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Hillside United Methodist Church

03/27/2022 Church service

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TRUST
Habakkuk 3:17-19

The term “Conspiracy Theory” was created by _________ in 1967 as a way to discredit anyone who dared to challenge their official version of the truth

It was a way to dismiss any type of communication that disagreed with the official narrative on something – something they wanted people to accept without questioning.

In other words, “just be quiet and believe what you are being told. Don’t question anything.”

Another term like this is “Loaded Language”

Loaded language is rhetoric used to influence an audience by using words and phrases with strong connotations. This type of language is very often made vague to more effectively invoke an emotional response and/or exploit stereotypes. Loaded words and phrases have significant emotional implications and involve strongly positive or negative reactions beyond their literal meaning.

We even see examples of this is our Christian world.

Years ago there was a term floating around to try to dismiss anyone who tried to operate in what some considered “too much faith.”
They called it “hyper faith”

These people who used this term had such a lack of faith that they wanted to control the narrative of anyone who dared to believe God’s Word was still true.

It was an attempt to be dismissive toward anyone who still believed God was willing and able to heal, restore and deliver people in the 20th – or now 21st century.

Jesus (Matt 9:29) “According to your faith let it be done to you”

“A person with an experience is never at the mercy of a person with an argument.”

If we are in the middle of a Great Awakening, we must be waking up to the truth. Maybe our eyes are opening. We are becoming awake to reality?

The more I learn – the more I realize I have so much more to learn and understand.
Despite the strange days we live in – days of uncertainty – we still have to trust God.

Maybe we need to start practicing “Hyper Trust?”

Ø We live in interesting times – and sometimes the things that happen are bewildering – or even unsettling

Trusting a Known God in an unknown season

“Now we see through the glass darkly…”

When we first moved back to Columbus we visited a church for one Sunday.
The praise and worship leaders (a husband and wife team) did a great job – and I was so impressed by them. It was clear to my heart that they were being used of God to raise up this still young, growing church.

At the end of the service they announced they were leaving the church to join a larger, well-establish ministry across town.

My heart sank. I knew they were taking the path of least resistance and were not able to stay planted where God had them. They were not able to trust the growth process.

When a seed is planted in the soil, the plant does not rise to the surface and flourish overnight.
There is a process called “germination” where proper growth and development must take place.
Germination is the process by which an organism grows from a seed or spore.

The seed does not question the soil – or the sower.
It trusts the process so that it can grow and develop in the proper timing.

Last week we talked about looking for the evidence that God was at work in our lives.

Part of living by faith is believing God is working on your behalf – intervening in your favor – Believing this is so – and looking for the evidence of God’s hand in your current situation.
Heb 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
If you will look – you will see the evidence that God is at work in your life and your situation.

Can we learn to Wait and Rest?

The opposite choice (NOT waiting and NOT resting) would put us in the same attitude and behavior of those who roamed the wilderness for 40 years.
It is not a good option.

Heb 3: For who were the people who turned a deaf ear? Weren’t they the very ones Moses led out of Egypt? And who was God provoked with for forty years? Wasn’t it those who turned a deaf ear and ended up corpses in the wilderness? And when he swore that they’d never get where they were going, wasn’t he talking to the ones who turned a deaf ear? They never got there because they never listened, never believed.

Heb 3:19 - So we see that they were not allowed to enter and have God’s rest, because they did not believe.

Our trust in a trust-worthy Heavenly Father puts us in receptive state for the miraculous to surprise us.
To overwhelm us. To overcome the enemy of our destiny.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have moments of struggle

There are times when it seems we are “between a rock and a hard place.”

Moses. (Red Sea moment)
Joseph. (continuing to trust the process despite the time and tribulations)
Daniel. (please God or please man)

Job: “Yet, will I trust you”

David: Psalm 13:1 - "How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?"
2 Sam 22:26 - “To the faithful you show yourself faithful”

last week:
Hebrews 10:36: You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

Stay planted, precious seed. Let God do His will and work in us.
“Pleasant Valley Sunday”

In Habakkuk’s day:
Ø It seemed everything was going wrong
Evil was triumphing over good
The judicial system had broken down
The courts had become a mockery
The guilty were not being punished
Prisoners were being released to continue their crimes
Respect had been lost for the law
Violence had increased

Hab 2:4: “Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God.”

“but the just shall live by his faith.” (quoted three times in the New Testament)

Habukkuk trusted in God, even as the outward signs were less than encouraging:
“Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.”

Habukkuk prayed a prayer for revival during a time of pandemic (vs 5)

“but the just shall live by his faith.”
Heb 10:23: Let us hold strong to the confession of our hope, never wavering, since the One who promised it to us is faithful.
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful”
Hab 2:20: But the LORD is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him.

02/27/2022  03/06/2022 03/13/2022  03/20/2022

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

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PO Box 8513
Columbus, Georgia 31908