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  THE LORD IS WORTHY TO BE TRUSTED
  by Joe Yoder
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of trusting in God, using
examples from the Bible such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who
displayed unwavering trust in the face of adversity. The message
highlights that true trust in God involves acknowledging His ability to
deliver while also accepting His will even if the outcome is different
from what we expect. It explores the balance between spiritual trust and
practical living, emphasizing that God works in both supernatural and
practical ways. The sermon encourages a trust that is 100% spiritual and
100% natural, aligning our lives with God's will on earth as it is in
heaven.

Topics: "Trusting God in Adversity", "Balancing Faith and Practical Living"
Scripture References: Daniel 3:16, Psalms 13:5, 2 Kings 18:3, Matthew 27:41, Ephesians 1:12, 1 Peter 3:7

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the importance of trusting in God, using examples
from the Bible such as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who displayed
unwavering trust in the face of adversity. The message highlights that
true trust in God involves acknowledging His ability to deliver while
also accepting His will even if the outcome is different from what we
expect. It explores the balance between spiritual trust and practical
living, emphasizing that God works in both supernatural and practical
ways. The sermon encourages a trust that is 100% spiritual and 100%
natural, aligning our lives with God's will on earth as it is in heaven.

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CONTENT
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Morning everyone. It's because of Jesus that we're here, so in his name
we want to want to glorify his name. This morning we just are grateful
again.

I'm grateful that I can, he still gives me breath and life. I desire,
before we go any further I'd like to just thank the Lord for this
opportunity and let's pray before we go further. Anyone that wants to
stand can stand and just pray.

Our Father we thank you this morning for this opportunity. You have
blessed us again with another day. Your mercy is every morning new.

Help us to remember these things that you want us to remember. That
you're the Lord we can trust. You are faithful.

Thank you for this privilege of giving us the day that and you gave us
healthy bodies and sound minds that we can again reason and think. We
desire Lord to use our minds to that you would be glorified. Thank you
for this opportunity to again look into your word.

And give us a heart that we would apply to our lives every day as we
live. Thank you for this privilege. Bless the word this day those to our
hearts and the one who brings it forth to us.

Bless, give him the strength, fill us with your spirit in Jesus name,
amen. That's kind of what I for myself I often wonder if I trust the
Lord the way I should sometimes. I just that's kind of what I want to
look at some of these people in the Bible that trusted the Lord.

They thought he was worthy to be trusted so I guess that's my challenge
from day to day to remember that the Lord is worthy to be trusted and
whatever whatever situation we're in he's able to to do all things above
which we do or think. So I'd like to read Daniel 3 a part of the chapter
and see what Daniel's friends here how they trusted the Lord. Starting
in verse 13 says then Nebuchadnezzar it was in the time when
Nebuchadnezzar was king over the whole kingdom or the whole world he
kind of had everything under him every dominion nation was under
Nebuchadnezzar and then he raised up this image and everybody was
supposed to give heed to it.

But we had three men here actually four here in the kingdom that they
were in this kingdom because Nebuchadnezzar came over and besieged the
kingdom in Jerusalem there or Jerusalem and brought him over to his
kingdom. I don't know if the Jews were all there but these four men were
they trusted the Lord they were brought up in a way that they they
continued on being faithful to the God of heaven to the God of Israel.
It says Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego.

