Trusting God: Embracing Faith Through Uncertainty
Summary
### Summary
Good morning, everyone. I am Pastor Ryan, and I am grateful to be here today. I want to extend my thanks to Pastor Sherwood and Miss Kim for allowing me this opportunity. They are away with their family, and I am thankful they took the time to be together. Today, I want to talk about trusting in God, using the story of Noah and the flood as our foundation.
Trusting God is pivotal in our lives. Our ability to move forward in our callings and purposes is deeply tied to how much we trust Him. Noah's story is a profound example of trust. God told Noah to build an ark because He was going to flood the earth. Noah had to trust God despite the seemingly absurd instructions. He had never seen rain before, yet he obeyed God's detailed commands to build the ark.
Noah's trust in God was not about understanding the outcome but about obedience. God often asks us to do things that don't make sense to us. Our desire to do what God wants must outweigh our need for comprehension. God is more interested in our trust than the actual outcome. If we try to derive our own outcomes from God's instructions, we will be disappointed. Trusting God means letting go of our need to understand and control the outcome.
I shared a personal story from my ministry school days when I felt called to pray for the sick. I hesitated because I wasn't in a leadership position. One night, a speaker gave me the public permission I had been waiting for. This experience taught me that sometimes God asks us to step out in faith even when it feels crazy. I went to Walmart to pray for people, and although the outcomes were not what I expected, it was a lesson in trusting God.
We often fail to make memorials of what God has done in our lives. Memorials are important because they remind us of God's faithfulness and help us trust Him in future challenges. God Himself made a memorial with the rainbow after the flood to remind Himself never to flood the earth again. We need to build memorials of gratefulness and thankfulness to sustain our trust in God.
Noah's story teaches us that trusting God involves enduring long periods of waiting and uncertainty. After the rain stopped, Noah had to wait 150 days for the floodwaters to recede. During this time, he had to trust that God was preparing provision for him and his family. Sometimes, God doesn't show us the answers to our prayers immediately because we might grab hold of them prematurely. Trusting God means waiting for His perfect timing.
God's promises are often deposits that we can't use immediately. They are meant to keep us trusting Him until the right time. We must remain faithful and keep the promises alive in our hearts. Noah trusted God through the entire process, from building the ark to waiting for the floodwaters to recede. His trust was rewarded with God's covenant and promises for future generations.
Holy Spirit is our guarantee of God's promises. Just as Noah's ark was a vessel of trust, Holy Spirit is our vessel. We must trust Holy Spirit daily, in every circumstance, and keep going back to Him for guidance and provision. Trusting God is not about immediate answers but about a relationship built on faith and obedience.
In conclusion, trusting God is a journey that involves building memorials, enduring waiting periods, and relying on Holy Spirit. We must let go of our need for control and trust that God's timing and provision are perfect. Let's commit to trusting God in every season of our lives.
### Key Takeaways
1. Trusting God Beyond Comprehension: Our desire to do what God wants must outweigh our need for understanding. God often asks us to do things that don't make sense, and our trust in Him should not be dependent on our grasp of the outcome. Trusting God means letting go of our need to control and understand everything. [03:42]
2. Building Memorials of God's Faithfulness: Memorials are crucial for sustaining our trust in God. They remind us of His past faithfulness and help us face future challenges with confidence. Without memorials, we easily forget what God has done and struggle to trust Him in new circumstances. [45:24]
3. Enduring Periods of Waiting: Trusting God often involves long periods of waiting and uncertainty. Just as Noah waited 150 days for the floodwaters to recede, we must trust that God is preparing provision for us even when we can't see it. Waiting for God's perfect timing is essential for receiving His promises. [34:59]
4. God's Promises as Deposits: God's promises are often deposits that we can't use immediately. They are meant to keep us trusting Him until the right time. We must remain faithful and keep the promises alive in our hearts, trusting that God will fulfill them in His perfect timing. [39:26]
5. Holy Spirit as Our Vessel of Trust: Holy Spirit is our guarantee of God's promises. Just as Noah's ark was a vessel of trust, Holy Spirit is our vessel. We must trust Holy Spirit daily, in every circumstance, and keep going back to Him for guidance and provision. Trusting God is about a relationship built on faith and obedience. [50:06]
### YouTube Chapters
[0:00] - Welcome
[03:42] - Trusting God Beyond Comprehension
[07:08] - Personal Story: Praying for the Sick
[08:33] - The Importance of Memorials
[09:38] - Trusting God in Uncertainty
[10:51] - Lessons from Walmart
[12:05] - Praying for Healing
[13:29] - Trusting God Despite Outcomes
[14:44] - Noah's Detailed Obedience
[16:08] - Trusting God for the Outcomes
[17:20] - Letting Go of Manmade Investments
[18:39] - The Rich Young Ruler
[19:52] - Keeping Alive What God Loves
[21:32] - Isolation vs. Separation
[23:13] - Adoption into God's Family
[24:29] - Commitment to Being Kept
[26:13] - Trusting God Through Extended Waiting
[27:34] - The Process of Trust
[29:01] - Trusting God Despite Delays
[30:18] - Multiplication Over Addition
[31:50] - Trusting God in Silence
[33:25] - Avoiding Premature Grasping
[34:59] - Provision Through Trust
[36:31] - The Importance of Restraint
[38:08] - God's Promises as Deposits
[39:26] - Keeping Promises Alive
[41:06] - Building Memorials of Trust
[42:37] - The Importance of Remembrance
[44:03] - The Ease of Forgetting
[45:24] - Memorials for Future Challenges
[47:06] - Trusting God Beyond Time
[48:38] - God's Covenant with Noah
[50:06] - Holy Spirit as Our Vessel
[51:22] - Accessing Holy Spirit's Guidance
[52:44] - Trusting God in Every Season
[54:00] - Closing Prayer and Encouragement
Study Guide
### Bible Reading
1. Genesis 6:9-22 - The story of Noah's obedience and trust in God.
2. Hebrews 12:5-6 - The importance of God's discipline and restraint.
3. 2 Corinthians 1:22 - Holy Spirit as a guarantee of God's promises.
### Observation Questions
1. What specific instructions did God give Noah regarding the construction of the ark? (Genesis 6:14-16)
2. How did Noah respond to God's commands about building the ark and gathering the animals? (Genesis 6:22)
3. What does Hebrews 12:5-6 say about God's discipline and how it relates to trust?
4. According to 2 Corinthians 1:22, what role does the Holy Spirit play in our relationship with God?
### Interpretation Questions
1. Why do you think God gave Noah such detailed instructions for building the ark? How might this relate to the importance of trust in our own lives? [16:08]
2. How does the concept of God's promises being "deposits" that we can't use immediately help us understand periods of waiting in our lives? [39:26]
3. In what ways does the Holy Spirit act as a "vessel of trust" for us, similar to how the ark was for Noah? [50:06]
4. How can building memorials of God's faithfulness help us trust Him in future challenges? [45:24]
### Application Questions
1. Reflect on a time when God asked you to do something that didn't make sense. How did you respond, and what was the outcome? How can Noah's story encourage you to trust God more in similar situations? [03:42]
2. What are some practical ways you can build memorials of God's faithfulness in your life? Consider creating a journal, a photo album, or another tangible reminder. [45:24]
3. Think about a period of waiting in your life. How did you handle it? What can you learn from Noah's 150 days of waiting for the floodwaters to recede? [34:59]
4. How can you remain faithful and keep God's promises alive in your heart, even when you can't see immediate results? [39:26]
5. Identify a specific area in your life where you need to let go of control and trust the Holy Spirit for guidance and provision. What steps can you take this week to surrender that area to God? [50:06]
6. How can you cultivate a daily relationship with the Holy Spirit to ensure you are continually guided and provided for? What specific practices can you incorporate into your routine? [50:06]
7. Reflect on a recent challenge or disappointment. How can you use the lessons from Noah's story to trust God more deeply in this situation? [27:34]
Devotional
### Day 1: Trusting God Beyond Comprehension
Trusting God means letting go of our need to control and understand everything. God often asks us to do things that don't make sense to us, and our trust in Him should not be dependent on our grasp of the outcome. Noah's story is a profound example of this. God told Noah to build an ark because He was going to flood the earth. Noah had never seen rain before, yet he obeyed God's detailed commands to build the ark. This act of obedience was not about understanding the outcome but about trusting God's instructions.
Our desire to do what God wants must outweigh our need for comprehension. If we try to derive our own outcomes from God's instructions, we will be disappointed. Trusting God means letting go of our need to understand and control the outcome. It is about a relationship built on faith and obedience, knowing that God's plans are higher than our own. [03:42]
Isaiah 55:8-9 (ESV): "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
Reflection: What is one area of your life where you find yourself holding back from surrendering to God because you don't understand His plan? What would it look like to trust Him fully in that area today?
### Day 2: Building Memorials of God's Faithfulness
Memorials are crucial for sustaining our trust in God. They remind us of His past faithfulness and help us face future challenges with confidence. Without memorials, we easily forget what God has done and struggle to trust Him in new circumstances. God Himself made a memorial with the rainbow after the flood to remind Himself never to flood the earth again. We need to build memorials of gratefulness and thankfulness to sustain our trust in God.
These memorials can be physical objects, journal entries, or even mental notes that remind us of God's faithfulness. They serve as anchors in our faith journey, helping us to remember God's goodness and provision in times of doubt and uncertainty. By building these memorials, we create a foundation of trust that can withstand future challenges. [45:24]
Joshua 4:6-7 (ESV): "that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever."
Reflection: Think of a specific instance where God showed His faithfulness in your life. How can you create a memorial to remember this moment and use it to strengthen your trust in God during future challenges?
### Day 3: Enduring Periods of Waiting
Trusting God often involves long periods of waiting and uncertainty. Just as Noah waited 150 days for the floodwaters to recede, we must trust that God is preparing provision for us even when we can't see it. Waiting for God's perfect timing is essential for receiving His promises. During these periods of waiting, it is crucial to remain faithful and keep the promises alive in our hearts.
Sometimes, God doesn't show us the answers to our prayers immediately because we might grab hold of them prematurely. Trusting God means waiting for His perfect timing and believing that He is working behind the scenes for our good. This period of waiting is not wasted time but a time of preparation and growth. [34:59]
Habakkuk 2:3 (ESV): "For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."
Reflection: Is there a promise or prayer you are waiting on God to fulfill? How can you use this waiting period to grow in your faith and trust in His perfect timing?
### Day 4: God's Promises as Deposits
God's promises are often deposits that we can't use immediately. They are meant to keep us trusting Him until the right time. We must remain faithful and keep the promises alive in our hearts, trusting that God will fulfill them in His perfect timing. These promises are like seeds planted in our hearts, growing and maturing until the time is right for them to bear fruit.
It is essential to nurture these promises through prayer, meditation, and faith. By keeping God's promises alive in our hearts, we stay connected to His plans and purposes for our lives. This connection helps us to remain steadfast and hopeful, even when the fulfillment of these promises seems distant. [39:26]
2 Peter 3:9 (ESV): "The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."
Reflection: What is a promise from God that you are holding onto? How can you nurture this promise through prayer and faith, trusting that God will fulfill it in His perfect timing?
### Day 5: Holy Spirit as Our Vessel of Trust
Holy Spirit is our guarantee of God's promises. Just as Noah's ark was a vessel of trust, Holy Spirit is our vessel. We must trust Holy Spirit daily, in every circumstance, and keep going back to Him for guidance and provision. Trusting God is about a relationship built on faith and obedience, and the Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in this relationship.
By relying on the Holy Spirit, we receive the guidance, wisdom, and strength needed to navigate life's challenges. The Holy Spirit helps us to stay connected to God's will and purposes, ensuring that we remain on the right path. Trusting the Holy Spirit means being open to His leading and allowing Him to work in and through us. [50:06]
John 14:26 (ESV): "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you."
Reflection: How can you cultivate a deeper relationship with the Holy Spirit today? What steps can you take to rely more on His guidance and provision in your daily life?
