Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is
an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,
with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.
We invite you to connect with us from wherever
you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our
mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed
by this week's sermon. I feel so privileged to
be here this morning with you. As we go through
this series, Spiritual Lessons from Our Walk
with God, one thing that impresses me about this
church is that over 70 nations are involved in
this church. People from 70 nations. And right
now, not just listening in this room or during
the first service, but there are 40 nations that
are listening online from all over the world.
And so, as we go through this morning's lesson,
And as we look at something that's deeply impacted
my life, we're going to be talking about this,
spiritual preparedness for abundant life in times
of trouble. And we're going to be looking at
it from Jeremiah chapter 17, predominantly in
verses 7 through 8. Now, I know that in this
room right now, there are people who are in troubled
times. I know because I'm a human being and I'm
a hot mess. All right? I know that as a human
being, Life is not just this upward trajectory
in which we experience life with less and less
problems. In fact, what happens is the more responsibility
oftentimes we have, the more problems that we
experience. And so right now, around the world,
there are some people who are listening, and
maybe you're a Persian in this room, and you
are from the country of Iran. In the last three
weeks, over 40 ,000 Iranians have been murdered
by the Islamic regime in Iran. I have friends
that are Persian that when I talk with them,
their eye is twitching. You know that nervous
twitch, that one -eyed twitch? I have friends
that have been persecuted by the... Islamic regime
in Iran where they've had plastic bags put over
their heads and where they thought they were
going to suffocate and die and then removed right
when they were passing out. If you are Persian
and you are listening to this message, I just
want you to know that you're not alone. That
as you're going through this troubled time, we're
praying for you. But I know that in this room
are nations where you, I know that in this room
there are people who have been persecuted before
because of their faith in Christ, because of
evil in this world that has caused you to experience
great pain. The truth is, is that every single
one of us has gone through troubled times and
we might be going through troubled times right
now. You might be in a troubled marriage. You
might be a teenager, you might be a junior higher
and a middle schooler and you're suffering at
school because you feel so alone and you feel
like you're just being ostracized, like you're
being pushed out and you feel like, does anybody
love me? You might be at work right now wondering
if you're going to keep your job. You've been
giving your life to this company and all of a
sudden this company is downsizing and you're
being pushed out. The truth is, is that I could
list a hundred different problems that are being
represented in this room right now because of
the troubled times that you're facing. But at
the root of every single bit of those times of
trouble is one cause. And it's not God. It's
sin. You see, when sin entered into the world
originally, we... The world broke. And we live
in a fallen world. We live in a fallen world
and we have a problem and the only solution is
what we're going to be talking about this morning.
And so if you've come here today and you have
problems, please understand that if you are experiencing
trouble, you are not alone. I will tell you that
I've experienced so much trouble in my life,
and you're going to learn about some of my troubles
in this message as we talk about these lessons
that we learn in our walk with God. I've experienced
some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows.
But one of the lowest lows for me at the time
was when I was a high school student. You see,
from the age of... of middle school, of being
in 6th grade through 12th grade, I had one dream,
and that dream was to go to the United States
Military Academy, to go to West Point. And I
worked so hard, and I worked hard academically.
I work hard, at least as hard academically as
a teenage boy can work. But, yes, I was one of
those. And I worked hard athletically. And I
got two nominations to West Point. I was a shoo
-in. All I had to do was pass my physical. So
I went to the army base where I was taking my
physical and all of a sudden I discovered something
about myself that I never knew in all of my 18
years of life. I'm colorblind. I had no idea.
Some of you are going to ask me, well, what does
it look like when you look at colors? I don't
know. It just looks like what I see. But I can
tell you that it disqualified me at that time
from going to West Point. And so all of my dreams
were completely dashed. All of what I thought
was my achievement was all of a sudden just crumbled
underneath me and I thought to myself, if there's
a God, he must be cruel. And so I will tell you
that I hated the concept of God so much so that
I was an agnostic at best, but I basically became
an atheist. And I went to a school that I wound
up just going to because I didn't really care.
And I went to this school and somehow, and I
don't think it was by chance, but somehow. on
the residence hall that I was in, in the dorm
room I was in. I was in a dormitory, and there
was a resident assistant, a person who's supposed
to care for the students, and his name is Jay
Condor. And he would talk with me about Jesus.
And of course, I did not receive that well. I
argued vigorously that there must not be a God.
I had all these arguments, all these proofs.
I thought that Jesus was just a fairy tale. I
thought that if there is a God that he must be
cruel and Jay just kept loving me and he kept
sharing Jesus with me. He kept sending me to
read some passage of the Bible and I would go
ahead and read it just so I could argue with
him and I was a real pain in the rear end in
his life. But then one day it was like I felt
my loneliness. And I felt my sinfulness. And
I felt all this trust that I had put in myself.
And what a disappointment I was. And that all
of my dreams had been dashed. And there I was
feeling lonely and feeling like, you know what?
I would like to trust in somebody who loves me.
In this God that Jay was talking about that so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him
would not perish but have everlasting life. And
I wanted to believe, but I couldn't. I couldn't.
