The sermon transcript discusses a testimony of a family whose eight-year-old twin got caught in the beaters of a silage wagon, resulting in severe injuries. The sermon highlights the faith and worry of people who enjoy feeding birds through bird feeders, suggesting that God uses those who worry to take care of things that don't worry. The sermon then transitions to discussing the importance of not fretting or being envious of evildoers, but instead trusting in the Lord, doing good, and delighting in Him. The sermon concludes by mentioning the numerous commands and promises found in Psalm 37, encouraging listeners to read and reflect on the chapter.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Greetings to all. As we come to this part of the service, where we trust we will once again open the Word of God and see what God has for us, it's certainly in harmony with what we already have received, both in the opening and in the family verses and songs. Let us turn our Bibles to Psalms, Chapter 37. Psalms, Chapter 37. And we'll pause for a word of prayer. Shall we stand together, those of you who can. Change your position a bit. Our loving Father, we too pray this morning that the Holy Spirit would give utterance to the Word of God. These great words of David were penned many years ago. And they are written, as the New Testament says, for our learning. And I trust, dear God, that you will open our heart of understanding and learning this morning, that we may receive this lesson. And we know we can't receive all that is in it, because there are so many things, but we pray that we may be able to get that which pertaineth unto us, and that may be a help and a strength to us. Thank you, Father, for the richness of the Word of God. And I do pray, Father, that you would help this servant again to respond and yield to the Spirit of God and to break the bread of life this morning. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. I originally was led to this chapter by the first word in the book, in the chapter. It's the word fret. And as I got to understand the meaning of that word, I discovered it means to glow or grow warm, to blaze up of anger, zeal, jealousy, be angry, burn, be displeased, fret, fret self, grieve, be hot, be incensed, kindle, very, it means to kindle quite a bit and to be wroth, very much wroth. So, I meditated upon it in light of the title of my message, is the great contrast between the wicked and the righteous. The 37th chapter, with all of its 40 verses, is a longer chapter than normal in the book of Psalms. Not the longest chapter. We have chapter 119, of course, and others that are rather lengthy. But this one is one of the longest chapters. And what it does is continue to show us very clearly the great contrast between the righteous and the wicked. Now, why would we need something like that for our time and our day? And that is a good question. Because I perceive that it is essential in my own life, and I would believe in the lives of others, that that contrast ever needs to be lifted up in our midst. Lest we forget and we begin to intermingle and see no difference anymore between the righteous and the wicked. Evangelical preachers are confessing all over the country that that difference is gone, practically gone. They often talk about children born out of wedlock, or they talk about rebellious runaway children, or they talk about young people living in sin, or they talk about divorce and remarriage. And in the context of which they speak, they often say there is no difference anymore between the evangelical church and the rest of the world. The facts are basically, or the statistics are basically the same. I guess in the case of divorce, I understand it's even a mite higher than what it is in the world. And the reason for that is the world just lives together so much and doesn't bother getting married. The church still has a bit of a conscience there and gets married, but then it doesn't last and it keeps cycling through marriages. You will notice in this chapter, and I want to introduce it up ahead here, so that you can look for these things. This, as Brother Dave said likewise, is not so very negative. Though there are numerous negatives, there are 17 commands in chapter 37. 17 clear commands like fret not. And so we take that as a command not to fret. Others are trust in the Lord, do good, and so on. But there are 25 promises in this chapter. And so as we read it, I want you to catch what you can before we preach it and talk about it in more detail as we go through the chapter. Now, I doubt whether we will be able to get through the chapter, maybe not even half of it, but I want you to see this contrast and maybe we'll come back and visit it later if we don't get very far in it. Let us read, I guess we better read the chapter, and then we at least have a background because we may be going back and forth to some of the verses there. Let's read it together again. You can stay sitting if you want and we'll read it together here. Fret not thyself because of evildoers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good, so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass, and He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgments as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Fret not thyself because of Him who is prosperous in His way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath, thyself in any wise to do evil, for evildoers shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. Meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnashes upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him, for he seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. That a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked, for the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholdeth the righteous. The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs. They shall consume into smoke, shall they consume away. The wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. For such as be blessed of him shall inherit the earth, and they that be cursed of him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand. I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. Ever merciful and lendeth, and his seed is blessed. Depart from evil, and do good, and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsake not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. The wicked watches the righteous, and seeketh to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in this land, nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord, keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree. Yet he passed away, and lo, he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the perfect man, and uphold the upright. For the end of that man is peace. But the transgressions shall be destroyed together, and the end of the wicked shall be cut off. For the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them, and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them because they