Main Idea: When despair rolls in start exalting God’s wisdom and stop exalting man’s. Good news: God is infinitely wiser than you (11:33)Ephesians 2:4Relax: God doesn’t need your expertise. (11:34-35...
Main idea: Trust and worship the Lord, who is sovereign over every detail.
“God’s providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people.”
–Jerry Bridges, Trusting God
Application
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Good morning, faith, Bible Church, please open your Bibles to Psalm. 147 will be our main passage for today. My name is Josh Gilchrist. If you don't know who I am, I am one of the pastors here. I'm a resident pastor over our college ministry. It's a wonderful privilege to be able to invest and pour into them and help equip them for the next seasons of life. I just would like to invite any of you who might have a desire or an interest in becoming a part of working and investing in the next generation. We in our ministry, are experienced in the departure of some faithful male leaders, especially who have helped lead our college growth groups that meet every week. They're people who have been invested in and trained up through the ministry, and they stayed around for a couple years after to help pour in to people who are younger than them, and that's really the goal, is to just help invest and equip our students to be just treasures of Christ, people who love the church, fruitful members. And so if that's something that would interest you, like I said, we really could use some, some guys that could help lead our Bible studies during the school year. If, if you would have a interest in talking about that, I would love to do that. And yeah, so we're going to read Psalm 147, that will be our main passage. We're continuing a trusting God series. Last week, Ian Rush taught about Isaiah chapter 40 and how God is the absolute sovereign and ruler in charge of all the things, in charge of the whole universe. He reigns on a grand scale. Today I get the privilege of talking about how God is sovereign over the details. So please stand with me for the reading of Scripture, and we'll read all of Psalm 147 praise the Lord, for it's good to sing praises to our God, for it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names. Great is our Lord, and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground. Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving, make melody to our God on the lyre. He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the hills. He gives food, or he gives to the beast their food into the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His steadfast love. Praise the Lord O Jerusalem, praise your god O Zion, for He strengthens the bars of your gates. He blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat. He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down the crystals of ice like crumbs. Who can stand before His cold. He sends out his word and melts them. He makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation. They do not know his rules. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray Lord God. We, thank you that you are in control and sovereign over every detail. We, thank you that you are good, loving and wise and trustworthy Lord. We, thank you for this opportunity that we have during the summer to focus our hearts in your nature, your attributes, Your perfections, your trustworthiness. Lord, we pray that You would help us to grow in our faith and trust. Lord, as we go through this series, I pray that as we unpack this Psalm and look at some other scriptures about your attention to detail, not just your attention, but your complete control Lord, that we would take you at your word, that we would be confident that what you say in your word is true, and that we would reorient our thinking around that Lord and that we would. In whatever way that you would call us to do that. Lord, we thank you for the way that you have provided financially for faith, Bible, Church throughout the years, Lord and we, we do lift up just these hard financial times that affect not just the church but everybody. Lord, we pray that You would help us to trust you with our finances, Lord, that we would trust you to provide, that we would be faithful stewards, generous givers to the work that you're doing, Lord, and we do pray that you would provide for the needs of this church, that the ministries that are in place would be able to continue and thrive and be strengthened, Lord, we thank you for just all the wonderful things that Toby shared that are going on in this church. Lord, you are in control of all that, and we give you the praise. Lord, be with me now. Lord, help me to proclaim Your word faithfully. Lord help us to apply it to our lives in Jesus. Name Amen. Please be seated. Ian,