For three months, it was like I was just in this
fog. And Jay was working with me. I read Mere
Christianity, the whole liar, lunatic Lord. He
talked with me about Blaise Pascal's theory of
probability and Pascal's wager. And those things
made sense to me and I wanted to believe, but
I couldn't believe. And then one day after three
months, it was like the fog just lifted. And
I saw through those troubled times, I saw the
beauty of Jesus Christ. And I trusted Him. And
this morning what I want to argue is that God
is trustworthy. That no matter what circumstances
you are going through right now, whatever troubles
you are going through right now, that God is
trustworthy. And that Jesus Christ is trustworthy.
And so we're going to be looking at Jeremiah.
After I became a believer in Jesus Christ by
the drawing of the Holy Spirit, what I saw was,
is I saw this beautiful book that when I read
it, I felt like it was speaking to me. And one
of the books in the Old Testament, in the Hebrew
Scriptures, that I really loved was the book
of Jeremiah because he was the weeping prophet.
But he gave me so much hope. And so... What I
want to give you is the context of Jeremiah,
particularly Jeremiah 17 and 29 this morning.
The context is a sharp prophetic warning to the
kingdom of Judah during a period of national
crisis and impending exile. They're going to
be exiled to Babylon. During this difficult time,
Judah was tempted to rely on biblical allies,
or not biblical allies, political alliances,
particularly Egypt, and military strength. In
order to save themselves from the Babylonian
empire. Rather than trusting in God. And they
had a choice. And Judah had the choice of. They
could either trust in the flesh. Or they could
trust in the Lord. And really that's always.
The decision that we make. We can either trust
in the flesh. We can trust in someone else. That
we think is going to save us. Maybe it's a political
figure. We can trust in. our own accomplishments
and our own self -reliance, thinking that somehow
we're going to be able to save ourselves. Or
we can trust in the Lord. Israel has this choice
just like we have that choice. And yet, let's
not talk about our sin. Let's talk about Israel's
sin because it's always easier to talk about
someone else's sin. So let's talk about the kingdom
of Judah's sin and let's feel the weight of it.
Alright, Pastor Pablo, he gave some beautiful
passages that were not that encouraging about
the state of the kingdom of Judah last week.
When the word of God was not even in their mouths.
And look at what Jeremiah 7 says in verse 23.
It says, Obey me and I will be your God and you
will be my people. Do everything as I say and
all will be well with you. God is telling them,
trust me. And yet... In Jeremiah 7, verse 24,
God says, but my people would not listen to me.
I mean, how hurtful is that? God offers them
a solution, but they wouldn't listen to God.
They kept doing whatever they wanted, following
the stubborn desires of their evil hearts. They
went backward instead of forward. Have you ever
felt that feeling? Maybe, you know, you've been
trying to lose weight. And you're like, I got
to get healthy. I've been there. I still am there.
And so, and all of a sudden you go, you know
what? Maybe I don't need to be eating five or
6 ,000 calories a day. And every time I see a
muffin, I got to eat it. And every time I see
a donut, I got to eat it. And every time I see
this, I got to reach and grab something and eat
it. And yet every time you see that donut, you
grab it. And it feels like you're going backward
instead of forward in your health journey. And
you feel like, man, What is it about my stubborn
desires and my evil heart that I can't just say
no to a donut? Now, there's nothing wrong with
donuts, all right? So don't feel convicted, okay?
They're good. It's just I wouldn't eat six of
them at the same time, all right? Which I've
been prone to do. And so... When we look at this,
we look at the fact that Jeremiah 7, 28 says,
therefore say to them, this is a nation that
has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded
to correction. Truth has perished. It has vanished
from their lips. Have you ever noticed that just
like the kingdom of Judah, we make excuses when
we're living in sin? Maybe we're watching things
that we shouldn't be watching on the internet
and we make excuses for it. Well, you know, I
don't have any intimacy with my spouse. And yet,
we have to ask the question, what does the word
of God say? What did Jesus say? You know, there's
no temptation that is not common to man. Every
single person in this room has experienced temptation
in many different forms. And I'm one of them.
Like the apostle Paul said, I'm the chief of
sinners. All right, I'm a hot mess. And some
of you in this room are hot messes and you're
doing things that all of a sudden you go, man,
wish I didn't do that but the things that I don't
want to do I do and the things that I want to
do I don't do and you're like the apostle Paul
and yet in Jeremiah 7 verse 28 says therefore
say to them this is the nation that has not obeyed
the Lord its God and responded to correction
truth has perished it has vanished from their
lips and this is where we come to Jeremiah 17
verse 1 the sin of Judah is written with a pen
of iron. Something's going to happen because
God knows that they're just not going to change
their heart in this moment. They're not going
to trust him. They're going to trust in their
flesh. And so he says in verse four, you shall
loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave
to you and I will make you serve your enemies.
We're talking about exile here in a land that
you do not know for in my anger, a fear is kindled
that shall burn forever. And you're like, whoa,
God's serious. You know, have you ever had that
experience? Remember when you were a kid and
all of a sudden you're like, wow, mom and dad
are serious. If I don't shape up, they're going
to shit me out. I'm going to be in real trouble
here. There's going to be real consequences.
And there are real consequences for the kingdom
of Judah. And so in Jeremiah 17, 5, we see that
this is what the Lord says to them. He says,
and we're going to see in contrast. to the next
two verses after this that are absolutely beautiful,
but these two verses show what happens when we
don't listen to what God says. It says, Cursed
are those who put their trust in mere humans.
