The Confusing Experience of Faith, Part 2

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.

I think it's safe to say that when life is going well, it's easy to announce to the world that we trust God's plan. He addresses those questions today as he continues our series called The Whole Story. If you're behind in this teaching, remember you can catch up online at J.D. Greer dot com. Today we're looking at one specific chapter from Psalms that captures the theme of the entire book.

So let's dive back in. Here's Pastor J.D. Psalm 73 is a psalm about the universal problem of doubts. Verse 1. Surely God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart. That's his statement of faith. That's what he believes with his mind. But now he's about to tell you in the next several verses what he feels with his heart.

Because those are not always the same thing. Verse 2. But as for me, I came so close to the edge of the cliff, the cliff of unbelief, my feet were slipping and I was almost gone. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. The psalmist confesses that his doubt began with envy, which is almost always the case. Envy is, of course, when you want somebody else's life. You want their possessions. You want their opportunities. You want their looks.

You want their talents. And this psalm helps you label envy for exactly what it is, doubt and the goodness of God towards you. Verse 4. They have no struggles. Their bodies are healthy and strong. They're beautiful. They're free from common human burdens.

Verse 5. Therefore, verse 6, pride is their necklace. What's really galling is that they take credit for it all. As if the reason they have all this stuff is because they're just more awesome than the rest of us. They don't seem to be aware of the fact that it's just because their parents are rich. And it's not because they're smarter than we are.

It's just opportunity. They clothe themselves then with violence. Their pride makes them hateful, disdainful toward others. They really feel like they're better than everybody. Like they deserve all the perks. Like they deserve their status. They feel like they should get to make all the decisions for everybody else. And then they oppress people. They trample people just because they can get away with it.

Nobody stops them. Verse 8. They scoff. They speak with malice, with arrogance. They threaten oppression. Where their mouths lay claim to heaven and their tongues take possession of the earth.

Does God even realize what's going on? They ask. Verse 12. This is what the wicked are like. Always free of care. They just go on amassing wealth.

That's the only thing that they're worried about is how to get more. So he says, I'm the one that's envious. Verse 13. Have I been wasting my time? Why'd you even take the trouble to be pure? All I get out of it is trouble.

And whoa! All the day long. Every day.

All day. All this stuff I've done for God to try to obey Him. But if I'd spoken out like that, I would have betrayed your children. So he hears himself verbalizing this statement and realizes. He hears himself admit that the reason that he had been serving God was so that God would make his life easy.

And the Spirit of God very quietly whispers to him. Why? Are you serving me? Are you serving me because of what you think you can get from me?

Or are you serving me because you want more of me? Verse 17. He continues. So one day I went into God's sanctuary to meditate. And then I thought about the future of these evil men. In the midst of his doubt, he comes into the presence of God. And this is what he sees.

He sees two things. First, verse 18. What a slippery path they are on. Suddenly God will send them sliding over the edge of the cliff and down to their destruction. An instant end to all their happiness. An eternity of terror. Their present life is only a dream. They will awaken to the truth as one awakens from a dream of things that never really were.

Here's number one. Eternity, he says, is going to restore the balance. Scripture presents this life as so quick it's like a dream.

Right? But it seems so real in the moment. The writer here, Asaph, is like, that's what life is like. For those outside of God, death is going to be a sudden awakening from their illusion of success and power. It's like suddenly you wake up out of a dream and what seems so real is all just an illusion. And it's over. The way one guy says it, the rich without God are on their way to being eternally poor. Celebrities without God are on their way to being eternally ignored. It's like that awful scene where Steve Harvey crowned the wrong Miss Universe.

Do you remember this thing? And you're watching just the elation on her face and you're just kind of shaking your head going, don't be happy. This is not real. In just a minute it's going to turn into the worst moment of your life because Steve Harvey's already walking back on stage with that goofy look on his face and he's going to be like, I crowned the wrong person and it's all my fault. And he's going to take it off your head and put it on this other girl's head and your joy is going to turn into disaster.

