Encouraging Words in Discouraging Times, Part 2

Welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. You can connect further with Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way when you download and use the Leading the Way app.

You can learn about the app and even more ways to connect with Leading the Way at ltw.org. Well, if you look around, it's kind of easy to be disheartened by all of the injustices of this world. But coming up next, a biblical encouragement that God's remedy of justice is waiting in the wings, ready to right all of the wrongs, ready to undo the turmoil that's spiraling out of control. It's part of Dr. Youssef's series called Encouraging Words for Discouraging Times.

So let's listen as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this episode of Leading the Way audio. I want you to turn with me today, please, to Psalm 37. Psalm 37. Because it's such a long psalm, I'm splitting it into two.

The message today, the first 20 verses and then the next message, verses 21 to the end. Most biblical historians have agreed that this psalm of David was written toward the end of his life. And if so, and I have no reason to doubt that whatsoever, because you can see from the context, and I'm going to explain to you in a minute, that this is probably one of the last, if not the last psalm that David had written.

He wrote it at his old age. No doubt, as he was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, this last, if it's last, or one of the last psalms, he was reflecting back on the years that he was a fugitive running from King Saul, running all over the country, all over the place. And during those years, no doubt, he asked himself many times and then later, many times later, how come I knew that prophet Samuel came to my father's house as a young boy and he anointed me to be king of Israel? Why did I do this? How come that I have been so faithful to Saul and yet he wanted to kill me?

How come Saul was living in the palace of the king and while I was sweating it out in the caves and in the desert? And as David reflects back in his life, he realizes that things do not turn out the way they appear on the surface. Are you with me? Things do not turn out as they appear on the surface. And so he gives us an encouraging words in the middle of our discouraging times that comes from hindsight.

Come up, beloved friends, when you see so many discouraging signs, when you feel discouraged for whatever circumstances you're personally going through or nationally you're going through, stay calm and cool. Do not sweat the temporary things that evil and wicked people are exhibiting now. Do not turn your righteous anger into hatred that will only hurt you. Do not waste your time fuming and steaming over the appearances, for that's all they are, appearances.

What we see, just appearances. Four things in those 20 verses that I want to share with you as I delved into the word of God. Allow that to teach me and speak to me and so that I am able to speak to you. The first thing I want to tell you is this, be encouraged because of what you cannot see, verses 1 to 3. Secondly, be encouraged because of what you already have, verses 4 to 7. Thirdly, be encouraged because of what is coming to you, verses 8 to 11.

Fourthly, be encouraged because of the coming judgment of the wicked, verses 12 to 20. Stay encouraged because of what you cannot see. Listen to me, if you can only see the wicked prosper, that's all you can see, that the wicked is prospering and the righteous is suffering. If that's all you can see, you would be like a blind person who thinks that the whole world is dark. If you're living in a well and all your world is going to look like a little blue circle because that's all you see, that's your world.

But, but what you need to do is get yourself a pair of spiritual glasses, get yourself a pair of spiritual binoculars, start seeing with spiritual eyes. Then, soon you'll discover how miserable and unhappy the wicked are. Soon you'll discover that those who might give the appearance to be happy and prideful and successful, deep down they are angry and they're guilt-ridden. Deep down their conscious is burning and is on fire. Deep down their bluster is just mere appearances. Deep down they feel a volcano of guilt inside of them below the surface.

Why? Because they've been created in God's own image. And no matter what they say on the surface, no matter what the bluster they come up with, deep down they have to be eaten up on the inside. And that is why they will never be satisfied by any measure of acceptance of their evil and wickedness. They will never be satisfied. If you accepted them, that will not be enough. If you approve of what they do, that will not be enough. If you praise what they do, their evil and their wicked ways, that will never be enough. Even if you place them on a pedestal, that will not be enough. It will never be enough. And that is why the psalmist uses the word, do not fret, three times.

Don't fret, don't fret, don't fret. No doubt David was thinking in the benefit of hindsight, he's probably thinking, why did I waste my time fretting over the wickedness and their design against me? Why did I ever waste my time fretting over what Saul was trying to do? Why did I ever fret over the fact that Absalom's design against the palace and the kingdom? Beloved, listen to me, envy always destroys the envious.

It destroys them emotionally, destroys them mentally, destroys them psychologically and even physically at times. So be encouraged because of what you cannot see. Secondly, be encouraged because of what you have.

Look at verses four to seven. If you have ever analyzed a fretting situation, you will discover that fretting does not stay as fretting. It will become an intense irritation and that intense irritation, if it's not dealt with, it will lead to full-blown anger. And if anger festers, it will produce hatred. And you don't want that. You don't want that. You don't want that.

