Trust In the Lord

Psalm 115 helps us to realize the difference between loving God and loving idols. What idol do you have getting in the way of you loving Jesus Christ?

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(This is a computer generated transcript of this podcast.  This is NOT a typed transcript and it has not been edited. Expect grammatical and syntactical errors.)

And good day to you. I am B. R. Maul, and this podcast is Living God's Way in an Ungodly World for those of you who have been tuned in for some time now, you may have noticed that the name of the podcast has changed, and yes, it has. It was God's Family in an Ungodly World , but after doing just a little market research and understanding what people are looking for information, it seems this title, Living God's Way in an Ungodly World, better defines what this podcast is all about, the purpose for this podcast, because yes, it is about God's family in this ungodly world.

But not just about it, but also how to live in God's family. Living as a Christian, walking with Christ in this world that hates him and hates those who follow him. It is growing abundantly. Even in the United States, we are seeing more and more. People who are not wanting to even hear about God or Jesus in in particular, if it is God, it's going to be their own God.

It is not the living God. We are going to continue in this podcast to talk about what it is like living God's way, walking with our Lord Jesus Christ, in this ungodly world. So I welcome you, and today I am going to read and discuss Psalm 115, so you're welcome to turn there, Psalm 115 and I will be going through the whole psalm, so we do have much to go through.

With that said, I do hope my brothers and sisters in Christ in the faith that you are indeed walking daily with our. Speaking with him that's praying and listening to him daily and also hopefully by now, if you have been listening for a while, you have your found a group of other Christians to get together on a weekly basis to walk the walk together.

We are not designed to be isolated, to be Lone Islands floating around in the ocean trying to get by on our own. Jesus showed us that as he chose 12 apo. And he sent disciples out two by two. So in a group we see that quite a bit. The mention of the body of Christ and that analogy there is the same as how a body works with all the muscles and tendons and joints, parts of the body doing its.

So because we are compared to a body and we are called the body of Christ. All these reasons, it points to the fact that we need to be in a community of Christians. And with that said, for those of you of you who have been listening to me for a while, you understand that this community is, is a side, is different than going to a place of worship each Sunday.

Worshiping is also important in our Christian walk when we give glory, when we worship our Lord and give him thanks and praise him. We are blessed. There's that built in blessing. Anyone who has worshiped God had a wonderful Sunday of worship, singing and perhaps clapping your hands and listening to the sermon and good discussion with others before or after the.

And you walk away from there and you feel lighter, you feel better, and you feel more fueled up. That's that blessing that I'm talking about. So that is important, but equally as important and in my own personal opinion, more important is still coming together weekly. With a group of Christians. So if you are unfortunate to live in an area where you cannot find a Bible, teaching and preaching church, a place of worship to go to on Sundays certainly work very hard on coming up with a small group to meet each week.

So with that said, as we look at Psalm 115, we get to see what it's like through the voice of the Israel lights. When we are in tune with God, when we are following him, when we are giving him the glory, but also what it can be like when we're not. This particular Psalm focuses more on what it's like when we are, but think about your life for a moment when you are in tune to our Lord, when you are indeed reading his word and praying to him daily when you.

Making him the center of your life. There are blessings. There are blessings upon blessings in life. It is amazing how our Lord takes care of us. And on the flip side of that, when suddenly we are distracted with idols and we. Do not focus on our Heavenly Father when Jesus isn't the first and last that we think about when we get up in the mornings and go to bed at night, when other people or other objects, other things demand our attention, and we voluntarily put that above our time with Christ.

Just life seems to be, it just doesn't click. Seems to be. More difficult and for good reason. So let us take a look then at Psalm 115, not unto us, oh Lord, not unto us, but to your name. Give glory because of your mercy, because of your truth. Why should the Gentiles say so? Where is there? We'll pause right there.

That's verse one and two. They repeat not unto us twice. And as I have taught in the past, anytime the, in God's word, when something is repeated twice, it's, that's important. And especially when something is repeated thrice when something is said three times, it's very, very important. So the very fact that the psalmist is saying not unto us, the Israelites, God's chosen people twice, making it quite clear that we don't want the glory, the glory belongs to you. And so here, they certainly want to make God the center of their life and they recognize why. Because of your mercy and because of your truth. Our God is very merci. and Mercy is not giving us what we do deserve.

