Having Peace in an Evil World

All right kids, time for a super church. Third grade and under. Good morning to everybody else.

That was pretty good. It's not so bad. I got a few people still awake here. Glad for that. Take your bibles and turn over to Psalm chapter 37.

Been praying about where the Lord would have me, just share and have me speak, and kind of felt like the Lord might lead me a different direction. But he really led me back to this passage. It's a passage that got put on my heart and that I shared in Zambia. We'd been going into the houses of the orphans each night having meals with the orphans. And so we were in one of the young ladies' houses with 10 or 12 girls, probably from the age of for all the way up to maybe 18,

Maybe even a little older sometimes. And we were just talking about different things and they were talking about how much they enjoyed this thing called youth explosion that we had done the Saturday before, where we have a guy going and deals with the guy issues and have a lady teach the girls and some girls issues and then somebody else shares the gospel and that had gone really well. They play some games and stuff. And so I was just talking to the girls and I said, what do you like most about youth explosion? They gave the deep spiritual answer, and they said, we love the games. I'm like, okay, all right? Then I said, well, what do you love next about youth explosion?

I'm like, we love the testimonies. And I'm like, okay, well, I'm teaching this Saturday, and I'm like, so what about the teaching? They're like, you know, you know. And I said, OK, all right, I get it. I've done this while. Anyway, I said, well, what are some things that you guys would like for me to teach on? It's something that's important to you. And the answer was really clear, and it was really quick. Anger and long suffering. That's what these girls said. And then you

Realize I'm sitting here with a bunch of orphans. Right? When I ask about anger and long suffering, they're like, well, you know, life isn't very fair. Why are some people doing well and why am I an orphan? And then you begin to hear some of their stories. And I've heard the stories over the years. I mean, I've heard lots of stories. There's a set of twins that are seniors in high school this year and, you know, their story is, is that their mom went into labor, she's having hard labor. So the father came to the village where the orphanage is and found the nurse and said, can you come with us? And so the nurse said, I can't really go with you by, she didn't know them.

They lived in the village, can't go with you by myself, but I'll get past her, Edward, the past of the church. And so the two of them went. The nurse came out after the babies were delivered and said, The babies are fine, but mom died giving birth. So the pastor says, so then we have this situation where we have to leave there, and we have these two healthy babies, and we have the dead mom in the back of my car. Because that's how they do it. They don't do it like we do it. Someone dies, you deal with the dead bodies yourself. And so then they end up keeping the two girls for a while because dad's dealing with all this stuff.

After a few months of having the girls, the nurse keeps the girls herself. After a few months of having the girls, the dad comes and accuses them of trying to steal the babies away. And once the babies back, so they give the babies back, obviously they're his babies.

And then about one less than a month later, he brings them back so I can't take care of these kids. Here you go. So basically from birth, they've been at this orphanage. They're fantastic young ladies, incredible. They're stories and they're hard. Young lady that really just blessed my heart deeply impacted me. And he was lioness. I called her lioness because she's a sweet thing but she's a little fierce as well. Her story was at 12 years old. She ran away because earlier in her life her parents died. Both of them, they gave her to an aunt and uncle who were aquaholics and abusive. They beat her, abused her and she just ran away. It was living in the bush,

Finding shelter and half torn down homes and finally one night decided to stay in the church because it was safer, drier, and somebody saw her staying in the church and find out what was going on with her. And the director of the orphanage said, we just took her in because we don't have time to figure out all the rules. Sometimes you just got to help somebody. Found out what was going on. He said they were treating her like a slave. She was a dog to them. And he said she would have been sexually abused for sure if she just stayed where she was. We didn't think she was yet, but he said, we didn't have room in the orphanage for.

So I took her into my own home. And, geez. Anyway, I'm here these stories. And then you hear these kids say, anger, long suffering. You're like, fair enough, Lord. What am I supposed to say to these kids? You know, because we have a God who is a good God. He's a really good God.

