February 24, 2019 "I Will Trust in the Lord", Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley

but I can't figure out is how do you say you love me and how do you give me the good things I want and how do you hear me tell you what I don't like and yet somehow you find a way to put on my plate what you know I don't want what's valid being prayer with me o to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee prone to wander lord I feel it prone to leave the god I love here's my heart Lord take and seal it seal it for thy courts above in Jesus name we pray amen David declares in the Psalms that word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee David understood that every now and then there's gonna come a moment when you need the Word of God in your heart because you may not be able to have a Bible in your hand this is a nice way of saying that there ought to be some scriptures you have embedded in your heart that you can draw on when you need them in life you need more than Jesus web when you find all hell breaking loose in your life you got to pull on all things work together for the good of them that love the Lord when it seems like God is moving just a little bit behind schedule got a remind yourself they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength when your co-worker has gotten on your last good nerve in your heart you got to have some fret not thyself over evildoers neither be thou envious of the workers of iniquity for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and y'all ain't nothing like watching God cut grass there's some scriptures you got to have deep in your heart and one of the most powerful scriptures that I want to embed in your heart today and pray that you will not leave this service another day without reminding yourself of these words it's a powerful passage of scripture that is uttered on the lips of a man named job and in the book of Job right before the Book of Psalms if you can navigate to the thirteenth chapter I want to show you a passage of Scripture that ought to make you shout job chapter 13 if you're physically able won't you stand with us let's together we reverence the reading of God's Word in job chapter 13 and verse number 15 there's some powerful preaching right there no matter what version of the Bible you have verse 15 ought to read a little something like this though he slay me yet will I trust him girl you don't need nothing else sit down right there though he slay me yet will I trust him I want to preach day the subject I will trust in the Lord though he slay me yet I will trust him I have shared with you all in confidence that I really like to cook that's not that's not right I love to cook there's nothing I enjoy more large than being left alone in my kitchen to do what God has gifted me to do I love cooking so much that when this preaching and pastoring thing is over i'ma try cooking professionally because I love to cook someone asked me pastor where'd you develop your love of cooking very simple my dad did all the cooking in our house there's a little boy I was attached at the hip to my father and whatever he did I wanted to do whatever he was I wanted to be and my dad could show enough cook my dad could fix just about anything you asked him to fix and what I loved most about my dad is that he knew what I liked and my dad would wake up in the morning go into the kitchen and intentionally fix meals that he knew I desired he knew my favorite stuff and would prepared what nothing like coming home to a good bowl of gumbo coming home from college and dad had fried some chicken Joe when church was over we go home to smother pork chops with rice my father Aaron could make a mean combination of mustard and turnip greens not with that Turkey y'all put in oh no no no no no it ain't greens without some ham hock just to put a little flavor in it my my dad would put his foot in some red beans and rice and his bread pudding was not to be beat my dad would fix the meals that I like but every now and then he'd put something on my plate that I did not appreciate as a child I I like it now as an adult but I gotta be honest as a kid I could not stand okra I didn't like the taste nor the texture of okra Reggio general principle I don't like nothing slicker than me that's just I don't care how you fix it if you boil it I didn't like it if you're stewed it with tomatoes I didn't like it you could even fry it and I didn't like it let me tell you something you know you don't like something if you don't like your fried a little hot oil and a whole lot of hot sauce to make everything alright and Vernon I made it clear to my dad on multiple occasions I don't like okra I was clear about it and yet every now and then there'd be some okra on my plate every now and then this man who could fix whatever he wanted to fix this man who said he loved me this man who gave me what he knew I liked every now and then he would put on my plate something I was clear I did not like what I can't figure out is how do you say you love me and how do you give me the good things I want and how do you hear me tell you what I don't like and yet somehow you find a way to put on my plate what you know I don't want and whenever I would ask this man who said he loved me and can fix whatever he wanted and gave me what I desire why he would give me okra he gave me the same answer every now and then you need some okra cut is good for you beloved every now and then you need on your plate something you don't like but something that's good for you that's why every now and then when you come to church you need a good helping of because you need to be reminded that we serve a God who does not always taste good a God who doesn't always tickle you and make you smile let's be honest none of us really like job you don't run the job for devotional reading because job gives us a God