trust in him. Amen. Many, many good words of encouragement, and many good counsels that are given to us in this passage of Scripture. Now, I would believe that we would have the opportunity to look at this Scripture in light of the local situation. All of us have men and women in our minds, I believe, as we stop and think, and maybe we are not able, at least I'm not able, to gather all of them together through the years that I have seen this, actually, this Scripture fulfilled in a local setting. But I also realize it is happening on a national and international setting. And that's what drew my mind to it probably originally. I heard recently about a book that was written by a professed Christian in Saddam Hussein's army. Or he was actually the general, General George Sada of the Air Force. He was an expert pilot for Saddam Hussein. And though he did not have the convictions to leave the army, nevertheless he believed in truth. He comes from the Assyrian background and had some biblical base to him. And he has written a book by the name of Saddam's Secret where he reveals some of the goings-on in the inner cabinet or the inner group of men that surrounded that wicked dictator through his time. Especially he covers the time of shortly before the Gulf War until the war in 2003. And then I think the book was written before he was actually executed or hung by capital punishment because of the crimes he had committed to his own people. So all of us know men like that. We have read the stories of Hitler and the stories of Lenin and Stalin. And presently we have the same situation in Zimbabwe. A man by the name of Mugabe is a ruthless dictator like a Saddam down there. And he recently was outvoted in an election but he will not let go. And now in a week or so, a week and a half, they want to re-vote again. But the second man already in the opposing party has disappeared. And it looks like numerous men, he is trying to eliminate them. And he has the opposing president or ruler, he has him under house arrest. And he is such a ruthless man that the country is languishing in hunger and starvation because he chased all the white farmers out of the country and confiscated the land for the poor. And the poor don't have the equipment and don't have the knowledge how to farm it. And it plunged the country immediately into a major famine. One of the worst perhaps in most of the nations of Africa. And on and on the story goes but we see these kind of men. And many times we wonder how long this man I think has been reigning for a long time. And as General George Sada likewise give the story of Saddam, we wonder sometimes how long that these men are allowed to go and allowed to prosper. And we ourselves too, we see the prosperity of the wicked like David did. And David even acknowledged the fact that his feet were nigh to slip when he saw the prosperity of the wicked. But then he said he considered their end. And that is what Psalms 37 is all about. It talks about the wicked not naming them. And we could go to Haman and we could go to Zedekiah or we could go to Ahab. And we could go to many many biblical men likewise that lived wicked lives. And many of them in the book of Kings and Chronicles we see that only had a very short reign. But yet we have a Manasseh who was the most wicked of all. Who had one of the longest reigns in Israel and that was about close to 50 years I think. But we see the reality of Psalms 37 through our lives. And I say it seems to me and I do this primarily for encouragement to our own hearts. We see a lot of wickedness in our time. We have seen what our nation has done with the word of God. We have seen what they have done with the preaching. Even in Canada our neighboring country to the north of us asked a preacher to deny his faith in court. The other day according to a report that Sermon Audio gave in their news line up for the week. They mentioned that they asked this man to deny his faith because he had dared to speak out against homosexuality. And of course then he was fined $5,000 for making that statement. And others are trying to make rules that the statements can be made inside the closed circuit of a church. But never open and publicly. And so we then in light of all that we have all the continuing on of earthquakes and floods and tornadoes and all the destruction that continues to go on. And I just want to say what are we thinking when we see these things come to pass? What is our heart and how do we see? Now I believe in order to understand Psalm 37 it is best for us to believe in a thousand year reign. Because when I see how even in the Sermon on the Mount that the meat shall inherit the earth or all these scriptures that tell us that the righteous will live forever and things will go on and on for the righteous where the wicked his life will be shortened and he will be cut off. I believe the cut off means that he is cast into hell. His life for the most part is cut off before it is 3 score and 10 or perhaps by reason of strength 10 more or 80 years of age. I see that many, many times that the righteous tend to live longer and have a more peaceful life than the wicked. And many, many are dying long before their 3 score and 10 because of the wickedness of life. On a local level we see that a lot with drugs and alcohol and a wicked life. High speed cars and motorcycles and various things that people employ to enjoy speed and you know to just feed the flesh and enjoy the flesh. And we see them taking their life into their own hands and also perishing before their time. But here is this verse, Threat not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. We should not look at these men you know in the case with Saddam Hussein. He was so selfish and so greedy that the oil money that he exported he primarily hoarded to himself and spent it on himself. History would tell us and George Sada would say in his book that he had about 45 palaces scattered throughout Baghdad. And this man was just, did not care about human beings, did not care about the general populace and how hard they had it and how hungry they might have been. And we also know that he reveals very clearly that how he handled other nationalities like the Kurds among them and used weapons of mass destruction. He does verify very very strongly that they had weapons of mass destruction and gives a detailed dialogue between him and Saddam. Because Saddam had come to trust him that he would tell him of the truth. Other men would just be like the prophets of Baal you know they would prophesy falsely because Saddam was known to just take the head off of a man in a moment if he would disagree with him in a meeting. But this man George Sada would speak the truth and would let happen what happened and somehow God spared his life. But the day came when he wanted to attack back in 91, just before the Gulf War. He wanted to attack Israel with 95 planes looted with weapons of mass destruction. And he called a meeting and he had planned to do this and not ask permission from the neighboring