Ron Dunn Podcast - The Source Of It

Episode Date: April 17, 2019

From the sermon series "When The Upright Get Uptight"

I want you to open your Bibles today to the book of Psalms, Psalm 37. And I want to read the first seven verses. And during these three days that we're going to have together, we're going to be looking at Psalm 37 under what I call the title, When the Upright Get Uptight. And so we'll be looking at these first seven verses. Now, the pastor said that we would be finished by quarter to one. He lies about other things, too, probably. No.

But as best we can, we'll be finished by quarter to one. If you have to leave before that, feel free. We understand. I can hit a moving target, so just get up and go. Some of you may have to leave before we are finished, and we understand that would be quite all right. You may want to change your chairs, adjust them a little bit so that you may be facing this way or maybe facing the other way. I don't know, whichever. The main thing is to be comfortable so that you won't go away with a sore neck.

Psalm 37, I'll read beginning with verse 1, and we'll read through verse 7. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against 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, and so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord,

and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. Not long ago I saw an article in the newspaper. Actually I had been looking for something like that for some time. I knew that it was bound to happen.

Sooner or later they would have to do something like they were doing. The article simply was telling about a new government publication that had just been released called Everything Doesn't Cause Cancer. And the article went on to explain that in the past several years there had been so many warnings issued about this and that causing cancer that our country was being slowly gripped by cancer paranoia. And they just thought it was about time to come on

out and say that not everything causes it. Just about everything, but not everything causes it. And I thought that was just in time because I myself had beginning to develop some of that paranoia. I picked up a newspaper, and on the front page down at the bottom, it said, Tests link shampoo with cancer, which is not good news to someone who likes to wash their hair occasionally. And so I read that, but what it said was that they had fed these laboratory rats shampoo for six months, and they had developed cancer. Well, I figured anybody who drinks shampoo for six months

deserves whatever they get. But that's just the way that these things are presented. We're so alarmed by this that we've become paranoid, not just in cancer but in everything. We've become, well, what we're trying to do is to create a risk-free society. Lewis Thomas says there's never been a time when we're living longer but enjoying it less because we're worrying more about it than ever before. Man is living longer now than he ever has lived in the modern age. Back during the heydays of the Roman Empire, the average age was 25 years.

Only one out of four men lived to be 50, and it was calculated that just to keep the Roman population maintained, every woman had to have four babies. So that would have been a real blessing back in those days. But right now, we're living longer than ever, healthier than we've ever been, and yet at the same time we are worrying more about it. And we live in a very fretful age. And I guess that is one of the things that has caught my attention about this 37th Psalm, where the Psalm opens with these words, Fret not thyself. I don't know of anything in the Bible that is any more up-to-date and relevant than that.

If there is a message that you and I need to hear today, it is this, fret not thyself. Now, one of the interesting things about the Psalms is that a number of the Psalms, the very first statement, the very first phrase serves as a kind of title or subject introduction, giving you an idea of what the entire psalm is about. And Psalm 37 is one of these. The very first phrase introduces the entire subject to us, fret not thyself. That's the theme and the subject of this psalm, and the phrase appears several times. Now, there are two or three things that I think are significant about that. To me, the most significant is that this means then that God knows that even though I am

saved and even though I am trying to walk with the Lord, I still find myself at times filled with fretfulness. The Hebrew language is a very picturesque language full of images. And one way you could translate this word fret not would be don't get all hot under the collar. Don't allow yourself to get hot and bothered. It's the idea of a person who is frustrated because of something, of some situation. We sometimes use this phrase, that just burns me up. Well, that's sort of the idea of what the psalmist is saying. But there are certain conditions, there are certain circumstances going around, as the

psalmist writes, that have a tendency to make these believers to be a little bit uptight, to be filled with fretfulness and fear. And it has in it the idea of anger also. There is a hint of anger in the whole idea of this word. And the Psalmist's word is simply this, whatever the situation is, and he will discuss that in a moment, don't allow yourself to become filled with fear and fretfulness, with frustration. Do not allow yourself to be burned up to the point of fretfulness over the situations that you face. I say that's significant to me because it indicates that even though I'm saved, I still find myself in fretful situations.