This is what happens when we don't trust in the
Lord, but we choose to trust in the flesh. Cursed
are those who put their trust in mere humans,
who rely on human strength and turn their hearts
away from the Lord. They are like stunted shrubs
in the desert with no hope for the future. They
will live in the barren wilderness in an uninhabited
salty land. Does anybody in here want to live
in an uninhabited salty land? Do you want to
be like a little bush in the middle of the wilderness?
That's not what God wants you to be. God wants
you to be a tree. He wants you to be planted
in a place of His planting. And so, The kingdom
of Judah is in big trouble here. They're in big
trouble. And you might feel like you're in some
big trouble right now in your life. And maybe
it's not just your own sin. Maybe it's because
of someone else's sin in your life. Maybe you're
not being treated very well by your spouse. Maybe
you feel like you're not being treated very well
by your boss. And you're thinking, I'm in some
real trouble. And the cause of that trouble is
sin. And sometimes it's our own sin. Sometimes
it's somebody else's sin. But it's always sin.
And there's only one way out of the messes we
make or the messes we find ourselves in. And
here's the way out. In times of trouble, how
do we spell relief? T -R -U -S -T. That's what
we're going to find out from the next verse.
We've got to trust in the Lord. You see, in Jeremiah
17, and this is where we're going to spend the
predominant amount of our time. In Jeremiah 17,
verses 7 and 8, it says, But blessed are those
who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord
their hope and confidence. They are like trees
planted along a river bank with roots that reach
deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered
by the heat or worried by long months of drought.
Their leaves stay green and they never stop producing
fruit. You see, if you want to be blessed by
God, you have to trust in the Lord. That's what
Jeremiah 17, 7 says. If you want to be blessed
by God, you have to trust in the Lord. Now, trust
is such a slippery fish, if you will. And let
me just say this, there's not a person in this
room that trusts God perfectly, including myself.
Trust is like a slippery fish. In one area of
my life, I'm trusting him. In another area of
my life, I'm not trusting him. And even in the
areas that I am trusting him, I'm not trusting
him perfectly because oftentimes I want to grab
a hold of something and say, yeah, but God, if
you did it this way, we could really be successful.
And with arrogance, the same arrogance that I
had before I was a believer, with even the same
hurt that I still had before I was a believer,
I find myself having a hard time sometimes trusting
God. You see, the Bible says in Jeremiah 17,
7, but blessed are those who trust in the Lord
and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
Now, what does it mean to be To be blessed. What
it means to be blessed is to have the favor of
God upon you. To have the favor of God upon you.
How many of you want to have the favor of God
upon you? Please raise your hand. Okay, now take
your hands down. Is there anyone that doesn't
want to have the favor of God upon them? Is there
anyone that wants to be cursed and be separated
from God in this room? Can you raise your hand?
No one. Wow. Okay. That's not surprising. You
see, the truth is, is that everybody wants to
be blessed. We all want to have the favor of
God upon us. And I'm going to talk about this
morning how we can have the favor of God upon
us. But you're going to be surprised that it's
not based upon anything that you can do. But
it's actually based upon who God is and what
he's already done. You see, blessed are those
who trust in the Lord. Now it's interesting because
the word trust in the Hebrew scriptures is actually
used twice in this verse. And it comes from the
root word batach or batachon. And we have two
words. One is a verb. That's the first time it's
mentioned. The next is a noun. With the verb,
it's the word yivtach. And Yiv Tak means to lean
on or to feel safe or to be confident. But blessed
are those who trust in the Lord. Those blessings
come upon those who lean on the Lord. Who lean
on the Lord. Who feel safe in the Lord. Who feel
confident in the Lord. Who realize that the Lord
is trustworthy. Because I can tell you that there's
only one person in this room who really is trustworthy.
And that's God. You see, God's in this room.
Did you know that? Because God is omnipresent,
meaning He is everywhere. And so God is in this
room. The Holy Spirit is in this room. And He
is trustworthy. You see, blessed are those who
trust in the Lord. And so it's giving us this
verb that we need to lean on and feel safe in
and be confident in the Lord. And yet, it's in
the imperfect tense, meaning that it's in a sense
of ongoing or future action, meaning it's something
that's continually needing to happen. It's not
just a one -time deal. It's something where we
need to keep trusting in the Lord. But then there's
the second trust, which is the word mivtach in
Hebrew, which functions as a noun with a pronoun
as a suffix. And it refers to the object of trust.
It refers to the person or the thing that provides
security. In fact, in the English Standard Version,
this is the New Living Translation, but the English
Standard Version says this. It says, Blessed
is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust
is the Lord. You see, that noun that is trust
is the Lord. He is trustworthy. And that's what
I want us all to see this. this morning, including
myself, that God is, the Lord is trustworthy.
And by the way, the Lord is in the Hebrew scriptures,
YHWH. Anyone know what that stands for? Yahweh.
But they don't say Yahweh when they read the
scriptures, they say Adonai. But the reason why
there's capitalized in your Bible and up on the
screen behind me is because whenever... Y -H
-W -H, the name of God is used. It's always capitalized.
And what does it mean? It means I am who I am.
He is who he is. And you know what he is? He's
trustworthy. He is our trust. You see, we're
not talking about the perfection of our trust.
