(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. O tell of his might, and sing of his grace, whose road is the light, whose canopy's face, His chariots of wrath the deep thunder clouds form, and darkest is the thunder waves of the storm. Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite, it breathes in the air, it shines in the light, It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, and sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. Pray, O children of dust, and feeble as frail, in thee do we trust, nor find need to fail, Thy mercy's outender, our firm to the end, our maker, defender, redeemer, and friend. Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank you for another week. We get to gather in your house to hear the preaching of your word. Thank you for giving us another day to live. We thank you for our salvation, and thank you for all the brethren that are here. We pray that you may bless this night and this service. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Please be seated. Our next song is 126. 126. 126 anywhere with Jesus. 126. 106. Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Anywhere He leads me in this wall below. Anywhere without Him, He's fierce voice would fade. Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone Other friends may fail me, here is to my own Though His hand may lead me home by dreary ways Anywhere with Jesus is a house of praise Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus over land and sea Telling souls in darkness of salvation free Ready as He summons me to go or stay Anywhere with Jesus when He points the way Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Anywhere with Jesus I can go to sleep And the dark and shadows round about me creep Knowing I shall walk and never mourn to roam Anywhere with Jesus will be home, sweet home Anywhere, anywhere, here I can not know Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go Alright, our third hymn is 327, 327 Higher Grounds, 327 I'm pressing on the upward way New hearts are gaining everyday Still praying as I'm onward bound I'll bend my feet on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith for heaven's stable land A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground My heart has no desire to stay Where doubts arise and fears display Though some may dwell where these abound My prayer, my aim is higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith for heaven's stable land A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground I want to live above the world The saints' gods and beyond Oh, bring us forth, the joyful sound The soul of saints on higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground I want to scale the utmost high And catch a beam of glory bright Yes, Lord, I pray to heaven outbound Lord, lift me up to higher ground Lord, lift me up and let me stand My faith on heaven's stable land A higher plane than I am bound Lord, bend my feet on higher ground Song number 18 The name of Jesus with you Child of sorrow and of old It will joy and comfort give you Take it and we'll hear you go Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Take the name of Jesus ever As a shield from every stand If temptations round you gather Breathe that holy name and pray Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Oh, the precious name of Jesus How it fills our souls with joy When His love He does receive us And His songs our tongues employ Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven At the name of Jesus' valley Holy cross, turn at His feet King of kings and heaven will crown Him When our journey is complete Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Precious name, oh how sweet Hope of birth and joy of heaven Thank you. Isaiah 31 was it? Yes. Isaiah 31, woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong but they look not onto the Holy One of Israel neither seek the Lord Yet He also is wise and will bring evil and will not call back His words but will arise against the house of evildoers and against the help of them that work in equity Now the Egyptians are men and not God and their horses flesh and not spirit When the Lord shall stretch out His hand both He that helpeth shall fall and He that helpeth shall fall down and they shall fail together For thus has the Lord spoken unto me like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prayer when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him He will not be afraid of their voice nor abase himself for the noise of them So shall the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem defending also He will deliver it and passing over He will preserve it Turn ye unto Him from whom the children of Israel have deeply revolted For in the day every man shall cast away his idols of silver and the idols of gold which your own hands have made unto you for a sin Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword not of a mighty man and the sword not of a mean man shall devour him But he shall flee from the sword and his young men shall be discomforted and he shall pass over to his stronghold for fear and his princess shall be afraid of ensign saith the Lord whose fire is in Zion and his furnace in Jerusalem Let us go in a word of prayer Thank you Father God for bringing us together Thank you that you fill the preacher with your Holy Spirit and thank you that you edify us that we not be only the hearers of the word but be also the doers of the word In Jesus' blessed name, Amen All right Was I here last week? I wasn't here last week Anyway, good to see you guys I did miss you guys even though it's only the one week The two weeks of not seeing you but I do I definitely do miss you when I don't see you on the regular basis But we are going through Isaiah We're up to Isaiah 31 and you can see there that it's not a very long chapter It's not a very long chapter Now, well, before I get straight into it We also, as we go through the chapter by chapter study for the book of Isaiah We've also been corresponding the number of the chapter of Isaiah with the book of the Bible So if we're looking at chapter 31 What is the 31st book of the Bible? Does anyone know? Obadiah Obadiah Okay, so what I want you to do Keep your finger there in Isaiah 31 and come with me to Obadiah which is one chapter It's a very tiny, tiny book in the Old Testament In fact, this is the one that I was kind of dreading the most Because when I think about the Old Testament prophets Probably the one that I feel that I'm less aware of or I spend less time thinking of is Obadiah by far Partly because it is a very small book Partly because it's only the one chapter But also partly because Obadiah, he writes to the Edomites To the nation of Edom You know, we're more familiar usually when the prophets are preaching against Israel or against Judah We're more familiar