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the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. In 2008 my wife and I decided that we wanted to have our our third kid. When we found out that she was pregnant, we we went to the doctor, and we, as well as the doctors, planned to meet this baby in June of 2009 but the Lord established our steps. There were some problems that my wife, Pam had with her pregnancy, and she was put on bed rest in January of 2009 five months before the due date, and quickly admitted to antepartum unit and the hospital where it appeared that she would remain until the day that our child would be born, and we hoped that she would be able to hang on as long as she could, so that our child could continue to grow in her womb, we were learning to trust God to establish our steps. During that year, we were living in Arizona at the time, and we were praying for the opportunity to be able to come back to Spokane. This is our hometown. This is our Church. This is a church where I got saved, and we just missed it. We missed the people here, and we were praying about that, but through the trial, through her hospitalization and everything, we decided it would probably be best to stick around for another year, to teach another year in this new school that I had started that year, that I absolutely loved and appreciated, to stay a part of our church there in Arizona that had loved us so faithfully, We just thought, yeah, that we don't need a big move after all these trials. So the plan was to to wait and stay in Arizona for another year, but the Lord would establish our steps. The school district I was working in that year had to cut all the first year teachers due to economic recession that was taking place during that time, that same weekend that I received my pink slip in the mail telling me I wouldn't have a job, was the day that our son was born, three months premature, in March of 2009 God was establishing our steps. And I don't share all those details to make you think fatalistically, that no matter what I plan, something bad is gonna happen. It is a possibility that God could take you through a season like that. But my point in sharing that with you is that I'm confident, as I look back, that God was in charge of every single detail from the day that my wife was admitted to the hospital to the day that I was notified that I wouldn't have a job the next year, to the day and minute that our son was born and his exact birth weight, two pounds and five ounces. There's more to the story. Like I say, I want to give you one spoiler, that boy who is two pounds and five ounces is still alive today, and he's over six feet tall by God's grace, and we're so thankful for that. We're in our second week of our trusting God series. Last week, Ian talked about God as the absolute sovereign over the earth. He holds it all in his hand, and we can trust him because of his control. We can trust him for strength, and today I get the privilege of talking to you about God's sovereignty over the details. We might call those the little things. But as I've thought about it and pondered on what different passages say, it's hard for me to call anything that God is sovereign over a little thing. It's a God thing. God is working in the midst of it, he works all things after the counsel of his will to accomplish his purpose, for His glory and for the good of those who love him. Maybe you find your plans being frustrated at times you had a planned trip that you had to cancel because of car problems or a flat tire. Yeah, you forgot to save an important document that you were working on. There's this thing called Auto saving. You just don't bother with it, and your computer crashes like a message that you're working on that didn't happen this time. It has happened before. But we we could also struggle with just unfulfilled desires and wishes. Why do other people around me seem to have those things and I don't from from friend friendships and relationships, possessions, marriages, children? Maybe it's something painful or tragic or an impending loss that's coming that you anticipate. Whatever it is, God wants you to know that you can trust in him and that he cares deeply for you. Our series is somewhat based on the book trusting God by Jerry bridges, and on page 13 of that book, he provides a definition of Providence, which is a synonym for sovereignty, and he says, God's providence is his constant care for and his absolute rule over all his creation for His own glory and the good of his people. Our big idea today is trust and worship the Lord who's sovereign over every detail, every detail of your life belongs to him. And we're going to look at three components of God's sovereignty, and the first one is persistent care. We're going to go through Psalm 147 in a somewhat non linear fashion, and we're going to look at some other passages of Scripture. So I would just ask you to buckle up and be ready to turn and keep some kind of bookmark in Psalm 147, but we're going to go kind of non linear through it, because these different themes are in different places throughout the psalm. But God's persistent care just means that it's constant. He is not a part time sovereign. He's not sovereign 50% of the time he's in control of every little detail. He cares about you. He cares about the stars and the universe, and in that care, he is working to accomplish his good purposes. Psalm 146 through 150 all are psalms that begin and end with the phrase praise the Lord. Hallelujah is the Hebrew translation. And Psalm 147 is organized in three different calls to praise and singing, followed by reasons why you should praise and sing. He says in verse one, praise the Lord, it's good to sing praises to our God. It's pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting. It's good, it's appropriate. It's emotionally pleasant to sing to him and ponder his goodness. One of the reasons for praising is his constant care, his persistent care. The psalmist, in verse two, says that it's the Lord who builds up Jerusalem. Most commentators