Experiencing God's Presence - When Confusion Obstructs

Some of the most frustrating times in my entire life have been when I've been confused. I didn't know what to do. One day it felt like I should go right. The next day, go left.

What do you do when you're overwhelmed with confusion and you feel absolutely paralyzed? That's today. Stay with me. Thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is an international teaching and discipleship ministry focused on helping Christians live like Christians. Well, today Chip wraps up our series, Experiencing God's Presence. We pray this short study has strengthened your faith and reminded you to rely on God, especially when hardships and adversities come. So if you want to go back and listen to any part of this teaching again, check out the Chip Ingram app.

It's a great way to listen to Chip and Living on the Edge anytime. Okay, here's Chip with his talk, When Confusion Obstructs, from Psalm chapter 90. You know, when everything gets turned upside down and when you're confused, it's really difficult, because here's what happens. Confusion immobilizes, it paralyzes, it demotivates, it neutralizes. And what it does to each one of us, it gets us where we don't move forward. When you're confused, when you lose perspective, when you're not sure what to do, when is this God's will or is this God's will?

Should I say this or not do this? And we're living in a world right now where people are confused like never before. And when you're confused, one of the most important things you can do is reduce complexity. When our lives are very, very complex, when there's all kind of things going on, I mean, whether this is in business or in sports, you know, good business consultants, good coaches, when the team's confused, when plays aren't running well, they go back to a very simple playbook. I still remember I played basketball in college and our college coach was a very close friend with John Wooten and he would teach in his camps every summer and we ran the UCLA offense.

And every year, I mean, 10 championships, I don't think it'll ever be repeated. John Wooten would get with his players at UCLA the best players in the world and he would take a sock and he would show them how to put on a sock. And, you know, the young brash best players in the nation are going, what are we doing here? And he said, well, if you put it on incorrectly, there might be a crease. If there's a crease, you might get a blister. If you get a blister, you might miss a game. If you miss a game, we might lose one game. If we lose one game, we might not win a national championship.

Vince Lombardi, the old Packer coach, every year would start, this is a football. In other words, when you're confused, the most important thing you can do is simplify and go back to the basics. And there's not many passages in scripture where I've memorized an outline, but the passage that I'm going to share with you, I've memorized this outline.

And the reason being is I've been confused more than a few times. And this is a unique Psalm. Psalm 90 is the only Psalm in all of the Psalter that was written by Moses. This is near the end of his life. First 40 years, the greatest things that Egypt could provide, he enjoyed.

The best wisdom of the world. The next 40 years, silence and solitude as God prepared him. And then the next 40 years, leadership with God's people that were not very cooperative. And near the very end of his life, he writes Psalm 90. And it's a Psalm of perspective. When I think in my mind and my heart, whether I'm confused in my marriage or confused about a decision or confused about God's will or confused about ministry, I come to Psalm 90 because, I mean, this is the blocking and tackling.

This is the basics. This is the fundamental of all life. Many of us that are in ministry, and of course many of you who aren't, all have this one experience.

And it's happened a lot in the recent times. When you go to a funeral, especially when you go to a funeral of someone that you love and that you're close to, it's gripping. You know, we all had a schedule before that funeral. We all had lots of things we were going to do, but when a close friend, a family member, a child, a fellow person in ministry, they die and we find ourselves facing our mortality. And with this person who has just died, the writer of Ecclesiastes says there is much more wisdom in the house of mourning than in the house of celebration. And it just seems like there's not much that really matters.

I mean, there's life and there's death. And so Moses has watched rebellious people. He saw God's plan. He saw what people do. And in Psalm 90, he walks us through six basics that for me, once I get clear on these things, it's like a lens that I can put over any situation of confusion. And I can know I apply these six things and all of a sudden I've got perspective.

Follow along with me. He says, Lord, you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. That first word, Lord, is Adonai, creator, all-powerful one. You've been our dwelling place. He picks that up from Deuteronomy 33.

It's a place of safety, place of refuge, a place of personal relationship. Then he goes on to say throughout all generations, I mean, before there was even time, before the mountains were even born, you know, basically he says, God is creator. He's personal. He's eternal. He's superior to all. He says, you are El or you are God. And many of you know that Baal or Baal was the son of El. And Moses is saying, God is superior to all other gods.

