*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

Let God and Let God | Psalm 37:5

 

Have you ever had a double-double?

In basketball, a double-double means that you had double digits in at least two of the following five categories:

• Points
• Rebounds
• Assists
• Steals
• Blocked shots

In the world of fast food restaurants, a double-double could mean one of two things.

Here’s the first one:

If you are at a Tim Horton’s restaurant a double-double is one way you can order your coffee – two sugars and two creams. 

Now, I’ve never been to a Tim Horton’s, but they seem to be known for their donuts – the closest one to us is 5 hours and 45 minutes away, so, I’m up for a road trip if anyone wants to go.

Here’s the second fast food call:

If you are at an In-N-Out Burger a double-double is one way you can order your burger – double meat and double cheese.

Now, I’ve never been to an In-N-Out Burger, but they seem to be known for their burgers – the closest one to us is 15 hours and 35 minutes, so, I’m up for a road trip if anyone wants to go.

In math a double-double is a technique in floating-point arithmetic and numerical analysis for attaining quadruple precision by combining pairs of double precision quantities.

Now, I’ve never been to a Mathnasium, but they seem to be known for helping people with math – the closest one to us is 18 minutes away, but I’m pretty terrified of floating-point arithmetic, so, I’m not up for a road trip if anyone wants to go.

Besides, it was my understanding there would be no math in this sermon.

• Maybe you’ve got mad skills on the basketball court
• Maybe you’ve been to a Tim Horton’s or an In-N-Out Burger
• Maybe you’ve got mad skills with floating-point arithmetic

In other words, maybe you have experienced one of those double-doubles. 

But there is another kind of double-double that does more than improve the stats on the back of your trading card or score you a solid cup of joe.

In fact, this other kind of double-double actually impacts:

• How you get things in life
• How you deal with things in life
• How you survive things in life
• How you enjoy things in life

That sounds like some kind of double-double, so, what is it?

Let’s find out.

Listen to Psalm 37, verse 5:

5 Commit your way to the LORD,

David was already getting the senior discount at Tim Horton’s when he wrote this.

He had spent six decades on earth and had experienced a great deal of things in his life.

And what had he learned?

He learned that the best way to do life was to commit your thoughts and your plans and your attitude and your actions and your responses and your reactions to the one, true God.

The word he uses here for “commit” means to “roll”.

Not like facing some unknown things and just rolling with it.

Not like a meal at the steak house where you get a roll with it.

Not like grabbing the cars keys on Sunday morning and shouting to the family, “Let’s roll!”

No, commit means to roll something on someone or something. 

The idea is that you have a burden or a problem or an issue or a conflict or a stress or strain or a fear or a worry or some good, old-fashioned anger and you roll it off of or away from your heart and your mind and your soul. 

Now, I know that doesn’t help most of us because we never have any burdens or problems or issues or conflicts or stresses or strains or fears or worries or angers, right?

Peter was writing a letter to some Christians who were living in the modern-day Middle Eastern country of Turkey.

They didn’t “fit in” with their culture because they were following Jesus and believing the gospel, and that created a lot of different kinds of suffering in their lives.

Peter wanted to help them and encourage them, so this is what he wrote:

1 Peter 5:6-7

…humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God…casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.

Have you ever felt like the weight of the world was on your shoulders?

Have you ever felt like everything was falling apart?

Do you feel like that right now?

Peter had read Psalm 37 before. 

He had seen and heard David’s advice and discovered that what David said was legit.

• Commit everything to the Lord
• Roll everything on the Lord
• Cast everything on the Lord

When it comes to your soul and your sanity there is no better and more satisfying way to function on a daily basis.

• Roll your burdens
• Roll your problems
• Roll your issues
• Roll your stresses
• Roll your strains
• Roll your fears
• Roll your worries
• Roll your anger
• Roll your bitterness
• Roll your depression
• Roll your anxieties

 

Roll all of those things on the Lord.

Cast all of those things on the Lord.

Commit all of those things and all of your ways to the Lord.

Jesus was talking to his closest friends one day and this is what he said to them:

Matthew 5:5 (KJV)

Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed and happy and satisfied are the meek. 

Meek sounds weak, but it isn’t.

Meek means strength under control. 

The truest strong people in the world are meek.

John Piper

Meekness begins when we put our trust in God. Then, because we trust him, we commit our way to him. We roll onto him our anxieties, our frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs, our health.