suggest that this Psalm was written after the exiles returned from Babylonian captivity in 586 BC, Babylon had besieged the city of Jerusalem, and they came in and leveled it to the ground, they raised it and they took the people of Israel into captivity. It had been foretold that it was coming, but it was, was tragic. The next line in verse two of Psalm 147 seems to support that conclusion. He gathers the outcasts of Israel. These people had been cast out as God poured out His righteous judgment, his discipline on Israel for their continual rejection of him, their rebellion, their idolatry. And it was certainly a heartbreaking time, as they were taken from their homes and their city was left in ruins and ashes. But now Jerusalem had been rebuilt, been built up, and while men had most likely used their skills and strength and and tools to rebuild it, the Psalmist knew that this was ultimately a God thing. The ability for people to be gathered back so that there were people to do the job was from God the protection from hostile enemies that you can read about in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, who were threatening and trying to hinder the rebuilding of the city. God protected them. That was from him. That was of the Lord. All the material was created and provided by God, all the craftsmanship and skill was from God. The breath and life that he gave people to be able to do that was from God. It's the Lord who builds up Jerusalem. The psalmist says, if you look over at verse 13, it says it's God who strengthens the bars of Jerusalem's gates. The book of Nehemiah talks about the reconstructing of the wall and new bars and gates. But it was God who. Enabled that process, enabled those bars to be strengthened so that they could have security from the surrounding hostile people. If you look back at verse three, the the rebuilding of the city and the four, fortifying of the Gates was was part of a gracious healing process. God is near to the brokenhearted. He's the one who who heals, who binds up the wounds. And How extensive is God's care? You may say, yeah, it's obvious that he cared for the people of Israel and making that happen,
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but his care is so vast and so pervasive that it extends to every last star in the universe. Look at verse four. It says that he determines the number of stars and gives names to them, to all of them. In Genesis, 116, it says that God made the sun to rule by day, the moon by night, and the stars. It was all God's doing. It was not an accident. It's not by chance. He names them. He gives names to all of them. And you know what? I don't know, if you can still do this, you may remember a time when you could pay to name a star after yourself or after a loved one. Does anyone remember that God is sovereign over that too, in his name that he gave it first that overrules whatever name you give the star. Okay, so ladies, if a guy ever shows up and says, Hey, I named a star after you'd be like, nope. God's the one that names the stars. Okay, just, just turn it down. I have nothing to do with it, but it is. He's the one. They belong to him. He's the one who who names them, and he exercises his persistent care to the far reaches of the Universe. Turn over to Isaiah 4026, Ian taught us from this passage last week, but I feel like it bears repeating. Ian
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it says to sorry, lift up your eyes on high and see who created these he who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of His might, and because he's strong in power, Not one is missing. Not one single star in 400 billion is missing because of God's greatness and power. In ancient times, pagans would worship the stars, and they believed that fate was determined by the way that the stars would align. And the psalmist says, saying, all these stars that you see in the sky, God created them and he named them. They themselves determine absolutely nothing. They're there because God, who's wise and loving, placed them and cares about each one of them. And if God can take such control of such a vast universe and every galaxy. Why would we doubt that he can take care of us? He knows each and every star by name, and he knows each and every one of us by name in intimate detail. God is a relational God who desires people to know Him, to trust in Him, to fear him. Go ahead and flip back to Psalm 147 he wants you to walk in humility before Him. If you look at Psalm 147 verse six, it says the Lord lifts up the humble Israel had been humbled by 70 years of captivity, being homeless, living in a strange land. But prior to that, they were wicked, not listening to warning after warning from prophet after prophet. The second half of verse six says, what God does to the wicked, to those who don't trust in Him, He casts the wicked to the ground. God's opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble. If you're trusting in yourself or something else, politics, government, your own plans, your own strength, your your bank account, that's pride and wickedness in God's eyes. It's rejection of him. But you can humble yourself before Him, but no, if you don't, you will be humbled, maybe not in the exact same way that Israel was, but you will be humbled if you look really quickly at verses 11. We're going to talk about that a little more in a minute, but it talks about some remedies for for pride and not trusting