Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times, Part 3

Dr. Michael Youssef is a local pastor.

He's an author. He is an international Bible teacher, and he's ready to share a message from God's Word next on Leading the Way Audio. Most of us, when we look back on life's challenges, we do reflect that if we had it to do all over again and we knew what we know now, maybe we'd do things a little differently, hoping that things might turn out a little better. Well, up next, biblical lessons on hindsight from the pages of Psalms, encouraging lessons from David as he scanned back over his life, seeing that trusting God completely is the best lesson learned from a life lived. Thank you so much for joining listeners worldwide for Leading the Way, taking the message of the Gospel across six continents and more than 28 of the world's most spoken and understood languages. Up next, encouraging words for discouraging times from Dr. Michael Youssef. Listen with me as he begins today's insightful teaching. In the last message, the first half of the Psalm, I pointed to you that this is one of the later Psalms toward the end of David's life. And this old King David now giving us very wise counsel in this Psalm. And he said, don't judge situations the way they appear to be. Don't judge them as the way they appear to be. And that is why he said three times in those few verses, fret not, fret not, fret not of evil doers.

Even when you see them appear to be having the upper hand, they really don't. Why? Because of what you cannot see. And because of what you have. And because of what is coming to you.

And fourthly, because of the coming judgment on the same wicked evil people. And so here in the second half of Psalm 37, he is saying, learn from my experience. Learn from my experience. Learn from my experience. Learn from my hindsight.

Benefit from it. Benefit from the lessons of my past failures. Take to heart my experience of sin and suffering and the consequences of my sin and the way I repented of my sins. Learn from the consequences of my wrong decisions so that you might not repeat them. Learn from me the futility of worrying and anxiousness and be encouraged. The three encouraging lessons from hindsight here.

And they are as follows. First encouraging lessons is this. God will never, ever, ever forsake his faithful children. Verses 23 to 26. Secondly, the second encouraging lesson. God's will for you and for me. God's will is the best thing for you.

It's the best thing for me. Verses 27 to 34. And the third encouraging lesson from hindsight is that God is truly honored when you trust him. When you fully trust him. When you completely trust him. When you trust him even when you don't understand things. This is verse 35 to 40.

So let's look at these very, very quickly. The first encouraging lesson is that God will never forsake his faithful children. He will never forsake his faithful children. As King David reflects on the faithfulness of God in his life and how faithful God is even in the times when he lied, when he hid, when he ran away. And he reflects on the faithfulness of God throughout the ups and the downs of life. Throughout the dark days and the sunny days of his life.

Throughout the painful times and the joyful times in his life. He basically says that just as a father could never disown his child, God our Father will never disown his faithful children. His real children.

And the reason, emphasis here is on real. Because listen to me, there are so many goats in the churches but they think they're sheep. That is why Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice. And that's why he said, if you love me, you obey me.

If you want to know if you belong to Jesus or you don't, if you're a real disciple or you're not, it's do you obey his word. I know as earthly fathers can never disown their children. I know as a father of four, they're mine no matter what. They have our blood, they have our genes. And nothing will change that. Even if a child disgraces his family, they will never cease to being their father's and mother's children.

So in a far, far, far greater way, listen to me. Those whom God calls, those whom God have chosen, those whom God adopted as his children. They have their father's heavenly blood flowing through them.

They have their father's heavenly genes in their system. Or to be sure, our Heavenly Father often convicts us, our Heavenly Father out of love, he can rebuke us out of love, he disciplines us, but he will never reject us. And yet David is saying more than that to us in the New Testament today. That the steps of the faithful child of God who has received Jesus as their only Savior and the Lord of their life, their steps are guided by God. Though they may miserably fail at times, he or she will not be disowned by the Heavenly Father. They will never be thrown out of his house unless they choose to leave the house.

Why? Because they are healed in his hand, in his hand. Question, how does this work in the New Testament? How does this work in the New Testament?

Let me tell you the obvious, okay? Remember when you first gave your life to the Lord, I pray that some people today will give their life to the Lord and go through that experience, a marvelous experience. You know, when you surrendered your life to him for the first time, when you asked for his forgiveness and the healing and the forgiveness came into your life like a river, like a stream, remember how excited you were, remember how joyful you were, remember how in love with Jesus you became, remember how grateful you were to him, remember how you wanted to tell everybody about the love of Christ and the forgiveness of Christ, remember how you were so devouring the Word of God and you couldn't get enough of the Word of God, how you prayed before every decision.