We're not talking about the perfection of our
faith here. Our faith is not perfect. But the
one that we have faith in is perfect. Our trust
is not perfect, but the one that we have trust
in is perfect. And we're going to see that throughout
this message. And so, to be blessed, to have
the favor of God upon us, we have to trust in
the Lord. And the Lord needs to be our trust.
He's the one who becomes our hope. and our confidence,
that our hope is not in ourselves, that our confidence
is not in ourselves, but in Him. So what does
it look like to trust in the Lord? Well, that's
Jeremiah 17 .8. And in Jeremiah 17 .8, it tells
us that if we trust in the Lord, we're like trees.
We're not like some stunted little shrub. Okay?
We're like trees that are planted along a riverbank.
With roots that reach deep into the water. Such
trees are not bothered by heat. They're not worried
by long months of drought. Their leaves stay
green and they never stop producing fruit. One
of the things I love about the missions organization
that I work for is that one of the metaphors
that we use is the tree. The tree out of Psalm
1. The tree out of Jeremiah 17, 7 and 8. We talk
about the roots. From roots to fruit. Because
oftentimes what people do is they wind up turning
the tree around and it's all about ministry.
Because the roots are our transforming faith.
The trunk is our transforming community and the
branches are the transforming ministry. But when
you turn that tree around and rather than having
those roots firmly planted, but instead you're
trusting in what you do, your ministry, that
oftentimes what it causes is it causes your ministry
to be unfruitful. And it causes a ministry to
lose its whole purpose, which is the Lord, which
is hope and confidence in him, and people become
burned out. And they dry up. And that's not what
God wants. God wants us to have our roots planted
somewhere. So here's the first application that
I'd like to give you from verse 8 in Jeremiah
17, and that is this. In order to trust in the
Lord, we have to recognize that with Jesus Christ,
you'll never walk alone. Do we have any Liverpool
fans in here? You see, before there was Liverpool
and you'll never walk alone, there was Jesus
who said, and lo, I'll be with you always till
the very end of the age. There was Jesus who
on the road to Emmaus, remember when Phil talked
about this, on the road to Emmaus, all of a sudden
they're walking along, this guy, he's really
insightful, he's walking with them, and they
don't know who he is, but he's asking them questions,
they're explaining things, and all of a sudden,
boom, they realize it's Jesus. And Jesus shares
with them all the things in the scripture that
are pertaining to him. You see, Jesus wants you
to understand that in him, you'll never walk
alone. Now, you might feel lonely at times. You
might feel like you are all alone, but you are
never alone. Jesus is always with you, even when
you're looking at stuff that you shouldn't be
looking at, even when you're doing stuff that
you shouldn't be doing. Jesus doesn't leave you.
Jesus said, and lo, I'll be with you always.
To the very end of the age. Jesus is never as
far away from you as you might think he is. In
fact, he's always right there with you. It's
just your perception. Because you think you're
far away from Jesus, but the reality is wherever
you go, he goes with you. If you're a believer
in Jesus Christ. So, in Jeremiah 17, it says
they're like trees that are planted along a river
bank. So this is how we know that we're never
alone because this word that planted is the word
shatul in Hebrew. It means to transplant or to
plant and the tense form is in the passive participle
meaning that it's not something that we do. We
don't plant ourselves but it's something that
is done to us. We've been planted by a reliant
and loving gardener. Who cares about us and who
wants us to succeed in this life. And so this
this gardener, this divine gardener plants us
along the riverbank. He doesn't just allow us
to be some wild shrub planted out in the middle
of the desert that's going to dry up when we
don't have any water. He always gives us what
we need to trust in him. Because he has planted
us along a riverbank. He has planted us along.
This river bank that gives us nourishment and
he's constantly with us and he's planted us in
something, in this water, and we're never alone
because this gardener cares for us. That's the
picture that we see in this passage that you
see on the screen. And so here's the second application.
The second application is we need to respond.
Respond with trust. to God's invitation to spread
your roots into the living water that Jesus Christ
gives. We need to respond with trust to God's
invitation to spread your roots into the living
water that Jesus Christ gives. Look at this verse.
It says that we're planted along a river bank.
Now that's God's responsibility. That is the
gardener's responsibility. We don't plant ourselves.
He planted us. He visits us all of the time.
He's constantly there watching us, taking care
of us, pruning us. He's given us everything we
need to grow in him. But we have a responsibility
and that responsibility is to respond to his
invitation. We have the responsibility to take
our roots and to extend them, to reach them deep
into that water that we have been planted by.
Now the word in the Hebrew here is, Yeshalach.
Which means send out its roots. And it's a verb
in an imperfect tense that suggests a habitual
or a persistent, or I like this word, a rhythmic,
a rhythmic action. The roots are constantly,
they're reaching out toward the water source.
That's who we should be. Now we're not always
that way, are we? I'm not. And my guess is that
you're not always that way too. The resource
is always there, but sometimes we don't reach
our roots deep into that water, and we'll discover
what that water is in a moment. But what we're
called is to respond to God's invitation to reach
our roots into that water. So what is that water?
Well, that water is Jesus Christ himself. You
see, they probably didn't understand this when...
