Um, and Psalms 56, uh, we want to start there. I want to share a thought with you today, uh, before we really get into the lesson. So, uh, Wednesday, brother Johnny called me and, and of course he's, he and, uh, Beth are very close with Mesa and, uh, Johnny had gone down there to, uh, uh, to put a doorbell on for her. And of course, when he got there, she was, uh, had already passed away and, um, So Johnny and I were talking and I said, you know, it's amazing. Here's a woman who's 89 years old. And of course, brother bill, her husband passed away several years ago. And Johnny said, you know, she wanted to be cremated. She didn't want a service. And, uh, he said, uh, you know, probably honestly, all of her stuff, nobody's going to want her stuff. And I told Johnny, I said, you know, here's the thing you have to think about. I said, no matter how long you live on this earth. Uh, I said at some point in time, people are going to forget about you. And I mean, I, even family, I, my dad passed away 2015. It's not sometimes I'll think about him, but he's not constantly on my mind because I don't see him all the time. And I said, our life, when you come down to the end of it, you have to realize that a lot of what we've done on this, on this side of eternity, man will forget about it. And so all that we're doing on this side of eternity is address rehearsal for, uh, for after death when we stand before God. And when you have that perspective, it changes things, doesn't it? I mean, the accumulation of things and you say, well, my kids are going to want all this stuff and I need to accumulate all. It doesn't matter. What matters is what have you done with the time you've had on earth for eternity? And so I think when we, when we get a proper perspective, uh, and again, our class is not the senior saints class, but we're not the teen class either. We're kind of in the middle. Uh, you start to realize that, uh, we've got more years, uh, in the rear view mirror than we've probably gotten the windshield. Right. And so, so we want to make sure that whatever we do with the rest of our life counts for the cause of Christ. And, and I think that when you have that perspective of things, Uh, it's one of two things and brother Blaylock and I have talked about this. You can do one or two things with that perspective. You can be morbid about it and think about death to the point where you don't live, or you can appreciate the fact that you have a limited amount of time and make the most of what you have. Right. And so the, the ultimate thing that you and I must do is learn to trust God. And really when you think about choosing to trust and that's kind of, uh, the, the title of the lesson. Uh, that that's what trust is. That's what faith is. It's a choice you make, and it's not a feeling, it's not emotion. It's a choice that you make that you are going to trust God with everything you got. And if you ever get to that place and I ever get to that place where we trust God with everything, it eliminates a lot of the worry and a lot of the headache and heartache that comes along with life. Now, I'm not saying we don't ever have heartache and headache. But I'm just saying that when you look at the fact that everything is, is planned by God and God, nothing takes him by surprise. I can trust him with, with everything I've got. I can, and I use this analogy a lot because I think it's very relevant. Uh, when you fly on an airplane, uh, if there's some people I talked to them, they will not fly. They say I'm scared to death to fly. And I'm thinking, okay, well, you know, it's supposed to be the safest way to travel. Right. Now I understand if you got engine trouble and airplane, you can't pull off the side of the road, right? Or if you have a flat tire, you've got problems, but statistically less people die on an airplane than they do in a car. Yet some people have a fear of flying. Right. And I'm not critical of that. I think everybody's got phobias. We talked about that fears. Uh, again, uh, Brad is gone. I think he's, since he's afraid of spiders, he's just made himself scarce around here, but, uh, we all have some type of fear. And for some people flying is a fear, but both Tim, I don't have a, I don't have a fear of flying. I don't, I've flown enough that I don't think about it. I don't think about the pilot. I don't think about crashing. You know, uh, I remember we took the teams out a couple of years ago on a mission trip and several of them had not flown. And when that, uh, if you're not used to it, when that plane takes off from that runway and kind of hits that, you know, uh, there, you saw some of them go, Whoa. No, it's okay. That's normal, right? You don't know what to expect, but, but you get to a point if you fly enough, you realize there is someone up in the cockpit. Far as we know, right. That that knows what they're doing that has the skills and the, the aptitude to get you to where you're going. Now, maybe one day we'll have self flying