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Psalm 119, we read these words, I considered my ways and turned my feet to thy testimonies.

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Just as often as we get into New Year, we go through an examination of our physical

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bodies to make sure that we're going to make it through the next Christmas season.

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Just as we like to find out how we're doing physically to see if there might be in fact

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some disease that we need to be concerned about.

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So as we enter a new year, I think it's important for us to take another kind of examination

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of ourselves, a spiritual examination.

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The psalmist says, I considered my ways.

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And having done that, he said, I turned my feet according to thy word.

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Would you bow with me in prayer as we commit this time to the Lord.

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Now Father, I pray this morning as we consider our ways, as we go through a New Year's examination

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of our own hearts, privately, quietly, internally, with you looking on, enable us to be honest,

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enable us to be repentant, and grant that having considered our ways, wherein we need

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to, we would turn our feet so that we might walk according to your word.

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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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The pagan roots of our Western civilization can be witnessed in a number of ways.

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An example of that would be the terms that we use to describe the days of the week or

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the months of the year.

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January is no exception.

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January is named after a Roman god whose name was Janus.

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The Romans depicted Janus as having two faces.

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With one he looked backward.

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That face was one that was depicted as sad, sorrowful, even fearful.

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With the other face he looked forward, and with it he evidenced anticipation, hope, and

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confidence.

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As we begin a New Year, perhaps there are some of us who are like Janus.

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We look to the last year with some disappointments, some sorrows, but we look ahead to the New

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Year with hope and anticipation for what it brings.

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It does no good really to look backward too long.

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We can learn from our past mistakes, we can correct ourselves, but I believe that God

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wants us to look forward, and even better than that, that God wants us to look upward.

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As we think about the next year, and indeed what remains of our lives, whether it be measured

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in hours and days or years and decades, it is wise for us to remember that not all men

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are created equal with respect to opportunities or abilities.

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But there is one sense in which we are all created equal, and that is that each day we

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have approximately 24 hours.

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And each year that we live we have 365, or as in the case of a leap year like this, 366

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days in that year.

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In the sense of the time that comes to us while we're on the earth, we are indeed created

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equal.

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The difference then is how we use that time.

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It's wise for us to stop and to evaluate our lives, for lives are composed of precious

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stuff, time.

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How we use our time determines how we live our lives.

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That's why, for example, Haggai the prophet said three times to the people of Israel in

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that day, God says consider your ways.

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Consider your ways.

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Consider your ways.

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The apostle Paul joins in the book of Galatians, the sixth chapter, the fourth verse, where

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he says let every man examine his own work.

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And likewise the prophet of old, Jeremiah, says in the book of Lamentations, let us examine

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and probe our ways and let us return to the Lord.

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Now indeed as we think about a New Year's examination there are a number of ways we

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could approach this.

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We could examine, for example, the relationship between ourselves and our families.

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That is a critical relationship and it bears examination, but this morning we're not going

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to take the time to do that.

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We could examine the relationship between ourselves and the world in which we live,

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but this morning we're not going to take time to do that either.

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We could talk about the relationship between ourselves and our church, that too is an important

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area that needs examination occasionally, but we're not going to take time to do that.

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We're going to go right to the very crux of it all, right to the heart of the whole examination.

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We're going to check out the vitals in our relationship to the Lord.

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Let's think this morning about that as we pause to take a New Year's examination.

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As we think about our relationship to the Lord, once more there are a number of ways

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that we might approach that.

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We're going to do one, two, or three areas depending upon how God leads in the time that

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we have available.

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But first I'd like for us to think about this critical, essential, and basic area in our

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relationship to the Lord, and that is the area of our faith in the Lord.

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I remind you of what the writer of Hebrews said in the 11th chapter and the 6th verse

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when he tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God.

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Now what is faith?

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That is one question that we need to talk about first.

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How would you define faith?

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Well there are a number of good definitions.

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One of those is faith is trusting obedience.

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Notice that it takes it beyond a feeling that we have to the point of doing something.

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And that certainly is borne out in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, where by faith these great

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patriarchs of old did certain things.

