JUDGES 20 YOU CAN TRUST GOD WITH YOUR LIFE2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Judges 20 You Can Trust God With Your Life

This morning as we look at Judges chapter 20, I have kind of a strange message for you. It's kind of a strange passage that we have here in Judges chapter 20, and yet it's

I like this passage because I think it breaks up some of our traditional, easy, quick response answers. Those quick sayings that we give in difficult times or perhaps things that we go through that we're not expecting. And there is some just like real easy, like without thinking much, without offering much compassion, things that we say to one another or things that we tell ourselves. And

I think that the Lord wants to challenge those automatic sayings a bit for us this morning and help us to remember to really trust in him. I've titled the message this morning, You Can Trust God With Your Life.

That you need to know that you can place your life, literally your physical life, in his hands. That you can place everything about your life and everything that you want in life, everything you want out of life, everything that you hope and dream and desire for, you can place yourself completely in God's hands. And we see that and we're reminded of that here in Judges chapter 20.

Now, the context for what's happening here in Judges chapter 20, we're jumping kind of right into the middle of it, but we've been reading this this week. I pray that you've been joining with us as we work our way through the Bible in three years. But just in case you've not been along with us, there has been a terrible sin committed here in the tribe of Benjamin.

And this terrible sin is described for us and given in detail in Judges chapter 19. I'm not going to get into the details, but it is similar to what we saw take place in Sodom and Gomorrah before God brought down judgment upon it. And so this...

sin, this terrible sin has taken place here at a place called Gibeah in the tribe of Benjamin. And just to give you some geography context, here is the land of Israel divided up between the 12 tribes. The

The tribe of Benjamin was a smaller tribe right in the middle, right in kind of the heart of Israel. And it was here that the crime had been committed, that the sin had been going on. And so what we have happened just up to the passage that we're reading today is the rest of the tribes, the other 11 tribes gathered together at Benjamin's

to deal with the sin and to deal with the people who were guilty of the sin and that had committed the crime there at Gibeah. And so all of Israel is now gathered together. But the tribe of Benjamin, instead of handing over the guilty parties to receive their judgment, to be dealt with according to their sin, the tribe of Benjamin decided, no, we're going to stand with them.

And we're going to fight for them. And no, you're not going to get them. Over our dead body, you're going to get these guys. And so they stand up to defend those who had committed this terrible sin, this terrible crime. And so now we have a bit of a civil war. The rest of Israel is now in battle against Benjamin. But as we read in our passage for this morning, the battle does not go very smoothly.

Israel is defeated, although their numbers are much greater, although they have righteousness on their side. They are defeated several times. They lose twice. They have to overcome some defeats before they finally get victory in this instance.

And I think it provides for us a really good challenge for our hearts, a good opportunity for us to examine and to negotiate and wrestle with God about where we stand in our faith. It's very easy for me to say, I trust God. It's easy for us to say those words and

But that is challenged many times when we find situations unfold, plans fall apart, and things happen in our lives that challenge that trust, that bring us to the place that we really do have to consider. Do I really trust God with my life? Am I willing to put my life on the line because I believe God to that degree?

You might remember in James chapter 2, he challenged us. He declares that faith without works is dead. And typically we think of that in terms of, hey, when you're a believer, when you have received Jesus Christ, you've been born again, there's going to be an outflow of works. You know, you're going to serve the Lord. You're going to walk with the Lord. There's going to be, you know, the holiness that is developing in your life. And all of those things are true.

But I would also add on to that, that faith without works is dead also applies to when there is opposition, when there is challenges, when there is defeats and unexpected results, that the works at that time to trust God will be manifested, will be revealed, and it's dead if you don't persevere, if you don't actually continue to trust God in the face of opposition.

You can trust God with your life. There's three points we'll walk through as we look at this passage this morning. We'll start here in verses 18 through 21 for point number one, and that is trust God even if a plan fails miserably. Trust God. Even if the plan that you have, and perhaps the plan that you're convinced that God has,

Even if it fails miserably, will you continue to trust God with your life? Check out verse 18 again. It says, As we jump into this account, as we get started here, it appears that Israel is starting off really bad.

