Sunday Sermon - Trust God for an Outcome

Psalms 32:8-10 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.

This psalm [32] of David is linked to Psalm 51 where David reveals his repentant heart over his sin with Bathsheba and the death [murder] of her husband [Uriah the Hittite]. There David speaks …

Psalm 51:12-13 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You.

Psalm 32 is one of instruction as David is teaching the transgressors. We are his students this morning in the class of “Transgressors 101.” Prof David (Davi’) teaches us that we all are sinful, disobedient, and self destructive when left to ourselves.

In all of our lives, every road we take, every move we make there is the instruction and counsel of the Lord at hand to help direct us. How well have we learned this lesson?

Are we students who are “stubborn” in our thinking to think we do not need direction? If we fail to take God’s directive and apply it our lives be like the horse and mule who are led away in the “bit” of bondage.

David instructs … [1] ungodly have waves of woes [troubles, sorrows] with no direction from the Lord, but [2] the godly, those who trust in God for direction though they may face troubled times; they are surrounded by God’s unfailing love.

Trusts … a confidence; to take cover [refuge]; a sure hope

David having walked the woeful path warns and instructs us, his students, totrust God for an outcome. We are all walking various paths in this life some more dangerous and difficult than others and there comes a point we each have to make the decision who are we going to trust in … and if it is God that we put our trust in, then let it be bold confidence to stay within the covering of God as our only hope in this matter.

Two examples of trusting God for an outcome:

1. Trust God for an Outcome by Listening

The days of “judges” were oppressive days. The people of God were not listening and thus no walking with God. But God is faithful, and when they would cry out in the midst of their woeful sorrows, He would raise up a deliverer [a judge].

Gideon was one God used to break the bondage of the Midianites. Though this morning we do not have the time for the full story of Gideon we will look at a few godly highlights.

· The Lord told Gideon to tear down the altar to Baal and then build a proper altar to the Lord [6:25-26]

· To trust God for an outcome requires we get rid of the “false” things that are an affront to God.

1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

“How we live is a testimony about we believe about God.” – Henry Blackaby

God had told Gideon He was going to set free His people from the oppression of the day. God was telling Gideon how He was going to do that … use him.

· Gideon didn’t lack “information”. [neither do we]

· Gideon lacked “confidence” to act on the information he had.

· Gideon puts a “fleece” out before the Lord [6:36-40]

This is not the best way to discover God’s will for your life. From the study of “Discovering God’s Will” [Andy Stanley] one will learn … the more you know the providential will of God and obey the moral will of God the better you will discover God’s personal will for you life.

Matthew 12:39 “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign …”

2 Corinthians 5:7 We live by faith, not by sight.

· Read God’s Word

· Believe God’s Word

· Act on God’s Word

· Midianites numbers were vast … overwhelming

Judges 7:12 The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore.

Because of the vast numbers of the opposition, God decides to decrease the numbers to go up against them. What? Why?

Judges 7:2 The LORD said to Gideon, “You have too many men for me to deliver Midian into their hands. In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her,

· God reduction: 32,000 to 10,000 to 300

· God removes and reduces your strength in order for you to trust Him, not yourself.

2 Corinthians 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

When we are feeling weak and overwhelmed in the circumstances of our lives, what we need to do is start listening to God for the outcome.

Listen to God and trust Him for an outcome.

2. Trust God for an Outcome by Obeying

Joshua by-line was “trust and obey.” He like Gideon and all the rest of us had to come to this through the “thrill of victory” and the “agony of defeat.” But from such developing days trust would be established in God for an outcome.

· Moses (revered in the eyes of the people) was Joshua’s predecessor.

· Joshua was the “under-study” … a bit unsure, scared, and maybe a bit discouraged [not as good a leader as Moses, or so he thought]

Joshua 1:5-7 No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you. 6 “Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

· God sized tasks calls for trusting God is with you.

· God prepares and instructs His own … obey Me … no right or left turns [this is pivotal in trusting and obeying God]

Trusting God for an outcome allows you the believer to “prepare to possess”what God is giving them. [1:11]

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

We as believers lack nothing to possess what God has called us and given us through Christ Jesus.

From the crossing over and occupying to possess the land God was bringing about an outcome.

· Jericho was the first victory

· Instructions given … 6 days of walking around the city and on the 7^th day blow the trumpets and shout and watch the walls falls down.

Joshua 6:10 But Joshua had commanded the people, “Do not give a war cry, do not raise your voices, do not say a word until the day I tell you to shout. Then shout!”

· Quit talking about [shut up] the outcome you want and start living in the outcome God has given to you to possess by faith.

Phillip Keller [author] says of outcome of Jericho … a straightforward story of simply setting down one foot after another in quiet compliance with the commands of God.”

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world; our faith.

Listen to and obey God as you trust Him for an outcome.

Conclusion:

The lessons are vivid and rich to remind us that the outcome we seek is in the Lord and not ourselves. Trust in the Lord.

David gives a lasting word of instruction to help us …

Psalms 32:7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah

Amen!