Ron Dunn Podcast - The Solution To All of It Part 2

Episode Date: November 12, 2023

Ron Dunn brings part 2 of his sermon "The Solution To It"

Some time ago I was watching television and after the news there came on this little spot advertising the Unity religion. Maybe some of you have seen that. Unity is religion out of Springfield. And every so often they'll come on television with about a 60-second spot. They'll usually have a movie star or some other celebrity there, and they'll start by saying, today the word from unity is, and then there'll be a word like attitude or perseverance, and it's a little pop psychology type of deal. But this particular night, this movie actress came on, and she said, today the word from unity is joy. And she talked about joy and how joyful joy is and how important it is, and she finished with this statement,

if you've lost your joy, get it back. I sat there and thought, Well, old dumb me, that never occurred to me. I mean, why didn't I think of that? All I had to do was get my joy back. Of course, the problem was she didn't tell me how to do it. And that's the problem with most advice. The world tells us to fly, but doesn't give us any wings.

People say, well, don't worry. Well, thanks a lot. What is it that I'm not supposed to worry about? Sort of like the doctor when he says, now, I don't want you to worry. Well, that makes me worry. What is it that I'm not supposed to be worrying about? Cheer up. Snap out of it. I was talking to someone yesterday.

Sometimes people find themselves in great distress, and they succumb to some real dark and black periods of depression. Other people don't understand that. They say, well, now, just come on. You need to just get your act together. Just shape up, you know, get with it. Well, if it were that easy. And one of the things that I appreciate so much about the Bible

is that when the Bible tells us to do something, it never just stops there. It goes on and tells us how to do it. One thing that you and I need to remember is that the Bible never commands us to do anything that we cannot do. Because when the Lord gives us command, he imparts to us the ability to obey that command. For instance, Jesus stood before the tomb of Lazarus. He said, Lazarus, come forth. Well, don't you think that's asking quite a bit of that fellow?

I mean, Lazarus is dead. That's sort of an impossible command. If Lazarus could have come forth, he would have done it before now. Lord, it's unreasonable. So he gave to Lazarus an impossible command. He said, come forth. And Lazarus did. Why? Because when Jesus gave the command, he also imparted to Lazarus the ability to obey that command.

He said to a man who was crippled for 38 years, Take up thy bed and walk. Well, that's asking an awful lot of a crippled man. But he did. He said to a man with a withered arm, Stretch forth thine hand. Well that's one of the things you cannot do with a withered arm. You can't stretch it forth. But he did. When the Lord commands us to do something, you ought to look upon that as a promise.

Because I know that God is not going to command me to do something that is beyond my capacity by His grace to do it. And so when I open this psalm and I read these first words, fret not thyself, well, that's like saying don't worry. There's no more useless, impossible advice in the world than telling somebody not to worry, not to fret. How do you do that? Well, the Bible doesn't just stop there. And as I've said yesterday, that he goes on to give us what I'm calling some alternatives to fretfulness. First of all, we understand that even though we're saved, we are

subject to these things. And we do come to these moments in life where there is an angry frustration in our hearts, and we feel there is a general uneasiness about our lives because we get the idea that sometimes God is not answering our prayers or God is not righting all the wrongs in our life. And the psalmist gives us four alternatives. We looked at those yesterday, found in verses 3, 4, 5, and 7. Trust in the Lord and do good. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way unto the Lord. And then the fourth one in verse 7, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.

And we said yesterday that those four are what I would call the alternatives to fretfulness. In other words, the Lord is saying, I don't want you to allow yourself to be carried away with fear and anxiety. Rather, trust in the Lord and do good. And we talked about that yesterday with the idea that that includes them all. We come now to these other three, which to me are the expressions of trust. I said that trust is kind of like a nut. You open it up, and on the inside you'll find they're delighting and committing and resting. They are the expressions of trust, the ingredients of trust. Or you can put it this way, all right, God tells me to trust in him. What does that mean? What am I to do? Well, it involves this, delighting yourself

