The Word of God Carries Us

"The Word of God Carries Us" – Proverbs 3:5-6 The Christian life of God's servants consists of seeking God, loving Him and being faithful to Him. And the matter lies in consciously placing in God's hands what weighs on us: not out of habit nor automatically, but deliberately. For we all have worries, fears, weariness, guilt, sickness and hard decisions. God gives us an active faith — a faith that prays, that walks and that trusts at the same time — and it is the word that carries us from glory to glory.

I. We are one body, and we ought already to be teachers.

A. The Christian life consists of seeking God, loving Him and being faithful.

1. Religion is always seen as tiresome; but religion is seeking God, for the matter is to join the body.

2. Each one pulls his own way; and the worst are those who stay silent, for then one cannot tell whether they belong or not.

3. If Christ came for us this very moment, look at yourself and see whether you have risen.

4. The aim has always been that we all learn the doctrine of the Scriptures; nothing can be the whim of the one who teaches.

B. If you are teachers, you are no longer children.

1. That is why God requires and claims of you that you be teachers.

2. It is not only that we come to church: it is that we have a function on the earth.

3. We teach our children, and grandmothers teach the grandchildren, to form them.

4. For one leaves an inheritance on departing with the Lord: the children are the first and the grandchildren the second.

5. Life is short, and the wise man numbers his years; if we number them, we learn not to spoil our existence.

6. Our existence must have weight, not be light; it is no fantasy, these are realities.

C. The church must go from glory to glory.

1. We cannot be the one who comes out of habit, leaves at once and goes on the same afterward.

2. If we are the body of Christ, there is a challenge, an obligation and a duty to set right what falls to us.

3. Let us not play at Christianity.

4. Children must learn to be what you are: your children live what you are, and what you hide, your children shout.

5. We should no longer be children; so why do most live as children, in complaints, in fussing and in I cannot?

II. To place consciously in God's hands what weighs on us.

A. The prayer of the righteous is in heaven.

1. It is set there, it is opened and it is closed; the angel the LORD sends opens it to read it.

2. But if your box is empty, what will heaven answer for you?

3. If we live for our own selfishness, to murmur and to give opinions, wear the minister's shoes for one hour and your tongue will go dry.

B. We must work on ourselves.

1. Two cannot walk together unless they are agreed; that is why people divorce, and the same happens with the church.

2. We are more taken up with others than with ourselves.

3. You know how to criticize others, but you never criticize yourself; rather you flatter yourself.

4. If some chains are not broken today, your tomorrow will not be better: you will go on dragging them.

5. And the word lukewarm is not pleasing before the eyes of the LORD.

C. Consciously, not out of habit.

1. It is deliberate, with full awareness; not automatic.

2. How many things weigh on you? Worries, fears, weariness, guilt, sickness, hard decisions.

3. Each one may have two or three, or all of them. We all have them.

4. That is why in the morning I do not care to have words with anyone: I care to go and pray, because something weighs on me.

5. Because otherwise life drowns; what you must do drowns, and how to do things well.

D. We come to the earth for service.

1. None of you was sent to the earth as an ornament; God sends us because there is service to be done.

2. Like the mechanic: how you get about is your car, and if he does not attend to it, there is something called idleness.

3. But today everything is leaning back and giving opinions about everyone.

4. We forget that what we fail to do will bring us to failure.

5. Here on earth one can set something right; in heaven, who sets anything right?

6. You must set right not what you fancy, but what is your service.

III. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart (Proverbs 3:5).

A. Lord, this is too much for me; I trust in you.

1. Every worry has a reason; and often there is no solution for what must be solved.

2. The decision is to say to the Lord: I cannot bear this, nor what others say about me; I need you absolutely.

3. That is when one runs to a spiritual level.

4. Because what we must do is leave so much of the flesh and begin to develop the spiritual life.

5. We are flesh, soul and spirit; all three must be lived, but the spiritual must be developed.

6. Think how much nonsense is spoken in a day; and how pleasant it is to talk about another. And the soul grows bitter and the Holy Spirit withdraws.