Judah was reading this text because Jesus had
not been born into this world yet. They were
looking forward to a Messiah. Actually, they
probably weren't because they totally were not
trusting in the Lord at this time. But this promise
of a Messiah was there. And yet we know that
Jesus Christ is the living water. How do we know
that? Well, we're going to see a verse in a second
that will prove that. But before that, think
about it. When you were baptized, what were you
baptized into? Jesus, right? You know, the metaphor
of Jesus being the one that we are identifying
ourselves with through baptism. And we're baptized
in what? In water. And when we're baptized into
water, that water is a symbol of being baptized
into Jesus, into his death, into his resurrection,
into the blood that washes us clean of our sins.
It's Jesus Christ who is the water. And you say,
well, Craig, you're just making that up. Well,
the word water is mayim in the Hebrew text here,
but there's another place where it refers to
it and it says mayim chayim, which is living
water. Not some stagnant water that's like sitting
there building up scum and breeding mosquitoes,
but living water, moving water. You see, in Jeremiah
17, When it says that we are to reach into that
water, look at what this water is. Look at who
this water is. Later on in this very chapter
in Jeremiah 17 and verse 13, it says, O Lord,
the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you
will be disgraced. They will be buried in the
dust of the earth for they have abandoned the
Lord who is the fountain of living water. The
Lord is. The living water. He's the fountain
of living water. Jesus Christ, when he was talking
to the woman at the well, he said, you know,
I can give you living water. Why? Because he
is the living water. And we find ourselves in
a place where we can extend our roots and be
refreshed daily. by extending our roots into
him. And I'll show you that from the scriptures
in a few moments. But first I want to ask this
question. What are my rhythms? What are my rhythms
for deepening my roots into the river of God's
grace? And what are your rhythms? I mean, what
do you do on a daily basis, on a rhythmic basis?
What do you do on a rhythmic basis to send your
roots into the grace of God that is Jesus Christ?
Well, this isn't rocket science. I think you
probably all know the answers, and every one
of you might have a different way that you do
it, but I think it's probably centered in the
Word of God. It's probably centered in prayer.
Let me show you mine. One is I walk with God
every day. Now you're saying, oh, wow, that sounds
arrogant. No, I don't mean that I actually am
perfect at walking with God. I mean I actually
take a walk with God every day. I walk with my
feet. And I go, okay, Jesus, let's go on our
walk. And sometimes I don't feel like walking
with Jesus, but I walk with him. And sometimes
I say more and listen more than other times.
But I will tell you that when I go on this walk
with Jesus, it forces me to get away from where
I live. So that I'm not distracted by something
that I have to do or my computer all of a sudden
pops up some notification. Oh, sorry, Jesus.
But I go on a walk with him so I can focus. So
I can just spend time with him. I also do this
with my wife. When we're in the same country
together, we go on a walk every day. So I walk
with Jesus and then I walk with my wife. Because
I learned a long time ago when my wife and I
were having some problems in the beginning of
my ministry. That we needed time to be together.
But when we walked, we couldn't be doing other
things. We had to be either talking or mad at
each other or whatever. But we were with each
other. And that was very transformative in our
marriage. And so I just applied it to walking
with God. I want to walk with God every day.
What do I do on this walk with God? Well, I listen
to God. And so how do I listen to God? I've got
this app. It's the you version of the Bible and
I've got several different translations and I
pop them in there and I listen through a book
or I listen through maybe the New Testament or
I listen through the Old Testament. And what
I do is I'm listening because I want to pray
and I want to ask the Holy Spirit, I want you
to speak to me about something in my life. And
I will tell you that when you invite the Holy
Spirit to do that, God talks to you. All right,
he shows you something in your life that needs
to change or something in your life that you
need to learn or he gives you some kind of affirmation
that he loves you, that he cares for you, that
he's there with you. And so I listen to God's
word. And after I listen to God's word, I always
talk with God because I want to take the time
to be able to tell him whatever I want to tell
him because all of a sudden when I come to the
word, I'm like, ooh, ouch. God, there's something
in my life that needs to change. And I know you
already know it, but I'm going to just tell it
to you. Rather than being like Adam and Eve and
hiding in the bushes, I got a sin in my life
that we need to talk about. And so I climb up
into my heavenly father's metaphorical lap and
I let him put his big old arms around me and
I tell him, Papa, I screwed up. And I'm really
struggling with this. And I'm really struggling
with that. It might be I'm really struggling
with trusting you right now. I talk with God.
Oftentimes I go through the Lord's Prayer, not
saying it verbatim, but what I do is I say it
and then I use it as a guide to praying. Our
Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread
and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom
and the power and the glory forever and ever.
Amen. And I'll just say each of those phrases.
And then what I'll do is I'll just let that be
a springboard for things that I want to talk
with God about. Another practice that I have
every day is I practice gratitude. That's something
recently. Because I don't know about you, but
have you ever been around a six -year -old or
an eight -year -old? Anybody in here ever have
kids? They thank you all the time for everything
you do, don't they? I mean, you make them meals
and they're like, oh, thank you so much. Not.