And you know, you and I, we skate through this world, and sometimes we have plenty of anger, maybe not for as deeper reasons as these kids have anger, but we have anger, right? Sometimes we understand that some long suffering seldom do we really want to go through long suffering, Most of the times as Americans, we are offended that God would ask us to go through long suffering.

Anybody with me yet? There's a way to walk through this world. And so the Lord led me through this passage in Psalm 37, and just the first 11 verses, the rest of the Psalm is fantastic. And I would encourage you to read it after the days over. But basically, I want to talk about having peace in an evil world. So Psalm 37 beginning in verse one.

Do not be agitated by evil doers, do not envy those who do wrong, for they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender green plants. Trust in the Lord and do what is good, dwell in the land and live securely. Take the light in the Lord and He will give you your heart's desires. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him and He will act, making your righteousness shine like the dawn, your justice like the noon day. Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him. Do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way by the person who carries out evil plans. Refrain from anger and give up your rage. Do not be agitated.

It can only bring harm. For evil doers will be destroyed, but those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land. A little while in the wicked person will be no more. Though you look for him, he'll not be there. But the humble will inherit the land and will enjoy abundant prosperity. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, I'm thankful for you because I need you and

There's not a person in this room that doesn't need you and there's not a person in this world that does not need you because Lord, whether we're an orphan in Zambia or whether just a person sitting in this church today, Lord

God, we live in an evil world filled with injustice. It's filled, Lord God, with heartache at times and pain. And Lord, it's easy to begin to look around us and get angry and agitated by the things that we see wicked people prospering evil doers, Lord, enjoying what we think might be the finer things in life. It's easy to see that and to get confused about who you are and what you're doing, but Father, you're good. Then you're faithful. And those who look to you, Lord God, are blessed. And so I pray that you'd speak to us this morning through your word and draw us to Christ. Those that have never trusted Jesus may they be saved today.

And those of us that know you may repent, Lord God. of not trusting you. And I pray in Jesus' name, amen. So here's this pretty sweet Psalm, but it starts out in this. easily identifiable way. It says, do not be agitated by evil doers and do not envy those who do wrong. And the word for agitated there simply means do not get heated or don't get worked up or in a broader sense, don't get angry. Just don't get angry about evil doers. or envy those who do wrong. And it's not a hard thing to understand. There's no context given. It doesn't talk about what's been happening. It doesn't talk about why he's writing this particular Psalm.

It's just God speaking through the Psalmist to help us deal with some things that the unites some perspective and needs some understanding in. And when he says, don't be agitated. Don't be heated up. Don't be worked up by evil doers. What he's saying is, You don't have to look at evil doers. And first of all, get upset about the fact that in many ways they are succeeding. Right? Evil doers seem like they're out here in this world doing life any way they want to. They don't really seem to have any accountability. They don't seem to have any consequences. But in fact, there are plenty of evil doers that are reigning and ruling over nations, and they have plenty of money, and they seem to be having the good life, right?

Sometimes we get agitated by the evil that they do. We should actually get more agitated by the evil that they do than we do about their prosperity. But the truth is that many of us kind of have this mentality that says, you know, the good guys never win, right? All we see is the bad guys winning and those that manipulate win. And you know, right? Nobody's with me on this. I know better. Then a plenty of faithful Christians who complain about the cost of being a faithful Christian because they're not getting what they want,

Supposedly. And so they're agitated by evil doers, and if they're not agitated, they envy those who do wrong. But they envy them because they have things that Christians sometimes want, things that they can't have. I mean, you know, I spent a week, many years ago now, Aaron and I were over there with Beth and Nicole, and we just taught. I mean, I taught a week teaching Xambian pastors. Before I spent more time teaching Congolese pastors, then the Xambian pastors are pretty poor to say the least. But the whole time, like the first three or four days, this one pastor who was probably the wealthiest pastor among them at the biggest church among them complained about the fact that he should have the right to retire.

