Living An Adventurous Life With Christ

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends. How in the world are you? Are you doing alright? Oh, I trust so, bless your heart. So glad to be back with you, looking at some of the truths of God’s Word that have to do with trusting the Lord, and I’ve got now into the idea of “why” trust Him. “How great Thy goodness is, that Thou hast laid up for them that trust in Thee.” God is good to people who trust Him. Mercy compasses about the person who trusts God. Psalm 32:10.

Psalm 34:22, “The Lord redeemeth the soul of His servants: and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate,” homeless, left alone, orphans. All of those concepts are wrapped up in that word. Now, this matter of homelessness is coming into focus in our country more and more. To be “desolate” means not to have anybody that cares about you. And I suppose that somebody listening to me this minute says, “Brother Cook, you don’t really know what you’re talking about. You don’t know how bad it is when nobody cares about you.”

Well, I suppose you’re right, because I have a great many people who love me and do care about me. God has been very good to me that way. By the same token, I’m giving you the Word of Almighty God, and it’s true, eternally true. And it does say none of them that trust in Him shall be left alone without anybody to care. Why? 1 Peter, “Casting all your care upon Him; for He…” Who is the “He”? The One who built the universe, and Who died on the Cross to save your soul, and Who lives today to mention your name before the Heavenly Father. “He ever liveth to make intercession for them to come unto God by Him,” the Bible says. That’s the person. “He careth for you.”

Now, it’s possible to feel dreadfully alone, even if you’re in the midst of lots of people; I’ve known that through the years. I was in Marseille, France on one occasion. I didn’t know a soul; not one living soul did I know. And there I was in a little fleabag of a hotel, waiting because all my flights had been canceled. There weren’t any flights in and out on the airline that I was using for another two or three days. And so I was stuck, and I remember kneeling down in that little room and just saying, “Oh God, I need You. Comfort my heart. Speak to me.” And immediately I was aware of the presence of my Blessed Lord.

In that “alone” my friend, when He’s there, Jesus said, “I am not alone for the Father is with Me.” And the Bible says, “for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may say, we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

Listen, today if you’re all alone – your husband or wife is gone, the kids either have moved away or forgotten, or there isn’t anybody left in your family tree and you’re the last, and nobody seems to care, and the days are dragging on – look heavenward. There’s a window of hope there for you and of love, and God the Father looks down and says, “I love you.” He said, “Oh, do not fear, Jacob. I have called thee by name; thou art mine.” God knows your name. He knows all about you. Read the 139th Psalm and find that He knows how many times you sat down today. You don’t even know that. “Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising.”

God knows how many times you sat down. God knows what you said and what you could have said. “There’s not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.” God knows what you said and what you could have said. He knows what you thought and “art acquainted with all my ways.” Yeah, God knows and he cares. “None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate.” Somebody is terribly down today, and if you are, oh, I beg of you – look heavenward and let God comfort you, and let Him tell you as He has said in His Word, “none of them that trust in Him shall be left alone to themselves.”

Now there’s a matter of stability involved in Psalm 125:1, “They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever.” Stability comes from trust. How does that work? It works because when you fix your trust on Almighty God, He doesn’t change. He always works according to His Word and according to His holy character. And if your procedures are fixed upon Him, if your plans are fixed upon Him, if you’re really trusting Him, then you’re going to be stable, you’re going to be solid, you’re not going to be flapping about, waving in every wind of circumstance.

And then of course that says, that wonderful verse with which I started yesterday’s broadcast, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.” The reason for thinking about God is that you are limited in the kind of person whom you can absolutely trust. Peter said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words for eternal life.”

There isn’t anybody else that you really can trust. People often said to me, during my lifetime, “Well, you can’t trust anybody,” and I have to agree. We all fail each other, don’t we? Well, yes we do. You’ve failed other people, you know that, and so indeed have I. And so it comes down to a matter of “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” “Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus.” See, because he never fails. He will never disappoint you. And during His earthy ministry He never had to say, “I beg your pardon, I was mistaken.” He didn’t have to do that.

Instead, He could look His accusers in the eye and say, “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” This perfect, wonderful, spotless Savior is the one to whom you can look for the source of your absolute commitment. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee.”

