Yahweh Tsuri - Ricky Sarthou - Anew

good day everyone and welcome to the second sunday of this brand new year 2021. now just before we get into today's message i want to remind all of us about a very important and very critical event that is just about to take place throughout the entire ccf movement it will begin tomorrow monday and will run all the way through saturday that's january 11th through the 16th and what is that many of you know what i'm talking about it's our week-long prayer and fasting now this year's january prayer fasting time has the theme of new beginnings god transforms us through prayer so we are together celebrating the fact that he's not just a prayer hearing god he's not just a prayer answering god he is also a life transforming god and that's what we pray we will experience as we all as one family one movement throughout the world come before god in prayer and fasting but hang on just a moment why are we doing what we're doing i think it's extremely important for us to revisit the reasons why we do what we do especially this week-long prayer and fasting let me give you a few important reasons why we get into this spiritual discipline every year first of all jesus fasted in matthew chapter 4 it says he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights and mind you this was not the only time that jesus went into an extended time of prayer and fasting now we're not saying that we need to fast for 40 days and nights what we're saying is we need to be mindful of the modeling that jesus left behind for us he is the model of everything about the christian life not the least of which is the spiritual discipline of prayer and fasting and since jesus set the example jesus expects us to fast as well in matthew chapter 6 we read phrases like whenever you fast or when you fast notice he didn't say if you fast he said when it simply means that jesus is expecting that we don't just fast and pray one time he expects it to be a regular spiritual discipline on our part now following the example of jesus the early church the first century church also prayed and fasted in acts chapter 13 we read then when they had fasted and prayed now mind you in the same vein that the first century church had the spiritual discipline of prayer and fasting so should the 21st century church that's you and that's me now mind you prayer and fasting was not just a new testament thing even in the old testament we see a consistent practice by god's people of prayer and fasting what's another reason why we go into this spiritual discipline because when we pray and fast we learn to depend on god here's a verse from the old testament from daniel chapter 9 it says so i gave my attention to the lord god to seek him by prayer and supplications with fasting sackcloth and ashes meaning to say it's really a time of repentance a time of coming humbly before god's throne of grace and just bearing our hearts and our souls to him and when we do come to god in prayer and fasting we become sensitive to his holy spirit going back to acts chapter 13 we read while they were ministering to the lord and fasting the holy spirit said set apart for me barnabas and saul for the work to which i have called them then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away you and i need to hear from god we need to remember that prayer is not just talking to god but letting god speak to us as well and we believe that when we spend extra time unhurried time undisturbed time before god in prayer and fasting we will hear from him it may not be an audible voice but certainly we can hear from him his holy spirit speaking to our hearts to our minds and from his word so shall we as one family as one spiritual movement all over the world pray and fast together from monday through saturday this coming week now just a few important reminders make sure that you have a purpose for your prayer and fasting it's not just because everyone else is doing it but between you and the lord determine your heartfelt purpose for going into this week of fasting and prayer perhaps it's seeking deeper intimacy with him or bringing to him your issues and your trials in life at the same time you need to decide what type of fast you will undertake how many meals will you do away with each day will you have a juice fast or a water fast or even a social media fast which is also highly recommended make sure that you enter and exit your fast gradually please do not go to a buffet today to stack up on your food because you're going to be doing without it for the next six days and certainly don't go to a buffet right after the fasting it will do you a lot of harm trust us now download your prayer and fasting booklet i'll be showing you how to do that in just a moment and finally throughout the whole week just collapse your d group meetings and agree as a d group as a family to join the online evening prayer watches at 7 30 manila time finally here are some instructions about how you can join us each evening from monday through saturday whether on our website by youtube or facebook and there are instructions also shown here how you can download your free copy of our prayer and fasting booklet new beginnings so let's enjoy this amazing time of prayer and fasting together in the presence of our lord and our savior now we come to our message for today last sunday pastor peter introduced a brand new series for this month and that series is entitled anew starting right by knowing god you might say that this series is a sort of extension from our discussions last december where we desired to know god better through his names but the the twist i would say in this particular series now a anew is not only do we want to know god more but we want to know how to respond to him how to respond to him particularly in prayer so that is the unique twist of this series for this month of january so with that as the background let me start with this story one of our members many years ago when he was much younger and much stronger he went swimming at the beach with several of his friends now mind you this man still is today and more so then was a very very strong athlete very strong swimmer and so despite the warnings of the people you know they told him don't swim too far the current may be too strong something might happen in his mind he was saying i'm a very strong swimmer i can handle anything and so he went off swimming whatever direction he wanted to go and not too long after he began he started to feel cramps in his legs and then he started to realize that the current was taking him farther and farther from shore and then he could no longer feel the ocean floor with his feet and he started to feel overwhelmed and he honestly thought he was going to drown just at that moment