The Stories We Believe... WHEN

Well, if you are new to the church, you might wonder if you're allowed to talk or whatever, back and forth with me. Yes, you can. You don't have to. But I'm about to ask you a question, and I do want some kind of response. And it can be, say whatever you want, throw tomatoes, do what you want.

But if you want to sit there quietly, just make sure the person next to you says something. So here you go. What do you think is the most powerful word in the English language? Love. Hope.

No. No is a strong one. It was strong from the back, too. They said it all right. Yes is another one.

Somebody in the first service said fired, and I said fired. Like somebody's fired. Yes. And I don't know what their week was like, but. Okay.

Different words, right? Different words. I want to challenge you with one I haven't heard you say. It's a four letter word. Not that one.

And it may or may not be the most powerful word in the English language, but I do believe it's one of, if not the most powerful word for shaping our stories. And the word is when. W H E N. When? When this happens. What?

How many times is your future plans been impacted by the word when? When we have kids, when we get married, when I graduate, when this presentation is over with, when something on the calendar happens, when then everything will change, right? When I retire, then I'll be happy. When the kids move out, then we'll have money again, when, whatever. So, like, all the things, right?

Like. And then you can look at the past, too. Everything changed when I trusted Jesus, when Dad died, when I got fired, when cancer diagnosis with COVID Like, when these things happened. That word when shapes our lives because it's oftentimes a pivot. It may be a pivot that's true and maybe a pivot that's false.

We may interpret things truly or falsely, but we oftentimes shape our stories based on that word. When had the privilege of being in this room yesterday for a wedding of a young lady who's been on our worship team, served in our church for a long time, special to our family, has watched each one of our four daughters and was able to be a part of that service. And Pastor John was the one that was actually officiating the wedding. And I told him this week when he was getting ready for it, I said, here, I always think a successful wedding is when somebody who's already been married for a little while kind of like squeezes the hand of their spouse, like, reaffirms that commitment or maybe remembers or maybe thinks we need to talk about this. Like, what some kind of challenge of the commitments that they made.

And I was sitting there, and I was trying to imagine back before Shannon and I got married and what it was like and what we were thinking life would be like once we got married. And, man, I was an idiot. When we get married, we will. And then there's all these thoughts that I had of what it would be like. And I don't know if any of the thoughts have been right.

When we get married, I thought we would cuddle to go to sleep every night. She laid on my chest for about five minutes on our honeymoon. And we're like, all right, all right. We're not doing that. We can't fall asleep like that.

And that's about the last time that happened.

I thought, we will agree on money. When we get married, we will agree about money. And about a week after her honeymoon, I pulled out a notebook. I said, listen, Al, we got to go over a budget. She later told me her exact thought was, oh, no, I married my dad.

That's weird. Those of you who came from certain states, that is a weird thing.

I thought, well, she's gonna be my best friend. So when we get married, we'll do everything together. And then the first Saturday, in the fall context, you cannot pause live TV. 25 years ago, we didn't have kids. There was no Instagram.

She wanted to go to a pumpkin patch. That's college football season. Does everyone else realize how crazy she is? But she was like, well, I want to go to this pumpkin patch. I was thinking, who wants to go watch food sit on the ground?

And they're going to charge me to go there or, no, it's like torture. And I'm paying them. No, no. Her when and my when were not the same whens.

But when does shape our stories, doesn't it? When past or when future. And oftentimes we then tell ourselves a story based on that. That's what Psalm 37 speaks into. Psalm 37 is different than any of the other psalms that we've looked at in this series so far.

We've looked at some famous psalms. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want that Funeral Psalm. Psalm 23. We looked at psalms that have had little ascriptions.

We call them superscriptions in the Bible, where it says, a song of Asaph or the sons of Korah. And then we saw David when he was in the wilderness. And it kind of puts it in a historic setting. Psalm 37 just starts off with the superscription of David. Okay, so we know who wrote it, but when you read the whole psalm, and we're not going to get to verse 25 of verse 25 says a verse that.

I've joked with you about some of the coffee mug psalms that are out there. Last week I hopefully a bunch of you got rid of your mugs that say, be, be still and know that I am the Lord, because I messed that up for you. Because the beast still there is actually talking to the enemy. Stand down. So if you didn't get rid of your coffee mug, you still have time.

There's still time. But there's another be still in this passage. It's different. And it might be that you just need to change the verse reference on your coffee mug. There's a famous verse in this Psalm, Psalm 37, 4, delight in the Lord, and he'll give you the desires of your heart.

A lot of people use that to go, if I want to get what I want, and I just do this thing, he said, and then we'll probably mess that up today. But in verse 25, it says, and this is a great T shirt, I was younger and now I'm older. Because anybody can buy that, right? But this is probably when David is an older man. And the way this psalm is written is not.

There's no. There's no prayer, there's no crying out to God. In this psalm, there's no God speaking directly down to his people. Instead, God chooses, like the Proverbs, to speak to his people through the wisdom of a more mature believer, David. And so imagine as we read this psalm, it's an older man sitting across the table from you, from a younger believer, and imparting some wisdom.

And he says this. He talks about some different wins. And verses one and two we'll just start off with, he says, do not fret. You might underline that it's mentioned multiple times throughout the psalm. And you know, when things are repeated, they're being emphasized in the Bible.