in the Lord, committing your way unto the Lord, and resting in the Lord. And so today I want us to take those last three statements. First of all, in verse 4, the psalmist says, Delight thyself also, and the word also is very important because it ties it into what has just gone in verse 3. Trust in the Lord and do good. Delight thyself also in the Lord. Right along with this, involved in this, trusting, is delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Now there's a famous promise. There's a familiar one, and one that we

love, and one that we quote very, very often. I think, though, sometimes we quote that verse like this. If you'll just delight yourself in the Lord, my bless your heart, God will give you whatever your little heart desires. I mean, if you want a new Cadillac, delight yourself in the Lord, and He'll give you the desires of your heart. If you want a new home,

delight yourself in the Lord, and He'll give you whatever your little heart desires. Now, I'm not saying that that's not true. I'm not saying that if you delight yourself in the Lord that God won't give you the desires of your heart. But what I'm saying is, I think the psalmist had something just a little bit different in mind when he wrote those words. I don't think he was saying here, here is an easy, quick way for you to get whatever you want in your life. I think it goes deeper than that.

It may involve that. I'm not saying it's not so. I'm just saying that that is a superficial interpretation of that verse, and it goes far beyond that. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he will give you a heart that is satisfied. He will give you a heart that is at rest. He will give you a heart that has its desires met. Now, there's a question I have to ask about this,

and it is this. What in the world does this have to do with worry? What does this have to do with fretfulness? The psalmist is trying to help me not to fret. The psalmist is trying to help me not to fret. The psalmist is trying to help me to overcome this frustration and anger and anxiety. And he says, delight yourself in the Lord. But what in the world does that have to do with anything? Which leads to another question.

Why are you fretting? Why are you upset? Why are you uptight? What is it you're worrying about, and why are you worrying about it? Isn't it true that usually when we're uptight about something, frustrated, angry, it's because a source of our joy is in jeopardy. I mean, after all, the only reason I'm worrying about this is if I know it comes to pass, I can't

be happy. I mean, this is going to make me miserable. There is a source of my joy. The delight of my heart is in jeopardy. That's why I'm uptight. So he says, well, here's what you do. You need to delight yourself in the Lord. I think what he's saying is you need to find a source of joy that nothing can ever touch.

The reason that I'm upset about something and anxious about something is because one of my wells of joy is about to run dry. And the psalmist says, Oh, you need to find a well of joy that will never run dry, even in the worst of droughts. Now let me show you what I'm talking about. What is it basically that gives us our joy in life? I mean, getting down to the very basic things. I thought about this. I came up with five. You may come up with six or four or seven.

There may be some different, but these are what I came up. Number one basic source of my joy is life, the fact that I'm alive. I'm glad to be alive. I really am. I'm glad to be alive, and that's naturally a source of my joy is life, the fact that I'm alive. I'm glad to be alive. I really am. I'm glad to be alive, and that's naturally a source of joy. Second source of my joy and delight is my health. I may not have perfect health, but thank God I'm healthy enough to be here today. That's a source of joy. My wife and my children, they are a source of joy, one of the biggest wells

at all. My parents, my mother died a few years ago. My father is still alive. I have to say he is a source of joy to me. And then there is my job, my occupation. Thank God, it is always nice when you enjoy doing what you have to do. And I get a great deal of joy out of my vocation. I just do not think I could be nearly as happy as I am if I weren't doing what I'm doing. So wouldn't you agree with me those are pretty basic? There may be others, but those are pretty basic to all of us. And you feel like no matter what else goes wrong in life, if you have these, there can be joy.

The scary thing is that every one of those things is so fragile. I know I'm going to die someday at the Lord Terry's. I know my health is going to deteriorate. My wife will die or divorce me or whatever. I'll leave her or she'll leave me by death. My children, they're going to get married and go off. I know my parents are going to die, I'm going to lose them, and one of these days I'll have to retire, or maybe disability will force me to retire. You see, folks, the scary thing about life is that one phone call can destroy every bit of this.

