Let's pray together.
Father, we have only thanks to offer up
for our living hope,
the true and living way that does take us
into Your very presence, Lord.
We hope that through every difficulty,
every sin, every trial,
or all seasons of life,
Christ is our hope.
He will remind us what a firm foundation He is
under our feet,
a rock that won't be moved,
a ground that can't be shaken.
So we turn our eyes and we turn our hearts
to Him,
to adore Him,
to serve Him,
to glory in Him,
that all in all,
He would be our only hope in our life.
Father, we pray You would bless our tithe and our offering,
that we would give our faith,
our first and our best unto You.
Lord, You don't need anything from us,
but You are willing to use us
to help us to keep right perspectives, Lord,
on what it means to own something.
So we say all we have is Yours.
We pray it all in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, good evening.
We're going to be in Psalm chapter 37.
Psalm chapter 37 verses...
1 through 4.
Psalm chapter 37 verses 1 through 4.
Psalm chapter 37 verses 1 through 4.
And the psalmist writes,
fret not yourself because of evildoers.
Be not envious of wrongdoers.
For they will soon fade like the grass
and wither like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good.
Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and He will give you the desires of your heart.
I imagine telling a soldier on D-Day
in those little boats going up to the shores in Normandy,
don't fret.
Don't fret.
Or how about a battalion of soldiers
in Vietnam
in a jungle
surrounded by Vietnamese soldiers.
Don't fret.
Don't worry.
Don't do it.
Don't do it.
God's way is always upside down, isn't it?
And I think this psalm draws that out
because you and I are always engaged
in a spiritual battle.
And we always have very real enemies
all around in this world.
All around.
And David was no stranger to enemies.
It's very fitting that he writes this
because he's writing from real, painful,
been there, done it plenty of times experience.
In the face and the opposition
of the evil man, of an enemy.
He's not an enemy.
Yet, David,
David says,
don't fret
when you're surrounded by evil.
Don't fret.
Think about King David's life.
It's really a story
of going from one evil to another.
Remember Goliath.
That was a brash, bold enemy
of God and God's people.
That was an adversary.
That nobody in Israel,
none of the soldiers,
not King Saul,
could do anything about.
It was an unsolvable problem for them
and they were fretting.
They were paralyzed.
You think about King Saul himself.
By no fault of his own,
Saul wanted his life
and he spent years.
Think about years.
As a fugitive.
Running, hiding,
over and over again.
From here to there.
Not knowing if you're going to be found out.
Are you going to live much longer?
David's own son,
Absalom,
turned against him
and ran a coup
and for a time took his throne.
Joab,
his trusted commander,
undermined him twice.
And murdered for his benefit.
Joab assassinated Absalom
against David's wishes.
Sheba,
he turned a bunch of the people against David
and tried to overthrow David.
Shimei cursed David
over and over again
and threw stones at him
when Absalom had taken the kingdom for a moment.
So a man marked by a lifetime of battery
from evil men
and observing
the wicked schemes
of men.
How do you fare
through all that?
I think there's a weight
to hearing David say
fret not.
And that doesn't include
all the Canaanite nations
he was constantly warring against.
It seems like
often times
wicked men
are immovable.
That their attacks are effective,
their will is uncontested
and fretting about it
is the only thing
that we can really do.
Who could stand against a giant?
Who could kill a man
that was taller and stronger
than everyone else?
Yet
David
killed Goliath
cut off his head
and Saul
fell on his own sword
and Joab was eventually brought to justice
and executed
as Shimei was
and Absalom was killed
and Sheba was killed.
Each of them fell
in God's time
and
and
and
,
they were each
struck down
by the Lord.
By the Lord.
Further on in verse,
chapter 37
in verses
35 and 36
David writes
I've seen a wicked
ruthless man
spreading himself
like a green laurel tree
but he passed away
and behold
he was no more
though I saw him
but he was no more
but he was no more
he could not
be
found.
This is anti-fretting.
This is anti-fretting.
And it's not like a cold emotional
neutral response to life
to all bad
like it's all fine
I'm not supposed to
that's not the case.
