Eternal perspectives and right responses (Pslam 37:1-20)
Notes
Transcript
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Scripture Reading:
Scripture Reading:
Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth.
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plots against the just,
And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him,
For He sees that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn the sword
And have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
To slay those who are of upright conduct.
Their sword shall enter their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.
A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
But the Lord upholds the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the upright,
And their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish;
And the enemies of the Lord,
Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish.
Into smoke they shall vanish away.
Introduction:
Introduction:
Have you ever looked at the world around you and wondered how things have gotten so bad? There are wars, poverty, sickness, and disease. People suffer and die. Does God see what is going on and why does he not act immediately to fix it?
Have you ever compared yourself to someone else, and wished for an easier life? Especially here in Somerset West, the city of millionaires, where you see those who have great wealth live godless lives. The nice cars, big houses, private schools, the latest gadgets. Why does it seem like those live without the fear of God have such prosperity?
Often times we as followers of Jesus have to endure great hardship and suffering, while the wicked prosper. Does that it upset you, do you get angry and begin to wish you have things you don’t have?
How should we as Christians respond to all this? Well, the good news is, God has sees it all. Today we look at what the Bible says about our present struggle, our future hope, and how to rightly respond to lifes challenges.
Read:
Read:
Do not fret because of evildoers,
Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.
For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,
And wither as the green herb.
When we see those who do evil in this world, its easy for us to become upset about it.
We begin question God’s goodness and justice. Why would God allow these evil people to prosper, while his own people seem to suffer and struggle? It doesn’t seem fair.
Can’t God just make life a little bit easier for us? Look at my life, compared to his or her life. Am I really asking for that much?
Here I am following God, being obedient to His commandments, and little by little my live seems falling apart.
We become envious, and begin to question God’s character and goodness.
We become deceived into thinking we know better than God.
We lose perspective.
But when we begin to look at things from God’s perspective our mind changes very quickly.
God is eternal, he see’s the beginning from the end. He shows no partiality (no favortism), and he is fair in all his dealings.
When begin to understand the destiny of the wicked, hell, being envious of is foolish.
Their comfort and riches are separating them from God. They have no desire to seek God because already have everything they need.
But just like grass and green herb, those riches won’t last. You can’t take them with you into eternity when you die. You can’t take your house, your car, your success, or your degrees with you when you die. It's just going to be you and God. And you’re either going to spend eternity with him, or without him.
Listen to how David’s attitude changed when He gained an eternal perspective, when he came to understand the destiny of the wicked.
For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
Then I understood their end.
Surely You set them in slippery places;
You cast them down to destruction.
Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment!
They are utterly consumed with terrors.
As a dream when one awakes,
So, Lord, when You awake,
You shall despise their image.
So with this eternal pespective in mind, how should we respond? Lets read verse three and four.
Read:
Read:
Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the Lord,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
We as Christians are called to walk by faith and not by sight.
We should delight ourselves in the Lord and trust that he will give us the desires of our heart.
And why can He do this? Because when we delight ourselves in God, when we pray and spend time with Him, God’s shows us His heart.
We begin to understand that his desires for us is perfect, and that He knows what is best for us. And we begin to desire what He desires for us. He is able to achieve so much more than we can ever think or imagine.
Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Read:
Read:
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.
He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,
And your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.
Here we are invited to commit our way to the Lord and to trust in Him. What does that mean?
God is inviting us to rely on Him fully.
We are to trust Him with our future because His in control of it.
A man’s heart plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
We shouldn’t get angry when we see the wicked prospering or when we see their evil plans succeeding. Rather we should wait on the Lord and put our confidence in Him because we know that He will act on our behalf. He will strengthen us and sustian us.
Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Read:
Read:
Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret—it only causes harm.
For evildoers shall be cut off;
But those who wait on the Lord,
They shall inherit the earth.
Here the David for the second time tells us to stop being angry and fretting. Why? Because anger damages, it causes harm.
First anger harms you and then it destroys your relationships with others around you.
Sometimes we are rightfully angry, the Bible speaks about God’s righteous anger and how he pours out his wrath on people for their evil behaviour.