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So faith is more than a feeling.

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Faith goes beyond that to an action.

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It is trusting obedience.

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Faith is an attitude of dependence or reliance upon the Lord that leads to action.

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That is my doing what he tells me to do even though I may not be able to perceive or understand

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the results of it.

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I think of Noah in that regard, who did what God told him to do even though he could not

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see the end result of it.

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Yet God blessed him because of his faith.

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Abraham was told, go over to that country.

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He went, not knowing all that was involved, not having all of the answers, but trustingly

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he obeyed and did what God told him to do.

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Now of course we are saved by faith.

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Believing faith is an obedient faith.

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There is an obedience to the gospel that is involved in our being saved.

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When we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we are doing what God tells us to do, what

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we are enabled by grace to do, to place our reliance upon the Lord for the salvation of

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our souls.

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And I am aware that in this congregation there may well be someone or some few here today

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who have not yet made that life transforming decision.

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Your faith may still be resting in religion or resting in your good works or resting in

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something that you have done or have experienced in your past or something you hope to do in

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the future.

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Upon your good intentions, my friend, faith that saves is faith that is placed in a person

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who has already done it for you.

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The Lord Jesus Christ has died for your sins, has been raised from the dead, he has done

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all that needs to be done to bring you to God, to save your soul.

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Now he commands you to believe on him, to trustingly obey him by placing your faith

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upon him alone for the salvation of your soul.

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If you have not done that, I would pray to God that you would do it today.

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But please understand that that is only the beginning of our relationship of faith in

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the Lord.

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For the life, the Christian life is a life of faith.

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Our service is a service of faith.

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Too often all of us who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ experience the acid of worry

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in our lives.

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If there is anything that eats away at our spiritual energy, it is the acid of worry.

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Worry which really accomplishes nothing anyway, but worry which certainly is the end of faith.

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George Muller, the great man of faith said, the beginning of anxiety is the end of faith.

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And the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.

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What is Muller saying?

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Those two cannot coexist in the same life.

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We cannot worry and claim to believe at the same time.

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The one cancels the other.

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As you and I examine our lives today, are we a believing people or are we an anxious

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people?

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There is no man who has ever yet tested the resources of God fully.

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Or there have been some who have done amazing things.

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No man has gone yet to the extent of what God can do.

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You know we only actually test God and test faith when we attempt the humanly impossible.

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We are to be wise, we are to be careful analyzers of our situations.

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But folks, faith goes beyond that analysis, that important initial analysis.

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Faith goes beyond that, it is not limited by that, but faith goes into that which cannot

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be seen, which cannot be known for sure.

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Faith causes us to step out into the seeming void where there is nothing beneath.

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When we step there we find a rock, and that rock is God himself.

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God wants us to be good analyzers, good investigators, he wants us to be good preparers, but whether

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it be as a church family or it be in our work or it be as our home families, we need to

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learn what it is really to step out beyond what we see we can do and to trust God.

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For only then are we really expressing the kind of faith that pleases God.

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Without it we can't please him.

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A traveler crossed a frozen stream in trembling fear one day.

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Later a teamster drove across and whistled all the way.

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Great faith and little faith alike were granted safe convoy.

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One had the pangs of needless fear, the other all the joy.

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Someone has said, little faith will take your soul to heaven, but great faith will bring

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heaven to your soul.

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I believe that in the year 1988 God wants us as a people to know greater faith.

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As you examine your faith in the Lord today, where is the extent of it?

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How far does it go?

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What are you really trusting God to do in your life?

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We are great materialists and God has blessed us, I think we would say, with a lot of things.

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We don't have to trust God too often for material things because we have an abundance of resources.

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What can we do to free ourselves up from the encumbrance of things so that we really learn

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something about trusting God?

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Where in my life today, where in your life, can we see an area where God can provide for

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us beyond what we think we can do, beyond what we see or measure out that we can accomplish?

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That's the area I want you to examine.

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That's the place I want to challenge you at today, to trust God for bigger things in your

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life.

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To trust God for greater things than you ever trusted Him before as you enter a new year.