And how is he going to retire if he didn't have enough money? And basically was challenging me as a white man. And talking about, hey, why do you get all that you have? And why don't I have what you have? And blah, blah, blah. And finally, I just said to him, look, man, first of all, you don't know me. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know what I've had. You don't know my needs. You don't know the poverty that I had when I was in the ministry. You don't know any of that stuff at all. And secondly, who cares

About what you have on this earth? Who cares? I mean, I was sick of this guy mouth and off about God failing him. Just to be honest with you, I know it's all shocking. I get a little fiery sometimes about the nonsense that we allow to enter into our hearts and that we spew out of our mouths. Right, here's people that are obviously those that have some understanding about God, but they're envying those who do wrong because those who do wrong seem to have it better than Christians. Now, let's be honest. As Christians, we are called to really give up this life that we know for the glory of God the Father. I know we don't want to hear that.

I promise you, most people don't want to hear that. Man, when I talk about that today, about sacrificing your life, about following Christ, about trusting Him, people, they don't want to hear that. What they want is God to give them what they want, when they want it, they want to have all the prosperity of the world.

Ultimately, what we really want is comfort. We don't want any discomfort. We don't want any cost to our following Christ. And so we actually envy those that are doing wrong. but the Bible's pretty clear. I mean, Jesus said, unless you take up your cross daily and follow me and deny yourself, you're not worthy of me. In other words, he's actually saying to me, if Mike, if you're not willing to grab the cross that you would bear to go die on for my name's sake, you're not worthy of me. That's pretty high level cost, isn't it?

Many says in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God to bring into your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to the Lord, which is your reasonable service of worship. In other words, the thing that God considers to be reasonable service of the living God is for us to live our lives as living sacrifices every day, laying it down for him, for his glory, and for the good of somebody else in our life. That's the reasonable service of worship. We've made worship into this, where we come, we sing a few songs. That's worship. And then when the worship is done, then the preaching happens. It's not even worship when the preaching happens, right?

This is just Pastor Mike. It's not really the word of God that God would bless us with to speak to us and encourage us and challenge us. That's not really worship. And man, when we leave here, we're done worshiping, right? This is not the eight o'clock service, is it?

Or did you guys sleep in? Because you could wake up. I hope the Lord wakes us up.

Because it's not just precious Zambian orphans who struggle with anger because they don't get what they want in this world or struggle with envy because they don't have what they want in this world. It's all of us, isn't it? Well, I learned after I was asking these girls, the first little girl that really spoke to me about what she would like at me to teach about. I'm going to say she was 10 or 12.

And I learned later on that she has seizures all the time. One after another, one after another, a finder on the floor. They sit with her. They kind of know how to take care of it, but there's no cure for her. So this little girl, she's telling me, I mean, I'm angry

Because I'm an orphan. But my life isn't what I want it to be. And I don't know what to do about it.

Are you listening? Some of these kids, they want to know what's going on. Where is God? How do we walk through this world?

Well, verse two tells us why we shouldn't be agitated by evil doers or envious of those who do wrong, says for they wither quickly like grass and wilt like tender grain plants. God says, why are you looking at these people who seem to be prospering in their wickedness? Why do you care about these people? Why do you care about the things that they have? Why is your eyes on the things of this world? Why are you looking at all this stuff Don't you realize that the wicked are gonna perish? Don't you realize that they're gonna be gone quickly? Don't you realize they're gonna wilt like the grass? Don't you realize that they're just temporary? There's nothing about them.

There's nothing to envy about them. They might have some prosperity in the worldly ways now, but even then there is no peace in having the things of this world. None, not one thing. Then you and I, we think that if we get delivered from a certain situation, or if we could have a nicer house to live in, or a more comfortable vehicle to drive, or I don't know what it is, a better job, or more money. I mean, we really are convinced that if we get those things in our life, then man, we are gonna have it made, and we're gonna have comfort, we're gonna have peace, we're gonna have joy. But every single person with any kind of insight that's lived at all for any kind of time knows, that's not true.