Quotes
### Quotes for Outreach
1. "Life and seasons in the world have made everything so easily accessible that we also so easily forget or we don't put it to memory the things that we need because there's no reason to remember. I'll just pull it back up in a moment. And then we start to live our life that way. And when God is saying, you better remember what I did today, you better make an altar of this because the next giant you stand in front of, you're going to have to tell him to look at this so that he runs away from you." [45:24]
2. "Time is a man-made measuring tape that is pointed at God for your disappointment in him. And God is saying, I am eternal and I can take time and multiply it. I can do things today that makes you forget about the last 10 years of your life because the provision I'm preparing for you is better than the time that you've lost. Don't be conscious of time when it comes to the things of God. Trust God." [48:38]
3. "God is never going to ask you to do anything that makes sense. I'll tell you it's because of this. God really doesn't always care about what you're doing. He cares about when he tells you to do something, can you trust him inside of that? He's really only working on the trust in you and not necessarily the outcome in which you're going to get credit or glory or he will because of what you've done." [07:08]
4. "God loves the seasons where you have to trust him more than he loves answering your prayers a hundred percent. He loves seasons of you stepping back out to trust in him one more time, more than he wants to deliver people at the end of your fingertips. God is going to deliver. God is going to heal and God is going to take care of things. But if you put yourself on the forefront of it, and you don't think that it's simply about your relationship between you and God, that the fact you got the honor of having a word from God in the beginning is about anything else. You are wrong. It is about, can you trust God?" [14:44]
5. "If you ever felt like in trusting God, you ended up in a place to where you obeyed, then you obeyed, then you obeyed. And when you came up on the horizon, it wasn't nothing but another waiting. Wasn't nothing but another endless sea of having to trust him again. It wasn't nothing that looked like answers. It wasn't the answer to anything you saw. It wasn't the answer to anything." [27:34]
### Quotes for Members
1. "Without the altars and the memorials of remembrance without retaining and building a foundation on what God has done in the past. Even God himself says he would struggle to remember not to do things again. So for us, we have got to trust God. And when God steps in and breaks through, even if it's not the end answer, we've got to build a memorial of gratefulness and thankfulness and say, God, thank you for today. Now I will trust you until I build the next one and I build the next one. But we've got to regain the power in building a foundation of remembrance that God is good and he loves us on Sunday. He loves us on Monday. And if he got us through seven days, he'll get us through 40 days. And if he got us through 40 days, the 150 don't even matter because he's coming through, baby." [47:06]
2. "If you can manage the seven days of waiting into while the rain comes, then you can get there. And if you do the seven days trusting well, then you step into the 40 days and the 40 nights. And if you handle that well, then if you do the trusting process as well, it should keep you and help you survive in the 150 days to where you're waiting for the water to recede so that you can find out what's next. But you have to trust him in those processes. Noah was learning that he had to absolutely trust him in these processes." [29:01]
3. "If God would shows us too early what he's doing, we will grab a hold of it before God's right timing. And if we take things that we've done wrong, it will never sustain us or provide for us for the future that God wants to give us. So why Noah could only see water and was sending birds out. God had the earth in another spot being uncovered and was sending Noah's boat straight to it. And by the time Noah's boat got to it and the waters had receded, this is what I believe. There was a piece of land that had already grown so much, so in provision that there was enough food for them. And their families and the animals and provision and all of these things were ready for them to carry them through the next several, several, several years." [34:59]
4. "The promise was just an investment into you to keep you trusting until God prepared what's on the other side. So that when he does the miracle, it lasts. Some of us can't take another miracle at the edge of us seeing it and then think, oh my God, it only happened. It only lasted three weeks again. No, God is preparing a future. Don't get disappointed in unfulfilled promises for they are a deposit that God is trusting you with to leave there and keep there and work and keep it alive. God deposited things on the boat that Noah didn't even realize he needed. And he said, keep it alive, Noah, keep it alive. It's going to do something. One day, keep it alive. The promise is for you to trust God and keep it alive until the next things come." [39:26]
5. "You will live in the same cycle of failure and disappointment as a human, because we are not good at building memorials of what God did in the past. And so in every new circumstance in front of us, when God is like, why won't you trust me again? We have been through this before. You did not manage a memorial well, when you came out of the last circumstance in your life, you did not build a foundation to stand on. So when the next problem showed up, you had nothing to stand on." [42:37]
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