-Transcript-
00:38 Amen. Glory to God. Thank you for joining me today.
00:43 We’re picking up in part two of a two-part message here on having trust in God. Here I’m talking about how God has conditioned me or been working on me to be saved before I ever knew I was going to be saved and how at the time that it came to get saved I was more than ready because the Lord had done a work and he deserves the praise. That’s kind of the middle of this story as it picks up.
01:04 Here we are talking about trusting God, having faith in God, and what a blessing we get from it. Here we go. Thank you so much for listening again and we’ll jump right in.
01:15 I said okay we’ll do that together. Well okay we’ll walk the aisle. We’ll get saved.
01:19 Okay well you’re gonna have to get baptized in front of a lot of people because it was a big church. I said okay that’s great. You know there was no resistance from me.
01:25 I was absolutely excited to be saved and the point of that is that God had been working on me for a long time from a young age even going to church. I went to church unsaved for years honestly. I remember in college going to church and why did I go to church? I don’t know.
01:45 On Sunday morning I felt like I felt a very heavy burden to go to church. I didn’t feel right if I didn’t go to church and as a 21, 22 year old kid I just I just went Amen. Young man, kid, whatever you want to say.
01:58 I just went and this conviction comes from God so we should praise God for life. We should praise God for salvation. We should praise God for saving us and these unexplainable things.
02:06 Again, I cannot explain it. There’s so much I can’t explain. Amen.
02:10 I can’t even explain honestly why I’m here today other than to say it’s by God’s grace and mercy and he deserves the praise. I can’t take credit for that. I can’t say oh Lord I I had this conviction because of something I learned or who I am.
02:25 No God you made me. You made everything about me and I thank you for it and I praise you for it. We should praise God for family and friends.
02:32 How important it is to have family and friends and as I’ve gotten older I’ve seen you know what happens when you get older and you got a family and you got a job and all this your friend group kind of dwindles and dwindles and dwindles and we have a small church family. I love our little church family. It’s very small Amen.
02:48 I thank God for the the ones I have. They’re precious to me because I don’t have a whole bunch amen. I’m just being honest.
02:56 You know I was a very boisterous young man in high school and in college. I remember walking down the street. I’d want to pay everyone a compliment in college.
03:07 I didn’t care who I talked to and I was friendly with a lot of people and now I have just but a few and I thank God for those friends and I pray to God that for them Amen and for their welfare and for their blessings upon their life and that I could be a good friend to them and I thank God for my family. Oh I love the Lord. It’s so fun.
03:23 We went out to Subway after church, the Subway restaurant after church last night and my buddy, my teenager I just call him my buddy, but he was a good buddy yesterday. He grabbed seats and I noticed there was a table of four and he had to bring an extra seat because we’ve got a family of five and I was rejoicing saying Amen. Thank God for my family.
03:45 I got five here Amen. I got one in heaven amen and we’re just so thankful for what the Lord has done. Do you see what I’m saying? Do you see where I’m trying to get your mind at? To think of these intricate little moments and praise God for them and that’s the idea of trusting the Lord.
04:01 You trust the Lord so much you understand that he put these people in your life, that he gave you these moments, that he he’s allowed you to have what you have Amen. He’s allowed you to have a place to lay your head at night. Luke 9:58 and Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.
04:21 Jesus Christ didn’t even have a place to lay his head and Luke 9:58 tells us that and and and what do we have? We’ve got memory foam mattresses and we’ve got cool touch pillows and air conditioning and heating and we’ve been so blessed and I know some people don’t have all of that but you know what for the most part Americans have been so so blessed. Do we thank God for it? Do we thank God that we have it better than Christ did when he was walking on the earth? God’s only begotten Amen our Savior and Lord Amen.
04:52 God put that in his word for a reason and I believe part of that reason is to show his people just how blessed they’ve been and we need to return we need to give God some praise for that blessing.
05:04 Let’s give him a little return on that investment he invested in us. Let’s give him a little ROI here today. Let’s say hey God you know what you invested in us I love you and I thank you and you’ve been so good to me.
05:12 I’ve heard something that fear and anxiety they cannot live with gratitude and I believe that praise and gratitude will overcome that fear trusting in the Lord trusting Him so much you understand what He’s done for you how about how much food we have to eat oh you read about the famines in the Bible you read about people having to eat the skin of their own children in the Bible Amen.
05:33 It’s crazy what what went on or what could have gone on in those times amen and to think about that to think about where we are where the trash at most restaurants would feed a buffet of many people where our leftovers is so much that we don’t.
05:50 You know my wife is talking about getting compost because we give our leftovers sometimes if they’re not too too bad we’ll give them to our dogs amen we’re looking at getting a pig one day that’ll be a good way to get rid of those leftovers.
06:00 I understand but we may even need to start a compost pile because we don’t want to waste anything God has been so good to us we have so much food we have so much food you know you read the Old Testament stuff that was a big deal amen food was a very big deal food supply was a very big deal and and now we are so blessed even when we have a shortage quote-unquote we have such an abundant abundance of food it’s incredible who deserves a praise for that who gave us these things God did you understand He’s in full control He is sovereign He allowed us to have great food to eat.
06:34 He’s allowed us to have clothing to wear always had allowed us to have clothing to wear he’s given us more clothing than we can ever imagine you know all our secondhand clothing it goes off to these organizations the thrift stores and so forth and they’re booming one of the businesses.