states of Syria and Jordan to fly over their land. And he was just going to go in there and do this thing. And so he asked advice and George told him not to do it. And gave his reasons why because of some of the technology that he knew that Israel had that was better than Saddam had. And knew that they would be able to see all those planes coming and perhaps shoot most of them down before they would even land. And then the nerve gas or the weapons of mass destruction would have fallen maybe even yet on his own nation or on Jordan and Syria rather than make it Israel. But anyway he dared to tell him not to do it. And though Saddam respected that and it didn't happen but he did then later on give the command to do it anyhow. But it was too late. But the thing that blesses me is how the divine providence of God rules all that out. We see that on an international basis and see how it unfolds. And the plans that wicked men have but they are not able to make it. And God does not allow it to happen. You know today I believe there's a lot of fretting and a lot of fear that or there has been at least in the last 40-50 years. That there would be a nuclear war that would destroy the earth. They had enough of bombs to destroy the world seven times over. And while this nation would shoot its bombs the other would see them coming and shoot theirs. And by it there was always a fear that most of the world would be destroyed. But you know that will never happen. Because God has determined I'm not saying that never a nuclear weapon will be fired. But the world will not be destroyed by mankind. God has reserved that for himself. And he's going to judge the wicked. He's going to reserve that pleasure to himself on those that have departed from the right ways of God. And it will never happen. And that brings a rest and a peace. You know when you see all this turmoil and all these things going on. You think where will it end? And my wife and I often comfort each other with the words you know that seed time and harvest. Day and night, summer and winter will not cease as long as the earth stands. We will not wake up to a silent spring. We will not where nothing will grow. But these things will continue and that's what Psalms 37 is about. But the admonition to us here is not to fret. And what he's talking about is not just being concerned. I think it's right for us to have concerns. And we are concerned about the direction of our nation. We are concerned about the direction of others and local people and churches and all that. And that's right to have. But to fret is to get hot and to get worked up and to get overly zealous and angry and grieve or wax hot, be incensed as the description is given in Strong's Hebrew Dictionary. And so I believe that that is the instruction that is given. We are not to fret like that of worry. But I especially think as we see the calamities of the earth like this also increasing as I mentioned and we just wonder what is going to happen, what next? We should also be admonished this morning not to fret over these things or because of the evildoers neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. And especially not because of their pomp and pride and their financial aggressiveness and prosperity. We are not to fret over those things or to even envy them or desire them because we realize that the misery that goes with it. You know for Saddam, he's gone and he died like he had killed many other people. He died the same way at the end of a rope being hung for the crimes that he had committed. His sons are dead, killed in a bomb that was dropped on the house they were in. His posterity is gone, his children, his life, everything is gone and cut off just like the Bible says. And these other men who feared God are still alive. Now also we recognize in the fulfillment of verses like this that it also can play itself out in eternity. It does not mean that the righteous will preserve, be preserved in every case and will not have to suffer or will not have to die young. That also happens to Christians and many times especially in persecution. But that is not the end of their life. And that's the thing that we should comfort ourselves with that the end of being persecuted or the end of life or the threat of life and all that being taken by the wicked is only the beginning of a new life in the future. So we should not even be discouraged when God allows those things to happen. Let's look at these verses here and the promises. First of all we look at some of the commands here in chapter 37. Verse 2, For they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. He's saying these men are not going to last. They will come to their end no matter how big they think they are, no matter how rich they are, how much money they have, how many palaces, how much silver and gold. The Bible says they will soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. And as I mentioned some of the names I mentioned you all know how that happened. It came to a very bitter end where men either life were taken by their enemies or they committed suicide as their enemy closed in upon them. Verse 3, Trust in the Lord and do good. So shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Now some would say this may also have been written in prophecy for the return of the Jews from Babylon where they would promise the land if they would do good and trust in the Lord. You remember that the promises in Deuteronomy were written as to what would happen to them if they would not do good and if they would follow idols and that they would lose their land and their land would be cursed and the canker worm and the locust would eat it and all these things would happen. But if they would repent and do good, God would give them the land. But also I think it is right for us to see as I mentioned before the Sermon on the Mount would say that the meat shall inherit the earth and that there is in the future time I believe where God will take the righteous and bring them into a land of peace and prosperity and nothing will ever harm them or touch them again. And then finally we have the words forever tacked on to it or everlasting and we realize that they will go from the thousand year reign into the eternal abode and so ever be with the Lord. And where there will be no more death, no crying, no tears as the book of Revelation so clearly says. Well he says here, so shalt thou dwell in the land and verily thou shalt be fed. Some of the clear Old Testament promises the new are a bit different. There are Christians definitely who have gone hungry. But in general we know that if a people, a nation will serve God, they will be able to have enough to eat. When I look at the poverty of a country like Haiti, a lot of it is brought about because of wickedness, because of serving the devil, because of dedicating the land to the devil. And therefore they suffer extra in those areas because they will not return unto the Lord. Verse four, delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Here we have