What this writer Asaph is saying is, Steve Harvey's already on the stage. And all this joy you think God is going to just disappear because if you had to choose, be the second Miss Universe, not the first one. Because the first one, it lasts for just a second and then that crown is gone. Why don't you labor for the crown that does not fade and it's never taken away? You see on the flip side for the believer, all the pain they go through is going to seem meaningless compared to the joy that they experienced one minute into eternity. One minute, one minute into eternity. There's a verse that I give you a lot that I would, you should just tattoo this verse on your heart. You definitely should have it memorized. Romans 8 and 18, I consider.

It means I've thought about it. Our present sufferings are not even worth comparing. Paul's a varsity sufferer.

I've told you this, right? I mean, his suffering is not light. He was like, I got shipwrecked a bunch and got beaten and forsaken. I got stoned a bunch of times. And one time I was like throwing some sticks in a fire and there were 20 guys standing around and a viper jumps out and latches on to my arm and hangs there. I mean, talk about something that makes you feel unlucky. There's 20 guys standing there and the viper's hanging off your arm.

And Paul's like, yeah, you know, throws it off. He's like, I consider that all that is not even worth comparing. You get him put in the same category with the glory that's going to be revealed in us. I can't even say that this is worth it. They don't even belong in the same sentence.

They don't belong in the same sentence. I got a friend, a father of three young children who was diagnosed with a rare, very aggressive form of brain cancer. Doctors say his chances of survival are not good. His story is absolutely heartbreaking.

And of course, he, along with many of us, are praying for complete and total healing. But he said something the other day that just really struck me. He was quoting C.S.

Lewis. He said, you know, when we get to heaven, it's not that we're going to look back and see the reasons that certain bad things happen and say, oh, oh, that's why that happened. Oh, I get it now. Rather, he said, we'll look back and we'll say, what bad things are you even talking about? Because in that moment, we'll be so consumed with God's finished product that we'll scarcely even remember the process that he used. And even the things that were painful in our lives that brought us closer to God will actually find the kind of joy in them because while it hurt us and it took from us things that we loved, it gave to us something that we learned to love even more. Y'all realize how short life is. If you think you're fine without God, do you realize that this life, James 4.14, he says it's like a vapor.

It's like the breath that comes out of your mouth on a cold morning that appears for just a minute and then it's gone. Life is like walking around with a backpack that has a time bomb in it that you have no idea when it's going to go off, but you know that it is going to go off. He says that's what life is like. Death is coming. It's certain. It's appointed unto you.

One time to die. God knows the day that it's going to be. You don't know it. He's appointed it for you. And after that, there's going to be a judgment. The dream is going to be over. Are you prepared to awake to reality? And believer, you might not see it now, but all this pain is just temporary and it's going to be over soon. God is more real than the ground that you're standing on and you're already more rich than if you possessed all the jewels that lie beneath our feet in the earth and the caves we haven't discovered yet.

They're already yours and you're just seconds away from saying, what pain are you talking about? For the believer, the brief pain of this world is the closest to hell they will ever come. And for the unbeliever, the brief pleasure of this world is the closest to heaven they will ever come.

And it's just seconds away. Only when you learn the brevity of life are you ever going to look at life the right way, which is why Moses in the Psalm that he wrote said, Psalm 90 verse 12, teach us to number our days. Man, teach us to think about how short life is because only then will we have become wise. It is only when you think about the brevity of life that you'll ever develop the right perspective on life itself. It's only when you think about how short life is that you can gain wisdom.

Here's what I've noticed. Almost all the questions and the doubts we have about the goodness of God are predicated on the assumption that life is long. When you realize and you think about life being a vapor that lasts for just a few seconds in scope of eternity, then all these questions about the goodness of God, they just sort of disappear because your life, this is like, it's just 70, 80, 90 years. And then there's eternity and it just seems like nothing.

And so what Moses says, what Asaph says is don't live for the dream, live for real things, live for eternal things. So he says, verse 22, I was senseless and ignorant. I was a brute beast before you. Yet I'm always with you. You hold me now by my right hand. You guide me with your counsel afterward.

