Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Psalm 37, 3 through 4, we find five life habits that God calls us to, followed by the promise that God will give us the desires of our hearts. That's a lot to pack into two verses.
What are the five habits? And if you follow them, will God give you whatever your heart desires? Let's listen as Pastor Rich unpacks these two verses in a message titled, Living by Faith, Faithfulness. Psalm 37 in your copy of the scriptures. Living by faith. It's important that we understand what that means. We talk about it all the time, but do we know what it is to actually do it, to live by faith?
What does that look like? I want to review last week, because we're in Psalm 37, we looked at verses one and two. Fret not yourself because of evildoers. Be not envious of wrongdoers.
They will soon fade away like the grass and wither like the green herb. The first part of living by faith is a contentment, knowing the big picture that we see things for what they are. We see God for who He is. We rehearse the why of life, and the why of life is encapsulated in one brief verse. All things were created by Him and for Him. The why of life comes down to this. You exist for the purpose of knowing God and enjoying Him. That's why you exist.
That's the why of life. You need to rehearse that, and then that is only possible as you review your status in Christ. That is the gospel of grace. Review your status in Christ. Read Ephesians one to three. Consume it.
Memorize it as much as you can. Ephesians one to three. Review your status in Christ. This is what produces contentment, so that indeed you can live by faith instead of fretting about what's going on around you in the world.
Fretting over what other people are doing. You live a contentment that is the outflow of the peace of God in your heart, because through the eyes of faith, you see reality for what it truly is. In verses three and four, we're going to talk about faithfulness. Living by faith is not only contentment, but it's faithfulness. Psalm 37, three and four. Commit your way to the Lord.
Trust in Him, and He will act. No, I'm sorry. That's verse five.
Back up a little bit. Verse three. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. There's a lot packed into those two little verses. Did you know there are five imperatives in just those two verses? Five.
What does it mean then? When it comes to faithfulness, you practice these five imperatives. What you're doing is you're developing a habit. We all have habits, don't we?
Some good, some not so good. But we are creatures of habit. And the only way to break a bad habit is to replace it with a good habit. And establishing a good habit up front takes work.
It takes intentionality. This is what we're called to these five things today. And then there's a promise that follows that. But this is all, as we go through these today, this is what's involved in living by faith. You want a mental picture of what it is, what it looks like in the day to day to live by faith. It begins with contentment, seeing things for what they are, seeing God for who He is, and then faithfulness. These five imperatives develop the habit. Number one, verse three. Here's the first imperative, trust in the Lord. Yeah, we say that all the time, don't we?
Until it gets hard. And did you know trust makes absolutely no sense unless there's a challenge? Trust in the Lord. Because the Lord is the object worthy of trust.
He is our object of trust. Living by faith is not just this idea of what I would like to have happen in the future, or my idea of what I think God is like. Living by faith is knowing that God is the trustworthy object upon which I should place my confidence.
That's living by faith. So trust means to rely on, it means being sure of safety, because He is good and He is able. Do you know that God is good? Do you know that God is good? He is very being defines good. Listen, there is never a time that God is not good, ever.
Do you know that? He is He is good, which is why you can trust Him. Not only is He good, but He is able to do whatever He desires to do.
He is able. So when we don't see His plan, and we won't, because our understanding is limited, but His is infinite and transcendent. He knows the end from the beginning. But when we don't see His plan, when we can't trace His hand, we need to trust His heart. Because God is good. Trust in the Lord. So when matters under the sun seem unfair, unjust, or unsure, and they do, rely on His character and purpose.
Rely on, entrust yourself to His character and His purpose. These are made known to us. That's why we must know that. That's why and how we can trust it. It has been proven in the past. It is on record, if you will. The goodness and the character of God.
We know that we can trust Him. There was one time when Cory was in high school. He went to classical conversations in High Point. And there was one time when the tutor in the class said, you know, you need to call your parents and make sure that they will be here right on time. And he said, they will be here right on time because I need to leave as soon as class is done.
I need to get out of here. And so it was classes coming to an end because you know how parents can be notorious for showing up late, right? And the tutor said, you know, Cory was just sitting there calling.
He was getting five minutes still, you know, right at the end. And the tutor says to Cory, Cory, do you need to call your dad? He says, nope, dad will be here. He told me this. He said, nope, I don't need to worry. Dad will be here. I know he will, because he always is.
When he told me that, I'm like, whew. And that's just, you know, that's how we need, that's how we need to trust God. But listen to me, isn't God a little more trustworthy than I am? He is good. Do you know he is good?
There's never a time that he's not. And be very, very careful that you don't judge the goodness of God by the comfort and pleasure of your circumstances. God is good.
And he is able. So we need to review what he has done. That's why we have scripture, folks. That's why we have scripture. We need to review what God has done.
God is like what he has done. So this is why the scripture says, trust in the Lord and what? Well, when you trust in the Lord, you just sit back and do nothing, right? Is the Bible, is the Bible promoting passivity here? Well, you know, I'm just going to trust in the Lord. I'm not going to do anything. I'm just going to trust in the Lord. You know, that's nonsense.
It sounds silly even saying it, doesn't it? You see, life is a stewardship, because what's the next phrase in verse three? Trust in the Lord and what? Trust in the Lord and what? Trust in the Lord and what?
Is it sinking in yet? You see, trust in, trusting in the Lord isn't just sitting back and doing nothing. Trust in the Lord and do good. Why? Because life is a stewardship. This life is not yours.
Did you know that? Paul says to the church at Corinth, you are not what? Your own. Your own.
Now that completely changes a lot of the dialogue that's going on in public today, doesn't it? You are not your own. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Why? Because life is a stewardship and doing good is as opposed to fretting in verse one. Sitting back and fretting, fretting because of evildoers and wrongdoers. Fretting, did you know fretting is a form of analysis paralysis? You're sitting there frozen and you don't know what to do and you can't do the right thing and you often do the wrong thing because you're fretting.
You're too focused on what other people are doing. And when you focus on people, it takes your focus off of God. Trust in the Lord and do good. The word good means that which benefits, that which is generous, that which is pleasing. Doing good, as he mentions here, is the opposite of living for yourself, which is the problem that you were born with.
Self preeminence is the term that I use all the time. The opposite of Christ preeminence. Doing good is the opposite of living for yourself and Jesus came to rescue us from that. Second Corinthians 5 15, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and for their sake was raised. Trust in the Lord and do good.
What does it mean? It means to act with the mind of Christ. Philippians 2, what is the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is just simply this, to consider others more significant than yourself.
To act with the mind, doing good means acting with, not acting as in putting on a performance, right? But walking in your behavior with the mind of Christ that others are more significant than yourself. Christ is the supreme example of that truth, deity, setting aside his glory to come to us, to invest himself in us. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
