Ron Dunn Podcast - The Solution To It Part 1

Episode Date: April 30, 2019

From the sermon series "When The Upright Get Uptight"

Strange world we live in, strange time we live in. Interesting how things change. Interesting that the things that we once thought were the solution to our problems have become our problems now. I remember a number of years ago when everybody said the solution to our problem would be unhindered love, free love. That's the solution to our problems, get rid of all of our hang-ups, get rid of all of our antiquated puritanical ideas. That's the solution to our problem, and now it has become our problem.

It's that way in the human situation. We always seem to run faster when we've lost our way. Somebody described a fanatic as somebody who's lost his purpose and redoubled his effort, and that's a pretty good definition of it. I think about those things when I think about what the psalmist is saying to us in Psalm 37, which is what we're looking at in these days. As I said yesterday, he opens this psalm with this statement, fret not thyself. And immediately that sets the theme for the whole psalm, the subject of it, the title of it. And so what he's saying to us, and he's saying it to us as God's people,

fret not thyself. And as I mentioned yesterday, the word carries with it the idea of a frustrated situation, and it really has in it the idea of heat. We sometimes say, that just burns me up, or I'm all hot under the collar about this, or I'm hot and bothered about this, which is a good way of rendering what the psalmist is saying. But he's addressing himself to people who believe in God and people who we would call

Christians, and yet they are not exempt from certain situations that cause them to be filled with fear and frustration and even a tinge of anger. And basically, as we saw yesterday, and I think that if you think about it for a little bit that you'll agree that this is the reason any of us ever become anxious and fearful and frustrated. It's because there is a great contradiction between our expectations and our experience. There is a great conflict between the way things are and the way things ought to be. And we mentioned yesterday that these things that the psalmist is talking about are peculiar to Christians, that there are some things that upset us that wouldn't upset a lost person.

There are some things that bother us that would not bother an atheist. An atheist hardly ever looks at children starving to death and says, Well, why doesn't God do something about it? He doesn't have that problem. You and I have to face that enigma. If there is a God of absolute goodness and power, then how do you explain, how do you reconcile that with all of the wrong that's in the world? You and I as Christians know how things are supposed to be,

how things ought to be. We ought to live in a world of justice and equity and fairness. We have expectations, and they are legitimate expectations. We expect things to be as God would have them to be. We expect certain things of our life. We expect certain things of our family. There are legitimate expectations that you and I have, and especially those expectations are encouraged when

we become Christians because we have so much in the Bible about how all things work together for good and how that God will withhold no good thing from those that walk uprightly with him. And so there are the legitimate expectations that we have. But when our experience does not match these, and when the way things are are different from the way we think things ought to be, the result is fretfulness and anxiety and frustration and sometimes anger. Why hasn't God made the wrongs right? Why hasn't God fulfilled my expectations?

Why doesn't God take charge and do something about it. And we saw yesterday that the things I think that the psalmist particularly indicates to us were these three things. I'll just mention them briefly for those of you that were not here. These are the things that as believers tend to cause us to be fretful and frustrated and angry. The inequities of life, the injustices of life, somehow or another I have an idea that God owes me. I don't know, it just seems like it ought to count for something to be a Christian.

You know what I mean? I mean, there ought to be some perks with this. And that if I'm a Christian, I ought to be exempt from some things, and it disturbs me and confuses me when the same things that happen to lost people happen to me. When our son died in 1975, we received quite a few cards and letters from people offering their sympathy and appreciated every one of them. I remember one letter in particular we received from a family in Memphis. I'd been in their church recently in a meeting, and when they heard about our son's

death, they wrote a letter. The first paragraph was what you would expect, the usual sympathy and condolences, but the second paragraph started off like this, and I've never forgotten it. They said, Brother Dunn, and I'm just telling you what they said. These were their words. They said, We know that you are a man of God, and that you've given your life to Christ and you've committed your Lord to preach the gospel and that you faithfully do it. We do not understand how something like this could happen to you. Well, I agreed with them. I didn't understand it either. I think the way their letters sounded is that we could understand something like that happened to us because we're just mere people. But you're a man of God.