something happened he felt something on his back it was pretty much like this it was a very large rock and he held on to that rock for dear life like his life depended on it because it actually did and he was telling me that as he was holding on to that rock his sense of panic began to be replaced by a sense of peace a sense of stability a sense of security you know our brother's story is an all too familiar story what do i mean perhaps like many of us today we make the mistake of trusting primarily in our abilities in ourselves our experience our connections and then we ignore warnings people tell us you know you shouldn't be pursuing this direction in your life you shouldn't be entering into this relationship for example we say i can handle it and then before we know it we start drifting away from god and turning our backs on him and then something happens we encounter problems maybe it's like this pandemic maybe it's something else and then we feel overwhelmed slowly we feel overpowered we feel like we're losing our footing and we begin to feel helpless maybe that's how some of you are feeling today well you know what just like our brother we need a rock we need a rock to which we can cling and that rock will replace our sense of panic and helplessness and hopelessness with a sense of peace and stability and security our message for today is very simple put your trust in god the rock can we say that together put your trust in god the rock you see the rock is a very vivid description or name or term given to god in the bible you find it all over the place and like i said it is so descriptive that it was something so familiar and so understandable to the people and it is very meaningful as well to you and to me today let me show you why this is so important for us to understand in psalm 9 10 this is what it says and those who know your name will put their trust in you why are we studying names of god why do we say starting right by knowing god because when we know god surely it will elicit a proper response the proper response in this case the psalm tells us those who know your name will put their trust in you for you lord have not abandoned those who seek you indeed you and i need to put our trust in god the rock where do we find this term describing god as a rock as i said we find it all over the bible but we will focus on one particular passage in deuteronomy and as an introduction i'd like to read this final verse of deuteronomy chapter 31. it says then moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of israel the words of this song until they were complete what is the background of this chapter well god told moses i'm going to give you a song and you're going to teach this song to the israelites now the song is not for their entertainment the song is actually a very important warning for the people of god you see this was the tail end of moses life god told moses joshua is going to take your place very soon and sometime after after you're gone these people whom you've led for such a long time they're going to drift away from me they're going to forget me they're going to turn their backs on me you need to give them a warning and this song is that warning all right that's the background so now let's begin in deuteronomy chapter 32 now this is a very long chapter i'm only going to take a few verses from this chapter to discuss about god the rock but this is the introduction of moses listen you heavens and i will speak and let the earth hear the words of my mouth what is moses saying here this is very poetic language you see there was no one else in the wilderness to witness what was taking place and so moses says to the heavens and to the earth you are the witnesses that i am going to impart this song to the people of god let it never be said that they did not receive the warning and the words of god and then moses says may my teaching drip as the rain my speech trickle as the dew as droplets on the fresh grass and as the showers on the vegetation i believe it was in the heart of moses for this to be a time of refreshing for god's people to refresh their memory about the wonderful things that god had done for them throughout many many years and my prayer is that for you and me today at this very moment we will also experience a time of refreshing with god that we will revisit how wonderful he is and how much we need him how much we need to put our trust in him as the rock of our lives okay so here now is our main passage for today by the way this is also our memory verse for this week deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 3 and 4. for i proclaim the name of the lord ascribe greatness to our god the rock there you have it the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a god of faithfulness and without injustice righteous and just is he now remember this is now our memory verse okay so let's read it one more time and put it not only in our heads but in our hearts once again deuteronomy chapter 32 verses 3 and 4 for i proclaim the name of the lord ascribe greatness to our god the rock his work is perfect for all his ways are just a god of faithfulness and without injustice righteous and just is he can i hear an amen if i don't hear it now i know i will hear it later but you see this passage deuteronomy 32 3 and 4 tells us three things at least about god the rock what are they three things at least about god the rock we learn from our passage his worth his work and his ways and we will be looking at each of these in turn and later on we will discover and that's why you need to stay with this message up to the end you and i will discover together how to respond to everything about god about his being the rock in terms of how we pray to him all right so stick with me up to the end let's begin let's talk about his worth let's go back to our passage for i proclaim the name of the lord the word proclaim is a public declaration meaning to say everyone needs to hear this you and i need to hear this and it is true it is not fake news and moses is making a proclamation about what the name of the lord you and i recognize this word the personal name of god yahweh the the relational god the god who created us for relationship with him and with each other the supreme moral being the promise keeping god now what else does moses say ascribe greatness to our god the word ascribe simply means to give like to give credit or honor where it is due when i was thinking about that word ascribe ascribe greatness or honor or worth i was reminded of an incident years ago in one of our satellites in ccf you see this satellite had been renting a movie theater for their worship services and they needed to worship early in the morning because later in the mornings that theater would open to show