Here's what I want you to get. God is great. Simplifies confusion. First and foremost, in all the things in life, all the ups, all the downs, all the pressure, God is personal. He's the infinite reference point. He's all powerful. He's all knowing. He's eternal.

And that gives us something to hold onto when everything else in the world is changing. And with each of these basics, I have a diagnostic question. And my diagnostic question is this, am I rightly related to God? You see, you know, when there's sin in my life, when I drift away from God, when things are happening in my life, what happens, I lose perspective. When I'm not rightly related to God, my thinking gets cloudy. My perception gets off. And so first and foremost, I want to have a very clear picture and be reminded. So sometimes we get thinking that God isn't powerful, that God can't come through.

And we start to doubt him because we fail to see and remember who he really is. I listened to a speaker many years ago who was connected with the military, and he actually was able to eat dinner right in the control and command center of a nuclear submarine. And he was asking questions and he said, well, how long can you stay underneath the water? And he said, we have to come up every 90 days. And my friends said, well, do you need more water, more food?

Oh no, we could stay much, much longer. He said, well, why do you have to come up? He goes, well, you know, these, these missiles, they can't be off by even a fraction of a degree. And when we're underneath the surface for over 90 days, the magnetic pools of the earth, we have to surface, we put up an antenna and we lock it on the North star.

And then we recalibrate everything in all of our equipment around the North star. And I just want to tell you, if you're confused, first and foremost, God is great recalibrate worship. Remember he's all knowing he's all powerful. He's sovereign.

He's good. He's just regardless of what circumstances and emotions tell us. Then there's a big contrast. Notice verse three, you turn men back to dust saying, return to dust. Oh, sons of Adam for a thousand years in your sight are like a day that has just gone by or like a watch in the night. You sweep men away in the sleep of death. They're like the new grass of the morning though in the morning it Springs up new by evening it's dry and it's withered.

Basic number two, life is short. Notice this a thousand years are like a day. A watch in the night was four hours.

That word for sweep was, it's a picture of a flood that just comes in and you know, right flash flood, everything's gone. He goes in evening. There's a, there's a place in Israel. I've been there where there's these valleys and it can be green in the morning. The hot winds come in it's Brown in the afternoon. Life is short.

Here's the question that you need to ask. Am I prepared to die? I mean, it brings unbelievable clarity. Life's brief. We get unconsciously thinking we're going to live for a very, very long time.

There's something about remembering it's a vapor. It just comes and then you're gone. Am I rightly related to God? Second, am I ready to die? Do I have a relationship with Christ? Have I dealt with the things and relationships in my life that if I were to die tomorrow, I would be at peace.

Here's a question for you. If you knew that you only had 30 days to live, I mean, pull out your calendar, go 30 days, and then 11 am exactly 30 days from now, boom, your heart would stop beating. Would you live any differently? Would there be anybody that you need to get with and apologize to? Is there some time with some individuals that are really precious that you would say, this is what I need to do?

Any priorities that need to be adjusted? See, if you would live radically different, then we need to start living that way now. God is great. Life is short.

And then notice, this is why life is short. Moses, looking back on all those people that have died, and they all died because of disobedience. God had a great plan. He says, we are consumed by your anger and terrified by your indignation. You have set our iniquities before us, our secret sins in the light of your presence. All our days pass away under your wrath. We finish our years with a moan.

The length of our days is 70 years or 80 if we have the strength. Yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass and we fly away. Speaking of the final judgment, you know, if we were doing Bible study, I would ask you to get out a pen with me. And I would say, why don't you circle the human side of this part where he talks about literally that sin is serious, consumed, terrified, moan, trouble, sorrow, quickly pass, fly away. He goes on just to say to us that sin is serious. So the question I have for you in basic number three is, am I taking sin seriously?

Sin clouds my mind and hardens my heart. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and Chip will be back in just a minute to finish today's talk. But quickly, I want to remind you that this program is only possible because of the generosity of listeners like you. So if you'd like to support us, go to livingontheedge.org.

That's livingontheedge.org. And thanks for doing whatever God leads you to do. Well, let's rejoin Chip now for the remainder of his message. Part of why we get confused and when there's pressure, when we're afraid, when things kind of get numb inside, we tend to drift and we compromise just a little. Then we compromise a little bit more. And Moses is saying that when you want to get clarity, remember, God is great.

