Pastor Paul Chappell: Choosing to Trust

today we're going to be in isaiah now this is not the new year's theme this is the not vision sunday that's next sunday but i am so glad that you're here because you're going to be blessed by this message i believe with all my heart choosing to trust god isaiah 41 beginning in verse 1. and if you're if you're watching online get your bible uh push the cat away far away right push the cheerios away get your bible front and center and all of us here this morning let's be ready to be fed from god's word verse 1 the bible says keep silence before me o islands and let the people renew their strength let them come near then let them speak let us come near together to judgment who raised up the righteous man from the east called him to his foot gave the nations before him and made him to rule over kings he gave them as the dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow he pursued them and passed safely even by the way that he had not gone with his feet who hath wrought and done it calling the generations from the beginning i the lord the first and with the last i am he the isles saw it and feared and the ends of the earth were afraid drew near and came they helped everyone his neighbor and everyone said to his brother be of good courage so the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith and smooth uh he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil saying it is ready for the soldering and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved but thou israel are my servant jacob whom i have chosen the seed of abraham my friend thou whom i have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof and said unto thee thou art my servant i have chosen thee and not cast thee away fear thou not for i am with thee be not dismayed for i am thy god i will strengthen thee yea i will help thee i will uphold thee with the right hand of righteousness now this morning we're going to take time in the first nine verses to establish the context and then really the message is going to be verse 10. but too many preachers just take a verse and kind of make it say what they want around here we believe in getting the context and then making the application so stick with me through the first few points but i'm telling you it's going to explode in the third point it's so good i think you're going to be greatly blessed by it and so let's pray and ask god to use this shall we father i just thank you for church a called out assembly of believers i thank you for the infallible word of god and i thank you for a new year and lord there are often times in our lives when we think that we are unable to go on and that we must rely upon our uh own decision making process or our own direction but there is a verse before us today that tells us that you will strengthen you will help and you will hold us up as we go through those difficult times and so we have a choice lord today to trust you or to trust ourselves and i pray that as we begin this year that we would begin this year with a heart of trust and faith and increase our faith this morning i pray in jesus name amen you may be seated well from her childhood a lady by the name of louisa stead had determined that she would be a missionary for the lord by the way never discourage a child of 7 or 8 or 10 who says they want to be a missionary or a servant of the lord or something of this nature because oftentimes those are god's decisions that he's placed upon their heart but luisa was born in dover england she surrendered her life to serve the lord on the mission field and soon after that moved to the united states and in 1871 she moved to cincinnati she married later and had her first child a little girl of four and one day the family had gone out to new york and they were out at long island and as they were there at long island they decided to spend some time by the coast and luis's husband heard the screams of a of another young man out in the ocean and and and he's quickly swam and did his best to rescue and yet sadly as is often the case people that need rescuing they don't allow the rescuer to rescue them they're thrashing and grabbing and that day luisa and her four-year-old daughter watched her husband drown as he had attempted to save the life of this young man and it was from that tragedy and it was from those times of saying to god why why some of you perhaps have been asking why it was from that season of asking why that louisa maystead sat down and wrote this song tis so sweet to trust in jesus to take him at his word just to rest upon his promise just to know thus saith the lord jesus jesus how i trust him how i've proved him or and or jesus jesus o for grace to trust him more now that's where we are as we stand on the precipice of 2021 will we seek grace to trust him more will we continue trusting that god has a purpose and that god has a plan and i believe that every one of us need that grace that luisa maystead had when she chose to trust god even in the midst of her sorrow now when you open the book of isaiah many of you know you open the bible in miniature 66 chapters here you you've been through isaiah perhaps and some of our favorite verses are found in this book isaiah is the human writer the prophet of god he wrote during the reign of several kings and some of those names are familiar to us the four kings of judah in particular uzziah jotham ahaz and of course hezekiah uzziah jotham and hezekiah were relatively good kings but there was this one ahaz he was known as a very wicked king an ungodly man and uh it was this ahaz that had followed after the kings of the northern tribes and was known for uh wicked things even to the extent of offering his own children in sacrifice for the pagan gods he was incredibly ungodly and you could imagine going through seasons we think that we go through seasons of conservatism and liberalism in america and we become emotional about that and we have to work through it and go to psychotherapy and counseling during when the elections don't go our way and but imagine if you