planes. I don't know, but right now we don't have that. And, uh, so I don't have a problem trusting the pilot because I've flown enough to know that I've never had a problem. Okay. What's kind of the same idea. Uh, when we trust God, you have to look at the track record and we have a book called the Bible, and then you have experiences in your life where God has shown himself faithful to prove that you can trust him. Yeah, it's amazing. You and I, we've got, we've got more resources and more technology and more, I mean, most of us have more than one copy of the Bible. We have church service, we have preaching, teaching, and still we're in a place where a lot of people are so, uh, so I guess. Tore up to the place. They don't feel like they can trust God where anxiety is high. Uh, you know, depression's high, all these things. And I'm not, I'm not saying they're not real. I know they are, but I'm saying that maybe part of our issues, we've stopped learning how to trust God with everything. I mean, end of the day. I'm really not in control of anything. How many have heard this? People say, well, I like to drive because I like to be in control. You're not in control driving. You may push the pedal and determine how fast you're going to go for a while, but you may have a blowout. You may have someone cross the center line. You may have just a multitude of things that could take place that you're not in control of. And so you and I have got to understand that when you wake up in the morning, there's so many things that could go wrong. And I'm not, I don't think we ought to brother Matt. I don't think we ought to be in fear of that, but I think we have got to get to the place where we stopped trying to calculate everything and say, well, you know, uh, I'm not going to go knock on doors because what if something happens? Well, what if it does? What if it doesn't though, right? I mean, either God's big enough to take care of things for us or he's not. And that's really what faith is about is just saying, I'm just going to trust God with everything, no matter what the cost. And no matter how I feel and that, that is choosing to trust. And that's what David did in Psalms 56. And so the first thing we looked at, uh, two weeks ago is the reality of fear. Well, the Bible said this in verse three, what time I am afraid I will trust in these. So we know that fear is real. We know that God is. Is, uh, uh, is telling us that that is, it is a real scenario, right? And that David, who is a man after God's own heart had fear. So fear is not a problem. It's the paralyzing of fear. That's the problem. It is the staying fearful. That's the problem. It's one thing to fear something, but if you never, if you never step out in faith because of that fear. There's a problem there, right? You're, you're letting that fear overcome your faith. Now, some people I've heard them disagree with that Christian. So, well, I don't agree with that. What doesn't matter at some point in time, you, if you're going to trust God, you've got to step out out of your comfort zone into a place of fear and determine that if God, if it's his will, right. For you to do whatever that is, you just need to do it. Right. And that's, that's where David was. So there's a reality of fear. Number two, there's the renewal of trust. So David had trusted God and now he's in a place where he has to trust him again. So everywhere David looked, there were, there were enemies. We feel that way sometimes, right? Feel like nothing goes right. And everywhere you turn, the devil's after you. And every time, everywhere, every time you try to do something right. And I've heard people say this as a preacher, I'm trying to live right and do right, but it seems like. Nothing goes right for me. Everything seems like the devil's every turn that the devil's they're making my life miserable, right? It's the old saying of why do bad things happen to good people? Here's my question. It in, in that line of thinking, right? Two things. Number one, why do, why do bad things happen to good people? Nobody's good there. There's the main thing you say, well, I'm good. No, you're not. Not according to the Bible. There's none righteous. No, not one. Right? So, so that's a moot point. Nobody's good. It's a miracle that God doesn't allow more things to happen to us. Well, let's flip that. Well, why, why is it that God lets good things happen to bad people? That's right. It rains on the just and the unjust. So it's almost like we're saying, well, I'm in church. I'm not a murderer. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not a dope addict. So therefore good things ought to happen to me. But for these people that are not doing all these things or that are doing all these things, bad things ought to happen to them. Well, then we don't understand the concept of centers. Cause according to the Bible, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Well, I'm part of the all. So were you. So David starting to understand that even a man after God's own heart was, let me ask you this. Was he a sinner? What was David's great sin? adultery and murder, that's, that's two big ones, right? So, so David is learning to renew his trust in God. And, uh, first of all, in verse three, he said, what time I'm afraid he hears what he said. I will trust in thee. I will. So that's a conscious decision to trust God. That's not an emotional decision. Part of it's emotional, but it's also a conscious decision, right? So the emotional side is that, uh, we can't control what is happening in our lives always, but we can control how we handle it. I can't control what you say to me, but I can control how I respond back to you. Right. And so again, listen to this. So we'll hear people all the time say, well, they, they made me do that. You know, they just, they said that it made me so mad. They made me, they made me so angry. I had to re no, you didn't see here. Watch what I'm saying. Whenever you lose control, whenever you think you lose control of who you are and what you do, you've given that you've given that power and authority to someone else, right? Well, when you say, well, he made me do this and he made me so mad I did this. And so there it's their fault. You have a victim mentality. Whenever you say I make choice, that's what David said. He said, what time I'm afraid. He said, I will trust in thee. He didn't say what time every everything was good. I'll trust you. He said in the times that I fear, I'm making a conscious decision to trust you. So that tells me that I am responsible, not for the circumstances in my life, but how I respond to everything. How, if you came to me today and, uh, and you just, uh, walked out and cussed me out, you know what? I can't control what you say. Now I will control it. Cause it won't be too much that comes out of your mouth that I'm probably gonna have you taken on out of here, but I do control how I respond back to you. Right? So what David's saying is, is that. I choose to trust in God, not only by volition, but by conviction. And then number three was what I want to cover today is there's a rest in faith or rest of faith. So in the final verses of Psalm 56, we see the results of placing your trust in God. There's rest for the soul. Right? So. Uh, in verse four, he said, I, in God, I will praise his word in God. I have put my trust. I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. And so we go on through that scripture and, uh, Psalms 56 and verse 12 and 13. He said, I will render praise unto thee for that has delivered my soul from death. Well, not thou deliver my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of the living. So. Each of us will face times of fear, right? So we know that. And then as we understand in the final verses of Psalm 56, we see the results of placing our trust in, in Christ. There's a rest, right? I'll say this. Okay. Again, going back to the flying analogy, I don't know what it is, brother Ray Dank, but I can, when I get in that plane and, uh, it's going down the runway. Most of the time I go to sleep. I mean, it's something about maybe the, but when it hits that man, I am out. And so. Tells me I'm not too worried about crashing or maybe I am. And you know, my body saying, go to sleep that way. You won't know if you cry. No, I don't think that's it. I think, I think I'm just not worried about it enough to where it's like, I'm, I'm going to sleep. And matter of fact, um, I don't want to be woken up. I mean, it's, that's pretty good sleep. Right. So David's saying here that, that he's got enough confidence in the Lord that he can rest. Right. And that that's really what this rest of faith is. Uh, faith in God gives us the ability to stand with confidence and the strength to continue. So, so the first thing is confidence. You, you gotta have confidence in God to be able to rest in him. I, I have confidence in that pilot that he's going to get me to my destination so I can just. I can go to sleep, right? A lot of people drive and some people drive like brother Blaylock. He drives. I could probably sleep with no, he'll tell you, he has confidence in my driving. He does praise the Lord for that. And so we know that God's on our side and Psalms one 18 verse six, the Bible said, the Lord is on my side. I will not fear what man can do unto me. So this kind of confidence makes a difference in our life, right? When you have confidence in God, I mean, I mean, I was, uh, my aunt passed away a few weeks ago. My cousin is, uh, several years, four or five years older than me. Right. And so when I was, when I was a small kid, they lived beside of us. And I'll be honest with you. I thought, you know, he was so much bigger than me. I thought this guy was the toughest guy ever. Right. And I remember, uh, went to school and this kid was picking on me and I said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I said, I'm gonna go back to him. My cousin. Well, the problem was he was