Remember that? But what happens, just as in the physical realm, we go from being toddlers to being adolescents, spiritually works the same. We go from being spiritual toddlers to being spiritual adolescents. Well, what happens when you become a spiritual adolescent? Like the physical adolescent, you come to the point of thinking that you know everything to be known about God.

Hello? You get to the point of thinking that you know everything about the Bible, that you know everything, right? Now, listen to me, adolescents, this is not a put down, this is just a fact of life. I'm just so thankful that none of you have known me in my adolescent years. So what happens in our spiritual adolescence comes a decision moment in our life. You seek the Lord as you've done when you were a spiritual toddler and you give him 24 hours to respond. He doesn't respond, he doesn't respond fast enough for you and like you used to when you were a spiritual toddler, now that you are growing and that you are becoming closer to being spiritually mature.

Now, whether his delay in response is to teach us lessons or whether his delay is to teach us to wait or teach us to trust him or all of the above, we don't know. All you know is that you are not getting the answers like you had in the past. So what do you do? You become impatient and you weigh your options and you make the wrong choices and then you fail and you get splattered all over the place. Oh my goodness, how many times did I get splattered all over the place? And when you're down, there are myriads of voices going through your head, myriads of voices. You can blame God for your failures as I have done or you can be angry at yourself for not waiting or you can become discouraged. At that point, there is a huge temptation to stay down there, huge temptation to stay in that miserable situation.

That temptation, oh my goodness, is very easy to fall into and the enemy begins to whisper in your ear. You've blown it. It's over, all over.

There's no hope. Satan will tell you that you'll never be a role model again because of your failure. Meanwhile, what is God saying to you? What is God saying to you? I've got you. I've got you in my hand. You're mine. I'm upholding you with my hands. I'll never leave you or forsake you. I want you to learn from this failure to help you grow in my walk with me.

You are mine and nothing is going to change that. I'll never desert you or disown you. Repent and seek my face and my forgiveness and I will give it to you. This wise old man David who has been through the ringer.

You know what I'm talking about? He's been through the ringer in his life and if you read his life you'll understand. I've preached a whole series on David and he's saying the steps of the man or woman of God are ordered by the Lord though he or she may fail will never be thrown out.

Why? Because the Lord himself uphold him with his own hand. Listen to what Jesus said about this in John chapter 6 verses 37 and 39 specifically. John 6. Here's what Jesus said. All, how many?

All. Whom the Father gives me will come to me and whosoever comes to me I will never, no never, never, never drive away. Verse 39 of John 6 and this is the will of whom he sent me. Who sent him? Who sent him?

Who sent him? This is the will of him who sent me that I shall lose none of what he has given me but shall raise them up on the last day. Amen belongs here. The first encouraging lesson is God will never ever throw you away. He will never throw away his real children. His real children especially when they repent. Why do I say this?

Why do I say this? Because the willingness to confess, the willingness to repent, I even go further than just willingness, the eagerness to confess and repent is an indication whether you are his child or not. A lot of people claim I'm follower of Jesus, I'm follower of Jesus and Jesus said the wheat and the tare will grow together only he knows the wheat and you know.

Then he goes on to say I've been young and experienced all the things that young people have experienced and now I'm old, I'm experiencing everything an old person experience. But through it all, through it all, say it with me, through it all, in the times when I thought the Lord will not hear me, will not save me, will not deliver me, through it all, when I thought that the Lord just had enough of me, when I thought that the Lord had enough of my failures, that the Lord had enough of me and my failings. Every time I repent, he forgives me. Every time I repent, he restores me to greater height. Throughout the years, I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his children begging for bread. God is not only faithful to his faithful children but to their children and their children's children. Amen.

Even if it does not appear to be so, appearance has nothing to do with it. There's a marvelous story in 2 Kings chapter 4, always gets to me. There was a faithful man of God who died and left his widow and kids, boys, destitute, in debt and they were in dire straits. So the widow goes to the prophet Elisha and she says to the prophet Elisha, she said, you know, you obviously he knew her husband, her late husband. He said, you know that my husband was faithful to the Lord.

He was faithful servant of the Lord. Now, I'm in deep trouble. I could lose my boys into slavery. The dead has a coming and knocking on my door. Elisha asked a curious question. He said, what do you have in your house? What? What a curious question.

What do you have in your house? Oh, nothing. Well, wait a minute. There is a drop, a drop. You know what I mean? A drop of oil.

He said, great. Go out and borrow as many barrels, empty barrels as you can. What? Why? Because God is going to turn that drop of oil into an oil factory.