movies now you and i know what happens just before the very first screening of any movie in any theater in the philippines what is it they play the national anthem right anyway so what happened was the preacher that morning went over time i guess he wasn't looking at his watch or wasn't watching the guy who was warning him about the time and so he went over and i would imagine that the playing of the national anthem is something that's uh you know pre-programmed in that theater so even before the message was done the national anthem suddenly was played in the theater and you know what happened the whole congregation stood up why because that's what how we ascribe honor in this case to the nation ascribe greatness to our god who is he he is the rock you know as i said earlier the rock is probably one of the most vivid and descriptive names or terms attributed to god it must have been very understandable and very familiar to the people of the bible even after moses time even into the new testament how is that why is that well take a look at this terrain this kind of terrain would have been very very familiar to people of the bible for example in the darkest times of israel's history for example like in the book of judges when the israelites would be oppressed by foreign nations when they would be persecuted and hunted down many of god's people sought refuge in the crevices and in the caves of mountains like these mountains like these also became the perfect place to build a fortress or a refuge for people so the idea of god being a rock a place of safety security stability it was something so vivid and so easily understandable by people at that time now what does it mean to you and to me today i'd like to quote from matthew henry because he translates this into its applicable version to us today in such clarity he said god is the rock for he is in himself unchangeable you know when you go up to see a mountain chances are when you come back the next day it will still be there when you come back a year later that mountain will still be there you come back 10 years later that mountain is still there so indeed god is unchangeable immovable and he is to all that seek him and run to him an impenetrable shelter and to all who trust in him an everlasting foundation and that's why this message is so important for you and me today we need to put our trust in the rock now aside from being places of refuge these rocky mountains are also places of great beauty they exhibit such amazing patterns that they leave people in awe of how they look and you know what when we study the character of god even now as we're studying him knowing him as the rock there are patterns exhibited in the short passage we're studying that reveal amazing patterns of who god is so let's go back we talked about his worth now let's talk about his work it says his work is perfect the word work basically means the actions of god his conduct the way he does things and the word perfect means complete blameless and without blemish similar to what we heard from pastor peter last week it simply means that in everything that god does the outcome will always be perfect it will always be according to his perfect plan his perfect will but how does that work well let's go to the new testament for answers how does it apply to you and to me in philippians chapter 1 verse 6 paul writes for i am confident of this very thing he's absolutely sure of this just as you and i can be absolutely sure that he god who began a good work among you will complete it's the same word perfect without blemish will complete it by the day of christ jesus paul is reassuring you and me that on the day we gave our life to jesus as lord and savior he already at that moment began a good work in you and in me i recall my own life one of the things that god immediately supernaturally took away from me was my addiction to pornography i can boldly proclaim only by the grace of god in all humility that for the last 34 years walking with jesus i have not looked at porn even once i have been born free by his grace since the day he saved me but god is not through with me yet he is not true with you yet and that's why paul said he will bring this work into perfection or completion so but how does god fulfill this promise of creating his perfect work in your life in my life well james tells us consider it all joy my brothers and sisters when you encounter various trials now folks you and i have heard many times before the christian life is not difficult it is impossible you and i cannot possibly rejoice or consider it joy when we encounter trials only the holy spirit can elicit this response from you and me but james explains why we should be joyful he says knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its there's that word again it's perfect result it's complete result so that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing the next question is what is god's end goal why is he allowing trials to produce endurance what is that perfect end state that god is after in you and me well again we go back to the bible in romans chapter 8 verse 29 we learn for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters the end goal of our lord is very simple he wants you and me to become more like jesus and many times the road the way towards that is littered with difficulties because they shape our character but eventually the objective is to make us more like jesus how does this look like in real life let me give you an example many of you know my wife went through stage four cancer about 17 years ago today she and a core of devoted volunteers they minister to several hundred people who are afflicted themselves with cancer or some other disease or they have a loved one who is their objective the objective of this group of volunteers is to bring the joy of jesus into the lives of these people who are afflicted and so they minister to them they they allow them to hear practical medical advice they hear the word of god they're put into small groups where they can enter into and grow in a relationship with jesus but you and i need to think what brought this group of volunteers together why are they doing what they're doing the common denominator among all of them is they all experienced being sick seriously sick themselves it's not only my wife even the other volunteers in that core group they all went through some serious illness some of them have experienced god's healing physically some of them are not healed yet but they continue to serve why because they are able to see people through the eyes of jesus they're able to see people who are afflicted with eyes of compassion because they are on the road to becoming more like jesus and seeing people as he sees them all right let's now