As I said earlier, hatred has severe consequences. You say, well, Michael, how can I stop this process dead in its track? Well, I'm glad you asked me because you come to the right place.

I'm the expert on that. Look at verses four. Delight yourself in the Lord.

Can you say that with me? Delight yourself in the Lord. And then he's going to give you the desire of your heart.

Oh, my goodness, I don't know how many preachers are here to preach on the second half of the verse. He'll give you the desire of your heart. He'll give you the desire of your heart. All you need to do is just you name it and you claim it and you blab it and you grab it.

Just just say it. He'll give you the desire of your heart. They live conveniently. They leave out the first half of the verse, the most important part of the verse. Delight yourself in what? Your net worth? Delight yourself in your achievements? Delight yourself in your accomplishments? Delight yourself in what you really want?

No. Delight yourself in the Lord. How do you delight yourself in the Lord? Another great question. When you see the Lord, it's all you need. You begin to learn how to delight yourself in the Lord.

This is just the beginning. OK, remember the old days, your romantic days? My goodness, they are so much in love with each other. They're stepping on each other to please each other and delight themselves in the other. I mean, they feel delighted in the light of their lover and when they're newly in love and each is just delighted in the other.

And then they get married. Beloved, when you delight yourself in the Lord, you want to do what he wants to do. You want to go where he wants to go. You want to please him above everybody and everything else.

Think about this with me, please. If my desire is his desire and if my will is to do his will, if my delight is his delight, if my joy is his joy, if my fulfillment is his fulfillment. In other words, it's everything to me. When that happens, when that happens, he will give you give me the desire of my heart. More of him, more of him, more of himself. That delighting of yourself in the Lord is impossible to comprehend by those people who only come to the Lord when they want something from him. You cannot comprehend that. Look at verses five and six. Commit all your ways to the Lord.

Trust him and he will act. He will bring forth your vindication in the open. So much so. Here's a use of translation that is going to be as clear as the noonday sun in July in the Middle East. Now, if you've never been there, I'm sure most of you haven't. I have. I'm telling you, it's blinding. Even with sunglasses, your eyes squint.

It is so bright. You can't comprehend this until you stood there in noontime in the middle of summer in the desert. Some of you might be feeling that you are fretting because you have not had a fair shake. You are not getting your just reward. You may have been passed over for a promotion that belongs to you and you got a raw deal and you are the object of gossip or you are the object of false accusations. And you're carrying that burden.

Remember this. The judge of the universe is watching. The judge of the universe will not be silent forever. He's not silent.

He's working. But for you and for me, sometimes we think he's silent, but he will not be silent even to us forever. The judge of the universe will publicly vindicate you and exonerate you. The judge of the universe will publicly honor you, whether it is in this life or the next. He will lavishly bless you, whether it's in this life or the next, because that's who he is. He's a God of justice.

So be encouraged because of what? You will not only inherit a piece of real estate, a piece of land. I know the Bible said the land. That's in the Old Testament. Now you got to amplify this from the light of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus.

You're not going to just inherit a little piece of land. You're going to reign and rule with Christ in the whole universe. You will inherit what Christ inherits. You will receive what the Father gives to Jesus. And so to those who cause you to experience righteous anger, they will go up in a puff of smoke.

While you are thoroughly blessed, they will be like soot. You know, I know in our secular culture I understand, I know in our instant gratification culture, in our immediate response type of culture, I know it is hard to see the unseen. I know that. But listen to me.

The unseen is more real than the seen. It's difficult to swim up against the evil and the wicked streams of culture. I know that.

I know it's easy at times to say, why bother? I just give up. I know that. I know it's hard to buck the evil system.

I know that. I know that we find our circumstances to be consuming at times. I know that sometimes the headline news saps your energy. And you can't even keep on reading.

I know that we want to see results right away. But God's word spoken through David is telling us that everything you've longed for is yours, but not yet. All of the justice and the righteousness that you ever wanted and longed for is yours, but not yet. All of the success that you envied the wicked for is really yours, but not yet. All the righteousness and the justice that you wished for, they're all yours, but not yet.

Question. Who are these meek, the meek person that he's talking about here? You know, for years, a lot of people, because of the word, I guess, rhyming, they think meek means weak. And when you see somebody weak, you say, oh, he's meek. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

It's just because they rhyme doesn't mean the same thing. If you got this, say amen. Moses was called the meekest man, and yet he was far from weak.

He looked in the eye of the most powerful man on the face of the earth at the time, and he looked at him and he said, let my people go. So listen, meekness does not mean weakness. Meekness means power under control.