older than my cousin, but to me, my cousin was a lot tougher than him. And so he went to my cousin and said, I thought I heard you were going to beat me up, you know, and he's, I didn't say that. Right. But my, my point is that when I looked at him, he was bigger than me. I had confidence. I had enough confidence that he could handle things that I wasn't, I wasn't afraid of this guy because I should have been right. But I had confidence that he was going to take care of me. I didn't realize how big that guy was, but see with God, you've got a, you've got someone on your side that is, that is a greater as he, this in me than he, this in the world. So I can have confidence, no matter what God puts me in or allows me into to know that God is on my side. And so this kind of confidence makes a difference in our life. If you don't have any fear, right? If you don't have any fear, how, how liberating is that? And if you have confidence that God's going to take care of your financial needs, you don't have problem giving to missions. You don't have problem tithing, right? But when you, you, when you don't have a confidence that God has all the resources and that, that God says given, it shall be given. If you don't believe that book and you say, well, I've got to, you know, I believe God wants me to take care of my own self. And so therefore, uh, you know, I've got to add everything. No, you're missing the point. And when you have enough confidence in God. You don't worry about everything else. Now I think you got to, you got to use wisdom, right? But I think too often we, we, we try to use philosophy, worldly philosophy and intellectual thinking to, to, to go into the word of God and say, well, yeah, I know the Bible says this, but common sense tells me this. Well, you need to be careful with common sense because oftentimes the word of God is contrary to. To man's wisdom, right? So, uh, we know that, uh, God is for us. Philippians one six is this being confident of this very thing that he, which hath begun a good work and you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. So do you think, you think God's going to get you to the last turn and then just forsake you? No. I mean, if he's going to do that, what's, what would be the point of going and Here's the thing, how many people do you know? And, and by the way, don't you be a statistic that started out well, but, but get later on in life and they just, you don't, they quit serving God. Why? Because they lost confidence, right? So he's watched over us always. So there's confidence. And then there's the second thing is continuance. So we don't make the choice of faith just once, right? We must continually choose to trust him. In other words, you, you come to altar this morning after a brother Blalock preaches and you say, you know what? I'm going to trust God. I'm going to trust him, but you know what you're going to have to do tomorrow? You're going to have to get on your face. You're going to trust him again. And Tuesday, you're going to have to trust him again. And Wednesday, you're going to, it's not a one-time thing. It is a daily decision to trust God, because if not, what's going to happen, it's, it's this. How many of you, how many of you eat right? Eat breakfast one time a month. Nobody. Right. Or lunch or dinner, supper, whatever you call it. You, you eat almost every day, probably more multiple times a day. Why do you do that? Because one time fueling your body one time a month won't work. Fueling your body one time a week is not going to work, right? Yet spiritually, that's what we do. We feel like we come to church one time a week, don't open the word of God, don't pray. You know, come on Sunday morning, we check the box and that's all we need. No, if you're going to continue, you're going to have to continually decide to trust God. So we must continually choose to trust him because the challenges you'll face tomorrow are not the same challenges you face today, right? The journey's different. The, the, the challenges, the, the trials, the temptations are different. So I've got to get up every day and it, and not just get up every day. I've got to continually during the day decide, you know, cause things are going to come in my life that are going to be, uh, uncomfortable. They're going to be unusual. They're going to be. I've never seen this before. I can have confidence knowing, okay, if it's happened to me before, then I can have confidence if I've overcome it or the Lord's overcome it, that it's going to happen again, right? I mean, but then when something new comes up, I've got to decide. To trust God in that. So David's repeated trust should encourage us. And sometimes even when we make a choice to trust God, fear creeps in again. And, uh, I'll say this a lot of times we don't move because of fear, right? It's like, God, no, God wants me to do something, but I'm afraid to do it. How many, how many people do not teach Sunday school or run a bus or knock on a