Well, they go and they inquire of the Lord. They go ask God, God, what do you have to say about this? Now, at this time, Israel did not have a king. And so what they ask God about is who's going to lead this battle? We don't have a king to set things in order. Who should be in charge as we engage in this battle?

And God responds to them as they're seeking him and asking him questions. He says, you know, Judah should be in charge. They should lead the battle. They should be the ones to set things in order and call the shots. And as you see this develop, it looks like a recipe for success. I mean, think about what they have going for them. First of all, they have a righteous cause.

The sin that has been committed is grievous. It's deserving of judgment. It's right that they gather together and deal with this sin. And all of Israel is united against this evil and united in dealing with this. And so they have a righteous cause. They're united against evil. They have sought the Lord. They've gone and asked God, what do you think about this, God? They're seeking God's insight and God's counsel.

And God has given them someone to be in charge. And so now God's appointed leader is in charge of this offense, of this agenda, of this battle that is about to take place. Not only that, it's a righteous cause. They're united against evil. They've sought the Lord. God's leader is in charge. On top of all of that, they outnumber the enemy greatly.

We see in verse 15 and 17 that the numbers are laid out for us. The tribe of Benjamin had 26,000 men for battle, 26,000 soldiers. But then Israel, the rest of the 11 tribes, they had 400,000 soldiers gathered there for battle. So as they draw up the battle lines, it's 400,000 on one side, 26,000 on the other side. It looks like a recipe for success.

Everything is going for them. They're in the right in engaging in this battle. They've sought the Lord. God's put his person in charge, his people in charge, and their numbers, well, they greatly outnumber their enemy. But success is not what we see happen. Verse 19, so the children of Israel rose in the morning and encamped against Gibeah. And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin.

And the men of Israel put themselves in battle array to fight against them at Gibeah. Then the children of Benjamin came out of Gibeah and on that day cut down to the ground 22,000 men of the Israelites. Instead of the obvious victory that should have taken place, instead Israel goes to battle and is defeated. Really defeated pretty strongly also. 22,000 men died.

The Benjamites had 26,000, so pretty much almost every one of them killed someone else in the camp of Israel. There was a severe defeat, and now you and I, reading this today, kind of have to wrestle with, how could that be? How is that possible? Why would God do that? Pastor John Corson, in thinking through that, puts it this way. He says, how could this be? Here the good guys have their prayer meeting and seek God's blessing.

Their numbers are far greater. It should have been a cakewalk, but they were mowed down. 22,000 on the first day, 18,000 on the next day, which we'll see in just a couple moments. How could this be? They have the right, they have the righteous cause. They have the numbers. They have God's people in charge, you know, and they've sought the Lord. How could there be this defeat in this battle? Now, because it is kind of a,

question, a cause for concern for many people. There's lots of speculation about why this defeat has taken place. I call it speculation because, well, as you look here in the passage, you can see God doesn't tell us clearly why.

There's other occasions in the Bible where there's battles and there's victories or defeats, and God clearly says, these guys won because of this, these guys lost because of that. And there's, you know, God's clear indication of why the battle went the way that it went. But here we don't have that clear indication. Why did it take place this way? Well, the speculation varies, but it kind of boils down to these three things, right?

The first idea is that Israel was in sin and needed to repent. The reason why they couldn't be victorious, they would say, is because they also had sin in their lives. God can't give them victory while they have sin in their lives. And so they needed to come to a full repentance in order to be able to have victory. And that is a possibility. We do see those occasions, right? We see Achan repent.