with those kinds of preachers Because they often associate a lot of the judgment that comes from God to these nations Also, we see some similarities with end times events And so we often are going back and forth and comparing When we're comparing scripture with scripture, we're comparing many times the old prophets But we barely ever really turn to Obadiah And so when I was thinking about Obadiah, I was thinking Man, this is going to be challenging Like we're going to really see whether the chapters correspond with the numbers of the chapters of Isaiah And yet when I read for Obadiah just as a refresher I'm like, this is kind of Isaiah 31 You can almost see immediately the connection from chapter to book But we're not going to read Obadiah just yet I just want you to turn there so we're not wasting time Like I said, I know it's a book that we barely maybe turn to But at least you've got your finger there And come back with me to Isaiah 31 Come back with me to Isaiah 31 And then we've got verse number one It begins by saying Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help Now as I was going through Isaiah 31 I was thinking about when God speaks of woe He's speaking of sorrow and grief And obviously as God is speaking to these that go down into Egypt He's referring to those that are in Judah And just to bring you back to the historical context of what this chapter is about This is when the Assyrian army took into captivity the northern kingdom of Israel And they were taken away And of course then the Assyrian army attempted to come and take over Judah And they had a brief attempt of success They even got as close to the gates of Jerusalem But then God, you may recall, an angel comes during the night And slays with a miracle the great army of the Assyrians And the Assyrian captain turns around and heads back home But what we have here is that when the Assyrians were threatening the southern kingdom of Judah Some of those people went back to Egypt They went to Pharaoh and said, Pharaoh, help us against the Assyrians If we come together, if we join forces, if we make a national allegiance You'll be able to help us against the Assyrians And we'll be able to help you against the Assyrians And so from the very beginning, verse number 1 God is saying woe to them that go to Egypt for help This is going to bring you sorrow This is going to bring you misery This is not going to help you at the time of the judgment of God And as we continue going through this chapter You'll see that God is showing them where they are misplacing their trust Number 1, we see they're misplacing their trust on Egypt But then we see other places where they're misplacing their trust And so the title for the sermon tonight is Trusting in the wrong things Trusting in the wrong things And the very first wrong thing that people are trusting in is in Egypt Why have people turned to Egypt for their help? It continues in verse number 1, it says And stay on horses and trust in chariots So the reason you're trusting in Egypt is because of their military strength Because of their military might They've got the horses, they've got the chariots, they've got the armies of Pharaoh But that's the wrong place to place your trust But then, not only is there horses and chariots, it continues Because they are many So Pharaoh had a great army He had a big army, he had an army with many soldiers And again the Jews are misplacing their trust in the wrong things There's a great army, there's a powerful army, there are many soldiers Surely we can trust in them And then it continues, and in horsemen Because they are very strong So not only is there a large army with many horsemen, with many soldiers But it's also known as a very strong army This might be known as the strongest army of this region at this point in time But then look what God says at the end of verse number 1 So God is showing them where their heart is, misplacing their trust You're trusting in the most powerful army on the earth But you're not seeking the Lord, you're not looking upon the Holy One of Israel You're not trusting the Holy One of Israel to be your hope in a time of trial You know, the first point I have for you in this chapter The wrong place to place your trust in is in national allegiances That's the wrong place to place your trust And you know, we live, and sometimes One of the reasons we live in a very peaceful country in Australia You say it's not that peaceful past, I know sometimes it's not But, by and large, when you compare it to much of the rest of the world It's a peaceful place to live And if you ask the average person, why is Australia a peaceful place to live? They'll often say, well we've got allegiances with the United States of America You know, if some country were to attack us Not only would they have to deal with the wrath of Great Britain Potentially, I don't know, I don't know if they really care about us But also, they'll have to deal with the wrath of the United States of America And how dare some country, you know, dare try to affect us and hurt us So what I'm trying to say is just in general Even though we're a small population And we're a young nation, we're only 27 million I don't know what we are Truly, I think Manila in the Philippines is like 27 million Like Manila Metro The one city in the suburban area is pretty much the population of Australia Something crazy like that But, you know, even though we're a small nation I often, when we talk about, you know, with people You know, why is there safety and security It's why we're being supported by the United States of America And that might sound like a nice thing And in some ways it is kind of nice Because when you think about who has the most powerful army Who's got the most powerful military might It's clearly the United States You know, who's got the most ships out on the seas And who's got the most, you know, the fastest planes And the most powerful weapons and the atomic bombs Ready to go at any notice You'd say, well, it's the United States They've got the technology, they've got the science They've got the wealth, they've got the power And you can kind of see that Yeah, you know, as Australians We might start to lean toward that And go, that's why we're at peace That's what we're trusted in But we see here, as a parallel That is the wrong place to place your trust And truly, look, it is, I suppose, a blessing to some extent You know, you may say it's not really a blessing But I guess someone is a blessing That we won't have other nations trying to just overtake us for our resources Because Australia is a country of great resources And it's kind of nice to know that there would be a fear of a takeover of Australia Because of the allegiances we have Truly, what we see here That if we are trusting military might If we are trusting national allegiances God says woe to you This is