It's just not true. Those things never have satisfied. They're never gonna satisfy. The man when all we can think about is what the other person is doing, what the other person has, then all we have is our eyes on ourself, that our eyes on the world. And that is just this perishing over and over again, disappearing act of people that do all right. And then they're gone and literally, they're gone forever.

We don't even remember them. So then he says, so what do we do? Trust in the Lord and do what is good, dwell in the land and live securely. Take the light in the Lord and He will give you the desires or your heart's desires. Man, really what he says is stop looking around,

Stop looking at yourself, stop being selfish, stop being worldly and look up. and look up to Christ. Look up to who God is in our life and who God is for us in our life. He says trust in the Lord and do what is good. Trust simply means faith. Believe in the Lord. That means believe that the Lord is good. Believe that the Lord loves you. Believe that the Lord is working in your life. Believe that the Lord cares about you. Believe that the Lord can provide for you. Believe that the Lord can protect you. Believe in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. Trust in his goodness. Look to him. The truth is is that satisfaction only comes from God.

Satisfaction only comes when you have a relationship with God because what else can satisfy loneliness except the presence of God? What can heal brokenness? The loss of a loved one, grief, what can heal that but the love of God? But I just talked with a lady this past week whose 18-year-old daughter committed suicide five years ago. And she's still just grieving. As we would grieve, we should grieve that stuff. So when I'm talking to her, she first comes into my office to deal with something else. And this woman is angry. And she is just spewing out, spewing out, spewing out. And I'm kind of sitting there listening to her thinking, man, Lord, I need you.

I need you to give me some wisdom on how to help this lady. as he gets down spewing all this stuff. And I'm just saying, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for your pain. I'm sorry for suffering. I'm sorry for the circumstances you're living on. I'm sorry. I hate that. I hate that for you.

But man, do you know how much God loves you? Do you know that you can turn to him? And literally, I said to her, what else could heal the grief that you are experiencing on the loss of your daughter than the love of Christ Jesus that spilled out in his own sacrifice to save you, not just from your sins, but to be your savior in your Lord forever? What else would heal your grief if it's not the love of Jesus Christ?

Men and women, that's all that's gonna satisfy us. That's all that's ever gonna satisfy us. There's nothing else that's gonna satisfy us. Trust in the Lord. and do good, he says. Now here's the hard part here because he says trust in the Lord have faith in God, believe that he's good, know that he's good, walking with him, but he says then do good. Now this is the part we don't like because to trust in the Lord is cheap for most people. It's cheap. The same lady. I've been dealing with her husband a couple of times. I dealt with her. Both of them frustrated with the other one. You know, all these things where, you know, I'm like, well, I can't really deal with your spouse.

They're not here. And so I got to deal with you. So then I say to them, well, how's your walk with Christ? And both of them say, I love the Lord. I love Jesus. What's that look like? I'll read my Bible, okay, you pray, yeah, sometimes. Do you go to church? Ah, yeah, that's how it's the one. Do you go to church? And some of you are like, well, don't say do you go to church, because church isn't that big a deal. Really? Really? The Bible say that?

The Bible says it's not a big deal, or do you go to church or not? Does the Bible say you can go to church anywhere you want to? No. The guy that tells me, hey, I go to church when I'm hunting. No, no, you don't. Are you with the body when you're hunting there? Then the Bible says that man, we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves, but we should gather together to encourage one another and all the more as the day draws near, the day of judgment, the day of Christ's return. The Bible says we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves because when we get together, right, then first of all, we can gather together and we can sing together, give God glory together, How good is that when we

Come in common through Christ to give Him praise, but then we can sit together and we can learn together from the Word of God through the pastor. Now I know this is arrogant to you. It's not to me because it's very humbling to me, but through the pastor God shows to lead us and to speak to us and to give us the Word of God. And he's gifted to do that, not because I'm good, but because of God. We come together. Yeah, going to church is actually a really big thing that you and I as followers of Christ ought to be committed to. It's not casual. So when I say this husband and wife, do you go to church?

