Passing The Test!

So we hear Moses saying to the people, “Why do you put the Lord to the test?” (Exodus 17:2) & “Do not test the Lord your God…” (Deuteronomy 6:16).

And we hear those words again from the lips of Jesus when Satan comes to tempt Him in the wilderness after His baptism. Three times Satan tries to get Jesus to sin, to take the easy way out. But Jesus rebuked him & said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” (Luke 4:12)

B. But there is one way in which we are told to put God to the test. We are to test His promises. For example, in Malachi 3:10 God Himself says, “‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the Lord Almighty,

‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’”

C. And how about some of the promises that Jesus made? He said, "Come to me, all you who are weary & burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28) Have you tried that?

He also said, "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matthew 6:33) Have you tried that?

You see, God always keeps His promises. Just as Abraham passed the test, God has always passed the test. You can trust Him to keep His word.

Now how about us? Are we passing the tests of obedience & self denial, & faith? How we are doing in the most important school on the face of the earth? Graduation time for some of us can't be very far away. I pray that we are ready.

You see, that's the point of this message. Regardless of the immediate outcome, when we do what is right & are faithful to Him, He will be faithful to us.

ILL. Christopher Parkening is regarded as the world’s greatest classical guitarist, & he’s played guitar with orchestras the world over, including for several presidents in the White House. He’s also a world-class fly-fishing champion.

He writes, "By age 30, I’d achieved all my dreams in the musical world, but I was tired of hotel rooms, performances & recording sessions. It was time to go fishing, so with the money I had earned, I found my dream stream on a ranch in Montana.

"I bought the ranch, called my management group at Colombia, & told them I had no desire to play anymore. I had earned enough money that I didn’t need to work anyway.

"So for several years, I did what I wanted, but as time went by, my life became more empty. I found that when you have everything you thought would make you happy, & it doesn’t – you start asking questions like: What’s missing?

"While in California visiting friends, I attended a church where I heard a sermon entitled, "Examine yourself whether you are in the faith." The preacher said that you could know all about Christ, the Bible, even pray to God, & Jesus could still say, ’Depart from me, you worker of iniquity, I never knew you.’ I was convinced that if I had died that night, Jesus would have spoken those words to me.