I think what was really causing them to fear, though, was the fact that if this can happen to someone like you, I mean, heaven knows what can happen to someone like us. Now, don't accuse me happen to someone like us. Now, don't accuse me of being negative or depressing. I'm just telling you the way things are, folks. That's the way you and I, that's the life that we have. And we can ignore it, deny it all we want to, but the fact of the matter is you and I are human beings, and we're still part of this human situation.

And it is often true that the innocent are hit by stray bullets, and that sometimes the moral suffer with the immoral and the innocent suffer with the guilty. We are part of this human situation. As Paul says, we groan together. The whole creation is groaning together. And we also who have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, we groan within ourselves. There are some groans that are native to our nature. And as long as we're in this body of flesh, there are going to be certain groans. There are going to be certain travails, certain problems.

Well, what I'm saying is, does the Bible have anything to say to us about this? Now, I know that there are those that teach, as I mentioned yesterday, that if you and I just have enough faith and feel the Spirit of God, we can just rise above all of these things. All we have to do is rebuke the devil, plead the blood, praise God, pray, and make positive confessions, and I mean, everything will just wipe away, and we'll walk through earth. And I've heard a lot of testimonies like that, but I tell you the truth of the matter is, for every one testimony I've heard like that, I can tell you a hundred more who've not had it that way. And these folks are just as faithful as the others. I've always been impressed with that

eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and I love it when he really gets to Salem, and he gets over there in the latter part of that chapter, and he says, and time would not permit me to tell. And then he goes ahead and tells what time won't permit him, just like a preacher. And he said, I don't have time to go. And then he goes into it, and he talks about all these wonderful things that these people have accomplished by faith, and how they've escaped the edge of the sword, and they've had their children raised from the dead. And then he says, and others were tortured and sawn asunder. He says it twice, and others. Well, now wait just a minute. I guess those and others didn't have enough faith.

No, he's talking about the same kind of faith. You see, there is the faith that enables us to escape, and then there is the faith that enables us to endure. Now, of course, I prefer to escape. And there have been many times when God does allow us to escape. But there are times, friends, when we have to have faith not to escape, but faith to escape. And there have been many times when God does allow us to escape, but there are times, friends, when we have to have faith not to escape, but faith to endure. Someone said to me when I was in the hospital, well, the trouble with you is you just don't have enough faith to be healed. I said, oh no, I got plenty of faith to be healed. My problem is I don't have enough faith to stay sick if that's what God wants.

I don't know. Somehow I think it may take a little bit more faith to endure than it takes to escape. What I'm saying to you is this. What if God doesn't right the wrongs in your life? Now, you won't need anything I have to say if God rights the wrongs in your life. And praise God, I hope he does. But what I'm getting at is, does God have anything to say to you if he doesn't? What are you going to do if God doesn't right all the wrongs in your life immediately? What are you going to do? Well, that's what the psalmist is telling us.

And he makes four statements that we're going to look at today and tomorrow that I call the alternatives. And you can either fret and feel with anxiety and anger and frustration, or, he says, you can do this. Here's what God has to say to us when we find ourselves, as the psalmist found himself, surrounded by things that are not as they ought to be, and when our experience doesn't live up to our expectation. Four statements that he makes, they're in verses 3, 4, 5, and 7. You all know them. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. And then in verse 4, delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart.

5. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. 7. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Four statements that the psalmist makes that I like to think of as alternatives to fretfulness. What does God have to say to me? What am I to do? This is what I am to do. He says, trust in the Lord. Delight yourself in the Lord. Commit your way unto the Lord and rest in the Lord. Now, I believe that the first one contains the whole bit. Verse 3, I believe, is a summary

solution of the whole business. Trust in the Lord and do good. Having said that, he said it all. Because all the way through the Bible, you'll find that there is always this contrast between faith and fear. These are two mutually exclusive emotions or attitudes. Where there is fear, there is no faith. Where there is faith, there is no fear. Always, you remember when Jesus would rebuke his disciples, there would be this he would say why are you so fearful where is your faith and so when the when the psalmist says rather than fretting trust in the lord he says it all everything is contained

