Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Our dear Heavenly Father, you have extended yourself to us in such a way that we hope in you.
[00:00:16] We look to our future and we have expectations that you're going to be at work in ways beyond what we can imagine so that we can live a quality life, we can accomplish your purpose, and we can bring glory to Jesus Christ.
[00:00:39] So I pray this morning your spirit would enlighten us to the advantages of being a righteous person.
[00:00:49] And I ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
[00:00:56] In Psalm 37, David has a sub theme.
[00:01:03] It's a poem.
[00:01:06] And this sub theme is.
[00:01:10] It's commonly, it's commonly spread around that the righteous are disadvantaged and that the unrighteous and the wicked, they have an advantage over us.
[00:01:27] They can break the rules, they can lie, they can cheat.
[00:01:31] So they kind of have an advantage over us.
[00:01:34] But David is attacking that idea and he's saying the righteous have the advantage, the wicked have a disadvantage.
[00:01:46] And in the stanzas we're going to look at today, David's going to give us five advantages for being a righteous person.
[00:01:57] Five advantages that gives you a a better running lane through life by being righteous.
[00:02:08] So let's start verse 23.
[00:02:13] The steps of a man are established by the Lord. When he delights in his way.
[00:02:21] Though he fall, he will not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
[00:02:29] The first advantage of being righteous is the Lord guides us and he upholds us.
[00:02:39] Ah.
[00:02:40] The steps of a man are established by the Lord church.
[00:02:48] If you're righteous, you are not wandering blindly through life.
[00:02:56] If you're righteous, the Lord is the guide of your life.
[00:03:02] You're not randomly testing what's in front of you, keeping putting your foot out a little bit, making sure the next step is safe because the Lord himself is guiding your life.
[00:03:16] I want to remind you of how the Lord guides our life.
[00:03:21] The first way he guides our life is he has a plan for us.
[00:03:28] God is not playing chess with life.
[00:03:32] You make a move, he makes a move. Somebody else makes a move, he makes a move. He has an eternal plan.
[00:03:41] He knows what your life should look like. He knows what your life looks like. When you are at your very best.
[00:03:48] He knows your highest potential and it is his plan to day by day guide you in that way.
[00:03:59] God has a plan and he's using it to guide your life.
[00:04:05] The second way he guides our life is by the truth of the scriptures.
[00:04:10] There's a whole bunch of true stuff in the Bible and if you would read it and pay attention to it, you'd live A better life.
[00:04:20] There's just a stone cold fact. There are a lot of good ideas in the Bible and if you would let them guide you, you'd live a better life.
[00:04:32] The third way he guides us is by his Holy Spirit.
[00:04:37] Jesus said when he went back to heaven that he would not leave us orphans, but that he would send the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit would guide us day by day.
[00:04:52] The Spirit of Christ whispers to your soul and guides you in the way that you should go.
[00:05:00] Ah, ah, but we have to pay attention.
[00:05:08] Do you hear this?
[00:05:09] When the Holy Spirit whispers, we have to pay attention.
[00:05:15] It happens to me sometimes like this, fussing with Shay.
[00:05:22] And the Holy Spirit says to me, ah, tell her you're sorry.
[00:05:33] You know what I say?
[00:05:35] You tell her to tell me she's sorry.
[00:05:40] I like to yield to the Holy Spirit very quickly.
[00:05:45] Ah, Then the Holy Spirit says, oh, so that's the kind of guy you're going to be.
[00:05:52] Ah, I've never seen the Holy Spirit, but I tell you, he whispers to our souls and when he does, he's trying to guide us in a better way.
[00:06:04] We have an advantage over other people to whom the Holy Spirit does not whisper.
[00:06:13] And then the fourth way he guides us is he puts good examples in our lives.
[00:06:19] In every one of your lives there are some good people and the Holy Spirit can use them to say, this is what it looks like when it's working right.
[00:06:29] This is what it looks like when you're living right.
[00:06:32] Can you see the advantage in this person's life?
[00:06:36] So, ah, we have an advantage over the wicked. And that advantage is God has a plan for us. He, the Scriptures teach us the truth. The Holy Spirit whispers to us, and God puts other good people in our life and it's his way of guiding our steps.
[00:06:59] In fact, David says that he delights in this.
[00:07:05] He absolutely delights in this.
[00:07:09] Have you not learned?
[00:07:11] The Lord is my shepherd.
[00:07:15] He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
[00:07:19] He delights in shepherding us through life.
[00:07:25] And then David said, we don't always get it right.
[00:07:30] We have a tendency to mess up.
[00:07:33] And he says, though the righteous fall, he will not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds His hand.
[00:07:43] Here's a poetic image.
[00:07:46] There's a difference between stumbling and falling and catching yourself and face planting.
[00:07:57] There's a difference between you stumble, you fall, but you kind of catch yourself.
[00:08:02] And then there's times when you stumble and it's teeth into the dirt.
[00:08:09] That's called falling headlong Listen what David said.
[00:08:15] David said you're going to stumble in life.
[00:08:19] You're going to have. You're going to. You're going to. Going to. You're going to have your slips and falls, but God is never going to let you go teeth first into it. He's always going to catch you.
[00:08:34] We have our life failures. We have sins and we have life misdirections.
[00:08:41] But in all of these, we're not alone because the Lord is guiding us and he's never going to let us fall to our ruin.
[00:08:51] Even in my failure, God is reaching out his hand to hold me.
[00:09:00] Even in your failure, God is reaching out his hand and saying, you're in a bad spot.
[00:09:07] You're messing up, but I'm still holding on to you. I'm not letting you go.
[00:09:16] The proverbs say, for the righteous falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble in times of calamity.
[00:09:30] Listen what this proverb is saying.
[00:09:34] That area in your life where you stumble again and again and again.
[00:09:41] Church, we're all aware of it. That area of our life that we have to struggle against.
[00:09:46] Listen. Listen what the proverbs say.
[00:09:52] God says if you stumble seven times, he's still holding on to you and he's going to help you get up every time.
[00:10:06] Peter once said to Jesus, how many times do I have to forgive my brother if he sins against me? Seven times.
[00:10:13] And Jesus said to Peter, no, you're a little low on that horse. Try 70 times 7.
[00:10:20] If God asks us to forgive others.
[00:10:23] 70 times 70. 70 times 7. Surely, surely he won't do any less for us.
[00:10:31] Do you hear me, Church?
[00:10:32] Ah.
[00:10:34] No matter how many times you stumble, stumble, there he is in his loving kindness, reaching out his hand and saying, get up. Let's do this again.
[00:10:44] Get up. I'm still with you.
[00:10:47] Get up. We're going to start over. And I'm going to. I'll never leave you or forsake you.
[00:10:55] It is a valuable thing to be upheld by the Lord.
[00:11:01] It is a. It is an advantage in life. When the wicked stumble, there's no one to pick them up.
[00:11:08] When the righteous stumble, we have the promise that the Lord will help us rise.
[00:11:14] To live a righteous life.
[00:11:17] We need to seek the daily guidance of Jesus Christ.
[00:11:21] Can you hear this every day?
[00:11:25] You need to quiet your soul. And you need to say, I want to live in the plan today. God, I want to live in the plan today.
[00:11:33] I don't want to go astray.
[00:11:35] I don't want to be making stupid mistakes.
[00:11:40] Help Me to live in the plan today.
[00:11:43] Every day we need to have some time where we read the Bible and we look for a good idea that we can take with us throughout the day.
[00:11:53] You have your Bible reading in the morning, you find a good idea and you take it with you throughout the day.
[00:11:59] For example, just say you happen to be reading Psalm 37, and you come to the verse that says, turn away from evil and do good. You say, that's the verse I'm taking with me throughout the day. I'm going to think all day long about turning away from evil and doing good.
[00:12:21] And then the scripture is guiding me every day. I need to say to the Holy Spirit, as you whisper to me, I will obey you.
[00:12:32] If you will whisper me to me today, I will obey what you asked me to do.
[00:12:37] And every day we need to look for good examples and we need to be a good example.
[00:12:43] It is the advantage of being righteous.
[00:12:47] The second advantage of being righteous.
[00:12:51] Verse 25.
[00:12:53] I have been young and now I am old.
[00:12:59] Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
[00:13:07] He is ever lending generously.
[00:13:11] His children become a blessing.
[00:13:17] David wrote this when he was an old man. And listen what he says.
[00:13:24] Been looking back over my life.
[00:13:28] I've been remembering from when I was young the stages and the phases of my life.
[00:13:36] And this is what I. This is what he says I remember.
[00:13:40] I can't remember a time where God forsook the righteous.
[00:13:45] In all of my life, in all of my experience, I can't think of one time that God forsook the righteous.
[00:13:54] This word forsake literally means to leave behind.
[00:14:00] And it goes well with the poetry of falling.
[00:14:03] In the previous stanza, he said, you're going to fall, but God is going to help you get up.
[00:14:10] You're not going to fall.
[00:14:13] And God walk away and leave you behind.
[00:14:15] Remember, this is poetry and these poetic images. All right, I have been young, and now I'm old.
[00:14:28] And I look back over my life and I look back over the memories I have 43 years of pastoring this church, and I have to say, with King David, I have never seen the righteous forsaken.
[00:14:47] I've seen the righteous go through hard times.
[00:14:50] I've seen the righteous weep. Ah, ah, ah, ah. Bitter tears.
[00:14:56] I've seen the righteous fall, but I've never seen God walk away from the righteous church. That is an advantage. That is an advantage.
[00:15:08] Ah.
[00:15:10] The begging for bread is a poetic expression of being forsaken.
[00:15:21] Once again, I don't take it literally.
[00:15:27] I take it as poetry. I see a poetic image of how pitiful it is for a child to be begging for bread.
[00:15:36] And David said, if you can hold that poetic image, then you can start to sense, ah, God never leaves the righteous behind.
[00:15:47] The righteous are never like children begging for bread.
[00:15:53] Ah.
[00:15:56] Then this phrase, ah, they lend generously.
[00:16:04] With your permission, I'm going to translate it a little more literally.
[00:16:10] All day long they are kind, they are merciful, and they lend.
[00:16:20] That's. That's a more literal reading.
[00:16:23] The righteous are so blessed that all day long they're looking for opportunities to be kind to other people.
[00:16:34] Ah. Kindness can be a rare thing in our world. Amen.
[00:16:39] The righteous are looking day by day for opportunities to show kindness.
[00:16:46] Ah. The opportunity to show kindness generously and to be generously kind. All right.
[00:16:55] I have an advantage over the wicked.
[00:16:59] That advantage is God is working in my heart and in your heart in the kind of way that we're looking for opportunities day by day to show kindness to others.
[00:17:15] I have an advantage over others.
[00:17:18] God wants to work through my life and he wants to work through my generosity and he wants to touch the world in a very real way. And he's going to do it by giving me opportunities to be kind and generous.
[00:17:33] And the world is going to know that God is playing for keeps through people like you and I.
[00:17:39] Can you hear this? We have an advantage over the wicked.
[00:17:45] This advantage is multi generational.
[00:17:48] And his children become a blessing.
[00:17:58] Sarah and I do a podcast. It's called Grotential.
[00:18:04] You can listen to it some way.
[00:18:10] Is it on our hub?
[00:18:15] All right.
[00:18:17] And our last podcast we recorded together, we were talking about the statistic that 75% of pastors kids grow up and leave the faith.
[00:18:40] That seems high to me.
[00:18:43] It seems high to me.
[00:18:46] But whatever the number is, They all don't.
[00:18:54] They all don't.
[00:18:56] Ah.
[00:18:57] Ah.
[00:18:59] Ah.
[00:19:00] I think it is a blessing.
[00:19:05] In spite of the kibbutzing I have to put up with, I think it's a blessing that our church has multiple generation kids serving on our staff.
[00:19:20] Ah.
[00:19:23] I would rather. I would rather have my children grow up and feel called by God to serve in his church than to grow up and not want to go to church and not like church and speak evil of church.
[00:19:39] Can you hear this church?