go to another part of our passage we talked about his work is perfect and then moses said all his ways are just and then you have this kind of echoed in the rest of the verse it says he is without injustice which is basically the same thing he is righteous which in the original language means just and just which means upright or unassailable so they're all kind of the same idea and the word ways is similar to work it's also god's action but it also means god's direction it's like the journey that he takes us with in life and basically what this verse is saying is whatever journey god is taking you on neon all of his ways they're just god knows everything and like a perfect judge he takes all things into account and the bottom line is this he has only your best my best interest in mind because at the end of the day he wants us to become more like jesus okay now how does this look like how can we explain this further the fact that he is just and righteous well first of all let me read you this passage from hebrews 6. for god is not unjust right very clear so he is just god is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name by having served and by still serving the saints so this is talking about people who are serving god people who are following him now let me ask you have you ever felt that your service your service to your family for example is unappreciated really you feel that way welcome to the club there's so many members of that club what about your service to god to god's people in the church do you sometimes feel like it's not recognized well folks god is basically saying the appreciation of man will come and go but as far as god is concerned he will not forget your work in other words god is a rewarder you can be sure nothing escapes his sight the motives of our heart as well as the actions of our hands our feet our lips they will never go unnoticed but there's another aspect to god being just and it's this galatians chapter 6 verse 7 says do not be deceived god is not mocked for whatever a person sows this he will also reap have you ever been in a situation where someone was doing you harm or was doing other people harm and he seemed to be getting away with it getting away with murder as they say well you and i can be assured even if the earth's justice system is flawed god's justice is perfect and he will not be mocked because he guaranteed whatever a person sows that he shall also reap or maybe i should be rephrasing the question maybe i should be asking you are you doing something in your life today that you know is displeasing to god and you feel like so far you're getting away with it and you think you can continue to get away with it my friend i need to tell you with all the love in my heart god is not mocked what a man sows this he will also reap but god's perfect justice is best illustrated in this verse what do i mean second corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 listen to this carefully he that's god the father made him jesus who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of god in him what is this verse talking about the perfect justice and mercy of god meeting together you see sin has a penalty that penalty must be paid god's justice must be satisfied unfortunately you and i are unable on our own power to satisfy god's justice we are flawed we are sinners and so god provided the perfect substitute the perfect sacrifice for your sin and mine and so it says he made jesus who knew no sin to be sin in our behalf and so it was the sacrifice of jesus that fully satisfied god's desire for justice and therefore because of jesus we can be righteous before god not because of anything we've done but because of what jesus did on the cross now how does this all play out in in perfect combination so to speak let me give you a story about one of our members again his name is johnny johnny experienced the chains of his life being broken but how did that happen you see when johnny was in high school he started doing drugs it got worse when he got into college eventually it got so bad that his family evicted him they kicked him out of their house but somehow you know he got back with the family he was able to finish college he actually got married had children and got into a business but his drug habit got only worse and worse and so he began abusing his wife he was terrorizing his children he was terrorizing his mother who was already by that time a widow he was also terrorizing his siblings so when things got really out of hand the family had johnny picked up and thrown into a traditional drug rehab facility where he languished for two years you know at that time there was no contact between johnny and his family he honestly felt his family had abandoned him and this was the lowest point in his life he even questioned if god was real but by the grace of god the family made a decision they took johnny out of that drug rehab center and they brought him to a place called panwell house pen wheelhouse is the drug rehab center of ccf for men and when johnny entered panwell one of the first things given to him guess what was the bible and when he opened that bible he noticed there was one verse that was highlighted it was galatians 2 20 i have been crucified with christ it is no longer i who live long story short johnny gives his life to jesus jesus begins to transform him he puts his trust in god the rock of his life god restores his relationship with his wife his children his family today johnny is a servant of god he is the spiritual leader of his family he leads a small group he teaches the bible in our drug rehab he also ministers to people in jail yes even at the height of this pandemic he is busy serving jesus and telling people about him why is it so because johnny understood the perfect justice and the perfect mercy of our god the rock isn't god amazing he can do the same for you or somebody else that you're burdened for let's go back to our passage so we talked about the worth of our rock we talked about his work is perfect we talked about his ways being just and part of god's ways is that all his ways are faithful he is a god of faithfulness basically means steadfast reliable in today's simple english when you say someone is faithful that person can be trusted to keep his word and to do what he promises god is exactly that way how do we know how do we know that our god the rock is faithful here's one testimony from the old testament from joshua joshua was the successor of moses and just before joshua passed away this was one of his declarations about god he said to the people now behold today i am going the way of all the earth and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the lord your god spoke concerning you has failed they all have been