in that the other three i see as the ingredients or the expression of trust. I like to think of faith or trust as a nut, and you crack it open, and on the inside you find delighting, committing, and resting. In other words, what do you do when you trust the Lord? Oh, well, you're delighting yourself in the Lord, you're committing your way unto the Lord, and you're resting in the Lord. You tell me to trust in the Lord. What am I to do? How do I trust in the Lord? Well, this is what you do. You delight yourself in the Lord, you commit your way unto the Lord,

and you rest in the Lord. We're going to take those three tomorrow, but we're going to take this one in verse 3 today because, as I said, I believe it's the whole one. The psalmist says, trust in the Lord and do good, and verily stay in the land. He says, stay where I have placed you, dwell in the land, and verily there your need will be met, you shall be fed. But here's the statement, trust in the Lord and do good. Now, as I said yesterday, the Hebrew language is a very picturesque language filled with imagery. And the root meaning of the word that's used here traces back to the idea of literally one who's laying helplessly face down on the ground. It's a position of a person who has come to the end of all resources and has no means of support. And literally, you could say

to trust in the Lord in a graphic way is a person who is lying helplessly face down on the ground. And always the words that are used for faith and trust in the Bible have the idea of reliance upon them, of resting upon them. It reminds me of what the proverb says,

Lean not unto thine own understanding, but trust in the Lord. Don't lean on your own cleverness. Don't support yourself on your own understanding and your own ability to figure out the situation, but rather cast yourself on the Lord. Trust in the Lord. A very graphic picture of a person lying helplessly face down on the ground. Is there any more helpless picture than that? I think when God says that, what he's basically saying is, folks, there are just some

things you're going to have to leave with God. That's all there is to it. You can't do anything about it. You can't change them. You know you can't because you've tried. And I believe that God brings us to the places where we suddenly realize there are just some things. And this is hard for me. This is hard for us because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life. It scares me if I feel like I'm not in control of things. And the idea that, boy, I've come up against something now where, I mean, there's not anything I can do about it. And friend, there are just some things you're going to have to leave with God.

Now, I think that it would be safe to say that the one great task that God has for all of us is to teach us how to trust him. If I had to sum up in one word or the one great task that God has for all of us is to teach us how to trust him. If I had to sum up in one word or in one phrase all that God's trying to do in my life, I would say this, I think God is trying to teach me to trust him. Now, I want to say three things about this. Number one, you only learn to trust God by trusting God. You don't learn to trust God by reading books on it, although I can recommend a book, a good one on it. But you don't learn to trust God by reading books on it. You don't learn to trust God by listening to sermons on it. You learn to trust God by trusting God. You don't learn to

swim by reading books on water. You don't learn to fly an airplane by reading a book on flying. You learn to do those things by doing them, and you only learn to trust God by trusting God. Second statement is most of us won't trust God until we have to. Generally speaking, there's something about fallen human nature that finds it very difficult just to cast ourselves on the Lord and admit that there's nothing we can do about this situation. And so we won't trust God until we have to, as long as I've got one more trick up my sleeve, as long as I've got one more dollar in the bank, as long as there's one more seminar I've not yet attended or how-to book I've not yet read. I'm not going to trust God until I

have to. Have you ever noticed how we won't face the truth about ourselves until we have no choice? It's interesting, isn't it, that man does not face the truth about things until disaster forces him to face the truth about them. And you see this on every hand. When the Challenger exploded, then we had all of the investigation about it. And when the fellow in Kentucky killed the 27 schoolchildren on the school bus,

I still can't get over it. I didn't hear anybody say anything about banning alcohol, but they immediately appointed a commission to study why school buses aren't safer. Kind of ridiculous, it seems to me. But kind of going at it the wrong way, I think. But anyway, why didn't they study all those things ahead of time? Disaster forces us to face the truth about ourselves. And so, generally speaking, now you may be the exception. I'm just

telling you, most of us, though, are just carnal enough that we won't trust God until we have to, which brings me to the third statement. God sees to it that we have to. If the only way you learn to trust God is by trusting him, and you and I won't trust him generally until we have to, then God sees to it that we have to trust him. By that I mean he puts us in situations where the only way out is up. I mean, we have no choice. It's either sink or swim, live or die, trust God, or go down.