How about a teenager? You know, you do all this
stuff for them. You're trying to help them and
instead of like thanking you, they're like, ah,
get off my case, mom. You know, leave me alone,
dad. Kids can be so ungrateful. And all of a
sudden I realized, oh wow, I'm one of God's kids
and I'm one of those ungrateful kids. And I realized
I didn't thank God enough for the things that
he had done for me and the things that he does
for me on a daily basis in my life. And so I
just started thanking him for everything. All
of a sudden I might be heading towards the BTS
and all of a sudden I might be 30 minutes away
from getting there and a bus shows up right at
a bus stop when I'm walking by and I jump on
that bus and I pay my eight baht and I'm like,
thank you, God. That was really cool. Or maybe
the bus doesn't show up, and I have to walk 30
minutes to the BTS station. I'm like, thank you,
God, for the exercise. Practicing gratitude,
it's all a matter of perspective, but thanking
God for everything. Even our suffering, and you'll
hear some of my suffering in a moment. But living
a life of worship. You know, worship isn't just
about the songs that we sing. You can worship
God through song, but you can also worship him
with your life. In fact, that's how he wants
you to worship him. I mean, what's the greatest
commandment? To love God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. And to love your neighbor
as yourself. And you know what? You can't do
that. I can't do that. But there's one who did
do that. His name is Jesus. And because he did
do that, we can do that. But that's the whole
key right there. Being in a relationship with
God is actually understanding that love is the
key to walking with God, metaphorically. And
so I love this quote by St. Augustine. He said,
love God and do whatever you please. And you're
saying, whoa, some of you are like, that sounds
dangerous. You can do whatever you please. Well,
you'll sin and you'll do this and you'll watch
this and you'll eat that and you'll go this place
you shouldn't be going. No, look, love God and
do whatever you please. Because if you love God,
what are you going to do? What's going to please
you? Pleasing Him. And so now all of a sudden,
rather than trying to live a life of behavioral
modification, rather than trying to live a life
where you're trying to follow this rule and not
do this and do that, instead you're just saying,
you know, what's the most loving thing I can
do for God at this moment because he's loved
me so much? Love God and do whatever you please.
God wants you to do things out of love for him,
not because you're just obeying the rules, not
because you're just trying to be a better person.
but because you realize how much he's loved you
and so you want to love him. But what happens
when we trust the Lord and trouble still comes?
You know, it's interesting because when we look
at Jeremiah 17 and after it tells us that we're
like a tree planted by water that sends out its
roots by the stream and does not fear when heat
comes for its leaves remain green and is not
anxious in the year of drought for it does not
cease to bear fruit. Look at what it says. It
says when heat comes. It doesn't say if heat
comes. It says when heat comes. And it says in
the year of drought. It doesn't say, oh, if you
experience a drought. Trouble comes in this world
because we live in a fallen world. And so don't
be surprised when all of a sudden you're having
trouble at work or you're having trouble in your
marriage or you're having trouble in your personal
life or you're having trouble in your walk with
God. Because there will be heat. That comes.
Maybe it's persecution. By someone who is acting
sinfully towards you. Or maybe it's your own
sin. But there will be heat that comes. But when
you trust in the Lord. Your leaves will remain
green. Even if they're barely hanging on. They're
going to remain green. And you don't have to
be anxious in the year of drought. because you'll
continue to bear fruit, even though you might
say, God, why are you doing this? And God says,
well, because you realize that the fruit of the
Holy Spirit is love, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness, goodness, self -control.
And so you're wondering why you're going through
this difficult time, because I'm trying to produce
in you the fruit of patience. And you're waiting
for something that you've been waiting for for
years. And God says, yeah, I'm letting you wait
for years. Because there's something more important
than you getting that. And that's you having
the fruit of patience. Because I'm a patient
God. Who's slow to anger. Who has a long nose,
the Hebrew scripture says. Because it takes God
a long time to get angry. Because he's so patient.
You see, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter
of when. And tough times will come. And so what
do you do during those tough times? Can I tell
you about a tough time in my life? You see, when
I got married, I married a woman that had a disease.
A literal disease. An autoimmune disease. And
she had been so sick that when she was 19 years
old, she almost died. And I married her kind
of fully knowing that she had this illness, but
not really understanding what that would mean
to my life. Because three times during our marriage
over the last 30 years, my wife has almost died.
Three times. One of those times was when we got
pregnant. I say we, I didn't really get pregnant.
But I like to think because I ate for those pregnancies.
But I will tell you that we had a daughter, we
still do, in 2000. And then we had four miscarriages.
I know there's a lot of you in this room that
have had miscarriages and you know how painful
they are. And we thought, I guess maybe we won't
be able to have a sibling for our daughter. But
we decided to try one more time. And when we
tried one more time, we got pregnant. My wife
started bleeding again. And then the next thing
you know, we go to the emergency room. We say
to the doctor, you know, she's bleeding. The
doctor says, well, you're probably having another
miscarriage. See, babies understand babies. And
so we go up to the ultrasound tech and all of
a sudden the ultrasound tech says, well, you
know, we expect him to say, well, I'm sorry,
your baby's heart is no longer beating. But instead
he said, well, baby number one's heart's beating
just fine. I said, baby number one's heart? Are
we having twins? And he goes, no. He said, but
baby number two's heart is beating just fine
as well. And I said, baby number two? You said
we weren't having twins. And he said, you're
not. And I'm like, what are you talking about?