the second promise. The first one is that we should trust in the Lord and do good. That's actually two there I believe. And so shalt thou dwell in the land, is number three there. And verily thou shalt be fed, that is the fourth. Now in verse four we have delight thyself in the Lord. And I believe that that means that we should not just take God for granted in our lives and not just say well, or act like he will punish us if we do evil. But God should actually be our delight. We should enjoy the Lord. We should have an intimate relationship with him to such a degree that it is actually a pleasure for us to enjoy him and talk back and forth as friend with friend and as brother with brother. That's the relationship we should have. And come to that level of actual delight. And that's a challenge to us today. Is God your delight? Do you love him? Do you love to serve him? Do you love to talk to him? And if not, that's the way it should be. And the promise is also that he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Blessed promise of God that is given to the Christian there throughout the ages. Verse five, commit thy way unto the Lord and trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass. So he doesn't just use the word delight there and trust, but also to commit. And that means to turn our life over to God and our future and our situation. And I believe it is essential that we do that. We heard a beautiful story on Friday night, a testimony of a family in Shippensburg whose eight-year-old twin, he was a twin son, his twin was a sister, and he got into the beaters of a silage wagon. He was on the inside, he should have never jumped inside the box, but he did. And his brother started up and he was kind of pushing the hay or the grass into the beaters and you know those things have points on them about four or five inches long or so, and one of them caught his sleeve and drug him in there. And it just beat him up so bad and it punctured him throughout his body. One was a hole right into his lung that his father, when he picked him off the top of the beaters, he could see into his lung, but his legs were so shredded that the life flighted him to Hershey Medical Center from Shippensburg and then operated on him for maybe two and a half hours and actually stabilized his life and saw this boy is going to live. And somehow the way the leg was mangled, he did not sever an artery in a way that it just bled him to death, but his bare bones of his legs were out and it was a gruesome sight, hard to describe. But the doctor was a Christian and that I'm sure was a divine providence of God. Came out of the operating room or maybe it was, yes, after a couple of hours that having stabilized his life and saw that the boy was going to live and asked permission to take his leg off. Said it was mangled so bad he just had to take it off. And the father said, that's not an option. Believe God. And I believe God will be able to restore him and somehow fix him. And he persuaded the doctor to get down on his knees with him and pray for the situation. And they did that. They got down on their knees and they prayed for that little boy and then he went to work from 6 o'clock till 10.30 on him on the operating table. And the flesh of his legs was actually hanging down to his ankle. It was like I said, so shredded off. And he just said that he wanted to take the leg off above the knee. And so when they got him out into the recovery room and the boy woke up and got into a hospital bed and I think it was only three days later when the father asked him to wiggle his toes and he was able to wiggle his toes. And the doctor couldn't believe it. The nurses couldn't believe it. And everybody come and brought their friends and everybody into the hospital that had known of the case of this little boy and asked him to wiggle his toes and he would wiggle his toes and never seemed to be in any difficulty and pain. And he said that was in January, I believe it was January the 18th when that happened, of this year. And by March, that boy got out of the hospital or no, went back for a checkup and I think they said by March he walked into the office. And he said today, which is now June the 15th today and he gave his testimony on Friday night, he's jumping on the trampoline like the others. And the hospital personnel said it was a miracle. It was God. There's no doubt. They have no explanation that anything could be put back in order and find itself and even skin appeared where they were planning to graft skin a couple of weeks later and when they prayed and asked God to put skin on there and when they come to the examination for the skin grafting the doctor said there's no need for any skin. It's already there. And that is the difference between the wicked and the righteous. I worked in a hospital. I know the loneliness of people who have no friends and how they languish in operations and sicknesses and hardly heal. And the hospital, it is a known fact, says that those that have company and are cared for and are loved heal faster if something does happen. It's the blessing of God upon the righteous life. Then they have the avenue of prayer of committing things to the God of heaven and asking Him to do and He does many times abundantly above what we could ask or think. And the wicked lie there in turmoil and trouble and difficulty. I remember when they used to come in there with such severe back pains and it was hard to know because it was a workman's compensation case whether they had any back pain at all or whether they were just doing this, you know, they have to be re-examined and be in the hospital every so often in order for the workman's comp to continue and they'd come in there and beg for pain pills and all of that and it was just a sad situation, you know, with hardly anybody coming in to see them, just kind of a routine thing. And they would lay there in their misery and pop their pain pills. Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment or I think in this case it may mean the discernment part of judgment as the noon day. You're going to have a discernment. You're going to be able to make decisions that are far above the world because you pray about it, because you commit your way unto God and because you trust in Him and you are delighted in Him. You will have a discernment. You will have a judgment. You will have that will come forth as a light in your life that will shine as the noon day sun I think it gives it in a latter verse. Then he says here, Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. We already heard about waiting in the family verses and songs. Fret not thyself because of Him who prospers in His way because the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. You know, you see the prosperity of the wicked and you hear about Bill Gates and his, what is it, twenty-some bathrooms in his house. Don't even worry about those kind of men. They are miserable in their own lives, in their own ways. You know what so often happens among the rich is that