who doesn't taste good there is a God who allows bad things to happen to good people and I don't care how you fix it how you fry it how you serve it up I've got problems with the God who allows me while I'm trying to be righteous to go through some struggles that he ought to keep me from I don't know what to do with a God who here's a simple request that he could say yes to and he decides to give me a no I don't I don't like a God who sees me being christ-like and nice to folk I don't even like old general Christian principle I don't cussing folk like I used to I don't slap folk like I want to and yet God sees my righteousness and still allows all hell to break loose in my life I don't like that God and the truth be told I thought I made it clear to him the things I don't like God you heard me when I said no sickness and disease and you let it come anyway you heard me when I told you no cancer and it showed up anyway you heard me when I asked you to make a way and you didn't do it I was clear that I was sick and tired of her and she still coming to church our God does not always operate the way we want and every now and then you need a good dose of job to remind you how to handle it when God doesn't do what you thought God should do you may not like job but you need Joe because at some moment you're gonna be job at some moment God is not going to do what you thought God should do at some moment you're going to be righteous and still struggle at some moment you're going to endure an experience that leaves you scratching your head wondering how our God who loves you would allow you - have you ever been in a job moment allow me to give you the background so you don't miss the breakdown a little context so you don't miss the content in case you don't know about job you can read about him in this book the first two chapters tell you everything you need to know job is from a town called us and job is the best man in the whole land matter of fact job is so much the man then when you go to the elementary school in US and you ask kids to write an essay on what they want to be when they grow up they all say job here's job's resume he's blameless he's upright he fears God and he shuns evil that's all the Bible tells you about job he's blameless he's upright he fears God and he shuns evil do you hear the holiness in that resume blameless upright fears God shuns evil know some I tell them that each a resume then a joke that it job is holy and job is prosperous job is an entrepreneur job earns a seven-figure salary job is the man everybody wants to be and after being introduced to Joel the writer takes us to the divine counsel of God God is gathered and angels are present and God is speaking and all of a sudden Satan shows up because you do know wherever God is present and the right just gathered Satan shows up that that's why y'all not be surprised about how ugly church can because whenever the righteous get together don't look at nobody that in Christ like the stop that Satan shows up God asks Satan a simple question what you up to Satan's response may you know I'm just chillin I'm doing what I do I'm looking for somebody I can mess with and out of nowhere for no reason God says have you tried Joel God puts Joel on Satan's radar ayesha God tells Satan you mess around with Joel he volunteers Joel for some struggle Lord there's a whole lot you can do for me in my life but the one thing I don't ever need God to do on my behalf it's putting me on Satan's radar baby girl I got enough trouble I bring on my own I don't need God volunteering me for struggling have you considered Joel Satan's response is this yeah I did but you got a hedge around him say says but God here's what he's let me tell you i double-dog dare you to take your hands off of Jobe and if you let me have him for a few moments I'll make him curse you to your face saying so just give me a few days and Joel will walk away from you God says I'll take that bet cuz ain't nobody like Joe nobody's got faith like Jobe nobody loves me like job nobody is committed to me as job go on and let's see what's going to happen and within two chapters Jobe loses everything no no not not everything everything two chapters all of his camel and oxen are slaughtered his sheep burn up in fire his employees murdered one day not one not two not three not five not seven not eight but ten of his children died in a tragedy at the same time and at the end of chapter two job is sitting with disease in his body have you ever been there when just when you thought it couldn't get worse his showing up did you ever had a job moment when if it wasn't one thing I'm preaching y'all y'all still you I finished this it was something else have you been a job member when what you prayed God wouldn't allow happen was exactly what God brought to your doorstep and while job is struggling and suffering and in pain his wife shows up and his wife gives them some advice job's wife says at the end of chapter 2 why don't you curse God and die she says job you ought to give up on God now before you get so holy and righteous that you want to judge sister job can we admit that there been some moments when giving up on God made sense there been some moments when you told yourself this faith thing ain't working difference the moments when you toast yourself why in the world do I get up every week to go to church drive around wait because they late at the 9:30 service I gotta Park two blocks away I got to wear flats on the cobblestone changed my shoes when I get into the narthex I go through all of that and all hell still breaks loose what's the point have you ever wanted to break up with God have you ever wanted to sing God a message and tell him this ain't working out have you ever looked at what God was doing in telling listen you need to step your game up have you ever want to ask God from the gospel