Please hear me right. This is important. If you have never risked anything in faith, if you have never risked anything anchoring on the promise of God, you are missing out on one of the greatest blessing, the greatest blessing that you can experience in this lifetime. So the first lesson of hindsight, and I spent a lot of more time on it because it's important, that God will never forsake his faithful children. Second encouraging lesson is that God's will, God's will is the best for you.

God's will for you is the best. Michael, even in the times when I don't think so, read my lips. Yes. Michael, even in the times when I think that God's will for me stinks, read my lips again.

Yes. Even in the times when I don't feel particularly blessed, yes. Listen, there is no doubt that Job wondered at times, doubted at times, questioned at times, but ultimately he could say, here's a use of translation, your will is just too wonderful for me to comprehend. David experienced the same thing, the same thing. David has experienced the temptation of questioning the will of God for him. Probably sitting in one of those caves, or even when he escaped into the land of the Philistines, pretended to be a mad man.

I mean, all these things that he did, the antics that he got up to, and he questioned the will of God for him. But he also knew, listen to me, he also knew, because that affects everyone at the sound of my voice, he also knew that we're all prone to fall in the temptation of thinking that we know best, right? We know best of what's good for us.

David understood our vulnerability, all of us, to the thought that we know better than God what is good for us. Verse 27, depart from evil and do good. What is that evil he's talking about here? What is that evil? What is that evil? It's the evil of falsely accusing God of not caring for you. It is the evil of falsely accusing God when he does not give you what you want. It is the evil of hardening your heart toward God because he did not give you what you want. The evil of anger toward God because of the things you don't understand. He says, depart from that evil.

Why? Verse 28, God does not forsake the godly. He never will. God promised to forever watch over the godly. God promised that the faithful will have a fantastic inheritance.

Let me testify to you. First encouraging lesson from hindsight is that God never forsake his own faithful children. Second encouraging lesson of hindsight is that God's will is perfect for you.

And the third one is actually naturally follows from that. The third encouraging lesson from hindsight is that God is honored. God is honored when you fully trust him. When you fully trust him. You know, I hear people sometimes say, I want to honor the Lord.

I want to honor the Lord. Well, do you know that the greatest honor that you can bestow upon the Lord is that you fully trust him. Not just trust in him, but trust him and trust his word. Yes, even when he delays. Yes, even when he allows inexplicable things happen.

Yes, even when his timing does not match your timing. Even when you suffer and the wicked prosper as we're seeing in our day. Even when you see the wicked succeed as we're seeing in our day. Even when you see falsehood is rampant as we see in our day. Even when you see immorality is being praised in public as we see in our day. Even when you see deceitful people appear to have the upper hand. Even when you see corrupt and lying people appear to get away with it. Don't ever be tempted of thinking that they have the last word.

No, no, no, no, no. God will have the last word. Say it with me.

God will have the last word. You know, in Psalm 1, the word of God says, the righteous is like a tree, probably oak tree that's planted where the water runs freely and constantly flourishing, constantly receiving nutrients. The tree may not look all that attractive. It may not look great like a flower does. It may not look beautiful like a flower does. The flower is the wicked, is the evil one. And the flower looks beautiful, right? The flower looks pretty. The flower is easy on the eye.

The flower is colorful, but in a short period of time it's dead, dead, dead. While the tree continues flourishing all the way to eternity. Verses 37 and 38, the faithful at peace no matter what. The faithful is at peace regardless of the circumstances. Verse 39, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord.

Where is salvation? That means it is permanent. It is permanent. God does not write your name in the Book of Life with a pencil. And every time you mess up, he turns it upside down and the eraser, he erases your name. And then when you repent, he puts it back again.

No, no, no. Your name is written in the Book of Life with the blood of Jesus. Verse 40, the Lord will. The Lord what?

Not may or possibly he will deliver them from the wicked. Why? Because they're nice people? No, no, no, no, no. Because they're church people?

No. Because they trusted him. Honoring God is trusting him. And trusting him honors him more than anything else. God said this. God says this.

Those who honor me, I shall honor says the Lord. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for his series called Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times. Lessons learned from David as he looked back over his own experiences. Do you have questions about the Christian faith? Do you wonder about life after death? What it means to be saved? Or what happens to your life if you choose to follow Jesus? Are you worried that you are too far gone for Jesus to save you?

You are not alone. All of these are important questions, and we would love to help you answer them. If you have questions, need prayer, or want to talk to someone about your decision to receive God's gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, our trained pastors and counselors are equipped to help you answer these tough questions. At ltw.org slash jesus you will find the path to true peace through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Visit and see a clear explanation of God's plan for salvation. Find answers to common questions and resources to help you grow in your new faith or receive prayer and encouragement for any situation.

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