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Don't plan on living on the resources that you have and limiting yourself and your experience

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with God with that.

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But in some area of your life, dare to trust God to provide.

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Believe Him for something that is beyond your capability.

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It may be in the area of finances that you trust God, but it may be in some other area

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of doing something, being involved in a ministry that you just at this point can't see yourself

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doing.

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I don't know what realm it may be, but get beyond the comfort zone.

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That's the message.

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Go to the point where you're stepping out on the void as God leads you, not foolishly,

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but as God leads you, and challenge Him and see if He won't pour out upon you a blessing

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that you've not experienced to this point, because God's blessings come to those who

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walk by faith.

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I want to challenge you to consider what God could do in your life, through your life in

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1988.

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You may not need to share that with anyone.

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You may want to share it or should share it with your life's partner or with a friend

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of yours.

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But I want to challenge you even right now while I'm talking to just jot down a note

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to yourself about this.

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What is it that you will trust God for in the next year?

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What is it that will stretch your faith?

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There are other ways in which our walk of faith is tested than in the areas that I've

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already suggested to us.

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The Apostle Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

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He reminds us in verse 7 of this basic principle that so often we overlook.

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We know the rest of these wonderful verses in the first paragraph of 2 Corinthians 5

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that tell us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

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Praise God for that truth.

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But please let us not overlook the importance of verse 7 which says, we walk by faith, not

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by sight.

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That is an essential principle of the true Christian life.

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One of the reasons that the Christian life becomes boring is that we haven't yet lived

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it.

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Because until we come to this principle and begin to experience it and to inject it into

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our daily lives, we haven't begun living what God calls the Christian life.

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We walk by faith, not by sight.

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Another realm, another example of how we need to walk by faith is in the realm of suffering.

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I don't know about you, but I have had enough reports on the news about mass murders to

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last me a long time.

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We have all been sickened and shocked at what has taken place in Kansas City, in Iowa, Texas,

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New Hampshire, other places.

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The question can come to our minds as we ponder these shocking kinds of circumstances when

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even innocent children are slain by their parents.

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We say, where is God in all of this?

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Has that thought ever crossed your mind or is it just me?

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Why does God allow these kinds of things?

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When we hear about a shipload of people who are on their way to a holiday and because

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of the carelessness of a captain or perhaps two captains, the ferry collides with a tanker,

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there's a great explosion and three, four, or five thousand people go to a watery grave.

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Why do mass kinds of things happen like that where thousands of people are innocently taken

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to their deaths?

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We have examples of that even in the Bible.

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Did you know that?

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In the book of Job, the book begins with an introduction to Job's wealth to his family

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and I remind you that he had seven sons and three daughters.

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And in one great calamity, all ten children died.

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He lost everybody in one calamity.

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I cannot imagine losing one child.

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You probably can't either although some of you have experienced that heartache.

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I don't know how you've stood it but by the grace of God, I don't believe you could.

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But Job lost ten children in one whack.

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Where is God in all of that?

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The nation of Israel, this is some time later now, another example.

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The nation of Israel was disobedient, spiritual adulterous.

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God had sent prophet after prophet to warn them to correct them.

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There would in some cases be a temporary repentance and then they would return to their false

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idols in their idolatrous, wicked ways.

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And finally God announced the Chaldeans are going to come and judge.

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They're going to come and destroy the nation of Israel.

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And the prophet Habakkuk wrestles with that.

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He says, God how can you do that?

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How can you use a more wicked nation than our own to judge us, to bring judgment?

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And his ultimate answer is, God is in his holy temple and all the earth keeps silent

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before him.

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That's basically where Job ended up too.

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After seeking to justify himself on a number of occasions through the book, he concludes

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by total repentance of his self-righteousness and submission of himself to a sovereign God

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who can well do what he desires to do.

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Where does suffering come from?

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Well essentially it comes from human sin.

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And God in his sovereignty often allows the innate inward wickedness of the human heart

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to produce its worst and he doesn't stop it.

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We've seen examples of that in our news in the last few days.

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It doesn't mean that God isn't in control, God is very much in control, but he is simple

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allowing the wickedness of the human heart to be exposed so that all of us can see it

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in its ugliness.