in Him. But instead, he takes pleasure in those who fear Him, those who put hope in His steadfast love that they put their trust in God, who can never fail, who. Love attaches and can never be shaken off. It holds on for dear life. We can put our trust in people very easily, the fear of man. I care so much about what people think about me, what people can do to me. But people aren't eternal. People don't have the power to save you or condemn you. They can only think something about you for a limited amount of time. God is absolutely eternal. Money can do a lot of things for us, but says in Scripture that those who desire to get rich, no matter how much they get, they never feel like they have enough and money. Can't solve world's greatest problems. Can't solve and reverse the fact that each and every one of us have a limited amount of time. It's limited and it's fleeting, but God's love is steadfast, and he wants you to trust in Him. Now I'm not saying that people and relationships and money and possessions are absolutely forbidden, but God wants us rather than putting our trust in those and worshiping the creation rather than the one who creates those things. He wants us to remember that he's a good God who gives those to him, that we receive those things because of his love. Now we can look at this first section of God's care and restoring and rebuilding Jerusalem and say, Sure, God is sovereign over that, but what about times when things feel like they're still broken down and will never be repaired, including my heart, there's pain that won't go away. Is God still sovereign? Then we must remember, as I said earlier, that God is not a part time sovereign. He's in control 100% of the time. In Job, chapter two, Job asked his wife, will we accept good from God and not bad? Also, I think every one of us would easily say things like, in God's providence, he has brought me a godly wife. And you should say that when God brings blessings, you should acknowledge His sovereignty and Providence. But for many of us, I would dare say that it wouldn't come as easy to say that, in God's providence, I have cancer. In God's providence, my loved one is about to die. In God's providence, I'm still single, and I wish that that wasn't the case. Turn over a couple books from Psalms to Ecclesiastes, chapter seven, 713, and 14. Solomon's book about life under the sun and perspective, trying to figure things out. Ecclesiastes, 713, it says, Consider the work of God, who can make straight what he has made crooked. Now the ESV bible gives a really helpful note about that word crooked. It's better understood in the sense of inscrutable, incomprehensible, rather than the ethical sense of wicked or corrupt or evil. God is not the author of evil, but there are things that happen that are beyond our understanding. They're way beyond our understanding. There will always be aspects of life that remain a mystery to us. God doesn't always choose to reveal the answers to all of life's hard questions, but he wants us to trust him. In the midst of that, verse 14 of Ecclesiastes seven says, In the day of prosperity, be joyful. Rejoice in the provision and the goodness, and in the day of adversity, consider God has made the one as well as the other, so that man will not find out anything that will be after him. We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but God certainly does. He's in control. We can look to Him and stay humble, hoping in his steadfast love, whether we experience prosperity or adversity, knowing that the blessings are a gift of His love, and knowing that when we go through burdens and hardship, his love still remains on us. Romans, 828. Is a famous verse that I think a lot of you know. It says that God works all things together for good for those who love Him, this doesn't mean that everything that happens is good and happy, but that God is in control and carrying out his perfect purposes. For those who love Him, you must love God. You must have put your faith in Him and turn to Him and trust in Him for that to be true to you. You can't throw around cliches if you don't know God like, yeah, everything happens for good. Everything happens for a reason. We can't have that confidence outside of him when things seem mysterious, crooked, inscrutable. We can. Trust in God, whose wisdom is greater than our own. Another popular verse in Romans 11, verse 33 says, Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable his ways. Back in Psalm 147, verse five, the Psalmist says pretty much the same thing, great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. We may not understand why we have to go through difficult seasons and difficult circumstances, but we should never doubt that God is wise and all knowing that his ways are beyond our ways, he plans to work all things for the for His glory and for the good of those who love Him and we can trust and worship Him in response to his persistent care. The second component, point number two, of God's sovereignty, is his provision for creation. He oversees every detail, from every blade of grass to the food that he provides for animals and human beings to the precise weather that we may be experiencing. Verse seven is another imperative to sing with thanksgiving and make melody and then more reasoning is given. God is in control of the weather. The first two lines of Verse eight says, He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the Earth.