Janet Jackson what have you done for me lately if you've never been there I've been there my dad served the Lord for over 30 years preached and pastor 420 at a church that never grew above 200 that could never pay him or respect him the way he deserved and I watched him die of prostate cancer he whittled away from over 200 pounds to 120 I had to change my father's diapers and when he died I was done with God doing this no more this is what you get for being faithful this is the end result of being righteous you couldn't find a better way to call him home I'm done with you you ever been there and here's job losing everything children dead business gone body sick and yet he has the faith to make this kind of statement in verse 15 in chapter 13 job says if God slays me still trusts him I still believe in him I still have faith in God when the worst happens I still trust God well if that's where we got to land in life if we're gonna make it but how do you get there how do you get to that place where you've got that indestructible faith how do you reach a place where you've got that trust in God that nothing can challenge and nothing can change how do you reach the place where you say no matter what happens I trust God it starts with looking at the nature of his faith listen to what job says clearly he says if God slays me I'll still trust him don't know missus if God slays me I'm gonna trust him no matter what he does I trust in who he is watch this rosette because real faith is not rooted in what you expect God to do real faith is rooted and you know who God is so that no matter what goes on down here I trust and believe that he's the same God up there that I know him to be no matter what the diagnosis no matter what the layoff no matter what the election results I trust and believe that no matter what I go through God is still real many people give up on God because their faith was not in God their faith was in God doing what you thought God would do in response to what you did come here come here come here so when Satan is talking to God in Chapter 1 that's what it's all about Satan says this to God Joel doesn't trust you for nothing there's a reason he trusts you he trusts you because he found out there's a formula at work when he's righteous you reward him when he's blameless you bless him when he shuns evil you save him and the gist of Satan's comment is this that's not faith that's a formula and Satan understands that most of the folk who claim to have faith in God you really don't have faith in God you've got faith in a formula you've got faith that if you act right and get yourself together and start reading your Bible and start coming to church that God will respond by doing the very things you want God to do and that's not faith in God that's faith in a formula so here's what Sigmund says - god I feel it right here saying says God it's what I dare you to do break the formula let him do right and still wind up went wrong and watch how quickly he walks away from you let her pray and you don't answer and watch how quick she stopped praying let him come to church every week and still get laid off and watch how quickly he stay at home let let him try to do right and wind up sick and watch how quickly they'll stop doing right because Satan's test is whether your faith is in God or whether your faith is in the outcome of what you think God ought to do and what job teaches us is that every now and then I've got to remind myself that my faith is not in the outcome my faith is in the God that I know that I serve so watch this connections Bible is it alright let's see smile Rachel here's what I want you to know that the book of Job is written around the time of the Babylonian exile for those not familiar with that term in 587 BC the Israelites were conquered by the Babylonians under the leadership of King Nebuchadnezzar read the Book of Daniel and when they are conquered Jerusalem is destroyed the Temple is burned and Israelites are sent into Babylon to live in exile they live in exile 70 years unto the Babylonians or conquered by the Persians and the icarus cyrus gives an edict that allows the Israelites to go back to Jerusalem and through all of this the people of God have one question on their mind and their question is how could God let this happen to us how could a God who loves us allow our city to be destroyed how could a god we worship allow the temple to be burned how could a God we serve send us into exile and the only answer that they were hearing was an answer that came from the prophets so while Israel is trying to figure this out Jeremiah Hosea Ezekiel Isaiah all give Israel the same answer and the answer is this the reason you're struggling is because you've sinned and God operates watch this under a formula of distributive justice let the church say distributive justice here's our distributive justice means that what you do determines what God will do if you act right God will reward you if you mess up God will punish you and so all Israel knew was distributive justice and the book of Job is written to remind us that God is bigger than a formula of distributive justice here this here commits so when job is interacting with his friends LFS Bildad and Zophar they represent the traditional theological understanding of distributive justice and say to job you had to do something because God would not punish you if you hadn't done anything but we know that job is blameless upright fears God and shuns evil so that as we read through job we find out that God does not always operate according to a formula that sometimes bad things happen to good people now that makes you get quiet but what I tell you what I ought to make you shout is that if God is not locked in to a formula of distributive justice that means not only to sometimes bad things happen to good people but here's what happens all the