who partook of the spoils of Jericho against God's command. And then Israel was defeated at Ai. And God says it's because there's sin in the camp. There is those occasions where there is defeat, where the plan doesn't go according to plan because of sin that has taken place. But at the same time, I would suggest that we need to be careful with this because just because there is a defeat doesn't

doesn't mean that we should jump to the conclusion that there must have been some sin issue. That's the mistake of Job's friends, right? They saw the disaster in Job's life and they jumped to the conclusion. They insisted for 40 chapters, you must be in sin, otherwise this bad stuff wouldn't happen in your life. And so that's the first idea, the first theory about why they were defeated. Maybe it was because of sin and maybe it was, but we actually don't know that for sure. The next

idea. The next theory is that Israel trusted in their own strength. As I mentioned, their numbers vastly were greater than the number of Benjamites. And so, hey, we don't need to ask God for help on this. We don't need God's help. Look, we got a greater army. We can handle this. And so they just went to battle in trusting in their strength and their resources, and they didn't look to God for help. Now we do see those occasions throughout the scripture as well, don't we?

There are those times where people trust themselves and trust their resources and their superiority, and so they don't rely upon the Lord, and there is a failure as a result. But again, we don't see that specified here. In fact, I would suggest as you look at the account that you don't see that attitude and that heart in Israel. They're seeking the Lord. Who should go to battle first? They're not trusting in themselves and relying upon themselves. I would suggest that

This probably is not accurate for where they were at. Well, then the last speculation about why Israel lost typically goes along the lines of Israel did ask God who should go first, but that was their mistake. They didn't ask God if they should fight at all. See, the problem was they asked God who should go first, not should we go to battle in the first place? And because they asked the wrong question, that's why they lost.

Now, I understand where that idea comes from, and you can think about in the book of Acts, right, where the disciples were like, well, we need to replace Judas, and so, Lord, here's these two guys. Which one of these do you want to replace Judas? And for 2,000 years since then, the church has argued over whether or not they made the right choice, and that was what God wanted them to do, and

Often it goes along those lines. Well, they limited it to these two guys, and maybe God had a third guy that he wanted them to consider, and so they limited their request in that way. I have some problems with this approach to criticizing Israel here in this case with that mindset, though, because it kind of makes it seem like you have to ask God in just the right way.

Like, make sure you get the words in the exact right order. If you don't get that formula right, oh man, you're doomed. You're going to be destroyed because you asked the wrong question. Well, how do I know what question is the right question? You don't. You know, like God's like, you know, trying to get out of helping you. Like, I'll help you reluctantly if you can come up with the magic question. That's not how God is. That's not the way that God works.

I don't know if you use your technology that much, but you know, all of our devices these days have commands you can give them verbally, right? And a lot of times it's funny because it's kind of in the early stages. And so you say, okay, Google, and you try to tell it something for it to do something or give you information and whatever.

and maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. Sometimes you can get the information if you just rephrase it just a little bit, right? If you just swap two words this way or that way, or, you know, you kind of play with it a little bit. You can say, Alexa, you know, do this, and it'll play the right playlist. But if you say it just a little bit different, then it won't work at all. God is not like that, okay? You need to know that God wants to help.

And God wants to work. God wants to be with them in the midst of battle. He's not just like, oh, you asked the wrong question, you know, feel sorry for you. If only you would have changed those two words, you would have had victory. That's not the way that God works. And so I find issues with all of these theories, all of these speculations about why Israel was defeated.

There is maybe some truth, some possibility, but they all kind of have problems, and we can't really say any of these for sure. So what is the answer? Why was Israel defeated when they were right, and they sought the Lord, and they had God's leader in charge? Why was it that they were defeated? And I can tell you very clearly, very confidently, I have no idea. Only God knows, but that's the point.

Only God knows. Are you okay with that? Can you rest in that? God knows and that's enough for me. That I can trust the Lord because he knows. I don't have to know. I don't have to figure it out. I don't have to have it all worked out and understand the full plan. I don't have to. I can rest and trust. God knows. It doesn't make sense to me why they would experience defeat. It doesn't make sense. I can't

say one way or another for sure. It doesn't come together for me, but the Lord knows. And that is the reality for each one of us and something that we need to come to terms with and believe God through the midst of things that we face. And we don't know why it happens the way that it happens, but we know that God knows why. And this morning, I want to encourage you that you can trust God with your life and

even when the results that you're seeing make no sense whatsoever. And that is the case many times in our lives. The results that we see, the plan doesn't work out the way that we expected. Sometimes it fails miserably, even though we've sought the Lord, God's spoken to us about it. You know, we're in the right, we've done right. It's not that we're in rebellion against God. It doesn't have to be those kinds of negative things, but just being right where God wants us to be