Say that with me. Power under control. When you have it in you to hurt somebody and you don't do it. When you have it in you to take revenge, but you don't do it because you're meek, because you have power under control of the Holy Spirit.

And that same power is the one that makes you bow only to God, that makes you bend the knees only to God alone, that makes you power, belongs to God alone. And so be encouraged because of what? Be encouraged because of what? Be encouraged because of what?

And fourthly, be encouraged because of? Look at verses 12 to 21. Here David is telling us that if you just could see what God sees. If you can see what God sees, you would not waste a nanosecond fretting.

If you know what God knows about the future, you would not waste a nanosecond in envy and jealousy of the appearance of success of the wicked. If you see what God sees, you too would laugh like God. Now the word laugh here is the same word that's used in Psalm 2. He who sits on high laughs. In fact, the old translation said, he who sits on high laugheth.

We're going to do some laugh-a-thing right now. Because that word really does not mean a pleasant laughter. We hear something funny and we laugh and it's a pleasant laughter.

It's joy the Bible talks about in Proverbs. It's great to laugh. But this word here means the laughter of derision. It's the laughter of derision.

Let's do it. You just did what the Bible said. You too, if you see what God sees and know what God knows, you too like God, you would laugh at the foolishness of the wicked.

You too would laugh at the cruel joke that Satan is playing on the wicked. Have you ever become angry? I mean really become angry and frustrated at some information that you have received and really become angry. But only to discover, only to discover later, sometimes not long later, sometimes long time later, that the information you received is totally false or even partial information. Do you know how you felt at that time? I'm not going to let you answer me.

I'm going to tell you how I felt. I made a fool of myself that I got so angry over false information or partial information it was not true. I overreacted at the wrong information. The same way when you fret and you get angry at the success of the wicked. Same way, why?

Ah, because we have the wrong information. You know what you should do? You should actually weep. You should weep over the judgment of the wicked. You should weep over the horrors that are awaiting them. You should weep over the dreadful horror and judgment. I know we don't weep over sinners anymore.

There was a time when the church of Jesus Christ wept over sinners. A wise older gentleman years ago said to me, he said, there are more tears shed in the movie theaters over imaginary tragedies than in the churches over real tragedies. I know and you know that we live in times when we have confused reality with fiction.

We really have. So many people are so confused. What we think is reality and permanent God scoffs at.

Why? Because he knows what we see is neither real nor permanent, is neither real nor permanent. God sees and knows of the end of the wicked. And that is why he could laugh at their foolishness.

And so be encouraged. As you ask yourself, where are all the powerful men in the past that terrorized the world? From all the big names of Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin and even I remember clearly, Nikita Kochov, the head of the Soviet Union, the United Nation, when he took his shoes off and he pounded the table. And he terrorized half the world.

Where are they? Well, their bodies are rotting in the grave and their souls are in a state of torment and suffering. Think about this. And that will go on forever and ever and ever. There is no end to the fire or the worms or the loneliness or the emptiness, the darkness of hell. That's why we need to weep over them. But let's go to the Lord and pray. Father, we certainly weep over the ones not in our families, the ones that are dear and near to us who are being misled and misguided. And Lord, we literally weep tears because we know you bottle our tears.

We know that you put them in golden balls. They're precious to you. And that is why in the last day you're going to wipe all our tears. So we weep over those who don't know you or wandering away from you who knew you once and then running away. Father, we weep over them because we know you're a God of mercy and you're a God of grace. And you can answer our prayers on their behalf to repent and turn to you. We beg you, Father, in these last days do something so magnificent, so great, and bring the lost home. And as for those who cause your children a great deal of fretting and suffering, we know their end. But remind us afresh that we should be feeling sorry for them instead of angry with them. For, Father, we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Thank you for taking time in your day to listen to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. And you can visit us at ltw.org or call a ministry representative at 866-626-4356.

And as we close today's Leading the Way, we want to share some testimonies that our team recently received. We feel like you will be encouraged to hear how God is working. Joe from Connecticut writes, I'm a Roman Catholic. I was living a life of sin and adultery. And I've now accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, spending hours in prayer each day. I love the fact that I'm trying to go down the right path. Raymond writes from Illinois saying, I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior when I turned 40. But I'm still angry at what's going on in the world, and it stresses me out.

How can I calm down? Reggie from Georgia says, I received Jesus a few weeks ago, and I need help to stay on track. If you would like to join Dr. Youssef in passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world, reaching millions with the gospel through the Open Door Campaign, call us. 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. ltw.org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.