But guess what? Your anger and God’s anger are not the same.
99.9% of our anger is unrighteous.
And when we engage in unrightous anger, we invite Satan into our lives - and he does what he does best: kill, steal, and destroy. Listen to what Ephesians says:
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
When we are angry we fall into the trap of thinking we are fighting the other person, but guess who we are really fighting: Satan and his demons.
For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
Its because of this that James, Jesus brother tells us:
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
So what do we do when we are angred? We should go to God. We should sit in His presence and speak to Him about the matter. We to wait on Him, rely on Him and trust Him. He shows no favoritism, and he will judge righteously. He is a God of justice. First, He will deal with our sins and then He will deal with the other person. God will keep us accountable for our actions judgement day, and he will also keep the wicked accountable for theirs.
Listen to what Jesus said:
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.
We are to trust God when people do us harm.
1 Peter 2:23 (NKJV)
who (Jesus), when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;
Allow God to fight your battles for you
The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Strong words. Let’s move on.
Read:
Read:
For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more;
Indeed, you will look carefully for his place,
But it shall be no more.
But the meek shall inherit the earth,
And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Here we see again, just how fair God is. In just a little while, the wicked will be destroyed. And He will reward the humble and afflicted for their patient endurance. They will inherit the earth and deligth themselves in abundant peace. Everything is going to change at the second coming of Jesus.
Even though it may feel to us like God is taking his time. His not. Why? Because he has an eternal perspective.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Remember that God is fair and just like God is patient with you and me - He is also patient with his enemies. He must deal fairly with them because He is a God of justice.
He wants these people living in sin and rebellion against Him repent and to turn to Him for the forgiveness of their sin. So He is giving them time to do so, but in the process we have to wait with Him and trust Him.
But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
Read:
Read:
The wicked plots against the just,
And gnashes at him with his teeth.
The Lord laughs at him,
For He sees that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn the sword
And have bent their bow,
To cast down the poor and needy,
To slay those who are of upright conduct.
Their sword shall enter their own heart,
And their bows shall be broken.
Here we are reminded that our God see’s all things.
There are times in your life where evil people come against you, with the intention of harming you. They will hate you and grind their teeth at you. They will be excited about seeing your downfall.
They will draw their weapons against you, their swords and arrows, and they will plot and scheme against you for the sake.
But does God see it? Yes. Does God ignore it? No.
In fact, God responds. He laughs at them. Why? Because He knows that their day is coming and he will judge them for their works and protect the righteous.
No weapon formed against you shall prosper,
And every tongue which rises against you in judgment
You shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
And their righteousness is from Me,”
Says the Lord.
Read:
Read:
A little that a righteous man has
Is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
But the Lord upholds the righteous.
The Lord knows the days of the upright,
And their inheritance shall be forever.
They shall not be ashamed in the evil time,
And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
Here the Bible tells us, that even though it may look like the wicked are prospering - what we have as Christians is so much better. We have things that money can’t buy.
We have a loving Father in Heaven that will provide for all of our needs even in a world where things are really hard.
We have a God that will never leave us, nor forsake us.
We have a Father that sees our struggles and gives us the strength to endure it patiently.
We have a God who protects us.
We have a future hope - eternity with with God.
We have forgiveness of sins.
We have peace that only Jesus can give us.
We have joy inexpressible that is not dependent on our circumstances.
We have the love of God living inside of us.
As you get older, you will realize that the most expensive things in life are the things that money can’t buy. And we have blessings in Jesus that the world can never have.
Read:
Read:
But the wicked shall perish;
And the enemies of the Lord,
Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish.
Into smoke they shall vanish away.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
In closing, we need to have an eternal perspective. We need to understand that God will utlimately deal with the wicked and they will all perish.
However, we are responsible for our response. We need to respond rightly to the evil in the world. We should not allow evil to lead us into temptation ourselves, and allow our anger to cause us to sin against God.
We are not fighting against flesh and blood, but rather against invisible forces of evil in the world - Satan and his demonic kingdom. Rather we should do as Matthew 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,”
Let God deal with them. Because if God is for us, who can be against us? All his dealings are fair and right.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer