Benefit by Hindsight

Words about exercising faith in real life. Here's Dr. Michael Yusef. Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef. This year marks the 50th year of Dr. Yusef's preaching ministry, and we're so thankful for his faithfulness to God and His Word. Coming up next, Dr. Yusef takes you into the pages of Psalm 37 to listen to King David as he reminisced over his life. David declares so clearly how God never forsakes the faithful, always blesses faithful servants, and how deeply God is honored when His children trust Him. You're encouraged to remember that Leading the Way is listener supported, trusting God to supply the ministry needs through the prayers and financial gifts of God's people.

Learn how to stand with Dr. Yusef when you call 866-626-4356 or online at ltw.org. Right now, listen as Dr. Yusef begins. Here in Psalm 37, we are seeing the old, wise King David giving us some very wise advice, and we do extremely well to listen and adhere to how the Holy Spirit inspired this man who has lived through a whole lot of stuff in his life, and came through the other end to tell us about it. And I began by telling you the last message, the first half, do not fret, but look up.

The second half here in Psalm 37, the same wise man, David, is continuing. He is saying, learn from me and from my experience. Learn from the benefits of hindsight. Learn from my past failures and pain. Learn from my past sin and the suffering that came as a consequence of that sin. Learn the consequences of those painful experiences that I have been through, and don't repeat them. In fact, learn from me regarding the futility of worry and anxiety and wanting to jump the gun and do things that are not consistent with the will of God for your life. And here's actually David saying more than that. He is saying to us, learn from this benefit of a long and painful life, of a life that's seen the ups and have seen the downs, a life that have experienced the glory of God and at the same time, other times experiencing the dumps. Again in the last message, I had four reasons why we should not fret, but look up.

Today I'm going to give you three. First in hindsight, I know now that God never, never, never, never forsake his faithful ones. That's in verses 23 to 26. Secondly he said, in hindsight, I know that God ultimately blesses his faithful ones. Verse 27 to 34, finally thirdly, in hindsight, God truly is honored when you and I trust him fully and completely.

And you find that from verse 35 to 40. First in hindsight, I now know, now that I've got a long life behind me, now I look back at my life, I now know in hindsight that God never, never, never forsake his faithful ones. David reflects on the faithfulness of God through the years and he reflects on that faithfulness of God and he sees the heavenly father is much more and much greater than an earthly father. But if you think in terms of an earthly father, in their relationship with their children, these earthly fathers can never change the fact that their children are their children, no matter what they do.

The family name, the family genes, and the family blood, that can never be changed regardless of what the child does. Even if the child's grace is the family name, they can never cease to be the father's child. In a far greater way, for all the faithful brothers and sisters of Jesus, we have the heavenly father's name, we have the heavenly father's genes, we have the heavenly father's blood and to be sure, our heavenly father may discipline us and he does, he may convict us and he does, and he may rebuke us and he does, but he never rejects us. But even more than that, more than that, look at verse 23, the steps of the faithful child of God are ordered by the Lord, though along the way as he takes steps, he may fall. But when he fall and splatter all over the place, God never says, well on your own body, but God says he will never be forsaken, why? Because he said the Lord upholds him with his own hand.

That is the promise of God. You see, saying that the heavenly father never throws out his son or his daughter out of the house, and never throw his son or daughter out of his abode, why? Because the Lord is carrying you, whether you know it or not, and whether you feel it or not. Question, how does this work in the life of believers today? How does it work in your life and in my life?

Let me tell you the obvious first, then I come to answer the question. Do you remember when you became a new believer in Jesus, when you came to Christ and experienced his salvation, and you experienced his forgiveness, all of a sudden your spiritual eyes are seeing this incredible love of God, who died on that cross for you and shed his blood for you. Remember how excited you were, and how on cloud nine you were. Remember how so much in love with the Lord you were. You want to do anything for the Lord. You don't want to do anything that will offend him, and how you cannot wait to wake up in the morning to tell everyone about the forgiveness of your sins, and the joy of receiving that forgiveness. How you were studying the word of God, you're devouring the word of God, and you're learning from the word of God every day.

How you are seeking God's will in your life in every step, and how you prayed before you make any decision, and you sought God, and God guided you. Well, the spiritual growth in all of our lives mirrors the physical growth. So when you become a believer in Jesus, you basically have become a spiritual toddler. Now there may be spiritual toddlers here, and that's fine.

We all go through the stages. If you watched little toddlers, how they're excited, and how they're delighted, and pleasing of the parents. Look at me daddy, look at me mommy, and they kind of really get a joy and a delight out of the parent's love, and the parent's approval. It's just a special relationship with the little toddler, and it's the same thing in the spiritual realm.

And God seemed to respond to the toddler in a different way than he does to the mature Christian. Oh Lord, then followed by the adolescent years. Now let me tell you something, I'm one of those dudes that never forget his adolescent years. There are a lot of pain, a lot of suffering, a lot of stuff. I don't forget it, that's why I'm always so pathetic with our young people. And in the spiritual realm, it's the same thing. You go from being a toddler to being adolescent. What do you do in adolescent years?

You think that you know everything. As we grow in the faith, as we grow in the knowledge, and we grow in our love for Jesus. And you come to a point where you become so used to as a spiritual toddler, the Lord answering your prayers, doing things, and so you come into that stage where you read the scripture, you know, you think you know everything about the Christian faith, and you're about to make a decision, you make a very important crucial decision, and you give God 24 hours to respond. He doesn't respond in the same way when you're a brand new Christian.

Now I don't know why, and I thought about this long and hard, just like David. I've looked back in my life and why does God not respond in the same way to a mature Christian as he does to a baby Christian. And I could think of various reasons, maybe because he wants to teach us to wait on him. He maybe wants us to learn patience. Maybe because he wants us to learn to trust him. I don't know.

I don't know. All you know is that you're not hearing God, and you're not seeing him answer prayer the way you used to. So you get impatient, and you weigh your options, and you make your choice, you make a decision, and in the making of that decision, you fall and fail all over the place.

I mean you splattered all over the floor. I've been there. And when you're down, you hear myriads of voices. You may want to blame God for your failure.

That's a very popular one among evangelicals. Or you want to be angry with yourself for that failure and for being impatient. You may become discouraged and despondent, and at that point, there's a huge temptation comes from the devil, comes from the enemy of your soul. Huge temptation, and the enemy begins to say to you, look, since you're down, stay down. It's a lot easier to be down.

It's more comfortable down here. Now, see how you blew it? You'll never be able to have the same relationship with the Lord again like you once had. And his miserable voice comes coming in and said, no amount of repentance now is going to restore that relationship or be used in the work of God.

You will never be an example and a role model now that you have failed. Meanwhile, whether you are actually hearing him or not, the Lord is saying to you, I've got you in my hands. I've got you in my arms. I'm upholding you with my own arms. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. I want to strengthen you. I want to teach you some very important lessons, some life lessons. You are mine and nothing, no one can change that. I could never disown you.

Repent, seek my forgiveness and I'll give it to you. This wise old man David is saying, the steps of the godly woman or the godly man are ordered by the Lord. Though he falls, though she falls, he will never cast you out.

Why? Because the Lord himself, not any amount of good effort on your part, but the Lord himself, he's upholding you with his own hands. As if David is saying to every one of us, listen carefully please, I have been through a lot in my lifetime. I foolishly and occasionally I thought that the Lord would not save me, but he did. Or maybe he felt at times and you see it elsewhere here, and the Lord was saying to me, I've had enough of you David, I've had enough of your failures, you're on your own buddy. But instead David realizes that this is not true, it is not true. Because all of these years I have never seen the faithful ones forsaken by the Lord, and I have never seen his children homeless on the streets fending for themselves.

It's a use of translation, but trust me it's accurate. God is not only faithful to his own faithful ones, but he is faithful to their descendants, to their descendants. You remember the widow of the faithful man of God who went to the prophet Elisha, 2 Kings chapter 4.

Here's what a lot of people miss, they think of the miracle and they think of all the encounter and Elisha and all of this and it's all wonderful. But there was a one sentence there, when this widow comes to the prophet Elisha, she starts by saying, you know that my late husband was faithful man of God. See that's the key here, you know Elisha that my husband was a faithful man. But now I'm a widow, I'm up to my eyeballs in debt, and the debt collectors beating on my door, they are threatening to take my boys into debtors prison, they're going to take them into slavery. And you know what the Lord did for her, Elisha asked her, what do you have in your house?

He always starts with what you have in your house, what do you have in your life, what do you have? Bottom line is God gave her an oil factory, an oil factory out of a drop of oil and she paid all her debts and she lived for the rest of her life and her sons. God is always not only faithful to his faithful ones but to their descendants. Beloved, if you have never risked anything in faith, in absolute trust in the promise of God, before you see the evidence, you're missing out on incredible blessings in life. Believers I can't explain in words, oh dear God, when I read how less than 3% of believers tithe to the Lord, I want to cry. What kind of faith is this? And we pray for revival, we pray for this, we pray for that, and his people are not faithful to him. Just in case you feel bad, I was ordained to the ministry and was not faithful with my tithe and the Lord had to teach me that very, very important lesson, long story.

But I remember back in 1979, we're living in Atlanta, and my income at that time were just about, maybe slightly above poverty level. But because after God taught me the lesson of faithfulness with his money, it's not mine anyway, we were tithing. And I remember the sweet lady who I was introduced to, to help us with our taxes, and she looked at me and she said, how can you tithe when you have three children and they've got their future and future education and everything else that's coming up? I remember looking her in the eye and I said, that's because you have never experienced the Lord stretches a dollar all around the house.

Beloved, we can pray all we want for our nation, we can pray for this, we'll pray for that, and pray, let's look at what's happening in our country and what happened in our culture and we get all, until God's people get right with God, until they begin to exercise faith, until they begin to trust in the promises of God. Look at verse 27, depart from evil and do good. What is that evil he's talking about? It's evil of falsely accusing God of not loving you. It's evil of falsely accusing God when he doesn't give you what you want or you think you want that he doesn't care. The evil of hardening your heart toward the Lord because you didn't get what you want. It's the evil of anger toward God, it's the evil of coldness toward God. I remember one time many, many years ago a lady came and she said, will you pray for me? I have this cold love toward God.

I never heard that term before, but since then I understand it. Depart from it, depart from now, depart from it today, this moment as you're hearing the word of God preach, why? Verse 28, God does not forsake his godly ones because God promised his own favor on his godly ones because God promised that he is faithful to his faithful ones and they will inherit the earth.

In the New Testament I can tell you it's a new earth, a new heaven. In hindsight David is saying God never forsake his faithful ones. In hindsight God always blesses his faithful ones. Unfortunately in hindsight I know that God is honored by our trust of him. You know I hear people all the time say, we want to honor the Lord, we want to honor the Lord. Listen to me, the greatest honor that you can bestow upon the Lord is you fully trusting him, trusting his timing, trusting his timing. Can you say that with me? That's always a hard one. Even when he allows inexplicable things that happen in your life, be patient and trust that God has your best interest at heart. Even when you see the wicked prospering, even when you see evil succeeding, even when you see falsehood is rampant, even when you see immorality is praised in public, even when you see deceitful people becoming famous, even when you see the wicked grabbing the headline and the headline news, even when you see the corrupt and the greedy seem to be getting away with it. Even so, you trust him. You trust him. Don't be tempted because that is not the last word, that's not God's last word. His last word is coming.

No one in a million knows. You know, I always love Psalm 1 because it's full of very beautiful imagery and until you kind of been to Israel and see this, the tree that is planted, talking about the righteous, the faithful, it's like a tree that's planted where the water is running, right at the edge of the water. Why is that good? Because not only getting water, we're getting nutrients. Soil is bringing nutrients to the tree. That tree may not be impressive. Doesn't look majestic, but it's growing, receiving nutrients and growing and growing on the inside and growing on the inside and growing on the inside. He said, compare that with beautiful flowers. I don't care what your favorite flower is. And I know all flowers are beautiful.

They are pretty, they are easy on the eye, they're colorful, but then in a short period of time, they are dead, dead, dead, dead. Now the oak tree continue to flourish. Look at verses 37 and 38. The faithful is at peace regardless of the circumstances. Verse 38, the transgressors shall be destroyed just like those pretty flowers.

They may look great on the outside, but don't judge by appearance. Verse 39, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. That means my beloved friends, it is permanent.

It is permanent. Don't ever forget, God is not writing your name in the book of life in a pencil. And every time you blow it, He turns it over and erases it. And then you repent, He writes it back. No, no. He said, your name is written in the book of life by the blood of Jesus Christ.

And nobody can erase it. God does not save you one day and then disown you another, dump you another day. The Lord is their strength in times of trouble. Look at verse 40. And the Lord would deliver them from the wicked and save them.

Why? Because they trusted in Him. The Bible said that many are the woes of the righteous, but the Lord delivered them from all.

How many? Well, beloved, unfailing trust in the Lord will ultimately bring you vindication. It may take a little longer than you think, but He will bring you vindication. Your unfailing trust in the Lord will honor Him in the long run.

God said that He will honor those who honor Him. This is Leading the Way Audio. And we thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for a message from his series called God Has the Answer for Every Problem You Face. Focused on the Great Commission, Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way are sharing the Gospel near and far. Through our Vision 2025 campaign, we're witnessing God change hearts and lives across the world. At the height of the pandemic, Leading the Way Live's weekly online services reached a monthly peak of over 330,000 viewers, spreading the hope of Jesus in a time of trouble and uncertainty.

In addition to online events, this past year, Dr. Youssef relaunched in-person events beginning with Leading the Way Live New England, a live event hosted at the Moody Center in Massachusetts. Leading the Way is now planning several large campaigns across 2022 and 2023. These citywide campaigns will involve working alongside local pastors, churches, and ministry leaders to maximize long-term spiritual impact by discipling new believers who come to Christ through these large-scale events, connecting them with local churches to ensure long-term spiritual growth. With each passing year, the world keeps changing, but our calling is the same. Leading the Way is right there on the cutting edge, adapting to the new tech and media landscape, using every tool to reach the world with the hope of Jesus. Contact us today to find out how you can join with Leading the Way's global outreach and become a part of what God is doing through this worldwide ministry. Speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. Learn how you can stand with Dr. Youssef in sharing the gospel in your neighborhood and in neighborhoods like it around the world, or visit ltw.org, 866-626-4356, and ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.