He was demanding everyone to worship this image and Nebuchadnezzar spake
and said unto them is it true? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego do not ye
serve my gods nor worship the golden image which I have set up and now
if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of all kinds of music
ye fall down and worship the image which I have made well but if ye
worship not ye shall be cast the same are into the midst of a burning
fiery furnace and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my
hands? Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king O
king Nebuchadnezzar we are not careful to answer thee in this matter if
it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning
fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of the hands of king but if not
be it known unto thee that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the
golden image which ye have set up then Nebuchadnezzar full of fury and
the form of his visage was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego therefore he spake and commanded that they should heat the
furnace one seven times more than it was to be heated and he commanded
the most mighty men that were in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego to cast them into the burning fiery furnace then these men were
bound in their coats and their hosens and their hats and their other
garments and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace
therefore because the king's command was urgent and the furnace
exceedingly hot the flame of the fire slew those men that took up
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and these three men fell down bound in
the midst of the burning furnace, fiery furnace it says then the king
was astonished and rose in haste and spake and said unto his consulars
did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? they
answered and said unto king true oh king he answered and said lo I see
four men loose walking in the midst of the furnace midst of the fire and
they have no hurt and the form of the fourth is like unto the son of God
that's always amazing to me if you read that he recognized that it was
the son of God or it was somebody different from the other three then
Abednego came near to the mouth of the burning fiery furnace and spake
and said Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego ye servants of the most high
God come forth and come hither then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came
forth in the midst of the fire and the princes and the governors and the
captains and the king's consulars being gathered together saw these men
upon their bodies the fire had no power nor was a hair of their head
singed neither were their coats changed nor the smell of fire had passed
on them then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said blessed be the God of
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who has sent his angel and delivered his
servants that trusted in him and have changed the king's word and
yielded their bodies that they might not serve nor worship any God
except their own God therefore I make a degree that every people nation
tongue which speak anything amiss against the God of Meshach that
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego shall be cut in pieces and their houses
shall be made a dung hill because there is no other God that can deliver
that's after this sort and it says the king promoted them so what I'm
getting at reading some of these I want to read a few more characters
that stood up that trusted God in spite of anything else I have a few
verses in Psalms 13 I'd like to read and this is David he was also a man
that in spite of all his trials and things he trusted the Lord David
said consider and hear me Lord my God lighten my eyes lest I sleep the
sleep of death lest my enemies say I have prevailed against him and
those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved but I have put I have
trusted in my in thy mercy and my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation
and then in 2nd Kings I want to read a little bit 2nd Kings chapter 18
also a man that put his trust in the Lord I guess that's what I my theme
is this morning that the Lord is worthy to be trusted that's why I'm
reading these verses in verse 3 2nd Kings 18 verse 3 and this is talking
about Hezekiah and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
according to all that his all that David his father did he removed the
high places and broke the images and cut down the groves and broke in
pieces the brass and serpent that Moses had made for unto those days
children of Israel did burn incense to it and had a name that they gave
a name for it I guess that's always it is if you really think about that
God put that up there to save their lives one time now it became a God
to that extent that they burned incense to this to this serpent and here
Hezekiah was getting rid of this thing it was hindering them to trust
the God of heaven and it says he trusted in the Lord God of Israel so
that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah nor any
that were before him for he clung to the Lord and departed not from the
following him but kept his commandments which the Lord commanded Moses
and I'd like to read a few verses in the New Testament Matthew 27 this
is talking about our King when Jesus was on the cross what they said
about him the chief priests mocking him with the scribes and elders said
he saved others himself he cannot save if he be the king of Israel let
him now come down from the cross and we will believe he trusted in God
let him deliver him now if he will have him for he said I am the son of
God the thieves also which were crucified with him cast the same in his
teeth here we have a phrase that these people that were accusing Jesus
knew that he trusted in God in spite of this time there was no
delivering off of the cross like the three Hebrew children they were
delivered from the fire and there's a lot of history if you read history
about people since Jesus was here and went back to the father that stood
up for Jesus that went to the fire persecuted in various ways and God
didn't necessarily deliver them from that but they kept on trusting the
Lord to the extent that those people that were delivering them were
persecuting them that there must be something with these people that
they just don't give up they're just being burned or being cut asunder
and some of them were tortured they were beheaded for the sake of their
God but the day is coming they trusted God to the extent that someday
there will be God will be there and is there he was there with them I'm
sure but it's sometimes hard for me to grasp some of those things we
think well it just how could they do this but I think we need the
concept of living as a day at a time we live a day at a time and the
situations that we face that day God's grace is sufficient at that time
when we need it we will not be able to store up grace or anything like
that for those days that when we need it we think we need it I mean it's
just like God is there and he wants us to trust him for he's worth it to
be trusted Ephesians 1.12 I'd like to read a portion of that to you a
portion of Ephesians 1 this was Paul writing to whoever reads it it's
for us all that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ I mean this would be maybe speaking to those that
actually walk with Christ some of them but I think it's for us today do
we trust Christ that's our challenge from day to day to be true in whom
he also trusted after that he heard the word of truth the gospel of your
salvation and whom also after that he believed he was sealed with that
Holy Spirit of promise which is the earnestness of our inheritance until