they fret and worry themselves half sick for fear somebody is going to take it away from them. And the poor don't have to do that. They can relax and be at rest. I wanted to read a few thoughts on the necessity of rest in the Lord. I believe that is one of the primary thing for the Christian today is to have that rest in their heart. The world is anxious. The world is even it's surprising when you hear, I think I just saw a statistic this past week on the amount of soldiers in Iraq that are on Prozac or antidepressant because they have nothing to live for and they live in fear constantly. But it is so essential that the Christian knows that whether as Paul says he lives or he dies he is the Lord and he has eternal life and so if he dies he is going to live forever in a better world and therefore that should bring about a rest. But that rest is only there as the hope of heaven is what it ought to be. And that there is an assurance of salvation and that a man has confessed his sins and repented of them and turned away from them and has done those preliminary things and now is able to go through life with a rest. One writer gives it this way, he says for what is rest? The balance of the mind. The harmony of the inner with the outer life. The peace of desire and the repose of the consciousness of truth. And I would like to add there a clear conscience. That is worth something to be able to lay down upon your bed at night and sleep with a clear conscience not having any issues pending with God or with man. That is the sweetest sleep I believe that we can have. What is rest? Satisfaction. I find all I want and more in the Lord. The silence is a blessed childlike state. The truest worship. Absolute reliance as one who feels that all things are undertaken for you who feels I have omnipotence on my side and the eternity of faith is underneath me. I have perfect peace. The shadow of the rock. The chicken under the wing. The babe asleep on its mother's bosom. The loved disciple on his master's breast. Rest I say in the Lord. Put your confidence and trust in Him. Let the storms rage and the tornadoes turn and the earthquakes quake if we are in the hand of God. If we belong to Him God will be with the righteous and will see us through these types of things that are coming. Oh how we need to trust in Him. Rest in what Christ is and wait patiently for what Christ will do. I believe that restlessness and impatience is one of the major problems of humanity and that's why so many are medicated today to try to cope with life. May God grant us to have that rest in Christ. Alright, let us move on. Wait patiently for Him, fret not thyself because of Him who prospers in His way. A repeat of verse 1. You'll see this in this chapter how these truths are repeated many times and all I can only say is that God wants us to get it. He wants us to really absorb it. Verse 8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to the evil. Now here the word fret is used in conjunction with anger and wrath right where it belongs according to Strong's Concordance and we need to see those three different ways of looking at it as something that the Christian needs to overcome by God's grace. I think too many times it is considered a weakness of humanity when we get upset and hot under the collar and irked and you know, should Christians have shouting matches with each other? Should husbands and wives argue until they are so bent out of shape? You know, these are things that are serious. We hear of them sometimes that these things happen that there are actual outbursts of anger and wrath in such a way and people get so frustrated that they just let go of their that emotion that is in the flesh and is born in there from the old Adam but it's never been crucified and never been dealt with and I think I like to say when God says put off anger, wrath, malice and evil communication out of your mouth, He gives the ability to do it. We do not have to hurt ourselves. I remember so well as a child the feeling in the pit of my stomach when I got into situations like that and it was not a good feeling. It would hurt as a child to hear angry words come from grown people. When children would do it, it didn't seem to affect me probably in the same way but when mothers and fathers or uncles or aunts or neighbors or someone like that would go at each other like that it was, you just you didn't know what to do and you wanted to get away from it. But take that that great command here cease from anger and forsake wrath and fret not thyself in any wise to the evil for evil doers shall be cut off. Again it shows that shortness of life or at least the end when they come to the end of their life that they go into eternity and it is not good. They will suffer there. Then the whole cutting off there means to be cut off from normal life and enjoyment and blessings and all those good things that are given to us by God. Evil doers shall be cut off but those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth. Now there we have that word that we spoke of before and I believe specifically that is fulfilled in the thousand year reign. I believe the Bible teaches us in the parables that we are if we are faithful in what God has given us we shall be made rulers over five cities or ten cities or whatever. And also I believe that there will be a general resurrection of the saints which will bring all of the saints going on before to experience to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years like it says in Revelation chapter 5 for we shall reign on the earth. I believe that is the fulfillment that evil doers will not experience that. They will not rise until a thousand years are finished. They will only rise for the great white throne judgment to get their eternal destiny but the righteous shall inherit the earth. And I look forward to that. It will be a perfect earth far better than the one we have today and we will not have the trouble and we certainly will not have the rebellion and the defiance known in our earth today and I praise God for that. Verse 10, for yet a little while and the wicked shall not be yea thou shalt diligently consider his place and it shall not be and where are the men that I mentioned did they live to be 80 85 or 90 because of reason of good old age and strength have you ever noticed how many Christian God fearing 90 year olds plus have lived in Lancaster County and numerous places and not all of them I believe that live that long are God fearing but it's amazing I noticed years ago as we went to the old people's homes singing you'd meet these old ladies you know that were those kind of ages and they would have a testimony of the fear of God in their life and even when the local newspaper here in Lancaster does an article on a person that's 95 or 100 they will give glory to God for their long life and where are the wicked where are the rock singers where are the movie stars suicide early death, gruesome wicked death, violent death I should say rather the wicked shall not be the