fulfilled for you not one of them has failed we can be guaranteed based on the word of god that when we look back at our lives we will be able to say the same things perhaps there are some promises of god that are still being fulfilled at this moment still in process if you will in our lives but for sure someday you and i will come to the point where we can make the same declaration as joshua did let me just give you a few examples of the faithfulness of god in the life of one of our members his name is danny now danny has many stories about the faithfulness of god i'll share with you only three all right once upon a time dany and his wife they had two young children this was many years ago and their children needed milk i mean that's how young these children were they were still feeding on milk they had no money for milk for their two young children and so our brother danny he cried out to god his rock and he told god lord if you can use ravens to feed your prophet elijah you can provide milk for our children guess what in a matter of a couple of hours there was a knock on the door when he opened the door there was someone who gave him money the exact amount they needed to buy milk for their two children is god amazing or is he amazing i agree with you he is definitely amazing story number two this same two children they were already in elementary school the registrar calls up danny our brother register says are you going to enroll your children the deadline is coming up then he says i am waiting for god to provide the fees and so he cries out to god you know shortly after our faithful god the rock somebody calls him a former client and offers a business transaction the business transaction pushes through our brother earns a commission almost exactly the amount needed for the tuition for the enrollment and you know when it came on the last day of enrollment god is really amazing but wait there's more three the third story at this point his wife was going to give birth to their third child they only had enough money for a normal delivery the labor was already 16 hours long so the doctor went up to our brother danny and said i think you need to prepare for a cesarean childbirth you know what our brother said doc will you give me permission to go into the labor room and pray so the doctor said okay go ahead so our brother then he goes into the labor room and he prays aloud to our god the rock guess what in one hour his wife gave birth normal delivery amazing god is really faithful what is our message today ladies and gentlemen put your trust in god the rock but how do we do that how do we express our need for god the rock in our life how do we express the fact that we trust him and not ourselves or other people or circumstances or resources for security and stability in our life the answer is prayer that's why we're going into prayer and fasting next week and just in case you have been following us in our previous prayer and fasting engagements this very simple prayer guide will look very familiar to you it's called acts a c t s a is for adoration basically these these are prayers of praise and worship c is confession these are prayers of transparency and repentance and humility before god t is thanksgiving these are prayers of counting your blessings if you will and finally s is supplication which are basically prayers of bringing our heartfelt issues and petitions before god amazingly the things we discussed about god the rock his worth his work his ways they align amazingly with our a c d s prayer pattern what do i mean let me show you again this is how we express our dependence our trust on god the rock through prayer what i'm going to do is i'm going to show you several psalms now the psalms are more than anything else their prayers and you'll realize that as we read the psalms many times they can express what's also in our hearts and then we can personalize them we can even begin praying them in a language or dialect that's comfortable to us and we can inject our own reflections our own petitions into them but for the meantime i just want to show you how we can pray through the psalms in response to who god is god the rock so for example when we talk about his worth that should elicit prayers of adoration for example in psalm 62 my soul waits in silence for god alone from him comes my salvation he alone is my rock and my salvation my stronghold i will not be greatly shaken and then it goes on to say he alone again it exclaims is my rock and my salvation my refuge i will not be shaken my salvation and my glory rest on god the rock of my strength my refuge is in god trust in him at all times you people pour out your hearts before him god is a refuge for us do you get that sense of worship of public proclamation of who god is now when we talk about his works his works should elicit prayers of thanksgiving for example in psalm 95 this is what it says come let's sing for joy to the lord let's shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation i told you the imagery of god the rock is all over the bible let's come before his presence with a song of thanksgiving let's shout joyfully to him in songs with instruments for the lord is a great god and a great king above all gods it's a song of thanksgiving for all of god's perfect work we see the same thing in psalm 18. now the background of psalm 18 is god had just rescued david from saul and his other enemies so this is now david's response he's saying i love you lord my strength the lord is my rock and my fortress and my savior my god my rock in whom i take refuge my shield and the horn of my salvation my stronghold the lord lives and blessed be my rock and exalted be the god of my salvation are you starting to personalize this sensing how these prayers can reflect really what's on our hearts now when it comes to his ways this now is the time we come into prayers of supplication petitioning god bringing our humble requests before him for example in psalm 28 to you lord i call my rock do not be deaf to me for if you are silent to me i will become like those who go down to the pit hear the sound of my pleadings when i cry to you for help when i raise my hands toward your holy sanctuary and then in another place in psalm 31 it says in you lord i have taken refuge let me never be put to shame in your righteousness rescue me incline your ear to me rescue me quickly be a rock of strength for me a stronghold to save me for you are my rock and my fortress i pray that as you revisit these psalms they will really help you and me respond to god the rock in the most appropriate way in prayer but hang on just a minute i know what you're thinking you said we prayed prayers of adoration thanksgiving and supplication there's something missing right what