John Piper

And then we wait patiently for the Lord. We trust his timing and his power and his grace to work things out in the best way for his glory and for our good.

So…

• How do you cast your anxieties on God?
• How do you roll things onto God?
• How do you commit your way to God?

I’m not trying to oversimplify things, but I tend to need things to be oversimplified if I’m going to get it.

I think I’ve shared with you before that my wife does not like snakes – and I’m not really a fan either.

If my wife is watching TV and a snake appears on the screen she does one of two things:

• Screams and covers her eyes
• Screams and changes the channel

What is she doing?

She’s throwing her eyes at something different because that snake is messing with her mind and her heart and her skin.

That snake is giving her the willies.

In a sense, committing your way to the Lord and rolling all of your life on him is like changing the channel of your mind.

Now, changing the channel doesn’t mean everything gets rosy and fluffy and perfect in life. 

But it does mean that the willies don’t have to paralyze you.

And why should we roll our lives onto God?

What qualifies him?

This is the message John got:

Revelation 1:8

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

I was born on May 26, 1972, at University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia.

About 9 months before that, I was fearfully and wonderfully created by God.

Before all of that, though, I was not – I did not exist.

I had a starting point and today I have an existing point and one day I will have an ending point – at least on this earth.

None of those things are true about God. 

He was before I was.

He was before you was.

He was before anyone ever was. 

He did not have a starting point. 

He is the Alpha, the first, in the sense that everything in the universe has its beginning and its purpose in him.

And he is the Omega, the last, in the sense that everything in the universe has its ultimate end and purpose in him.

If you need a good announcement graphic or a word of encouragement or a travelling partner to ride 6 hours for a donut, I’m your man.

But do not roll your life on me!

I’m not qualified!

But the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts, the One who sits on yonder throne, he is qualified!

A billion times over to infinity and beyond he is qualified!

That’s why David says to commit your way to him and only to him and always to him!

You may have heard the story of a little boy who used to go with his mom to the country store. 

The store owner was kind and would encourage the little boy to take a handful of candy from the big candy jar, but the little boy would never put his hand in the jar.

Instead, he waited patiently as the owner would put his hand in the jar and scoop out some candy for the boy.  

One day his mother asked him after they left:

“Why don’t you ever put your hands in the jar?”

The little boy said:

“Because his hands are bigger than mine.”

You may not feel it today, you may not believe it today, but we are boldly and graciously and emphatically and joyfully proclaiming to you on the authority of heaven and the truth of the Bible and the authenticity of the testimony of billions of people who believed before us that God is bigger and better and holy, holy, holy and awesome, awesome, awesome and full of power and love and grace and mercy and he has proved himself over and over and over again for at least about the last 6,000 years to those who have committed their way to him and who keep rolling their lives onto him!

But, it’s not just rolling things on the Lord. 

Listen to what David says next:

5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him,

There it is. 

That’s the double-double that impacts

• How you get things in life
• How you deal with things in life
• How you survive things in life
• How you enjoy things in life

Commit and trust…in the Lord.

We talked a few weeks ago about what it means to trust the Lord, but let’s try to more strategically tag that to committing our way to him.

James was the half-brother of Jesus.

This is what he wrote about talking to God:

James 1:6

But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Sometimes we pray with doubt.

Sometimes we won’t pray because of doubt.

Sometimes we doubt our prayers:

• Because of active sin in our lives
• Because of bad or wrong things we’ve done in the past
• Because we think we’ve asked God too many times
• Because we think we can’t get anything right

Ultimately, though, those are expressions of pride and disbelief. 

So, we have to learn how to fight through our pride and our disbelief and our doubt and seek the Lord.

We might initially ask something like:

“Why is this happening God?”

But as believers, we fight through that question and plead:

“God, please hold my heart…tight!”

“God, as much as possible, help me see all of this through Your eternal eyes!”

“God, help me, whether I eat or drink or suffer through trials to do everything for Your glory.”

“God, use all of this to make me love Jesus more and trust Jesus more.  After all, God, He innocently suffered so much more than all of this for my sin.”

Now, trusting in the Lord is more than just memorizing a few verses from the Bible or having a few catchy spiritual quotes posted on our bathroom mirror.

Trusting the Lord takes energy and effort and emotion.

And still, we are all going to doubt at times. 

But the goal is for us to be a little more like the man who brought his son to Jesus one day and said:

Mark 9:24

“I do believe; help my unbelief.”