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When we look up to the skies, and you should, and you should think about God when you do it, the skies above proclaim His handiwork, his glory, from the stars to the clouds, to a rainbow in the sky at all should remind us of his constant care, his absolute rule over his creation. He brings rain that causes grass to grow the animals feed upon. Psalm 135 through seven says that God is in charge of clouds, lightning and wind. He is the God of the weather and the water cycles the clouds and the rains. It's all his, as is the growth that develops from it, from the rain. Changes in season belong to him as well. How many of you love changes in seasons? You like the variety and being able to see different things. It's all because of God. It's all because of him. Look at verses 16 and 17, as they talk about the cold season. He gives snow like wool. He scatters frost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs. And then in verse 18, we see that God melts the snow, frost and ice by breathing out his wind and causing it to melt and causing water to flow. Seasonal changes are from the hand of the Lord. We're going to talk more about the snow in a bit. But as winter fades, planting and growing are possible so that God can provide food. Look at verse nine. He says that he gives to the beast their food and to the young ravens that cry. God cares about animals. We have a black lab in our home, and he's really sweet. He's kind of gross, but sweet too. He adores food. He worships it. He just does. It's his God, I think. And black labs, apparently, don't know when they're full, and so it takes a wise, careful owner to regulate that, because they would just keep eating and eating and get sick and get fat, but when he eats, I don't think I've ever really heard him chew. I think he just inhales it. He's like a vacuum. Now, me talking about my dog might seem like a trivial thing, but they're one of the beasts that God has in mind. He has regard for all of them, even those that dwell in the wild that don't have someone feeding them. The Mosaic law said that people were to have regard for their beasts, that they were important in God's eyes. If you're ever around my dog first thing in the morning or around five in the afternoon, you will be the most amazing person on the face of the earth, because you could be a potential feeder to him. But it's God who ultimately provides me the ability to go and buy the food that was made by someone whom he gave the ability to make the food from products that he created and sustains. And it's God who provides someone in our house the memory to feed him and the movement to get up and scoop the food into his bowl and then watch it magically disappear in 30 seconds. He cares for the beasts. But he doesn't just provide for beasts and birds. He provides for people as well. Down in verse 14, in the second half of that verse, we see that he fills. Was the people who were safe within the borders of the city walls with the finest of wheat, He provides food for people too. Turn over to Matthew chapter six. It's a great verse, a great section about overcoming anxiety when we consider God's provision. Matthew 626, through 30, we'll skip a verse in there, but it says, Look at the birds of the air. Not the birds in cages that you bring food and seed to, but just the birds that are are wild. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they Skip to verse 28 and why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field. How they grow. They neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory, was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you? O, you of little faith. If God cares for the wild birds and the lilies of the field, how much more will he take care of you? Human Being.
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Looking at verse 10 as well as 11, we see that God doesn't create beasts in human beings so that they would become the things that we trust in. Verse 10 says his delight is not in the strength of the horse nor his pleasure in the legs of man. Now our pastors had a little friendly debate. We didn't really debate. But some people thought, is this saying that guys should not wear shorts the church? I don't think that that's what it's saying. I think that strong horses and strong legged men were the greatest sign of strength during this time. If your your country had war horses and warriors, you were secure powerful than other nations. Israel had forsaken God prior to their exile and decided to put their trust in alliances with surrounding nations who had horses and warriors. Those nations proved to be of no value to them as they were conquered and taken into captivity. And now in Psalm 147 when they're being brought back, they're not being regathered and restored because they've acquired military strength, it was because of God's favor. God doesn't desire those things. He's not impressed by those things. What he is impressed by you can see in verse 11, he takes pleasure in those who fear Him, those who revere Him, who give him the most regard and the most respect, who don't want to do anything that would displease him, and those who hope in His steadfast love, who trust in those things. I think we can easily place our trust in the things that God provides for us and the strength that it can give us, but God would rather have us live humbly before Him and to fear him and to thank him for the things that he gives and glorify the giver, not the gifts God controls the weather and provides food. But can I trust him when nature and weather proves disastrous? Can I trust him when provision seems to be lacking? We know that nature and weather can be disastrous. Really, the worst that we experience in the Spokane area would be a bad windstorm that knocks out power lines or an ice storm that takes out power as well. But we know from watching the news and knowing about history that weather and nature can certainly be disastrous. We have to remember that God is in control of the good and the bad, the prosperity and the adversity. Isaiah 45 seven says that God brings both prosperity and disaster. We could easily say in God's sovereignty, we had perfect weather for an outdoor wedding. But could we also say in God's wisdom and sovereign plan, there was a terrible wind storm that hindered our wedding plan. I'm not wishing that on anybody that's getting married, by the way, but could we trust God to such a degree that even when disappointment and disaster strikes, we could know that this is a part of his wise and sovereign plan when provision seems to be lacking, we can trust him as well. Turn to Habakkuk 317 through 18. Habakkuk is kind of close to the end of the Old Testament, right before Zephaniah i.