happened to confession good point let me give you the answer it's not only god's worth or his work or his ways that we should pay attention to we should also listen to god the rock in terms of his warnings what do i mean remember the original objective of the song that god gave moses to teach the israelites that time it was meant to be a warning now let me just give you two verses from deuteronomy 32 that articulated that very clear warning from god here they are deuteronomy 32 verses 15 and 18. now you will notice that these are stated in the past tense they're actually prophecies or predictions of the future but they happen to be stated as if they have already taken place let me read them for you but jeshurun that's another name for israel but jeshurun became fat and kicked you have become fat thick and obstinate meaning to say you have become so self-assured overly self-confident that was the warning the accusation of god and he says then he abandoned god who made him and rejected the rock of his salvation you forgot the rock who fathered you and forgot the god who gave you birth this warning is as relevant today as it was thousands of years ago just like the story of our brother who swam out into the ocean ignoring the warnings of the people you and i can be just like that slowly drifting away from god and so that should elicit a prayer a response to god the rock our response to his warning should be a prayer of confession psalm 51 it says be gracious to me god according to your faithfulness according to the greatness of your compassion wipe out my wrongdoings against you you only i have sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you are justified that's that comes from the same word as all his ways are just you are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge in other words god's judgment is always perfect it's unassailable it is blameless well folks just before we wrap up today i want to share one last story with you but i want the person to share her story herself you see this young lady many years ago she turned her back on god but by the grace of god she found her way back to him the lord led her back to himself and she put her trust in god the rock so let's give a listen to our sister jika lumabao blessed new year everybody my name is jika and here is my story of how i found refuge in the rock of my life jesus christ i was four years old when my parents separated my father was addicted to drugs and i remember he would make my mom take drugs with him or else be physically abused my grandfather had to literally rescue my mom and me and eventually take us in when i was 10 my parents found their way back into each other's lives and at that time my mom gave birth to my two siblings i turned out to be a straight a student but mostly because i struggled with my self-image and issues of rejection and insecurity i eventually became so unhappy with who i was that i thought i'd be better off as a boy at age 12 i had my first girlfriend before high school my mom signed me up for a christian summer camp i knew about jesus would ace my religion exams i would even pray but in this camp i first discovered there was more to jesus things began to change and my family started attending church together everything seemed to be going well until college came and i found out about my father's mistresses rage and disgust filled my heart it was at this point when i turned away from god after graduation i worked in a call center and that was where i had my second girlfriend i could not claim to have a relationship with jesus but willingly live in sin i therefore chose my girlfriend over jesus to satisfy my own selfish desires i eventually cheated on my girlfriend and moved in with a man who was unmarried but had a child looking back it was by god's grace that this man got back together with the mother of his child and ended up marrying her i never felt more alone because at that time my mom and siblings were already in the u.s and i couldn't be with them for i was over age i had nowhere to go and felt i had nothing to live for but when i hit rock bottom that's when it led me to the rock of my salvation one morning in 2015 i saw my former schoolmate reading her bible and asked if i could join her she gladly welcomed me and this eventually led me to my true and full surrender to jesus not only did i find a genuine relationship with jesus he also restored my broken relationship with my earthly father since then i have joined a d group attended a true life retreat where i got baptized began serving in several ministries and started my own tea group now this group of ladies i disciple by god's grace are mentoring other women and are being active in church ministries as well i also spend some time as a dj on a christian radio station i am now working as a frontliner nurse at a covey quarantine facility here in new clark cp derlock for almost nine months aside from attending to patients god allowed me to use my call center skills to respond to health concerns online and also used my dj experience to use the pa system to lead prayer he also used my ministry skills to keep the people's spirits up through songs and even leading morning exercises it is so exciting how every single day god carefully unravels his plans and purposes for my life as a.w tozer beautifully put it outside the will of god there is nothing i want inside the will of god there is nothing i fear after nine months of working here all my monthly zwab test results have been negative all by god's grace mercy and protection for he is god my rock his work is indeed perfect and he is faithful and just in all his ways my name is giancarlo lumavo giving all glory honor and praise to jesus to the rock of my salvation praise god for you jika i know that you're not just a front liner in the medical profession but more importantly you are a frontliner for your rock jesus christ praise god indeed ladies and gentlemen what is our message today put your trust in god the rock now just as we wind down i want to address some of you because some of you today your life is like jika's life before you're basically living for yourself maybe you're living a life of deep disappointment disillusionment or maybe you're living a life of great self-assurance and overly self-confident in either case you need to heed the words of god and to put your trust in god the rock and who exactly is this rock that you and i need to put our trust in today not tomorrow not the next day today right now who is he well his name is jesus and how do we know that he is that rock the rock of our foundation the rock of our salvation in matthew 21 verse 42 this is how jesus speaks about himself he says jesus said to them did you never read in the scriptures meaning in the old testament