Boy, do you realize how thin ice people are skating on. It doesn't take much. That's why I always say the scariest sound in all the world is a phone ringing after midnight. Well, I want to tell you something, brother. I think I'll try to see if I can't find me at least one more source that's not quite so temporary, not quite so fragile. That's what the psalmist is saying. There's not anything wrong in rejoicing in your life,

your health, your family, your parents, your job. Not anything wrong at all enjoying the things God has given you, your home, your automobile. There's not anything wrong with that. But God have mercy on us if that's the extent of our joy. If those things, and every one of them are fragile, every one of them temporary. The psalmist is saying,

listen, you need to find your delight in the Lord you need to learn to find in him your joy you need a well of joy so that if all the other wells run dry there's one well you'll not be left without joy

you'll not be left without peace you'll not be left without contentment now'll not be left without peace. You'll not be left without contentment. Now, I want to tell you something, folks. These things work. I have visited, I've sat with too many people in my life who have just suffered the loss of all things and yet had this unspeakable, this incomprehensible joy. I don't mean they were jumping up and down and laughing, but there was something. There was something that those thieves couldn't break in and steal.

There was something that the rust couldn't decay. There was something that the moss couldn't eat through. You had something that nobody could touch. That's what he's talking about. Now, I'm not saying today, and I always like to give this disclaimer, I'm not saying today, if you'll come to these three morning services and take notes and do what I say, you can go out of here and from now on out, I mean, you'll never fret again. And I'm going to walk out, and from now on, the Lord is the joy of my heart. No, it doesn't come that easy.

You do not acquire the conviction of values by intellectual debate or stuff. These things we grow into. These things we grow into, these things we learn. I'm not talking about push, pull, click, click, become, spirit, feel that quick. I'm not talking about if you just take these little formulas out from then on out, friend, your life's going to be different. What I'm saying is these are things that God wants to build into us. And that doesn't happen overnight.

But my first recognition is this. I do know that, boy, I'm in trouble if I don't have something more substantial to joy in than the things of this world and the transit things. And I know this, that I can be like the Apostle Paul who's sitting in a Roman cell and not knowing whether he's going to live or die, I can, I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content, satisfied, a heart at rest.

It was said of Nelson Rockefeller when he died, a dear friend of his wrote an article in the New York City Times, and the name of that article was A Sense of Incompleteness. And he said all of his life, Rockefeller, with all of his millions, vice president of the United States, governor of the state of New York, he said Nelson Rockefeller lived all of his life frustrated, and he died an incomplete man. I thought that's a sad epitaph. Boy, you'd think if $700 million couldn't make you complete, nothing can.

But then I read over in Genesis when it says that Abraham died, he died full of years and satisfied. And satisfied. I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. It scares me to death today to think about what might happen to me, what I may lose. But I've been there before and I've discovered something, that there is a well of joy that never runs dry. That's what he's saying. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you a heart that is delighted and satisfied. All right, the second

thing, then he comes in verse 5, commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. First of all, delight yourself in the Lord, find in the Lord your source of joy, because I tell you something, you can have all of God you want. You can't have all of the money you want, you can't have all the health you want, you can't have all the years you want, but I tell you something, you can have all of God you want. You can't have all of the money you want. You can't have all the health you want. You can't have all the years you want. But I tell you this much, you can have as much of God as you want, and there's not anything that can affect that relationship. Second thing, commit your way unto the Lord.

Now again, we use this verse many times like this. All right, it's a new day, and I've got to go out and do my job and do things. And Lord, before I ever walk out the door today, I commit my way to you. And that is a good thing to do. But again, that is not exactly what the psalmist is talking about. He's talking about something far more than that. The word commit, if you have a marginal reading in your Bible, again, we come back to that graphic pictures of the Hebrew language.

The word commit means to roll. Commit your way unto the Lord is to roll your way unto the Lord. And it's the picture of a man who's carrying a burden, and this burden is on his shoulders and it's so heavy that it's stooping him down. And so the psalmist is saying, well, the reason you're so uptight is you've got too big a load. Take that load and roll it unto the Lord.

Roll it unto the Lord. This thing that you're carrying around is one of the reasons you're fretting, one of the reasons you're anxious. And so what you need to do is just take that and roll that on to the Lord. But I think the real key to understanding what he's saying is found in the word way. Again, the word way here literally means a well-trodden path. It's not the way you're going to walk today. It's the way you walk every day. It is the well-trodden path.

