Rely on God (#989)
Good morning. Today we’re going to talk about relying on God. This is something we do frequently, but we’re in a unique situation, in our country and in our world where we have this new corona virus wandering around. So, it kind of putting things in a different light. I think this is probably the only time in the history of our great country where people have been asked to stay inside and not get within six feet of anybody. The closest thing I can think of is when I was quite young and had big nuclear scares and people were building bomb shelters in their back yard and that kind of thing. But, that was just certain people that wanted to take extra precautions, it wasn’t the whole country staying inside. But that doesn’t mean God can’t provide for us and it doesn’t mean He can’t take care of us.
We’ll read a number o records today where people were faced with unbelievably complex situations, yet God came through for them anyway. What is going on today is what people in the business world call a black swan event. That goes back in history to about 1700 when some Europeans discovered Australia. Europeans had never seen anything but white swans, so they just assumed all were white. Then in 1697, a Dutchman traversing the Pacific bumped into Australia and he found back swans. So, this was a whole new thing. And it is used metaphorically to refer to something totally unexpected. And when it comes to things like politics and social movements and business cycles, people who follow that have certain statistics and history and they try to predict what’s going to happened and they never get it perfectly right, but they often have a rough idea because things repeat themselves over time. You get too many people in one political party in power and they get out of hand and in the next election, they vote in the other party to bring the opposite back. Same thing with business, you put too much money in the economy and it overheats and then it has a big correction. These things are somewhat predictable, but black swans are not. Black swans are not predictable, it is something that nobody expected. Who would have known that we could have had a virus so strong come out of China that everybody would stay home, although it has happened. And that doesn’t mean that its the end of the world, it just means its a big surprise.
Everybody had plans; vacation plans, business plans, financial plans, family events, fellowship, meetings, everybody had many plans; most of which will be canceled or severely rearranged. Like one simple example, I told you I was going to a clergy conference in Chicago next weekend and I told them a couple of weeks ago I probably wasn’t going to come, but I just got the note yesterday, that they’ve rescheduled for September, which I think is very smart so that is just one small example; and we all have ways that are going to effect us. There will unfortunately be people getting laid off or losing jobs or have it effect their income and they have to figure out how to pay their bills. And everybody is going to be going through much of this in the next few months. And God though, is able to take care of us. I mean, think of the times in the old testament records when the Assyrians invaded or the Babylonians came, or when the Philistines attacked when Saul was the King, just so, so many times where people had incredible challenges that they never imagined, yet those that trusted God came out victorious. I mean heck, think of Job, he lost everything, but he continued to trust God, he would not curse God and die like his wife wanted him to do. And he came out with double what he had before. There are so many records in the scripture like that, where God comes through unbelievably.
So there are two things I want you to get out of the teaching today, one: that no matter what things look like in our country and in the world today and no matter if we’ve hit the bottom and they start to get better or they get worse for another number of months, it doesn’t matter, God will take take of us. And the other thing is: God has called us as one body, so we help each other. If one of you gets stuck, and I or someone else in the fellowship can help, we’ll do all we can. I feel very confident that if I got in a mess, I could call on you guys and you would do what you could to help. So, let realize number one, God is going to take care of us and number two, God has called us a one body and so it is OK to help each other, it is OK to ask for help, it is OK to be confident to know that others in the fellowship will be there for you. So with that in mind let’s get into the scriptures. Many of these scriptures we’ve read before, but today we’re in a little bit of different circumstances so you might look at them a little differently, so let look at Deuteronomy chapter seven…
As taught by Bruce Mahone 20200322. All rights reserved.
Verse Listing and Notes
Deuteronomy 7:7-9 The LORD God is the faithful God
I Kings 17:1-16 The ravens, then the barrel of meal fed Elijah.
Psalms 36:5-9 Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds
Psalms 92:1-5 To show forth thy faithfulness every night
Psalms 108:1-6 Your mercy (steadfast love, lovingkindness) is great above (higher than) the heavens and thy truth (faithfulness) reaches to the clouds (skies) (vs. 4)
Psalms 119:86 All thy commandments are faithful
Psalms 119:90 Thy faithfulness is unto all generations
Romans 12:10-14 Patient in mental pressure, continuing instant [steadfastly, faithful, persevering, be constant] in prayer (vs. 12)
I Corinthians 10:13 God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able
II Thessalonians 3:3 The Lord is faithful, who will stablish you and keep you from evil
Titus 1:9 Holding fast the faithful word
Teaching
Rely on God (#989)
Rely on God (#989)
Leave a reply