the redemption of the purchase possession unto the praise of his glory I
guess in one sense I look at it a little different in the old
dispensation in the new I mean like we already Jesus came and brought
the kingdom and we are pressing in we're pressing into the kingdom more
and more and so we're already in the kingdom but it's not and at the end
or whenever however it's all going to be it's going to be fulfilled some
of these promises are going to be fulfilled and that's what we're
waiting or living for to be true to our king he came to save us from sin
that we can live in a way that he would be glorified and then whenever
he wants us whenever he comes back to fulfill his kingdom that's what
we're living for to be true to him and one last one last little bit here
that I want to read first Peter 3 verse 5 for this I got the wrong first
Peter 3 I had second there yeah it's talking about our it also involves
our living together as husbands and wives and how we believe in the Lord
and things and then it goes on to talk to us husbands likewise as the
husbands dwell with them according to knowledge giving honor unto the
wife as unto the weaker vessel as being heirs together of the grace of
God that your prayers be not hindered I looked in that last verse there
it talks about giving honor and I looked up that honor the definition of
honor is means regard or respect and something that is honorable is
worth it to be honored or honest or upright or bringing honor something
that's honorable is worth it to be honored whatever it is I mean that's
just the way life is if I can live in a respectful way towards people
amongst people that would and still being that God would get the glory
regardless of what it is I mean it's I think we need to respect each
other so that's all I have anybody has anything to share they can or any
corrections yeah thanks Joe for what you read and shared something that
kind of occurred to me as you were talking about trusting well first of
all that in the story there of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego probably
my favorite thing of everything that they said my favorite thing is when
they said our God can deliver us but if he doesn't just know King that
will still not bow down to your idol that to me is real powerful and as
I thought about that this morning just now I was thinking like trust
that is like a perfect example of really trusting God but it's not
without like courage is not a total absence of fear but courage is like
in the midst of fear not being overcome by it but overcoming it and
conquering in spite of the fear that's there I don't think courage is
just like the absence of fear and in a similar way I think trusting is
not just the absence of realizing that it may not go like we think or
like we like but however it happens we can trust that as God works it
out is good and I just want that kind of a trust where I can say with
those three men like whatever I face like God can deliver me out of this
but even if he doesn't just know oh world I'm not going to bow down to
you that's what I want the passage Duane mentioned also stood out to me
that statement just the same thing that Duane said this statement that
the children make it's just like it's very it's a very spiritual
statement it's a very supernatural statement like the king wasn't
kidding when he said who is the God who's going to rescue you like it's
going to take some kind of serious miracle to stop what I'm about to do
like they'll write books about it that people will be reading thousands
of years from now it's going to be such a big thing that some God is
going to do if you guys don't burn because I'm going to make it happen
and they realize that so for them to say oh Jehovah is he can do it like
that is a very spiritual statement and then followed by this like just
excuse the phrase but extremely carnal statement a very natural a very
practical statement and I just I know that there are those who would say
there's this idea out there right now that would pit us the spiritual
against the practical or the or the natural and that would accuse and
say if if for us to make natural practical choices means we're not being
spiritual or vice versa like the way to be spiritual is to I'm not going
to make any I'm not going to I'm not going to behave practically I'm not
going to make natural choices I want God's I want God I want I want
everything to be supernatural and as though as though that is what God
is looking for that is what God is pleased with or that is what God is
creating a people who are devoid of practical choices and just
everything is supernatural and I just it's just not so like it though it
is true we serve a supernatural God and we've we've got this book full
of accounts of how he deals in very impractical ways when he wants to
like I would agree with Duane this is I mean that is just like a perfect
example of faith I mean it or faith or trusting as Joe was saying that
you know it doesn't it that God is a is a spiritual God a supernatural
God and he's a practical God he he we're not all spirit beings but we we
live in he made us out of dust he made 3d people that walk around and
this the the the physical world is not is not inherently evil as the
Gnostics would have taught he became he became flesh himself somehow
dwelt among us we handled him we saw him so that the trust trusting in
God that pleases him and the faith that we have that pleases him is I
would say as it has been said of Jesus that he wasn't he wasn't 50% God
and 50% man but he was 100% God and 100% man that our our faith as as
was described so well by the Hebrew children is 100% spiritual and 100%
natural that stood out to me as well I hear this thing and so I'm just
like on the ready like I'm just catching like see there it is like the
spirit is not at war against the natural but rather this the spirit
works to to bring the natural into captivity that the natural would
submit itself to God like the prayer says in earth as it is in heaven
the praise of Jesus I take the pathway the steps of Jesus wherever they
go the way the earth o'er dark mountains in its red sheen for a long
night's silence burns fountains held in glory the praise of Jesus I take
the pathway the steps of Jesus wherever they go there may be truth of
the word for in homes of the poor and lowly serving the Lord the praise
of Jesus I take the pathway the steps of Jesus wherever they go by and
by there shall be mortals treading our feet we shall walk where many
mortals have trodden streets for the praise of Jesus I take the pathway
the steps of Jesus wherever they go Jesus loves me this I know for the
Bible tells me so let all unto Him belong they are weak but He is strong
yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells
me so Jesus loves me through life ever shall await my sin that Israel
shall come again yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves
me the Bible tells me so Jesus loves me loves me still though I'm weary,
weak, and ill from His shining throne on high come to watch me where I
go yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the Bible
tells me so Jesus loves the children here children far away they are
safe when in His care every day yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me
yes Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so Jesus take this heart of mine
and make it supported for me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes
Jesus loves me the Bible tells me so I am excited to follow Jesus I am
excited to follow Jesus take my soul and I will be ever lonely, all for
Thee ever lonely, all for Thee all for Thee

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/k3fQSf4jU80.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/joe-yoder/the-lord-is-worthy-to-be-trusted/
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