The old saints used to use the phrase that we'd do well to come bring back. They spoke of being shut up to faith. Being shut up to faith. And what they meant by that was that God would maneuver us into a situation where, I mean, folks, there's no choice. We had to trust him. We had to trust him.

And understanding this, I think, sometimes will explain a lot of things that's going on in our lives that we may not can understand. It may be the reason we're in our situation is that God has got us shut up to faith. I think the greatest illustration of this in the Bible is Israel at the Red Sea. God had delivered them out of the land of Egypt, and under the leadership of Moses, they came and camped by the Red Sea. Now, they weren't out of the will of God. They were following God, and God brought them to that point at the Red Sea, the Red Sea in front of them, mountains on either side, and Egypt behind them. And one day they woke up and looked

over their shoulder, and here come all the Egyptians and the world swooping down on them. And that's when you find out that that bunch was Baptists. Because they immediately began blaming the pastor. Well, Moses, here's another fine mess you've gotten us into. Not enough room in Egypt

to bury us, had to bring us out here. Fine enough room to plant us all. They began, and anyway, Moses went over behind a rock and began to pray. God said two things. I wish we had time to talk about both of them, but he said two

things. First of all, he said, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. I'll fight these Egyptians. God's saying, Moses, I didn't save you people out of Egypt to fight Egyptians. I saved you folks to go in and possess the land. Now, you do what I've saved you to do, and I'll take care of the Egyptians. And by the way, let me just say that one of the most effective strategies of the devil to defeat a church is to get a church to sitting around fighting all the Egyptians that are snapping at its heels instead of going forward. God says, you go forward and do what I've given you to do, and I'll take care of the Egyptians.

Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And then he said, Go forward. Ah, yes, you do realize, of course, that there is a Red Sea forward. So if you will just hold back the Egyptians long enough for us to build some boats, we will appreciate it very much. But no, God said, Just take off there across the Red Sea. Just take off. They were shut up to faith.

And you know what they did? They obeyed God. They trusted God. They stepped out. And I like the way the psalmist, the psalmist says the waters fled before them. The Red Sea scared the death of them. And they walked across on dry land. What a mighty demonstration of faith that was.

But I want to tell you something. I don't believe they'd ever have done it if there hadn't been an Egyptian army behind them encouraging them to do so. I think if God had just come out one day and said, well, we're going to have a pop quiz today and see how much faith y'all have got, take off there across the water. I think they'd be there yet. But you put an Egyptian army behind them,

and they're going to think about that. You see, they only had one choice. It was either trust God or go back to Egypt. And I guess that's about the only choice we ever have, really, isn't it? Either trust God or live in bondage. Now what I'm saying is this, that God brings us to the place at times when we have to admit this is something we're going to have to leave with God. I know they will forget there was a time in our church, in our life, when we were really going through

some trying times. I don't know. Pastor, have you ever gotten so weary that you're too tired to even believe anymore? You know, there is a weariness of the soul that goes beyond weariness of the soul that goes beyond weariness of the body, a weariness that makes it impossible

for you to even affirm life. And I was at that point, and I never will forget getting on my knees in my office and sticking my head on the couch and praying, I said, Lord, I am so worn out, I am so weary, I am so bone, so weary, this Lord, I don't have the strength to even believe anymore. I said, if you are going to solve this thing, I'd do it without my help. I actually said that. I don't know, but I thought that I heard God give a sigh of relief. As though he was saying, that's what I've been waiting on. But haven't you felt that way before? I love that song Isaiah 46 where he's contrasting the false gods Baal and Nebo with the true God of Israel.

