Is God for me? s30e145 Ps.56d

You will need these 7 minutes.  Perhaps not today, but soon.  I know that some big difficult circumstance is hurling towards you. A lot will be asked of you on that day, so my humble suggestion is to be ready.

As we discussed yesterday, one of the challenges will be: Do I trust God? Today, we'll look on the foundation that this trust sits upon. It is this: Do I know that GOD IS FOR ME? If so, it changes everything. KNOWING THAT GOD IS FOR YOU, will help you turn your HARDEST DAY to your finest day.

https://youtu.be/HpzTJPEJb30

Transcript

Is God is for me? s303145 ps56d

We are going to talk about something you’ll need on your hardest day

God is a tear-catcher

He sees our tears, cares for us during the battle for our trust

We are all in an epic struggle with God regarding our TRUST.

Will I trust God for my sin? For my death? 

Will I trust God when I am pursued? When I am threatened by what man can do to me?

Do I believe that He has kept count of my tossings; put my tears in His bottle and written them in His book. WHAT UNDERPINS this?

So this morning’s thought is this from 

     Ps 56:9 THIS I KNOW, THAT GOD IS FOR ME

If I know this to be true, it changes everything

If I believe this to be true, it sets the stage for what we already have been talking about in Ps56: 

     Will I trust God when afraid, that is, when there is legitimate reasons to be afraid?

     If I doubt that God is FOR ME, that He is on my side; that He is with me for good, then likely I WILL NOT TRUST GOD WHEN I AM AFRAID. When circumstances are terrible.

Walk thru this with me. Let’s say that I do not believe that GOD IS FOR ME. I think That He perhaps doesn’t see, or doesn’t care, or here, that He is not kind. He is not good. He is not benevolent. 

To ask of such a person, when the spiritual fur is flying, to TRUST, is too tall an order.

In fact it is exactly the testing of these difficult circumstances that reveals the underlying level of trust.

If I do not KNOW that God is for me, then I will not be trusting when I have legitimately terrible situations coming at me

If I do not really know that God is GOOD. That He has ultimate good for me, then I am not going to trust Him when I am afraid.

To this person who is afraid: I think it might be LESS helpful to preach to them:  TRUST TRUST TRUST

And MORE helpful to address the underlying shakiness: hey, if you don’t know that GOD IS FOR you, start there. 

When you face circumstances that you do not prefer, go all the way back to this: do you know that God is for you? If so, then it will be easier to TRUST Him. If you trust Him, then you won’t be afraid.

So for your brothers and sisters out there that are facing real bad circumstances, pray for their TRUST, but let that trust be founded upon the right understanding of God: that He is FOR ME.

Is God for everyone? No. God is for those who are on His team.

God gives opportunity to everyone. He wishes none to perish. In that sense He is FOR YOU. Came for you. Launched a rescue operation thousands of years long to come get you.  If that is not God being for you I don’t know what is. 

God opposes the proud: I got this without you. I can manage my sin consequences all by myself. My righteousness will be enough.

            Those who have set themselves against Him, do not enjoy the favored acreage of: God is for me.

What does it mean that God is for me?

            God is exerting favor in visible and invisible ways.

First invisible. 1 Peter 3: 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, 20 because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.

In this passage, Jesus is doing some visible things: Suffering for us; being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit

But it leaves some profound invisible questions: How exactly does He “bring us to God”, Where does He have spiritus in prison and why was it important to proclaim to them.

What are the mechanisms of God bringing us “safely thru?”

Short answer is, I don’t know, you don’t know, and John Macarthur doesn’t know all these wonders. 

God is exerting INVISIBLE favor towards you. These all are blessings that you do not deserve.  They are all by grace. Unmerited.

God is also exerting VISIBLE favor towards you. Similarly, These all are blessings that you do not deserve.  They are all by grace. Unmerited. If we listed the visible favors of God in your life, your families life, your eternal life…Perhaps then we could get t o our passage today: this I know, that God is for me.

I may not understand all the MECHANISMS of that favor

I do understand the Person of that favor, the Character of Him who cares

Bottom line: a moment is coming when you are going to have a really bad circumstance come barreling towards you: a sickness, a pain, a death, a temptation, a suffering, a breach in relationship, a hardship.

AT THAT MOMENT, you will be asked to TRUST God. 11 in God I trust, I shall not be afraid.

IN ORDER TO TRUST GOD, you will be asked to go into your deepest spiritual suitcase and pull this out: THIS I KNOW TTHAT GOD IS FOR ME. You will need this on your hardest day.this I know, TTHAT GOD IS FOR ME.  KNOWING THAT GOD IS FOR YOU, will help you turn your HARDEST DAY to your finest day.