grief This is sorrow This is not a sure way To have trust and support and confidence and peace in Rather, our trust ought to be on the Holy One of Israel The one that we ought to be seeking is the Lord Now, whether in Isaiah, come with me to Isaiah 40 please Come with me to Isaiah 40 Come with me to Isaiah 40, verse number 14 Isaiah 40 And verse number 14 Isaiah 40, 14 says With whom took he counseled? The he that is God So, if God needs counsel Who would he go to for counsel? These are rhetorical questions Obviously God doesn't go to anyone for counsel God has all wisdom God has all knowledge And then it says And who instructed him? Well obviously no one instructed God And taught him the path of judgment And taught him knowledge And showed to him the way of understanding Obviously no one has It's God that gives us knowledge It's God that gives us the way of understanding It's God that teaches us the path of judgment Nobody taught God those things And look how it continues in verse number 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket And are counted as the small dust of the balance Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing I love that Counted, the nations are counted as the small dust of the balance So when you take a balance and you want to weigh Maybe you're buying apples And then you take a balance and you go Well I want to buy one kilo of apples So you get a kilo of apples And on the other side of the scale There's a kilo so you can balance I've got about a kilo of apples on this side Well the nations, the power of the nations The wisdom, the knowledge, the judgment of the nations Is like on that balance A little bit of dust It has no effect on the balance whatsoever This is comparing the wisdom, the might, the power of God Compared to all the wisdom, power and might And wealth of all the nations It is incomparable to the great God that we serve If we continue in verse number Sorry, before we keep going there But also in verse number 15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket I mean think about that If you're trying to fill up a bucket with water You know what the nations add to that water Would just be one drop One drop again You know for us to go Well we must be supportive You know it's so good to be an Australian Because we've got military bases from the United States here You know protecting our safety and security You know all that is, is a drop in a bucket You know this is what God is teaching us Why would we, if we're trying to water a garden How could we possibly think with one drop of the bucket We're going to be able to successfully water our garden Because that's ridiculous We need all of the water in the bucket But what fills up the bucket with water of course Is the power, the strength, the peace that comes from our Lord God So if we ought to be praising anybody And any situation For the blessings and the wisdom And the great privileges And the opportunities that we have in Australia The great peace we have in Australia It ought to be direct to our Lord God Almighty And Him only Him only Him only And not the nations that we have allegiances with Look you're also there in Isaiah 40 drop down to verse 17 It says All nations before Him are as nothing Well that's what it is We saw it's a dust A bit of dust on the balance A bit of dirt A tiny little bit It's nothing God says As they accounted to Him Less than nothing and vanity Less than nothing We know what nothing is Nothing is nothing God says the nations are less than nothing And vanity What's vanity? Emptiness It's unprofitable You know to put your trust in the nations To put your trust in national allegiances You know praise God we live in a country like Australia I know it's a wicked country I know there's great wickedness every single day And I know things are getting worse And things are getting more difficult But still we live in a country That is very blessed compared to many other nations of the world And the one I'm going to give thanks to for that is God So if we want peace to continue in this nation If we want to be able to continue coming to church without persecution We want to be able to continue to knock doors and preach the gospel Without the government trying to stop us We're not going to call President Joe Biden We're going to call out to God And say God can you continue to allow us to serve you faithfully in Australia You know be merciful to our nation I know our nation has turned our backs against you Lord But we've not Blessed our Baptist Church has not Can you please allow us to continue to serve you faithfully Be at church to go so willing to have access to Bibles That we will not be persecuted as we seek to serve you You know with our lives and with our church So trusting in national allegiances Is the first wrong place to place your trust So come back with me to Isaiah 31 please Isaiah 31 and verse number 2 Isaiah 31 verse number 2 So again God is saying to the Jews Woe is your trust in Egypt, your trust in Pharaoh Wrong place to put your trust Then he says in verse number 2 Yet he also is wise Again God is wise here God is wise And will bring evil Now people get confused about this Does God do evil? Yes It says he will bring evil But people don't understand what evil means So usually when you ask someone what evil is They think of something sinful Now sin can be evil Because evil means harm Something that is destructive Something that is harmful And of course when you commit sin That is harmful to you Or it is harmful to all those That you are sinning against But not all evil is sin Because sometimes we do need to cause harm You know for example We're talking about military might You know Australia has a defence force It would be right for Australia If under attack of a foreign nation To protect itself And as it's protecting its borders And it's protecting its nation It may obviously cause harm In a time of battle There might be soldiers of the other side That lose their lives That have destruction And that harm that is caused is evil That is caused But that's not sinful Self defence in the Bible Is not a sinful thing to do It is the right thing It is in fact the right thing For a defence force to do Is to protect its borders And that's why it's called the defence force It's not known as an attack force Okay But hey in the last couple of decades You know our military might Has been used as an attack force To pre you know preempt Preempt you know Enter into other people's countries And take their resources And try to bring democracy into the world That is not why you know armies exist Armies exist to be a defence force And in the process of defence If you cause damage To the other opposing force Yeah there's evil That is being done But that is not sinful That is the right place And proper place For the defence force of a nation And so when God brings evil He's