He's talking about the time when Cyrus comes into Babylon. And what are they going to do? Well they take their gods first of all and they load them on donkeys. And these gods are made of iron and gold and stone, and they're so heavy, the donkeys have a hard time carrying these gods. And as a matter of fact, they're so heavy, the donkeys can't outrun the enemy. And finally, the enemy catches up with them and captures their gods. But he comes back and he says, but oh, but he said, the God of Israel,

he said, I have carried you when you're in the womb. And when you're old and gray-haired, I'll still carry you. You see, folks, the difference between false God and true God is this. False God can only go as far as you can go. And you had to carry him. But true God carries us. And when we don't have the strength to move, it's all right. Sometimes that's the best place we can be for God to demonstrate his power and his faithfulness. God teaching us to trust him.

Well, we don't stop there because he goes on. I'll have to admit for a long time I did stop there, trust in the Lord. But that's not where he stops. He says, trust in the Lord and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good. In other words, faith isn't necessarily passive. Doing good is just as much a command here

as trusting in the Lord. All right, what am I to do? Trust me. Trust in the Lord. What does that to do? Trust me, trust in the Lord. What does that mean? Well, that means that I've come to the place where I recognize that there are some things I'm going to have to leave in the hands of God, and this is one of them. And so, Lord, it is yours. I don't have the strength to do it.

I've tried to solve it. I can't do it. And so, Lord, as best I know how, I'm just throwing myself on you. And if you're going to solve this thing, you're going to do it all by yourself. He says, now, once you've made that commitment, take care of business. Do good. And here he's not talking about necessarily doing religious good. He's not saying trust in the Lord and go hand out religious tracts or pray or do things like that. He's talking about everyday good, economic good, your daily functions.

What he's saying is this, that trust me in this thing and then take care of your business. Carry on. What do you mean? Well, answer your mail. Wash the dishes. Comb your hair, go to work. You know, there is not anything that is as paralyzing as fear and worry and anxiety. You've been there. You get so depressed, you just don't care about anything else. You can't function.

I don't care if the house is dirty. I don't care if the grass is growing up across the windows. All I want to do is just crawl in bed and pull the covers over me and just hide myself. I don't want to do anything. I don't care. I just can't function. And I was a pastor. There were times when people would come to me, and I knew they were going through tremendous family problems. And here's a Sunday school teacher say, well, pastor, I'm going to have to give up my class because you know what we're going through right now. And I

tell you what, this thing has got us so much, we just don't, you know. And you understand. And I did. But I thought it was a wrong thing for them to do. I still think it's not the wise thing to do. Basically what they were doing was simply giving themselves that much more time to brood over the matter. I think any counselor, psychologist, psychiatrist, saved or lost, will tell you that one of the greatest therapies for depression and anxiety is to do something. This is what God is saying.

He is saying, Trust me. Leave it with me and then go about your business. So you see, I think what he is saying is this, that if I have learned to trust God in this particular situation, that means I'm able to function. But if I'm still not able to function, if I'm still not able to carry on, do my everyday duties, that tells me something. I've not yet learned to leave this with God.

I like to think of it this way. There's no use both of us worrying about it. So, God, if you're going to worry about it, I'll let you know. I've not yet learned to leave this with God. I like to think of it this way. There's no use both of us worrying about it. So God, if you're going to worry about it, I'll let you know. I'll tend to business. And the tending to business is not only an evidence that I am trusting God, but I think it is a way to trust God, a way that you manifest and express. How do I show my confidence that God is able to handle this thing? Well, the way I show my confidence that God is able to handle this

is I go ahead and tend to the other things that need to be tended to. I just fulfill my everyday duty. And he says, well, I'm reading from the old King James, and he says, So shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. I think the New American Standard says, Dwell in the land and feed on God's faithfulness. I believe that's what one translation reads.

Stay where God has placed you and fulfill your duty. Don't try to run away from it, hide from it. Stay where I've placed you. Do your duty, and in that situation, verily you shall be fed. Your need will be met in that situation. I think one of the illustrations of this to me is the fact that one of God's most frequent promises to us is the promise to meet our physical needs and material needs. And what the psalmist is saying here, I think, is much of what Jesus is saying in Matthew

chapter 6. He says, Take no thought, don't worry about the material necessities of life, the physical necessities of life. That's the way pagans live. Pagans are preoccupied with the material and physical necessities of life. But he said, you, just leave those things to me, and you, you be preoccupied with seeking the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and I'll see to it that these things are taken care of. You tend to my business first, and I'll see that all your needs are met. I think that's exactly what the psalmist

is saying. Trust in the Lord, take care of business, and in that situation your needs will be met. But it occurred to me one day, I wonder why the Lord makes such a big deal out of meeting my physical and material needs. I don't think there's any other promise that you find as frequently and as intensely in the Bible as that one. Over and over again. Saying to us, don't worry about it. I'll meet your needs. I'll take care of you. Paul says, my God shall supply all of your needs.

