God Can Be Trusted

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Good morning. Good morning. All right, you guys, we have some special friends in the house. I hear some kids are in the house. Kids, loud and proud. Let me see where you are. Raise your hands. Clap. I'm so glad you guys are in here with us today. Doesn't happen very often, but I love it when the kids get to come in. I think it's really important for us as a church to welcome our kids in the room. They can see worship. And did y' all love the worship? Yeah. All right. They're gonna have to start going in there for your side, right? We love that. But it's a big weekend at our church. Our middle school and high school kids are at camp. I'm a camp girl. Great things happened in my life at camp. Something happens when you get away from the world that you live from. All the phones and TVs and all the things that happen. And you get to be in the little bit quieter, crazy, fun thing with people talking about Jesus, life's change. So you guys be praying with us. We have lots of staff. We got volunteers there. That's why we invited the kids in the room this week. So they're all going to be in with us. Kids, it's okay if you have to go to the bathroom if things happen. We're going to be flexible. We are just glad that you are in with us today. And parents, I'm glad they get to be with you and to watch you worship and to watch you be in the big room, it's just a different experience for them. They will be in here one day. They are the future, aren't they? So I'm so proud of you as parents that you're raising them to know God and to love God. They're watching you, and you are imprinting on them. Whether you say it or you don't, what you do, they're watching you. And your love for God is rubbing off on them. So way to go, parents. You're doing the right thing with us here today. I have a question for you. As Bill and I were talking about the psalms and which songs we're gonna do over the weeks of our new series called Song of Psalms. And the first one that came to mind was 34. That's the one we're going to talk about today. And David does some crazy things and he kind of loses his trust in God for a hot minute. Spoiler alert, he comes back around. You guys know King David at the end, right? But I'm wondering for you, has there been something in your life, has something happened where you had a moment where you questioned God? Something happened. Maybe it was a surprise, maybe it was something expected or unexpected. And maybe you didn't lose your belief in God, but you just maybe lost your trust in God. And you're thinking maybe he needs some help from you. Sometimes I think that, hey, God, if I were in charge, here's what I would do. To which God says, you're not in charge. Believe me, Mary, a lot of people say that to me. You, you're not in charge. Caroline was just saying. Her oldest, who's 4, asked if she could be in charge of Lizzy, who's 2. Can I be in charge of Lizzie? We just always want to be in charge, don't we? And Caroline said, well, yeah, you can be in charge of Lizzie, but then Lizzie's gonna be in charge of you. To which she said, well, no, I wanna be in charge of me too. Right? We all want to be in charge, but we know, we really do know. God is in charge. God is on the throne. He knows from beginning to end everything that will happen, from our first breath to our last breath. God already knows, and he can be trusted. So when I'm talking about the fear, I want you to go back to that. Think about the fear that you have. What is your biggest fear? And I'm not talking a hypothetical fear. Kind of like you woke up in the night and you started thinking of things to worry about that you didn't even really need to worry about. And by the time you got up the next day, it was already solved. I'm not talking about a hypothetical fear. I'm talking about a real fear. A phone call maybe that you weren't expecting, a diagnosis that you hadn't been expecting. Maybe it's a financial pressure, maybe it's a relationship that's fallen apart and you don't really know what. What happened, it blindsided you. But when that happens and the panic sets in and it starts to make decisions for you, not your calm, trusting, I trust in God's self, and I'm going to make a great decision. I'm a little out of control. And in the panic, I'm going to make a decision that's probably not the best decision for me. We've all done it. I got an email this week from somebody who's in a tough situation. Tom and Linda Ciccone were on a cruise, y'. All. A cruise of a lifetime. This was a big vacation they had planned for a long time. And actually, during the cruise, they're about three days in, and Tom starts feeling some pressure on his heart. And he's thinking, oh, this feels kind of weird. But, you know, I'm not in my bed. I can hear myself right now going, oh, I'm gonna be fine. I'm gonna be just fine. And then it keeps getting worse and worse. So Tom finally says, hey, I think I should go to the medical center here on the boat. Let's just go talk to him, have this tested out. And I gotta tell you, when he told me that, I flashed back to Love Boat. Have any of you guys ever seen Love Boat? I know there's a new one, but there's an old one. I was picturing, Doc, that you got to go to that place, and you got to. I don't think it's really that, but that's just where my mind went. I see a lot in pictures. And he went to the medical center, and