There's a lot of teaching going around today. Some of it gives the idea that if you and I are filled with the Spirit as we ought to be, and we're as full of faith as we ought to be, that we'll be able to rise above all of these things, you know, and that life will be just smooth and easy for us, and that God will take all of these barriers out of the way, and we'll just move through life without ever having a ripple. The only thing wrong with that is it's wrong. The Bible doesn't necessarily teach that just because we trust the Lord and just because we are his people that this means that we are exempt from the everyday trials of life. We are not.

We are still part of this human situation, and as long as we live in this world, in this flesh, you and I, no matter how saved we are or how spirit-filled we are, we are going to be faced with those situations in life just like anybody else is faced with them, and sometimes they tend to fill us with fear and anxiety and fretfulness. I think it's important for us as Christians to understand this so we won't think anything's gone wrong when we find ourselves in one of these situations. I met a fellow in Colorado a few years ago. He's a very interesting guy, and we talked for a while. And when we left, his parting shot was this. He said, well, keep loving God, keep

hating sin, and watch out for trucks. Well, I appreciated that little bit of practical advice because, to tell you the truth, there have been times I've sort of had the idea that if you love God and hate sin, you didn't have to watch out for trucks. But the fact of the matter is, you do have to watch out for trucks. We do face situations in which our lives are filled with fear and anxiety. And so the Psalmist says, Fret not thyself. Now what I want to do today is to look at some of the causes of this, some of the sources of this,

and then Tuesday and Wednesday we'll look at, I hesitate to call it a solution, but we'll look at the alternatives, what the psalmist says for us to do in this situation. But today I want us to examine what specifically is it that causes us as a Christian to fear or to be angry or frustrated. I think also another significant thing is that what the psalmist is talking about are things that are peculiar to Christians. In other words, there are some things that might anger a Christian. There are some things that might anger a Christian. There are some things that might

cause a Christian to worry and to be fretful that would not cause a lost person to fret and worry. The moment you begin to believe in the Lord, the moment you are a person of faith, you have certain problems that other people do not have. There are some things that will cause you to be uptight that would not cause someone else to be uptight. And so what we're going to be talking about in this first session are things that I think are peculiar to Christians, things that might make me fearful and fretful that would not make somebody else that. So let me just mention the three very quickly. The first one is this, what I will call the injustices of life or the inequities of life. What is it that causes me as a Christian to lose faith and to find myself filled with this kind of anxiety?

Notice what the psalmist says in the very first verse, Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. Now here the psalmist is saying there is the possibility that you and I, even though we are God's people, yet there's something about the wicked that frustrates us. And what it is, is that they seem to be so doggone successful so many times. He says, don't be envious of the wicked. Well, why would I be envious of the wicked? Well, there's a good reason to be envious of the wicked, he says. He goes on in verse 7, and he says,

fret not thyself because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked devices to pass. The idea is here is a godless man, and he's all the time scheming and planning strategies, and every one of them is successful. And here you are, a child of God, striving to live for God and honor him, and it seems like everything in the world is coming apart at the seams. And here is this fellow across the street from you that doesn't care about God and lives as though there is no God, and everything just seems to be going well for him. I mean, his boys, the captain of the football team, and his daughters, the head cheerleaders.

Don't you hate people like that? I mean, there is always somebody like that. Everything just seems to be going well for them, and the fellow has no use for God whatsoever. Now, here is something that is peculiar to those of us who are saved. We sort of believe that God owes us special treatment, and that life ought to be fair at least a little bit. I mean, after all, if I am a child of God, and if I am striving to live for God and honor him, I think God ought to take that in consideration, don't you think? I mean, really, when God starts passing out all the calamities of life, he ought to take it into consideration. Remember that I'm his child, and I feel like that ought

to give me some special treatment. And yet the psalmist is saying the truth of the matter is that we oftentimes will look at the wicked, and they seem to be getting along so well that we become envious of them. And that leads to frustration and fretfulness, a sort of anger, frustration that here I am. What's wrong? I'm praying. I'm doing everything I know to do, and everything's coming apart. But this person over here, the injustices of life, the inequities of life, the fact that life is not fair.