When we experience difficulties
when we see evil
done
God has changed
our hearts
to look like His
so that we must
and should
really
have a grating experience
when we
when we see what
the evil man does.
Something's wrong
with your Christianity
if you're not really bothered
by the way evil thrives
around you
and your personal life
and what you see
on the world stage
or stories that you hear.
And I think examples
are more than we could
probably come up with.
We could talk about
an ever increasing corruption
in politics
and government.
We could talk about
the great moral decline
among our nation
and the world.
We could talk about
the desecration
of the Lord's Supper
how that was abominated
at the opening of the church.
At the opening of the Olympics
just a few days ago.
We could talk about
murdered babies in the womb.
We could talk about
persecution of Christians worldwide.
We could talk about
people that have
lied about you
or maligned you
or manipulated you
or stolen from you.
Somebody you love got hurt
in a wrong way
unjustified way.
So David's not saying
get over it.
Calm down.
He's saying don't fret.
And there's a big difference here.
Fretting is a sort of
internal
you know
swelling
of frustration
and anxiety.
It's just dwelling on evil
over and over again
to the point where
you are inside
just at the highest
you know
fever you can get to
of just anxious
and angry
and stressed out
and frustrated.
David's saying don't do that
because God has his eye
on the wicked
just as much as he does
on the righteous.
And God will repay
the righteous man
just as much
as God will repay
the wicked man.
In verse 34
of chapter 37.
He says wait
for the Lord.
Keep his way
and he will exalt you
to inherit the land.
You will look on
when the wicked
are cut off.
So this challenges us
as God's people
living in an evil world
to respond with
faith
rather than our flesh.
Okay?
So we'll say that
fretting
this kind of fretting
that David's talking about
it's a fruit
of the
of the flesh
not the spirit.
We should have faith.
And
just kind of
37 is its best
its own
best commentary
when we look at
when we look at this
chapter
in verse 8
verse 8 tells us
refrain from anger
and forsake wrath.
Fret not yourself.
It tends only to evil.
Don't go down that path.
So fretting
I want you to see this.
Fretting
is not something you do
as much as it is something
someone you become.
The more you do it
the more it changes you
to think and act like
the very person
that you once
were fretting about.
It doesn't mean
that you're going to do
what they did
but you're going to end up
according to the psalmist
considering evil
as a possible option
for how you
can address
the situation.
He says it tends
to evil.
So how then
do we as Christians
feel the spirit
respond
to evil?
We must look outside
of ourselves
and our own resources.
You can't wrong
a right
with a wrong
is effectively
what David's saying.
Fretting
turns us
away from God.
Faith turns us
Godward.
Turns us Godward.
So we're talking about
faithlessness.
We're talking about
a disbelieving
of the sovereignty of God.
That's what David's getting at.
That's what David's
really getting at here.
Fretting
and giving into that
as a natural impulse
for how I deal with
wrongs I see
and wrongs done to me
is a disbelieving
of the sovereignty of God.
And so I want to
encourage us here
to
maybe
exchange
a very weak
shallow sort of
understanding of
general sovereignty
that we have
for
meticulous
sovereignty.
I think a lot of us
think about
sovereignty as God's like
in control of it all.
You know,
He's going to get
the right ends
that He wants.
But it's kind of
a wind-up doll
and people
and their choices
are making things,
you know,
they're shaping the world
as it is.
That God's this
big character up here.
And He can
make it
come out the way
that He wants.
And I think that's
biblically inaccurate.
I think it's
biblically inaccurate.
I think what we see
when we look at the Scriptures
is that God is working
in the fine details
of life
both to glorify Himself
and do good
for His
people.
And of course,
I brought verses
to back that up.
verse 1,
says,
the king's heart
is a stream of water
in the hand of the Lord.
He turns it
wherever He will.
In Esther chapter 4,
verse 14,
you know,
Esther's nervous about
telling the king
about what Mordecai's doing.
And what Haman's doing,
excuse me,
Mordecai says,
who knows
whether you have
not come to the kingdom
for such a time as this.
And it's a very popular
phrase from Esther.