Do not fret. It's a very weak translation. We'll come back to it. But do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong. For like the grass, they will soon wither, like green plants, they will soon die away.

What David is talking about here is when you look around at the world around you, it may look like the wicked are winning. Have you ever thought that maybe there's somebody in your life that you can even imagine right now? Do not say this one out loud, please. That if they succeed, you're not happy, maybe you're even mad. There's certainly people we can look at historically, world leaders.

They were evil and they were celebrated.

And there are some people, maybe even in your own family, that you know how they got where they are and they are successful. And you think, God, I'm doing what's right, I have integrity. They don't. And why this David's talking about here? When the wicked are winning, he's don't fret, don't.

And the literal translation of that is get heated, burn with anger. So most scholars believe that the NIV is a weak translation. When it says fret. It seems like I'm annoyed, a little bit worried about that. But no, it's like, don't let this fire, this coal inside of you, begin to turn into a fire.

Don't let the heat get turned up. Because you see, the wicked are winning. And while there's people around you that maybe you don't want to win, I bet you there's people that don't want you to win. We see that probably most clearly for most of us when we watch sports. This summer I had the opportunity to travel with one of my daughter's soccer teams and she went to Denver, Colorado.

She was playing, they won a regional tournament in Atlanta and they were playing in a national tournament in Denver, Colorado. So teams from all over the country that had won their regions and if they won their games, they were playing a national championship. Well, they won the three games they had to win to get to the national championship. So I told my daughter, I was like, hey, there's not very many people even get to play in a national championship ever. And this is a big deal.

So I'm there and I'm watching and it basically could have been the World cup for me. 16 to 17 year old girls play this soccer tournament. So I'm even nervous and I'm not playing. My daughter's out there, she's playing. Those of you who did watch the World cup, you might know some of the positions.

Now, she's a striker. That means she plays up at the top and tries to score goals. And she's marked up usually against the center back, which is the last resort of trying to stop the goals before the goalie. Well, about five minutes into the game, like I said, emotions are high, everything's tense. I record little clips.

When nothing's happening, I stop recording. Well, this play, kind of scrambled up, ball went out of bounds. I didn't see exactly what happened. And then I just hear, like, all the parents on both sides are like, whoa. Because what happened is the center back grabbed my daughter by the collar of her shirt and flipped her over, slammed her down on her back.

So now I'm watching, like, now what? And I was thinking, for sure she's gonna get kicked out of the game. But then my daughter jumps up, she shoves her, and the ref comes running between the two of them, gives them both a yellow card, which I thought was injustice, by the way. But a couple minutes later, game's still intense. They're going at each other.

Center back's grabbing her. I said, she's grabbing you because she can't guard you, Janie. To which the girl that's grabbing her starts cussing me out like, I don't even know you. I'm talking to you. Ref stops the game.

Janie gets benched for a little while. They lost the game. We're in the car afterwards, and I'm typically. I try to, like. I even tell Shannon's like, don't.

There's no coaching right now. It was just like, let's see what she says. See what she feel about it. Well, that moment came up, believe it or not. And I didn't resist.

I said, you know, I understand, like, the moment and all that, but you gotta have your composure, and team's counting on you. She said, I had to respond, dad. And what she said next, I'm confident I will never forget. I'm not saying she's right, but she said I had to shove her. I'm your daughter.

I am not here to debate whether that is inaccurate or accurate, any of that right now. Here's what I want you to see, though. That her behavior was controlled by the story she was telling herself. Whether that story was true or not, the Lord knows. But as a dad, I was, like, proud of her.

Like, yeah, she's not afraid. Then I was ashamed. She can't even imagine a scenario where I don't respond.

Hmm. What story are you telling yourself? When you look around and you see wickedness winning, what story are you telling yourself? As we walk through the rest of these verses in the psalm, we'll see three different whens. The first when will be our first point.

When the wicked is winning. And the question for you is, when the wicked are winning, what story are you telling? And you see, David here is telling us what we just read. Do not burn with anger because those who are evil or be envious. And he points out one of our Problems here and a solution to the problem.

With that statement, we know envy is a sin. Looking at someone else and wanting what they have, their vacation, their marriage, their money, their car, their whatever, shirt, whatever it is that you see, internal, external things will be envious of those who do wrong. Well, why not? For like the grass, they will soon wither. Like green plants, they will soon die away.

I love that the Bible doesn't shy away from questions like this. And you don't always get the same answer to them either. The answers aren't inconsistent, they're just not all the same because life is nuanced. And so you'll see this question all throughout the Bible. In fact, you can read other passages that I won't go to today.

But Jeremiah talks about it. This is Psalm 37 in Psalm 73. Some people call that the sister psalm to this. So Psalm 37, 73, numbers, probably easy to remember. You can go read that later and see how that's addressed there.

Job talks about it. Job says it like this. And remember Job, at the end of the book, God comes to him. He tells him, who are you to question me? But Job gets vindicated in things he said about God.

And his friends are condemned. His friends come and give nice, tidy answers. The kind of things that maybe you'd hear in the lobby of a church or at a Christian concert, or talking to your friend who just wants to try and solve your problems really fast. And no, don't worry, it'll all work out okay. The friends are condemned for speaking falsely about God.