I don't know if some of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the book written several years ago by Rabbi Harold Kushner called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It's a very interesting book. It's a good book as far as it goes. It's not a Christian book, and he reaches some conclusions that you and I could not reach. But it became a bestseller in 13 different countries, and I've read the book. And as I said, there are many good things in it. But I saw the rabbi interviewed on television. They asked him how he came to write that book.

He said, I have been a rabbi for years. I have seen a lot of people die. I have stood beside the bed of many a person as they have gone out to meet God. He said, never one time did it cause me to question my faith. But he said, when I saw my 14-year-old boy dying of that horrible aging disease, suddenly for the first time, I had a problem. You know, folks, it's easy to philosophize about suffering when you're not doing any. But it's amazing that suddenly when the wreath is hanging on your own door, everything looks different. I appreciated the rabbi's honesty. As long as it was happening to somebody

else, it never bothered me. It never caused me to question my faith. But all of a sudden, it's my son, my flesh. The devil says, skin for skin, all that a man has, well, he gives for his flesh. And that's true. And brother, when it's your skin and your flesh, suddenly you begin to question. You say, well, wait just a minute. This isn't supposed to be this way. I mean, I'm trusting God. I'm as close to God as I know how to get. I would seem to account for something, and yet here is my son dying. I said earlier that the person of faith has problems that other people do not have. For instance, every time I see on television these innocent children starving to death over in Ethiopia and other places,

you can't help but say, why doesn't God do something about that? I'll tell you, folks, the atheist has a good argument that we wish would go away but won't. And that argument is, if there is a God of absolute goodness and power and sovereignty, then how do you explain all of the injustice in the world? Now, you see, an atheist wouldn't have a problem with that. He'd say, well, that's just the way a cookie crumbles, que sera, sera, into every life a little rain must fall, and there's no problem. But when I say I believe in God,

and I believe in a God who rules with all power and goodness and wisdom, I've got a problem. How do you explain that? I'll tell you how the rabbi explained it. He came to the conclusion that God was not sovereign. As a matter of fact, one of the chapters in his book says God can't do everything, but he can do some important things. And he came to the conclusion that God can do nothing about death, disease, or the devil.

Well, thanks very much, but that's all I'm concerned about. I mean, you take away those three things and you really don't need God anymore, do you? So he said, and this is the way he came to it, this allows him to still believe in God and still accept the injustices in his own life. God is not sovereign. God would do something if he could, but he cannot. Well, now, I can't come to that conclusion. I mean, I can't believe that. I have to cast away the Bible. I believe the Bible teaches very clearly that God is absolutely sovereign and in control of his world. Well, then how do you explain the injustices of life?

You know, what bothers me is not so much the fact that bad things happen to good people as when good things happen to bad people. If it just all evened out, that would be all right. And this is what the psalmist is saying. We are envious of the wicked. So the first thing that I think we need to understand is that one of the things that causes us to fret as believers and sometimes become filled with a frustrated kind of anger is the fact that life is not fair and that life is not always just and

equitable. The second thing that the psalmist alludes to is what I'll call the fact that God doesn't do anything about it, the inactivity of God, the inactivity of God. Now, as you read through these verses, you'll notice that God makes a promise. Verse 2, he says, For they shall soon be cut down. I need to talk to the Lord about his definition of soon. I don't know how old the book of Psalms is, but that's not soon. And yet the Lord says, they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither. Verse 10, for yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Verse 9, evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. In other words, if every time somebody sinned, God did something about it,

that would resolve a great many of our questions. But the real problem is that they seem to be getting along just fine, and God doesn't seem to be doing anything about it. Lord, why don't you do something? One of my favorite prophets is the little prophet Habakkuk. I love Habakkuk. And Habakkuk opens his prophecy with a complaint. He says, Lord, how long will I have to cry out unto you? Lord, why don't you do something? The Chaldeans are coming.

