Sermon Tone Analysis

Trusting God

Central Idea:

God is completely sovereign, infinite in wisdom, perfect in love, and therefore worthy of our trust.

God’s desire for us is that we learn to trust Him.

In the last year,

· I have had a cousin who is my age get breast cancer.

· I have had a cousin who is a couple years older than I nearly die from internal bleeding and then be diagnosed with a tumor.

· I have had a cousin who was in my class in high school die of a rare disease.

· I have an aunt who is successfully battling multiple myoloma – a disease that took the life of an aunt three years ago.

We can read of tragedy that can be found around the world as well from disaster to wars.

Even outside of the truly difficult moments we have the small challenging moments of life.

It led a writer to write the book entitled if God loves me, why can’t I get my locker open?.

Central Idea #1:

God is completely sovereign, infinite in wisdom, perfect in love, and therefore worthy of our trust.

God’s desire for us is that we learn to trust Him.

Trusting God

Central Idea:

God is completely sovereign, infinite in wisdom, perfect in love, and therefore worthy of our trust.

God’s desire for us is that we learn to trust Him.

In the last year,

· I have had a cousin who is my age get breast cancer.

· I have had a cousin who is a couple years older than I nearly die from internal bleeding and then be diagnosed with a tumor.

· I have had a cousin who was in my class in high school die of a rare disease.

· I have an aunt who is successfully battling multiple myoloma – a disease that took the life of an aunt three years ago.

We can read of tragedy that can be found around the world as well from disaster to wars.

Even outside of the truly difficult moments we have the small challenging moments of life.

It led a writer to write the book entitled if God loves me, why can’t I get my locker open?.

So that leads us to ask,

”Where is God in all of this?”

Two questions:

Can you TRUST God?

Is he really dependable?

Can YOU trust God?

Do you have a relationship with him so that you can have confidence in Him?

We often find that prayer times in groups is a laundry list of aches and pains and trials that we want removed.

This is not unprecedented

· Paul pleaded with God three times to take away the thorn.

· Joseph pleaded with pharaohs cupbearer to get them out of prison.

Ask: The painful question…

is trusting God in adversity something that doesn’t stand up in the face of difficult events of life?

Deep thoughts:

Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will.

Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries.

Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God’s revealed will.

Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries.

Disobedience is a lack of trust…here is the proof

Here is what we have to believe if we are going to trust in him

· God is completely sovereign

· God is infinite in wisdom

· God is perfect in love

Here is another Quote:

“God in His love always wills what is best for us.

In His wisdom He always knows what is best, and in His sovereignty He has the power to bring it about.”

We can be comforted by the truth of the sovereignty of God.

When we face a calamity we can be assured that God has a loving purpose in it.

Hezekiah said it this way “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish”

Central Idea #2:

God is completely sovereign, infinite in wisdom, perfect in love, and therefore worthy of our trust.

God’s desire for us is that we learn to trust Him.

A book that we may reference a fair amount in the study is going to be rabbi Harold Kushner’s book When bad things happen to good people.

the author of the book of Job, “forced to choose between a good God who is not totally powerful, or a powerful God who is not totally good . . .

chooses to believe in God’s goodness.”[1]

In Rabbi Kushner’s view of the teaching of Job, “God wants the righteous to live peaceful, happy lives, but sometimes even He can’t bring that about.

It is too difficult even for God to keep cruelty and chaos from claiming their innocent victims.”[2]

The providence of God

We use this term quite a bit and our conversations.

For example I might say In the providence of God Ashland Oil and marathon merged to move my family here to Findlay just as I finished a degree in chemistry and in theology at the same time there was a need for a science teacher at heritage Christian school.

One problem with this is that we are using the expression the providence of God with good events.

The second problem is we use the providence of God in a way that says God only intervenes at specific points in our lives but is mostly a spectator the rest the time.

We will use this as our definition of the providence of God

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.

To get the full effect of this statement you have to realize the consequences of stopping short.

If we simply say God’s providence is has had constant care for his creation then bad of this are difficult to reconcile.

If we stop the statement at the fact that it is for his own glory then we see ourselves as pawns.

However if we take the statement as a whole he is concerned about his glory but also the good of his people.

Consider this other aspect of providence….

God Sustains

Realize he not only created but upholds and sustains it everyday.

“The Son is … sustaining all things by his powerful word.”

Bridges, Jerry.

Trusting God (p.

30).

NavPress.

Kindle Edition.

“in him all things hold together”

The sustaining action goes beyond just holding it together but he gives life and provides for life.

We have to realize that God is at work every moment in our lives.

This counters how we sometimes speak of providence where we say “in God’s providence I found a job”.

In God’s providence your heart just beat about 80 times in the last minute.

God Governs

Old testament

New Testament

Nothing will happen unless he permits or or brings it about himself.

“Because He does not act as we think He should, we conclude He cannot act as we think He would.”

Two things we need to understand

It is not Chance

The world talks of fate and chance.

Rabbi Kushner speaks of randomness of the universe.

Insurance companies to this day refer to calamity or certain acts such as a deer strike as “acts of God”.

Kushner declares this to be blasphemy to say God would allow this.

God’s sovereignty extends to very minute events in our lives: