call it the lesser of two evils
you have two bad choices
which one is
the least back
boy that gets us praying, doesn't it?
that gets us yielding to God's guidance I don't know what to do which path I take that
and I have to take a path
and many times we have to choose a path
the lesser of those two evils
and I could tell you that's really when we need God's guidance
in particular in our life
and God will guide us
even when we have two bad choices and we have to pick the best of the bad
How does He guide us
number one is he guides us through
his word
what we need to know about life and faith is all right here and even if the
Bible does it speak specifically about an issue
God still gives us guidance
for instance that
oddly enough I had two different guys in my office
asking me questions about
sexuality and singleness
and I can tell you that nobody dated in biblical times all marriages were
arranged
and so here they are dating and they have questions
what does the Bible have to say
and even though the Bible does it talk directly about an issue like dating
there's some very good things that the Bible
says that should inform us a specially at our sexuality
and singleness as we're dating
I can't give you a specific passage
that speaks about dating but there are a lot of passages that speak about dating
and sexuality
so the Bible number two wise counsel
wise counsel comes from a person who's also reading this book
it's interesting who we go
to get wisdom from I mean what are we going to do now that Oprah is not on TV
You're aimless now
don't know what to read what to believe, how to act
what to wear
Godly counsel
comes from somebody else it's reading this book and
it's helpful to ask somebody that's more mature
in their faith than you are
and allow them to mentor you
give you counsel
when you need it
a third way that God guides us is through the inter prompting of the
Holy Spirit and maybe you've never felt the Holy Spirit prompting you
hang around and it'll happen
and you'll learn
when the Holy Spirit is
prompting you and it's not just some thought that you have in fact
as I like to say
in a particular critical circumstance
when your natural tendency is to not go that way
and you feel urging to go in that direction many times that's the
Holy Spirit and I can tell you that's been some of the best prompting the Holy
Spirit ever done in my life
is I didn't really want to go
down that path and he kept saying no that's the right path, no, no that's a scary
path
that's a hard path
that I think I know where that leads
and the Holy Spirit said go that way well
it's ended up being great
The inter prompting of the Holy Spirit
the other is just your wife's judgment
if you have collectively are anything you're pretty smart
you're a pretty smart congregation
now wisdom and being smart are a little differed from one another but
usually if you're smart you can become a wise person
and I think wisdom
simply is a learning from your mistakes that's why it helps to be smart it's
easier to learn from your mistakes
a wise person is that not a person who has learned from their mistakes and if
We glean
Their wisdom in our life
their wise counsel
we usually avoids some mistakes, don't we?
what we have that in us too if we've learned from our mistakes we have some
wisdom
about
which direction we ought to go and or what choice we ought to make or what we
should do or not do
the Bible is very
very clear about this
trust the Lord with all your heart
never rely on what you think you know remember the Lord in everything you do
and he will
guide you
and show you the right way
A third thing that
that proves
God's trustworthiness is that he promises to reward
your generosity
Jesus says this in Luke six
Give and it will be given to you
for the
same measure you
use it will be measured to you
now I could have brought
a few props with me today
about measuring
I could bring and I even looked in the house
the smallest measuring thing we have is a little quarter
teaspoon
measurer
little tiny
the largest one we have in the house is eight cups at the big old clear bowl
the big handle on it
then it becomes an illustration about your generosity doesn't it
are you
stingy
are you a quarter
Teaspoon person
or are you in a large generous eight cup person
and I think the scriptures are exactly right
how you
measure out is how people measure back to you
We all have the same resources don't we? time
talents
treasures that's our money
And touch
our ability to
physically and emotionally be with other people
and God says that
he will reward those who are generous with their time, talent, treasure
and touch
and I think we know that that's true
that when we're stingy somewhere
other people are stingy in that
in that same area with us
and we all know that when we are in real trouble if we've been a stingy person
at we don't have anybody to call at two o'clock in the morning
God wants to reward us
but he can only reward us as we're willing to
yield to Him
and so when were generous with our time talent, treasure and touched it will come
back to us God will reward us for that I think He rewards us now and He rewards
Us in eternity in fact I got a little note from
a woman
the other day
she's decided tithe and I'm just using that as a as an example I
think our
talent and our time are important as well as well as our touch
she said I'm tithing and here's my little story
well the story was is that she needed something that was far more expensive
than what she was tithing to the Lord and
Through the friendship of some other people they provided exactly what she needed
and she made the connection between
her generosity in honoring God
and the blessing of other people being willing to provide for her really beyond
what she was giving to the Lord
lease we think that doesn't happen let's look at what happens when we honor God
Proverbs three nine honor the Lord with your wealth now
it says wealth but you can our Lord with your time
honor the Lord would your talents