And the results that we see don't line up with what we expected or thought was going to happen. And we don't always know why, but we can still trust God because God knows why. God has a bigger perspective than we have. We looked at some of the different types of idolatry that Israel was tempted by the nations around them last week and the week before that

There was this temptation because, well, the false god Baal promised good weather. If you worship Baal, it was to get good weather so that you could have abundant crops. And so they would chase after the worship of this god because they wanted the results that were promised that this false god could never actually deliver. But that was what they were after. They were chasing after that promise of good weather.

There was the goddess Ashtoreth that promised love and pleasure, and so they would pursue after and chase after. They wanted those immediate results. And in a similar way, we can chase after things in our lives for those immediate pleasures, for those immediate rewards. But this morning, I would remind you and challenge you to worship God and trust God with a longer view, a bigger perspective, not out for what we can get temporarily, but

But to be looking to eternity, again, it's easy to say I trust God. But what about when those temporary things that you were hoping for that you thought were going to come to pass dissolve and are not at all what you expected? We never imagined that God might send us into a situation where we will be defeated. We would never imagine that. But maybe that's what's best for us right now. God has the bigger perspective. He knows everything.

beginning from the end. He knows the end result. He knows what needs to happen along the way. Can you trust God with that? Is that okay with you? Can you place yourself in God's hands and trust God even when the plans that you thought were all set in stone, they were all good, coming together when they fall apart and fail miserably? Could God lead you to start a business that will not be successful in the end?

I've always wanted to encourage Pastor Cisco to start an appliance installation business. I even made him a business card. I called the business, Hook It Up, Baby Baby. Appliance installation, I think you should do it. Well, except for the physical aspect of it, but it's a good name. He says it all the time. Could God speak to Pastor Cisco and say, Cisco, I want you to start this? And then three years later, goes belly up, bankrupt.

Is that possible in your understanding of God and how God works and who God is? It would be typical for us to say, hey, God put it on my heart. He spoke to me. He led me. And all these things are going for me. I'm right. And so it's going to be successful. And it's going to be prosperous. And it's going to, you know, be the next Google and take over the world. It's going to be great because God told me. And that may be true. But it's also possible that, well, that's not the end result on this path that God has set you down.

Could it be possible that God would prompt you to start a conversation that doesn't end in the sinner's prayer? Absolutely. There might be that need for the gospel. There might be that need for that invitation, but it doesn't always turn out the way that we maybe hope or imagine or think. I mentioned this recently before, but we see this and we love seeing it in the life of Joseph. But then coming and living the life of Joseph is a whole nother thing for us. We appreciate, wow, look at how Joseph is,

was in the pit and then sold into slavery and then falsely imprisoned. And that's great. We honor Joseph and we rejoice in Joseph and how the Lord was with him the whole time. But yeah, I don't want that path, right? That's not the way that I want to travel. And yet, will you trust God if that's the path that he wants to take you down? You can trust God with your life. We see in the end, it was worth it and there was value in it.

But there are many times where we're in the in-between stages. All we see is the pit around us or the false imprisonment. And that trust in God is seriously challenged. Trusting God with our own lives is so hard. Would you go into this battle with Israel? They're going to mount up again and go back into battle. Would you? Yeah, give me a shield. Give me a sword. Let's go. Would you participate in that knowing that we might not win this? I might die in this battle.

but it's where God wants us. Let me ask it a different way. Would you let your kids go into that battle? Listen, if God is leading that way and it's the right thing to do, it's worth it, even if it costs greatly. It's worth it. You can trust God for that. You can believe God in that. Don't just look at the temporary. Even if the plan fails miserably, that's the temporary. God's plan hasn't failed. It's just, well...