B. To let go of anxiety and rest the heart.

1. There you begin to come down from yourself.

2. When you leave yourself more to God, so that God carries you, you no longer wake at dawn tormented.

3. Because you began to trust and to rest your whole being, however great the circumstance.

4. Anxiety is all that wearies you.

5. And do not tell me you worry about nothing: that is a tale.

C. This is the time to change.

1. Otherwise we will not be useful; and he who is not useful will not be part of the body.

2. The church is the warriors, those who fight, those who pray for the sick.

3. The church is not I sin, I do not sin, I sin. Either we decide or we destroy ourselves.

4. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD: what do you say of your house?

IV. An active faith.

A. What an active faith is.

1. It is the faith exercised with action, with intent and with participation; not passive nor automatic.

2. And if it is active, it is at work continually.

3. You have a circumstance and you must face it; but what you have is desperation.

4. Faith must be set to work, until it meets the need of the righteous.

5. If your faith is not active, you see no miracle; the one you want converted is not converted; you set nothing right.

6. That dims the faith that acts, the faith that moves, the faith that works a miracle and overcomes what must be overcome.

B. Complaining quenches faith.

1. How many times a day do you complain? And afterward you complain about everything.

2. And when you go to bed you say you are not even sleepy: it is because you live complaining and watching everyone else.

3. We cannot walk this earth slowly; activity must be kept up.

4. For life is long, and the more you make use of it, the more effective you are.

5. God always has activity for our life; and you will not know faith unless you set it active.

C. Active faith prays, obeys and acts.

1. It prays consciously; it decides to trust even when it sees no immediate result.

2. It obeys while it waits and it acts according to the will of God.

3. It rests, but it does not give up: that resting is to say, I waited patiently for the LORD.

4. Nothing makes us greater failures than not acting.

5. Never mind what people will say of you: you act, give no account to anyone, do not despair.

6. To whoever asks why you do that, you have nothing to say; for as soon as you have something to say, you go on entangling yourself.

D. Doing your part while trusting God.

1. In these times it is easier to go about as if absent; and you must wake up.

2. We cannot go on living half yes, half no, perhaps, or maybe.

3. Someone comes and whispers in your ear, and you have taken it for truth; and it is not truth.

4. You must be active for the one who called you, chose you and set you apart from eternity.

5. It was not the day before yesterday that God chose us: God has always thought of us.

6. It is not only saying God will take care of it, but: Lord, I do what falls to me today, and what I cannot do I leave in your hands.

E. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

1. It is not the same for us to work with God as to leave it all in God's hands.

2. That is why, when there are situations in the church, the pastor tries to attend to everything that comes to her.

3. We are not a spectacle for God: we are servants of the God of the spectacle.

4. I care more for a bent back than for shining here on earth.

5. When we want to show what we are not able to do, it is pure vanity.

V. And lean not unto thine own understanding.

A. Trust God without reserve.

1. Give Him the direction, not only the help.

2. How often do you rise feeling you will die, with such a load that you cannot breathe?

3. Whoever does not know that must be a hero; he must live on another planet.

4. When you say I do not know what I am going to do, that is the conflict; that is why one must rise to prayer.

B. To rest in Him even when you do not understand the way.

1. One makes all the arrangements for something, and suddenly news arrives that strikes and fills one with despair.

2. And at once one must change, cancel one thing and open another way, in order to get where one had to go.

3. When one decides to live for God, your steps are set by the steps of God.

4. And then we are useful on the earth; we cannot live wholly for ourselves.

5. When the books are opened we will see what is read of you; and by what is read will be your rewards, or you will be only a saved person, without reward.

6. To trust God is to trust though you do not see, to walk though you do not understand, and to rest though you cannot control.