[00:19:41] It is a. It is a fulfillment of a divine promise that the children of the righteous become a blessing.
[00:19:51] Ah. Ah. When my children serve God in this church, when my grandkids serve God in this church, it is a fulfillment of the divine Blessing that the children of the righteous will be a blessing. Church.
[00:20:07] Ah, the third advantage.
[00:20:12] The righteous turn away from evil and do good. Verse 27.
[00:20:17] Turn away from evil and do good, so shall you dwell forever.
[00:20:24] For the Lord loves justice.
[00:20:27] He will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever.
[00:20:33] But the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
[00:20:36] The righteous shall inherit the land and. And dwell upon it forever.
[00:20:42] The advantage of being righteous is the Lord empowers us to turn away from evil. I don't have to fight evil by myself. I have a partner. I have a friend.
[00:20:55] When you are tempted, don't do it yourself.
[00:21:00] When you feel temptation, you should pause and say, I'm claiming your promise that you will empower me to turn away from evil.
[00:21:13] When you feel tempted, say, I'm claiming your promise. With every temptation, you will provide a way of escape so I can escape the temptation and do good. Church.
[00:21:28] Don't fight it alone. You have a partner in. It's one of the advantages of being righteous.
[00:21:36] In fact, I think we should pray and plan every day to turn away from evil.
[00:21:41] I think every day we should pray and plan to turn away from evil. Here's what you pray. When Jesus taught us to pray, he said, lead us not into.
[00:21:54] Yeah, he's teaching us to pray that he will be with us and lead us away from temptation, not into it.
[00:22:03] All right?
[00:22:04] So I pray that God would rescue me from temptation, and then I plan.
[00:22:10] Ah.
[00:22:12] Ah.
[00:22:13] You know what tempts you?
[00:22:16] Build fences between you and the things that tempt you.
[00:22:21] Ah, emotional fences.
[00:22:26] Sponsor fences.
[00:22:29] You say, I know these kind of things tempt me. And so I'm putting up. I'm putting a barrier between myself and these things that tempt me. Right?
[00:22:42] Ah. The Lord doesn't just empower us to turn away from evil. He empowers us to do good.
[00:22:48] Church.
[00:22:50] Here we are again.
[00:22:51] Not doing evil is not the goal.
[00:22:56] The goal is to do good because you cannot do evil and not do anything.
[00:23:02] And that doesn't make anything better. Do you hear me?
[00:23:06] I want to do more than just not be the pushover for evil.
[00:23:14] I want to be dangerous for good.
[00:23:18] I want to be part of what God's doing in the world.
[00:23:21] I want to be part of making the world what God wants it to be. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
[00:23:33] And then the psalmist says, we have the advantage that God. The Lord loves justice.
[00:23:43] Ah, The Lord loves what is right. He loves what is just.
[00:23:52] This is called divine providence. I've Shared it with you before, but I know you need to have it reviewed, so let's do it.
[00:24:05] What is Divine Providence?
[00:24:09] God, the Creator of all things. Listen, upholds, directs, disposes and governs all creatures, actions and things from the greatest, even to the least by. By his most wise and holy Providence.
[00:24:30] All right, what is Providence? It means God is at work in a day to day way.
[00:24:37] He is upholding what is right.
[00:24:41] He is directing us, the Lord. It guides our steps.
[00:24:45] He is disposing of that which is not good and he is governing.
[00:24:53] The God that we worship is an active God.
[00:24:59] And he's active in every single one of our lives.
[00:25:03] And he's active for the purpose of showing his justice in the world.
[00:25:11] Ah.
[00:25:12] The Lord expresses His love of justice through divine providence. Ah. Ah. He doesn't forsake us when we sin.
[00:25:21] He preserves us when we are weak. He promises us an eternal inheritance.
[00:25:27] The righteous life contemplates the providence of God. I'm looking for the providence of God in my life this week when I go to work Monday. I'm looking for the providence of God.
[00:25:41] I'm saying to God, you are a God of justice. I'm counting on you to work out what is right in my life today.