James goes on to say this about always talking to God with doubt:

James 1:7-8

For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.  

Here’s a whole ‘nother kind of double-double…double-minded.

Some people get angry with God because they aren’t getting the answers they were looking for.

Sometimes it’s because of their sin. 

Sometimes it’s because they are being negative about everything in life and complaining about almost everything instead of being joyful and content in Christ.

Sometimes it’s because they are hesitant to accept God’s answer.

One Pastor

If a person has no real trust in God, it is doubtful that he would recognize any answer that came as being from God.

Now, asking doesn’t always mean getting. 

But if you don’t ask God, you get what you deserve, nothing.

And if you ask without faith that God is God, then don’t plan on getting anything either.

James says the doubting person will get nothing. 

And why?

James says it’s because they are double-minded and unstable.

It’s like they have two souls.

• One soul that loves the world
• One soul that loves God

And they constantly flip-flop between God and the world.

God’s ways one minute and then your ways the next.

They are quick to embrace the ways of the world. 

And they are quick to hesitate to obey God.

Whew – glad that doesn’t sound like any of us, right?

I think we’ve said before that being double-minded is kind of like daily taking the Bible for a spiritual test drive.

“I’ll take God’s wisdom as long as it’s what I’m looking for.”

Many people are curious about God’s wisdom as long as it doesn’t involve any suffering or inconvenience.

But that’s not how it works. 

This is what Jesus said:

Luke 9:23

“If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.”

To follow after Christ is a complete and total commitment. 

To follow Him on the good days and the bad.

On the terrific days and the terrible.

King David is not calling us to be double-minded.

He’s calling us to double up with a double-double.

He’s calling us to:

• Commit to the Lord
• Trust in the Lord

And then David says this:

5 Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

What will God do?

What’s best. 

What’s best?

I don’t know, but God does and he’s perfect.

Fanny Crosby was struck with blindness when she was just six weeks old.

She wrote some of the world’s most beloved hymns about Jesus.

She was asked once if she was bitter about being blind.

Fanny Crosby

Thanks to my blindness, the first thing I’ll see is the face of my beloved Savior welcoming me to His heaven.

These are words from one of her hymns that we sing every now and then here.

Fanny Crosby

All the way my Savior leads me,

What have I to ask beside?

Can I doubt His tender mercy,

Who through life has been my Guide?

Fanny Crosby

Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,

Here by faith in Him to dwell!

For I know, whate’er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well;

Fanny Crosby

For I know, whate’er befall me,

Jesus doeth all things well.

Commit your way to the Lord and trust in the Lord because he does all things well.

“You don’t know what’s happened to me, preacher.”

“You don’t know what I’ve been through.”

“I just can’t believe that God does all things well.”

Five years ago, a student at North Greenville University died in a hiking accident.

His name was Brent Elrod.

A week after his death, Brent’s girlfriend posted a message on social media – here’s just a portion of what she wrote.

Nelan Hughes

Right around this time one week ago today, I experienced the most tragic loss I have ever experienced in my life. I found the love of my life at the bottom of a waterfall dead.

Nelan Hughes

Words do not begin to describe the emotions I felt that day and have felt every day since then. In that moment on the mountain, my life was changed forever. 

Nelan Hughes

As I sit and reflect on my life since Thursday night, I am left completely speechless. I have never felt such an outpouring of love from THE CHURCH before in my life.

Nelan Hughes

From the moment I found Brent and every minute since then, I have yet to feel alone in the midst of this tragedy.

Nelan Hughes

Every day since his death, there has been something to celebrate and hundreds of opportunities to thank my King for all He is doing and will continue to do through the life and death of my sweet man.

Nelan Hughes

Brent made it his goal every day of our relationship to encourage me, challenge, build me up, and make sure I knew who I was in Christ.

Nelan Hughes

For the first time in my life, I know who I am. I have confidence I never knew existed and I thank Brent for that.

Nelan Hughes

He relentlessly pursued me through his love for Christ and God used Brent to heal many areas of my life and allow me to finally see myself the way Christ does.

Nelan Hughes

I know I may never understand why Brent and I fell in love just to have to say goodbye, but I do know that my God is still King and He is still on His throne.

Nelan Hughes

With each day some things are easier while others are harder. I know this pain will not go away overnight and could take years to deal with but there is no way I would be able to write this with such joy in my heart without Christ.