VI. In all thy ways acknowledge him (Proverbs 3:6).

A. Acknowledge that God walks before you.

1. You say: I do on the earth what I want. No: acknowledge Him in all your ways.

2. When you go to work, the last thing you think of is Him; you think of the boss or of the worker who fails you.

3. Count on God, consult Him, include God always.

4. When the flesh stirs you to temptation, think: how does God feel where I am setting this step?

B. We think that outside nothing happens; it does.

1. Many may faint when it was in your hands to strengthen them.

2. But we think life is mine alone.

3. And no one dares tell another that his life is not his own, and that person sinks.

4. To say I live my life and no one else's is a lack of love and a failure to do what must be done.

5. Then who will rescue the one about to take his life? Brave people are needed; not meddlers, but brave people.

6. When we acknowledge God, He will take charge of your course.

VII. For we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

A. Faith becomes your companion.

1. Faith is something within you, because it is what sets action going in you.

2. You had a stirring, you prayed, things happened; and that faith activates the action.

3. Suddenly you are in prayer and you remember someone, and a concern is stirred in you.

4. When we are God's instrument, there is an action in our life, because God works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

5. Faith is not only believing: it is living, it is deciding, it is trusting God completely.

B. We are seated in heavenly places together with Christ.

1. We must know that in our lives we are of faith, and that God is with us to hear us.

2. When Jesus dies, the Holy Spirit comes to the earth to dwell in all who have been converted.

3. The Father on the throne, the Son interceding, and the Holy Spirit in us making us groan.

4. We carry the prayer, Jesus presents it to the Father, and there it is settled.

C. Not by sight.

1. It does not mean ignoring what is seen: it is not letting the visible rule the heart.

2. What we see can change; God does not change.

3. It is as if God said to us today: I am with you, be able to believe me.

4. Explain how this temple was built: twenty-five years it was being paid for, and the glory of God came down.

5. When we came to Aguadilla it was a corner of the town; they stole the battery and carried off the books. We were a handful.

6. The Christian does not base his life on circumstances, news and emotions, but on the promises; for God made a covenant.

VIII. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).

A. Faith is not born by itself nor by emotions.

1. It is formed when we hear the message of God.

2. Hearing means paying attention and opening the heart.

3. That is the art of preaching: the verses are linked and joined together.

4. Those verses settle in your ear and the word is sown in the heart.

5. And the word sown in the heart bears its fruit, a hundredfold or sixtyfold.

B. It is not any word: it is the word of God.

1. Here there are no topics of health or anything else: the word of God is always cited and carried.

2. It is revealed to your ear, and your ear becomes active.

3. Then you begin to transform your mind and your heart, and you come to understand what is in your existence.

4. For the word is individual; and before you know it, you have become a spiritual man or woman.

5. The more you take the word and wrap it about you, the more you grow in faith; and then life is easier, because there is confidence.

C. If faith weakens, go back to the word.

1. Are you weak in faith? Go back to reading the Bible.

2. If there are doubts, hear the word; if there are fears, take heart from the word.

3. Faith is strengthened when the word has a daily place in the heart, because it draws out what worries you.

4. When we learn to love, the space widens and we begin to look with compassion, and the heart grows heavy.

5. No one is absolute on earth: I need impose nothing on you, I give you what I have seen to be useful.

IX. Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God (Isaiah 41:10).

A. I am thy God.

1. We say: I would not dare, I would die; as if we were not good enough.

2. But the day will be the one God knows you are ready for.

3. If you want to go with Him, the decision is ours, not God's; God would wish it, but God does not force.

B. Fear not, for I am with thee.

1. God does not promise the absence of trouble; He never has.

2. He promises His constant presence with you.

3. Do not think that at conversion your life will be set right; on the contrary, it will grow harder.

4. We will always have troubles and circumstances; but the presence of God is constant.

C. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God that strengtheneth thee.

1. How many times have you been dismayed? We may even say: I live dismayed.

2. One goes to prayer dismayed, to beg God for mercy and that He work His miracle.

3. That He not cast us off and not turn His back; because sometimes we do things over which God might depart.

4. When our strength fails, God reminds us: I am still your God, I strengthen you.

5. The strength is not yours: He is the one who strengthens us.

D. God is always watching over us.

1. Day, night, at every moment, even in sleep.

2. Jesus is tender with our lives, and watches because He knows the blood you carry is His.

3. He is responsible for that blood, for it is neither mine nor yours: it is what was shed on the cross of Calvary.

4. The angel writes it down, the Son carries it to the Father, and the Father and the Son deal with our lives.

5. And God is judge; and a judge does justice and determines, and that determination depends on who was examined.

6. Life is no game: nothing is overlooked, God measures everything and knows the intent.

E. I will help thee; I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.

1. It is not occasional help: it is continual and faithful help.

2. God upholds, establishes and protects with power and with uprightness.

3. For God is uprightness; God is holy, holy, holy, and there is nothing that can be charged against Him.

4. If He has forgiven us, cleansed us with His blood and made a dwelling for us, can we fail Him?

5. It were better not to have been born than to blaspheme the name of God; that is the one sin that will never be forgiven.