time good things happen to bad people uh-huh now now here's why you miss Joe shout because you think you always a good person but if you remember how bad you've been and how low you folded and how many mistakes you made and God was good to you in spite of all that you ought to be shouting right now God's been better to me then I deserve is there anybody here who knows I haven't always been holy I haven't always been righteous but God has always been good to me when I didn't deserve it he was good to me when I fell low he was good to me when i disobeyed him he was good to me and I thank God that he's bigger than a formula my faith is not in what he does my faith is in who he is what he does is not limited to a formula God does what God wants to do and I trust that he's God watch this watch it God says have you thought about Jobe watch someone see how weak you are Satan says yes but the problem Anthony you got a hedge around him huh ouuuu yet you got this fence around him and so Satan says this watch this I dare you to take your hand off him and watch what I do I wanna make sure you get this Satan says I wouldn't get out of him but there's a hedge around but if you take your hand off him watch what I can do you have got the problem for Satan is that there's a hedge and Satan says or take your hand off ah what Satan literally says listen I know there's a hedge but take your hand not now here's the problem if your weight if the hedge is the problem why doesn't Satan say get rid of the hedge Satan says is there's a hedge but take your hand off Satan realizes why sense that your hand may be taking off up but the hedge and going nowhere that even when I don't feel his hand on my life I know his head it's still around me my god somebody today you can declare that the only reason you're here right now is because the hands of God has been protecting you all along then when I didn't feel blessed I was still protecting when he gave me a note he still protected me when I get laid off he still protected me when my heart was broken the hands was still there is there anybody in this church who can shout over the heads I thank God that he kept me that in moments when it seems like his hand is no longer on me his head is still around me god never removes the hedge here it is God always has you fenced in can I teach Bible right here when I say fence most of you think of a chained wire a link fence that that's not what the biblical fence was when shepherds wanted to fence their sheep in they would grab thorn bushes and they would huddle the Sheep up and they plant thorn bushes all around and the thorn bushes hedged that she been now I want you to know the hedge the fence served two purposes it not only kept the predator out it kept the sheep from wandering because the Lord says the problem is not just the predator try to get in the problem is that sheep have a tendency to wander okay my mom will help you I'll help you look slow and they I I want to say this in the words of Jeremiah Wright I am a unapologetically Christian and unashamedly black eye I I love blackness a liberté something we we're the most created folk you never want to meet in life everything we do we do is style give us a pen and paper we blow your mind put a mic in front of our mouths what singing you crazy there's a writing on the wall in the fourth floor of the Museum of african-american history and culture it says God created culture black people created style everything we do we do is style cliff we can't even walk straight we you know [Applause] you ain't never seen nobody in the room sideways no we can't just wave [Applause] everything we do do a style that style shows up in our culture and and one of the places I love watching black culture and style and ingenious is in theater I love seeing Alvin Ailey on stage there's nothing like those beautiful brown black bodies in motion but you can stab her beyond Alvin Ailey let me tell you who I love the most August Wilson for those who don't know August Wilson is a famous african-american playwright he's most known for his 10 plays which are called the Pittsburgh cycle each play is set within a different decade from 1900 all the way to 1990 depicting african-american life in those different decades beautiful plays plays like Joe Turner's come and gone plays like ma Rainey's black bottom plays like piano lesson plays like two trains passing my favorite is a play called seven guitars and the one you probably know most is a play called fences fences was just released and the movie theaters about a year back and if you saw it on film you saw denzel played the lead role but if you saw it like me on Broadway it wasn't Denzel who played it it was another bad brother long before Denzel named James Earl Jones if you've never seen fences it's a beautiful play it's a story about a black family Troy the husband Rose the wife and Cory the son Troy is a gifted baseball player but is denied entrance into the major leagues because of color he's so bitter and broken about being denied despite his talent than when his young son Cory shows talent in football and gets his full ride scholarship to play football in college Troy will not allow him to play he does not want his son to deal with the same racial discrimination he dealt with and Cory and Troy wind up fighting Cory leaves the house and joins the Marines troy is left at home with his wife Rose now Troy loves rose but Troy has a tendency to wander he loves him some rose but he wanders and one time while wandering he winds up with a baby the baby's mother dies and Troy has the audacity to bring the baby back to Rose to raise Rose looks at the baby fathered by her husband with another woman and she says one of the strongest and coldest lines you'll ever hear from a black woman she looks at that baby and this was she says Detroit she says from this moment on that baby