The way that we thought God's plan was going was not the way God's plan is actually going. It looks like a recipe for success, a righteous cause united against evil, having sought the Lord and God's leader is in charge, but it didn't end in victory because the end is not yet because it was a different path that God had them on than they expected, but it was one that they could trust God in. Think about what Paul says in Romans 5, verse 8.

but God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Here's why you can trust God even if a plan fails miserably. Even if God spoke to you and you're right where you need to be and you're going down the path and you're expecting something great and instead there's disaster, even in that case, here's how you can know that you can trust God with your life.

Because God demonstrated his love towards you in that while you were an enemy, while you were still sinful and opposed to God, Christ died for you. He loves you more than you know, more than you can imagine. He desires what's best for you. He wants what's best for you. He's planned what's best for you.

And so you can trust him with that. You can rest. Once and for all, he proved. He showed and demonstrated his love for you there upon the cross. We're going to partake of communion at the end of service and be reminded of that demonstration of love where God said, I give myself for you. You can trust me. You can trust me, not just for eternity, but for your life, with your life. You can place your life here.

Your finances, your marriage, your family, your children, your career, you can place it all in my hands. I'll take good care of you. And you may not see the end result immediately. And what you see immediately might be opposite of what you were thinking was going to happen. But nothing has changed. God has proven his love for you. Once and for all, he's proven it. You can trust him, even when the plan fails miserably.

Moving on to verses 22 through 25, we get point number two, and that is trust God even if plans fail repeatedly. And we just get more and more encouragement in this message, don't we? Verse 22, and the people, that is the men of Israel, encouraged themselves and again formed the battle line at the place where they had put themselves in array on the first day.

When the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening and asked counsel of the Lord saying, shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin? And the Lord said, go up against him. After the defeat, Israel encourages themselves. I mean, you can kind of imagine, right? Them walking away like, what just happened? We had 400,000. How did we lose this?

And you can imagine much discouragement in the ranks, right? But it says that Israel encouraged themselves. Hey, guys, hey, let's not give up. I know we're tempted to give up. We want to just walk away because we're so perplexed by how this happened. But let's not give up just because we failed this time. They encouraged themselves. They put themselves back in position where they needed to be for the battle. And then Israel.

They did the next smart thing, and that is they sought the Lord again. They wept before the Lord. They brought their questions, their perplexity. Lord, we don't understand. Why is this going on? We're torn up. We're tormented. We're sorrowing. Why did this happen? And what do you want us to do now? And notice the question that they asked this time is, should we go and battle again our brother Benjamin? And the Lord says, go up against him.

The question about their prayer previously is answered here. They ask the question in the proper formula this time. And still God says, yes, go to battle. They're still going to be defeated this time when God tells them to go to battle. And that is such a hard concept for us to just accept in our minds. God sent them to battle where they would be defeated. Oh man, that's tough. But here they are doing battle.

exactly what they should be doing, encouraging themselves to not give up and going before the Lord and seeking out, Lord, what do you want in this situation? Pastor David Guzik says, the children of Israel did not stop seeking the Lord after the first disaster and battle. They properly humbled themselves before God and sought him regarding the next battle. This is the way to handle defeats. This is the way to handle those plans falling apart.

There is the temptation to just give up, to just walk away. There is the, yeah, that exists and we wrestle with that. But no, no, come back to the Lord and seek the Lord and weep before the Lord and ask God, God, what do you want to do now? Should we try this again? Or do you want us to do something different? And God says, go fight them again. Go to battle again with Benjamin. Verse 24. So the children of Israel approached the children of Benjamin on the second day.

They say, God, should we go back to battle? God says, yes. Now maybe we kind of give the first defeat a pass and go, okay, well, something happened. We're not sure what, but okay. Now this time God's told us specifically to go to battle. We're going to have victory, but they're defeated. 18,000 are killed today.

of Israel's army. That's a total of 40,000 now that have been killed in this battle on Israel's side, the side of righteousness, the side of seeking the Lord and responding, not the side of people defending sin and living in sin, but it's the people, no, no, we need to deal with sin and walk with the Lord, and they're seeking the Lord, and God's leader's in charge, and everything looks right. The recipe is for success. How could they lose again?

