The Source of Fretfulness

The speaker is discussing Psalm 37 and the message it conveys. The main idea is not to fret or get uptight about the injustices and inequalities of life. The speaker emphasizes that life is not fair, but God is in control and takes care of His children. The speaker encourages listeners to trust in God and not envy the wicked, even though they may seem to prosper. The speaker also mentions that Christians may face trials and tribulations, but God provides and cares for them. Overall, the message is about finding peace and contentment in God's plan, despite the challenges of life. I know we're going through the book of Psalms on our Sunday school on Sunday morning, and honestly, it didn't even dawn on me or cross my mind that—and I, again, have prepared this message in Psalms 37. We'll look at it this morning and tonight both. But it has some wonderful teachings that are entitled—or the message I would entitle it, fret not, hang tight, or when they're upright, get up tight. You'll see that as we get into the verses. Psalms 37, verse 1, fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers 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 thy 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 judgment as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of a man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Fleece from anger, and forsake wrath. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil, for the evil doer shall be cut off, but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the land. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be. Yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight thyself in the abundance of peace. The wicked ploddeth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him, for he that seeketh his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out that word, and have bent their bow to cast down the poor needy and the slave, such as be of upright conversation. We could go on and on reading that passage, and I hope before the services tonight you will read that entire passage of Scripture. But as we look into this psalm this morning, you'll notice in verse 25, I will ask you to focus your attention to that. Verse 25, David says, I have been young, and I am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. David has lived a full life. I don't know how many more years he has after he wrote the 37th Psalm to live, but he says, I was young, but now I'm old. In other words, what he's saying is, I've seen a lot of life. I've seen things come, and I've seen things go. I've seen things happen. I've seen things take place. Many of us here this morning can say that very same thing, that we have come to the point in age in our life where we have experienced and we have seen many things in our lifetime. This psalm, David looks in one direction, and he sees the ungodly enjoying all his heart would wish as far as the world is concerned. Then he looks in the other direction, and he sees the godly man who has walked closely with God, and he sees his trials, his affliction, and his distress. And he's perplexed at what he sees. And he knew that those of us today, we look at the situations and the things in life, the things that are going on around us, and sometimes we have a difficult time trying to figure it out. Amen? We're perplexed. Now, the word that he uses here in Psalm 37 is the word fret, fret not. He says three times in verse 1, verse 7, and verse 8, he says fret not, fret not. What does he mean when he says fret not? What he means by the word fret not is don't get uptight. Don't get bent out of shape. Don't just fly off the handle and think that things are not going to work out, because they are. God is in control, and God is moving his plan and his purpose, and we can rest assured this morning as the children of God, as he says, the wicked are going to come to their day, and we're going to rejoice, and they're going to be separated from God, as Brother Phillips said a while ago. We need to understand and recognize this morning that this psalm is addressed particularly to Christians, to you and I, and every age, every age from David to us today. We've all, in every generation, there have been those who have been uptight. They look at what's going on. They look at the ungodly. They look at the situations in the world, and they're perplexed. But David says in this psalm that we ought not fret. We ought not to get uptight. Now this morning, we're going to look at the source of our fretfulness. Tonight, we're going to look at the solution. I'm doing that. Hopefully, I'll get you to come back tonight and listen to the second half and find out how we can overcome this fretfulness in our lives. But what is it that causes us to fret? What is it that causes us to get uptight? What is it that causes us to be perplexed by the things that are going on in the world? Well, notice first of all in verse 1 and verse 7, he talks about the injustice and inequalities of life. In verse 1, he says, fret not thyself because of evil doers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. In verse 7, he says, fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of a man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. The idea that David is expressing here is a godless man, a man