Think of how many times our Lord God, just for in our own lives are very merciful. And of course, in the Bible over and over and over again, he is shown to be merciful and also his truth. This is so important, especially in today's time because now we live in a world where truth. Relative to whoever it is that is speaking.

So you can be in a room with 10 other people and they can all have their own form of truth and apparently these 10 truths would be okay, would be acceptable in today's society. Okay. Okay. Of course that doesn't work, but I won't get into the complications of that. But having different truth. , obviously that doesn't work because well, there is only one truth, and that is why the world hates Jesus and hates those who follow him because Jesus says I am the way, the truth, the life.

And because he is saying that, he makes it quite clear that every other way is not true. So verse three, but our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold. The work of men's hands. Pause right there just for a moment. Who are they referring to? They're referring to the Gentiles in verse two.

When the question is proposed, why should the Gentiles say so? Where is their God? And the Israelites see that the Gentiles have all these pagan gods, gods that are of course made out of silver and gold and wood and other things as well. So I'll continue. Their idols are silver and gold. The work of men's hands, they have mouths, but they do not speak eyes they have. , but they do not see, they have ears, but they do not hear noses. They have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle feet. They have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their. Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them.

Pause right there. That's on verse eight. So there we have it. We have certainly the imagery then of the details. , these idols are made to look like gods in the form of people, in the form of animals, and they have hands and feet and eyes, all that. But of course they are inanimate and they don't move.

They don't respond, they don't talk back. They don't give advice. And overall then they are worthless. I say overall because perhaps they're a good paper. And if they're made out of silver and gold, well, they have value in the material they aren't made out of, but that is it. But the very fact that they do not then have any living abilities, no way to communicate, but all the way back in verse three, but our God is in heaven.

He does whatever he pleases and that can. I think viewed two different ways. He does whatever he pleases, because first and foremost, he's the creator God. He is all powerful. He is all knowing and he is everywhere omnipresent. So he does as he pleases. But aside from that as well, he does as he pleases. Because unlike these inanimate gods, our God can walk and talk.

He can move around. He sees, he hears he can do what he wants. Like we can do what we want. If we want to pick something up, if we want to say something, we want to listen to somebody. But these inanimate gods, these idols that they have made, they can't do anything. In fact, they can't even want to do something.

All right. How does this apply though to us in today's time? These idols to my life and to the those in my family, my wife and kids, to my family and friends, to my community, and for you as well. So what does that look like? Our idols take on the forms of electronics, our idols can be ourselves. . If we spend all this time, I am making myself more important than the time with God.

Anything, right? Anything that takes away from the importance from my time with God. Now, I've just recently had a sit down session with my kids and we went through, Exact Psalm and we read through 115. My kids did ask, gee, dad, we don't have these little idols. And we're not bowing down to anybody.

But the thing is, I pointed out struggles in their life and mine too, only I've been walking with the Lord for a much longer time. For me, it's easier to see when I am doing this, when I am placing something above God. So tv. . It's much easier to just want to watch a movie or two to be entertained than it is to open God's word and read God's word.

It's easier to want to just play and days, weeks, and even months can go by without really even talking about God. Work. That's a big one. In our society, work is a very acceptable idol in America. If you are very busy, and you just don't have time. All those millers, those Johnson's, I tell you, they're so busy.

Those families are so busy, they don't have time, you know? Wow. They're successful, but that's not a good thing because now work is an idol. When we do not take the time with our God because something else now is more important. Whether at that, just that moment or an ongoing issue, that is an idol, and also our resources can go to our idols, money to pay for things.

To us, we find we spend way more time than God and is more important than our time with God. Maybe it's cars, maybe it's boats, maybe it's our house. That's another very acceptable one. People taking care of their cars and taking care of their houses. Putting a lot of money into making the houses look nice.

Spending a lot of time on our houses to make 'me look nice, to improve them, and all this stuff. Beloved is not bad in and of themselves. However, these are things that can be dangerous when it comes to taking time away from our time with the Lord that's reading his word and praying to him, worshiping him.

Not only the time with our Lord, but tasks that he places in your heart to do. Talking to some fellow Christians not too long ago, and the conversation was brought up about, you know, whether or not we give money to somebody who is at the streetlight, and what eventually that veered off to is, well, you. . If I had time, I would feel better just going to McDonald's and, and getting them some food instead of just giving 'em money.