And he goes, well, baby number three's heart's
beating just fine as well. And I said, whoa,
you shut your mouth. My daughter started jumping
up and down and she says, four babies, five babies,
six babies, seven. I said, you shut your mouth
too. I said, I'm trying to wrap my head around
this. And I said, I said, okay, are we having
four babies, five babies? No, don't worry. You're
only having triplets. I look over at my wife.
My wife has her jaw on the floor and she's saying,
how am I going to carry triplets? And I said,
how am I going to pay for triplets? Seriously,
I was a pastor, you know, and we're not known
for making a lot of money. And so, and I lived
in America where healthcare costs a whole bundle.
And I can tell you that by the end of this story,
the medical bill was $1 .4 million. Okay, and
I was responsible for 20%. So you can do the
math. So, all of a sudden, we go, okay, we're
having triplets. We go home. My wife goes on
bed rest about the fifth month. All of a sudden,
she goes preeclamptic on me. It's where, you
know, your organs start to act kind of weird
and everything like that. It happens sometimes
like a week or two weeks before you're supposed
to give birth. This is three months, four months
before. And all of a sudden, she goes full on
acclamped at the end of that month. And now we've
got three months left to go, but they have to
do an emergency C -section and cut her from her
sternum down to her pelvis. And I watch these
three aliens come out of her belly. And that's
what they look like. Remember those frogs you
dissected in high school? Okay, that's what they
look like with little alien heads. They were
a half a kilogram each. They were one pound each.
They strapped them down. Started sewing my wife
up. Took them two hours to sew my wife up. I'm
up there with the babies and they're giving me
the good news of, look, you'll be lucky if one
of your kids lives. I go back down to see my
wife. 15 minutes after they finish sewing her
up, she goes into a coma. She's in a coma for
11 days. You see, it's not if, it's when. Talk
about the heat. Talk about the drought. She's
in a coma. My kids are getting worse and worse
and worse. My son's got 36 holes in his heart.
My daughter has brain bleed in both of her ventricles
of her brain. They're 14 times larger than normal
and her head is like three times the size of
what it should be. And all of my kids experience
retinopathy of prematurity where because of the
oxygen at such an early birth, it scars the eyes
and the blood vessels don't wrap around and the
retina detaches and so they're blind. My wife's
in a coma and they're telling me that three kids,
I'll be lucky if one of them lives. And I'll
be lucky if my wife lives. And I'm like faced
with what am I going to do? Now I want to tell
you what I wanted to do was get in our little
car and drive from the west coast of the United
States all the way to the east coast and never
look back. But I know that's not what God would
do with me. And so I want to tell you that I
didn't have that mustard seed of faith. I did
not have a mustard seed of faith because God
had already taken four babies through miscarriages
and I'm like, oh great God, now you're going
to take three babies and a wife. And I can remember
just feeling like, God, I got a choice here.
I can trust in my flesh and run or I can trust
in you and you can take my unbelief and you can
help me. And I can tell you that I thought of
that story of that man with the demoniac child
that was possessed by a demon and they were all
arguing, the disciples, because they were arguing
with the religious leaders because they tried
to heal this kid and cast out this demon but
the demon didn't come out. Jesus walks up. Jesus
says, what are you guys arguing about? Blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. you know,
oh, they tried to cast out the demon and they
couldn't. And Jesus, he talks with the dad. And
the dad says, well, you know, if you can, could
you cast this demon out of my son? And he goes,
if I can. And that father understood the insult
that he had just given to Jesus. And he said,
you know, I believe, but help me with my unbelief.
And that's what I had to say to God. I believe,
but help me with my unbelief. I don't even have
a mustard seed of faith, but help me with my
unbelief because I got a little bit there. I'm
crying out to you. And I can remember the doctor
who is an atheist. He came in, great doctor though,
but he said, you know, I don't want to ruin you.
You are your faith life, but I want to tell you
that we're going to have to do open heart surgery
on your son. This is the 11th day. We're going
to have to do brain surgery on your daughter.
You need to come in at 7 .30. Because their surgeries
are both going to be at 8. You need to say goodbye
to your kids because they're probably going to
die during surgery. And I can remember coming
in in the morning at 7 .30 and I said to that
doctor who's an atheist, I said, I'm here to
say goodbye to my kids. And he said, well, you're
not going to be able to say goodbye to them.
And I said, tell me the bad news. Did they die?
And he goes, no, I'll tell you the bad news.
I can no longer be an atheist. I said, what do
you mean? He said, last night in that NICU room,
the two nurses that were with your kids said
it was like Jesus walked into the room and all
of your kids' vitals went normal. We did scans.
Your son's heart is healed. Your daughter's brain
is healed. And all three of your kids were blind
and now they can see. And I can tell you that
it wasn't because of my great faith. It wasn't
because of my great trust. It was because of
the God who is trustworthy. And those four babies
that we had miscarriages, you know, you think,
oh God, why did you do that? Well, God saved
them from this hell on earth that we sometimes
experience and he took them straight to him.
And God doesn't always promise that we're going
to come out of our circumstances. Think about
the Apostle Paul in the book of Philippians where
he based a letter to the Philippians. He said,
you know what? Either the Lord's going to deliver
me out of this jail cell or he's going to deliver
me up to be with him. We can't look at things
from our perspective. We have to look at things
from God's perspective. But God is always trustworthy.
And here's what I want to tell you. That this
is a testimony of God's grace because God healed
my kids. He healed them. And this is what they
look like today. Three 19 -year -olds and a 25
-year -old. And their two spouses right there.