going to bring harm To the Jews Okay And the process that he brings harm Once again Is through the Assyrians He's going to use the Assyrians To chastise the Jews For their weakness And so let's look at verse number 2 again He Yet he also is wise And will bring evil And will not call back his word So God's already decided what he's going to do He's not going to change his mind here But will arise against the house of the evil doers And against the help of them That work in equity Okay so He says alright you've gone to Egypt For your help Well I'm going to bring evil upon you Okay And I'm not going to change my mind about this It's going to happen And then verse number 3 he says Now The Egyptians are Men And not God So what else have we learned What's the second thing we are not to trust in Men Because men are not God Alright the Egyptians are men and not God And brethren every single brother and sister In this church right now Is but man We are not God And this pastor behind this pulpit right now Is but man With weaknesses With failings I am not God We don't want to trust man Alright we don't want to put our confidence in man But the Egyptians are men and not God He says And their horses flesh And not spirit When the Lord shall stretch out his hand Both he that helpeth Shall fall The one that helpeth is Egypt They're going to fall And he that is hoping Or being helped The Jews Shall fall down And they all shall fall together He says the Assyrians are going to cause you to fall And he's going to cause the Egyptians to fall So they're going to be no help to you Cause the Egyptians are just men What I love about this as well Is that we learn something very interesting When it comes to a time of help When we're having difficulties When we're having troubles And we seek God for his help We see here that If we're just looking for men to help us In a tough situation They cannot help us spiritually Cause when it says that the Egyptians are men and not God Look at this And their horses flesh And not spirit See God has shown us that many times Some of the difficulties and challenges that we face in life Is in the spiritual realm But we're seeing it play out in the physical realm There might be forces of the devil Forces of darkness that are persecuting our walk with God Trying to discourage us Trying to turn us against the Lord God Also the nature that we have The simple nature where we have We come short of the glory of God as sinners And we're trying to fight this spiritual battle We're trying to walk in the spirit And so many times The battles that we face Are not flesh In fact they're not flesh and blood We're not fighting against flesh and blood We're not wrestling against flesh and blood I should say But against powers and principalities And we may think that If we just have physical help You know we're going to be able to overcome our problem But we're unable to see The spiritual battle that's taking place behind the scenes And so if some of our battles Some of our difficulties are spiritual The horses of Pharaoh aren't going to help us You know man can't help us The only one that I know operates in the spiritual realm That I can speak to spiritually when I go and pray before him Is my Lord God Almighty And so what can man do? Okay he might help you with some physical needs But he can't fight the spiritual battle You know that must be by the hand of God And the angels that he sends To protect you And you know we read about this in the Bible Sometimes we see the battle between God's angels and the devils That are in the world And we don't get a lot of it in the Bible But we get enough to see there is a spiritual warfare Taking place And so what can man do What can Pharaoh do to help you in a spiritual battle? So the second point that I had for you there Brethren Is that we are not to trust in men Number one was we are not to trust in national allegiances But secondly we are not to trust in men Cause when we talk about national allegiances We're just talking about in general nations But when the second part of this is trusting in men Is much more personal Because we do build friendships We build you know connections one with another We may feel that Pastor Kevin he must be trustworthy or whatever it is I mean I hope so I hope I can be that person You know in your life But I also know that I'm not always going to succeed You know I'm going to let you down I'm going to fail you sometimes And I'm ready to accept that Cause I know I'm a human being And I know that my church members are going to fail me sometimes And let me down and whatever it is And I kind of expect that to just be the case But the one that will never leave me Never forsake me never fail me Is of course our Lord God Almighty And so our trust ought to be upon him Come with me to Let's go to Psalm No you know what Come with me to 1 Corinthians Come with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 1 Corinthians chapter 1 please 1 Corinthians chapter 1 And while you're turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 1 I want to read to you from Psalm 118 verse number 8 You guys know these ones It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in princes All nations compast me about But in the name of the Lord Will I destroy them I love that confidence You know where the Psalm is there to say And I don't know if these are the words of Christ Maybe when he comes to set up his millennial reign I don't know if there's a further extension to that But when you feel like all the nations Are against you Or every single nation is out to hurt you Well if I just put my trust in the Lord He's going to be able to destroy all the powerful nations that exist So why are we going to put our trust in princes Why are we going to put our trust in men In fact I want to remind you here in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 Verse number 23 1 Corinthians 1, 23 But we preach Christ crucified Unto the Jews they stumbling block And unto the Greeks foolishness And unto the Greeks foolishness And unto the Greeks foolishness And unto the Greeks foolishness And unto the Greeks foolishness And unto the Greeks foolishness You know when we go out And we do the great commission We do the great work that God has led us to do as a church We're not there to boast of ourselves are we We preach Christ crucified You know there are churches There are pastors that basically Expect you to preach Your conversion story I was like this And now I am something All different Like that's going to convince somebody And yet everybody knows that you're not perfect And everybody knows you're still a sinner And everyone knows you're still going to make mistakes And not everybody has a story like that To say boy I used to be some drug addict You know I was in jail And I stole cars And then now look at me I'm a model citizen of society I got saved when