without God. He's all the time scheming. He's all the time planning. He's all the time trying to work his plan and his scheming. And the thing about it is, folks, sometimes they're successful. Amen? We look around us and we see the lost people, you know, they're living in nice homes. They're driving big cars. They seemingly have everything going their way. They seemingly have everything as they would desire, and we're becoming envious of them. We look at those things and we look at them as being injustice or inequalities. And you know, folks, listen to me this morning. We need to come to the understanding and knowledge of knowing that life is not fair. Amen? Life is not fair. Young people graduate from high school and they have all these visions and all these dreams and all these things they'd like to accomplish in life, and they begin to plan and they begin to work these plans, and not too long they begin to discover that life is just not fair, sometimes as a child of God. We think that because we are a Christian, because we have been born again, we think God ought to take into consideration the fact that we are His children and things ought to be this way and things ought to be that way because of our relationship to Him. But God doesn't promise us in this life that everything is going to be fair. Amen? God doesn't promise us that we're not going to have trials and troubles and tribulations. As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us quite plainly that because we are a child of God, we're going to face persecution. We're going to have trials. We're going to have tribulations. We're going to have things that are going to happen in our lives that does not take place in the life of other people. I've had people come to me and they were saved, maybe at Bog Springs Camp or in church, at a revival or wherever, they've been saved. They come to know Christ as their personal Savior. And a few weeks, a few months later, Brother Haynes, I thought I wasn't going to have any more problems. I didn't know I was going to have all these trials. I didn't know all these things were going to happen to me. Well, folks, sometimes because we are going against the stream, because we're going against the things of the world, we're going against the things of this life, sometimes we have more trials and more problems and more tribulations than anyone else does. But the thing we need to remember, I'm getting into tonight's message, but I want you to remember that the thing that we need to remember tonight is that God blesses and God provides and God cares and He takes care of those that are His. It may not be what we think, but He does. And I want you to remember that. I want you to think about that. I don't want you to hear this message this morning and think, well, you know, all He had was gloom and doom. We're going to get to the good glory part tonight. But we need to understand, we need to recognize that life is not fair. When we look out and we see the ungodly and we see God's blessings upon them, notice again what He says in verse 1. He says, "...spreading out thyself because of evil doers, be not envious of the workers of iniquity." Sometimes we can become envious. As a matter of fact, we can become anger in spirit, amen? We can come to the point where we say, not vocally, not verbally, not intentionally the word God, but we say something like this. You know, I don't understand it. I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's going on. You know, I'm trying to serve God. I'm trying to do God's will. And all I have is problems and trials and tribulations. And old Joe living next door to me down there, he never goes to church. He curses. He does this. He does that and everything else. And man, he just looks like God's blessing him. Hold on. We need to understand that there are inequities in life, that sometimes life is not fair. Notice what he says. Listen to these verses in Psalm 73, verse 1 through verse 3. It says, "...truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of clean heart. But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well now slipped, for I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked." He said, God is truly good. God is a God who blesses. God is a God who provides. But he said, when I looked and I saw the ungodly and the wicked, when I saw that they were prospering in life, he said, my feet almost slipped and I almost fell. You know what he said? He said, I almost turned against God. I almost turned away from God. And I know this morning, over 58 years of ministry, I could name and I could point out to you individuals that I have pastored, individuals that I have known that because of trials or troubles or tribulations in their life, they thought that life was unfair to them, that God was not treating them with the equality that God ought to treat them, and they have turned away from serving Him and gone away from God rather than drawing nigh to God. Amen? The inequities of life. Are you worshiping and serving God because of what you can get or because of what He's given you already? Amen? Think about that for a moment. Tomorrow may turn bottom-side up at you. It could be like in the life of Job. Job was in the house of God, worshiping God, praying to God, asking God to protect his children, to watch over