has a mother but you ain't got no woman Oh she says I'll raise this child but you ain't got no woman Oh do me a favor nurse about time don't play with them sisters don't play don't go play with them sisters mark they cold-blooded he brings the baby home rose begins to raise the child troy dies Corey does not want to come home to the funeral because of his hatred for his father but his mother convinces him when he comes home he realizes that his dad has been building a fence around the house he finishes his father's work and the last line of the plane is rose making this statement some fences were meant to keep people out and some fences were meant to keep people in because some people wander too much and could it be that we shout over the fence that God has placed around us not realizing that the fence is not just meant to keep some stuff out but the fence is meant to keep you locked in that God puts you in some situations where you've got to choose to trust him I choose to trust God I choose to believe in God I choose to walk with God every now and then faith is a choice you have to make every now and then you've got to see what's going on in your life and make a decision I trust God no matter what is happening no matter how bad it hurts no matter how long it's been going on I choose to trust God I choose to come to church I choose to pray in the morning I choose to trust God and the way your Bible is written is meant to help you make that choice can I teach Bible I know I'm supposed to close with a shout but I feel like closing with something that you've never seen before your Old Testament the books of your Old Testament were not originally in the shape you have them they are originally the scriptures of the Israelites in what we know as the Hebrew Bible the Hebrew Bible when Christianity got a hold of it changed it up in two ways number one the number of books the Hebrew Bible the original has 24 books yours has 39 so the question you ought to be asking is where the extra books come from it's not that they're extra books instead in the Hebrew Bible first in Samuel 1st and 2nd Samuel is considered one book first and second Kings one book first and second Chronicles one book Ezra Nehemiah one book all the twelve minor prophets one book so when the Christians got ahold of it they separated them out and made first Chronicles a book second Chronicles a book Ezra a book Nehemiah a book so that we have 15 more books than are in the Hebrew Bible teach that Bible persuasive and the second thing you'll note not only are there more books but the order of the books is different when you go through the Hebrew Bible and you see the order of the book stay with me the book of Job is the 16th out of 24 books and it is followed by the Song of Solomon so in the Hebrew Bible job is all the way at the end and it's followed by the Song of Solomon when you get to the Old Testament in the Christian version Joe watch this is number 18 out of 39 job is before the halfway mark those who put the Bible together on the Christian side said you can't leave job to the end job has got to be in middle because before you get to the middle of your life you've got to make a decision that I'm gonna trust God no matter what comes my way my brother my sister you can't get but so old before you make a decision that I'm gonna put my trust in God shame on the gray-headed sake that ain't got no faith shame on the senior citizen that can't trust God shame you've got to make a decision before you get halfway in your life to trust God oh but I like this even more the Hebrew Bible job is followed by the Song of Solomon but in the Christian Bible they flipped it up they said coz after you get through job we got to put it in the Psalms cuz the Psalms are the songs of praise because after you learn to trust God then you learn how to praise God after you trust him you can bless him goodbye Alfred Street may the Lord bless you're mighty good but is there anybody here that can praise God coz you trust God Hey I will bless the Lord at all times the Lord oh I gotta go y'all but can I tell you how to identify the folk who really trust God it's real simple when they come to church they are the first folk to get on your nerve they shout within a certain time they stand up winning ain't stand up time they get happy all by themselves cuz I trust God I trust God I trust somebody declare I trust God come on won't you stand listen it's really this simple I've been trying to preach for 10 years that life always boils down to one question no matter how big your problem no matter how long you been dealing with it it boils down to one question do you trust God in the sickness do you trust God when someone who once said I do now says I don't do you trust God when friends are fake and enemies are real do you trust God Lord today many of us walk into this space having experienced a job and maybe even living in it right now at a crossroads of wondering can i still trust you today oh god I pray that as my sister and my brother walk in job's shoes you'll put job's word in their heart if God slays me I will trust him my trust Oh God is not just in what you do my trust is in who you are yeah and I make a deliberate decision to trust you because there's been a hedge around me all this time it's not only kept some things from coming my way Lord it's keeping me from leaving right now so that I trust you enough to keep praying I trust you enough to keep reading I trust you enough to keep coming I trust you enough to keep serving I put my trust in you in Jesus name

Channel: Alfred Street Baptist Church

Views: 135,119

Rating: 4.8080497 out of 5

Keywords: Alfred Street Baptist Church, 2019, I Will Trust in the Lord, Rev. Dr. Howard-John Wesley, #pastorhjw, #job, #BHM

Id: 7Vk-1SIGOXc

Length: 46min 8sec (2768 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 25 2019