that was the only bible the people of god had at that time there was no new testament yet he said haven't you read in the scriptures a stone which the builders rejected this has become the chief cornerstone this came about from the lord and it is marvelous in our eyes jesus speaks about himself as a stone a chief cornerstone but also a stone that was rejected why is that so well you and i know very well how people rejected jesus way back then 2000 years ago unfortunately there are many people who still reject jesus today i pray that as you're listening to this you will not reject him you will not turn your back on him you will open your heart to jesus why because he described himself although he was rejected he became the chief corner stone what in the world is that idea about a cornerstone a chief cornerstone well people during jesus time and i believe many people today understand this concept of the chief cornerstone the cornerstone is basically foundational to the entire building the entire edifice it is critical to the integrity of the entire structure in other words as the building is being built it needs to be perfectly aligned with the cornerstone folks you and i need jesus to be the foundation of our life you and i need jesus the rock to be the cornerstone of our existence he is the one who will hold our life together and without jesus eventually our life will fall apart now we said that our rock is a god of faithfulness a god who keeps his promise what is the promise of jesus the chief cornerstone to you and to me he said for this is contained in scripture behold i am laying in zion a choice stone a precious cornerstone this is the promise and the one who believes or who trusts in him will not be put to shame why is this important to all of us today well jesus described himself as a choice stone he was the choice of the father for god so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life and it was the precious blood of jesus by which you and i are redeemed and the promise as i said before is whoever believes in him will not be put to shame in simple language your decision my decision to put our trust in jesus as the rock of our salvation is one decision we will never ever regret so my friend will you put your trust in the rock today and i pray as the lord is speaking to your heart you will respond and you will say yes jesus i put my trust in you if that is the desire of your heart wherever you are whoever you are whatever is your past whatever you've done or haven't done would you pray with me right this very moment give your heart give your life to jesus pray with me say lord jesus i have been living my life according to my own priorities my own directions i have experienced many things in my life lord jesus but i know now that i need you i confess that many times i have been self-sufficient overly self-confident i also confess lord jesus many times i have felt hopeless and helpless in my life both of these situations lord remind me now that i need you to be the rock the foundation of my life and so i give myself to you lord jesus without reservation by faith in all humility i give you my heart i give you my life and i proclaim that you are my rock you are my lord you are my savior and it is in your name jesus that i declare all of this amen and amen if somehow the lord has spoken to you through his word today we would so love to chat with you will you get in touch with us please by going to the links below and let us hear from you how the lord has blessed you or how else we can be a blessing to you now in just a moment we'll be back with some discussion questions and with our sunday fast track god bless you all now here are some discussion questions that can help you and your family members and or your small group make the most of what we learned together today so here are just three questions which aspect of god the rock is most important to you and why question number two in what specific way will this impact your prayer life referring to your answer to question number one and finally how have you personally experienced god as the rock in your life have an amazingly blessed time of discussion everyone good day ccf family and welcome again to sunday fast track i'm mel santos and together with pastor ricky we are gonna discuss some of the questions that people have been asking related to your message pastor ricky which is putting our trust in god the rock amen okay i'm so glad to be with pastor ricky he is one of those preachers that i really admire for their procession glory to god and first question since we're also entering our prayer and fasting this week what practical tips we can give to others on how to pray and to know what to pray for okay during prayer and fasting week okay well i can suggest three things one is as i explained in the introduction you ask god lord what do you want me to bring before you what is your objective for me this week okay and and just wait on god and let him reveal what he wants you to bring before his throne of grace the second of course is this is the simpler more obvious one you ask yourself what's weighing heavily on your heart what are the issues the dilemmas the trials that you're facing the decisions maybe hard decisions that you need to make and the third suggestion would be ask your family members ask them what do you think i should pray for how do you think i can improve in my life and usually these these involve blind spots right so you would be hard-pressed to answer that question yourself because you can't see them but your family members or those maybe in your small group can say you know what i think you need to pray about and let them tell you okay so i think those are three practical tips for uh deciding what to bring before god during our prayer and fasting thank you pastor ricky okay with so much injustice around us many are skeptical if god is really just righteous and powerful enough to right the wrongs so how can we respond to these persons especially in relation to putting their trust in god thank you brother that is a uh age-old question that will never die because it has good reasons to be asked and we totally understand where people are coming from when they ask those questions and we feel they're hurt because you and i have probably been in a situation like that before ourselves now there is no short answer to that question and considering we're under fast track we may not have the time to delve into all of the sufficient answers the thing i want to say first of all is if the people really want to know a robust answer to that question they can go to the ccf website and they can look into our materials specifically the what we call the apologetics series because the answer the question of why so much suffering reverberates