Well, they say all kinds of stuff. They like to rodeo. gone every weekend. So they say, well, we got a couple of friends on the circuit that, you know, they talked to us about Jesus sometimes. Like, but do you go to church? And now I'm going to go to church. Well, trust in the Lord and do good. And really what that means is trust in the Lord and walk his ways. It's not just church. But church is the beginning. If you can't even go to church, I promise you're not walking with God the way God wants you to walk. I promise you. It's like tithing. People say to me, oh man, I don't know if I got financial issues blah, blah, blah.

I'm like, do you tithe? Oh, you don't have to tithe. Okay. You don't have to do anything for that matter. You got free will. But if you want to have financial security, Malachi tells us to bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, which by the way is not what you want to do with your tithe, but bring the tithe to the church

So that God can use it the way He wants to use because it's His tithe. And then test Him to see if He want to open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing you couldn't expect. Huh. Trust in the Lord and do good. But people can't even tithe because they don't trust God. Those are basic things. Go to church and time. Those are baby, baby, baby, baby, baby Christian stuff, not big Christian stuff, not hard Christian stuff, baby stuff.

Trust in the Lord, do good. Forgive your enemies. Trust in the Lord, right? Love those that are unlovable. Trust in the Lord and do good. Be generous. Be kind. Watch your speech. Trust in the Lord. Live as a witness. Go to work realizing that man, if you're a follower of Christ, you are a difference maker. Then people watch you. They watch you for good. They watch you for bad. So trust in the Lord. Do good. Right, that's the hard part, isn't it? When I started talking to these guys about doing good, they weren't doing good, which means they aren't trusting in the Lord. Then I know we don't like to hear that because we all want to go, well, I'm saved, so I'm good.

I don't have to live for Jesus. I don't have to let him be Lord of my life. I can do what I want to and I'll just click on him when I need him. Come on, Lord. I didn't need you yesterday, but I need you today, so show up. Oh, I will need you next week, but the week after I'll need you, Lord, show up.

Nope. That's not how you have peace in an evil world. You have peace in an evil world when you walk in God's ways, where God calls you to walk, when he calls you to walk, because you're building a relationship of dependence, you're building a relationship of trust, you're building a relationship of faith, and you're watching God work over and over and over again, and it's powerful. So he says, man, don't be agitated by evilers, don't envy those who do wrong. They're going to disappear. If you want to have life in this world, if you want to have peace, you have to trust in the Lord and do what's good and dwell in the land and live securely.

Now here's what's so cool about this. Man, when you trust in the Lord, you can dwell in the land, God placed you wherever that is. Obviously for us, most of us here today, it's Casper. Most of us here today is the United States for sure. But you can dwell in the land where God puts you and you live securely. Why do you live securely? Because your faith is in Christ and you're walking with Him and He is your security, not you. How sweet is that? I don't know about you, but isn't it nice to have the security of the living God when you walk with Him?

When He goes on, He says, take the light in the Lord and He'll give you your heart's desires. Man over the years, I've had so many people quote this verse to me, I love it. They'll be like, you know, I want a new Harley. So I'm trusting the Lord to light myself in the Lord. I expect him to give me my heart's desire. I want a new house. So I'm delighting myself in the Lord. I expect him to give me my heart's desire or whatever it is. Sometimes it's a relationship with a woman or a man, you know, I'm a single guy and I'm lonely and delight myself in the Lord. That might be a little higher calling, but man, when people are talking to me about, I'm delight myself in the Lord so I'm getting a new car, a new motorcycle, a new house.