I was 4 years old Simple faith and trust on Christ crucified That's what it says For we preach Christ crucified Simple faith on what Christ has done Paid for my sins And given me the free gift of salvation I've got no story to tell I'll tell you this though I've committed more sins Since I've been saved from 4 years old Than the sins that I did when I was 1, 2 or 3 years old What kind of story is that? How's that going to convince anybody? How's that going to convince anybody? That's not going to get anybody saved Show us your change of life Pastor Kevin since you've been saved I've been worse I don't think I did that many horrible things When I was 1, 2 or 3 So what do we do when we go out We preach Christ crucified We don't put confidence in man And uphold man Look at this man Look how much I've changed in my life That's pride Self-righteousness The Pharisee that prays to himself Thank you Lord that I'm not like these other men Man if that's your gospel There's something wrong You're still trusting in your works You're still trusting in your performance Rather than trusting Christ crucified Look at verse number 24 Continue there But unto them which are called Both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God And the wisdom of God And the wisdom of God Because the foolishness of God Is wiser than men And the weakness of God Is stronger than men So pastor is the Bible saying here That God is foolish or God is weak Well it's just giving you a hypothetical Obviously God is not foolish And he's not weak But if he were foolish or weak He's still stronger than man And his foolishness is still wiser than man So why put your trust in man? Right? We put our trust in our living God Verse number 26 For ye say you call him brethren How that not many wise men After the flesh Not many mighty Not many noble Are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world To confound the wise And God hath chosen the weak things Of the world And things which are mighty And base things That's the lower things of the world And things which are despised Have God chosen Yea and things which are not To bring to naught things that are That no flesh Should glory in his presence You see there's a problem With a gospel presentation Or a gospel message Or an evidence of salvation When you're trying to glorify in your flesh And you're checking glory in the presence of God You know sometimes people get this so messed up And I don't know why To me the gospel is so simple Say pastor what standard Do we need to reach to go to heaven? The standard is perfection You've got to be perfect to go to heaven So I've got to try hard, no no no, wrong You go to heaven based on Christ's perfection Not your own Not glory in your flesh You glory in Christ's perfection Not only did he take his sins Upon his body And pay for them but in exchange He gave you his righteousness So we're clothed in the righteousness The perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ I'm perfect When God the Father looks at me I'm perfect Not because my flesh is perfect But because Christ is perfect That's how he sees me That's how he accepts me So there's no glory in the flesh We don't put confidence in man Because man is flesh Man is not spirit Man fails Man makes mistakes Even the wisest and strongest man That there is Doesn't even match to the foolishness And the weakness of God That we saw layered out there In 1 Corinthians chapter 1 So trusting in man is the wrong place To put your trust Come with me to Obadiah now You've got a finger in Obadiah Obadiah Well he'll turn to Obadiah I just want you to remember in Isaiah 31 When God spoke about them trying to put their trust in man Or in the Egyptians He says When the Lord shall stretch out his hand Both he that helpeth shall fall And he that is hope and shall fall down And they shall fail together Well when you look at Obadiah Verse number 4 God in Obadiah is preaching not against the Jews But he's preaching against the Edomites Ok? He says in verse number 4 Though thou exalt thyself As an eagle Isn't that what men do? Praise themselves Lift themselves up An eagle is known as a bird that flies Obviously at a very high altitude And it's like men lifting themselves up full of pride Though thou exalt thyself As the eagle And though thou Set thy nest among the stars Think about how high the stars are Thence will I bring thee down Sayeth the Lord And so it's just like God told the Jews You want to put your trust in man? You want to put your confidence in flesh? Ok, well he's going to knock you down He's going to cause you to fall And what do we see here with the Edomites? Same thing, they're lifting themselves up Praising man, praising their flesh Seeing themselves as the stars and the eagles of the sky God says I'm going to bring you down Sayeth the Lord And so brethren there's no need to ever Elevate yourself Fill yourself with pride Even the best Even when you're reaching your most spiritual high The most powerful level Walk in this earth You're still coming short of the glory of God Thank God for Jesus Christ Thank God that our trust is upon him When we talk about putting our trust in the right things We're talking about in this light of this chapter Just the day by day life that we go through To put your trust It sounds simple but I know it's hard Because there are times I forget to trust the Lord There are times that things turn up and happen And I'm like what am I going to do? I forget to pray to God I forget that God's in his hands That's just how we are A bit silly like that sometimes But I'm always reminded that The way you got saved The way I got saved When we say we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ We know that the word belief means to trust You know we've trusted in Jesus Christ We've trusted his death Burial and resurrection And that's a little bit easier because That requires a one time trust One time that I place my trust on Christ I call upon his name I seek his salvation In faith alone not by my works Not by my efforts And I'm born again in Christ Jesus And it's eternal, it's forever Nothing's ever going to change that That's kind of easy but that's how easy Trusting God is But what's hard is that That's how God wants us to trust him Every day of our lives Every situation, every problem Whatever is bothering your mind right now God wants you to put your trust in him And whatever's going to bother your mind tomorrow You may not even know what it is Something might turn up tomorrow that surprises you And you're like what are we going to do? You have to put your trust in the Lord Just the same way you put your trust in him The moment you were saved And so again It's always easier said than done And so when people You know call me, pastor I'm concerned I'm worried can you pray for me And I'm like reverend just trust in the Lord It's in his hands and it's so