they did a lot of tests on him, so it must have been pretty high tech. And they said, you know what? The tests are coming back. Okay. We think you're okay, but we really think you should go to a hospital. We're getting ready to leave. We don't want you on this boat out in the middle of the ocean somewhere. So we want you to get off here in Scotland and go to a hospital in Glasgow. And Linda said when she was texting me, it's a little unnerving and a little scary when you see your husband taken off of a boat by ambulance, right? In a place that you don't know, with people that you don't know, hospitals, you don't know, doctors. All the unknown becomes a little bit scary, doesn't it? So he went to the hospital, and then they wanted him to go to another hospital. And this goes over several days. And Linda said, evidently, it's a real popular time in Scotland because she couldn't find a hotel. And the people, everybody was trying to help her. She said there was so many God moments in this. And Tom said then he had another heart event. That's what he called it, a heart event. And they're like, oh, we think you maybe have had a heart attack. And they were trying to figure things out. And he said all he could say was this urgency came over him that he had to call his boys and tell them about Jesus. And isn't that what happens when you're living your life and you're not sure about the future and you're not sure about the things ahead? It really comes down to the most important things in the world to you. And I will tell you, it is not one material thing. I've talked to so many people in situations like this, and it is never a material thing. It is never that car they wish for their whole life that they got. They are not worried about one thing, but their family, their. Their friends, the people closest to them. That's who was on their mind. And that's what was going on with Tom. So he called his sons and he said he told them he wanted them to start following Jesus. And he said his sons were really open and they were listening to their dad and they're gonna continue conversations. You guys pray with us for this. That maybe this could be the thing. Who knows? That they see life's not forever and they start thinking about their mortality and their eternity and they turn their lives over to Jesus. That would be the best prayer. When Tom and I were texting, if you're reading the Bible recap with us, that's actually how I found out about this. If you're doing. We have several hundred people reading through the whole Bible with us. If you are not, join in. You can go on the Bible app and join with us right now. We just started first kings. It's about 20 minutes a day, you guys. It's not a big deal at all. You can join us. And every Sunday morning, I send out an email of the upcoming week's readings and just some digging, deeper challenges and a prayer request so we could be praying if there's anything. And that's when I got the prayer request from Tom that he was in Scotland and having these issues, to which I started texting right away. You know, what can we do? We are praying for you. And the interesting thing is Tom. This is funny. Tom said, well, I'm in a hospital room. It's pretty quiet. I'm reading my Bible every day. I'm doing my Bible recap. And I'm saying, well, great. Sometimes when we get a little bored, right, God helps us do the things we need to do. But he was saying, it has really been so good for him and undergirded him because he's Reading God's word every day and his trust in God is in such a good place. And we're so thankful that they're home. He texted me and they got home a couple of days ago and they're story's not over. He's still going to go to the doctor and get some treatment here. And we are continuing to pray for them and that God has great things ahead for them. And it's so powerful to me that in the midst of this crisis they continue to trust in God. That was their continual text. We're trusting God in this. We don't understand. We're way outside our coverage here. We don't know what God is doing, but we are trusting him and his provision to take care of us. And Linda said, thank God for trip insurance because it did pay for their hotel, it paid for their flights, it paid for the hospital thing. I go, okay, note to self, right? If we ever go on a cruise to the British Isles, me and you, we're gonna get the trip coverage, okay? Promise that. So God did even take care of that and the provision with her. So when you think of fear, what do you think the opposite is? Because I started thinking about that, of, okay, I don't want to be fearful. What is the opposite of that? What could I do to not be fearful? And Peter ends, a theologian says in the spiritual life the opposite of fear is not courage. And that's what I thought. The opposite of fear is bravery, courage. And it said, no, he said, it's trust. Because if we could just bravely encourage ourselves into all the things that we wanted to do, we would, right? But we can't all of the time. And that means it's reliant on us, right? It's something that we could do. It's not something that God is doing. And that's what happens when we trust. We rely on God. I bet many of you were raised as I was. My mom is here today and she would tell you, we were raised, I'm sorry, life's hard, but let's get going. Work harder, pull your bootstraps up, get things going. How many of you guys were raised that way? I want to see