Nelan Hughes

I do not know what my future holds but I will wake up every day thankful for Brent’s life and for another day that I get to serve my King.

All of that was a week after finding her boyfriend dead at waterfall. 

Was she some kind of crazy, religious fanatic who was really in some kind of deep denial over the reality of what had happened?

No.

She was a young woman who was living in the double-double. 

She had committed her way to the Lord.

She was trusting in the Lord. 

And because of that, with joy and confidence, she was able to say:

Nelan Hughes

I have yet to feel alone…

Dow Welsh | September 30, 2018 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at http://www.preceptaustin.org/

Have you ever had a double double ? Now in basketball, a double double is when you have double digits in one of five categories points, rebounds, assists, steals our block shots, okay, double doubles when you have more than two digits in any of those five categories, and at least two of those categories does basketball or in the world of fast food there's a couple of different kind of double doubles you could have the first double double involves the restaurant tim hortons. You go to tim hortons restaurant and you can order your coffee as a double double, which means you get double cream and double search now i've never been to a tim hortons. I've heard that they're somewhat known for their doughnuts. The closest tim hortons tow us is six hours and forty five minutes. I'm up for a road trip if anybody is interested, we can plan that. You know, this week sometime just thought i'd throw that out. The second fast food restaurant in our call of double doubles is in an out burgers on down if you go to an in and out burger, there is a double double you can get. Which is double meat and double cheese. Well, i've never been to an in and out burger. The closest one to us is fifteen hours and thirty five minutes away. I'm totally up for a road trip. If anybody's interested, just thought, i'd throw that out there on beacon, maybe get a in and out burger in mass. A double double is a technique in floating point arithmetic and numerical analysis for attaining quadruple precision by combining pairs of double precision quantities. Now, i've never been to a math. Nay, zee. Um, before i've heard, they're really good at helping people with math. The closest one to us is eighteen minutes away. But i'm kind of terrified of floating point arithmetic. So i'm really not interested in taking a road trip to math museum with you is also my understanding. There would be no math in this sermon, so we're going to move along. Maybe you've got some mad skills on the basketball court. Maybe you have been to a tim hortons or you have been to an in and out, and you had one of those double doubles. Maybe you are fantastic at floating point arithmetic. And and you've been a part of all those double doubles that i just mentioned. But there is another kind of double double that you can have in your life. It's something that does more than than add to the statistics on the back of your trading card. It's something more than just making sure you get a good cup of joe it's, a double double that has a significant impact on your heart and your mind and your soul. Matter of fact, it's. The kind of double double that impacts how you get things in life, how you deal with things in life, how you survive things in life and how you enjoy things in life. So that sounds like kind of a big deal. Double, double. So what is it ? Well, let's. See if we can find out this morning some thirty seven verse five commit your way. Two. The lord david was already getting the senior discount at tim hortons. When he wrote this, he had been on the earth for six decades. He had experienced a lot of things in his life. He had learned a lot of things, and what was most important that he had learned, he decided, tow right down for folks like me and like you and what he had discovered was he learned. The best way to do life is to take all of your thoughts and all of your plans and all of your attitudes and all of your actions and all of your responses and all of your reactions. Take all of those things and to commit them to the one true god of the universe. The word eases for commit here means to roll now, this is a kind of role where you have a lot of things coming at you and you just decide to roll with it. You know, this isn't like being a steak house, and you get a roll with it. This is also not like something where you know it's sunday morning and you're gathering the family and you grab the keys. You gotta come on, let's, let's, roll well, it's a different kind of roll that he's referring to here it means to roll something own to someone or something. The idea is that if you have some kind of conflict, some kind of problem, some kind of burden, some kind of stress or strain, some kind of fear or worry some kind of anger, that you would roll those things away from your heart and away from your mind, and you would roll them on too the lord. Now, that probably is helpful for any of us, right ? Because we never have any burdens or problems or conflicts or stresses or strains or fears or worries or angers, right that that stuff doesn't impact us. Now it does. All day long. Peter was writing a letter to some christians who were living in the modern day area in the middle east, known as turkey. These folks were were not fitting in with their culture around them because they were following jesus, because they were believing in the gossip. And so they didn't fit in. And because they didn't fit in, they were starting to suffer all kinds of different sufferings and persecutions. And so peter wanted to write to them and to encourage them. You wanted to help them out, and