One translation reads like this, Commit your career unto the Lord. Another one reads, commit your reputation to the Lord. My own translation, and I think the word that best describes it, is this, commit your lifestyle to the Lord. You see, he's not just saying

the way you're going to walk today, the business you've got to do today, that's included, but what he's saying is you need to take your lifestyle, your reputation, your career, that well-trodden path, the life you're accustomed to living.

You know, we sort of get our lives fitting like an old easy chair or like a good pair of shoes been broken in, and it's comfortable. And that's what he's talking about. He's saying the way that you're used to living, the kind of lifestyle and the career, the reputation that you have carved out for yourself. Oh, listen, he said, commit that to the Lord. Why? Well, I ask myself again, what does this have to do with worry? What does this have to do with fretfulness anyway? I'm uptight about something. And he says, well, one of the things you need to do then is to commit your way unto the Lord. Well, what does that have to do with anything? Well, maybe we can ask another question and say, why are you fretting? Why are you

worrying about whatever it is you're worrying about? Could it be that maybe the reason you're worrying is that if this thing continues or if this thing comes to pass, it's going to hurt your career or hurt your reputation, or man, it's going to have to make you change your lifestyle, and I don't want to do that. I mean, I like my lifestyle. I have a comfortable way of living, and I wouldn't want to have to drastically change that. I use a little silly illustration back in the early 70s

when they had this oil embargo on. And I tell you what, that made me uptight. I got real nervous. I knew that when gasoline got up to the outrageous price of 45 cents a gallon, that my lifestyle was going to have changed. It just upset me to no end. Then when President Ford started talking about carpooling and not driving your car around for pleasure anymore, I didn't like that at all. That sort of made me uptight. I was worried about high prices. Why? Because I wasn't going to starve to death, but it was changing my lifestyle, and I didn't want to change my lifestyle.

I mean, after all, I like the way I'm living, and there are changes that I would make, but boy, when there's something there that is looming on the horizon, and if that comes to pass, that means I am going to have to give up something. I mean, it's going to make a big change. That makes me uptight. And so the psalmist is saying what you need to do is, to become invulnerable. Take all those things that are vulnerable to the changes of this life. Take all those things that are vulnerable and do something about it. Get you some things that are not vulnerable. Delight yourself in the Lord.

Commit your way in the Lord. Let me put it this way. He says, take your reputation, take your career, take your lifestyle, and that's why you're uptight, because it's in jeopardy, and say, Lord, here, you handle it. You carry it for a while. Sometimes when we're worried about something, it's not so much the thing itself that we're worried about as it is the effect that thing will have on my lifestyle, my career, or my reputation. I was in the supermarket not long ago and there was a mother doing some shopping with her little boy about this size, old, you know, and there's not anything that little boys love more than

to go shopping with their mothers. And he was growing weary, and he began to fuss. He began to fuss. And she'd have to start dragging him along. You know how they do. He wanted to go home. Well, she tried to hush him up. And the more she hushed him up, the louder he got. Now, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about, don't you? And I just sort of stood there and enjoyed it. Oh, me, because I've had the same thing happen. I bless her heart. I knew what she was doing. And before it's over, there was murder in that woman's eyes. You could

see it. I mean, that boy, by the time she got through, that boy was screaming and making a fuss, and everybody was looking, and that woman was... Now, let me ask you a question. What do you think was really bothering that woman? That her boy was screaming? He does that at home all the time. Probably ignores him at home. Do you know what was really making her angry? Everybody's looking. What kind of mother do they think I am?

I know what they're saying. Well, you can't handle your own child, can you? And you and I have said that, haven't we? I mean when visitors, somebody comes over to visit you, and they bring a little kid along, and he jumps off the furniture and jumps over the... And you say, Boy, I'd like to get that boy. Oh, yeah, boy, I tell you one thing. They sure can't handle their children, can they?