Job is not well. Job says this. Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? Habakkuk, the prophet, God's chosen man to speak to those people at that time, says this. How long Lord, must I call for help?

But you do not listen. That's the story he's telling himself. We just sang a song that says, I called on you and you answered. Is that true for everybody? Do you have anything you're calling on God for?

And he hasn't answered. Cause in the moment, in the moment, it oftentimes feels like you're not even listening. That's what Habakkuk is saying. Or I cry out to you violence, but you don't save. Why do you make me look at injustice?

He's talking to God, who's holy, who can't even look at sin, and going, but you're making me look at it.

Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me. There is strife and conflict abounds oh, we talked about that last week. Therefore, the law is paralyzed. Your word is powerless is what he's saying.

And justice never prevails. Okay, let's overspeak. But that's how he feels. The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted. In other words, why do you keep letting evil win?

David says it here, but don't get upset. Don't burn with. Wait, isn't burning with anger exactly what we should do? Doesn't God burn with anger? And unrighteousness isn't because it's bad for us.

Look at the next step and the second part of the verse. Verse one. Or be envious. And so part of our problem is that we're looking at these other people and what's actually happening in our heart isn't just. That's not just.

It's. I want what you have, whether it's an influencer or a politician or your neighbor or somebody else in church. Why do they. I know they're not faithful to the Lord and look at how their marriage is going. And we're trying to be faithful.

Look at how our marriage is going. I know that they don't take this stuff seriously. And look at. Their kids are following Jesus and mine walked away. I know, Like.

And then you want what they have and you feel like you deserve it, and they don't. And that's what's being talked about here. It's actually about your heart, not about other people's success. In fact, there was a study that was done by two Harvard researchers. I love when social science and science finally catches up with the Bible.

Two Harvard researchers surveyed 257 people. They asked them two scenarios, and they got to pick which scenario they would prefer. So I'm going to share the scenarios and I'm going to read them exactly the way they were shared with the people in the study. And then you can answer and I'll tell you what the study results were. You can make $50,000 a year and everybody around you makes 25.

That's option A. Or you can make $100,000 a year and everybody around YOU makes 200,000. That's option B. You don't have to tell me your answers this time. Over 50% of the people chose option A.

The study clarified money has the same spending power in both scenarios. And people more than half chose to have half as much as long as they had more than others.

Let me tell you what the Bible says about that comparison will kill your joy. The studies are catching up. They did studies too, on Olympic athletes. And they found a fascinating, like, the discovery of this blows my mind. But when you start looking through the lens of comparison, you see why they actually did facial recognition scans, computer analyzed, looking for the same thing over five different summer games for the Olympics.

And they found that the bronze medal winners were far happier than the silver. Silver. Silver medal winners. Their conclusion, the best they can figure out without knowing everybody, everybody doesn't even tell themselves the right story, right? So even if you ask the people, they don't necessarily know.

The best they can figure out is the silver medalists were thinking to themselves, I was just seconds away from being gold. I was so close, but I didn't get there. The bronze medalists were looking at fourth place and being like, I made it. I'm here, I'm on the podium.

Regardless of the reason why, the person who accomplished less was happier than the person accomplished more because of the way that they were looking at it. So David's talking about here. He says, do not be envious of those who do wrong. Why not? Because what will happen is it's not just that you want what they have.

You think to yourself, then I need to do what they do to get it. Because you begin to believe a false story, true statement. The wicked are winning in some scenarios for some time period. However, it gets twisted, and this is where we tell ourselves the wrong story. In order to succeed, I must lack integrity, be dishonest, take shortcuts, whatever the pieces are.

And I think what would happen to us is the same thing that happens to the apostle Peter in the New Testament. One of my favorite stories, it's in John chapter 21 and John chapter 21. What's happened, for those of you aren't familiar with the Bible, is that Jesus had already been crucified. Resurrected. Before Jesus was crucified, Jesus told the disciples they would all abandon him.

And Peter stood up and said, even if everybody else ditches you, I won't. That's Peter's plan for Peter's life. Jesus then tells him, well, after you have denied me three times, I want you to strengthen your brothers. But he's still believing, I'm not going to do that. I'm not.

That's not going to happen. It happens. For those of you who don't know the story, spoiler alert, it happens. Hey, you've had 2,000 years. All right, There it is.

And In John chapter 21, he's restored. It's the resurrected Christ. And he tells Peter, come have lunch with me after. He doesn't catch any fish. Familiar scene for Peter.

Three times he asked him, do you love me? Because three times Peter denied him that he ever knew him. He says, you know, I love you. Peter doesn't even get to enjoy his own restoration because they're walking along the beach a couple verses later, and the apostle John tells us that Peter looks back and Jesus is telling Peter God's plan for his life. Who wouldn't love that?

He's physically walking with God and he's telling him, hey, it's going to be hard. You're going to die a lot like I die, and you're going to do some stuff you want to do, but you're not going to die the way you want to die. And he looks back and goes, what about him?

Oh, thank you, Peter, for being you. Because we can identify. Look at what Jesus says back to him. John, chapter 21 and verse 22, Jesus answered, if I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? Let me say it another way.

Imagine the person that I asked you to think of that you might not want to succeed. What difference does it make in your life what God does in their life? And here's the answer. None. None.

