YWAM Newcastle Podcast Transcript | Trusting God’s Faithfulness

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Introduction:

“Hey! And welcome to the YWAM Newcastle podcast. In this episode we are looking at trusting God’s faithfulness.

Bringing us this teaching is an incredible speaker, pastor Pablo Nunez. Originally from Brazil, Pablo and his wife moved to Australia as missionaries and worked for 10 years in Adelaide, South Australia. Pablo has a Bachelor of Theology and a Bachelor of Christian Ministry. He now pastors a church in Ballina in Northern New South Wales with his wife and two children. Pablo is a gifted and experienced speaker.

I hope you will enjoy what he has to say on the faithfulness of God.”

Pablo Nunez:

Often when we talk about God we are always wondering, “What is God revealing of himself to us in this journey? And why does he make a special effort in putting emphasis on some parts of that character?”

So let me share with you one of my favourite passages, it’s from the book of Deuteronomy 7:9-11. “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.”

I love this passage because it’s about the reality of life. It doesn’t present an imaginary situation, it doesn’t present a fairy tale. It talks about the reality of living in this world in which we need to know that the one in control is faithful to us.

Why do we need that? Well it’s very easy to see how often in this life we deal with mistrust: Can I really trust government? Can I really trust leadership? Can I really trust people around me?

But if I have that feeling towards God, everything else in my life is shaking.

This word was spoken to a generation that was the first free generation after 430 years of slavery for the people of Israel. So for 430 years there was no sense of covenant, there was no sense of commitment. They had owners, they had masters. They didn’t have a relationship, they didn’t have a connection, they didn’t have friendship. But now they are putting everything in the hands of this God and they need to know that this God will be faithful to them. So, over and over and over again God reminds them that he is a faithful God.

I love how he introduces himself to the people of Israel in Exodus chapter 20, verse 2 “I am the Lord your God, who set you free from Egypt.”

So even when he has to speak about who he is, God doesn’t refer to his amazing creation, to his power, to his incredible track record. He talks about the fact that one day he set you free and now he promises to go on this journey with you.

I love journeys. I love adventures. I love moving from place to place and I have come to understand over time that a journey is made of all these little journeys inside all these little trips, little adventures. And it’s, there’s one thing that I appreciate in people doing journeys with me- traveling through life with me, is, if they are constant. If I know that I can trust them, if I know that they will be there for me, if I know that at the end of the day the circumstances won’t change their character. And I realise that I can trust God that way because he will always be faithful to himself and to me.

Does it mean that he will, uh, allow me to become entitled? Does it mean that he’s gonna oversee and look at look to the other side when I’m doing something wrong? No! In his faithfulness God will love me and correct me. In his faithfulness he will call call me out when I’m doing something that I shouldn’t be doing or living in a way that I shouldn’t be living. And I’m not talking just about or living in sin, no! When I allow myself to live below what he has created me to be, when I allow myself to fall in places in life in which I forget my destiny or my calling or my vocation I need a God who is faithful to call me aside and say “Hey son, I created you for more than this. I made you with this in my mind. I have these dreams about you.”

So, this God is so faithful to me that even if I am not faithful to him, he will always remain faithful because he cannot deny himself. That is the word in Second Timothy chapter two. I love this. God doesn’t base his faithfulness on my behaviour, on my performance. God doesn’t base his faithfulness on my plans. His faithfulness is backed up because he is faithful. That goes way beyond a choice in your character, that goes to this very nature of who you are. To deny faithfulness would be to deny himself.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I think of “what will be an event that can destroy, tear apart the tissue of reality, what can actually be like a cataclysm that destroys everything?” And one of those is this: can you imagine if God stops being faithful to us? That would be not just the end of me it will be the end of everything, but this God, that at the same time that holds the universe together, is interested in the little details of my life. He’s faithful to me in my walk, he’s faithful to me to, to walk with me, to deal with my issues, to heal my brokenness, to point directions, to be my friend, to be there for me.

One of the, one event that really, um, in many ways have shaped my life, happened in May, uh, of 2006. We were about to leave from YWAM Adelaide in going to Europe for one of the most amazing events that I ever, uh, taken part of is the outreach during the world cup, uh, FIFA world cup. (So that’s football, um, for the more developed nations- soccer for the ones who are still struggling.) And we had this incredible challenge to pay for the tickets of the whole team. We have committed to it, we were raising funds but five days, uh, to go to Europe we still needed to see a huge breakthrough and I called my whole team and I said, “Hey guys, let’s come into this place- let’s worship, let’s pray,” and we committed not to leave that place until we had seen all the funds coming through. And we knew what we were saying, we were saying “You know what? Pack your bags because we may leave this place straight to the airport.” I don’t know how long this is going to take. We started worshiping, we declare his character, we open our hearts but I realised a few hours into it that none of us was actually praying asking God for funds. None of us was mentioning money. We were asking for the salvation of the people that was going to hear the message, for open doors for the preaching, for the other teams that were going, for the, the Christian players that were going to take place in that competition. We were thanking God for all the things that he had already done.