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How do we know that?

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Because we walk by faith and not by sight.

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We walk by faith.

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It may be this morning that you need a fresh infusion of faith as you look about you in

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the world and you see a lot of unjust things going on.

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There are people who are being oppressed this morning, others who are being imprisoned without

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having committed a crime, tortured and put to death in regimes that are hardline and

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cruel.

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Let me assure you that God is still in his holy temple as he was in the days of Habakkuk.

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And we must learn to be quiet before God and be submissive to what God sovereignly allows

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to take place in human history.

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For sometimes it is beyond our understanding and our explanation.

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We live by faith, not by explanations.

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There's another worry that often troubles the people of God with regards to faith.

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It troubled David.

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And that is the issue of why wicked people prosper, but often godly people don't.

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Have you ever wondered about that?

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Why is it that that student who cheats in order to get decent grades gets by with it

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and you as a Christian work your very best, you work your hardest, you're not able to

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get those kinds of grades.

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Consequently that person gets the scholarship, that person gets the advantage or the recognition

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and he cheats.

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What about the person at work that you know to be dishonest or lazy?

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But that person gets the promotion somehow in the organization.

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That's just because he or she is willing to socialize and pay the kind of social price

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that's often necessary for promotion.

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You've not been willing to compromise your convictions.

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Consequently you're held back, you're given a lateral move and the other person gets the

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promotion is kicked upstairs.

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Have you ever wondered why it is that ungodly people often prosper?

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Have you ever envied them?

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Have you ever asked yourself the question, I wonder if it's really worth it to serve

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god.

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I mean I suffer, I pay my price, I try to be honest and right, I try to do what pleases

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god and look what I get for it.

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Have those thoughts ever crossed your mind?

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You're a rare individual if they haven't.

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Look in Psalm 37, what David said.

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He says do not fret, now there is a ten dollar word for you.

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Do not fret because of evildoers.

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In fact three times he says that again in verse seven, again in verse eight, do not

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fret.

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That word means to be filled with rage, to be angry or to put it in the vernacular of

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our day it means don't get burned up.

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That's literally what it means, don't get burned up because of evildoers.

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Be not envious toward wrongdoers, why?

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Why David, why shouldn't I?

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For they will wither quickly like the grass and fade like the green herb.

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He says that they will not go on forever.

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Yeah but it's happened for five years.

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For this person all of his life has been this way and has had nothing but easy street.

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But it won't last forever.

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What should we do?

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Well in a positive vein he says trust in the Lord.

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There's your faith.

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Are you today envious because there are people around you who are unrighteous, who are wicked,

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who are making all the money, getting all the attention, getting the grades, passing

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the tests and you're struggling for every bit of encouragement you can get.

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Trust in the Lord.

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Let your reliance be upon him, not upon what you can see but upon him.

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And when he says and do good, let that be your practice.

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When he says dwell in the land, now to ancient Israel in David's day that had a particular

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meaning because to them from Abraham's time and on they've been given the land.

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So he says dwell in the land.

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But to us today we don't have Palestine to think about.

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What is it saying to us?

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Our application is saying to us dwell in what God has provided for you.

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The word dwell means to settle down, to live in it or be content with what God has provided

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for you and cultivate, notice he doesn't say corn or wheat, he says cultivate faithfulness.

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Actually the word cultivate here means to associate with, make friends with or keep

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company with faithfulness.

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You see that's the thing that counts folks.

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It's not whether we get the kick upstairs or we get the extra bonus or the plus at the

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end of the letter grade.

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That's not the important thing.

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The important thing is that we associate ourselves with faithfulness.

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That's what pleases God.

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He says delight yourself in the Lord, make him your joy.

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Trust also in him and he will do it.

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What is he saying here?

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He says God will take care of it.

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If you see an injustice, if you see something that is oppressive, listen God will take care

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of that in his own way at his own time.

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Leave it to him.

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Make it your joy to delight in him.

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He says he will bring forth your righteousness as the light.

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It may be that no one sees the kind of person you really are.