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Habakkuk is often described as a series of questions, for those who are struggling with their faith, he poses those questions, and at the end, he comes to a powerful conclusion. Habakkuk 317, through 18, though the fig tree should not blossom nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food. The flock be cut off from the folds and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. It's basically saying, if all provision is cut off any possibility of getting food, fruit, meat, produce is gone. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will choose to trust in him. I will take joy in the God of my salvation. I will look to the spiritual benefits more than I look to the material needs. I will value those things. God certainly provides for His creation, and when the material provision seems to be lacking, he gives people the grace and strength to endure. It's his constant care for all of creation, His provision. Let's look at the third component of his sovereignty, his powerful command, which is point number three back in Psalm 147 God's persistent care and provision for creation are all carried out by his powerful command. He simply commands, and it comes to pass, and so all he has to do, we saw in verse five, already great is our Lord and abundant in power. He's unlimited and unhindered by any limitation. We saw that he has understanding and wisdom that matches his power. He works his power in all wisdom and understanding. We saw that he has the power to lift the humble and cast the wicked to the ground. We saw that he gives human strength, that the power that they used to rebuild Jerusalem was derived from him. And in verse 14, look at verse 14. Ian says he makes peace in your borders. It's God, not NATO, not Donald Trump, nor any politician who makes peace. God may certainly use human agencies to bring about temporary peace, peace peace deals. But it all pales in comparison to the peace that God secures. He makes their borders. Peace is literally what that means when you translate it, he makes your borders peace. Verse 15 says he sends out his command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. His Word is living and active. It's just not mere vanity and breath. His Word goes forth and it results in action, and by His Command, he provides snow, frost and ice, as we saw earlier in verses 16 through 17. Notice the figurative language here. The snow is is like wool. He takes frost and scatters it like ashes. He hurls down ice crystals like crumbs. Snow would have been a phenomenon to the people of Israel, not not a normal site, just like anyone who's lived in Southern California or Arizona, seeing the snow is such an amazing thing. It's awe inspiring. By just living away from Washington and living in Arizona for four years, I gained a whole new sense of wonder for the colder months, the sight of snow falling or blanketing the ground or frosty morning, when barren trees are made radiant by the frost, it should fill us with awe that God is the one that does it through his power. The end of verse 17 shows an appropriate response when the psalmist says, Who can stand before His cold the sights and sensations of nature should fill us with awe and wonder and point us back to the one who makes it possible. Verse 18, he sends out his word and melts it all. He fills up the streams and rivers as the snow pack melts, we know that that's a good thing. The fertile areas receive more water. Electric bills in our day and age are cheaper, maybe. But this is God's goodness that that happens. He's in charge of all that. And people might make fun of you if you believe this. People might say, these are just the laws of nature. It's science you. You really picture some deity up in heaven with a white beard throwing down snow, frost and ice, and then sending his wind to melt it. It's just science. I don't really believe the part about the white beard, but I do believe that God is sovereign, that he is the one who controls if he holds, if he sits above the circle of the earth and holds everything in the palm of his hand, how difficult is it for him to control the weather in that area? How difficult would that be? And I believe it ultimately, because it says it here in this word, because God has revealed it to be so. And we see that, we see that he's faithful. Every weather system is his. One commentator says the Lord is in total control of what he's created. So what humans call the laws of nature are actually the results of the Lord's authoritative word. All things come to pass under his absolute rule and his command. And he not only gives his word to nature, but he gives it to people. Look at verse 19, it says he declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and rules to Israel. He not only rules over nature, like I said, But He longs to rule over the hearts of men and women. We're all being led by some kind of rules or code or law. We all are. It might be your own. It might come from somebody else or something else in the world, but it's an immense privilege to have God's code and God's rules and laws given to us his his commands we don't have time to go through it today, but if you want to read about the benefits of God's statutes and rules, I'd encourage you to walk through Psalm 119 and pay attention to all the different words that you get used for God's rules and law, commands, statutes, laws, decrees. It's impossible to walk humbly and purely before God without them. Just as the natural world obeys God's God's word, Israel needed to obey the Word of the Lord. God had given the people his rules and statutes as he brought them through the wilderness, probably about 800 years before this or so, before they entered the promised land. In the Book of Deuteronomy, you can read about how God outlines the blessings of obeying His word and the curses of disobey disobeying his word. They had experienced the curse of disobey, disobeying. They had spent 70 years in exile Jerusalem had been leveled to the ground. They'd seen firsthand the consequences of not obeying God's statutes and laws, but after their season of humbling and affliction, God brought them back, and the psalmist is reminding them God's word still stands. We need to obey it. Now that God has been gracious and restored us, we need to obey it and keeping this there'll be reward and disobeying it, there'll be curse again. Verse 20 shows that Israel enjoyed the special privilege of God giving his word and commands to them. Says he treated no other nation this way and that all the other nations don't know his rules. God wanted Israel to be a come and see nation come and see what his command and His laws and His statutes and rules can do. See what a people who lives under God's command looks like. See the reality of God as those people live in subjection to his command.