He's basically
saying to Esther,
this has happened
the way it's happened
so you can talk to the king
so you can save
Israel.
verse 3,
the Lord says,
I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
And of course,
Paul echoes that
in Romans.
Proverbs 16, 9,
the heart of a man
plans his way,
but the Lord
establishes his steps.
the lot is cast
into the lap,
but it's every decision
is from the Lord.
29,
are not two sparrows
sold for a penny
and not one of them
will fall to the ground
apart from your father?
Even the hairs
of your head are numbered?
in him we have obtained
an inheritance
having been predestined
according to the purpose
of him who works
all things according
to the
counsel
of his
will.
I've come with
verses for that.
Daniel chapter 2,
verse 21,
he changes times
and seasons. He removes
kings and sets up kings.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those
who have understanding.
Acts chapter 4, verse 27 and 28.
For truly in this city
they were gathered together
against your holy servant Jesus
whom you anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate
along with the Gentiles
and the peoples of Israel
to do whatever your hand
and your plan
had predestined
to take place.
Friends, it is not open season
for fretting
in an election cycle
even if it's an awfully
odd, seemingly upside down
and corrupt one.
It's not open season
for fretting
ever.
I think meticulous sovereignty
gives us
peace
and it gives us peace.
It gives us joy.
Because whatever sour thing has happened because of the evil man,
it's according to God's sovereign decree.
But that sovereign decree always will work goodness and salvation
for the lives of His people.
What greater evil then can we imagine,
and what greater good came from it than the cross of Christ?
Who could imagine a greater evil than the Maker of the stars,
the Holy One of Israel,
the Beloved of Heaven,
nailed to a tree?
If anyone ever had justifiable anger and vengeance,
if anyone ever really had a good reason to fret,
would it not have been the Lord Jesus,
who is so wronged as He was?
Yet Jesus anti-fretted.
He had faith.
He believed.
He believed.
1 Peter 2, verse 23,
Peter says in when He was reviled, He did not revile in return.
When He suffered, He did not threaten,
but continued entrusting Himself to Him who judges justly.
So, if all evil has been undone
and destroyed in Christ Jesus,
you and I only need to cling to Christ Jesus,
find ourselves in Christ Jesus,
because in Him, all evil's done to us
will be justly judged in their time,
and we will be vindicated and saved.
It's not just about,
well, I can overlook that because, you know,
God, you know, He's going to get me through this,
or He's going to give me the strength to move through this,
and that's so bad, but He's going to just,
He's going to be my rock so I can get through this thing.
Well, God does want you to get through it,
but more than that, He wants you to have like
a really just panoramic view
of how it's happening
the way He wants it to happen.
He wants it to happen
so you can have a greater vision of Christ,
and you can have a greater vision of the cross.
And it's not like evil, big evil with the devil,
and that's what the cross addresses,
and then there's like all the sufferings of your life.
No, no, no.
The cross of Christ is where all evil,
big and small,
all things done against God's people
runs its course,
and it is resurrection,
and we're in Christ,
and we will find ourselves
in Christ.
As the psalmist said,
looking on when the wicked is destroyed.
You will look to find Him
and you won't be able to.
Friends, let this text
just make you wonder
and worship
all of it,
all the negative, all the bad,
all the harm,
everything that it seems like
the worst people in the world
are getting away with everything.
No, they're not.
Because the Lord has His eye on the wicked,
and He has His eye on the righteous.
A.W. Pink has said,
Divine sovereignty
is not the sovereignty
of a tyrannical despot,
but the exercise pleasure
of one
who is infinitely wise
and infinitely good.
Infinitely good.
So,
take comfort
in a God who is
not big picture sovereign,
but
moment by moment,
situation by situation,
sovereign.
And He's good
to us, His people.
He's good to you.
You know what the first thing
you're going to forget
when the evil man
comes against you?
The first thing
that you're tempted to forget
in your flesh.
I don't know.
Is God good to me?
That's what you're going to want
to ask yourself.
Is God really good
to me?
Doesn't God care
about?
But also, this text encourages us
to pray at all times.
To pray at all times.
Because prayer is
prayer is
an act of faith.
Prayer is
an exercise
in anti-freighting.