easy to say But I want you to understand this That I know how hard it is Because I know how weak man is That's why we don't trust men That's why we don't trust nations We don't trust allegiances We don't trust these things Our trust must solely be on our Lord God Every day of our lives We have every problem and situation That God allows us to face Again easier said than done And you're like pastor I know that But when that surprising thing happens tomorrow You'll forget And so this is why we have these stories In the Bible to remind us Hey when we forget to put our trust Once again in the Lord God And not to trust in man But come back with me Come back with me to Isaiah 31 Isaiah 31 please and verse number 4 Isaiah 31 verse number 4 For thus have the Lord spoken unto me Like as the lion And the young lion Roaring on his prey So God is saying he's like the lion Who's about to attack his prey He's roaring On the prey he's about to lash into that prey And then it says here When a multitude of shepherds Is called forth against him So okay the shepherds means there's a sheep Alright so the lion's about to attack the sheep God's saying he's like the lion in this illustration And then you've got a multiple of shepherds Going go away lion Leave the sheep alone It says here He will not be afraid Of their voice The lion's not going to Spare that sheep just cause some shepherds Are shouting okay Nor abase himself For the noise of them So shall the Lord of hosts come down To fight for Mount Zion And for the hill thereof So God now is Speaking that hey your trust Will not be on me I'm the one that's going to defend Mount Zion And of course Mount Zion is a reference to Jerusalem Again remember the historical setting The Assyrians are being used By God as judgement Has been used by God As judgement against the northern kingdom Now God is using that nation To chastise the people of the Jews And God is waiting As he's judging them Are the Jews going to put their trust in me? No they're putting their trust in man No they're putting their trust in Pharaoh's armies And he's telling them I'm the one that's going to fight for you If you need protection Against the Assyrians The reason I'm allowing you To go for this chastisement The reason I'm allowing you to go for this judgement Is so you can learn To trust in me And he's telling them if you put your trust in me I'll fight against them Like the lions Taking out the sheep And it doesn't matter how much voice the shepherds make The shepherds being the armies of Assyria Like he's still going to overcome them Like God's telling them I'm the one you need to trust I'm going to deliver you I'm going to help you And brethren right now Whatever difficulty you're going through And you've got doubts Is the Lord going to come through? Yes he will He's got the answer to your problem right now Are you going to trust him? You better go before the Lord And seek his face And say Lord sorry that I haven't put my trust in you I haven't been dependent on you Lord this problem came And I got sidetracked I sought help from this place Or that place And I just forgot to seek your help Now I don't know if you're like that Maybe you're not, maybe you're not like that Maybe you're a better Christian than I am And when my problem comes The last thing I think I better pray about that Well not always It just depends But it happens And the Lord's just showing them I'm ready to fight for you I'm ready to turn my hand of judgement against you But you've got to trust me He continues in verse number 5 As birds flying So now he's describing himself as a lion Now he's describing himself as birds As birds flying so will the Lord of hosts Defend Jerusalem Defending also he will deliver it And passing over he will preserve it Remember God did do this He did deliver It was a miracle remember The angel of the Lord came into the army Into the barracks and wiped out Killed tens of thousands of soldiers Without the Jews having to lift a single sword God did deliver them And he's describing himself as a bird flying And what I love about that is Obviously birds have a high level view And so we're stuck in this problem In this mire here on this earth But God is above He's got a helicopter view of our problem He sees the situation over here and over there Like we kind of don't see that We just see our immediate surroundings And our immediate problems But God has a high level view and can see everything You know he's got the strategic map all You know figured out God knows exactly how he's going to deliver you From a time of difficulty Verse number six So God says Turn ye unto him From whom the children Of Israel have deeply revolted So again what's the solution to your problem right now? Turn ye unto him Okay Verse number seven For in that day Every man shall cast away His idols of silver And his idols of gold Which your own hands Which your own hands have made Unto you for a sin So this is the third thing that we pick up In this chapter that they've been misplacing their trust in What have the Jews been trusting here? Their gods of idols The idols of gold, silver Things that their own hands have made Again they've put their trust in the wrong things Now if you can Keep your finger there, come with me to Psalm 115 Come with me to Psalm 115 please Psalm 115 verse number three Psalm 115 verse number three Isn't it amazing that Would we say every false religion has idols? You say well Islam doesn't But they do, they've got their little square They've got their cube That they worship And idols More so than just an object Represents a false god So the fact that Islam Served their Allah That's a false god Cause that god has no son And we know that god has a son We know that god is a triune being, father, son and holy ghost So the god of Islam is a false god It's an idol, it's a false thing But Psalm 115 verse number three Speaking about our god But our god is in the heavens He has done whatsoever he has pleased That's our god Our god is the one in the heavens Verse number four Their idols They're not our god Their idols are silver and gold The work of men's hands They have mouths but they speak not So what do we see? We see about their idols They've got mouths but they don't speak So what does that mean for our god? He's got a mouth He's given us his word We can communicate with our god Unlike these idols It says here, eyes have they, the idols But they see not False gods don't see what these people are going through But our god, his eyes are open To the righteous and the wicked He sees all things that take place Heaven, earth and hell Verse number six They have ears But they hear not Our god has ears and he hears When we go before him in prayer He's hearing us As we sung praises tonight Lifting our voices to him He's heard that He's hearing my preaching I hope I'm serving him faithfully I hope he's pleased with