had a king that was proposing uh child sacrifice how many of you think that might slightly disturb you and the the children of israel the the children of judah in particular were going through these uh amazing upheavals and these amazing leadership changes additionally they were hearing about the captivity of the babylonians and the prophecy of this doom of 70 years and and and the the message of the prophet at times was also uh something that would be heavy on them and they would go through these seasons of hearing that this impending difficulty was something that they would experience and so beginning in chapter 41 and through chapter 44 of isaiah there is a season here of time in the scriptures where god begins to tell his children fear not in fact in chapters 41 through 44 he tells them seven times fear not fear not and he's going to tell them today in this passage even though you're going through these amazing swings politically and even though there's dark clouds on the horizon prophetically i know my people i'm not going to forget you i don't want you to fear i want you to have trust in me and so he says to them in these chapters fear not god seeks to calm their fears by assuring them that he is going before them and that he will make a way of escape and ironically one of the ways that god is going to make a way of escape is through an unbelieving king over in persia by the name of cyrus and god is going to use this unbelieving king to uh intervene and to ultimately bring the children of israel back from this captivity that they so feared and we'll read about cyrus in just a moment not only that but in isaiah 42 we read about another king the lord jesus christ who ultimately will gather israel after judgment back unto himself and so the theme of chapters 41 and 42 is that god has not forgotten judah and god will bring them back unto himself and that no matter what is on the horizon no matter what is going in our lives right now that we can trust god through every moment through every upheaval politically through every difficult time that we will ever face because god is the ruler of rulers and he is going to remind israel that they are still the apple of his eye and we must be reminded as christians today that we are the apple of god's eye that we are his children and that he loves us so much that he sent his only begotten son to die for our sin now uncertainty comes with our inability to compare what's happening in our life to another time uncertainty comes we are many of us experiencing with this pandemic something like we have never seen it creates uncertainty it creates fear whether we think people should fear as much or whether we think the uh science is this or that it really doesn't matter it is upon us and the catastrophic catastrophic effects catastrophic effects are upon us as well and with that there comes fear uncertainty comes with our inability to compare to any other time so so some of you have been through certain events this past year that are not like any other time you have ever faced and so there may be uncertainty in your heart this morning but what we want to learn this morning is that god is timeless he sees the beginning from the ending and rather than simply looking at life through the paradigm of our limited experience would we not be much wiser to look at life through the paradigm of our timeless god should we not listen to the creator this morning should we not listen to the one that knows from the beginning to the end how the story ends should we not seek his face well i want you to learn with me this morning three reasons to trust god in 2021 and i want you to notice first of all we trust god because his power is universal his power is universal the bible says in verse 1 keep silence before me o islands and let the people renew their strength now in this first verse we have what could be referred to as a courtroom scene and god is calling the world's population to court and he calls the nations and we see this in verse one oh islands there is a reference here uh to the summoning of the nations god is calling for all nations and regions when he uses the word islands he is literally speaking of the far away places of the world every corner of the world i want you to come and hear what i have to say because i have universal sovereign power over my creation and we see he has sovereignty over the nations god is summoning them to himself and they will have nothing to say once he has spoken regarding israel and mark that down every step in the nation of israel including the re-establishment of the state of israel back in 1948 including every peace accord and every aspect of israel's history is sovereignly planned by god the nations can say and do what they want to do but god rules with a universal power and so he calls the nations to court and he says only i can renew the nations verse 1 says keep silence before me oh islands and let the people renew their strength let them come near let them speak let us come near together to judgment all may be reminded that god's people will renew their strength and by the way isaiah 40 is pretty clear about that you go back one chapter to verse 31 but they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength listen when you're without strength that doesn't necessarily mean it's time to make a big decision it might be time to learn how to wait on the lord you might have to clear some things off your calendar you might have to change some priority but god is very clear when it comes to the issue of strength but they that wait upon the lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as eagles they shall run and not be say with me weary they shall walk and not what faint god says listen nations i want you to know that the renewal that you need can only come from me so he calls the nations he gives word that he can renew the nations he reminds them that he re that he alone rules over the nations notice in verse 2 who raised up the righteous man from the east speaking of king cyrus who called him to his foot who gave the nations before