TIME OUT with Pastor Ben Talley - Psalm 37

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Good morning family. This is Benjamin Talley. This is another time out.
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I am the associate pastor with Witten Memorial Baptist Church. It's another time in the word.
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It's a good morning to be alive in Jesus Christ. Another day, another beautiful day.
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Today we will be in Psalm 37.
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Psalm 37 says, Do not be agitated by evildoers.
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Do not envy those who do wrong, for they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.
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Trust in the Lord and do what is good. Dwell in the land and live securely.
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Take delight in the Lord and He will give you your desires of the heart.
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Commit your way to the Lord. Trust in Him and He will act. Good morning,
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Sheila. Make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noonday.
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So, Psalm 37 is like the Proverbs in the
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Psalms. It's written by David. So, we'll just dive in and start with verse 1.
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Verse 1 says, Do not be agitated by evildoers and do not envy those who do wrong.
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The psalmist Asaph ran into this very same problem. Good morning,
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Teresa. He ran into this very same problem. He said, As I look around me and see the prosperity of the wicked,
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I almost slipped. I almost fell as I see the prosperity of the wicked.
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But then he gained hope because he saw that they fade away like grass.
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You see that in verse 2. He says in Psalm 37, verse 2, he says, For they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants.
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So, they fade away. They don't last. They wither quickly because of their evil deeds.
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So, he says, David says, Do not envy them. Do not envy them.
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Do not be agitated by them because their life does not last.
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Now, do we wither? Yeah, but we can make an eternal impact on lives if we live righteously.
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But they are not. They are living wicked lives and therefore they have no eternal impact.
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So, he says, Do not be agitated by them. Do not envy them because they have what's coming to them.
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Jesus said they have their reward. So, then he says in verse 3 through 4, he says,
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Trust in the Lord and do what is good. Dwell in the land and live securely. He says, First, let's meditate on that first part.
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Trust in the Lord and do what is good. Do what is good. So, then he says,
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Trust in the land and live securely. The phrase live securely means live faithfully.
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So, that basically means live with integrity.
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Living with integrity seems to be lacking nowadays. People are not doing what they say and saying what they're doing.
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You know, living by what they say. Being a man or woman of their word. So, living with integrity.
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Living faithfully is the literal rendering of that word. Living faithfully.
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Mine says living securely, but it actually means living faithfully.
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So, it says do what is good. Trust in the Lord. You know, we can trust in the Lord because of his character.
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You know, it's like when you're 16 and you just get a new car.
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You know, you ask your dad to move your car, your brand new car, out of the driveway so you can shoot hoops or something.
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You toss your dad those keys and you say, hey dad, can you move my car? You know, you trust your dad with your car.
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Why? Because you know who he is. You know he's experienced. You know he can move your car.
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You know, it's the same thing with God. You know, we can trust God because we know who he is.
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We know what he's faithful. We know he's faithful. We know what he's capable of doing. We don't have to ask him why he's doing certain things.
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We don't have to ask him, you know, God why are you doing this?
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What's your reason for doing this? We can simply trust him. So, and then it says do what is good.
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We are to do what is good. We are to do what the
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Lord requires of us. So, and then in verse four he says, take delight in the
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Lord and he will give you your heart's desires. Now, Oprah says that this is her favorite verse because he will give you your heart's desires.
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Well, that's not exactly what it's saying. It's not saying that take delight in the
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Lord is the key, the key part of that. Okay. It's not saying the
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Lord will give you the desires of your heart. No, God's not just going to give you whatever you ask him.
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You know, you have to first be in right relationship with God.
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Second, you have to be in right standing, right minds, have a right mindset as a believer, praying in God's will, you know, praying the things that God wants you to pray.
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So, that's what he means by take delight in the Lord. As you take delight in the
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Lord, as you learn to love God, learn to love the things of God, learn to delight in the things of God, God will change your desires.
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He will transform the way you think, the way you act, the way you live, the way you operate.
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And as you change, you'll start praying differently and God will give you the desires of your heart, you know.
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So, that's the whole concept there. It's that faith and obedience have blessings.
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With faith and obedience come blessings. That's all that it's saying there. So, then he says in verse five, he says, commit your way to the
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Lord, trust in him and he will act. So, commit your way to the Lord. It's always good to commit your way to the
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Lord because if we come up trying to focus on our own plans and own purposes, you know, we're going to end up short if we don't commit them to the
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Lord and trust in him because then we're just simply acting on our own desires and our own will.
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So, then he says, making your righteousness shine like dawn, your justice like the new day.
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Sound familiar? Do your good works before men, shine your light before men, that you may glorify your father in heaven.
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Make your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the new day. Kind of familiar.
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So, what you can take away from this is, don't be agitated when people are prospering because that's what that is getting to in verses one.
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Do not envy those who do wrong. When they succeed, when they have success, don't envy them.
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Don't envy them. They have their time coming. Trust in the Lord, do what is good, dwell in the land securely, live with integrity, take delight in the
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Lord, and he will bless you. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act on your behalf.
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Live with a pure heart, a pure mind, as he's renewing you, as he's developing you as a believer.
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Let him shine through you. Let his good works, let your good works shine through you as you live for him.
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It is a good day to be alive in Jesus. Now, you might think for some of you out there, trust in the
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Lord. What do you mean trust in the Lord? I don't know what that's like. I don't know what it means to delight in the
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Lord. Well, first of all, you might have a barrier between you and God.
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You might have never truly trusted in Jesus. Well, there is a barrier between you.
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If you've never repented of your sin and placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, then you don't have a relationship with God.
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Isaiah says that your sins have separated you between you and your God to where he cannot hear you. The Bible says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
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Isaiah 53 verses 4 through 6 says, yet he himself bore our sicknesses.
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He carried our pains, but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted.
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But he was pierced because of our rebellion, cursed because of our iniquities, punished because of our peace.
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But our peace was on him. We are healed by his wounds.
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We all like sheep went astray. We all turned to our own way and the Lord put our punishment on him for the iniquity of us all.
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So, Jesus is the one they were talking about there. Jesus was punished for our sin, for your sin.
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So, Paul said, testifying both to Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God and faith in our
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Lord Jesus Christ. We must repent of our sin and place all of our trust on the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
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So, if you haven't done that today, dear friend, please, please, please repent of your sin and place your full and complete trust on the work of the cross that Jesus did 2 ,000 years ago.
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It is extremely important that you enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ because without that, without you trusting
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Jesus Christ for your salvation, for entering into a relationship, without entering into a relationship with Jesus Christ, you can never have peace.
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You can never have true contentment and a relationship with God because it's only through Jesus.
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So, again, be encouraged, guys. And if you come across somebody who maybe you know or who needs
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Christ, maybe someone in the grocery store, maybe someone seems without hope, maybe a family member, maybe someone on Facebook, share the gospel.
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It's an imperative time to share the gospel. But, guys, be encouraged today.
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It's a good day to be alive in Jesus. I will see y 'all all very soon. I guarantee it.