You will take me into glory. I was like a beast before you. Beasts don't think much about the future. They think about the present.

Here's the other thing. Beasts don't typically love you for you. They love you because of what you can do for them.

I know some of you with dogs that really offend you, but typically a dog or any animal is more interested in what you can do for them than they are in your personality. And what he says is, I've been treating God in ways that I would hate to be treated as a person. I mean, what if you found out, what if your dad was like really rich and people were kind of becoming your friend and somebody shows a romantic interest in you and you find out it really has nothing to do with you. It's that they want your dad to do something for them. You would feel used.

You would feel rightly angered. And Asaph says, that's exactly how I've been treating God. He's not been beautiful to me. He's been useful to me and I've been like a beast to him. So he begins to pray. Who do I have in heaven but you? Who do I have in heaven but you? And then on earth, there's nothing I desire besides you. The riches that I want and I need are in you.

It's not just that I'm excited that one day I'm gonna get my Mercedes Benz. No, it's that when I get to heaven, I'm gonna be with you because what makes heaven heaven is not a Mercedes. What makes heaven heaven is my merciful father.

And I already got you here on earth, which means that already on earth, I got the best part of heaven in my heart, even if I'm not fully in his presence yet. And that's the secret to the Christian's joy. Yes, life is fraught with pain. Yes, there's lots of disappointment, but I got something that's better than anything life can give and that death can't take away.

Here's the question. Do you believe that Jesus really is better than anything else life can give? Or do you believe he's something that's better than whatever death can take away?

Because if so, then you'll start to look at pain in your life differently. You're listening to Summit Life with Pastor J.D. Greer. To learn more about this ministry or to partner with us financially, visit jdgreer.com. Did you know that Summit Life is featured on radio stations across the country and even overseas? It's incredible to see how God is using this program to reach people around the world. And we love hearing from listeners like you. If this program has impacted your faith, helped you grow spiritually, or inspired you to share the gospel with others, we'd love to hear your story.

And so would your fellow listeners. These experiences not only encourage us, but also remind us all of the life-changing power of God's Word. We've set up a dedicated storyline where you can call in and share how Summit Life has made a difference in your life.

Simply give us a call at 866-335-5220 and leave us a message. Thank you for being part of this ministry and for your continued prayers and support. We want to continue this journey with you throughout the year. Now let's return to today's teaching with Pastor J.D.

Greer. I've told you the story before about Joni Eareckson-Tada, a quadriplegic who lost complete control of her arms and her legs in a diving accident she had when she was a teenager. She said, now as a much older lady, she said, I am okay with losing the use of my hands and my feet for the last 60 years. And listen to this, I would not change a thing because that accident brought me nearer to God. Can you say that from your wheelchair? Can you say, thank God that I lost the use of all this because it gave my heart something that was better than anything else life can give?

How about this, can you say that when your kid's in a wheelchair? Can you say, you know what, if God's gonna use this to teach them more about His grace and His mercy, then we'll learn to even give thanks for the things in our life that are painful because they are gateways for us to know Him. Your suffering drives you like a hammer on a nail deeper into God's love. Envy or anger at God can reveal to you how dissatisfied you are with Him and how unbelieving you are about His goodness. Here's the summary of the Psalm to quote John Piper.

Jesus really is better than anything life can give to us and He's better than anything that death can take away from us. Do you believe that? There's a missionary named Alan Gardner who lived in the early 1800s, now a long time ago, but there's an island off the coast of South America that was unevangelized and he wanted to carry the gospel to him so he with one other guy went on a ship down to this island and they were supposed to be followed by only two days by a ship that had all their supplies. And so they arrived on this island but the other ship never showed up.

And so essentially they starved to death. About three months later they found Alan Gardner's body and beside his starved body, he was his journal, open journal and the last entry he had written into his journal had a reference, Psalm 34, 10 and he had written out, I am overwhelmed with the sense of the goodness of God. Can you say that when your ship does not show up? Can you say I am still convinced of the goodness of God because the goodness of God is not given to me primarily as a ship that comes in, it's given to me in the presence of Himself and the promises that He will never take away. Seemingly unanswered prayer can be God's invitation to press more deeply into him. We sometimes look bewildered into heaven and say God, why didn't you answer this prayer? Let me use a story from the, kind of one of the heroes of prayer, George Mueller.