Perfect peace comes from absolute commitment. How you learn that lesson? I meet so many people who are restless and spiritually ill at ease, and when you ask a few questions, you find that there are still some issues that have not yet been committed to their Lord. And as long as there’s some issue that on which you differ with God, and you haven’t committed yourself completely to Him, you will be restless. And you will be unsteady on your spiritual feet. And you will be unsatisfied. And you will be the victim of circumstances. Believe me, that’s the way it works.

Do you want to think about the areas in your life that need real, absolute commitment that have not yet been taken care of? Now, I know none of this is perfect, and once you have committed the area to God, you may find that you have stumbled and stubbed your toe now and then. That’s what 1 John 1 is all about: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from unrighteousness.”

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” But once you have and committed yourself absolutely to God, He takes over the responsibility for guiding and controlling your life, and although you are human – fallible and subject to mistakes – still the matter has been settled.

Do you remember when you learned to drive a car? Did you always hold it in a straight line? Now, you knew, you knew what you should do; you knew you should keep it in a straight line, with a reasonable distance between the curbside and the yellow line in the middle of the road. But sometimes you oversteered, didn’t you? Sometimes you made a mistake and shifted the wrong way (if you were driving an old gearshift car), or you missed the shift altogether and the motor was roaring without any power getting to the rear wheels. Do you remember that?

Well, did you give up driving? No. What you did was you learned to do it better the next time. And I’m sure that God in His wonderful love and mercy does the same thing with you and with me. How precious and wonderful He’s been to yours truly; I can testify that. And when you’re steering a course through life and sometimes you get off the road, sometimes you hit the curb, sometimes you oversteer, or you put the brake on too suddenly, or whatever it may be, and you come back and say, “Oh God, please forgive me and please cleanse me. Please get me started once again.” And He does.

“There is forgiveness with Thee,” the Bible says, “that Thou mayest be feared.” The more you love God, the more you’ll respect and fear Him with a holy “oh.” But real peace comes from absolute commitment. Now, God says that He will help and He’ll save, He’ll deliver and He’ll save. The Word, save as I see it, is the summation of all of the blessed work of God in making your life a constant miracle of God’s grace.

Do you know the difference between just living through a day or living through a day with the Lord? Have you learned that yet? Living through a day with the Lord means you pray when you wake up, “Good Morning, Lord.” Some people use the same words but in a different order. Don’t say, “Good Lord. Morning.” Well, you greet your Lord when you wake up. You pray in those early morning moments, knowing that the first impressions of the day last all day long. You know that, don’t you? And so you get along with Lord quickly, the minute you hop out of bed, you get along with your Lord, and you whisper to Him your words of love and adoration, of praise and worship. You ask for His control throughout the day. Commit all of your matters to Him, then you go on.

If you’re a homemaker you have to get dressed quickly. Perhaps you have to pick up the baby and change that little removable seat cover on the little chassis, or whatever you have to do. Then you have to get breakfast and maybe have to pack half a dozen lunches. And there’s the general half of a family getting ready to go out to school and work. You don’t have much time for praying and meditation then, but oh, you met your Lord before you started the day, and so in the midst of pots and pans and scrambled eggs and burnt toast, you can look up and say, “Jesus, I am Yours. See me through.”

Oh, yes and if you go to business, you pray before you start your work. You bow over your desk and ask if God may help you do a good job today. And if you’ve faced a particularly difficult assignment, have to cut a quarter of a million dollars out of a budget or something, and you don’t know where to begin, you bow and say, “Lord guide me,” And He will.

You have to deal with personnel problems and somebody comes with a complaint and you don’t know quite how to get out of it, you pray first and God enables you to listen intelligently (which is 90% of the victory, as you know). God enables you to listen intelligently and compassionately and then help settle the problem. Oh, you pray through the day and you live through the day with the Lord Jesus. Things happened that you hadn’t expected, you look up and say, “Lord, I didn’t expect this and I don’t know if I like it, but I’m Yours,” and you trust Him to see you through. That’s all involved in this word, “save.” Make all of life an adventure with the Lord Jesus. Will you do it today? I hope you will.

Blessed Father, how we love Thee and how we worship Thee and how we long to serve Thee. Teach us what real trust means and help us to wrap up every day in the commitment of faith in Lord Jesus Christ. I ask in His name, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!