him and made him ruler over the kings in other words why would an unbelieving king cyrus of persia modern day iran why would he help israel why would that ever have happened there's only one reason god put it on his heart how many of you know that the heart of the king is in the hand of the lord and we've got to remember that in these days that god is always in control he says here in verse 2 i raised him up i i'm the one that stirred him from his sleep i'm the one that sent him out to do that work cyrus didn't realize that he was given power from god over the nations and that he would vindicate the cruelty of babylon against god's people when he went to battle in some 586 bc he didn't know exactly what was going on and i'm going to tell you something many of our elected officials they don't know that they are nothing more than a pawn in the hand of almighty god but god oversees the movements of nations verse three says who pers who pursued them and passed safely even by the way that he had not gone with his feet god through cyrus pursued the armenians the assyrians and by the way if i might quickly add do pray for the armenians armenia is under a great uh difficulty and challenge as they've uh been attacked by some of their neighboring countries and many christians have suffered there but back in these as early centuries uh five to 600 bc in that time frame god used cyrus of uh to pursue the armenians the assyrians the babylonians the egyptians and all of that to help uh the children of israel get back to jerusalem so that ezra could begin preaching so that the temple could be reconstructed so that nehemiah could build a wall so that the people could come back and and god said look at i'm the one that did this and i know you're worried about the times of captivity and i know you're worried about all of the changing of the kings but i want you to remember that i have power over all the nations and isaiah 40 and verse 14 says it this way with whom took he counsel and who instructed him and taught him in the path of judgment speaking of god and taught him knowledge and showed to him the way of understanding behold the nations are as a drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance behold he taketh up the aisles as a very little thing and lebanon is not sufficient to burn nor the beast thereof sufficient for a burnt offering all nations before him are as nothing and they are counted to him listen there is coming a day at the battle of armageddon when all of the nations of this world will gather against the lord jesus christ at the time of his second coming and they will be utterly destroyed they stand no chance with our god and we need to remember that as we enter 20 21 we are on the winning side as we follow our god faithfully so we see in this passage that he rules the nations he raised up cyrus he oversees the movement of the nations he is eternal god verse 4 who hath wrought and done it calling the generations from the beginning i the lord the first and with the last i am he we serve a god that is eternal uh from the first to the last and what a blessing to know i am the alpha and omega he says in revelation 1 8. the beginning and the ending saith the lord which is and which was and which is to come the almighty look at we live in a strange day we see these uh these economic upheavals and these uh geopolitical uh deals that are made and the technology that's changing and there's not a word that you ever say that's not heard if you own an iphone or a smartphone and and uh we see the algorithms being used and misused by very powerful people in this world and this is no longer just some kind of fanciful preaching or trying to get a response that's the world in which we live and yes we're seeing governments today that are are seemingly excited about newfound powers and authorities and and sometimes when we see all of this and we wonder where is this going andrew yang who's running for the mayor of new york city who said just 10 or 12 days ago i think we ought to have everyone have a bar code on their skin telling us whether or not they've had a vaccination we have the technology to do those things right and and it's not going to happen for a while we understand but the fact that the conversation is there and sometimes we might think what in the world is going on and as we begin 2021 here's what we need to remember no matter what in this world is going on our god is in control and we will trust him every step of the way and this is what god is saying people can make their plans and create their little algorithms and their technology but god controls what's happening in this universe his power is universal why do we trust him his power is universal and how we thank him for that there's a second reason that i want to challenge you to trust him again laying some context here secondly his perception is supernatural his perception is supernatural now look at bill gates and some of these types of people they can create computers that are smart and they can create technology that knows exactly what you think and what you want but i'm going to tell you something they are butt dust compared to the knowledge of our god he knows all things he knows the motives of a man's heart he knows all things and notice in verse 5 it says in isaiah 41 the isles saw it and feared the ends of the earth were afraid drew near and came they helped everyone his neighbor and everyone said to his brother be of good courage now what we see here is man's fear of god and we see that the isles fear and and they they the ends of the earth are afraid and trembling this could be a reference to the second coming of jesus christ but it is in its primary context uh telling us about the attitude of the kings of the earth toward the movement of god as in the case of cyrus coming against them there was this fear of what was happening revelation 6 and 15 speaks of this in a prophetic sense and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bond man and every free man hid themselves in the dins and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on