Difference. And your friends. You've heard this statement before, motivational speakers. Show me your friends. I'll show you your future.

Parents sometimes say, oh, they fell in with the wrong crowd. Well, they didn't fall in. It's not a passive situation. First of all. And what people are acknowledging is something the Bible talks about repeatedly, often in the wisdom literature.

The proverbs say, a friend of fools suffers harm. Who your friends are does impact your life. However, there's no one who influences you more than you. No one talks to you more than you talk to you. So what story are you telling?

When you look at those people? You don't want to succeed. When you look at the wicked, when you look at whether it's a world leader, a Joseph Stalin, do you know Stalin literally killed millions of his own people, starved some of them to death.

And he died. Never dethroned, never defrauded, never told. Like, this is wrong. Confronted with justice, he died in his own bed at 74 years old. And those people who lost loved ones because of his leadership mourned.

Some genuinely mourned. Some mourned because they were afraid.

How? I have a friend who was in the first service. He told me I could share this. I won't share his name and the names of some of the people. You'd know some of the names and you'll know why in just a second.

In 2013, he has a friend that came to our church at the very beginning. Our church started in 2007. He was there at the movie theater. We became friends. And he's probably one of the most honest men I've ever met in my life.

And very successful in his professional world and was successful when I met him. Had just moved to Raleigh and the financial industry, planning and hedge funds and lots of different things happening. And he lost his job in 2013, didn't have a job for 14 months. And somebody approached him and offered him an opportunity to buy an already existing financial firm and explained how the financing would work for it made sense. He felt it was an answer to prayer.

And for a while, he was making more money than he ever made in his life. But working there, it felt like something was a little off. It didn't quite make sense to him. And so he actually went to an outside group and asked them to evaluate things. And.

And one of his mentors, outside advisors, said to him, I think you're involved in a Ponzi scheme.

Now, before I tell you what he did next, remember this guy? He's making so much money. He called me on the phone one time. I remember I was just at my house, way more money than I could fathom making. And he's telling me about a purchase he just made.

He's like, and you know, it's crazy. I didn't even think about how much it cost. I didn't even wonder. I didn't ask the price. And I was thinking, that must be some kind of life tonight.

Even wonder what. I just want that. Yeah, give me that. So that's the situation he's in. He could have easily thought to himself, well, I'm not doing that.

I'm not involved in that stuff. Not my department. Those aren't my clients. Those are the fund I'm over. But he couldn't do that because he's got integrity.

So he went to his partner's office and said, hey, this is what I think's going on. I have somebody look at it. And they told me this. This is what's going on. I'm going to report it to the authorities.

And she said, that is what's going on. Let me go to the authorities first. He goes, I'm calling them today. He later found out he wasn't doing this as a legal game. He later found out if he had let her go, she would have been the one that was identified as the whistleblower.

Was actually. Was a huge protection for him that he was so determined to do what was right.

SEC got involved, the FBI got involved. He was wearing wiretaps. There are names of people that, if I said them, you'd go, whoa, what? Billionaires. Different folks that are famous because of who they're related to.

Politician type stuff. And people got fired, people went to jail, people lost money. None of the people at the top did.

My friend's firm no longer a thing, and he didn't get a job for two years. The money he makes today, a third of what he was making then. But he did what was right. But the people who were doing what they were in charge of, all people went to jail, but not the people who were making it happen. They didn't even get named.

What story do you tell yourself when the wicked are winning?

In the next part of this passage, you'll see. What about when the future is uncertain, when the future is unknown? When. When the second. When the future is unknown?

What do you tell yourself? What do you tell yourself? Just some basic things, like your boss sends you an email, come to my office on Tuesday. Do you think to yourself, oh, awesome, I'm going to get a promotion. He wants my advice.

Or do you think I'm going to get fired? Well, depends on the story you're telling yourself.

Or do you not think about it because it's not Tuesday. I don't know what the doctor says. I want to run some more tests. Story you telling yourself. What about when you're waiting for someone else to make a decision and their decision will dictate your future?

What story do you tell yourself when your future is uncertain? And David tells us, as this older believer sitting across the table, what to do. Look at verse 3. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. There's your coffee mug. So do what God wants and he'll give you what you want. That's what we usually think it means. That's not what it means.

We'll come back. Commit. That word, commit literally means to roll the weight of the thing that you're carrying onto him. And the New Testament, there's a verse, one of my favorite verses. I remember in seminary, a professor getting up.

Older, wiser man, be like David in this passage. And saying, First Peter 5:7. First Peter 5:7. Who knows First Peter 5:7. And at the time I didn't know First Peter 5:7. And he called me Scott.

Tell me First Peter 5, 7, I was like, I don't know. For Peter 5. 7, he goes, well, you better learn it if you're going to help people. First Peter 5, 7 is Jesus saying, cast your cares upon me because I care for you. That's the Greek verb.

That's the equivalent of this Hebrew verb, commit. Commit means to roll the weight of that on. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will do this. He will make your righteous reward. He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

When's that day for my friend from the first service was that day when you don't know what the next thing is going to be. You know what's interesting to me about this psalm is what the psalmist does not say. You don't know what's gonna happen next. And he doesn't say, well, get out a pen and paper. We're gonna work on your five year plan.

