Walking in His Promises - Sermon Outline

Walking In His Promises
2 Corinthians 7

• I have a confession to make I didn’t make it past verse!
• One word stopped me in my tracks
• The word “promises”

3 steps to walk in God's Promises:
Step #1 Know God’s promises. Read the Word of God daily—every chance you get. 
“Let it be the soundtrack of your life”  When I gave my life to Christ, I read the Word of God every day, taking notes and underlining passages, and I even listened to the Bible at work and any moment that i had the chance to do so.  You can’t trust the promises unless you know them and make them the foundation of your life.
“Small Acts of seemingly insignificant discipline eventually reap magnificent results”
Do you know what God has promised his children?
Definition of A Promise: a declaration or assurance that one will do a particular thing or that a particular thing will happen. assurance , pledge, vow, guarantee, oath, bond, commitment, covenant.
“I can't walk in something that I do not know”
Did you know:

• That his promises can bring light to your path? “Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path” Psalm 119
• That when you're tired, weary, and burdened,Jesus promises you Rest “come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.  Matthew 11:28
• That when you think it's Impossible, Jesus says “With man this is impossible but with God all things are possible” Matthew 19:26
• That when you lose focus on your priority “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you”
• There is a blessing attached in meditating Joshua 1:8 This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it, for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.
• Matthew 4:4 but he answered “it is written Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Here’s what I am saying: when I know I’m on a different playing field when I know my chess pieces are looking aggressive when I know I am confident
John 15:7 “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you” 
“Let his words become the soundtrack of your life”
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Step #2 Trust God’s promises. Proverbs 3:5-6 says Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways submit to him   and he will make your paths straight.”

1. What does that kind of trust look like?  Trust is a heart decision, a willful surrender of all your heart.  Half-hearted marriages never work and no husband has ever gotten anywhere by saying, “I love you, honey, with most of my heart.”  No, wives want it all, and so does God. The greatest threat to trusting God is our own understanding—how we see things or how we’ve experienced life before.  Once “our” mind starts to process and determine our steps, we get distracted, taking exits and wandering down detours.

Trust is a step-by-step process of submission, following the straightest path to the destination God has determined for us.  We would never take the longest route suggested by our GPS; we always prefer the shortest route with the least amount of travel time. And yet, we often find ourselves exhausted when we scrap the straightest paths to satisfy our disoriented desires.
Instead, trust God’s promises to take you where you need to go.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
whose confidence is in him.
They will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit.”
Jeremiah 17:7-8

The lord is your strength and your shield TRUST IN HIM Psalm 28:7
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man Psalm 118:8
Man says show me and I will trust you.   God says trust me and I will show you Psalm 126:6
What is stopping you from trusting in God?

• What someone did to you?
• A traumatic event
• The loss of a loved one
• Your current situation

Step #3 Rest in God’s promises.
Resting in God’s promises is the next step in trusting God’s promises. The opposite of rest is worry. Jesus makes it very clear in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry about food, drink, our bodies, our clothes, our shelter, or anything else in life.  He said that since God takes such good care of the flowers in the fields, why wouldn’t he also take care of the people he created and loves?
Worry does not add a single hour to our lives.  In fact, it subtracts hours from our lives.
Quote about worry - “Worrying is using your imagination to create something you don't want”

Let's look at a Bible story about worry: Martha & Mary
Luke 10:38-41

• Mary sat at the Lords feet listening to what he had to say
• Do you let things distract you, worry you, and make you upset?
  
  

When information about God’s promises enters our minds, we hear it and understand it. However, we must then apply the truths of those promises to our hearts.  We must keep at bay or on hold the notion of wanting to process our needs over and over in our minds to figure out our own solutions.
Once we trust, we can relax, take a breath, and truly say, “God’s got this.” It’s a freeing admission of God’s love and strength.
God’s promises still stand! Great is his faithfulness, you're still in his hands. This is our confidence that he will never fail you!