through over time over decades and even centuries because like i said it does require an answer and there is an answer but there's more to it than what we can say at this moment but having said that however we need to remember the fact that we said god's ways our works are perfect and all his ways are just and that remains the truth whether we perceive it or not we also need to realize that god's ways and works are beyond human comprehension many times his the way he does things and the timetable over which it unfolds are sometimes diametrically different to what we're used to for god a thousand years is like a day a day is like a thousand years so his timetable is nowhere near ours the fulfillment of his justice could exceed our lifetime if that be his perfect plan but i guess we need to go back to one very concrete example of god's perfect justice and how that works the greatest injustice in the universe was the crucifixion of jesus that's true because he was totally sinless the god-man who had no sin but god made him who knew no sin to be seen on our behalf that was the greatest travesty of justice in all of the world for all time it will remain to be that way and yet we see how god's perfect justice worked out of that when our sin was paid for and how jesus although he breathed his last he said it is finished and yet he rose again in victory at the time he died people thought what what is happening we thought you were a savior and yet at the end of the day in this case thankfully it only took three days he rose from the dead and showed us his absolute victory that he could never be mocked and his justice his mercy and grace will all meet together at that point and so by that example we should trust in the fact that his justice is indeed perfect his timing is something we cannot question whether we see it happen in our lifetime or beyond we need to relegate that to the sovereignty of god but that's why it's a walk of faith we just need to take god at his word because he is the immovable impregnable rock thank you pastor riggy that's truly amazing you know that the danger is really when we're suffering and we're trying to put god to our own metrics to our own so there's a real danger there and i'm so glad that you you gave that example about jesus because that really is wonderful it's really amazing how would you console people who have not yet experienced god's faithfulness dissimilar to dany whom you mentioned in your message or those who experience god's faithfulness before but now they seem to be in spiritual wilderness okay well first of all it'll be great if these people who ask this question again a very legit absolute question if they could spend time with people like dany and learn more about his faith journey because not all of dany's experiences of god's faithfulness took place in like two hours or three hours like i described some of his faith journeys took a long long time as it is with perhaps you or me and again um god does not work according to our timetable because sometimes the things that he's working on in our character take longer to to form than we would like them to right and we need to go back and ask god lord remind me of your objective for my life and if your objective for me right now as i wait on you is to develop patience and faith then so be it because that is at least as important if not more important than the outcome of this situation and that's why many times i consult people which is basically your question right how do you console them i i often remind them the journey is oftentimes as important if not even more important than the destination in this in this case the destination being the answer to our prayers but in the meantime what we're experiencing is the the fulfillment of god's promise as he forms us to become more like jesus so that to me is a great consolation difficult as it may be to accept at the very beginning but god will give us the grace to do that thank you pastor ricky it's it's important to remember the purpose of god and why he allows these things and so let me can i ask you a personal question because this is a bit personal sure in your own life pastor ricky when you've gone through a difficult episode wherein you're losing trust in god i think all of us go through that episode how did you process that and how did god respond to you in those times of spiritual dilemma i think the operative word in the question is process and process denotes the passage of time as we've already said in the answers to the first two questions i have gone through those wilderness experiences more than once in my life as you probably know and there have been times when god's answer to me was not concrete in the sense that i will do this or i will cause this to happen in my deepest darkest times god's clearest answer to me was simply hang in there i'm going to do something and something to the effect of fasten your seatbelt because you will just be so blown away when i finally make my move that's how god consoled me wow really and i you know i i believe that applies to you or to anyone else who is going through that wilderness journey as well okay so it's important to stay in there and not give up right thank you pastor ricky as always i enjoy interacting with you the precision of your answers as with your message it really blesses us and helps us to be instructed better in the ways of the lord you're absolutely welcome everyone well there you have it for sunday fast track but we'd like to tell you before we go that this message and the rest of our material are available every hour on the hour online you can watch this very same service via our ccf website our mobile app facebook page and the youtube channel please share this message also to your friends and families wherever they are in the world thank you and god bless you thanks for watching we would like to invite you to be a christ-committed follower by being part of the movement as we honor god and obey his great commission to find out if there's a ccf satellite near you log on to www.ccf.org.ph satellites we also want to encourage you to join a small discipleship group where you can deepen your knowledge and love for jesus and others to sign up log on to www.ccf.org.ph discipleship group all of csf's video resources are available free of charge and are constantly being improved by our team would you consider supporting ccf through prayer in giving so more people can be blessed you can give securely through our website at www.ccf.org.ph slash for more videos like this please subscribe to our channel thanks and god bless

Channel: Christ’s Commission Fellowship

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Length: 71min 48sec (4308 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 10 2021