what he's hearing As I teach god's word He's got ears and he hears It says here, noses have they But they smell not We know that our god smells Of the sacrifices going to god I mean our god has all these qualities But these idols don't They have hands But they handle not The hands of my god would crucify for me Feet they have but they walk not Neither speak they through their throats And so their idols are stupid False gods are stupid Allah is stupid The buddhas and all the other gods The gods that are out there that people look up to And want to be like and want to be calm They're all stupid But not just that You know the bible also warns us of another Jesus in the bible There are people that speak of Jesus But it's not my Jesus The roman catholic Jesus With his blue eyes and long blonde hair Is not my Jesus My god's not My god's not walking around with long hair And other Jesus The JW's have a Jesus It's not my Jesus because that's not god They don't believe that their Jesus is god My Jesus is god There's other Jesus's But they're stupid Other gods they're stupid Compared to the lord god Almighty of heaven You know sometimes We've got to be careful of this ourselves Please read your bibles cover to cover God is showing us in his word Who he is He tells us what he loves God tells us what he hates And you know there are churches all across Australia That will never tell you that God hates They'll never tell you that God hates things God hates people God, I don't believe that Well you don't know the god of the bible If you don't believe that We can create gods of our own imagination That gods not going to help you Only the god of the bible will help you The holy one of Israel That's the one that we trust That's the one we look up to Get to know your god Read his word That's why he's given us 66 books of the bible That's why he's given us Isaiah 31 That's why he's given us Obadiah So we can know him further We can have a deeper walk and knowledge Of who our lord god almighty is That's the god who we are to trust Are you still in Psalm 115? Are you still in Psalm 115? Let me just show you verse number 8 I love verse number 8 Cause we know how stupid those gods are It says they that make them Are like unto them So those that make these idols Are stupid like those idols And then so is everyone That trusteth in them Just as stupid as the idol is If you put your trust In some false god You're stupid also You can't see You can't hear You can't understand You don't have the knowledge of the almighty We've already seen that The wisdom of the world Cannot compare to the foolishness of god What a great god that we have He's given us his word, he's given us his wisdom He's given us everything we can have To know our lord god better So we can trust him I love god He reveals to us who he is He shows me how much he loves me By sending his son to die in my place He tells me that I can be sure of heaven Not because of my works, but because of what Christ has done for me His works I know what the future holds Even if this world becomes so corrupted And this world begins to worship some Antichrist Who cares, we're going to win in the end I'm going to be with god for all eternity The new heavens and the new earth The new Jerusalem Seeing my heavenly father face to face In my new resurrected bodies It's good for us Praise god He gives us this wisdom and this peace of mind And when he reveals all this great truth to us We can say, boy, this is a god that we can trust We don't need to trust in the allegiances of nations We don't need to trust in men We don't need to trust in false gods And idols like these people did Can you come back to Isaiah 31 Isaiah 31 verse number 8 Isaiah 31 verse number 8 Isaiah 31 verse 8 Isaiah 31 verse 8 So God is telling them, right? Trust me, don't trust your idols Verse number 8 Then shall the Assyrian fall with the sword Not of a mighty man And the sword Not of a mean man Shall devour him But he shall flee from the sword And his young men shall be discomforted That's exactly what happened God got rid of them He wiped them out And so they fled Right? And it was by the sword of the lord They fled away from Judah And then verse number 9 And he shall pass over to his stronghold For fear And his princes shall be afraid of the ensigns Save the lord Whose fire is in Zion And his furnace in Jerusalem So God is saying, boy, if you Jews just trust in me At this point in time He says, look Jerusalem, Zion Is like this furnace of fire Anyone that wants to come close They're going to burn, they're going to hurt themselves They want to come and cause harm They're going to harm themselves By the fire And the furnace that's in Jerusalem Come back with me to Obadiah Obadiah please, Obadiah And verse number 17 Obadiah Verse number 17 please Just to show you another parallel Obadiah 17 But upon Mount Zion Shall be deliverance And there shall be holiness And the house of Jacob shall possess Their possessions, look at this And the house of Jacob shall be a fire And the house of Joseph a flame And the house of Esau For stubble Esau, the Edomites, the same people And they shall kindle in them And devour them And there shall not be any remaining Of the house of Esau For the Lord hath spoken it So God is warning the Edomites Or the people of Esau, the children of Esau If you come and you want to attack Jerusalem You're going to burn yourself, you're going to get burnt You're going to be like stubble You're going to catch on fire And you're going to be wiped out And not a single one of you are going to be left Living from the house of Esau I just want to show you another parallel of Obadiah And Isaiah 31 Psalm 62 please Psalm 62 In conclusion Title for the sermon was Trusting in the wrong things So obviously we want to trust in the right thing Which is our Lord God And in Psalm 62 verse number 7 Let me just end with this Psalm 62 Psalm 62 verse number 7 The Bible says In God is my salvation And my glory The rock of my strength And my refuge is in God Do you think that Psalmist has his trust in God When he says those words? So true isn't it God is my salvation, is my glory The rock of my strength is my refuge I love God as a refuge, that means we can be refugees That means when we get afraid And we get scared And we don't know what to do We can like refugees run to a place of refuge Which is our Lord God and he'll protect us Sometimes we need to go to the battle Sometimes we need to go to the battle We are soldiers of the Lord Sometimes you just need to retreat in the hands of God You know he'll defend you And then verse number 8 is where I want to end with Trust in him Look at this At all times Ye people Pour out your heart Before him God is a refuge for us Trust in him at all times The Bible said, ye people Do we trust in you and me? Do we trust in him all the time? I wish, I know I'm supposed to do that