her. Thank you. I'm not alone. So good thing in that is we're pretty determined, hardworking people, right? We are. But the bad thing in that is we try to do a lot of things on our own. And to be self reliant and not trust God, right? That's where I can tend to go. And I do that a lot in my Life, I would say probably way more than I should. It's easier for me to do that than to trust God. But I will say I can do it till I can't. And believe me, God's gonna give you some cant moments in your life. He's gonna give you some moments that you're not gonna be able to just gusto through because he wants you to rely on him and to trust him. And that's where we're gonna see David today. And we're looking at Psalm 34. And if you are in fear right now, if there's something going on in your life and you're in fear and you are wondering if God is gonna provide for you, if God's gonna be faithful to you, this is your Psalm. Psalm 34 is going to speak to you. It's going to encourage you and challenge you to live the life that God has for you. When David wrote Psalm 34, he was running from Saul. Remember at the time, Saul was king. He was the very first king. Before him, we had had judges. And the Israelites said, we don't want judges anymore. We want a king like all the other people. So God says, okay, I'm going to give you a king. So God raises up prophet Samuel and he goes and finds Saul. At the time, God says, saul was a great warrior, he was a great man, all of the things. And Saul was when he was first anointed as king and then he wasn't. And then whatever happened, power, money, I'm not sure what all happened, but he started taking his eyes off God and just started worrying about himself. So God tells Samuel, okay, Samuel, hey, I have another mission for you. Saul's not really a great king. He's not doing great things for my people, the Israelites. So I am going you to go and find a new king, and you're gonna anoint him. And so Samuel says, okay, I'll go. So you guys remember kiddos, y' all know the story about David. Y' all remember David and Goliath? And so he goes to his dad's house, Jesse. And remember, you guys, if y' all seen the movie, he has like eight brothers. And. And he lines them all up and he goes down each one. This one. God says, no, no, no, no, no. And he's like, well, this is all of them. And then the dad says, well, I got a little guy. And he's out on the field right now. He's a shepherd. And they said, bring him in. And little David comes in, and God says, yes, it's him. So Samuel anoints him, then we don't know how old he is. Young teens probably. And for 15 years, David was anointed king, but he was not the king. He didn't get to go live in the palace. It wasn't like, hey, he's the upcoming king. He gets to come stay in the palace. He stayed where he was. He stayed doing all the things that he had done in his life up to that point. He was a shepherd. We know. And unfortunately, Saul started going a little crazy. Scripture says in 1st Samuel 16, it says, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and came upon David. So when David was anointed by Samuel, the Spirit left Saul and went to David. So I started looking at this in detail. I've never looked at this before because I thought it happened when he became king, but it wasn't. It was when he was anointed. So, side note, you might be thinking, okay, wait just a second. So the Spirit left Saul, so can the Holy Spirit leave me, right? As Christians, we know when you accept Jesus as your savior and you trust in what he did on the cross, death, burial, resurrection, you hear it, you believe it, you ask Jesus to come, be in your life, we call it. You become a Christian. You are saved. The second that you do that, scripture says, I've got this for you. Ephesians 1:13, it says, and you were also included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, which is the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked with him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit. So what that says to us is, your eternity is secure. We call it eternity security of the believer. You can't lose your salvations. There's all kinds of theology around that. But what we believe is scripture says that the day that you accept Jesus, you are sealed until the day of redemption. So in the New Testament because of Jesus, that's how it works. But in the Old Testament, the Spirit would come upon people for a specific purpose. Maybe it was leadership, maybe it was a lot of times prophecy. When we see the prophets, it says the Holy Spirit came upon them and told them the things of God. Maybe it was strength, like Samson. Kiddos, do you guys remember the story about Samson in the Bible? And he had all that great strength that the Spirit came upon him? Maybe wisdom or a special assignment. We don't know exactly how old David was during all of this and when he wrote Psalm 34. But for sure, maybe young 20s, it was before he became king. But we do know that this whole Event of recording Psalm 34 happened in 1st Samuel 21. So if you have your Bibles, kiddos, and you want to turn there, 1st Samuel 21, we're going to read a couple of verses out of there about King, about David and what he was doing at this time, right before he wrote the psalm. It says, we're going to look at verses 8 through 10. David asked Ahimelech, do you have a spear or a sword here? I haven't brought my sword or any other weapon. Because the king's