No words in here about a vision board, nothing here about your plans didn't go the way you wanted, so now you better come up with a new plan instead. He says, do what you know to do. In fact, these verses are incredibly boring. If you've been in church for very long, it's the kind of stuff you go, yeah, yeah, I know, I know. To do that, trust God.

Okay, that's kind of the whole point, right? Like every sermon could be trust God. If you trust God, well, how in your circumstances, and your answer will be based on what you're telling yourself. And what if you're telling yourself a false story? Then the very thing you might walk into could be sin and you think you're pursuing God.

And so what the psalmist is telling you here is do the thing you know to do. I remember back when we planted the church. I remember it was year three, four, but it was early days of the church. Before we had moved to Raleigh, North Carolina. We lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, and we had some mentors.

And the mentors were preparing us for starting an organization like this. And it was great to have them because once we got here, we could call back and they weren't involved in the daily pieces and they didn't have a vested interest in what we would do, but they wanted us to do what God wanted and they wanted things to go well for us. So it's great to have people like that in your corner. If you don't have those kind of people, I would suggest you start looking for them.

And Shanna called Carolyn Wellens 25 years ahead of us in the process. And she said, hey, we've got this decision. We're trying to decide. It impacts our lives, it impacts the church's life. Like, what do we do?

We don't know. And she said, shannon, whenever you don't know what to do, do the next thing. Some of us think that waiting on God or patience or trusting is some passive thing. No, no, no. Faith is putting in action the things that you believe.

We're told in the New Testament, Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6. Without faith, that's action. It's impossible to please God. You sitting by passively is not possible to please God, but it's possible to take action. And it'd be the wrong actions because you don't know what God says.

And what David is telling us here in this passage is do what you already know to be true. When you don't know the next thing to do, do what you already know is true. Trust God, put into action the things that you know. And so you could say, depend. The next thing he says, he says, dwell.

Trust in the Lord, do good, and dwell. There's five verbs here. Trust, do good, dwell, delight, and commit. Already talked about, commit. Trust is the dependence.

Look here he says, dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. What does that mean? The Hebrew word there just literally means to settle, remain. But what's the land? Now, the original readers here would have thought of the land of Israel.

That's our identity. That's our place. And what a lot of pastors will do in devotionals and even commentaries. You got a study Bible? Well, to kind of psychologize this into feel at peace in the Lord's presence.

Okay, but that ain't what it's saying. Just so you know. I want you to feel at peace in the Lord's presence. I'm not talking against that, but the original readers are going to hear that most of us are never going to be in Israel. So what does this mean for us?

Well, it's interesting. If you continue to go through this passage and to the New Testament, Jesus quotes this passage and he doesn't shrink it, he expands it. He doesn't turn into our feelings. He actually makes the inheritance bigger and applicable to more than just the people of Israel. In verse 11 of Psalm 37, the one that we're in right now talks more about the land.

The meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. When Jesus preaches the most famous sermon ever preached, he goes up. It's called the Sermon on the Mount. He Sits down on a hill, and one of the first things he says to people is the meek. He's quoting this verse.

He's quoting Psalm 37, verse 11, Matthew, chapter 5, and verse 5. Do we have that verse? We'll put up on the screen if we do. Blessed. That means happy.

It's the Greek word, makarios. You want happiness? Here's the pursuit of happiness is to go down this trail. Are the meek. You know who the meek are?

The meek are the people who have the strength to shove and choose not to. Meek aren't weak. Meek are people who know their strength and ability and choose not to always unleash it. I am not yet meek, according to my daughter.

But we're all in process, right?

But Jesus doesn't say the meek will inherit. I'm going to read. You keep Matthew 5. 5 up there. Here's Psalm 37:11.

But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity. Jesus says, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit. Not the land, the earth. Okay, Now, Bible scholars argue, what does he mean by the earth? What's going to happen with the earth?

Skip to the end of the story and I'll tell you the answer. It's in the book of Revelation. He's not just talking about heaven. So that's what you're going to get. Sometimes when people spiritualize and try to just kind of like, here, I want you to like this, what I'm teaching you.

But it's more than that. It's a real inheritance. And there's gonna. Everything's gonna be new. In Revelation, chapter 21 and ver.

1, it says this. This is the Apostle John, the one that Peter went. What about that guy? All right, well, here's what actually happened to him. It's not that he lived forever, but he was the only apostle that wasn't martyred.

In fact, they boiled him alive and he lived after. I don't think I'd like that scenario. Someone's boiling me, like, let's go ahead and end this, all right? And then he was put on the island of Patmos, which we went to this summer, a group of folks from our church. And I'll tell you, that was.

I told you last week, my least favorite place in Greece was Thermopoly. Cause it was such a disappointment. My favorite place was Patmos because the resurrected Christ appeared there. And Revelation chapter one tells us what he looked like. We don't have to wonder what Jesus looked like.

The resurrected Christ. Words can barely describe it any. I'm positive you haven't seen a painting of it, but it's overwhelming. So much so that the Apostle John, who at that time was 95 years old, is living on this island, which going there helped me realize was basically hunger games. The Orthodox believers believe that he had a young disciple that was there assisting him.

And that would explain to me, how did he live. We know the church at Ephesus, which was a church that he pastored after Paul. He pastored it. Talk about a church with great pastors. They would send food and donations, and that's how he survived.