wicked shall not be the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace meekness I have a definition of that or a little rating on that that I wanted to who are the meek we go to Christ for a description of meekness and we gather it from the portrait given by Christ that we should be forbearing forgiving patient under injuries and contradiction we must distinguish between the meekness which may be only the effect of constitution and other which is a clear product of grace Christian meekness must chiefly result first from a deep sense of our own unworthiness and secondly an earnest love for our fellow men especially appreciated the that we should be forbearing forgiving and patient under injuries and that means insults or condemnations misunderstandings by others being mistreated overcharged taken advantage of those kind of things come our way and we are able to take it roll it over on the Lord and go on with our lives in peace meekness God give us meekness that we may inherit the earth someday verse 12 the wicked plot against the just and gnashes upon him with his teeth the Lord shall laugh at him for he seeth his day coming that's an interesting verse here how that the wicked plot against the just you've probably seen many times in our country so often they have not taken our lives but they are so uncomfortable with the Christian they don't want him around as soon as somebody gets converted he doesn't get invited to the parties anymore do you ever see that you hear of it over and over again but look at at Psalms chapter 2 where he says in verse 1 why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us verse 4 says he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh the Lord shall have them in derision then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure the day will come when those who have mocked the Lord God will return it unto them and he will laugh at them when they will come into their calamity and scream and gnash with their teeth and none shall deliver none shall help them as the scripture says in one of the prophecies prophets of the Old Testament and none shall help them verse 14 the wicked have drawn out the sword and I just wanted to mention that he sees that his day is coming and that's that's what we have to say concerning the homosexual agenda and all the abortion and all the wickedness of this earth is patience brothers their day is coming they will stand before God and give an account for what they have done those doctors those nurses who have assisted those that awful murder and all of the wickedness in the book their day is coming the day of reckoning never look at their prosperity and their riches and their fancy cars and clothes and look at how well it's going with them as the Bible says it will appear like there's no bands in their death and David said and everything seems to be well with them and they don't have the trouble we Christians have but oh their end is a calamity of calamities their sword shall enter into their own heart their bows shall be broken it reminded me of I think it was two weeks ago or so I might have mentioned it a a new a hidden group was found in the Amazon jungle and they came in with a helicopter and discovered this group there and one of the men dressed in only a loincloth you know pulled his bow at the helicopter but he probably didn't realize that it wouldn't even make a dent in it you know but that's the wicked their bows shall be broken though they are able to do the things they do and say the things they say God will have them in derision and the Bible say he will come against them in that great battle in the end time with a sword of his mouth and slay them there in the great battle of Armageddon their bows shall be broken verse 16 a little that a righteous hath a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked that is so true again I'm not sure if I have it with me but I I had copied something on that yes a little blessed is better than a great deal cursed a little blessed is better than a world enjoyed a pound or may I say I used to like to say better is a dollar with a blessing of God than a thousand dollars without a black crust blessed is better than a feast cursed the gleanings blessed are better than the whole harvest cursed a drop of mercy blessed is better than a sea of mercy cursed Lazarus crumbs blessed are better than the rich man's delicates cursed Jacob's little was blessed unto him was better than Esau's great estate that was cursed unto him it is always better to have scraps with a blessing than to have manna and quails with a curse a thin table with a blessing is always better than a full table with a snare a threadbare coat with a blessing is better than a purple robe that is cursed a hole a cave a den a barn a chimney corner with a blessing is better than stately palaces with a curse a woolen cap blessed is better than a golden crown curse stories given of a king that took his crown off and wept as he held it in his hands and looked at it I think he made this statement something to this effect if I had only known the trouble and the misery that came with thee looking at the crown of gold in his hands I would have never taken it and another story I think is given of Queen Elizabeth I think due to the conflict in England at the time she spent some time in prison in her early years and how she envied the milkmaid who was free walking barefoot perhaps on the path to do her job the Christian it is so much better to have peace in our heart peace in our conscience peace in our mind than to have the worries of the wicked like I said so many times they are so fearful and so paranoid as to thieves breaking through and stealing it or somebody trying to get it away from them it's interesting you have battles like that going on between parents and children they are so afraid their children will somehow embezzle their money or take their money away from them and they are in constant worry and fret because of it so much better there was another paragraph oh therefore never let a Christian murmur because he hath but little but rather let him be still a blessing of that God that hath blessed his little and doth bless his little and that will bless his little to him in the future a little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked do not envy them fret not thyself because of them as the Bible says in 37 verse 1 for the arms of the wicked shall be broken and the Lord but the Lord upholdeth the righteous the Lord knoweth the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever there you have that eternal part of it their inheritance shall be forever now it's amazing a lot of the inheritances that people get are probably in their 50s and 60s and sometimes in their 60s and 70s till finally their parent dies and they are that old that they only have it a short time and their children are vying for it and trying to take it away but the inheritance of the righteous of the upright shall be forever they will never lose it they will never disappear no thief will