Letting People Be People
Psa. 5:11-12

When we let God be God, we can let people be people. Lack of trust causes manipulation.
We try to supervise and regulate people’s behavior and activities because we don’t trust them.
a. We don’t trust them because we think everybody is alike. I don’t trust myself doing some things because it would cause me to sin. What’s temptation to me has got to be temptation for everybody else. Therefore, nobody can engage in that activity.
(A) Joe Stalls and Deannie. Bill said, “He’s making sexual advances toward her.”
(1) You can’t do that without having immoral thoughts and feelings. That was Bill’s
problem. That’s the way he was and believed everybody else was that way also.
You cannot attribute you sins and short comings to everyone else.
If you do, you constantly distrust and condemn others unjustly. Not every
man is a lech the way Bill was.
(2) If you cannot trust your brothers and sisters to do right, that distrust is probably
caused by something wrong in your own life.
You’re probably the one who has the biggest problem in that area.
Your problem with that sin not only causes you to condemn others but it causes you to distrust God. Explain that.
(B) The more we trust God’s perfection, the better we can deal with human imperfection.
Trusting in God’s perfection is absolutely necessary. There is no other healthy way to survive life in a broken world.
Nothing short of the love of God can equip us to love others as we should.
Do you know why? It is our security in God’s perfect love that makes it safe to love those who are not perfect.
b. Dealing with sinful people is one of the most difficult things in the world.
When we put our trust in God, we’re not as vulnerable to the disappointments that are bound to arise in our dealings with others - Psa. 5:11-12. Remember God will take care of them and their needs. You certainly can not do it!
When our needs for security and significance are met in God, then we are free to love others realistically and without unhealthy fears, doubts and suspicions.
We will make peace with imperfection. We’ll accept the fact that people cannot be anything but imperfect.
We will have more realistic expectations of others. And it will not be the end of the world when somebody makes a mistake.
(2) Never place on others the unfair burden of answering to you instead of God.
Let your trust in others be reflected in your trust that God will take care
of both of you no matter what happens.
(b) Take David’s advice in Psa. 5:11, “I will trust in God and not be afraid.”
(B) My sins are just as serious as anybody else. My trust in God for my own pardon
tells me be to be patient and forbearing with others.
(1) Eph. 4:1?2, tells us “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
(1) In Col. 3:13, Paul tells us, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
(2) Some times we are prone to forget the reality of Rom. 8:28. Do you remember what it says? “All things work together for good....”

(2) God does the same for you and He will do no less for other Christians.
(1) Read Romans 8:28, 31-33, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose...If God is for us, who can be against us?....Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns?”
(2) If you truly believe that God works in your life to accomplish His will, You must believe that God works in the life others to do the same for them.
2. Trust God’s control and you won’t work up a sweat trying to control every body else around you. a. Just let go and let God be in control of you and others.
(1) Don’t forget what Jesus said about sawdust and logs in Matt. 7:3-5.
(1) Trust others to give their best to God just like you do. You don’t have to be accountable to see that they do right. You’re not their mother or daddy and you are certainly not God, to whom all will give an account.
1. Phip. 4:13, applies to all Christians not just for you
(B) When we come to know the perfect love of God, we will no longer place the impossible
burden of perfection on other brothers and sisters.
b. When God is our primary focus in life we can take on the divine nature of God.
(2) Begin become like God. Filled with Love, Kindness, patience, longsuffering, forgiveness and compassion.
(3) Others shortcoming, failures will be neither annoying nor discouraging.
c. Trust in God’s perfection frees us to see our own limitations in a better way.
(4) And that’s the best way to learn not to trust in ourselves, but in God”
(5) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 6/3/2001 am