6. Where is Judas? Judas had no pardon, and he was one of the disciples. We must know the Scriptures and fear God.

X. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (Hebrews 10:23).

A. Steadfastness carries us to the end.

1. There is a promise, because God is faithful to the end.

2. Then why do we doubt? One lives doubting instead of having faith.

3. This is an active exhortation: let us be able to guard, to sustain and to affirm faith every day.

4. Today I woke with a pain nothing can take away. Why not affirm faith that day?

B. Without wavering.

1. Not letting circumstances make us come and go in our confidence.

2. Today you see the miracle and tomorrow you say you do not know; that is wavering.

3. And faith does not waver: faith is permanent, because it is a confidence.

4. The profession of our hope is not only what we believe: it is what we confess and what we live.

C. For he is faithful that promised.

1. Our hope does not depend on us.

2. Every day the sun rises; if God tells the sun enough, we all die.

3. But that mercy of God comes out every day; if the earth were darkened, could the sowing be given?

4. We forget there is a third heaven with millions of angels, and that on this earth there are millions of angels.

5. And the angels write your life every day; that is in the books, which will be opened name by name.

6. What you did yesterday that did not please God is written; you asked pardon and God forgives, but what you were to gain yesterday you will never have.

XI. Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you (1 Peter 5:7).

A. Cast all your anxiety upon me.

1. We drown because we choose to, for He tells us plainly.

2. It is like a child: when he comes to you and speaks, what he says with his mouth lifts that load.

3. Not because it relieves sin, but because it breaks what seeks to destroy.

4. If we learn to be men and women of prayer, it is nothing complicated: it is nearly always the same prayer, the pattern of the Lord's Prayer.

5. After you finish praying you rise in quiet and in peace, because you deposited with God what you cannot carry.

B. Casting: not holding back nor carrying half.

1. It is letting go completely: Lord, I cannot with this, I need you to be the one who acts.

2. Nothing is too small nor too great for God.

3. When we pray, the face He sees is that of His children.

4. When a child comes to you desperate, you take that desperation upon yourself and try to give him the answer with all the force of love. So is our Father.

5. To cast it all on Him: the load changes shoulders. I do not speak of duties or paying the light bill, but of the burdens of the soul.

C. For he careth for you.

1. God cares personally and faithfully.

2. God sends us angels to minister to us, but an angel cannot deal with you personally.

3. Only God deals with you personally, as no one else knows how to deal with your existence.

4. It is not walking along and saying Lord, I cannot do this any more: one must be a man or woman who seeks God.

5. This is not living on the surface; that is why there is not much good nor much success in the spiritual.

6. God does not only hear our burdens: He takes charge of them. He is the great keeper of our soul; no one else will love your soul.

XII. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass (Psalm 37:5).

A. Commit thy way unto the LORD.

1. You have seen many stones and many circumstances and it has been hard for you; so give your way to the LORD.

2. If you cannot manage with the children, with your spouse or with work, commit your walk to the LORD.

3. Put your life, your plans and your decisions in the hands of God.

B. Trust also in him.

1. Did it come about? Very well. Did it not? Also. Trust in Him.

2. Not only handing over, but resting without anxiety.

3. In prayer there are things that fall to you by duty and must be done.

4. When we speak of anxiety, we speak of what throbs and stirs inside the heart.

C. And he shall bring it to pass.

1. God acts in His time and in His way.

2. That is why the back must be bent; for the haughty says this is for tomorrow, and has been at that refrain for a year.

3. Sometimes we are asking for what is not ours. Let us be meek.

4. The promise is not about the how, but that He will bring it to pass.

5. When we hand the course over to God and trust, God takes charge of the outcome.

6. In the books of heaven not a period nor a comma escapes; and the period is necessary, because some things must have their full stop. Be wise.