ever steal it God will make sure that it will come upon the crown of the faithful and we are heirs of Christ and joint heirs with him blessed be the name of the Lord they shall not be ashamed in the evil time and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied but the wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs they shall consume into smoke shall they consume away the story here is given especially in light of the fat of a lamb was what was to be burned on the altar and they would light it, they would have that continual fire going, they would slaughter a lamb and they would be allowed to give a portion of the meat to the priest and eat a portion of themselves but the fat was to be burnt and that burned like fuel on there and it says here that the wicked shall perish and the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of lambs they will just burn up like oil and be consumed and not be anymore their smoke shall they consume away and it will all be over for them well I see our time has rapidly went away from us here I think we will stop there and just reflect on that in our own summary here I just want to give the summary as I gave it here the commands are, fret not because of evil doers, do not be envious of evil workers, trust in the Lord, do good delight yourself in the Lord, commit your way unto the Lord, rest in the Lord, wait patiently for God, fret not because of prosperity of others fret not because of wicked plots against you, cease from anger, forsake wrath, fret not yourself to do evil, depart from evil, keep his way, mark the perfect man and behold the upright may God help us to look at this in a very practical way and apply it to our own lives and our own hearts that we don't fret about the calamities we don't fret about evil men, we don't lose sleep about the economy and the fear of what will happen you know we hear all kinds of news, prices are increasing and the agricultural world is reeling and rocking back and forth and we don't know what all that means in the coming months as we all will have to prepare to pay more of our money for the necessities of life but put our trust and confidence in God and God will take care of us and all those blessed promises to the righteous will be real to us over and over again may God bless the giving of his word thank you so what is the cure for fretting the cure for fretting is faith faith brethren faith the cure for fretting is faith not faith in what we have not faith in what the world has to offer us but faith in our precious Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in his precious promises that we have from him the promises that he will fulfill because he has promised and he is faithful who has promised and he is a rewarder of all all them that diligently seek him and the fruit of faith are good works works given and works performed because of our Lord Jesus Christ and what he has done for us the cure for fretting is faith so I thank you for the reminder brother the promises that we have the commands that we have from God are true and pure and the end of that psalm Psalm 37 the last two verses say this but the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord he is their strength in the time of trouble and the Lord shall help them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and shall save them because they trust in him and that is the challenge that the message that Jesus has left with me this morning is I need to trust in the Lord I need to trust in what he has for me and what he has for you and what he has for this fellowship here at Effort of Christian Fellowship and I am thankful that we have a God who loves us and cares for us Amen and I pray that you will take to heart the things that were shared this morning and maybe this afternoon or maybe this evening as you meditate upon what God is doing maybe in your heart that you'll maybe go to this psalm this evening and read it to yourself, read it several times and prayerfully consider what it has to say and what the Holy Spirit has to say to you through his word Amen Well I would like to open it up this morning for any of you who might have a word of testimony and if we could get mics to those who do and maybe it's a testimony of the message and maybe it's a testimony of something you've been fretting about and God has brought conviction in your heart here this morning Brother Myron Yeah I'd just like to say that I really appreciate this message on trusting the Lord I think it's a very timely message for us to consider and think about and especially I appreciated the little illustration or story there of the little boy that got caught in the silage wagon you know if they hadn't trusted in the Lord if they hadn't prayed if they hadn't just given it all to the Lord that boy would be a cripple for the rest of his life but they prayed and God answered their prayer because they believed and the boy is walking and jumping today and you know I think it's still time for us to believe that God works for his children I believe that the day of miracles is not past it's a matter of whether we are going to trust in the Lord with all of our heart and I just want to say I appreciate that this morning, thank you Amen brother In 2 Kings there's a story here about the servant of Elisha and one morning he woke up, it says he rose early and he went forth and he saw a host surrounding the city with horses and chariots and he went to Elisha and he said, alas my master, how shall we do? and Elisha answered him and said, fear not for they that be with us are more than they that be with them and Elisha prayed and said Lord I pray thee open his eyes that he may see and the Lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha and you know that mountain is still there and it's still full of horses and chariots and God is still able I thought of the verse here in Hebrews 11 where it says these all died in faith not having received the promises but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country and isn't that the case today do we seek a country or are we like that servant of Elisha that just looks at the things the natural things and we worry and are concerned about the natural things or do we believe that our God is able to perform all of these promises that he has given us I appreciate the encouragement that we received this morning Amen Amen Amen Anyone else have a word of testimony this morning The scripture tells us to consider the lilies and to behold the fowls and it says that the fowls they don't sow they don't reap they don't gather into barns but it says our heavenly Father feeds them and you know in my life I've been around a lot of people that worry and fret especially people that I've worked for in my business and different things and they worry about the economy they worry about retirement they worry about monies and all these things and it seems to me that these people love to fill up bird feeders and watch birds while they worry and it seems to me that God is using these people that worry