Are you rightly related to Him? Second, life is short. Do what's important and do it now. And the reason it is short is sin is serious. What the holiness of God demanded, He's going to show us the love of God provided in Christ. But we need to take sin very, very seriously.

Notice the next section. He says, wisdom is essential. Who knows the power of your anger? For your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you.

Teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The first 11 verses are really Moses looking back. And as he looked back over the children of Israel and their journey and their faith, then their unbelief, their testing of God, the wandering in the wilderness, he basically pauses and says, you forgot that God is great. You forgot that He opened the Red Sea. You forgot that He provided the manna. You forgot the water from the rock.

You forgot that the mountain shook and the smoke came out of it. You need to remember that God is great. And then you need to remember that life is so short because sin is very, very serious. And so what you need in light of that is wisdom.

You need to understand how God has designed life to work. That's what wisdom in, right? Proverbs chapter one, verse seven, the beginning of wisdom, right? It's knowledge, understanding, prudence. Wisdom, the Hebrew word is God has set life to operate in a certain way and wisdom is doing our lives according to God's design. And so all through Scripture, God will say, this is how relationships work. He will say, this is how money works.

This is how you forgive people. And the wisdom of God is understanding what His word says and aligning your life, your attitudes, and your behaviors so you follow Him. And so Moses prays this prayer, teach us to number our days aright that we may gain a heart of wisdom. The question I would ask here, are you spending or investing your life? I've really been thinking about this lately. I mean, when we have long periods alone, you know, when you struggle with some discouragement and even depression, I've really pondered, okay, Lord, what's life all about? Is my life really being invested?

Am I doing what you really want me to do? And I taught this message many, many years ago for the first time, or at least this Psalm. And this passage, like, you know, many of you know, is a pretty famous, you know, teach us to number our days, right? So I thought to myself, well, I'll do some math. If you're 25 years old, you have roughly 16,000 days left if you live to be 70. If you're 35 years old, you have 12,775 days left. If you're 45 years old, you have a little over 9,000 days left. If you're 55 years old, you have about 5,500 or so days left.

If you're 65 years old, you have less than 2,000 days left. Two days ago, like you, having my own ups and downs and struggles, someone sent me a video of a man that I really admire. He's in his early 80s. He's a pastor. God has really used him.

But he's had some great things, but he also had some pretty big failures. And I heard him interviewed. It was literally a two and a half hour interview, where very slowly, these are the top 15 things I've learned over my 80-some years in walking with God. It was kind of like talking with a Moses.

And one of the things as I listened to him, I thought to myself, you know, I listened to those principles. And you know what I did? I did something I've not done in life. I got my phone out and I got on the little calculator and I took my age and it took my age up to 70 years old.

God may give me more years, but basically it says 70 is strength 80. And I subtracted my age from how many days I have left. And I will tell you what, it was sobering. It was sobering.

How many days do you have left? You know, it's amazing how the trivia and little things and this person, they said that about me and I might have to relocate and this isn't working the way I wanted. And my expectations aren't getting fulfilled, right? We have all these kinds of petty things. And Moses said, tell you what, you remember God is great. Life is short. Sin is serious. Wisdom is essential.

You need to know from God, this is what to do. And we get that from his word. We get that from his spirit and we get that from the wise counsel of one another. That's why we have to hang together, especially now. He goes on and gives us basic number five. And I love this.

Mercy is available. You know, in some of our times together, we've done some Q&A times. And one of the things that keeps coming out in the Q&A times are people that have failed. You know, they have realized they've really done some things. They know we're wrong. They don't feel close to God. And they wonder, how will I be met by God?

How can I return? How can I be where God wants me to be? And Moses says, relent, O Lord. And he uses this, his name Yahweh. O covenant God, relent.

How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with what? Your unfailing love.

Why? That we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.

You know, Moses, for his, you know, indignation, harsh, sin, all those words that are really true and life is short and we do need wisdom. But he's near the end and he looks all around and all these years with God, mercy is available. Look at the request, relent. Ask, just tell God, please relent. Have compassion. And then notice the positive. Fill me with joy, gladness.

Make us glad. God is great. Life is short. Sin is serious. Wisdom is essential. Mercy is available. And the question to ask is, am I experiencing the joy of the Lord?