Well, every prisoner on the island of Patmos was responsible for their own food. And many of the prisoners on that island died because another prisoner killed them. The dude's 95. If I'm a prisoner and I'm like 25, I'm going taking his stuff. People are sending him stuff.

I don't know if I want to kill him, but I'm going to keep taking his stuff. But that didn't happen. Why not? Either their God miraculously stopped it. Maybe he had a young disciple, I don't know.

But he kept going to this cave to pray. And one day, Jesus was there.

And one of the last things he tells us that Jesus showed him is Revelation 21, the end of your Bible. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven, and the first earth had passed away. Well, that's crazy, because remember Psalm 37 in verse 2, and what David told us at the beginning? Raptor, he says, don't envy people. He says, here's the reason why.

The grass. For like grass, they will soon wither, like green plants, they will soon die away. And Revelation says, the whole thing is gone. Everything that we see right now, gone. The earth had passed away.

There was no longer any sea. Huh. What did he see next? I saw the Holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband. What an analogy.

Must be an amazing city. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, look. What does God's voice sound like? Look, God's dwelling place. What does our psalm say?

Dwell in the land. What does God say here? God's the one speaking. God's dwelling place is now among the people. He will dwell with them.

They will be his people. And God himself will be with them, and he will be their God. And he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. The wicked aren't winning anymore.

He was seated on the throne, said, I am making everything new. Then he said, write this down. Take notes, John, because these words are trustworthy and true. And you go back to verse two, where David's telling us our problem isn't just envy. It's not just comparing to other people.

Our problem is also perspective. He's talking about the long view here. For like grass, they will soon wither. Like the green plants, they will soon die away. It's like when I went to my optometrist this past year for my checkup, which is usually not an encouraging meeting.

You can't see. Yeah, I know. I just haven't noticed because I'm so used to not seeing. I got it this year. She kind of blew me away.

She said, your actual eye problem that you have, I have astigmatism and I can't so far away looking blurry and stuff. She said, you have the perfect vision for a pastor because you can read your Bible, but you can't see everybody's face. So you're not discouraged when they fall asleep. Unfortunately, she goes to our church, so I think she was confessing in a sense, and she said, well, that's getting better. Your vision for that's getting better, but you are getting older.

Thanks. Love you, Doc. And she says, so I think eventually I'm going to have to give you bifocals. Bifocals? That's what grandparents wear.

That's what I thought. Old people wear bifocals. And so that's why verse 25, I was younger and now I'm older. Would be a great T shirt, right? See, what happens is we make fun of the people who wear bifocals, and then we become the people who wear bifocals.

Bifocals are, for those of you who don't know, are lenses that when you look down, you can see what's close to you and when you look up, you can see what's far away. What David's saying in this psalm is you need to have a bifocal faith. You look down and you can see the wicked are winning. But look up, you know who ultimately wins. If you think.

If you think that what you see is enough for you to interpret the story and tell yourself the story. Oh, you are a fool. That'd be like if every once in a while my wife will be watching a show with the kids in the living room and I'll come walking into the middle. We'll, who's that? What's happening here, we like them.

And then I leave. If I thought I knew what was happening or how this thing ends, I'm an idiot. But how many of us, that's how we interpret life. We jump in and we see this thing and then we think we know, and then we start telling God how it should be.

You can look the lower lens, remember the upper lens, and you look around and you don't know what's going to happen to your boss's office on Tuesday. But you know who ultimately wins. You don't. Why is Stalin? Why is the hedge fund people?

Why are the Ponzi schemes? What if you were to zoom into history? Imagine if you zoomed in on Good Friday. Talk about evil winning. Jesus, God in the flesh is murdered and he committed.

The only person ever committed no sins is being killed for sin. And darkness covers the earth and God dies.

If you only had that lens and you couldn't see Sunday, all you could see was Friday. That'll change the story you tell. And what David's saying here is, Sunday's coming, Sunday's gonna come. You might look around right now. And the wicked occupy the land.

And the wicked are the ones in charge and the wicked are the ones prospering. But the meek will inherit the earth. Not just any earth, a new earth, a new heaven. So our last. When these last several verses, when your future is fearful, not just uncertain, when your future brings fear, what story do you tell yourself?

Because here's the thing about fear. Fear speaks. Fear is a God given emotion. Fear is not wrong in and of itself. It is not sin.

It's a warning signal that you have. Kind of like when the check engine light comes on in your car, hey, something's going on here.

It keeps you alive, but it should not direct your life. Fear is a great emotion. It's a terrible decision maker. And oftentimes what we do is we allow fear to speak into our lives in such a way that it directs our lives. And when fear speaks, it never tells you the best case scenario.

And it rarely is going to point you to God's truth. Fear says everybody's against you. Fear says if you don't take control, fear says you need to panic. Fear says, you deserve this, that's why it's so bad. Fear says a lot of things.

It never says, this is gonna be awesome.

When have you ever started listening to fear? And we've all listened to fear and fear told you, oh, this is gonna be tough, but you're gonna grow so much. I've Talked to so many people recently and looking back at my own life, I think some of the hardest times I've ever been through have been the greatest growth in my relationship with Jesus. And so you look at your marriage and you think somebody else's marriage is so good and you're going, what? And then if I don't do this, then I'm gonna have to fit and I'm gonna take control or I'm gonna have.