Same answer as before. Only God knows what's actually happening here because he doesn't tell us here. So we can't know for sure. We can't say for sure. Maybe there was sin that there was, that God was dealing with them personally. If so, he doesn't tell us. Maybe there was some trust issues. Maybe there was some, some issues that God was, you know, dealing with them within. Always God's dealing with us and developing us. And so that's kind of a given, but really we don't know exactly the details. God is doing a work.

And even though the plan now has failed a second time, if it were to happen a third time and they would seek the Lord and say, God, do you want us to go? And then they go and are defeated. And then they say, God, do you want us to go again? And they go and they're defeated. And a fifth time, a sixth time, a seventh. They're doing the right thing the whole time. And that could go on for as long as God wants it to go on. That's up to God. But you can trust God even if the plans are failing repeatedly.

As you continue to walk with him, as you continue to do what it is that he has set before you and called you to, even if you're not seeing the results that you're expecting or wanting or hoping for. God is not afraid of working out his will through a process. It's through a process of things, a process of events, a process of time that God often works out his will. Think about Jesus in Mark chapter eight when he healed the blind man.

Now there were some occasions where he just told the blind man to be healed and he was healed. But in Mark chapter 8, we see the occasion where Jesus leads this blind man out of the city. He doesn't just heal him right there where he is on the spot, but he leads them away outside of the city. And then Jesus makes some mud and places it on the guy. And Jesus says, what do you see? And he tried to open his eyes, but he couldn't quite see. He's like, I think I see trees walking around. I'm not sure what that is. And then Jesus lays hands on him again and

and his sight is restored completely. He healed this guy, but it was through a process. Because, well, when he first encountered the guy, he's like, man, I don't have enough faith to heal this guy right here. Hey, let's take a walk outside of the city. And he's walking, and while he's walking with the guy, he's praying, oh, Father, man, I need some faith, because this guy, he's blind, and I don't have the faith to heal him. So while we're walking, give me the faith, Lord. And then he leads him outside, and he places the mud, and

The guy can't see quite, and he's like, oh, no, okay, let me fast and pray. Okay, I need to fast and pray a little bit and get some strength to be able to perform this miracle. And then he lays hands on him, and finally he gets to see because, you know, Jesus could just barely pull together this miracle. No, that's not at all what happened, right? Jesus could have right there where he was. He didn't have to take him anywhere.

He didn't have to go through the process, try to open your eyes, and what do you see? He didn't have to do any of that. He could have just blinked, and the guy would have been fully restored if that's the way that God wanted to work. But in that case, that's not the way that God wanted to work. And we could argue with God about why, and why this way sometimes, and why not other times. But the bottom line for us is he's not afraid of that process. He's not afraid of doing things in stages. Let me put it another way. In your life,

God will use an oven more often than a microwave. I want the microwave, right? You just put the popcorn in, you hit the popcorn button, exact amount of time, every kernel popped, none of them burned, it's perfect. Just put it in the microwave, press the victory and battle button, and then just first time, everything's perfect. I want that. But God's not afraid to not do that. No, let's turn on the oven, let's preheat it. No, no, don't do anything else. Just sit there, let it heat up for a little bit.

But I'm hungry. Well, let it heat up. And then put it together. And then, you know, put it in and then pull it out and check the temperature and then put it in and then pull it out and put in some extra seasoning and then pull it, you know, there's a process. And God is much more often going to work that way in our lives than just the, okay, here it is. It's fixed. Your life is, you know, all in order now. I've accomplished everything I want to accomplish in your life. Just hit the popcorn button and that's it. If you think about Paul wanting to share the gospel in the book of Acts,

he's trying to get into Asia Minor, this region there. And as he tries to get in, it doesn't work. So he goes to another city and tries to get in from there and it doesn't work. He tries again and again. He keeps trying and trying. And then finally, God gives him a vision and calls him over to Macedonia. Now, God could have given Paul the vision at the very beginning. Why do you let Paul try and fail and try and fail and try and fail and try and fail? I don't know. But God's not afraid to work that way. That's the point.