About six hours into it is when we look around and I realise something had switched. It was done. In my heart, I knew it was done. I look around, my team was feeling the same. We started a time of celebration, when we finished celebration we decided to have breakfast because it was about five o’clock in the morning. So when the base director comes into the kitchen about six, he finds all this team celebrating with pancakes and he asked us, “So, what happened? Did you receive the money?” And I said, “Chris, I don’t know how to tell you this but I’m sure it happened.” And he opened his big smile and said, “Yeah, about two o’clock last night somehow I woke up. I felt that I needed to check our accounts and everything was there, you guys can go.”

What is the faithfulness of this God that shows up and shows off and connects with us and leads us in the journey? Because he could have given us all the funds from the word “go”. He didn’t need to do all of this but each one of us was touched, transformed, inspired through this journey. Each one of us has a story to tell that it’s incredibly unique and at the same time shared in our little community.

This is a God who saves people groups, this is a God who touches the life of nations and yet, has the time to come and see my heart in the smallest of the details, in the simplest of days. This is a God who won’t allow me to forget who I am and who constantly calls me back into my destiny for the love that he has for me.

In a time where it’s so hard to know what to trust, where opinions change so fast, when one word, one expression that you say that is misunderstood can actually destroy many years of character building and reputation. When people’s faithfulness and alliances change so fast according to what they want and what are their their plans, what is their agenda, I rejoice in knowing that I can look to my God and always find the same heart, the same passion, the same love, the same belief in me way before I can believe in him, the same calling, the same destiny, the same God who is there for me.

My world changes, I get older, my realities change, my circumstances changes, this world, the culture changes. God remains the same. And that sense of faithfulness and constance is everything I need to be sure that I’m safe. I don’t have to doubt, I don’t have to second guess. I can worship and thank and, and embrace this journey because I know that the one who has been with me is with me and will always be with me. I look back, I look at my today, I, I see my future and I find the same love of God; kindness, constants, faithfulness of God there with me.

So my prayer for me and I hope you can pray that about yourself as well is “Help me to represent, help me to live out your faithfulness in my relationships as well. May people find in me the character that I find in you. May they find me the same constants that I find in you but they find in me the same perseverance that I find in you. May I never give up on people, like you never give up on me,” and if I can do that just for a little bit of this journey in this life I know that will be worth it. Not because of whatever result that can bring into my life but because at that moment I’m experiencing the joy of being faithful that God has in his heart always.

May God bless you may God keep you and may you leave so many amazing stories that you fill this world with the testimonies of the faithfulness of God.

Wrap up:

That was awesome, thank you so much Pablo! And it’s so true, being able to trust in God’s faithfulness because it’s a solid foundation to build our faith on. Now, as I listen to that, it prompts me with a few questions and I want to share them with you. Take some time to think on these things and remember: knowledge and information will only change your life through practical application.

Question one: In life we want people we can trust will be there for us, people who are consistent and faithful. How can you reflect God’s faithfulness to others?

Question two: I really like how Pablo mentions that God is faithful to call us out. Even if we forget our destiny and calling, God can pull us aside to remind us that he created us for more than this. He has incredible dreams for you. In what way can you recognise when God has done this for you personally?

Question three: What are you going through right now where you need God to turn up? Something to consider is that perhaps God may be wanting to do something greater in your life than just fix your problem.

And final question: How is your trust in God? Take some time to look back on your life and see the times God showed his faithfulness. If you feel you don’t find any, perhaps it may be time to start stepping into situations that require more of God and less of you.

Well, thank you so much for joining us on today’s episode on trusting the faithfulness of God. I hope this sparked your interest to better understand God and to realise the impact of who God is on your life.

Our speaker Pablo has just finished speaking on our Discipleship Training School, he covers a full in-depth week of teaching all about the character and nature of God. This is just one week on a five-month course we offer at YWAM Newcastle, full of dynamic teaching and practical, on the ground missions experience.

Why not take five months of your life to better discover who God is and how you can live for God? You’ll earn a Certificate 3 in Discipleship and can go on to earn a complete degree. Plus the course is also CentreLink approved.

We hope you will join us next week for what I know will be another great message. Together, let’s keep discovering more about God.