Or I'm mad at God because he didn't do what I deserve and he's going, I'm using. You thought marriage was the vessel for your happiness? I don't know. You misunderstood. Verse 4.

You thought, delight in me and I'm gonna give you the marriage you want. You thought, delight in me and I'll give you the promotion. Delight in me and I'll do the delight in me and you'll find delight in me.

I'm the gift. I'm not the vending machine you use to get the gift. You want delight in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. That means he's going to give you new desires in your heart.

One of the reasons we sometimes are upset with the wicked prospering is because we want their stuff. And it actually, it's like that Harvard study where it ain't about fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, about what's happening in here. So it's not about who's succeeding. You don't want God anyways, you just want God's stuff. He's going to delight in me.

Fear's not going to tell you to do that.

So what does he say next? Be still. That's the be still you want on your coffee mug. If you're talking about rest, Psalm 46 means stand down, drop your weapon, stop fighting. The verb that's used here for be still in Hebrew.

It means relax.

Don't be so intense about this. Remember I told you don't fret. Will be three times when we're about to see it. The next part I wish wasn't in the Bible, but it is. And wait patiently for him.

I hate waiting patiently. I hate waiting at all. I hate to wait. But then the next line, do not fret. That means burn with anger.

When people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. He doesn't pretend like that doesn't happen. God's book is not some fairy tale book of a made up world. He's talking to you in a real world. And we're told in the New Testament Everything you need for life and godliness is in this book.

Doesn't answer every question in the world, but everything you need to live faithfully in this world right here. And he's saying, yeah, when you look around, don't be worried about all these people and they are going to succeed in their schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath. You're not the one that brings wrath. Goddess, do not fret.

There it is again. Third time. So when things are repeated, they're being emphasized. Look at your house. If you have a smoke alarm.

You got smoke alarms here? Everybody got a smoke alarm. Yeah. Why doesn't that beep once when there's a fire in your house? Beep.

It told you.

See, David, remember, he's sitting across the table from a younger believer. And why. Why does my wife have to tell me four times in a week that we have plans on Friday night? Cause I'm not listening. And David knows because he's been there and he's done that.

We oftentimes don't hear the things we don't want to hear. Selective listening. And so he's. Don't fret. Don't.

Don't burn with anger. Don't burn with anger. But there's a lot of stories you can tell yourself of why you should and why is it's actually for your benefit not to do that because that'll lead you to envy and that's going to lead you to unfaithfulness. Don't worry about that. Don't burn with anger.

When you look at the people that are getting what you want, but they're doing it the opposite way. And you're wondering to yourself, why doesn't integrity pay? Why doesn't honesty pay? Why doesn't faithfulness pay? God, if you're good, why, when I do good, don't you pay?

He says, rest the first part and then wait. I hate waiting so much. I actually structure my life around not doing it. Some of you can identify. You ever go to the grocery store and you were thinking about getting in line four, but then you get in line 11, but you watch line four, the virtual you.

How is virtual me doing? I've yet to do this. Excuse me, ma'. Am. I was going to get in line here, so I'm just going to go when I'm losing.

But I do stand in the line sometimes and think, next time I'm going to get in line four. I'm going to be careful. My doctor's in the room. But you know what annoys me in life this just annoys me in life. Not my doctor.

Other doctors, please arrive to your appointment 15 minutes early. Why would I do that? I have never met any doctor anywhere ever, that says, I'm running early today. Why don't you come on in? So I come late to the doctor's appointment because I know they're going to be later than me, and I'm sure they're doing important stuff.

But I've yet to see a scenario where there's, like, blood on the walls and somebody's back there screaming, it's a doctor's office. Like, why are we always any right? I don't like waiting. Anybody else sat at a red light before and thought to yourself, ain't nobody around. Did it really matter?

Me either.

And so kind of some audacity here of David to like. That's the application of this message. Wait patiently wait. Don't fret. Don't fret.

Don't fret. Wait. How could I grow in waiting? I wonder. And I thought about it, and I remembered watching the World cup this summer.

My wife. We can pause live TV now. There were some games where we recorded them, and I wanted to watch them. And I knew who I wanted to win. And sometimes my wife would watch ahead and I'm gonna throw under the bus here.

Love you, honey. Didn't ask for permission for this. We'll figure it out. We'll stay married. I don't know how it's gonna go today, but here's how it is.

We're at our house. I'm in the living room. I'm watching this game. I knew she wanted to watch this game, too, but she's not really paying any attention. I'm like, hey, what's happening?

And I said, honey, are you gonna come watch this game? And then she said, I'm sorry, I already saw the ending. To which I turned the TV off. I'm like, well, I don't need to watch it. She's like, why?

I said, because you just told me how it ended. So, no, I didn't. I didn't say anything about it ended. If it ended the way I wanted, you wouldn't have started your sentence with, I am sorry. I saw the ending.

So I already know. I don't need to go 90 more minutes to be disappointed. I don't want to endure that. However, it made me think. But there are some games that I've literally rewatched the whole game because I knew my team wins.

In fact, I played a clip in the first service. I'll play it for you too. But there was a situation several years back where Pastor John, our executive pastor, we're both from Michigan. We both knew each other before we even knew Jesus and grew up. He was a Michigan fan and I was a Michigan State fan.