Internally, our country is corrupt, and externally, the Chaldeans are coming, and Lord, you're not doing a thing. And I've been screaming, I country is corrupt, and externally the Chaldeans are coming and saying, Lord, you're not doing a thing. And I've been screaming, I've been praying, and Lord, you're not doing anything. And one of the frustrating things to us as believers is that at times, folks, it looks like God isn't doing anything. How long have you been praying for that situation? God hasn't moved yet, it seems like.

And to us, it looks as though God is not working. But the fact of the matter is, God is always at work. He really is. Habakkuk says, Lord, you're not doing anything. And in verse 5, God comes back and says, well, I am doing something, and I'm going to tell you. But you won't like it when you hear it. He says, behold, and believe, I'll show you a wonder you will not believe, though you see it. Oh, all right, Lord. If you're doing something, I wish you'd tell me what it is. I mean, after all, the Chaldeans are about to come and take us. And so if you're doing something, I sure would like to know what it is you're doing.

God says, Well, I'll tell you what I'm doing. I'm raising up the Chaldeans. I mean, I'm using the Chaldeans as an instrument of chastisement because of your sin, your idolatry. You've been praying that I'd do something about the godlessness in your country. All right, I'm doing something about it. I'm raising up the Chaldeans. The interesting thing to me is this, that the very thing that made Habakkuk think God

was not at work was the very work that God was at. You know, every once in a while somebody will say, Well, you know, the Lord has really started to work in our church. What we mean by that is God has finally started behaving like we want him to. But the truth is, folks, he who watches Israel neither sleeps nor slumbers, and God is always at work. What arrogance, what arrogance you and I have to say God isn't working. There are times when He is working. You remember when God was working a few years ago, back when everything was going great?

I mean, man, everything was going great. God answered every prayer we were doing well. Financially, the kids were behaving themselves. Oh, wasn't it great when God was working? But now, oh, bad times, bad times. What right do we have to say that God was working then and isn't working now. Folks, God is always at work. It only looks as though he is inactive. And that causes us to be frustrated because it appears that God is not doing anything. But there is a third reason, which is really a summary of the first two. I simply call it our ignorance of the ways of God. I'm convinced that if I knew God like I ought to know him,

I'd never have a fretful moment. I'm convinced of that. What I think is indifference on the part of God is simply ignorance on my part. What to me at times looks as though God does not care, or that God has lost control, is simply ignorance on my part. And this ignorance takes two forms. Number one, I am ignorant because God works on a different time schedule than I work on. In other words, I am in a hurry. I keep looking at my watch, by the way, because I am a time-space creature, and so are you.

I feel pressured, not by the clock only, but by the calendar. I know that my life has a certain amount of days and years in it, and things have to be done now. And God, why don't you answer this prayer now? I mean, after all, time is passing, and by this age I ought to be farther down the road than I am. And why, Lord, aren't you doing anything? I fully believe God doesn't own a clock or a calendar.

I think sometimes he doesn't have any idea what time it is. If God knew what time it was, if God knew how late things were, certainly he would do something. I always like to make at least one profound statement in every message. Sometimes I'll tell you what it is, otherwise you wouldn't recognize it as profound. So this is it coming up. With God, timing is more important than time. With God, timing is more important than time.

That's just the opposite for me. Boy, time is important. But with God, timing is more important than time. Moses had a right idea, just did it at the wrong time. He was about 40 years too early in trying to deliver Israel from Egypt. Always has amazed me that God took 30 years to get Jesus ready for a three and a half year ministry. When he showed up at twelve and mystified all of the teachers that had been up, I tell you what, we would have put him on the sawdust trail then and we would have said, boy, preacher astounds his professors everywhere.