I'm like, that's why you want to delight yourself in the Lord. That's it. You want the cheap stuff? You want the perishable stuff? Have you ever lived in a house that's not falling apart? Have you? So you had a new house. You get a new house, it's all supposed to work right when you get in it, right? I've never had a new house. Does it all work right when you go into a new house?

No. And if it does all work right, it won't be long before it doesn't. Buy a new car, You drive at 10 miles and dink, rock flies up, marks your windshield, dent your bumper, whatever. Come on, cheap stuff. Do you know what it means to delight yourself in the Lord? To delight yourself in the Lord means to look at God as he really is and

Go, Lord, you are amazing. Your eternal You're all knowing. You're all powerful. You're ever present. You are love. You're full of mercy and compassion and grace. You're judged and you're full of justice. I mean, you are, you're glorious. You're beyond description, Lord. And you look at Him and you go, I need

You. I need you. Look at you. You're available to me. What I want is you. I don't need a new house. I mean, if you want to give me a new house, okay, but I don't need a new house. I don't need a new vehicle. I could sure use your help fixing my vehicle. But I mean, right, I don't need any of this stuff. I need you. So you delight yourself in the Lord and he gives you the desires of your heart. In other words, what he's saying is, He wants to give Himself to us.

He wants to give Himself to us. If our hearts desire is Him, and He's going to give us the desires of our hearts, He's going to give us Him. And that's really the whole focus of this Psalm is that what we need in order to have peace in an evil world is not changing circumstances. It's Him. We've got to trust in Him and it's so challenging to us because we are so fleshly.

We so much want what we want, the way we want it, we so much want all that the world has to offer. And we live in a country that it offers it all to us. You can have anything you want in this country, anything. And you can borrow enough money many times to get what you want. It'll consume you. Many times it'll kill you. You can have it.

Man, he's saying delight yourself in the Lord and he'll give you the desires of your heart. Now do I think God gives us more than just him look around you? How much more do we have than just him? So much more to the place where it's often a distraction for us rather than having him. Well, he goes on, says, commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he'll act. Making your righteous and shine like the dawn, your justice like the new day. So again, he kind of takes it up and then that's commit yourself to the Lord. Now this word commit actually means to roll yourself into, it means to roll your life into Christ.

And all that really means is that you're going to commit yourself to living for the Lord no matter what. Whatever his will is, whatever his way is, whatever his purpose is, whatever the cost is, whatever you have to do, you're gonna commit yourself to him. If he leads you to leave the country and serve, if he leads you to move to a different city, if he leads you to a worse job where you can be a witness for him, it doesn't really matter commit your life to the Lord, commit yourself to him. Man, it's a crazy concept, isn't it? Because most of the time again, we get up in the morning saying, Lord, this is what we want for our lives.

This is how we want to live our lives. Now we're asking you, Lord, to do what we want you to do, rather than saying to the Lord, what do you want from our lives? Now I want to ask you, aren't you angry? Aren't you angry? When you want to live your life your way, and God wants you to live your life a different way and won't give you all that your selfishness wants, aren't you angry?

Oh, yeah. If you think people aren't angry at God because he's not living up to their expectations, you haven't talked to very many people.

But at that point in time, We become God. He becomes servant. When reality he's God, we're servants and blessed to be. And so he says, commit your way to the Lord, roll yourself, roll your life into the Lord and trust in Him and He will act. When you commit yourself to the Lord and you trust in Him, God acts, God moves, God blesses, God provides, God is God, God will be faithful to be God. And if we give our lives to Him, the miraculous begins to happen. Peace starts to roll into our life. And then as we walk in his ways, the blessings that we need come into our lives. And pretty soon, instead of being angry at evil doers and envious of those who do wrong, we're good.