And you know you're supposed to do that Don't you? We know it, but when the problems come, why do we forget? It just reminds us how weak and foolish we are And we try to make the solutions And we try to trust in man And we try to trust in everything else I don't know if it's a financial problem We're trying to trust in our finances To figure things out exactly Trust in the Lord at all times, ye people We need to wake up to ourselves And know that our God, our living God Is a refuge for all our problems For all our concerns Like I said, trust in the wrong things This chapter gives us three different things That are wrong things Allegiances of nations The powers of nations Men, idols, false gods But there are many things that we can sometimes Put our trust in which are the wrong things Look, if you're putting your trust in anything else That's not God You've got it in the wrong place Your faith is in the wrong place That's the easiest way to determine Am I trusting the wrong things? Am I trusting my employment? I'm glad you've got employment It does give you a level of confidence That I've got to work tomorrow But you never know, that business could shut down next week Or something like that Don't put your trust in one area, we'll put our trust in God Say, God, my trust is in you And Lord, if I'm trusting you, I know you're going to take care Of my employment, I know you're going to take care Of my finances, my resources But our trust must always be upon him Alright, brethren, let's pray Heavenly Father, God Almighty Thank you for being a God that we can trust Thank you for being a place of refuge, Lord That when we're fearful and concerned And worried And Lord, we're just too weak to fight That we can run to you, Lord, and be protected And you can fight the battles for us And Lord, thank you that we don't need to fight for victory The Bible tells us that we already are fighting from victory That Christ has already defeated the affairs of this world He's already given us eternal life Lord, we are guaranteed to be with you for eternity And Lord, help us to live As though, Lord, we already have caused You know, we do have victory Lord, just give us that reminder And allow us to put our trust upon you Lord, whatever burden, whatever trial is Upon the minds of your brethren Sorry, upon your children here tonight, Lord I pray you give us the peace Of knowing that our trust and support Must be upon you Help us not to trust in man Lord, we're sorry for the mistakes that we make When we put our trust on anything else but you We love you, Lord, thank you so much for being a God That cares for us, in Jesus' name we pray Amen Alright, let's take our hymnals The number is, I think, 149 If my memory serves me right Yes, 149 please 149, trust in Jesus 149 Trust in Jesus Thank you Adela, thank you Diane 149, 149, trust in Jesus Simply trust in every day Trust in through a stormy way Even when my faith is small Trust in Jesus, that is all Trust in as the moments fly Trust in as the days go by Trust in him, whatever befall Trust in Jesus, that is all Brightly does his spirit shine Into this poor heart of mine While he leads I cannot fall Trust in Jesus, that is all Trust in as the moments fly Trust in as the days go by Trust in him, whatever befall Trust in Jesus, that is all Third, singing if my way is clear Praying if the path be dream Praying if the path be dream In danger for him call Trust in Jesus, that is all Trust in as the moments fly Trust in as the days go by Trust in him, whatever befall Trust in Jesus, that is all Trust in him, while life shall last Trust in him, till earth be past Till within the jasper wall Trust in Jesus, that is all Trust in as the moments fly Trust in as the days go by Trust in him, whatever befall Trust in Jesus, that is all Great singing Now when's that soul winning marathon, is it coming up this Saturday? Next Saturday, okay, don't forget, soul winning marathon, not this coming Saturday, but the Saturday after. And then we've got our six year, oh our lunch, yeah. But on Sunday we've got our six year church anniversary, so please be there. And if you have anyone that you'd like to invite, that's a great time to invite. I need someone to tell me, what are we doing for dinner? Not dinner, what are we doing for lunch after church service? Can someone find us a place, it would be nice to go somewhere else, instead of just organizing food here. Brother, what do you think? There's this new place at Wetherill Park that opened up, it's called, I don't know what it's called now. Anyway, it's a really good charcoal chicken place. Charcoal chicken, Lebanese charcoal chicken, Portuguese, Lebanese. There's kebabs too. Kebabs too, so Ramsons will be happy. Maybe, if you find out the details. But if we find a location, we just need to make sure that we book ahead, so we tell them. In fact, I'm going to send a message out to everybody maybe tomorrow. And if you can just come back with me, if you're planning on coming to the church anniversary, and how many within your group or your family, let me know, so we've got some numbers. And then, if no one can think of a better plan than what Brother Tim has shared, we'll do that. And maybe Brother Tim, if you don't mind, you can ring that place up and book some tables for us with the numbers that we have. So, but let me know if you've got any other thoughts. I'd rather, like I know we've done sometimes food here, but just cause it's the anniversary, let's go somewhere else. Let's change the scenery a little bit, and it would be a great time together. If anyone needs to get baptised, also let me know, I mean it's very cold, but I'll do it anyway. If you need to get baptised, let me know, we can do that as well. Alright, that's pretty much it for the announcements. Thank you for, who covered last week, was it Brother Tim, was it you Brother, no it was Ramson. You covered last Thursday? Yeah, thank you Brother Ramson, I was in too much pain guys. I'm much better now, my stomach is still quite sore, especially in the mornings, but I can at least function, I can do pretty much everything I could do before, but thank you for your prayers. And thank you Brother Ramson for covering last week as well. Alright, Brother Nathan, if you don't mind, could you close us on a word of prayer? Thank you. Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for your word, I thank you that we can come together like this at the church, Lord God, and in the preaching of it. Lord, we just thank you for the description of your character and the promises that are in your word, Lord God. We know that you are trustworthy, Lord, we just pray that you would help us to trust you the way that we ought to, Lord God, to look to you for all things, but please just watch over us now as we go and bless the fellowship that we have in Jesus' name. Amen, you're dismissed, thank you all.