Anybody that's into prayer will talk about George Mueller. He lived back in the 1800s. He got these stunning, remarkable answers to prayer.

I mean it's truly bizarre, you should read his biography. But he ran an orphanage. More than once he would, in front of the orphanage, would say, not have any food for the orphans. And he would stand up with them around the table, with nothing on the table. He's like, we're going to thank God for the food that's not here. Because God promised He's going to supply it. And he would thank God and before the prayer was over, more than once somebody would knock at the door. It was a baker with bread or some oat milk.

I'm like, hey, we just want to come give this to you. Just amazing. Everybody knows those stories about George Mueller. The one they don't know is that when he was in his late 40s, early 50s, his wife contracted rheumatic fever. And so he prayed for God to do a miracle, that God would heal her of rheumatic fever, because she was his number one kind of help in the ministry that he did. He prayed earnestly, but God didn't heal her.

She died. But the last verse he read to her on her deathbed was Psalm 84-11. No good thing will he ever withhold from those whose walk is blameless. So he said, sweetheart, if God's good plan included you getting healed, then He would give it.

But if not, then I know that He's got a better plan. And my trust and your trust in God is not conditioned on what He gives or doesn't gives in terms of a physical health. Our trust in Him is gifted on or built on the fact that He gave Himself to us and the cross of Jesus Christ, and He will never take that away. You see, at some point, life is gonna lay you on your back, if it has not already. And relying there on your back, you're gonna have to ask, is God really good or is He not?

When the job doesn't come through, right? When the body doesn't get better, when the cough doesn't go away, you're gonna say, do I really trust Him? You're gonna say, is His presence and His promise, are they enough for me when what I thought was gonna happen didn't happen? Do I really trust that He's guiding me with His right hand?

His right hand, by the way, means His hand of strength. That promise, He will guide you with His right hand is found 166 times in the Bible. Will you believe that God is guiding you with His right hand in every situation, that there's not one stray molecule that is out of place, that He will sustain you, He will never let you fall, He will never let you perish? You wanna know why the psalmist says he believes it? I think the answer hinges on one little word you read right over top of, but you gotta notice it, it's back in verse 22. Verse 22, I was senseless and ignorant, I was a brute beast before you, yet, that's it, that's the word, yet I am always with you, you hold me by my right hand, yet even after I was beastly toward you, somehow you didn't leave me, you held me.

Even when I didn't trust you, when I didn't think you were good enough, you kept holding on with your right hand of strength, even when I put a nail through it. Because He would rather go to the cross and be humiliated and tortured than lose you, that's how great His love is for you. And see, that makes Him more desirable to you than anything else on earth, because He says, where else am I gonna go on earth to find that kind of love? Where do I find that kind of love that would never be taken away? Who do I have in heaven but you? There's nobody that loves me this way, there's nobody on earth that loves me this way, so nothing I desire is more than you.

You really are better than anything else life could give to me, you're more secure than anything that death could take away from me. You see, it turns out that the antidote to envy and doubt, which again are the same thing, is going to be two things that you see in this psalm. The answer to envy and doubt is faith and humility. Faith means you believe in the extravagant goodness of God, which was demonstrated at the cross. Humility realizes how unworthy and how undeserving you are of that love, and when you are overwhelmed with humility, and when you believe in the God that revealed Himself on the cross, then envy and doubt will disappear like the morning mist.

Now notice this conclusion. Here's how he ends the psalm, verse 27. Those who are far from you will perish.

You destroy all who are unfaithful to you. He ends this psalm basically by asking this question, listen to this. He ends by basically saying, if not Jesus, who?

Where are you going to turn? St. Augustine, 1500 years ago, talking about this psalm. He said, if you don't like God's answers in this psalm, which sometimes you don't, like I want to see it now, you're like, okay, well turn to your God for deliverance on the day of trouble.