this is what he wrote to them. First, peter, five, six and seven, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of god, casting all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Have you ever felt like the weight of the world ? It was on your shoulder. Vera felt like everything was just completely falling apart. Do you feel like that this morning ? Is that the season of life that you're in today ? Peter, more than likely a church or school, had read some thirty seven before he he had heard david's advice. And then he realized, david's advice man is legit, and it actually is riel. He knew he had understood he had found out in his life that, yeah, you really do need to cast everything on the lord. You really do need to roll everything to the lord. You really do need to commit your way to the lord. In fact, when it comes to your soul, and i would just say this. When it comes to your sanity, there is no better way to do daily life than to roll your burdens and to roll your problems and to row your conflict. To roll your fear, to roll your worry, to roll your anger, to roll your bitterness, to roll your depression, to roll your anxieties, to roll those things on the lord. To commit those things to the lord toe. Cast those things on the lord. Jesus was talking this closest friends one day. This is what he said to them. Matthew five five blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth blessed and happy and satisfied are the meat we said this before. Meek sounds weak. But it's not be meek is is strength under control. The truest, strongest people on the planet. They are me. John piper describes it this way. Meekness begins when we put our trust in god. Then because we trust him, we commit our way to him. We roll own to him our anxieties, our frustrations, our plans, our relationships, our jobs. Our health is what it means to be meek. We take everything and we roll it on to the lord. And he says this after we roll things on to the lord. What do we do ? And then we wait patiently for the lord super easy to do right in a way, patiently not super hard. And then we wait patiently for the lord. We trust his timing and his power and his grace toe work things out in the best way for his glory and for our good, his glory and for our good that math works it doesn't work in our mind sometimes, but god's glorious for our good. So how do we do that ? How do we cast our anxieties on god ? How do we roll everything onto the lord ? How did we commit our way to the lord ? How do we make that commitment ? Well, this is going to be an oversimplified way of answering that question, but i need it to be over simplified, or i'm not going to understand. I think i was here with you before that that my wife does not like snakes. I mean, i'm not a big fan either, but, you know, she really didn't like snakes, and so if a snake comes up on tv, you know, for watching tv, she'll do one of two things there's, usually a little shriek and, you know, and then and then a changing of the channel or covering of the eyes like, really had passed i mean, this happens super fast. No. Why does she do that ? Well, basically, what she's doing is she's casting her eye, she's rolling her eyes, she's committing her eyes away from the snake. You know that that snake is bothering her heart. And her mind, really. Her skin, you know, it's bothering her. It's given her the willies, so to speak. And so, in a sense, committing your way to the lord is changing the channel of your mind and your heart and your soul, it's in that moment, rolling whatever it is away from your mind and heart and your soul and trusting and committing yourself to the lord now committing your way to the lower changing the channel of your mind, that doesn't mean suddenly everything gets good, you know, don't make everything in life all all fluffy and nice, but what it does do is it helps us to realize that the willies don't have to paralyze us, that we don't have to be paralyzed by our burdens and our problems in our conflicts and our stresses and our streams and our anger. But you know what ? We are in that moment, right ? That's ? Why i say it because we're paralyzed boy were paralyzed with bitterness were paralyzed with anger, were paralyzed with fear were paralyzed with worry. King david had moments like that too that's. Why he's right now, he's frightened he's trying to get us to see that we we don't have to stay there that those things don't have to paralyze us. David says, we should roll everything on to the lord. Why ? What qualifies him ? This is the message that came to john revelation, one eight. I am the alfa and the omega, says the lord god, who is and who, wass and who is to come, the all mighty. I was born on may twenty six nineteen, seventy two university hospital in augusta, georgia. Non months before that moment i was fearfully and wonderfully created by the one true holy god. Before all of that happened, though i did not exist, i was not. I had a starting point. I have an existing point. Today in one day i'll have unending point at least on this earth. Those things never apply to god. God was before i wass god was before you, wass i know that's not good grammar, but you know god waas. But before anyone ever wass that's who he is that's his character, he didn't have a starting point. He's the alfa he's the first in the sense that everything in the universe has its beginnings in its purpose in him he's the omega he's, the last in the sense that everything in the universe has its ending and it's final ultimate purpose in him there's no one like him. Look, if you need a good poster or good announcement graphic. If you need a little word of encouragement a little cheerlead every now and then if you need somebody to go on a road trip. By doughnut, i'm your