So our whole lives we've been at odds in that way. And just to show you how the gospel can bring enemies together, we're here and I just say it like this. Everybody's welcome at church. You don't have to clean yourself up. Even one of our pastors is a Michigan fan.

We let him be on staff. How bad can you know you be really a Michigan fan and a murderer. Like really, There is an M in their name. They probably all are. But anyway, he invited me to his house one time.

In our 30 plus years of in friendship, have we chosen to watch that game together? I don't advise you do this if you're like Alabama, Auburn, or you know, UNC and Duke. I don't, don't do that together. Just stay friends. But on that day, don't talk.

That would be my suggestion. So I'm over his house. Interestingly enough, all the other people are Michigan fans at his house. And I think my wife's starting to lean towards converting. Like she's being so friendly to these terrible people.

And so I'm sitting on his couch. We're watching the game. It's clear our team's going to lose. Michigan State. Michigan has it in hand.

In fact, Jim Harbaugh told the team, do not let them return it. But Michigan State didn't even put a returner out and said, you just have to punt the ball and the game's over. Here's a clip of what happened.

Whoa. He has trouble with the snap and the ball is free. It's picked up by Michigan State. Jalen, Watts, Jackson, and he. These scores are the last play.

Hold on. It gets even better. That and the wicked do fall.

And why hasn't John invited me back over? I don't understand it. The guy across the street used to be a writer for Georgia Sports. I wanted to run into his house and be like, did you see that? Cuz I can't tell them how much credit I am.

You know what? I've literally watched that clip. I am not kidding. Hundreds of times, even like our team will lose to them in a season, in one year. And I'll be like, I'll go back and watch that clip.

Do you know the other thing? I've actually watched that whole game again, even though I sat through the Whole thing with a bunch of Michigan fans. I watched it again that night, and when I watched it that night, I was not even close to as mad at the referees. When they made a bad call the first time, I might have been like, why it had been better had you never been born. You're like, Judas.

And this time I'm like, eh, Everybody makes a mistake. It didn't really matter how bad the game got.

If I had never seen the end, I'd still think, well, how do they end up winning? But I know they win. That's the upper lens, Laura lens. You can be patient here, regardless of your circumstances. Your happiness isn't found in your circumstances.

It's found in the one who's in control of all of that. And he wins. And he doesn't mean that you're gonna win. But if you're with him, you share in his victory. So the gospel, you look at Friday, darkness, death, earthquake, it's over.

Sunday, Jesus risen. Yeah, it's always Easter, actually, because we have a resurrected savior. And that's why we can celebrate communion today, which is what we're going to do next. It's really weird if you're new to church to be like, we're going to celebrate Jesus death. Oh, we can only celebrate the death because we know the resurrection.

And so there's some elements. And like I said when I started the message, if you didn't grab them on the way in, you can go grab them right now. On the bottom there's a little cracker. Pretty simple elements, actually, but they're significant because of what they symbolize. Cup bread.

Let me give us some moments to reflect here, but I'm going to read some verses in a moment to say on the night when Jesus is betrayed. Why? That's not a very good day to bring back up. It's like the call earlier in the game that maybe I thought was so terrible. Yep, there were some bad things that happened.

People actually murdered God. The greatest sin that ever took place, and he used it for your greatest good, saving of your soul. If you place your faith in Jesus, the Bible says that's all you have to do to have a relationship with him, is not go to church so many times, not be married at a church, not get baptized, not take communion. In fact, taking these elements is not gonna make you any closer to God. And he already did everything.

You need to be close to him at the cross and you trust in Him. Let's roll your life under what he did on the cross and ask him to be Your Savior. And he promises he'll save you. And we know he keeps that promise because he defeated death, he defeated sin. He defeated our worst enemies already.

And the victory is ours if we receive him. And so we come and we celebrate when he was betrayed, because that led to his death and his death led to our victory. And he says as he redefines a Passover meal, a celebration that was very symbolic for Jewish people. This bread, he's redefining it. It's now.

I mean, broken for you. Broken body. We're celebrating a. How did that sound? The disciples, the first time they heard that?

And it takes a cup, which is symbolic of joy, of wine. And he says, this cup is my blood, which is a new promise for you. And all the promises of God are, yes, in Jesus because of his blood. And so those of you who are going to partake with us, I'll give you a few moments just to reflect. Some of you might need to repent.

Haven't been trusting God. There's sin in your life you need to deal with. First Corinthians 11 says not to take this lightly. It's why some people have gotten sick and died. Don't bring wrath on yourself.

But what does that mean? Do I have to be perfect? No. No does not mean you have to be perfect.

But it means that you're in relationship with him. You're not knowingly sinning against him and pretending like everything's okay. So if you need to confess some sin right now, you can do that. And in that moment, he says if you confess your sins, he's faithful and just. He'll forgive you of your sins and cleanse you of all unrighteousness.

You can do that.

The only people I'd ask not to take is if you have not yet trusted Jesus. And I only ask you that because I don't want you to think that somehow you're getting a little bit closer. No, Just the next step. The next thing is trust him. If you haven't, why wouldn't you?

Why don't you do it right now? Jesus, I know that I need a Savior. Will you be my savior? And he will.

I'm gonna help you grow in that relationship.