Let me ask you that. Psalm 16 11 says that in your presence, Lord is fullness of joy. And I think one of the things when you're confused, whether you feel like it or not, it's coming before God. Joy is an indicator of the presence of God. Joy isn't happiness. Joy is the byproduct of your connectedness in your heart with the living Savior. Joy is a byproduct of the Spirit of God manifesting the presence of Jesus and the power of Jesus and the actual personality of Jesus in your life. It's a fruit of the Spirit. And Nehemiah taught us that it is joy that's our strength that will sustain us.

And so could I encourage you? Ask God for compassion. Many of us are teachers and preachers of the Word of God. And how many times have we told people about Luke 15 and the Father is looking and his arms are open? We preach that far better than we believe it. I mean, so many pastors, so many church leaders, so many committed business people who down deep in their heart, they feel like God's arms are crossed and that he's down on you and you can't measure up. And Moses, after all these years, mercy is available. Let God love you.

Enter his presence. You don't have to live with shame. You don't have to live with guilt, but you have to be honest, ruthlessly honest. Remember in Psalm 51 when David sinned?

I mean, he just went way over the top and he knew better. He was a man after God's own heart and he commits adultery. Then he covers it up and then he commits murder.

And then he's confronted by Nathan. But when he prayed against you and you only Lord have I sinned, restore to restore to me the joy of my salvation. That's what God, God wants to do that for us in the midst of these challenging times.

The last basic, and I love this, it's positive. Success is possible. Moses says, may your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us. Establish the work of our hands. Oh yes, establish the work of our hands. Notice what he wants. He says, God, I want your deeds, the things that you've done, the answers to prayer, your work. Show them to us.

Let us see where you're working. Your, I love it. Your splendor.

Notice he wants a legacy. I want your splendor to be passed on to my children. The favor, the Hebrew word here, literally it's beauty.

It's beauty. Your beauty, Lord, that the beauty of God, the splendor of God could rest upon us, that it could refresh our souls from the inside out, that he would give us a calm and a peace and a confidence in the midst of all these challenges. I think that's, I think that's how Jesus was. I think men and women were so attracted to him because when there's all this confusion in the world, there was something about Jesus because he was rightly related to the Father. He was always abiding in the Father and in his word.

When you're confused, there's six questions to ask and there's a little outline that I've actually memorized right out of Psalm 90. God is great. Life is short. Sin is serious. Wisdom is essential.

Mercy is available and success is possible. The questions I ask myself when I'm confused, Chip, are you rightly related to God? Chip, are you prepared to die now? Chip, are you taking sin seriously? Chip, are you spending or investing your life? Chip, are you experiencing the joy of the Lord? And finally, Chip, are you impacting your world for good?

Let me encourage you to take Psalm 90 and use it as the lens through which you see the confusion in your life and then ask God to speak and even more, and even more, ask him for the grace that you can respond. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and the message you just heard when confusion obstructs is from our series Experiencing God's Presence, Finding Hope for Your Troubled Heart. To learn more about this ministry or our many resources, go to livingontheedge.org or check out the Chip Ingram app. Well, Chip's here in studio with me, and Chip, before we go, you wanted to share one last thing with our listeners.

Thanks, Dave. I know a lot of people pray and support the ministry because you hear of exciting new things that we're doing, whether it's in China or the Middle East or working with pastors, but I'd like you to consider something else. The Bible is very clear that where you are spiritually ministered to, there's a moral responsibility to financially support.

That's not me. That's the apostle Paul. And you know, there's about a million people every week that are hearing God's word, and God is using the teaching ministry of Living on the Edge to help Christians grow in Christ-likeness, and that changes families and communities. If you're one of those people, would you pray about giving back if indeed Living on the Edge is ministering to you and helping you grow spiritually? It's just a principle that I think is very important.

Would you pray about it and do whatever God chose you to do? Thanks, Chip. As you prayerfully consider your role in this ministry, I want to remind you that every dollar is significant. When you partner with Living on the Edge, you multiply our efforts and resources in remarkable ways. To give a gift, go to livingontheedge.org or call 888-333-6003. Again, that's 888-333-6003, or go to livingontheedge.org. App listeners, tap Donate. As we close our mission at Living on the Edge is to help Christians live like Christians, and one of the best ways we can continue to do that is through programs like this. So when you hear a message that helps you, pass it on to someone in your life. You can easily do that through the Chip Ingram app or by forwarding them the free MP3s that you'll find at livingontheedge.org. And don't forget to tell them how it made a difference in your life. From all of us here, I'm Dave Drouie, thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.