Now folks, am I telling the truth or am I telling the truth? It's not so much the thing itself, the situation or the circumstance itself that's got us uptight. It's the effect that'll have on our reputation or our career, our lifestyle. I was out in a meeting several years ago in a church I'd been in before. One night, Mother came up to me and she said, could I talk with you? And we visited and she told me

her husband had abandoned her, left her a number of years ago. And she'd been left alone to raise her boy, who was now about 16 years old. And this was back in the early 70s when, you know, the long hair bit and all that stuff, strung out on drugs and her boy was doing the whole thing and she was heartbroken over it and she wanted to talk to me about it

some counseling I said well listen I'm glad to talk with you about it but you really you know you really need someone here talk with you about this because I'm going to be gone in a few days and you need somebody to be here all the time help you and I said you need to here to talk with you about this, because I'm going to be gone in a few days, and you need somebody to be here all the time to help you. I said, you need to talk to your pastor. She said, oh, well, I'll talk to him.

Well, what did he say? Well, he told me that if I had been the kind of Christian mother I should have been, that my boy would never have turned out this way. That must have been a real blessing to her. And I want to tell you something, folks. I can remember sitting with my staff and talking about somebody in our church

whose son had gone off like this and our discussing, well, hmm, I wonder what kind of home life they had. You see, if they'd been the kind of Christians they should have been, that wouldn't have happened. The unfortunate and ironic thing is that about two or three years later, that pastor's son did the same thing. Now, folks, I want to tell you something.

When that happens, one of two things can happen. He can either humble you, which is good, or he can humiliate you, which is not good. And in this case, it humiliated the pastor. You know what he did? He quit. He quit the ministry. Now, he had to take my word for it, I knew him. And I'm not saying that that man was not concerned about his son.

What I'm saying is the thing that destroyed him was not so much the problem of his son, but the effect it had on his reputation. It wasn't the fact that his boy was having difficulties. He was concerned about that. But what made him uptight and frustrated to the point of anger was he kept saying, What are people going to think about me? And the Lord is saying, listen, you know, that's a heavy burden to carry around with you, your reputation, your lifestyle, and that will make you uptight. Why don't you just let me handle that?

And you know there is a special promise attached to this one. There's a promise attached to all of them, but this one has another one and takes up a whole verse. He says in verse 6, "...and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." You know what he's talking about there? Vindication. He's saying, listen, "...commit your way unto me, trust also in me, and I'll bring it to pass." And I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice, what's your due as the noonday. I'll see to it that everybody knows how righteous you are. Don't fret. Don't get yourself tied up in knots because you're afraid of what may happen to your reputation. I will make your righteousness as the light,

and I'll make your justice shine as bright as the noonday. He says, you commit your way to me. I'll see to it that you're vindicated. Now, the last one, and you all must listen much faster than you're listening for me to finish. Verse 7, rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. So we have these four statements. Trust in the Lord, delight thyself also in the Lord, commit thy way unto the Lord, and

this last one, Rest in the the Lord and wait patiently for him. Now, I'm going to put all of this together and sort of paraphrase it to bring out what I think the psalmist is saying. All right, you've got a situation that's causing you to be fretful and fearful and anxious. Don't do it. Don't fret. Instead of that, trust in the Lord. Delight yourself in me. Roll your reputation, your lifestyle.

Give that to me. And then shut up and give me a chance to work. Now, that's a little harsh. But basically, that's what he's saying. He's saying, here you have this situation that's causing you to be uptight. All right, here's what you do about it. Trust that thing to me. Start trying to find delight in me and commit the whole thing to me. And then be quiet. Quit your griping.

Quit your murmuring. Quit your complaining. Quit telling me how to do it. Just be quiet and give me a chance to work. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Give me a chance to do my work. And so the real key there is wait patiently. And I was afraid he was going to say something like that.

I always do real well on all these until I get to this one. Waiting patiently for the Lord. And here again, I don't want to sound like a dictionary, but these words are so important. The word translated wait patiently here means to turn in a circle. It means to writhe

and twist in pain. Do you know what this word was originally used for? It was used for a woman in labor pains. Now, folks, God has some kind of sense of humor to take that word and use it for the word wait patiently. Because there's not anything that is more painful in all the world than waiting patiently. Well, actually, waiting is not hard to do.