Prayer is
what your flesh doesn't want
to do when you
see the evil man thriving.
You want to do something about it.
Yet Paul says, pray
at all times.
In every season,
we're to be praying.
And crying out to the Lord.
Not because
God isn't going to
take care of us and save us
unless we ask for it in just like
the right way.
But because in my praying for God's will
and in my praying for who I know
God to be, my faith
is strengthened in who
God is.
So you and I cannot,
we cannot under-emphasize
the importance,
the power,
the necessity
of prayer in our
daily lives. You can't do it.
You can't do it.
And then I think
that this does encourage us
so much to look forward
to the world to come.
To look forward to the end.
And we'll come back into Revelation
in a few weeks and finish out the last
few chapters.
But we've seen plenty of times in Revelation
where God's people
are on the other side, those martyred saints.
They're crying out for
vengeance.
They're crying out for vengeance.
They want God
to destroy the wicked.
They're expecting God
to destroy
the wicked.
So friends, that is a day
that will come.
And just as a footnote,
this doesn't mean that there aren't
times in life to seek
justice.
Or to seek
some kind of legal
recourse when something can be
done. If you've been wronged in one
way or the other, it doesn't mean that
Christians are supposed to
be just floor mats
for everyone. That's not what David's
saying.
But we know the difference, don't
we, when we're in our flesh
boiling.
I think boiling maybe would be a good
modern word for this fretting.
And we're seeking God's face
and we're trusting.
And we're trusting him.
Surrounded by
evil, don't fret.
But secondly,
David says, don't envy.
Don't envy.
He says there in the second half
of verse 1, be not envious
of wrongdoers.
So this is the second danger
here when surrounded
by evil, when seeing evil.
Some folks seem to have,
don't they, the easiest
life possible.
Some people
seem to have
just an easy way all the way through.
Seems like every endeavor
works out. They've got plenty
of money.
They don't have hardships.
And what's
maybe aggravating is when you see that
in someone that you know
is an underhanded individual.
Someone that
is wicked.
Again, you could
probably come up with names about
actors or music
artists or a variety of famous
people, politicians.
And then, you
know people in your life, right?
Past and present, who
seems like they've had a really nice life.
They don't have a real commitment to God, but
you know,
they seem successful and happy
and they seem like they've got
money and they've got a
good position in life
and, you know, it vexes you.
Right? You're looking through your little
Facebook telescope at them and you're
going,
them.
They're so
evil. You're vexed
by people who you think are the worst
and they're doing well.
And then we wonder things
like,
I've been faithful
to the Lord. I mean, I'm not saying I'm perfect.
I've been faithful
to the Lord. I've tried to do
right things in my life. I've tried to be committed
to the church.
Why hasn't the Lord given me more of a comfortable situation?
Well, how
come I've had the hardships I've had
that other people haven't had to put up with?
Why is my
financial situation what I didn't want it to be
at this point in life? How come my health
is always rough?
How come my health is always rough?
How come I've not had the success I've wanted to have
in my career
or my ministry?
And friends,
the answer's in the question.
The answer's in the question.
It's because you've tried to be faithful to the Lord.
And where is it written
that if we're serving the Lord,
life is going to be a cakewalk?
Who said that?
Who said that?
Being faithful to the Lord
is about
the Lord's
will for us in Christ Jesus.
And that's not a carefree
happy life.
I heard someone say recently,
and I thought it was good,
you can either have
character or an easy
life, but whichever one you
choose will destroy the other one.
And it's supremely true for us
as Christians.
The Lord told Ananias,
go,
go to where Paul is.
I'm going to tell him how much
he's got to suffer for me
is what's said there.
Timothy says, all who desire to live
a righteous life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
Did Jesus,
did Jesus,
did he have some luxurious
easy life?
He could have, couldn't he?
I mean, he had a lot of popularity
his whole ministry. He could have pulled in
a lot of money.
He could have one of those shows, you know,
call in now, you know,
your tithe is what
you owe, but your seed is what you
sow. And boy would he
have got a lot of money off that line.
But Jesus,
Jesus was pushed down
to death.