43:55
In Christ, believers are called to be a go and show type of people, but for people who show up to our churches and our Bible studies, may we be a come and see type of people, people who are living according to the Word and treasuring the fact that God has given this to us and has given us directions, commands that aren't burdensome, that in keeping there's great reward. What a wonderful privilege that is, I think that people in Israel and even us, we could easily look at verse 20 and think thoughts like this, I'm special. God has dealt with no one else like he's dealt with me, and God has given me his rules, and I try to live by some of them so much better than those people over there, those people that don't know the rules and we can become arrogant and get a big head about it. That's not the only thing that he was trying to communicate. He wanted the other nations to be able to come and see He wants your life to be lived in humility and obedience to His Word, so that when people look at you, they see. A difference. You show them Christ, and you declare Christ to him. Maybe you are new to church, the Bible and the idea of trusting God, this is all kind of strange to you. We're we're glad that you're here. If that's the case, we we really are. I want you to know if you you don't know the Lord, and this is strange and foreign to you. You are made in His image, and you were created to to know him and and trust in Him and to glorify Him. I want you to know that every single human being has rejected God and chosen to trust in something else besides Him, whether it be self or one of the gifts in creation that God gives. And perhaps you've never really seen the purpose of trusting in God. You feel like you can get along fine. You have lots of comfort in life, lots of things, lots of possessions. Or maybe you've been through hard times and don't know how you can trust God. Consider the fact that you are not your own, and that all the things that I've been sharing today about how God provides for and sustains his creation applies to you. He gives you life and breath and everything according to Acts 1725, and 28 he sustains your life and provides for you. He upholds the universe in your existence. He wakes you up each morning despite your continued rejection of him, giving him not even a second thought, trusting in other things. He's patient and gives you life. He would rather bless you than curse you, but if you go on rejecting Him. Psalm 147, six, says the Lord lifts up the humble, but he cast the wicked to the ground. Jesus came to earth, and he was treated like an outcast, though he was perfectly humble, though he perfectly trusted in his father, he was treated as one who was wicked, and he died to pay the penalty for the wicked. This is not an automatic because Jesus died, I am automatically spared. You must humble yourself. You must turn away from your self trust and your disregard of him. You're worshiping things in creation rather than your Creator. Jesus, not only died, but he resurrected and made it possible for for you to come and die, to your self, trust to your autonomy, and put your trust in Him and He can raise you up to a saving relationship where you trust in Him, and can trust in His goodness through all things. You can start today by trusting in his sacrifice to make salvation possible. I would love to talk to you if you have questions about that and would like to know more. I would love to talk to you after the service, but trust in the eternal God. Today. You are not eternal. Your time is limited. Trust the one who rules by His Command. There's a couple other verses I want to look at. We can't look at all of them for the sake of time, but some other verses that talk about God's God ruling by his powerful command, turn to Isaiah, 46 nine through 10. Isaiah, 46 nine through 10. Isaiah, 46 is a prophecy of coming judgment through an outside nation. But in the midst of it, there's an amazing reminder of who God is, His sovereignty, his control of all things, Isaiah 46, nine through 10, says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other I am God, and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done. My counsel shall stand, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose. There's no one who's God, who's God's equal at all. He declares the end from the beginning, and everything else in between. All of time is in his hands. There's no events in your life, no matter how small, no matter how seemingly insignificant, that he's not in charge of, that he doesn't control, things that have yet to happen, but will happen have been determined from ancient times by the one whose counsel will stand, who will accomplish all of his purposes, his glory and the good of those who love him turn to lamentations. Right after Isaiah, you have Jeremiah, kind of a long book, and then lamentations, if you want to get a feel for the heartbreak that I think that the psalmist was referring to, the healing of the heartbroken. Lamentations is a book Jeremiah wrote after the destruction of Jerusalem in five. 86 BC. But in the midst of that, he looks to God as the one who is in charge of it. All lamentations, 337, 38 who has spoken and it came to pass unless the Lord has commanded, it is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad. Come Jeremiah was recognizing that the Lord commands everything