Doesn't matter what anybody else does. Doesn't matter how anybody else is succeeding, we are secure. Well, he goes on, he says, be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for him, do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way by the person who carries out evil plans, refrain from anger and give up your rage, do not be agitated, it can only bring harm. So we continue with this understanding of how we're supposed to respond to God when we see all these injustices or when we see these evil people prospering. Again, it's not about keeping our eyes on ourself. Man, Lord, pour me, I don't have all that I want. So Lord, you're not fair and I'm angry at those that are prospering.

No, it's none of that. it's go before the Lord and be silent and wait expectantly. Now again, this picture is taking our eyes off of ourselves and moving it up, moving it up. When you go before the Lord and you wait silently, it's like you can sit at the foot of the throne of God. And if we could physically do that and began to look up at God, there would be no end to his glory and his majesty and his power. There'd be no end to his wisdom. There'd be no end to his love. There would be no end to the Lord God Almighty and we would sit there silently, expectantly or patiently waiting on God to move because he's enough.

There's no reason to worry when you come before the Lord God Almighty. There's no reason to question His justice when you're in His presence. There's no reason to wonder if He's gonna love you or take care of you. There's no reason. If you come before Him and you see who He is, He's enough.

And He's so much more than enough. and all of that goodness and all that glory and all of that love will be sufficient to minister to whatever hurt you have. It will be sufficient to remove whatever anger you have. He will be sufficient to bring about a level of peace that the world can't offer.

Jesus said, my peace, I leave with you not as the world leaves you peace, but my peace. And Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation, but fear not, I've overcome the world. I mean, come on, we're talking about a victorious God who loves us. But the problem for many of us is that we don't want to walk by faith. We don't want to trust in the Lord. We don't want to delight in the Lord. We don't want to commit our ways to the Lord. We don't want to wait silently before the Lord. Part of the problem is we don't want to know Him. We don't want to. We do, but we don't. It's that old adage of, I want to know you, Lord, but I don't want to spend any time with you.

I want to know you, Lord, but I don't want to go to church where I beat that horse to death. I want to know you Lord but I don't want to read your Bible. I want to know you Lord but I don't want to walk faithfully with you and see you answer my prayers. I want to know you Lord but I don't. We just want God to somehow show up and be our servant. And guys, we've got to figure this out. The way we get to know God is by spending time in his word. We get to know God by praying to him. We get to know God by being around other believers and hearing the word God proclaim.

We get to know God by walking in his ways and watching him answer our prayers and watching him guide us through our life and provide for us and protect. That's how we get to know God. How else do you expect to come to God and wait in silence if you don't know Him? Most of the time, we don't spend enough time to get to know Him that we actually go before God and we spend more time telling Him what He should do and how He should be, and

Knowing that He's everything we need. Man, we've got to go before Him in silence and we've got to wait expectantly or patiently. How many of you are patient people? Not very many. That's probably a good confession. And the ones of you that say you are, you're not either. And now you're showing that you're impatient with me because you say, ah,

Listen. We are people that love instant gratification. But when you come before living God and you know how good he is, you know how gracious he is, you see what he's done for us through Christ Jesus. You see the sacrifice that Jesus made. He paid for the sins of the world because he loves us and he rose again on the third day. When you see that God, there's not a reason in the world. for you not to just wait for him to minister to you. And as you wait for him by faith, not by sight, but by faith, peace overwhelms you because you know he's faithful. He's an amazing God.

When he goes on, he says, do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way by the person who carries out evil plans. We've talked about that. This is refrained from anger and give up your rage. Do not be agitated. It can only bring harm. Man, there's a lot of anger today isn't there. There's a lot of anger.

There's a lot of people that they won't confess the anger that they have. But they just carry anger everywhere they go. They get angry about every little thing. They get angry about how people drive around them. They get angry about the way the neighbor takes care of his yard. They get angry with the guy at work who doesn't work as hard as they do. They get angry at the boss who doesn't give them what they want. And they feel justified by that anger, right?

Because we don't ever let anybody else down. Why should they be angry at us?