[00:25:50] You are a God of justice. I'm counting on you to work out what is right in the lives of people around me today.
[00:25:56] I'm counting on you to direct my way. I'm counting on you to preserve me. I'm counting on you to govern in a. In an upright way.
[00:26:04] I have the advantage over the wicked of being able to say to God, I believe that you are the God of providence and I'm trusting you today.
[00:26:20] The fourth advantage.
[00:26:22] The righteous speak wisdom.
[00:26:25] The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom. His tongue speaks justice.
[00:26:31] The law of his God is in his heart.
[00:26:35] His steps do not slip.
[00:26:39] The Lord teaches the righteous divine wisdom.
[00:26:44] Do you know you can know things that the wicked can't know?
[00:26:49] Is that. Does that interest you?
[00:26:51] Does it interest you that as a righteous follower of Jesus Christ you can understand things that the wicked don't understand?
[00:27:01] Listen at this.
[00:27:03] The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentleman, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. Now look at this.
[00:27:23] And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.
[00:27:30] There is a wisdom that is divine wisdom that the wicked can't understand.
[00:27:38] Ah. They can hear the words, but it doesn't mean to them what the Holy Spirit makes it mean to us.
[00:27:47] Ah. This divine Wisdom leads to a harvest of more righteousness.
[00:27:56] The law of the Lord is on is in their hearts.
[00:28:00] You do know that the Hebrew word for law is Torah.
[00:28:05] But Torah doesn't mean primarily law. It means primarily teaching.
[00:28:11] So it should actually be translated the teaching of the Lord.
[00:28:17] Ah.
[00:28:18] Ah.
[00:28:19] Divine wisdom makes us emotionally intelligent, not just intellectually intelligent. Intelligent.
[00:28:27] Okay. There's one thing to know.
[00:28:30] It's one thing to know intellectually that peace is a beautiful thing in your family.
[00:28:38] Your family enjoys life more when there's peace in the house.
[00:28:43] Amen.
[00:28:45] All right.
[00:28:47] It's one thing to know that intellectually.
[00:28:51] It's another thing to know that emotionally, to know the joy, the beauty, the goodness of peace in your home.
[00:29:06] See, divine wisdom is more than an intellectual concept. It is an emotional experience of life.
[00:29:18] We have an advantage over the wicked. We are emotionally experiencing what it's like for the wisdom of God to function in us and through us.
[00:29:33] Ah, let's take another word open to reason.
[00:29:41] The. The divine wisdom is reasonable.
[00:29:46] We live in a very unreasonable age. Church.
[00:29:50] There's always somebody who's got another argument and. And there's. There's always somebody who's. Who's ready to cancel you if you don't agree with them. Right?
[00:30:01] All right.
[00:30:03] I have an advantage over that.
[00:30:06] I live in relationship to a God who shares wisdom with me, and it makes me a more reasonable person.
[00:30:18] I don't have to argue in you into the ground.
[00:30:21] I don't have to prove to you that you're wrong.
[00:30:24] I don't have to assert my opinion.
[00:30:29] There is a wisdom that is higher than all of that, and it is a wisdom that knows what it means to be reasonable, to be open, to listen, to care enough about the other person that you don't have to argue all the time.
[00:30:48] Church, are you hearing me? I have an advantage over the wicked. The wisdom of God makes me more reasonable.
[00:30:58] The fifth advantage.
[00:31:01] The Lord preserves the righteous from the plots of the wicked.
[00:31:06] The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death.
[00:31:12] The Lord will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
[00:31:23] At the end of the book of Luke. There's the story about two men going to the village of Emmaus after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's a very interesting story. You ought to read it sometime.
[00:31:37] And as they are walking to this village, Jesus walks up to them, but they don't recognize him. The resurrected Christ walks up to them and they're talking about all that had just happened in the Betrayal, the crucifixion and the resurrection of Christ.
[00:31:55] And Jesus said to them, what are these words that you're throwing back and forth at each other?
[00:32:04] And they stop and look at him and go, you can't be serious.
[00:32:11] Are you the only one in Jerusalem who doesn't know what's going on?
[00:32:17] And Jesus said, well, tell me.