Jesus,
Jesus was pushed down to death.
So I think we can say that the absence of
worldly success and worldly
favor isn't a
proof we lack God's blessings.
I think it's proof
we have it.
God gives Christians success
sometimes, but why does God give Christians
worldly success?
It's a really important question to
think about for us.
And the answer is
for him. To serve him.
To use financial generosity
for him. To use positions
of influence for him.
For him.
So an increase in your
lot is not bad. It's not
off the table, but it's not promised.
It's not promised.
And it shouldn't be any of our
highest aim either.
Charles Burgin has said
nature is very apt to kindle
a fire of jealousy
when it sees lawbreakers
riding on horses
and obedient subjects
walking in the mire.
It is a lesson learned only in the
school of grace when one
comes to view the most paradoxical
providences
with devout complacency
of one who is sure that the Lord
is righteous in all his acts.
It seems
hard to carnal judgments
that the best meat should go
to the dogs while loving
children pine
for the want of it.
Children,
all those treasures stored up in this
life, everything that you could want,
those are
a judgment in themselves
for those who
aren't in Christ.
What remains in the end?
What remains in the end?
Peter
has a scripture
just like this one.
That the flower
fades, the grass withers,
but he says the word of the Lord,
the word of the Lord,
that will
stand forever.
That's
the valuable
treasure for us.
Everything,
everything else is burned up in the end.
So
get your eye
off the next shiny object
you've got to have.
Get your eyes
off of everybody else's stuff
and everybody else's successes.
Quit
looking at the things you want.
Stop
mourning the things you didn't get
and mourning the life
you wanted to have and it never happened.
That
is a massive,
massive waste of time
to look in the rear view mirror
and say, how come?
Why not?
It's what I wanted. It's what I fought for.
It was a good thing.
It was a good thing and I didn't get it.
It wasn't
fair.
Oh,
friends, if we could just follow in the footsteps
of Jesus,
though that be despised,
despised by the world,
that we wouldn't hold very much
in our hands in this life.
Though the wicked man is
touted with praise
and a long, healthy, wealthy
life here in this world,
but that narrow, unattractive path,
as it
puts blisters on our feet now,
soon you'll look down
and you'll see streets of gold.
And soon you'll have in your
hand an everlasting treasure,
and that's the treasure
of Christ.
It's the treasure of Christ.
The Hebrew writer says,
keep your life free
from the love of money.
Be content
with what you have.
That's a hard word, huh?
Just be content with what you have.
For he has said,
I will never leave you
nor forsake you.
It seems like
the only thing that we should
desire to have, we already have.
And that's the presence
of Jesus with us
at all times.
That's the goodness of God
working now.
And that's not something
that I think anyone is exempt from.
No one's exempt from that.
That's not a you problem.
But that's not a problem for,
you know, people in
ministry, or people who are pastors.
That's
a universal problem
for Christians.
And I
do that. And I think this is something
the Lord's taken a long time
to convict me of.
How come
I can find a lot of people
on the internet, and
they seem like maybe they're taking shortcuts,
and I don't believe
the things they believe, because I don't think it lines up.
The Bible and the methodology of what they're doing
doesn't seem square.
But, gosh, do they have money coming out of their ears,
and they have people
everywhere, and it just seems like
it's just a big
cakewalk for them.
And it's like, Lord,
why is it so hard for me?
Why is it so hard for us?
How come this is the way?
How come that guy speaks at conferences?
How come they have, like, 19
book deals?
That doesn't seem fair.
It doesn't seem,
it doesn't seem right.
We all have our own way
of doing this, don't we?
So,
so hear me, church.
Envy
isn't just a bitter pill.
It's a fatal one.
And it will pervert you into
the thing you despise.
And a lot of times, you don't
see it until way after the fact.
Take your eyes off
other people.
Forget about what you
think you're owed.
Count it a privilege
to walk the path
that God has given you.
You believe in the sovereignty of God.
The path
you're walking is
the one you're supposed to be on.
That's profound.
The life that you have lived up to this point
and the life you will live
is exactly the pathway
that God wanted for you
and it's what He's doing
to draw you into
His Son, Jesus.