Because some are afraid that they'll give them money, and of course they'll use 'em for drugs or alcohol, which is understandable. But some of those people then that I was talking to, the one individual don't deal with it then because they don't have. Well, if they don't have time to do a task that God puts on their heart just to pull into McDonald's, get a hamburger or two, turn back around and drive back to where that person is and hand it to 'em and say, here, here's something for you to eat.

Or you know, some bottled water, whatever it might be. Well then we are spending too much time then a Christian. Then we need to stop and evaluate what am I spending my time on that I'm unable to help my neighbor that I see from time to time and I know that he or she is lonely and you know, their elderly kids don't, or their older kids don't come see them much anymore and it's on my heart just to go spend some time, but I'm just too busy.

Reevaluate what you're doing, beloved. So you can do the things that God gives you to do because maybe work is your idol. , or maybe you're spending too much time working on your house, or maybe it's too important to go on your vacations and you're planning vacations after vacation. I don't know what it is. It is different for all of us, but it's important that we evaluate that and do something about it.

Don't just think, wow, that's just the way it is. Oh, God will understand. Of course he'll understand. He'll understand that you're too busy to do the tasks that he has given. and remember, we are to keep our minds set on things, not of this world, of the spirit world, not the physical world. Our stuff and our belongings, or even ourselves for that matter.

It's great taking care of yourself, exercising and eating right, and making sure you're planning that. But you know, are you exercising so much that you're not reading God's word? that you're not attending a Bible study, or maybe you're just not volunteering to help out which God has placed on your heart.

Whatever that volunteer situation might be that you've thought about and you've just pushed out of your mind. There's umpteen things the Lord has given us to do. Our idols are not the gold and silver idols. Our idols are our TVs, our computer. , our homes, our cars, our yards, whatever it is, video games, I can go on and on, so I won't spend any more time on that.

But we do have idols. So this does not pertain just to the Old Testament Jews and those who make them are just like them. So as everyone who trusts in them, there's a lot to be said about that. What we put our heart. , we become so much like that. So I encourage you to reevaluate if you are in a position where you realize, you know, I am often or always saying I'm just too busy, or, yes, I would like to help this person out or do that, but, hmm, reevaluate.

It's never too late to change and just ask the Lord, Lord, search my heart. Show me what is getting in my way of doing your will and then help me Lord. And he. . Moving on to verse nine, there's 18 total. Oh, Israel Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Oh, house of Aaron. Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield.

You who fear the Lord. So you beloved. And me. , you who fear the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. And we could replace it by saying He is your help and your shield. Because in Psalm 28, verse seven, the Lord is my strength and my shield. So yes, he is ours, his children's. Now did you catch that three times?

It's mention. Trust in the Lord three times it's mentioned. He is their help and their shield three times. So this is important. We can't just shrug and go, well, okay, that sounds good. Or they are just repeating it to be poetic. No, nothing is just poetic in God's word. Every syllable and every word is important.

Trust in the Lord. That's not always easy, is it? In fact, it can be difficult just as often as it may be easy. For some, it may be even more difficult, more often than not, but we are told why three different times to trust in the Lord. Why? Because he's our help and our shield. Have you done that yet? Have you trusted in the Lord?

Beloved? Have you been in a situation where you don't understand what to do, but you've prayed about it, and in your heart the answer comes to you. And it may be a difficult one, or maybe one you don't even understand why, but that's what trust is all about, right? And Proverbs three, trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lead not unto your own understanding.

And that's what that's all about. He wants. To trust him. Okay, so what does that look like? Well, instead of both spouses working two full-time jobs and one of 'em maybe even a part-time job, and perhaps that's hurting the family. If you have kids, don't feel like a family. You just feel like people living under the same roof.

Well, trusting in the Lord would be trusting that he's going to provide for your needs. And maybe only one parent working full-time, or both parents working part-time. Then that way there's somebody at home with the kids and you have more time to do the things that God wills for you and your family to do.

But that does take trusting in him that he is your help and your shield. He will provide work that is needed. What that looks like, I don't know, only God.

Hey, there was a time years ago where I remember, you know, talking to some other Christians who had been walking with the Lord much longer than myself. And, well, he and his wife were telling me how they had gotten rid of cable television. And of course this was before streaming. I thought that was ludicrous.