guy, right ? I'm here for you. But do not roll your life on to me. I'm not qualified. I'm not qualified. God, the god of israel, the lord of hosts, the one who was and is and is to come, he's qualified he's, infinitely qualified for all of our burdens and all of our problems, all of our fears and our worries and our stresses and our strains and our anger and our bitterness and our depression, he says. Roll it, too, may and david says, do it, there's something i've learned that's, what you have to do. If you're going to keep your sanity that's, what you have to do may have heard the story of the little boy that used to go to the country store with his mom, the owner of the country store. Every time that they came to buy things, the owner would tell the little boy, hey, why don't you dip your hand down in there in the candy jar and get you a handful of candy, and i'll put it in a bag and you can take that home with and a little boy. I was always just kind of like real slow and real slow, and he would never do it. He'd never reach up there and get the candy. He'd always wait until the owner said, okay, i'll do it for you one day they were leaving, and his mom said, well, sweetie, how is it that you never just put your hand in a jar and go ahead and get the candy yourself ? And he said, mom, his hands are bigger. Listen, i'll confess for all of us there's days. We don't feel it. And there's days. We don't believe it, and maybe you've never believed it. But today we want to proclaim to you boldly and graciously, emphatically and triumphantly. And we want to proclaim to you on the authority of the bible and owned the authority and the authenticity of billions of people who have followed before us. That god is big, and his hands are bigger and he's better and he's, holy, holy, holy and he's. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And he is full of power and full of majesty and full of grace and full of mercy and full of love. And for at least the last six thousand years, he's been proving themselves over and over and over again to those who have believed in him that you can commit your way to him. And you will not be a fool for doing so. David says, commit your way to the lord just wrong those things onto him it's not just rolling liquid. He says next. Commit your way to the lord trust also in him now, here's. Our double double. Okay, here's, our spiritually double double, so to speak, here's. His two things that were called to you the double double that that impacts how you get things, how you deal with things. How do you survive things ? How you enjoy things in life. This this is that double, double commit and trust commit. You're way too, lord trust in the lord. A few weeks ago, we looked kind of in detail about what it means to trust the lord, but but want to kind of take that and kind of strategically connected toe what it means to commit to the lord james was the half brother of jesus. This is what he wrote about the way we talk to guy james. Wonder six. But he must ask in faith without any doubt. For the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. Think about how we pray. Sometimes we pray with doubt and sometimes we won't pray because we have doubt. And sometimes we're not sure that our prayers are even being heard, because we have doubt that's connected to sin in our lives. Or we have doubt that's connected to things that we've done wrong in the past. Or we have doubt, because we feel like love. Ask god too many times for that. Or we have doubt, because we think, well, i just can't get anything right. But at the end of the day, when you peel, whether layers behind of that, those are excuses wrapped up with pride and disbelief and his believers. What we have to do is we have to fight through that pride. We have to fight through that disbelief. We have to fight through that doubt. We have to see and know that our god is there on yonder throne. But our god is there for us now, and clearly, we're gonna have some moments in life where the first question that comes up is this god, why is this happening ? God, why is this happening ? Because jesus loved us and gave himself up for us. We learned because of that truth toe fight through that question. We fight through that question, and we fight as fast as we can. And we say, god, please hold my heart super tight right now. God, please help me see all of this in some way through your eternal lies. God, please help me see that whether i'm eating or drinking or whether i'm suffering or whether i'm angry or whether i'm afraid or whether i'm worried, help me fight through all of those things so that i might do something that might bring attention to your name, a guy which you help me to remember jesus, right now, in the middle of my question, god, why is this happening ? God ? And that question helped me remember jesus, because he suffered so much more than what i'm suffering now for my sin, and he was in us. So we fight through the question, look, don't don't beat yourself up with the questions, all right, it's gonna happen ? God, god, why is this happening but its believers, but because of the gospel, what happens is we just fight through them, we learn what it means to trust in the lord, but you're trusting in god is is more than just memorizing some bible verses or having some catchy, you know, quote on index cards on our bathroom mirror and it's more than that, it involves energy, it involves effort, it involves emotion. We talked about this last week. I'll just kind of repeat it briefly. What what would happen in our lives if we gave our walk with jesus like four percent of what we gave our favorite team yesterday ? Man, what would happen ? Well, what happened if the one who sits on yonder throne who sent his son to rescue and save us ? What if he got just four percent of the energy and effort and the emotion that we gave our favorite teams this week ? Trust in the lord takes a lot, and we're still going to doubt, ok, it's still gonna have. But the goal for us is to keep fighting in such a way that we sound like that father that brought his son to jesus and remember what he said. He said, jesus, i believe, i believe, help mei unbelief. I'm here today, jesus, because i believe in you, but but i've got these issues of unbelief. Would you help my unbelief ? It's. Not that we want to ask the question, god why's, that happening. But we fight through it and say, a guy, would you help my unbelief and you in this moment ? James goes on to say this about always talking to god with with doubt james one seven and eight for that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the lord being a double minded man, unstable in all his ways, there's a whole, another kind of double double. Right now we got double minded what it is like in real life. Well, usually, like kind of like when we get angry or frustrated with god, you know, way get angry at god because something's not happening the way we thought it was supposed to happen. We're not getting the answer that we wanted to get, and usually when we get angry or frustrated with god it's, usually because of arson, i mean, usually or it's because we are just negative nannies about everything in the world, right ? I mean, we're just constantly complaining about everything. We just we have no joy in our salvation, no joy in jesus. And so we get angry or frustrated with god because things aren't happening the way we want it to happen. And sometimes we get angry and frustrated. God, because we're hesitant to accept god. Answer that's, not it that's, not an answer, it's. Just we won't accept one pastor put it this way. If a person has no real trust in god, it is doubtful that he would recognise any answer that came as being from god that's kind of big deal, right ? If we get angry or frustrated with god, we're like not in relationship with him. We're not going to accept any answer that he gives us until it's, the one that we want it's important to stay in relationship with god on the good days and the bad days. Now, asking god for stuff doesn't mean that you always get it, but james says, look, if you don't ask god, you're gonna get what you deserve, nothing, because this is you should ask, but he also says, you should ask in faith you should ask things like god is god, you know, i'm i'm praying to god because he's god, i'm not just praying to god because, you know, i think he's going to give me a pinata for my birthday ? No, i'm praying to god because he's god, he's, holy, holy, holy he's! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! So i'm i'm praying to god with faith, and if we don't pray to god in that way, well, you know, james says, don't don't worry about anything then either, because, you know, you're just a doubting person. You're you're unstable, doubting and unstable double minded. Does that mean it's ? Almost like you got two souls you got. You got one sold. It loves god. Then you have this other soul that loves the world of man. You are flip flopping all the time between those two worlds you are very quick to trust in the ways of the world. Some of them good and noble. But you were also really quick to trust in the ways of god. God's ways are old as two thousand eighteen there's. Those things don't apply anymore. He didn't understand how things work in my company, and so were quick to kind of run to the ways of the world. But where were also quick to just ignore, we hesitate, running to the ways of god. We're doing things god's way. One minute. And then we do things our way. The next. I think we've said this before that that being double minded like this is kind of like taking the bible for a test drive. You know, it's like i'm looking tires, you know, take it for a ride around him. If i see something i like, i might make an offer that's not how it works, right that's never how jesus. Ever talk ? Jesus never said, i will accept you into my heaven as long as you make the christmas eve service that that's good enough for me and that'll cover everything. No jesus never spoke that way. That's what jesus said looting on twenty three if anyone wishes to come after me, if anyone wishes to be a christian, if anyone's going to claim to be a professor of christianity, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow may to follow after christ is a total and complete commitment. You follow him on the good days and bad days. You follow him on the terrific days and the terrible days. There is no other call that he's ever given us tow have any other calling. Yeah, that doesn't mean we're not going toe to fail or do the wrong thing or saying that's, not what we're saying, which is in was that drive was the passion of your life. Or, as we asked last week, do you lean toward god ? Is there a lean in your life toward god ? Or does god not cross your mind until you get here on sunday ? King david is calling us to not be double minded he's, calling us to double up on a double, double. Hey saint, commit to the lord trust in the lord own these things hanging there, do this, and then he says this verse five, commit your way to the lord, trust also in him, and he will do it. No, does that mean what's god going to do well ? God's going to do what beth was best ? I don't know. Guess what you i don't know god, because he is perfect, he's perfect. Fanny crosby was struck with blindness when she was just six weeks old. She was blind. Her whole life, she wrote some of our most beloved hymns in the christian faith. She was asked one time if she was bitter about being blind. And this was her response. Thanks