And that makes it a very blessed pathway, doesn't it?
That makes it worth living, doesn't it?
That's no cause for fretting
and envy, right?
Isn't it enough
to say, I'm on whatever this
broken, difficult pathway is?
But God says He's with me.
And God says
He'll never leave me forsaken.
God says He'll supply all of my needs in Christ Jesus.
Doesn't that make it a
blessed life for you to live?
However small or invisible
or difficult
it seems to the world?
But last,
the psalmist says this,
in verse
three he says,
trust in the Lord
and do good.
Dwell in the land
and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and He will give you
the desires
of your heart.
Surrounded by evil people,
just seek the Lord and serve Him.
That's essentially what David's saying.
Rich or poor,
good health, bad health,
thriving ministry,
modest ministry,
chains, free, cheated,
used up,
whatever it is,
you and I have the exact same
common calling in this life.
And it's achievable
at the same time.
Each of us have been called to seek the Lord
and to serve the Lord.
That's it.
People always say,
what's God's will for my life?
I want to know God's will for my life.
Am I living out God's will for my life?
Well, God's will for your life
is to seek and know Him
and to give your life to Him
and to serve Him.
That's God's will for your life.
However thrown down you feel,
however elevated the evil man is,
it doesn't change that.
It doesn't change your life
as it regards
being in Christ.
A man who is poor and passed over,
who doesn't have any apparent greatness,
can't he bask in the love
and light of Jesus as much as anyone else
in Christ?
Can he love God less
because the Lord and His sovereignty
has drawn out a really difficult path
for him to walk?
No.
Can a man,
however wicked men thrive,
can he be held back
from faithful obedience to God?
No.
The discouraged,
cast-down soul
has lost sight
of it.
Friends,
the wicked man,
your situation,
it cannot deprive you
of the pleasures of knowing God
and serving God.
Serving God
and knowing God.
It's a smokescreen.
It's a smokescreen.
Everything that's happening around you,
that pulls you away
from faithfulness to Christ,
it's a smokescreen.
And you start licking your own wounds
and you start justifying
why you don't have to be as faithful
as you once were in some season
way back when.
And you start seeing
how things are going
and you're pouting at God.
You're wasting time
and you're wasting your life.
It doesn't change anything.
Believe on the Lord Jesus.
Glory in the Lord Jesus.
Love the Lord Jesus
and be faithful to Him.
The Spirit of God's not departed from you.
The Word of God's still in your heart.
And that's all that matters
in the final analysis of things.
You know?
That's all that matters
in the final analysis of things.
Chad, were you able to grow your church
to 5,000 people
before I let you in heaven?
No.
Did you do this, that, and this?
Were you able to look like that person?
Friends, in the end,
what is it to be rightly judged by the Lord
but if we sought His face
and we gave our lives unto Him?
And that's it.
So see, verse 4 goes logically
right after verse 3
in what he says.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and He'll give you the desires of your heart.
Delight.
Have extreme pleasure
in who God is
and that God saved you a sinner.
Do you have extreme pleasure
in that thing?
No.
Not enough.
And when you are bitter
and fearing the evil man,
you definitely don't enjoy Jesus
the way you did.
Because if we're in that frame of mind
when God and Christ
and what He did
according to His eternal decree
to save us in Christ Jesus
and He's using us for His own will
to draw us into Christ
and we're serving for His purposes
and we can't see it
and it doesn't make sense
that God's doing a good thing
and God's sovereign over every moment.
If you are enraptured
in that thought
the way that God intends for you to be,
the evil man will be like
a little green army soldier
that kids play with to you.
It'll be as nothing for you
to think about
all your past hurts.
All the things you wish you had.
Delight yourself in Jesus.
Are you delighting in Jesus?
Do you believe the Gospel?
Yeah, I believe.
I believe Jesus died for my sins
and He saved this man.
Yeah, I'm a Christian.
You know how many times I heard that
at the pregnancy center?
I was like, alright, let's undo this mess.
Yeah, yeah, Jesus died for my sins.
Yeah, yeah.
My grandmother, she was
she's a preacher at a church way out
and here.