But here's the problem with anger. Anger, it doesn't do us any good. It can only bring harm. Sometimes we actually think, well, my anger is righteous anger, like the righteous indignation of God. Maybe, but we're so small and so limited in our understanding that we probably don't really understand all that's going on in all these people's lives that we're angry at. Don't really have any idea what their circumstances are. And so then can our anger actually be righteous? And many times the answer's no. James 1, 19, and 20 says, my dear brothers and sisters, understand this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. We all know that verse, fair enough, right?

That's a good idea. We should listen more, speak less, and we shouldn't be so angry. But the next verse says, for human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness. It's true. And listen, I understand some anger stuff. I do. It doesn't make it right. It really just points out that we're not trusting in the Lord.

So he's given us all these things and then he finishes up in these last three verses and I'll go through them fairly quickly. It says, for evil doers will be destroyed, but those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land. All right, evil doers will be destroyed because God will destroy them. That's not up to us. That's up to him. He'll take care of injustice. He'll take care of those who reject him. No problem. verses 10 and 11, a little while, the wicked person will be no more, though you look for him and not be there, but the humble will inherit the land. He will enjoy abundant prosperity.

So verse nine says those who put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land. Verse 11 says, the humble will inherit the land. What land? What land? If we trust in the Lord, if we put our hope in Him, if we're humble, will we inherit this land? No.

This is not our home. We're aliens in this world. This is not our home. We're not hoping to have all the world the prosperity. It does not point us to God. It does not bring peace. Man, we have got to figure that out, men and women. As we as Americans, we really think the physical things of the answer, not just for us, but for others. We've got to figure it out. What land will we inherit? We will inherit eternal life in the presence of God in heaven. Ultimately, on the new earth, with the new heavens and the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, where God will tabernacle among us and He will be our God and we will be His people.

He will wipe away all of our tears. There will be no more death. There will be no more sin. There will be no more sickness. is we'll be in the presence of the living God in the land that He dwells in, we will dwell with Him. And there will be abundant prosperity.

Everything we need, everything we want will have. The men, so many people read this and go, well, he's talking about stuff on Earth. Well, accumulate. accumulate all the stuff that you can get. Just accumulate all the stuff that you can get. Do all that you can do. And find out what happens.

You still die. And all the stuff you had becomes somebody else's. Nice, huh? Worked really hard for it. Lost a lot of sleep over it. found a way to hoard it.

It didn't bring you peace. It's not the land God wants for you. It's not the plan God has for you. His plan for us is an eternal plan. That's why Christ came. Christ came to forgive us of our sins. Christ came to die to pay the punishment we deserve so that we would be forgiven and we might be made righteous and acceptable to God that we might have a relationship with Him. Christ did not come to give us physical things, although He does. He came to save us eternally.

So how do we have peace in this evil world? Well, simple. Take your eyes off yourself. You're not going to be sufficient for yourself. Spouse isn't going to be sufficient for you. Your children won't be sufficient for you. Your parents won't be sufficient for you. There's no chance of it, not a chance. No one is, we're just people.

But if you look up, away from yourself, if you'll look up away from this world, if you'll trust in the Lord, Then if you will commit your ways to Him, if you will realize that God has all these other things, taking care of evil, wrongdoers, He's got all taken care of. And what you really need is more of Him, more of Him. He will bring you peace that the world cannot know.

Be anxious for nothing. but in everything through prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all comprehension will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. Turn to Him, look up. Find the peace that God has to offer us. That's what this is about. We're about to celebrate the fact that Jesus gave His body and His blood in order to bring us to God. 1 Peter 3, 18 says, but Christ died once,

The just for the unjust, once for all, the just for the unjust in order that He might bring us to God. Isn't that fantastic? Man, how about looking to Jesus for some peace? How about looking to a living God who loves us and finding peace? How about taking our eyes off the world and even off a self? Let's pray in the Pastor Michael, Max will come lead us through the Lord's Supper.