This is my wife. On the 11th day, two hours after
the doctor said, your kids have been healed,
my wife came out of her coma. I will tell you
that I was so happy, but I have PTSD to this
day because of all the 11 days that I had to
go through. But I'm so thankful to God because
I have shared Jesus with so many people because
of this story. And I've used it to demonstrate
his power, especially in fear power cultures.
Now my wife, five and a half years ago, They
said, you have five years left to live. And she
was getting worse and worse and worse. And she
was supposed to die about a half a year ago.
And guess what happened a half a year ago? Look,
this doesn't always happen. Some of you may have
lost spouses. And it's not because you didn't
have faith. It's because God said, oh, I'm going
to take your spouse up to be with me. But six
to eight months ago, God healed my wife. Of three
major diseases that were taking her life. And
so now she actually gets to join me on the mission
field. And I'm going to bring her here in July.
So I want her to meet you guys. But here's what
I want you to understand. When you don't understand
God's hand. Trust his heart. Trust his heart.
Look at. Jeremiah 29, For I know the plans I
have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for
good and not for disaster, to give you a future
and a hope. This is to Israel. This is to the
kingdom of Judah that is trusted in the flesh
and is getting exiled. And now God says, For
I know the plans I have for you. They are plans
for good and not for disaster, to give you a
future and a hope. In those days when you pray,
I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly,
you will find me. I will be found by you, says
the Lord. This is what the Lord says. You will
be in Babylon for 70 years, but then I will come
and do for you all the good things I have promised
and I will bring you home again. And let me bring
you home again this morning. Let's close this
message with looking at Jesus. You see, the truth
is, is that we all deserve to be cursed because
none of us trust in the Lord fully. All of us
at times are trusting in the flesh. But here's
what's so beautiful about Jesus. Jesus became
that curse for us. Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law in Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ
redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming
a curse for us for it is written, cursed is everyone
who is hanged on a tree. Jesus hung on a cross
and became a curse for you so that he could cover
you in his righteousness. You see, 2 Corinthians
5, 21 says, God made him who had no sin to be
sin for us so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God. And this is such a beautiful
verse because what this is called is the great
exchange where we give to Jesus all of our sin
when we trust him. And he gives us all of his
righteousness. All the times he said yes to God
and no to sin, he gives that to us so that when
God... looks at us, instead of seeing our sin,
he sees his perfect son, Jesus Christ, and his
righteousness covering us so that he doesn't
see our sin, but he sees his perfect son. Because
you are a child of God, because you have trusted.
Even though imperfectly, you have trusted in
the person of Jesus Christ. You see, and we all
with unveiled face beholding the glory of the
Lord are being transformed into the same image
from one degree of glory to the other for this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. If you
want to know the secret of growing in your spiritual
life, guess what? The secret is beholding the
glory of the Lord is seen in the face of Jesus.
Even during those times when you don't understand
His hand, trust His heart. Because when you look
to Jesus, what happens is there's spiritual transformation
even during the difficult times of your life.
A friend of mine, actually he's a supervisor
of mine in Nexus International, he explained
this concept to me. His name is John Hoppen.
He said developing a lifestyle of repentance
through rhythm of... Of encountering and delighting
in God's grace. You see, if you think that the
spiritual life is becoming more and more like
God's perfect standard, you don't understand
how sinful you are. But when you understand how
sinful you are, all of a sudden the cross gets
bigger and bigger and bigger. And the more that
you understand that you have a trustworthy God,
the more that I understand that I have a trustworthy
God, the cross gets bigger and bigger and bigger.
The Pharisees were people who trusted in themselves.
They trusted in their flesh. But as followers
of Christ, we understand that this isn't a country
club for saints. This is a hospital for sinners.
That guy up there, that's Jay Condor. He's the
one that shared Jesus with me, my resident assistant.
He gave me the book, Mere Christianity. That
guy's smoking a pipe. That's C .S. Lewis, Chronicles
of Narnia. That's my story, and I'm sticking
to it. Let's bow and let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we come before you and we thank you so much for
giving to us the person of Jesus Christ. We thank
you that this world is not the end all be all.
There's going to be suffering because of sin
in this world, but we don't have to be people
who are... Who are controlled by our circumstances
because our circumstances, whether there be drought,
whether there be heat, we're planted in the source
that is Jesus Christ. So that even during those
times of difficulty, we can put our trust in
him and we can bear fruit. So I pray for the
people in this room, including myself, who are
struggling in times of trouble. Will you prepare
us? For this abundant life, even in times of
trouble, by helping us to extend our roots into
the one who is trustworthy. We thank you for
who you are. We thank you for what you've done.
And as we think of Jeremiah, we think of angel
armies. It says... In that chapter 29, that there's
the God of angel armies. So no matter what we're
going through, we have God before us. We have
God standing behind us. We have God to the left
of us, to the right of us. And we're friends
of his because of Jesus Christ. And if there's
someone here this morning who doesn't know Jesus,
who's never trusted Jesus, I pray that after
the service that they would come up and they
would say, I want to know this Jesus. I want
to believe, but help me with my unbelief. And
we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. If God is calling
you to support our ministries, you will find
giving options on our website. And remember to
join us next week. God bless you.