this rome and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of wrath is come and who shall be able to stand so here we see that uh there is a prophetic side to this as i read a moment ago revelation chapter 6 and verse 15. during the time of tribulation there is going to be a fear that comes over this world because of all that is happening and by the way i don't plan to be around for those experiences because i'm looking for my blessed hope and the great coming of our lord and savior jesus christ but here we see a picture way back in 586 of the fear of men the inner thoughts of men they have this fear and they in their folly they make their plans let's get all the nations together we can figure it out uh let's let's let's do business together we can we can we can solve this economically we can solve this scientifically we can resolve these problems notice in verse six it says uh they helped everyone his neighbor and said to his brother be of good cheering so the courage of the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil saying it is ready for the soldering and they fasten it with nails and what we see here is mankind trying to comfort one another in the view of god's sovereign judgment with the understanding that god has this universal power mankind trying to fix the problems themselves and i want you to see the the thought of mankind how how the the rulers of this world think would you turn briefly to psalm chapter 2 to psalm chapter 2 as we see man's folly and what i want you to remember is that god knows their hearts when they're doing all these things man's folly psalm 2 and verse 2. it says the kings of the earth set themselves that's an interesting phrase isn't it they set themselves up well we have the political machinery of chicago and the political machinery of san francisco and amazing to me that someone like george soros would put three million dollars into the race of the district attorney of los angeles county what in the world does a hungarian businessman have interest in our county for you say you're kind of chasing a rabbit this morning pastor no i'm just telling you the kings of the world set themselves they have their plans is everybody with me right now there's these these plans that the rulers of the world seem to make and here we see in in verse uh in in psalm 2 and verse 2 a description of these people the kings of the earth set themselves the rulers take counsel together that's what was happening back in 586 with the rulers that were being pummeled by cyrus and here god says they take counsel together but notice verse 2 says it is against the lord and it is against his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder and cast away their accords from us what are they saying we don't want to have the ten commandments in the school let's break that off we don't want to have the prayer in jesus name we don't want these so-called christian nationalists whatever that is we don't want to have any of this christian influence let's break the bans and yes psalm 2 is prophetic and yes it tells us what's going to happen uh in the time of the tribulation but it speaks of the spirit of the unsaved rulers throughout history let us break their bands asunder and let us cast their accords from us he that now notice verse 4 he that sitteth in the heavens shall do what laugh god says i see your little united nations isn't that cute oh i see your plan to get him to be the governor and him to be the senator that's funny god laughs at the folly of human rulers who think they've got everything figured out and notice the lord shall have them in derision then shall he speak unto him in his wrath and vex them in his sword as pleasure you go back and study the book of genesis you'll find a time and a place known as the tower of babel you'll see man's first attempt to get to heaven their own way to bypass god to find a way into heaven and it didn't end well and what i'm saying is that men who seem to believe that they can through their business deals and their political deals and all of these ways they can dictate the future they will utterly fail the wickedness of men has always set themselves against the lord and christ and they will never prevail atheistic organizations organizations will not prevail the united nations will not prevail marxist organizations will not prevail and i'm just telling you it troubles us in the moment but we serve a god whose perception is supernatural he sees their hearts and he will overrule in their affairs and we can take comfort in trusting our god this few a few days ago nancy pelosi uh she gave put a resolution out to the congressional leaders calling for the removal in their in their uh halls and in their meetings for the removal of terms such as mother son daughter brother she said we are going to speak only in gender-neutral terms and i preached several weeks ago about the power of the lbgtq movement and how they want to redefine what is family now the speaker of the house uh is saying uh in the house we're not going to use terms like mother and everyone's laughing about it because on her own twitter account she says i'm a proud mother and grandmother so she needs to go purge that like they always do because they don't want to offend anybody who's binary anybody who's by anything anybody who's not sure anybody who's maybe not sure that they're a guy or a gal they don't want to offend anybody and i i'm simply saying to you when you hear these types of things look at you can't make this stuff up the speaker of the house saying you can't say brother or sister or mother or grandmother because it might offend one of the one percenters and and so they get together and they make their plans and god is in heaven say nancy that is the dumbest thing i've ever heard of he is in heaven laughing his perception is supernatural he knows she's just playing a political game to get some of those to the left of her to to support her little desire to be the speaker of the house but i'm here to tell you there is a speaker in heaven whose name is god and he laughs