them, to put a hedge around them. He was praying for them. He was worshiping God. And he comes out of church and he's met with a messenger, and he's told, Job, have you heard? Heard what? A tornado hit your house and your children are dead, and all your things you possessed are gone. What would we do? How would we react? This is what David is talking about in his passage of Scripture. He says there's a difference between those who are children of God and those who are not children of God and the way that God treats them and the way that God provides for them. But we get uptight. We get anxious. We get envious because of the inequities and the unjust of life. But there's another reason that we get uptight and we get threatened for it. And it's because of the inactivity of God. The inactivity of God. As you read through these verses, you'll notice that God makes promises. Look in verse 2. God makes promises. He says in verse 1, fret not thyself. In verse 2 he says, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither and the green herb. Then in verse 9, he goes on and he says, fret not, in verse 8. Then in verse 9 he says, for evildoers shall be cut off, and those that wait upon the Lord they shall inherit the earth. And he goes on in verse 10, he says, yet for a little while. But what we want, we become impatient. We want God to act, and we want Him to do it yesterday. Amen? We want God to respond to our trials and our troubles and our tribulations, and we want Him to do it now. Have you ever heard the old saying, Lord, I'm praying for patience and I want it now? Well, sometimes, because of the inactivity of God, we get upset. We get angry. Why doesn't God act? Why doesn't God respond? Doesn't He see what I'm going through? Doesn't He know what's happening in my life? Go home this afternoon and read the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk is a good book that we Christians ought to read every once in a while. It's stuck over there in the Old Testament. It was during the time that God was sent to carry Israel into captivity into Babylon. And things were happening. Things was going on. And Habakkuk was a prophet. In Habakkuk 1 and verse 2, he prays this prayer. He says, O Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear? Even cry unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save. Habakkuk was saying, God, don't You see what's going on down here? God, don't You have an insight into what's happening? I've been praying. I've been crying out. I see all of this going on, and I keep praying, and I keep crying. But I don't see You doing anything, God. But we read the book of Habakkuk with the Old Testament, and we understand God was doing something. The Chaldeans, they were coming internally. The country was corrupt externally. The Chaldeans were coming. The enemy. The Babylonians. He says, Lord, I have been screaming in prayer. Lord, I've been crying out to You, and You are doing nothing. God, do something, he says in Habakkuk verse 5. And one of the fascinating things to us as believers is that at times, it looks like God is doing nothing. The time that we're living in today, we see all the immorality. We see all the ungodliness that is in our nation, in our land today. And I'm sure, I'm sure, I'm sure I can say this with certainty this morning, that there have been times when churches and Christians have got on their knees before God and prayed. And mothers and fathers have prayed for their children. And they're saying to themselves, God, don't you not see what's going on? God, You're not listening. God, You're not working. You're not... God, why aren't You doing something? The problem is we have is God is not working, listen, the way we think He ought to work. But God's working. Amen? God is working. God is on His throne. He's sovereign. Listen, folks, God is never caught by surprise. God doesn't wake up one morning and some godless saint is praying and says, God, do You know what's going on down here? Let me tell you what's going on in America today. God said, oh, I didn't know that. I didn't know that was going on. I didn't know that was happening. I didn't know that was going on in your family. No, God knows everything. He's always aware. You know, God was using the Chaldeans as an instrument. God was working. And God's working today. And our day of wickedness and violence and imperversion and the things that are going on, God's working. Have you ever heard somebody say this? I've said it. God is really working in our church. You know, you get around a group of pastors and they say, boy, I tell you what, God's really working in our church. You know what? Sometimes when we use that statement, you know what we're really saying? God is finally behaving the way we think He ought to behave. Amen? But when God's not doing what we think He ought to not be doing or what He ought to be doing, then we're the first ones to say, oh, God's not working. But when He starts doing what we want Him to do, we're the first ones to say, oh, God's working in my life. Folks, listen, God is always working. It's not a split second that God's not working out His plan and His purpose. We look at the Old Testament, the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk cried out to God, and God reminded him, Habakkuk, I'm working, but I'm