06:52 I’m involved in which helps support this radio ministry it uh it’s it’s clothing it’s like clothing that people don’t buy surplus and so forth and it’s abundant it’s abundant I always kid around with anybody I’m talking to I’ll say if you ever need gym shorts you know got a few extra pairs and I do I mostly size small but we have a lot of extra pairs of gym shorts because they had a mark on them the tag was ripped or whatever it was but there’s an abundance of clothing and apparel in our country.
07:24 We’ve been so blessed and and we have more than we know what to do with amen and we shouldn’t take that for granted I think of the scripture when Paul I think it was he’s asking Timothy to bring him bring his cloak bring his jacket and makes you wonder if he was cold where he was he didn’t have what he needed and in many times people didn’t have what they needed Amen.
07:46 many times of him being in poverty maybe many parts of the world today people don’t have what they need and they depend on our secondhand and third-hand stuff and guess what we in America are so blessed are we thanking God are we praising him saying Lord I know it’s you that has blessed us so much that we have more than we could ever use and know what are we gonna do with it let’s praise you and let’s serve you and finally we should have a song or praise about us for your life the purpose of your life I talked about life as in the blood Amen is in the heartbeat the air you breathe.
08:21 But how about the opportunity to serve God how about the opportunity to do something with your life for God that will earn you heavenly reward for an eternity.
08:32 How about the idea that God so loved you that He gave us only begotten Jesus Christ to die on the cross for you and for me amen and by that substitutionary death by what Christ did on the cross and it was only by God Himself sending the Son amen that we could ever be saved Amen by what Christ did on the cross we then are saved when we believe on Him and trust Him and have faith in Him we then get the Holy Spirit living within us.
09:06 We are then born again we are now children of God Amen we are now spiritually made alive we are risen with Christ that’s the idea of being baptized the old man’s passed away and you’re risen or coming out of water and there’s a new creature about you.
09:22 How about thanking God for that and your purpose in that how that you’ve been saved to serve you’ve been saved to do something for God Amen now you say well brother Clark I don’t know what God called me to do it’s a great mystery well I’ll tell you how to reveal what God called you to do study His Word.
09:44 Number one in His Word there are tons of commandments things that God wants us to do things like what Jesus said in the Bible if you love me keep my commandments Amen.
09:55 You start going through there we’re commanded really to live by faith and we’re commanded to trust God and then we’re given many promises that God will never leave us nor forsake us that he sticketh closer than a brother that he hears the prayers of the righteous that he’s not gonna lose one that are his Amen.
10:15 That we have eternal life in glory Amen, that He’s coming back to get his church amen look there’s so much in the Bible that we can count on and understand that applies to us and then we should thank Him and praise Him and sing that song of praise for what he’s called us to do because you can look at the skills and the talents and the interests that God has given you I’ve heard a lot of preaching on this on the talent side hey if God’s giving you Italian talent for this or that use it for God but how about the interest side I mean things that interest you how did those interests get there I mean maybe you’ve always been interested in the railroad.
10:50 and you just love the railroad and you love trains I like bluegrass gospel and for some reason they’re always singing about trains amen and you think about that you say well maybe
10:58 God gave me that interest for a reason maybe I’m supposed to be involved in some kind of ministry towards railroad conductors railroad engineers railroad personnel maybe
11:09 I’m supposed to go on the railroad and hand out tracks Amen and pray over the people that are working in this industry or in the freight line side of it or whatever it is
11:18 but you see how God’s given you an interest or he’s given you a talent maybe he’s gifted you with a an ability to sing or an ability to play music or He’s gifted you with an ability to write or He’s made you creative or and you like to make videos with your phone or a camera or whatever it is
11:36 how can you use that for God and while while we’re at thinking about how we can use that for God and his glory why don’t we thank him that he gave it to us amen thank Him it’s it’s so amazing what he’s given us in life and
11:50 I I won’t get into some of the things I believe the Lord has blessed me with but I you can bet that I’ve thanked him for it that I’ve thanked Him and thanked Him and thanked Him for it because I can’t do these things on my own God gave me certain gifts and He gave you certain gifts that He wants you to use to help edify the church and help win souls to Him
12:09 we plant the seed and He does the winning he does the salvation part but we have to plant the seed we’re His hands and feet and how can we do that if we’re not in the right mindset if we’re not in a mindset of praise a mighty man of God like David in the Psalms is writing here the Lord is my strength in song and has become my salvation
12:31 and so we’re seeing here the strength of God we’re seeing here the praise to God and we’re seeing here the importance of salvation that he is the one that saved us and because He saved us He will preserve us no man can pluck us out of His hand the Bible says
12:45 and so what do we do with that we have to remember to trust the Lord you know that God tells us in his word over and over and over again to have faith to trust Him
12:57 and we learn in God’s Word that Abraham was justified by faith that Abraham he believed God even though he was sent into this foreign land even though there was famine in the land when he got there even though he had to abandon a lot of his family that he was very close to even though that he was getting older and still had not had that promised son even though Sarah was getting very much older and and and they had not had that child even though he lied and fell short God kept compelling him to trust him because God would make a great promise and Abraham would respond in trust.
13:33 God gives us great promises are we responding in trust are we responding in kind and saying okay God you said it and you’re all-powerful let it be done
13:43 and then how do we live that out we have we use God’s strength and we in in the mind frame of praise and we walk in faith you know walking is an action step walking means actually moving think about the Israelites at the Red Sea they had to step right they had a step as that water parted they had to step in they had to walk by faith
14:02 God wants us to walk by faith today oh how He wants us to trust Him oh how He wants us to have strength in Him and oh how He wants us to praise him for how good He is
14:13 I thank you so much for listening take care God bless and Amen