He could do it. Sure, he could just rapture us all right now too, but he doesn't do that because, well, there's a path that he wants you to walk down, and you can trust God on that path, even when you're not seeing the results that you want to see, that you would expect to see, even when the plan fails repeatedly. And let me also just remind you and encourage you with this. Trusting God only works if you do it until the end. That's the only way trusting God works, right?

If you only trust God for the first battle, but then you're defeated and you walk away, well, that didn't work. You walk away, you don't try to battle again. You don't seek the Lord again. Then what do you do? You walk away with the loss. You've lost those men who were killed on the battlefield. You've lost the battle. You walk away in defeat and you don't get the ultimate victory that's going to come. If you walk away, you don't get the results of trusting God. It only works until the end. If you walk away after the second failure...

still you just have greater loss. And many people do that and they end up mad and bitter at God, but the real issue is that they quit too soon. They were looking at what was happening immediately in their lives and they gave up trusting in God at that point. So they didn't get to see the fruit of trusting in God and walking with God through the midst of that. But instead it's like, yeah, I tried that. It didn't work, man. And so I gave that up real quick.

And we can put ourselves in that position if we stop trusting God and wander away, walk away because of the negative results that we're seeing. Think about what the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans chapter 8. He says,

If God is for us, who can be against us? Well, apparently the Benjamites. Apparently, for the moment. But it's not the end of the story. They didn't win the war. They won a battle. God still gets the victory in the end. His plans will be accomplished. There is no one who can be against us when God is for us. That is proven once and for all.

Paul says in verse 32, because he didn't spare his own son. Here's how much God loves you. He didn't withhold his own son, but gave Jesus for you. That was the greatest sacrifice, the greatest cost, the greatest expense that God could ever expend on you. He spent it, he gave it. So how much more will he give you all the other little things that you need? That's no problem, no sweat, because he already gave you what was most valuable and most precious. The evidence that God is for you is already in.

You can trust him with your life. The evidence that God is for you is not proven by temporary circumstances, but by the cross. It's proven God is for you. And the evidence that God is for you is not disproven by failure, by defeat. It's not even proven by death. Proven once and for all by the cross. God is for you. Trust God, even if plans fail repeatedly.

Well, finally, we'll finish it up in verses 26 through 28. Here's point number three. Trust God to fulfill his promises completely. Verse 26 says,

So the children of Israel inquired of the Lord. The ark of the covenant of God was there in those days. And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days, saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease? And the Lord said, Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand.

The following verses go on to record their victory. You can check that out later on. It's the assigned reading for tomorrow. So you can do that as we work our way through the Bible in three years. But here we see God's instruction, go to battle again, but this time it's with the promise, I will deliver them into your hand. And it's interesting that we see this promise here and now. You know, we kind of assumed that promise the first time God said go.

We definitely assume that promise the second time that God said go, but it's not actually until the third time that God said, I'm going to give you victory. Sometimes we read into what God says things that he hasn't actually said. And because he told us to go, we think that means that God has promised something that maybe he has promised and maybe he hasn't. We need to hear from the Lord what he actually says, not what we want him to say or that we hope he's going to say.

It can be easy for us to understand, hey, God's in it, and then jump to conclusions. It's going to go well. It's going to be the blessed of the blessed of the blessed things. It's going to be, you know, bringing about good things and have victory, and it's going to be great. And that, yes, Lord willing, yes, please, amen. Let that be true. But that may not be the path that God has for you. God is in it, but maybe the victory is not at this moment. Maybe there's another victory that God is working towards us.

down the line. You don't see it yet. You know nothing about it, but God does. He's working you towards that victory through this process. And in the midst of it, you can trust God to fulfill his promises completely. You can trust God. He will do what he said he will do. He will work all things together for good. He will finish the work that he completed in you. You're not going to see the immediate results of that. You maybe don't see that, you know, immediately in your life, but you can trust God.

to do what he said he would do. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul says, What things are you looking at?