I thought, come on. I mean, to me that was just up there with a necessity. I, I needed my cable. I needed to be able to watch the shows that were out there because, you know, without cable you just have regular tv. And I, I was so used to cable, so spoiled, and I thought, no doubt, that's just ridiculous. But in time, as I learned to trust the Lord in what he's going to give me, and him guiding me, he took that need away, that need for me to watch my shows.

Because that was one of the things that I prayed about that he revealed was taking time away from him. And eventually when I got rid of our cable, I was able to concentrate and read a lot more in the evening, the Bible, and I still had time to do other things. So there it is in those verses nine, 10, and 11.

Trust in the Lord because he is our help and our shield Verse. The Lord has been mindful of us. He will bless us. He will bless the House of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. He will bless those who fear the Lord both small and great. So all those that were mentioned before about trusting in him, the House of Israel, the house of Aaron, and all those who fear the Lord now not only trusting in him, they find that they are blessed. And beloved for those who have been walking with the Lord for a while now and, and have been trusting and, and actually seeing witnessing firsthand. And I encourage you, by the way, to write down things that you realize the Lord has blessed you with.

I started doing that. I wish I would've done it a lot sooner in my walk. . But now I can look back at certain things and see just how much he's blessed me. And some of those comes in the form of a lot less vehicle problems or just a lot less things around the house breaking down and needing my time and my money.

Just so much relationships growing. There's just so much blessing that comes with trusting in Him, and trusting in his help and his protection for he is the shield protecting us. It is amazing his blessings. How I had debts that I looked back at, one in particular was a medical debt that had built up due to having two of our girls, and it was a large burden on us.

And this particular hospital was demanding more than the minimal payment, and that's not something we could afford. But the weirdest thing happened in time. We suddenly got this letter and for whatever reason, God-given of course, but I can't remember the reason they had issued, but they had written our debt off.

It was amazing. Thousands of dollars. And that was at the time that I had been trusting in the Lord. And that was one of those times that, wow, that really boosted my trust because I, I realized. That was him taking care of me and my family. It's amazing, and I'm sure some of you have some amazing stories that you would be able to share too, and for those who are just recently walking with the Lord, or if you've been a baby Christian for decades and you still haven't done it, you too, as you trust in the Lord will have some wonderful and amazing stories, how he blesses you as well..

Verse 14, may the Lord give you increase more and more you and your children. May you be blessed by the Lord who made heaven and earth the heaven. Even the heavens are the Lords, but the earth he has given to the children of men. Now, there could be more in detail there, but one thing that I see in that, He is above us.

He is in the heavens. So he reigns far above in the sense of status, but he is of course, present with us here and now with his power, with his unlimited resources. And he has given us the reign of the earth to take care of the earth and think of how we can be fed and taken care of everything here on earth to sustain life.

And he sees to. and then we'll end here starting with verse 16, or I'm sorry, we'll go down to verse 17, the dead. Do not praise the Lord, nor any who go down into silence, but we will bless the Lord from this time. Fourth and forevermore, praise the Lord. . I want to read the last verse one more time. 18. But we will bless the Lord from this time, fourth and forevermore.

Praise the Lord. What's encouraging about this is that it's a choice. It's a choice that the Israelite were making, but it's also our choice because if you haven't been trusting in. , if you haven't been trusting in him to be your help and your shield, well, you can from this moment, this moment and forward, you can do that.

That's all you have to do is make that decision and finalize it to say, okay, this is it. I, I am going to make sure that each and every day my priority is the time with my living God, no matter how busy I. Think of the things that you do each and every day. We make room for everything in our life that is important to us, and many of those things can be idols, but they don't have to be idols if we are first and foremost, building that relationship with God.

One of my girls said, well, dad, does that mean that we can't have fun? Does that mean we have to? in the Bible more than anything else we do in the day, and my answer is, of course not. What we do abundantly, what takes a lot of our time in each of our days is probably seldom. That's something that we cherish the most.