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God is going to bring forth your righteousness like the morning sun rising.

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And he says your judgment as the noon day.

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Now he's got the full sun shining, beaming down and he says that's going to expose your

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judgment.

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The word judgment there means what your claim is, what you're entitled to.

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Say I've never gotten what I deserve.

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I've never gotten what I'm entitled to.

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When we ask that kind of question or we're thinking those kinds of thoughts, we need

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to examine our hearts to see what our motive is, don't we?

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For in the end what are we really entitled to?

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But David says that God has a way of bringing about what you're entitled to.

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Your judgment will be brought forth just like the noon day sun.

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And when he says in verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

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It seems to me that those two verbs, rest and wait, are beautiful synonyms for faith.

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What does it mean to have faith in the Lord?

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To walk by faith, it means to rest, to be quietly submissive.

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We sang this morning blessed quietness.

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My friend it's that kind of quietness of spirit that shows faith.

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And then he says wait patiently, patient waiting is another synonym for faith.

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Do not fret.

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Do not fret he says, evil doers will be cut off, verse 9, but those who wait for the Lord,

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they will inherit the land.

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Now again they had a particular meaning to the Jewish people, to us today there is a

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spiritual application.

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God will take care of our needs.

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We can go ahead through the rest of the psalm in light of what we've said here by way of

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introducing it.

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And we can see that David is saying to us, examine your faith my friend.

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Don't be envious of the wicked who seem to prosper.

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Their end is coming.

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But wait in the Lord.

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Wait patiently on the Lord.

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Trust in him.

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Rest in the Lord.

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And God will vindicate you.

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God will say that you get what you deserve, but learn to walk by faith.

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Well we didn't get very far this morning in our examination.

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I hardly got your tongue examined here.

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You know the doctor looks at the tongue and then he goes to the ears and all the rest.

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We just hardly got started this morning.

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But I think we've touched on an area of life where all of us, including me, where all of

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us need to do some examination.

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Our faith in the Lord.

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Where is that faith?

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What are we trusting God to do in us and through us in 1988?

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What is beyond our resources so that we're not measuring ourselves by what we see but

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we're measuring what we can do but what God is able to do in us?

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God isn't looking for great ability but great what?

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Right availability.

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You see suffering around you that you can't explain that bothers you?

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Maybe you're passing through some of that persecution yourself.

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It's tough.

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It's tough.

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Walk by faith.

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Don't look at the things that are seen but the things that are not seen.

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Those are the things that count because those are eternal things.

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You find yourself a little jealous this morning of that neighbor or that fellow worker or

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that student that you sit next to in the classroom.

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Don't be jealous of their prosperity in their wickedness.

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God will see that you get what you deserve in your time.

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Walk by faith my friend.

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Let this be a year when all of us learn more about the walk of faith.

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Annie Johnson Flint wrote a poem entitled My Resolution.

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Undoubtedly it was written at the New Year.

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For she said, I won't look back.

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God knows the fruitless efforts.

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I'll leave them all with him who blots the record and mercifully forgives and then forgets.

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I won't look back.

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I won't look forward.

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God sees all the future, the road that short or long will lead me home.

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And he will face with me its every trial and bear with me the burdens that may come.

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I won't look forward.

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But I will look up into the face of Jesus.

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For there my heart can rest.

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My fears are stilled.

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And there is joy and love and light for darkness and perfect peace and every hope fulfilled.

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I will look up.

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Let's bow together.

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Will you look up this morning?

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Let's talk to the Lord for a minute.

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Where has his word challenged you today?

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Lord, thanks for speaking to us.

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Thank you for challenging us in this important area of our lives.

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These kinds of examinations, as you know, are not very pleasant to us in our humanness.

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But thank you for forcing us into them.

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For thereby we're able to see where we are to some extent.

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And we're able to confess our shortcomings, our sins, and start fresh.

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Lord, I pray this morning that every one of us who names the name of Christ will learn

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more about the walk of faith in 1988.

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May this be, in some respect for all of us, a new beginning in our walk with you.

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And like this poem we just read, may our faith look up to you.

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In Jesus' name, amen.