that happens, both the good and the bad, both prosperity and disaster. We could choose to be bitter at Him that He permits bad things to happen, or we could trust in the only one who can carry us through those things, and help us through those things. I want to give you a little bit of application. I hope in the things that I've been sharing, there's been some things like, yeah, I need to think this way. I need to grow in my trust of God. I can honestly claim that I'm not perfect in all these things that I have to remind myself of, these things and many different details that God is good. Just want to give you three things. Remember God's trustworthy past. Remember how he's proven to be trustworthy. Remember what he's done. The people of Israel were often told to build memorials so that when their children were to ask, Dad, what does this mean? Like this is for us to remember God's deliverances, God's mercy, God's goodness and faithfulness. Do you do those things? Do you remember what God has done? Do you also recall to mind his promises, what he's promised in His Word? Remember his trustworthy past and his trustworthy present and his trustworthy future, and out of the overflow of that, praise Him and thank Him for that. That's the refrain through Psalm 147, praise the Lord. Second, give your burden to God. Don't flee from the one who can help you the most with it. Help you walk through it whose grace and strength can be fully sufficient. Fight against bitterness and complaining, even even complaining about that type of weather that isn't your absolute favorite. Fight against it Puritan author John Flavel, in his book keeping the heart, writes about the dangers and damages of not trusting in God and submitting to him in difficulty, the damage that grumbling and complaining does. He says it would be very helpful to bring settlement to your heart to consider that fretting and discontent brings more injury to yourself than all your afflictions could. Affliction is a pill which, being wrapped up in patience and quiet submission, may be swallowed easily, but discontent chews the pill and so embitters The soul. I told you that there was more to our story that I shared at the beginning, our son grew in the hospital for the next three months, was able to come home to a beautiful greeting and celebration from Big Brother and sister. We call it Yay Yay day because there's a video of one of the siblings just overjoyed during the five months when someone from our family was in the hospital, we learned to look to God and His character. My wife would write emails every day to the people who were praying for us, and they were like, it was like reading a devotional God. God met us. God reminded her who had it harder than anybody, that God was good and faithful, and that God was working in the midst of that God certainly carried his grace was certainly sufficient for us.
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We learned to see our church, see church in a different way, our church there in Arizona and this church here, I know that there are people here who knew our situation and prayed for us. Thank you for that. We love you for that so thankful. It gave us a picture of what the church is supposed to be, the hands and feet of Jesus, the people who come alongside those who are suffering and struggling having difficulty. Ian, even though I'd planned to stay in Arizona for another year, God directed our steps back to Spokane that summer, and he's been directing our steps ever since he's been so faithful, even when I don't trust him like I should, but I can truly say the famous lines from the hymn, tis so sweet to trust in Jesus.
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There's a hymn that we sung often to our time at Grace Bible Church in Tempe, Arizona. And whenever I hear it, I remember God's sustaining grace through all. The details that took place during that time, and I want to close by reading the lyrics of one of the verses from Jesus. I My Cross have taken. Man may trouble and distress me, it will but drive me to thy breast. Life with trials hard may press me. Christ will bring me sweeter rest o tis not in grief to harm me while thy love is left to me. Oats were not in joy to charm me. We're that joy unmixed with thee in every detail, good or bad, may we remember God's sustaining love and sovereignty and presence. Let's pray Lord. We, thank you that you have proven yourself time and time again to be the sovereign, to be the one who's trustworthy and good. We, thank you for your steadfast love, that we can hope in it, that no matter what trials may come along, no matter how much all the little things may seem to be adding up and causing us to stress, Lord, You are good, and you're working out your purposes through those things that you're in control of it. There's not a single thing that's outside of your control and sovereignty. Lord, we pray that You would help us to trust and delight in you, to grow in our faith and looking to you. We, thank you for the way that you provide for us. We thank you for the way that you sustain the world through what we see in nature. Lord, we give you the praise and honor in Jesus name we pray amen.
Josh serves as Resident College Pastor for Faith's college ministry, Doxa. He and his wife, Pam, have three children.
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