Study Notes

I.       It’s very irreverent to not trust God

A.    When we reverence God we trust Him (Psalm 115:11)

1.     Trust – To have confidence, be confident, to be bold, to feel safe, be careless, lean on

2.     Psalm 86:2 (AMP) – Leaning and believing on Him, committing all and confidently looking to Him, without fear or doubt is to trust him

3.     It would be irreverent to:

a.    Not trust in him

b.    Not be confident in him

c.    Not be bold

d.    Not be careless, be fearful or be in doubt (that makes worry extremely irreverent)

e.    Not lean on him – Leaning or relying on another source for support is irreverent

B.     Reverence and trust (Psalm 31:19, 34:7-9)

II.      The irreverence of unbelief; there’s no greater manifestation of irreverence than walking in unbelief 

A.    Out of my respect and reverence for God, I trust Him (Psalm 40:3)

1.     My respect and reverence for God is going to give birth to faith, trust, and belief in what He says

B.     They continually questioned the validity or truth of what Jesus said and in doing so they dishonored Him (John 8:13-59)

1.     The theme here is that they didn’t believe Jesus

2.     13-They told Jesus that was He was saying is not valid (true) and it was worthless (had no worth)

3.     49-The didn’t honor and reverence Jesus and we can see that in their lack of trust in what he says

a.    The dishonored him with their unbelief

b.    They were basically saying that we don’t value you or what you’re saying as important because it’s not true

C.   When you say that you don’t believe a person it’s very irreverent because it questions the very core and nature of a man; the very heart of who he is

1.     Satan is the Father of lies (John 8:44)

a.    Lying is his very nature and make up; there’s no truth in him

b.    Lying is at the core of who he was from the beginning (Genesis 3:4, 2 John 1:7, Revelation 12:9)

2.     Truth is the very nature and the very heart of God

a.    Everything about Him is truth

(1)      His Word (James 1:18, John 17:17)

(2)      His Spirit (John 16:13)

(3)      Himself (John 14:6)

b.    God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2)

(1)      Us knowing that God is a God of integrity and truth is very important to Him (Hebrews 6:18, Psalm 89:34)

3.     God hates lying and when you don’t believe His word you are calling Him something that he hates (Proverbs 6:17, 8:13)       

a.    Unbelief is rooted in  you acknowledging something that God says as being a lie

(1)      To be in unbelief you have to acknowledge that what God says is a lie

(2)      Most believers would never say they don’t believe what God is saying with their mouths, but do make that confession with their attitude

(a)     Romans 15:13 – There’s joy and peace in believing and discouragement and worry in unbelief

b.    In a sense unbelief says that God is the son of the Father of Lies, Satan himself

4.     EX: Imagine your spouse telling you something that you have no way of knowing that it is true, but by believing them when they tell you it’s true.  Then you respond back with I don’t believe you.  That’s irreverent and disrespectful.  You’re questioning the very core and the very nature of who they are. 

D.    Reverence is a willingness to do whatever is necessary to build faith in overwhelming desire to not want be irreverence towards God in unbelief

III.     The reverence of faith

A.    Romans 4:16-21

1.     19-The report of my body and her body is not valid, it’s of no worth, it means nothing to me I don’t consider it

a.    When you choose to attend to the evil report and that report effects your attitude you are saying, “Lord what you say is not valid and it has no worth.  What God says means nothing to me because you I don’t believe it to be true.”

b.    The report that is valid and has worth in your eyes is the one that you give attention to and the one that effects your attitude

c.    18-The report of God is what’s valid to him, it’s of worth to him, and he’s considering it

2.     20-AMP-This is reverence (Psalm 86:2)

3.     I don’t know of a greater manifestation of irreverence than to tell you God you don’t believe Him.  At the same time I don’t know of anything more reverent than when it looks like God’s word is not true, it looks like His word is not so, and it looks like His Word is never coming to pass and you stand up and say out of reverence and respect for my Father I trust Him.

B.     Genesis 22:1-12 – Abraham was reverent because he trusted God

1.     Genesis 21:12 – He had the promise that through Isaac his seed was going to be called

2.     Hebrews 11:17-19 – He trusted God and His Word

3.     God knew that Abraham feared him because he didn’t withhold his most valuable thing in his life, but Abraham didn’t withhold the most valuable thing in his life because he trusted God

C.   Genesis 6-7, Hebrews 11:7 – Out of reverence for God Noah trusted God and built that ark for 100 years before that flood came

D.    Faith reverences God and pleases Him (Hebrews 11:6)

1.     Faith shows God respect and reverence

a.    It shows God that I respect, reverence, and honor you and your Word more than I do anything or anybody else’s word (Romans 3:3)

(1)      Part of believing God is when you value what He says over anybody and anything else 

2.     Watch unbelief in our songs and in our conversation

a.    I never want to do, say, or think anything that says I don’t believe God

b.    To believing something to be true that is in opposition to what God says is to call God a liar; how irreverent