mission was urgent. So. So David's on the run from his life, from Saul. He doesn't have his weapons. He doesn't have anything. And he gets to this priest and says, and they're like, isn't this that David? Isn't this the one that killed Goliath? Isn't he the one that's gonna be anointed to be king? This priest can't figure it out. And he says, well, he starts lying. So this was not a good move, guys. We can trust God to take care of us. But he did not. So he says it was urgent. And the priest replied, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine. I think that woke David up. He knew exactly the sword. He had seen it on Goliath. It was so big. As a small child, he probably was not even able to lift that sword. But he said, the sword of Goliath, the Philistine whom you killed in the valley of Elah, is here. Don't you know David? He couldn't believe it. I think it took his breath away. He knew exactly that sword. And he knew God had enabled him as a little young guy to throw that, remember, with his slingshot and kill Goliath. And now of all the swords in the whole world, Goliath's sword is there. So he says it is wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you want it, take it. There's no sword here but that one. And David said, there is none like it. Give it to me. And that day, David fled from Saul and went to Achish, king of Gath. So do you guys remember Goliath was from Gath. There was some Philistine communities. Gath happened to be one of them. And that's where Goliath was from. And now that is where David goes. The Philistines have been long enemies of the Israelites. So I think it's kind of funny that he chooses to go there. And he's in a really bad place. He's just not thinking clearly, he's on the run for his life. And verse 13 goes on to say he pretends to be insane in the presence. And eventually Achish, the King of Geth, let him go, not wanting to be bothered with another crazy person. So David, we know David can sing, you guys, David can dance. David's theatrical. So David decides to put on a whole play and pretend to be crazy. Kids, he said he started slobbering down his face. It was disgusting. So he's doing all this to prove. He had to prove he was crazy to be able to let go. Now, was that the right thing to do? No. God helped him kill Goliath with a rock. God would have taken care of him. But David kind of forgot all the things that God had done for him. And before I'm too hard on David, I have to remind myself, I've done this a lot, too. How about you? Sometimes we just get caught up in the craziness of life and we forget that we've taken the things that we gave to God, right? It's always, I always say it's a living sacrifice that keeps crawling back to me. And I take it back. Okay, God, I'm sorry. I was gonna give this to you. I promised I wasn't gonna think like that or act like that or behave like this, but somehow I forgot all those things that I had said. But this is when David penned Psalm 34. That's exactly the circumstance that had just happened. And in fact, if you want to turn there, kiddos, if you have your Bibles, I learned if you kind of split your Bible in half, that's usually Psalms go to the left just a little bit. We're at Psalm 34. And at the beginning of that, before the verses start, my Bible says of David. So since the Psalms are written about, are authored by many different people, they try to tell us who it is. David wrote half of the Psalms. There's 150 of them. David wrote 73, about half of them. His son Solomon wrote two. His worship leader that Bill talked about last week wrote 12. In scripture, about half a third of them doesn't even claim an author. So we don't know who all they are. But we do know David, and we do know this is where this one's from. So mine, in my Bible, has a little title. It says of David when he pretended to be insane to escape from King Achish. So this is when he wrote this Psalm. Psalm 34, 4, 9. He says, I sought the Lord and he answered me. And he Delivered me from all my fears. So this is after the crazy incident, right? You're probably getting in a cave. And David sits down to write and he's like, oh man, God, I'll let you down again. So this is what he says. Those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. I think he's been a little shameful. Right now, this poor man he's talking about himself called and the Lord heard him and he saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see. The Lord is good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. So I love we get to see the end of the story in that David came back to his senses. How about you? Because just from reading the previous text, I wouldn't have maybe thought that he did, but he does. And he says, loving God is the best thing you can ever do. Even when circumstances are chaotic and plans fall apart, God remains faithful. David's words in this psalm teach us a few things. I'm going to talk about these four things, guys, and then we're going to go home. Number one, God answers and changes you. Verse four and five say, I sought the Lord and he answered me. He delivered me from all of my fears. And those who look to him are radiant. Their faces are never covered with shame. So notice he says he delivered him from fear. He didn't deliver him from the circumstance. Most of the time. I don't know about you, but I want God to deliver me from a circumstance, a situation that I do not want to be involved in. How about you? But he doesn't say that. He said, God delivered me from the fear circumstance so I could go ahead and move up and do what God had called me to do. Point number two, God saves and protects you. Verse six and seven, it says, this poor man called out and the Lord heard him. He saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and he delivers them. David refers to himself as helpless and even in weakness and honestly, I think especially in weakness and humbleness. When we come to the Lord, when we're at the end of ourselves, I think that's when God shows up and says, okay, I know you thought you could do this on your own. I'm going to come in and help you, all right? Point three. God invites you. He says, taste and see that the Lord is Good. Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him. David says we can experience God. We don't need to just read about him on the pages of the book, which is awesome. But he wants us to be in our everyday life. He wants to come in and be with us. He wants to help us in the small things, in the big things, in our questions, in our hurts and in our failures. God wants to show up and comfort us there. Point 4. God provides for you, fear the Lord, you, his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing. God does truly provide for us everything that we need. Now we live in America, where the needs are endless. And we think we always need more and more and more and more, right? There never can seem to be enough. But compared to most people across the entire world, we have. We're very, very wealthy people. So God's going to provide what we need. And sometimes what we need, it's not what we want, but it's going to be what we need to help us stay in a close relationship with Him. So what I think today is everybody in this room has experienced fear. Everybody. It's real. David experienced it. The disciples have experienced it. You and I have experienced it. But fear does not have to have the final word in any of our lives because the Gospel reminds us Jesus entered our fulfillment, fearful world. He walked through suffering and defeated death itself. And because of Jesus, we are not abandoned. We're not alone. And fear does not own us. When you have the Holy Spirit living in, you have the very spirit of God that's going to enable you to do things far beyond what you believe that you are capable of doing. If you trust Him. If you step out on that ledge and do the thing that's the hardest for you and to give it to God and to trust Him. So I have a couple of challenges for you as we go through this next week. And number one is to read Psalm 34 every day. You can read the whole psalm, it's kind of long. Or you can read the handout that you got of just the ones that we went over today. But every day, read Psalm 34. Put it by your nightstand, put it in your bathroom mirror, maybe in the car, and do that first thing, read that and get your mind right ready to trust God. And number two, every day, ask somebody that you know, maybe a family member, maybe kiddos, maybe it's your parents, maybe you're gonna ask your kids, what does it look like for you to trust God? And how are you trusting God? You're gonna hear some stories of things, of people who are trusting God with things you didn't even know that, that they were. And what that's going to do, Number one, it's going to give you an opportunity to praise them, to encourage them. But it's also going to give you an opportunity to see a different way, maybe that you could trust God that you have not been doing. Here's what I know. After following God for a really, really long time, fear doesn't disappear by us pretending to be strong. It disappears when we seek and trust. So that's our challenge for this week. When you see the fear coming, when you see the unknown, is you're going to God. I don't know what you have in this, but I am going to trust you with it. I'm going to trust that you have my best interest out for this. Even if I don't see you working, I know you're working and I'm going to trust you with it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, although we don't understand what you're doing, we choose to trust you. For all my friends in the room, I have no idea what that might mean for some of the people here, Lord, but I know that you know and I know you have a plan for them, for them to succeed, to do great things, to honor your with their life, to make a difference in the world where they're living. Lord, I pray you'll give them an opportunity to do that. Strengthen our faith when we feel weak, Lord, remind us of your goodness when we feel lost. We trust you with our hearts. And if there's anyone here who has not asked Jesus into their life, who's heard the gospel and says, yes, I believe, I pray. Today is the day that they ask Jesus to come into their life. And your word says when we do that, that you come into our hearts and we're a child of God. Lord, we know how much you love us. We know that you have what's best for us. Lord, we give our lives to you today. We recommit our lives to you. We say today's the day that we are going to trust you with everything that we have, Lord, keep everybody safe. Keep our kids safe that are coming home from camp, Lord, and may their lives be so changed and our church be so impacted by just their goal to love you. And we love you. In Jesus name, Amen. [00:29:09] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.