at these things his power is universal his perception is supernatural but now we get to come to verse 10. his promises are eternal his promises are eternal now notice in verse 8 but thou israel art my servant jacob whom i have chosen the seed of abraham my friend by the way in john's gospel we as christians are called the friends of god aren't you thankful for that he says you're my friend verse 9 thou whom i have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief of of men thereof and said unto thee thou art my servant i have chosen thee and not cast thee away fear not fear thou not for i am with thee be not dismayed for i am thy god i will strengthen the yeah i will help thee yea i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness oh friend this is not the time to fear god says fear not and the lord made an eternal covenant with his people and he said listen you are secure because i am faithful you are secure god says because i am a faithful god god says to them i have not changed my mind about israel and friend he hasn't changed his mind about israel to this very day and if you've accepted jesus christ as your savior he hasn't changed his mind about you you're his child sealed by his spirit you have a home in heaven you have the promises of the bible as your very own and he will never give up on you aren't you thankful for that i am 365 times in the bible god says fear not and many times fear can grip our hearts on these crazy and tragic days and understand and our staff will tell you i've given all due respect to coronavirus and and all all due respect to the uh need to be cautious and i i've prayed through this and labored through this and it was a challenging year last year in the pastorate from the standpoint of making the right decisions for a multifaceted ministry and while we have respected the coronavirus we are not ministering from the platform of fear we are ministering from the platform of faith in our god and that's how we will begin this new year because he is a god whose promises are eternal now some of you are struggling with fear and you would not say it that way but you fear can i can i make it if this how how can i go forward i just feel the burden of this you may you may read so much news that it gets all over you or you may talk about problems so much with your inner circle that your paradigm has not been a faith-filled paradigm it's been a fear-filled paradigm first john 4 and 17 herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world there is no fear in love there is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear because fear hath torment he that feareth is not made perfect in love god's will is not for you or me to enter 2021 with fear oh the devil throws stuff at me just like he does at you look at the culture what if somebody doesn't like california what if they don't by the way as long as there's hbo and everything going on sin is everywhere my friend what if they pass this law what if they tell churches they have to do this what if the econ what if what if what if listen we cannot live we cannot lead from the platform of what if we must lead and live from the platform of thus saith the lord and god has said you are my people i know your address and i will take care of you are you going to live 2021 from the what if or from the saith now as as we close this morning i just simply want to share with you five eternal promises from god and this is the message for you today i've given you the background but here's the message this verse from which i cannot ever remember preaching was the most red verse in america last year the you version which is a kind of internet based bible reading thing their bible searches last year were up 80 percent from the year before by the way whether those folks you work with will admit it or not they're wondering what's going on and they're looking for answers and god has you in your workplace and in your neighborhood not to run but to be a light people are looking they're searching they're looking 600 million times on one app last year they were looking and the number one verse that they looked for the number one verse that was read by searchers trying to find help is isaiah 41 10. fear thou not for i am with thee be not dismayed for i am god thy god i will strengthen thee i will help thee yea i will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness notice the first promise god says i am with thee he says be not dismayed don't let anxiety take over don't sit around thinking about it to the point that you exasperate preconditions don't bring on new health conditions don't allow depression don't allow psychosis don't allow anxiety don't allow your body to be filled up with the wrong chemicals don't get yourself sick by living a life of fear he says in this verse he says fear thou not don't be dismayed psalm 34 the angel of the lord and campeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them if god before us who can be against us if the lord jesus was with the three men in the fiery furnace my friend i'm simply wanting you to know today that if you're saved this morning god is with you emmanuel god with us just as god is faithful to israel he is also faithful to his church and to all believers and my friend i don't know what 2021 will hold i don't know which of our members are right with god on fire for god i don't know which of you are dreaming outside the will of god i don't know which of you have a good attitude a stinking rotten attitude a critical spirit it doesn't matter to me right now because i know this i know that god is with me i know that god is for me i intend to stand up in this pulpit as often as god gives me health and preach to you that there is a god you can trust whether you trust him that's up to you but you can if you want to he says i am with thee he says in hebrews 11 the lord is my helper and i will not fear what man shall do unto thee the first promise is fundamental i am with you emmanuel means what he is he is he wants to be your friend this year he wants to be with you walking down the