working my plan and my purpose. Let me carry you over to the New Testament. Let me carry you over to John chapter 11. John chapter 11, you know the story of Lazarus. Lazarus got sick near nigh unto death, the Scripture says. And what happened? Martha and Mary, they sent word to Jesus and said, Jesus, Lazarus, your friend, your brother is sick nigh unto death. What did Jesus do? He waited. He didn't all of a sudden say, boys, we've got to go, we've got to go. But the disciples were saying, Jesus, we've got to go, Lazarus is sick. Jesus waited, waited until Lazarus had died. And then Jesus said, let's go. And the disciples were thinking and they were saying, Lord, how could you let your friend die? How could you ignore the request of Martha and Mary? Jesus said that the Father might be glorified. And what happened when He got back to Bethany, to the house of Martha and Mary? Both sisters, Martha and Mary both said, Lord, if you would have been here, this would have not happened. Amen? Do you see how uptight they were? How fretful they were? Lord, if you would have been here, how many times in our life have we said the same thing? In the midst of a valley, in the midst of the trials and the tribulations. Coming up in a couple of weeks, July the 18th, the morning of July the 18th, I got a Tuesday morning, I got a telephone call from my daughter-in-law. And she said, Brother Haynes, you need to come quickly, Keith is sick and I've called for an ambulance. And I left and I went over to the house and he was unconscious and they had already passed and they were trying to revive him. I didn't say, I'm telling you the truth, I'm standing before God as my witness this morning. I did not say, God, if you would have been here, this wouldn't have happened. But there were many of them in that yard that did not know Jesus Christ as their Savior. And the thing that they were asking me, Preacher, how could this happen? How could this happen? The honest truth is this morning, and I emphasize it again, sometimes, folks, life is just simply not fair, looking at it from the bottom, amen? And we say, life is unjust, God, you're not treating people fairly. I'm your child, I'm your boy, I'm your child, I'm a member of your family and here the ungodly have been blessed, but I'm going through trials and tribulations and troubles. And then we blame Him for His inactivity and we say, Lord, if you would have been here, Lord, if you would have acted, Lord, if you would have stepped in, things would have been different. Things would have been different. Folks, the truth of the matter is, they're tired when it seems as if God is totally unaware of our situation. Even when we cry out in the mist, in the darkness of the night, it seems like it's deaf ears. But I remind you that God is working. There's a third reason that we get uptight. Our tightness is caused by our ignorance of God's ways. As he would in the Scripture, God says, fret not. And then in verse 2, he says, for they shall soon be cut off. And again, in verse 7, he says, fret not, rest in the Lord and wait patiently. I'm working, but the problem that we have today in our Christian life is, we don't recognize the way God works. See, we want God to work like we work. We want God to behave like we behave. You know, I'm going to share briefly. My wife came in from school one day when she was teaching school, and I could tell when she came in the house, she was physically and mentally and emotionally upset. And I asked her, I said, Judy, are you okay? And she sat down on the couch and she began to tell me all the things that had happened at school that day. And some of them were not very nice. And I told her, I said, Judy, I can go to school tomorrow and I can take care of that. I can put a stop to that. My wife looked at me and she said, Maxie, I don't want you to do anything. I just want you to listen to me. I know you can do it, but I always want you to listen. Amen? What we do and how we act and how we behave is, when there's a problem, when there's something that needs to be done, we spring into activity. We move forward, oftentimes in stupidity, but we move anyway. But God doesn't always move the way we think He ought to move. He says, rest in Me. Be patient. God's timing, folks, listen, God's timing is not always according to our time. Amen? It took me a long time to understand that. Took me a long time to come to the place like Martha and Mary to understand that even when my time, when I seem like God is not on my time, He's still working in His time. We're just ignorant of how God works on a different timetable. He says, wait, wait. The most difficult thing for an individual to do is to wait. Amen? I want it now. Get to a red light. I've got places to go. I've got things to do. It seems like it takes forever for it to turn green. In the doctor's office and your appointment was at 10.45. Now it's 11.15. You've got things to do. You've got places to go. And you get impatient. One time a number of years ago, I was sitting with a family of the church over in Baptist Hospital. Dr. Murphy, the heart doctor, many of you know him, he was practicing then. And there were a number of people in the waiting room, including the person that I was with, had an appointment with Dr. Murphy that morning. The nurse came out and said, I'm sorry, but