Waiting is easy to do. I mean, I guarantee you if God's going to delay, you're going to wait. It's waiting patiently that is the key. That's the trick, waiting patiently. And in the Bible, when it talks about waiting patiently, it means waiting with anticipation, waiting with expectation. We live in Irving, Texas, which is right next door to the DFW Airport,

and what a blessing that thing is to us. I can leave my house in ten minutes. I can be checking into any major airline in the country. And it's so nice to fly to and through, through, thumb and through. Don't want to fly through it. It's a mess. But flying to it and flying from it's a great blessing. And it's been a lot of help to my wife too because when I'm coming in on a late night flight, well, Kay doesn't have to drive an hour and a half across town. She can just get out about 10 minutes ahead of time and drive right over there, and there she is. Well, I was coming back a few years ago on a flight from up north, flight

214, to arrive at midnight. And so Kay came up to the airport, parked the car, got out, went to the gate, and waited. And 12 o'clock came, but the airplane didn't, which was nothing, you know, no big deal about that. They're late every once in a while. So she waited around, waited around, I guess, 20, 30 minutes, and still no Flight 214, and the monitor hadn't changed, hadn't given any information. So she went over to the man behind the desk, and she said, listen, I'm here to meet flight 214. It's supposed to be in at 12 o'clock. It's not here. When do you expect it? And then she said, oh, it's going to be another 30 minutes. I'll check back with us later. So she waited around another 30 minutes. Still, the plane wasn't there.

Now the plane's an hour late. So she goes back to the man at the desk, and she says, Flight 214, I'm still waiting for it. When's it going to be in? He said, Well, it looks like it's going to be at least another 30 minutes. Check back with us. So she waited around another 30 minutes, and still the plane wasn't there. Now

it's an hour and a half late. So she goes back to the man, and she says, listen, you know, flight 214, when are you expecting it? And the man said, well, I'm sorry, but we can't give you that information. If you'd just check back with us later, please. Well, that sounded odd to her. And she waited around. And she went back to him. She said, listen, when did flight 214 leave? If she knew what time it left, she could estimate how long it was going to be there and take. She said, Well, when did flight 214 leave?

And the man said, Oh, I'm sorry, we can't give you that information. If you would just check back with us later, please. Well, you know what she was thinking, don't you? She knew that plane had gone down. They had lost it on the radar, and they weren't telling anybody. And a cave just doesn't do well in that kind of situation. And so she went back up to that man, and by now he knew who she was. And she said, Listen, Flight 214, I don't want to know when it's going to get here, and I don't want to know when it left, but can here, and I don't want to know when it left,

but can you tell me one thing? Is it in the air? And the man smiled and said, Oh, yes, yes, it's in the air. And you know what Kay did? She waited patiently. Why? She knew it was in the air. And there have been some times

I've said to the Lord, Lord, can you tell me when my flights will come in? Can you tell me when this is going to be over? And He'd say, I'm sorry, son, but I can't give you that information. Well, Lord, can you tell me when this started and what's going on? And he said, no, I'm sorry, but I can't give you that information. Well, Lord, can you just tell me one thing?

Is it in the air? And the Lord always says, yes, it's in the air. And the Lord always says, yes, it's in the air. And then I can wait patiently. Psalm 130 talks about waiting for the Lord. And it says, they that wait for the Lord are as those who wait for the morning. Now, two things about waiting for the morning. The sunrise. Number one, you can't rush it. No way you can make it rise any quicker than it's going to. But the second thing is, it does rise. It always rises. And those that wait upon the Lord are like those who are waiting for the sunrise. You cannot rush it, but you never wait in vain because the sun always rises.

And when you wait upon the Lord, you never wait in vain. So, now you can go out armed with all this information and never, never again fret or worry or be uptight. No. But I believe that God can take these things and beginning today to build them into your life and to make you that kind of person. And that's, I believe, the purpose that God has for us. All right, Pastor, you have a word. You've been a good bunch. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent.

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