hallway getting into the elevator driving to work he wants you to acknowledge his presence he is with you secondly he says i am with thee be not dismayed for i am thy god the psalmist said the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear our god or we might say our savior desires a personal walk with us this year would you turn to john 10 27 quickly john 10 27 he says i am with you i am your god personally your god john 10 27 my sheep hear my voice and i know them and they follow me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand how many of you are thankful for that but he says my sheep hear my voice i don't mean this to be derogatory men but before you listen to the media before you listen to your own family make sure you're hearing from god they hear my voice oh we must hear from god we must come to his house we must get online we must open the bible but we must hear from him because he is our god turn to jeremiah 29 and verse 11 please jeremiah 29 and verse 11 just go forward just a little bit jeremiah 29 and 11 again the prophet jeremiah speaking to the people of god and crying out and saying to them in this wonderful verse for i know the thoughts god says i know the thoughts that i think toward you some of you think yeah god god doesn't know what's going on i'm about to go under i'm about to drown and i don't think he even knows my address no no he says i listen listen god says i know the thoughts that i think toward you how many of you have ever had somebody try to tell you what you're thinking have you ever had that happen and how many of you it makes you mad when they they know what you're thinking that does happen sometimes but isn't it frustrating when they they don't even know god says i know what my thoughts are towards you jeremiah 29 verse 11. he says they are thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end his thoughts toward you are to bring you to the knowledge of himself to a life of his blessedness to a life of peace you don't need to fear you don't need to run you don't need to hide you don't need to hate you need to trust in the god who says i know what i'm thinking towards you let me help you this year i am with thee i am thy god notice thirdly i will strengthen thee i will strengthen thee anybody here needs strength this morning i found with this coronavirus first we had all the symptoms of the the sickness aspect of it which was terrible and then when you get through the fevers and the aches and all the rest of it i'm like okay i'm not nauseous i don't have a fever i don't have any aches let's go get them and that's about all i could do before i had to sit back down oh my goodness i've never experienced just that you know normally you get sick it's over you go and what i have learned is that the strength sometimes trickles back i've never done this in all my life in all my nearly 35 years of pastoring this church i've never gone home on a sunday and taken a nap lots of people do i just can't i'm i'm wired differently i'm kind of got the adrenaline going i got the night service i usually have some counseling some stuff to do there's no way i can preach tonight if i don't get a little bit of rest a little bit of strength physically but more than we need that physical strength we need the anointing of god on our lives this year god says i will strengthen thee ephesians 6 and 10 finally my brethren be strong in the lord in the power of his might someone says pastor i can't go on anymore no you can't not without his help he'll give you the wisdom to rearrange your schedule he'll give you the wisdom to get help he'll give you the wisdom to rest he'll he'll give you the anointing of his spirit but you can't but he can he can strengthen you i can do how many things through christ which strengtheneth me hudson taylor the great chinese missionary said many missionaries estimate difficulty in the light of their own resources thus they attempt very little and they almost always fail all who have done great things for god first reckon on his presence and his power to guide them the work that hudson taylor did in opening up china can only be attributed to a man who said i can't do this but god can peace is not found in the absence of trouble peace is found in the presence of christ who says i am with you he says i am thy god i will strengthen you listen to this next thought here he says i will help you i will help you i think of the children that haven't been to school this year by the millions the la unified school district amazingly said we're not going to have school unless you defund the police and do this and do that had nothing to do with education millions of children frankly are woefully behind academically right now and one of i think one of the great ministries that we may have as a church in the upcoming months is to offer some tutoring to children and families who need academic assistance to help them come back in their learning and even through that perhaps bring them back to the understanding of god in jesus christ wouldn't that be wonderful i'm just saying to you millions of children in america are going to need some academic help to catch up how many of you understand what i'm saying but you need help to come up to come back and i need help and how many of you know that we all need the tutoring hand of god through this life and i find it quite comforting that god says i'll help you psalm 121 the psalmist said i will lift up mine eyes unto the heels from whence cometh my help my help cometh from the lord which made heaven and earth the lord shall preserve thee from all evil he shall preserve thy soul the lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in forth uh from from this time forth and even forever more god says look at i want to help you in the new year and i think about just what i do and you think about what you do but isn't it amazing what i do what i'm supposed to do with my calling is gather as many people together in one place as i possibly can and teach them about god and jesus and how to get saved that's my job and for nine months every radio station and every television station and every policy has said and courts have said don't do that don't do that don't do that don't do that and i've often said god how do i do my job in this culture and i i i've sensed from the lord time and again i will help you you just do what i told you to do i will help you i will help you i will help you and friends we preached 52 sundays last year not as many got saved as i would have liked but somebody got saved nearly every week and missionaries were supported and i believe this year will be a better year but we came through 2020 because god brought us through 2020. god says i'm going to help you with this i can look back in 35 years of ministry there there have been many times when i thought how are we going to get past this many times when i didn't have a warm fuzzy feeling about ministry there's times when you're just feeling it there's other times when you just feel like you got hit over the head with a 2x4 how do you keep going i remember our first building program that north building el nino it rained and rain i remember going out there lord do you want me to build a swimming pool or a church the finances we had what they called a conditional use permit i had no idea what that even meant i didn't take a class on that in college we're getting the building about done um we wanted our permit i went down to the city hey we're about done we need our permit our occupancy permit oh that's a conditional use permit great whatever you want to call it just give it to me no conditional that means there's conditions to be met oh okay i thought we met him we built the building what are the conditions oh we want you to build a half a mile of asphalt on 40th a half a mile on lancaster boulevard sidewalks all the way around the project 16 uh 16 street lights we want you to bring more water we want more water for circulation for the fire department i i think that was 80 000. i don't know how much listen the conditions were a million dollars we were a young church we had raised and begged and borrowed and had offerings and we'd done the best we could we went through all the all the storms and all the trials and then we got to it you say i bet you just felt so good in the spirit i bet you were just positive and everything was great and you just couldn't wait to go on into the new year because it was so wonderful no i felt discouraged and heavy and downtrodden and depressed and i didn't know what was going on but in the midst of it i had a god who said to me i will help you and he did and he has and he will because that's the kind of god we have you got a big god you got little problems he said i'll help you notice what else he says he said i will uphold thee i like that a lot i will uphold thee i'll help you since my mother went to heaven my my siblings they formed this little kind of a text thing and it's actually kind of annoying to be honest with you i don't i'm not good on you know facebook and reading about who had what to eat and all those things i just don't have time for a lot of that so i just i don't do a lot of that but my sister formed this siblings text group and every night for a month she has sent me a picture of me and my mom just different pictures yet last night was a picture of christmas morning in korea that was the morning my dad for my christmas present gave me a letter because of our love for you we have planted a tree in israel to honor the zionist movement in your name i had to learn that god was with me at a very early age later he gave me like a bike or a ball but like for two hours that's what i thought my christmas present was yeah we're going to teach him early that israel matters to god you know so in the last night's picture i i looked very forlorn for a christmas morning but in lots of these pictures my mom is helping me onto a bike up some stairs with breakfast she's upholding me and i want you to know as you enter this new year you might feel like a child on a bike and you're not sure if you're going to fall over but god says i got you god says i helped you last year you ate you got through i'm going to help you this year we're going to get through this i will uphold thee i will support you psalm 145 14 the lord upholdeth all that fall i'm saying to you this morning that we must decide to trust him today it must be our decision his power is universal his perception is supernatural he knows what we're thinking now and his promises are eternal do you know perhaps the greatest promise of all is that god says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the lord shall be saved for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life listen god says i got a promise for you if you're not sure you're on your way to heaven trust in my son jesus christ and in his shed blood and i promise you that your sins will be forgiven and that heaven will be your home for all of eternity how many of you have already made that decision let me see your hands god is keeping that promise for you and then he says to those of you that are saved i will never leave you and i will never forsake you you can trust him his promises are true i am with thee i am thy god i will strengthen thee i will help thee i will uphold thee i don't want to enter this year and say i got this this is no problem no no but i do want to enter it and say god's got this god you've got it help me through it i don't know where we're going but i'm going to put my hand in yours just like when i was a little child trusting my mother my father i want to trust you and i want to encourage you friends to trust him this year to trust him and he will never leave you and he will never forsake you don't trust yourself don't trust your emotions don't trust the media trust him

Channel: Lancaster Baptist Church

Views: 3,610

Rating: 4.860465 out of 5

Keywords: lancaster baptist church, lancaster baptist, baptist church, paul, chappell, paul chappell, pastor paul chappell, Isaiah 41, trust

Id: SqDjGSNbpFA

Length: 53min 52sec (3232 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 04 2021