[00:32:20] And they said, ah, Christ was crucified.
[00:32:25] We believe that he was the redeemer from God.
[00:32:28] It was terrible.
[00:32:32] He was put in a tomb.
[00:32:34] And some ladies from our church, they went to the tomb this morning and the stone was rolled away and it was empty. And they saw the resurrected Christ.
[00:32:47] And Jesus said, oh, you slow of heart to believe all that God has spoken to you in Moses, the psalms and the prophets.
[00:33:03] This is what he's saying. There are psalms that are meant to be understood to be about the life of Christ.
[00:33:12] And this is one of the psalms.
[00:33:14] When David says this stanza, he's looking beyond us and he's looking at Jesus Christ.
[00:33:23] Listen to it again.
[00:33:25] The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death.
[00:33:32] The Lord will not abandon him to his power, nor let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
[00:33:39] If you read the Gospels, the wicked rulers watched every day for an opportunity to embarrass, refute and condemn Jesus Christ.
[00:33:49] They watched him carefully every single day for a way to ruin him.
[00:33:56] They conspired to destroy him.
[00:33:59] The Sanhedrin broke their own laws to condemn him.
[00:34:05] But God did not abandon Christ to the power of these evil rulers.
[00:34:10] In fact, when it says, or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial, you need to remember that Jesus died uncondemned.
[00:34:24] Shall I remind you?
[00:34:26] John 19:6, when the Chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, crucify him. Crucify him.
[00:34:36] Pilate said to them, take him yourself and crucify him, for I find no guilt in him.
[00:34:47] The psalmist said that Christ would not be condemned.
[00:34:53] And in fact, if you read carefully, Pilate says three times, I don't find any guilt in him.
[00:35:00] Jesus died righteous.
[00:35:03] He died uncondemned in the very way that the psalm said he would.
[00:35:11] Ah.
[00:35:13] And so ultimately the greatest advantage of being righteous is I have the model of Jesus Christ to follow.
[00:35:24] The greatest advantage of being righteous is Jesus Christ is our model for life.
[00:35:31] Jesus Christ is our model for wisdom. He's our model for turning away from evil and doing good. He's our model for wisdom and speaking justice.
[00:35:43] Ah. The life that is lived well has the advantage of looking onto Jesus.
[00:35:54] And so I want to leave this verse with you to prompt you this week to let Jesus be your model for righteousness.
[00:36:04] This is what the author of Hebrews says.
[00:36:08] Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before it. Now, here's the idea I want you to take with you.
[00:36:28] Looking to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross despising the shame and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
[00:36:46] Ah.
[00:36:48] Listen what the author of Hebrews says.
[00:36:52] You have an advantage over everybody else. You have an advantage over the wicked.
[00:36:58] Your advantage is you can look on to Jesus, the founder and the perfecter of your faith church.
[00:37:08] You didn't start your own faith. Jesus gave it to you. He is the originator of your faith. And you can't make your own faith perfect. The very same One who gave you faith to begin with, he is at work to perfect it in your life.
[00:37:24] If you want to live to the full advantage that God gives you, then you have to look on to Jesus, the originator and the perfecter of your faith. Because day by day he's going to be showing up in your life and showing you a better way.
[00:37:43] Our dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this psalm.
[00:37:49] I pray that your Holy Spirit would do with it what only your Holy Spirit can do.
[00:37:55] I pray that you would.
[00:37:57] You would be pleased to be at work in our souls.
[00:38:03] Father. I pray for each one who's here this morning and everyone who's watching online.
[00:38:11] I pray that we would not leave this holy place without your Holy Spirit doing something significant in our souls.
[00:38:21] I pray that right now, in this moment of holy quietness, our souls would look unto Jesus.
[00:38:30] I pray that we would whisper to you.
[00:38:33] Ah, you are the originator and you are the perfecter of my faith.
[00:38:39] Ah.
[00:38:41] I pray that right now, in our inner self, we would trust in youn with all our heart.
[00:38:48] And then I pray that your Holy Spirit would do in us what only he can do for your own glory. In Jesus name, amen.