Or, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I was taken to church growing up.
Yeah, that's right.
I'm a Christian.
And it's like,
that's not the thing
like the thing is
I'm just believing
like believing
it's delighting.
It's a capacity
to have inexpressible joy
in who God is
and what God's done for you
and what God's going to be to you
for all the ages to come
and you're not going to be able to
plumb the depths
of how many delights
there are in Christ Jesus
and the things that are going to happen to you.
That's what we're living for
and you're stuck here
for these 70, 80 years
because something didn't turn out
the way you wanted.
Treasure him.
Push the rest out.
It's a waste of time.
And seek Christ.
Serve Christ.
No one can keep you
from opening your hands
and giving your best.
Give your best obedience to Jesus.
No enemy can take that from you.
Whatever evil done to you,
nothing can rob you
of serving Christ.
Are you giving your best self to Christ?
That's what the psalmist is asking us.
He's cutting through the smoke.
Give your best to Jesus
with your life.
Are you doing that?
Are you doing that?
I think we need to wake up
with a burden,
not a burden of guilt like,
oh, God's not going to be mad
if I don't give him enough today.
But if you've got that pleasure
and that delight
in the love of Christ for you,
I mean, that's what you,
that's what I want to do.
Where can I give my money away?
Who can I share Christ with?
What sin needs to be,
you know,
you know,
removed from my heart.
Like, it's different when you delight.
It's different when you delight.
It's real when you delight.
It's not a loophole.
Delight yourself in the Lord
and he gives you desires of your heart.
All right, I delight in Jesus.
Now I get what I want.
All the stuff I wanted,
all the stupid, sinful,
meaningless stuff I wanted.
That's not how it happens.
Because what you'll find is
when your desires
for the glory of God change,
what you're going to do is
what you want changes.
Like when you desire Christ as you ought
and you love him as you ought,
all of a sudden what you want life to be
is totally different.
It's totally different.
I think about Archie,
the missionary friend we have in Mexico.
And, you know,
he was a kind of a hardened,
selfish man his whole life
working for a landscape company,
doing that thing.
And God just got a hold of him.
That man's in southern Mexico
walking on dirt roads,
sharing Christ,
and giving medicine to sick people,
and starting businesses
so impoverished Mexicans can make a living.
And he's just preaching Christ
and his whole world's turned upside down.
Why?
Because he found God
in a delight,
in a spiritual world
that can't be given here.
And I wonder if that's
so much of our problem
individually
when we're just
trying to chug along
or a problem as the church in America today.
We just,
are we delighting in Jesus?
Is that a supreme joy?
You know,
is that it?
Like, that's it?
I don't know,
I've gone on long here,
but I think there's just
such treasure trove here
in the church.
And I think that's just such a treasure trove here.
And these few words from David,
I want to say to you, friends,
I don't know,
I don't know your expiration date
that God's put on your head.
We've all got one.
But I know
just one thing matters.
And that's knowing and serving the Lord.
All the factors and difficulties
and trials,
the trials of what's going around you,
friends,
these things will be long forgotten
and gladly so
in a new heaven and a new earth.
Seek Jesus.
Seek Jesus.
Seek the kingdom.
Don't fret.
Don't envy.
Seek Christ.
Lord, your word
is enough.
It's a lamp for our feet.
It's food for us.
It's a drink for us.
It's a weapon for us.
It's a shield for us.
All we can need
is all that we find in Christ.
Lord, show us
show us again how
it's encompassing
your power and your love is for us
and Jesus.
Show us again the depth,
the depth
of your love for us
in Christ Jesus.
Let us wonder
that we are
sinners.
Oh, and we belong in hell.
We belong miserable.
God, you have
made us brand new
and called us your own people,
your own children.
You've loved us with an everlasting love
and you've promised
that nothing will change that.
Oh, God, let that be
enough
for it is.
In the face of every evil
and every hardship,
oh, we pray that we would see
the cross of Christ
where evil is destroyed
and where we are saved.
Lord, let the cross just
ever be before us
as we march on.
God, I ask you God,
I which am seen
and here on earth
Oh, I am experiencing
Oh, God,