honor the Lord with your touch it's not one of the other it's all of them
it's all of them
We're to honor the Lord
with all of our time, talent, treasure and touch in all areas
and with the best part of everything you produce
what's the best part of what you produce
in your life
are you giving God are you honoring God generously
with the best that God has given you
that gives us a little pause doesn't it
Jesus says in Matthew five if someone forces you to go one mile go with them two
we know this illustration
a soldier who was hiking
could ask anyone on the road
to take their backpack
for one mile
it's a little bit like
what happens when you boat I was boating
a few weeks ago and the boat we were in
died completely
and there we were stranded we're getting out the paddles and we had a long way
back to the dock
but amongst boaters one of the rules is as you must
rescue someone who's in trouble
in these guys saw us and he says you're in trouble aren't you, yes we're in trouble
he says no problem and he threw us a tow line and he took his time, his gas
to tow us back to the dock
a certain obligation one to another
and we have that obligation to one another
we should be willing to go at least one mile with just about everybody
but see that's not generosity, generosity is going to the second mile
and God's very clear that when we're generous with our time, talent and
treasure in honoring him and in service to others there is a great reward not only
in this life but in the life to come
your generosity is never wasted
even if it's not acknowledged
by another person
it's acknowledged by God
That's just the kind of God that we worship
that he wants to generously bless us and the reason we're not getting blessed
is because work too tight
we've limited God because we're just using a tiny measurer
instead of something large
and the fact is that
the Bible says that if you're willing to
use a large measure don't be surprised if what's measured back to you is far
greater
then even your large measure
why
because God is trustworthy
he sees all that we do
finally
we can trust that we are saved
once saved always saved
assurance of salvation raises the question can we ever get unsaved
is there something we could do
that would cause God to finally turned his back on us
It's interesting to read what the Bible has to say about that
first from Paul in first Corinthians
God guarantees right up to the end
that you'll be counted free from all guilt
on the day when he returns God will surely do this for you because he always
does what He promises now there is one exception
and we read it in a Matthew twelve thirty one
but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven
now I can tell you that
no one really knows for sure
what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
is
it may simply be seeing the work of the Holy Spirit and being so off-track
exceptionally off-track
that you know that it's the work of the Holy Spirit that you call it the work
Of Satan
as one theologian has put it
if you're worried
about your sin at all
you never have to worry
about your salvation
if you're worried about your sin at all
you never have to worry about God's willingness to forgive you
because I believe yes you are exceptional
uh...
and as exceptional as you are that is so exceptional
I don't think you would do that
I think it's
not
a normal possibility of life
and the reason for that is what did you do not earn the grace of God and
his forgiveness in your life really nothing, God does it for us, doesn't He?
That's what grace is all about
it was at his expense not our expense so if we didn't do anything to earn our
salvation
what can we do to un-earn it
that points out just how exceptional it is and that's what we would expect from
a God that we can trust
we can always trust that God will forgive us no matter the sin no matter
how many times we have sinned
we can trust that God will guide us even in the darkest valleys of life
we can trust that God is always going to reward us for our generosity
because that's just the business that God is in, blessing people
using you to be a blessing to others
and then finally we never have to worry about our salvation ultimately because
it is a gift from God that he holds up from his side
even if we're weak of faith and can't hold up very much on our side
what a great
loving and trustworthy God we worship let's pray
Lord were thankful for this reminder today of your trustworthiness
some of us
have trouble trusting you
when it comes to our sins Lord sometimes we
we have trouble trusting you
when it comes to our circumstances in life Lord sometimes we have trouble
trusting you when it comes to the issue of giving away what
you've given us
Lord, sometimes there's kind of an ultimate concern about our salvation but
yet Lord
we know from your word that we can trust you to the very end
Lord, where our trust is weak Lord bolster our faith in you
remind us Lord that that your God that always does what you promise
That your promises are true not only in this life
but in the life come. Amen
Translate this message into another language. Translating into these different languages is easy. Examples are Africaans Albanian Shqip Arabic Belarusian Bulgarian Catalan Chinese Han Croatian Hrvatski Czech Danish Dansk Estonian Eesti Filipino Finnish Suomi French Galician Galego German Deutsch Dutch Nederlands Greek Haitian Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Magyar Icelandic Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian Irish Gaeilge Italian Italiano Japanese Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Bahasa Melayu Maltese Malti Norwegian Norsk Persian Farsi Polish Polski Portuguese Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Español Swahili Kiswahili Swedish Svenska Thai Turkish Türkçe Ukranian Vietnamese Welsh Cymraeg Yiddish Gott Gud Isten Bhagawan Boze Bog Deus Allah Dio Dios Dieu Dieus Jumala Khudah Perendise Perendia Yesu Masiha Kami Sama Isa al Maseeh Kristus Jesu