We would say, my soul, don't you know the world is going to hell? What do you mean going back to Nazareth and hiding yourself for eighteen years? Lord, don't you know how urgent everything is? And yet God just seemed to take his time. Because with God, timing is more important than time. And I've come to believe that God takes about a lifetime to get us ready to do maybe one or two important things. God works on a different time schedule that frustrates us, makes us anxious. But not only that, God also works with a different value system. Oh, and this is where the rub really comes. You say, what do you mean? Well, I mean by that that the

same things that are valuable to us are not necessarily valuable to God. Value systems are different. If I were to say to you today, God is good, what do you think of immediately? I pray, Lord, be good to me. I want the goodness of God in the land. What am I talking about? Well, when I think of good, folks, I think of good in the sense of convenience and comfort and circumstances.

I'm going to be honest with you. You may not think I'm as spiritual as you ought to, but I'll be honest with you. When I find myself in an adverse situation and suddenly there is difficulty or where my first response is not, oh boy, here's another chance to trust the Lord and develop character. Now, I'll come to that eventually, but I'll tell you, my first thought is, God, you've got to get me out of this. This can't be the will of God. The devil's gotten in here somewhere. Because when I think about God being good to me, and you say, I'm going to pray that God will bless you.

Well, yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. But you see, that's the problem. God works on a different value system. My wife and I were in Jackson two or three years ago. We stayed down at Holiday Inn downtown, right across the street. It's a big house, antique place. Went over there one day and looked in that place. Huge old house, antiques everywhere. I'd pick up something. I'd say, man, I threw away better stuff than this. And I have. I've thrown away a lot better stuff than that.

If I'd known all that stuff was going to be that valuable, I'd have hung on to it. Listen, I've been looking for my baseball cards for years. I know what's happened. My mom threw those away years ago when I went off to college. I can't believe that I sold my 65 Mustang for $400. But I had no idea it was going to be that valuable. We just throw things out. Why? It's junk. Oh, no, they don't throw that out. Well, that will be valuable one of these days. Make you rich one of these days. No, it's just junk. And I'm sure that a lot of times that's the way I've been praying.

Lord, I need to get rid of this. This is junk. God said, oh, no. Hang on to that. It may not look like much today, but one of these days it will be valuable. You see, I just don't have the same standard of values that God has, always. You see, I think God is more interested in creating in me a Christ-like character than he is in making me comfortable.

And that frustrates me. Because I say, how can God let these things happen? How can God let me lose these things? Doesn't he know how valuable they are? You see, one of the problems with most of us, we've got so many things now, we don't know which things are necessary and I think what happens every once in a while God comes along and he says

son the trouble with you is you're plugged into so many sockets you don't know which one's hot anymore so we're just going to see we'll start unplugging a few when we get to the right one you'll know it and the Lord puts his hand on one. I said, oh God, if you unplug that, I'll die. I can't live without that. And he unplugs it,

and nothing happens. And he puts his hand on something else, and I said, oh Lord, if you unplug that one, I know that'll kill me. And he unplugs it and nothing happens. And I discover that a lot of those things that I thought were absolutely essential and valuable, just junk really. And that frustrates me because I think I've got figured out what's important in my life. And God comes along and shows me that it's not as important as I thought it was. So these are some of the basic things, I think, that cause us as believers to fret. In fact, the injustices of life, the idea that God doesn't seem to be doing anything about it, and the fact that I'm so ignorant of what God's up to anyway.

So we'll stop there today. We'll just have to fret for one more day. But I imagine you've fretted this long, one more day won't kill you. But starting tomorrow, we'll look and see what the psalmist says to do about that. There is something to do about it. I hesitate to call it a cure and a solution, so I won't do that. But I like to call it alternatives. I always like to leave myself an out.

But that's what we're going to look at tomorrow. God bless you. Pastor, do you have a word? All right, let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you'd bless our time together today and let the word of God be a good seed sown in our heart. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you.

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