An example of that is for most of us, Yes, we work 40, 50, 60 hours a week, whatever that might be. Hopefully not too much because we are making time for God, right? But even though we're working that and our work may be the thing that we do the most abundant, well, it's our family that's most important to us. I would much rather be spending time with my children, just enjoying their company, watching them learn and grow, playing with them.

that would be great, but realistically, I can't do that. I have to work. We must make money. We must produce the food. Okay? We must work the earth for our food. So it doesn't mean that perhaps a Christian only spends a half hour a day with the Lord that everything else is an idle. That's more than a half hour.

No. If we were just measuring it by time, well then unfortunately, yes. , but that's not true in our hearts. It's getting to that point where you just really need to spend time with the Lord. And I'll tell you right now, when I first started walking, when he had placed it upon my heart and he said, Bruce, open up my word and just read, that was a huge challenge.

And there were times. . All of a sudden, some days would go by and I realized, oh, I completely forgot. Silly boy. But in time, as I build on that relationship and I suddenly started to understand the reaping of the blessings, of knowing his word, of having his wisdom and growing, suddenly that desire, a desire grew in me to read and to pray to him more.

And now I don't like a day going by at all, and very seldom does a day go by that I don't somehow or another read God's word. Now, it may not always be in my favorite Bible where I have my notes written and my footnotes and other things that help me to connect the dots. , but I have you version on my phone.

So I have different versions of the Bible, king James, new King James, and the e s v and such. If I know I'm not going to be able to get to my physical Bible that I sure like, well then I just use my phone and other times, even if I can't do that, there's verses that I have Memorize. and I'll go over those in my head and spend the time with my Lord doing that and just praying to him because when I'm reading, that's often for me time to also talk to him about and asking him questions, praying to have him guide me in what I'm doing and so forth and so on.

And as you build that relationship, it's amazing. I take such great comfort in having him in my life each and every day. Is he who I spend the most time with? No. I have work to be done, and I have my family here on earth that I look forward to, my wife and girls. So overall, I don't spend the most time. But I can safely say that there is no one or nothing that is more important to me.

So I don't struggle with having multiple idols in my life that at one point, whether it was cable television or video games or other things that I used to like to do, that to me seemed like priority. If I didn't do it, it just wasn't Bruce, because Bruce, this is what defines Bruce. , these certain television shows and these certain whatever it is that I'm doing.

So let me just reiterate that, yes, our idols are not just little statuettes and we are not kneeling and bowing to our idols and praying to them, but our idols still take up time. We value our time with things that become idols, whether it is video games, watching movie. or even just reading other books, whatever it might be.

Anything that in and of itself, standing alone may not be bad, but because there's comfort that comes in doing it and that there's no comfort in spending time or desire with God at that point, your walk with Christ, then that's an idol and that is getting in the way of your time with God that is getting in the way of you gaining wisdom from His word and you becoming wiser.

That is getting in the way of you reaping the benefits of the blessings that he has for you on this side of eternity. Things that he wants to do through you, things that he wants to give you. that is beyond the imagination that you can come up with. The blessings that I get anytime that I accomplish a task the Lord has given me far exceeds any movie I might watch or even time with loved ones.

I enjoy movies. I enjoy time with my loved ones, but what I'm saying is his blessings far exceed any. . If you have any questions, you can go do my website, B R M A U L. That's brmaul.com. There's a place there that you can get ahold of me at. Ask me a question, make a comment, is there something that you disagree with?

Or even just share with me how things are coming with your walk. I would love to hear that because you can encourage me as well with sharing the blessings that the Lord has bestowed upon. , and that's all part of getting together with a local group, local Christians. In the book of James chapter five, verse 16, he says, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed.

The effectual fervent prayer, but righteous man avails much. . When we come together and we share what the Lord has been doing in our lives, that blesses others with encouragement. And when we are doing, when we are struggling, when we have our faults and there's something that we're just struggling with and we can share the burden with others, that too is a blessing.

When we are with one another, we pray for one another, so we may be healed. Well. With that said, remember to stay on that narrow path, beloved. This ungodly world, there's much beauty. and there's a lot of love to be found, but ultimately it's a world that does not want Jesus Christ in it and does not want his followers.

So stay on that narrow path. It's difficult. Well, I love you and Jesus. He most definitely loves you. So until next time, God bless.

Songs

“Heroes Inspire Hope” and “Mountainscape” by Humans Win

“Calm Relaxing Piano” by Danail Draganov

“A Sense of Wonder” by Media Music Group

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