I want to ask you a question. Why do you think God promises to do that? I mean, why? Well, I know why. It's because when you become a Christian, suddenly you become so inept that unless God takes care of you, you'll starve to death.

I mean, God's people are that way. They're so naive and so inept and so heavenly-minded, they know earthly use. Bless their hearts, if God didn't feed them and clothe them, they'd starve to death. Is that why God makes that promise? Do you have to trust in God to have your needs met? No, I don't think so. I mean, folks, I know a lot of lost people whose physical, material needs are being met a lot better than mine are, if you want to look that way about it. The Bible says God opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature. Rain falls on the just and the unjust.

God's providence is impartial. Sun shines on the sinners and the saints alike. No, I don't think you have to have faith and have to trust in God to do well in business. I know a lot of people who do well in business and don't even believe in God. I don't think that that's why God makes such an issue of it. I think the reason God makes such an issue of it is this, that you and I can usually only travel on one track at a time. and that if you and I are preoccupied with physical and material needs, we really can't give our best to the service of the Lord.

My wife and I have been married 33 years this December. I'd have to say that 90% of our early problems knock down, drag out fights. Be traced back to financial problems. There is something about financial problems that makes you unable to be and do anything else right. I mean, if your mind, it just preys on your mind, and if your mind is preoccupied with that,

you can't be the kind of husband or father or wife or mother you ought to be. You can't work the way you ought to be. We all know that. There's not anything that does it to us like that. I think Jesus is saying, Listen, I want you to be preoccupied primarily with seeking my kingdom and doing my righteousness.

And I tell you what, if you will make that your number one priority, I'll see to it that you don't lose out in these material and physical necessities. Don't be like the pagans, the heathen, who feel like you've got to bend every energy and got to be absorbed and consumed with it or you're going to starve to death. Don't worry about that. If you're going to worry about something, worry about doing the will of God. And if you'll make that your number one priority,

I'll see to it that you don't miss out, that your needs will be met. In 1966, I was called to be pastor of the Munger Place Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, 50 years old. The church was. I was the third pastor in 50 years. First pastor founded the church and he died after 35 years.

Second pastor was there 15 years and he retired. And then they called me and his suggestion, he's the one that really recommended me there. And we had become pretty good friends. And I remember when I was moving into the pastor study, all my books and moving in, well, the former pastor came in, and he sat down, and we talked for a little bit.

And then he said, Brother Dunn, old enough to be my grandfather, but never called me anything but either pastor or Brother Dunn. He said, Brother Dunn, he said, you know that Sunday was my last day here as official as pastor.

I said, yes, sir, I know that. Well, he said, Brother Dunn, you know that Sunday was my last day here as official as pastor. I said, Yes, sir, I know that. Well, he said, Sunday night I called the church in business meeting, and I asked the church to take some action that will affect you. I hope you don't mind. Well, you know what my thought was. I thought, Oh, I hope we're not going to have problems here. I said, Well, what did you do? He said, I asked the church to raise your salary $75 a week. I said, no, I don't mind. I mean, pastor, just, you know, feel free anytime you want to do that.

And then he said, now I didn't do that for you. He said, I did that for the church. He said, young man, you can't do your best for God or for this church if you're having to worry about making ends meet. That's a wise man. And that's not true only of a pastor. That's true of all of us, isn't it? What's Jesus saying? He said, listen, I want you to do your best for me. So if you will, I promise you, I'll take care of your needs. So he says, trust in the Lord, take care of business.

And in that situation, I'll meet your need. I'll feed you. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church. If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.