door? Or give demissions or, or sing in the choir or, you know, just go up and shake somebody's hand. I mean, just, um, most of us would, I would say this, if I asked people, I'd say, are you an extrovert or an introvert? I'll guarantee you most people say I'm an introvert. And it's almost like we think that excuses us from being friendly, right? Oh, I'll be friendly. If someone's friendly to me, that's not what the Bible said. The Bible said to have friends, you have to. Show yourself friendly. Right? So we're, we want to be reactive people. And I think a lot of that has to do with fear. We're afraid if we put ourselves out there, we'll be rejected. I think that was even the first couple of weeks ago. One of the things we kept coming back to the greatest fear people have are the fear of people and the fear of being rejected. Right? So. Whenever we step out in faith and say, okay, God, I want to, I want to please you because as we said earlier, if we live 89 years, uh, most people in year 91, 92, 93, most people going, I realized this, uh, pastor Blaylock, there's going to come a day when somebody else, if the Lord didn't come back, it's going to be the pastor of this church. Now, again, I'm not, some of you, when I say that, some people get nervous. I'm not talking about that. I'm saying I'm 54 years old, whether by the grave or, you know, retirement one day, somebody else is going to be pastoring this church. So I get that. Somebody else is going to be living in my house one day. There's going to be a there's going to be a headstone with my name on it one day. And what's going to matter is what I did for the Lord, not what I did on this earth. Right. And so when you get that mindset, I got to trust God because he's what really matters. You know what happens? Here's the thing. And people say this and it's it's kind of dumb. I don't care what anybody thinks. I'm just trying to please God. Let me say this. If you please God, if you live your life to please God, then let me phrase it right, because I know how you are. You'll be like, well, preacher, that's not exactly right. If you live your life to please God, you'll please most men. Not everybody, right? But if you live your, I know what people are trying to say, but it's arrogant. I'm trying to impress nobody. I'm trying to impress God. You know how you impress God? You live for him and people will be impressed with your life because it is consistent and because it's right and because it's godly. That's what we should want. Not this rebellious mindset where I'm just going to do whatever I want to. I don't care what anybody thinks of me. I care what people think about me because I represent him. I care what people think about this church because this church is a representation of him. And I care what people think about you because guess what? You're a representation of him. So again, my point is I got to stop living for this life and realize that one day I'll stand before him and stand before the judgment seat of Christ. And when we do that, what happens is we learn that God's going to put us in some situations that we may not understand, but we can trust him and we can choose to have faith. And so that's what I want you to understand this morning is don't walk by sight, walk by faith. When you don't, when you can't see what God's doing, you just keep trusting God. Right. I think about, uh, if you weren't here Wednesday night, brother Aldridge was here and, uh, he's blind. He's a blind missionary. And he, he's a missionary in South Dakota and I've talked to men. They're like, it's amazing. He knows how many steps from his front door to the church, so he didn't But I'm, you know, I'm sitting here thinking here's a man. He, he mentioned Wednesday night that they have church Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. He does the Bible study two hours away. I think he said on Tuesday night and now he's planning on doing another one in another town, Thursday or Friday night. And I'll be honest with you. I'm sitting here going, boy, I'm a lazy bum. Here's a man can't see his wife, uh, drives him everywhere. He has to go. So she has to be committed to what he's doing. And they're doing more than most Christians for the cause of Christ. So you know what he's doing? He's just, I mean, most people look at that and say, well, he's got a disability. He can't go. He didn't look at it that way. He looked at it as that's what God's called me to do. He'll provide. And that's the way I want to be. That's the way you want to be. But you got to have faith and you've got to step out and trust God when you can't figure it out. Right? And that's what our theme for the year is forward in faith. That's what our church needs to be forward in faith. We don't have to, we don't have to have it all figured out on paper. We just got to know God has told us to do it and he told us to do it. He's going to provide. Amen. All right, let's close in prayer. We'll be dismissed. Choir, don't forget.