to take care of the things that don't worry and it's just amazing there's stores and there's a huge multi-million dollar market for bird feeders and bird seed and people are just rich Americans are enjoying feeding birds and they're worrying and God's saying there's your example people Amen Thank you for that truth I want to first of all give greetings to my brothers and sisters here for myself and from the church in Ileg I was really blessed this morning and it's so beautiful to be able to rest you're either going to rest or fret it's very interesting is this word fret a few of you know Creole fret is a word for a whip in Haiti so if you get on a mule or horse you want to fret you want to make him go well if we aren't trusting and resting in the Lord then something's driving us that whip it's not to whip from the Lord it's a whip from the enemy a whip from our own hearts from our own desires from our own lack of trust and rest and peace and joy I'm so thankful this morning that we can just commit roll it over onto him it's a beautiful beautiful beautiful place to be I also I'm so thankful even though I don't know what the Lord has for us in a thousand years reign that's fine I'm trusting him to bring about it as he will but I believe we're inheriting today maybe later too brother Mos beautiful powerful grace and strength the abundance of peace and all these things that I see here in this beautiful chapter they're for me today they're for me to share then I had to think too I just read this article about the Christians over in Burma and I forget the man who's with Asia Harvest anyway that church there is reaching out a lot of other outsiders NGOs can't get in but the church the local church is rising up and reaching out and I think they're at rest and the beautiful testimony God bless you all I wanted to thank God for his faithfulness thought occurred to me that you know he rains on the just and the unjust he takes care of the birds and he does take care of the heathen that are fretting to a certain point and yet he also takes care of judgment and it occurs to me that this week I had some struggles some of which we came through well and some we didn't come through so well on our record on I did fret we had loss of power and phone service and had mud coming through our kitchen at one point and it was in a tornado looking weather over our heads and it was a real struggle and I just want to say that the Lord was faithful in our case whether we fretted or not but it occurs to me that these promises that we hear about are very dependent on our trusting and so even if he brought Israel through the Red Sea some of them disobedient and rebellious they didn't enter into his rest they really didn't enter into what he had in mind for them except for those who believed and even if he does rain on you while you are unjust these promises have a condition the fullness of them have a condition and it's only the goodness of God that he feeds you at all and even takes you through the Red Sea the fact that he makes it available to us to rest is beyond description to me both during the storm and on the other side we have that opportunity and I just want to thank the Lord publicly for taking us through as a family when we fretted or when we believed although the believing we can look back on and say that we linked arms with God and he was faithful and answered those promises I thank the Lord for his faithfulness Amen. Would anyone else like to give a word of testimony this morning any of the sisters, any brothers I want to thank Brother Moose for this message it really touched my heart that you shouldn't fret or be anxious or anything like that I just want to thank God today for all the blessings that he has bestowed upon us already since we've been here it seems like just the people around us are so good to us that sometimes I wonder are we really worth it but I think God is really showing me that you have to accept not only to give so I just want to bless all the people that have been so kind and so good to us and I just sometimes I just can't get over the blessings that he lets flow upon us day in and day out and even for my health it seems like it's increasing and getting better and I want to thank God for it Amen. Thank you sister Yes, Harold Excuse me, I forgot something yesterday Brother Darwin Husted had a talk with me and those of you who remember Madam Moise, the witch doctor I'm sure Brother Moose does but anyway, Denny Mussers went to visit here the other day and she was so thankful for their coming and she promised she kept it to come to church today Let's resurrect our prayers and our interest. God is still able to perform miracles even in a heart like that How many of you know who Madam Moise is or a little bit about it? Okay, well you just remember that One more thing yet My heart's sort of full here but they talked about Father's Day and you know I'm a little bit older than some of you and I prayed for years for my children and I don't know where they all are but they've come back into my life and yesterday I had a beautiful time with my daughter Frida and I still believe that we are papas until we die if we have children so I'd like to encourage you fathers maybe there are difficulties, maybe there are times that some of you prayed with me for many years and keep on but when there's life, there's hope and I'm just excited about what God can do and I want to be a godly papa and grandpa Thank you for the encouragement Anyone else? I'd like to give a word of testimony this morning Yes, out in the back Robert Lichtenberger I was blessed by Dave's message on loving and caring and sharing having just come through what I have I really appreciate the help that we got the love that was shown not only to me but also to my wife and her struggles to keep up with the daily work of life finally when I got home for her to care for me the way I was practically helpless and Brother Mo's preached on fret not but I'm afraid that I was fretting somewhat when I found out that I couldn't walk but somehow God and his graciousness has allowed me to get back on my feet again and I can walk some and I think I'm still improving so I thank you for your prayers and for the help that we do share and care and love as it has been shown unto me Thank you We do serve a mighty God Do we not? God a miracle the mighty God Praise the Lord Anyone else? A rich time here I'd like to give a word of testimony I just want to testify in my own life that probably the most beautiful part of the Christian life is trusting the Lord because it doesn't matter what you're going through good times or bad times all those things you can just trust in the Lord and it's like I'm just so thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder sometimes what I would do if I didn't have him and so that to me is just beautiful to have the Lord Jesus Christ to trust in completely all the time Thank you. Anyone else? Okay I'd like to bring this part of the service to a close and give a little time for announcements