to my blindness. First thing i'll see is the face of my beloved savior, welcoming me to his health. That's solid. First thing. How will see his face of jesus ? No, honey, i'm not bitter about being blind, because the first thing i will see will be the most satisfying reality in the universe. That's. Someone who has learned that god's going to do it no matter what. Yes, maybe. These are the words of one of her hymns, that we sing from time to time around here all the way. My savior leads me. What have i to ask besides cannot doubt his tender mercy, who, through life has been my guy, heavenly peace, divine iss comfort here, by faith in him to dwell for a no. What hair before me, jesus do, if all things well, for i know what air before me, jesus, do it all thing. Well, let me just confess something force, and i've said this before, but it's probably worth repeating. We sing that him every now and then, and when we get to that line, i mean, if you're in here singing, making if your hands are crossed and you're looking at the ceiling, okay, this doesn't apply to you, but you know, if we're singing, they're attempting to sing, then we sing that line, and if we're honest as believers, sometimes we think it's a lie, at least we live like it's alive because we look at the problems with our spouse, our kids, our health, our nation or the world, and we go no, jesus does not do all things well, because there's too much centres too much craziness, and this problem is not fit, so we sing things like that, but we don't we don't always belief, but see, i think that's exactly what king david writes stuff like this he's like, oh, you're going to have a day where you don't feel jesus the way you feel. Jesus, you're gonna have a day where the gospel is. That thing doubt talks about on sunday, but it doesn't have a place in this hospital room, and it doesn't have a place in this argument in my family. And it doesn't have a place in the tragedy or the disaster in the world and in your mind, in your heart, that you were going to tell you that. And so david is saying, hey, you know what before that day comes today, you know, september thirtieth. Go ahead and own this. Commit your way to the lord. Trust your way, roll it all on the lord. So when that moment comes, you got something to fight with. Commit your way to the lord trust in the lord, because he does all things well, but but you may still say, yeah, but you don't know what's happening to my life right now. You don't know what i've been through. You don't know what i'm facing, there's, no way that i can believe that god does all things well. Five years ago, a student at north greenville university died in a hiking acts, not found out. Just this morning that kevin was friends with him. His name was brent elrod. About a week after brent died. His girlfriend wrote something on social media, a response to what she experienced, and i'm just going to read a portion of what she wrote her name. It was five years ago. Now, knowing hughes, this is what she said right around this time when we could go. Today i experienced the most tragic loss i've ever experienced in my life. I found the love of my life at the bottom of water fall dead words do not begin to describe the emotions i felt that day, and it felt every day since then. In that moment on the mountain, my life was changed forever. As i sit and reflect on my life. Since thursday night, i am left completely speechless. I have never felt such an outpouring of love from the church before in my life. From the moment i found brent, and every minute since then, i have yet to feel alone in the midst of this tragedy. Every day since his death, there has been something to celebrate and hundreds of opportunities to thank my king for all he is doing and will continue to do through the life and death of my sweet man. Brent made it his goal every day of our relationship to encourage me, challenge me, built me up and make sure i knew who i wass in. Christ. Will you stop for a sec ? That's. The only reason this church exist is to glorify god and help you continually find who you are in christ that's, that's. Why we're here, it's, what we do. When she said this, for the first time in my life, i know who i am. I have confidence i never knew existed, and i think brent for that he relentlessly pursued me through his love for christ, and god used brent to heal many areas of my life and allow me to finally see myself the way christ does. If he says this, i know i may never understand why britain, i fell in love, just tow have to say good bye, but i do know that my god is still king and he is still on his throne with each day. Some things are easier, while others are harder. I know this pain will not go away overnight and could take years to deal with, but there is no way i would be able to write this with such joy and my heart without christ. I do not know what my future holds, but i will wake up every day thankful for brits life and for another day that i get to serve my king. College student. Worst day of her life. Fines her boyfriend dead at a waterfall and uses words like joy still in her life, math doesn't make sense. I mean, she she just some crazy religious lunatic. But she just still wrapped up with shock and she's. Just not really grasping what had happened in that moment. No, she was a young woman that, before she got to the waterfall that day, committed her way. Two the lord. Before that day, she trusted in the lord. And because of that double double in her life, winn, the day that changed her life forever happened. A week later, she's still saying. Never felt a lot. Only god is qualified to do dad. He was, he is, and he is to come. Therefore, when we commit to him, when we trust in him, he says to us, i will never leave you alone.