Oh, you say, Augustine said, oh, you say, I don't have a God, I am my own God. Fine, turn to yourself on the day of calamity that you know is coming. Because death comes for us all. And in that day, why don't you turn to yourself to deliver you?

The way I've described it to you before is like this. It's kind of like when you go into that hospital room and you're lying on that gurney and they're taking you in for open heart surgery and we, your family and friends, we're going to gather around your bed before they wheel you in the room and we're going to lie to you. You know we're lying to you and we know you're lying to you. Because we're going to look at you and we're going to say, hey, we're with you.

We're with you. And you know that's not true. Because when they strap a little mask of you and you go under, we're all staying up and we're drinking coffee in the waiting room. And when they pull out that knife and they start to cut through your chest, they ain't cutting into our chest, they're cutting into yours. And in that moment, unless you have a God that is bigger than life, a God that is stronger than death, alive in your heart and in your soul, then in that moment, you are utterly and totally alone. And so this psalmist says, where else am I going to go? Because there's nowhere I can go.

You're the one. You're the only one that's stronger than death. It reminded me of when Jesus gave a very unsatisfactory answer to his disciples. They were asking a bunch of questions and Jesus gave the answer and they're like, we don't like that answer. And so a bunch of them left. And Jesus turned to the 12 and he's like, you're going to go away also? And the apostle Peter, in one of his few shining moments in the life of Jesus, looked at Jesus and was like, where else are we going to go? You're the only ones with the words of eternal life. I don't like your answer.

Kind of makes me mad. I wish you did it differently. I don't know where else to go though, because only you have the power to overcome death. You're the guy we saw walking on the waves. If you're going to walk on the waves and you can raise people from the dead, I'm sticking with you. That's the question you got is where else are you going to turn? Where else have you seen a God love you like that?

Where else have you seen a God raise himself from the dead? If not Jesus, then who? What are you going to turn to?

Where are you going to go in the day of trouble? And the Psalmist says, doubt. Doubt has driven me to you. To follow Jesus doesn't mean that you cease to doubt.

To follow Jesus simply means that you come to the conviction that it's worth it, that there's no other alternatives. And that one day, here's what faith is. Faith is acting in a way today that you know one day you'll be glad that you did.

It means you don't understand everything now, but one day you will. And you're enduring things now because of the treasure that God has given in you. That's the invitation of Psalm 73.

Are you ready to respond to that invitation today? If you've never trusted God with your life, we'd love to help you take that first step of faith. Send an email to requests at jdgrier.com or call us at 866-335-5220 and we'll connect you with some free resources to help you get started on this new journey with Jesus.

And don't forget that when you give to Summit Life, we also send you a premium resource to thank you. So JD, our latest offering is the Summit Life Kids Activity Book. How does this resource help families integrate Bible learning into their daily lives? Yeah, you know, one of the biggest challenges for families is finding ways to keep God's Word central in the midst of busy schedules.

You sit down for dinner and there's a bazillion things in your mind. I used to, when I was a parent, my kids were young. I was always trying to come up with these like great devotions and sometimes I did, but a lot of times it's, you know, it actually helped to be able to follow along with somebody else who'd done the thinking for me on some of this. And that's what this Summit Life Kids Activity Book is, is verses that you can do together as a family, ways that you can lead effective family devotions.

It's got, you know, whether it's word searches and puzzles, it's really creative. I think you'll find it a good resource as a parent. You can get your copy of this Kids Activity Book right now at jdgrayer.com. This brand new gospel-centered activity book takes some of the most important foundational truths about God and makes them fun for the kids in your life to experience. As you color your way through the pages and activities together, we pray that God will use this as a valuable discipleship resource. Ask for the Summit Life Kids Activity Book when you donate today or when you commit to monthly giving as a gospel partner. Give us a call at 866-335-5220. That's 866-335-5220.

Or you can give online at jdgrayer.com. I'm Molly Vidovitch inviting you to join us again Wednesday when we continue our series called The Whole Story on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.