When we're experiencing the light affliction, it is very easy for us to look at the affliction, to see those temporary things. And now we're basing our trust in God on those temporary things. And Paul says, no, we're not going to do that. We're going to suffer because it's working for us something far greater, an eternal weight of glory. There's a bigger picture. I don't see it. I don't know it. I don't understand it. I don't have the plan, but God does.

And I trust God with my life, Paul says. I'm putting my life in his hands. And if it costs me my life to do what God's called me to do, it's worth it. There's a far more exceeding weight of glory. If it costs me greatly, Jesus said count the cost when he called us to follow him. There is a cost. Count the cost. It doesn't come easy. It doesn't come cheap, but it's worth it is the promise. You can trust God to fulfill his promises completely.

As you walk with him in the path that he set you on, you can trust God with your life. Do you do that? God says this about marriage. And you know that. You know what God's told you. But you're like, I tried it and it didn't go so well. So I don't do that anymore. Trust God with your life. Put your life on the line and do what the Lord says. Maybe God's spoken to you about your finances and you say, well, I tried that, but I lost money. It didn't work out so well. So I don't do that anymore.

Trust God with your life. Maybe God's spoken to you about the workplace or about ministry or about, well, whatever he's spoken to you about. And maybe you didn't see victory the first time out. Maybe you didn't see the victory that fifth or sixth time out or 10th or a hundredth time out. Sometimes it's a long process that God has us in, but don't give up. Don't walk away. You don't see the benefits of trusting God unless you trust him until the end.

You can trust him. It will be worth it. There is a weight of glory that's far greater than anything you go through. So hang in there and trust God because he loves you. And he's proven that love once and for all upon the cross. And we want to take some time to remember that this morning. And so the worship teams is going to come up and the ushers are going to prepare. We're going to partake in a time of communion where the Lord gave us these two elements to remember the cross, to remember what he did for us.

He gave us the bread and he says, look, this is my body which is broken for you. Remember me, do this in remembrance of me often and remember how much I love you and what I've gone through for you. He gave us the cup and he said, look, this is my blood which is shed for you for the remission of sins so that you can be forgiven and have access to God and right relationship with God. Do this often and remember me, remember how much I love you. God demonstrated his own love toward us.

and that while we were still sinners christ died before us the apostle paul as he was on his way to jerusalem was told over and over again by prophets when you get there you're going to suffer there's going to be persecution there's going to be affliction as paul is telling the leaders of ephesus all about this in acts chapter 20 verse 24 he says but none of these things move me there's all these challenges there's all these difficulties there's all these afflictions but none of them move me

because Paul trusted the Lord with his life. And you can too. You will hold in your hands in just a few moments the reminders of why you can trust God to that degree, because he loves you so much. He gave himself for you. So as we worship the Lord together, I would encourage you to be reminded of his love. Be stirred up by his love to trust him.

And then as you partake, let it be your declaration to God. God, I trust you with my life. I know you love me. I know you want what's best for me. I know you are able to accomplish what's best for me. So I will trust you. And as you partake, let it be that receiving of God's love and the declaration of trust that you will believe God and walk with him. You have that opportunity.

because of the cross and the forgiveness that's given there. So let's spend this time and just allow the Lord to speak to you about his love, to remind you of what he's called you to, and to trust in him as you partake. They're going to pass out the bread and the cup. Anytime between you and the Lord, you can partake. When you're ready to say, I will trust in you, Lord, with my life, and you're ready, you go ahead and partake between you and the Lord as we worship together.

Lord, we pray for each one of us, Lord, that you would help us, that you would stir us up, build us up in our faith, Lord, that no matter what immediate results we see, no matter what's happening in the temporary, Lord, that we would really trust in you, walk with you, obey you, and follow your instruction, Lord, because you've proven once and for all that you love us more than we can know or imagine. Help us, Lord, to receive that, to believe it,

and walk in it with you. In Jesus' name I pray.