Dr. Murphy is going to be late on his appointments. But he will see each one of you if you'll wait. And she left and went back. And people began to grumble and gripe and complain. Well, my appointment was at 10 o'clock. I've been waiting for an hour. How much longer do I got to wait? And finally, Dr. Murphy himself came out after about an hour's wait. And he said to those that were in the waiting room, he said, I'm so sorry that I made you all wait. But he said there was a family that was in a car wreck over on 630. They brought them to Baptist Hospital. And they requested that all doctors go to the emergency room. You know what? People begin to change because they thought, what if I was in that wreck? I would want Dr. Murphy to be there. Amen. We don't like to wait. But listen to me this morning, folks. God knows what He's doing. Amen. He's been doing it since eternity. He knows what He's doing. He's not made any mistakes. Amen. He hasn't goofed up. He knows what He's doing. Amen. We need to be patient and wait. Another thing we need to understand is that God works on a different value system than what we work. And I believe this is where the rub comes. This is where we get upset. The things that are valuable to us are not necessarily valuable to God. Have you ever thought of... I know you've heard this. It's nothing new. But have you ever heard and thought about the fact that what we call asphalt down here is going to be gold up there? Asphalt. Streets of gold. Amen. We're going to be walking on gold. Oh, we value things like that. We value more convenience. We value convenience more than we value Christlikeness. Amen. If I were to say to you today that God is good, what do you think of immediately? Do you think of God as good in the sense of convenience and comfort? He provides for me. He takes care of me. Or do you think of it in the sense of character? He's transforming me. He's changing me. We want convenience. God wants transformation. He wants to change us. The closest way I can possibly emphasize it and say it to you this morning is, you know, I'm not an oyster. I'm not an oyster. But I've had things irritate me. Amen. I've had things get under my skin and just irritate the daylights out of me. And I want it out. I want it gone. I want it over with. I want it finished. But that oyster, He takes that grain of sand that irritates Him, and He turns it into a pearl. Amen. Folks, that's what God does with our trials and our tribulations. He turns them into things that glorify Him. Threaten not thyself because of evil doers. Threaten not. Rest in God. Yes, there are things all around us. Things all around us that cause us to get uptight. There are things that happen in our lives. There are things that are going on in our nation. There are things that are going on even while we sit here today. Things that upset us. Things that cause us sometimes to cry out, God, don't you care? God, are you not listening? God, do something. He's working. He's working His plan according to His time, for His purpose, and for His honor, and for His glory. And I'll tell you what, listen to me, believe me, trust me this morning when I say this. If we will rest on Him, and wait, and be patient, and let God do it the way God wants to do it, in time, we will look back, and we will say, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Threaten not. Are you fretful this morning? Are you looking at life and saying, God ought to do something? God ought to do something. Come back tonight, and I'll tell you how you can have victory over fretfulness. But God is in control. He's on His throne. And He has a purpose for everything. Jesus, I don't always understand, but you know what I've learned? When you can't see the hand of God working, what do you do? You trust the heart of God. Amen? For He's always working the best for His children. Bless you. Our Heavenly Father, as we come to Your throne of grace, I thank You, dear God, for Your Word. And Father, even though we've just looked at one part of the story this morning, we agree with David, there are times when we become fretful. There are times when we ask ourselves, God, do You not know? Do You not see? God, do You not hear me crying? God, do something. God, do something. And what we need to understand and recognize is that God is doing. And He is working. And what God does is always good. It's always great and glorious. And what we need to do is learn to wait, to be patient, and not look at the inequities of life, not look at the supposedly inactivities of God, but trust You, lean upon You, lean upon You, knowing that You loved us so much that You gave Your Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us, and that You want the very best for each and every one of us. And Father, I pray this morning for that soul, that individual who's here today, this morning, and they're troubled. They're going through a trial and tribulations and things in their life, and they're asking, Why, God? Why? Help them to see and to know that all things work together for good of them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. And we give You the praise and the glory in Christ's name. Always sing this hymn of invitation. Lisa has already given you a challenge as a church. You know, we say since COVID, things have changed. Things have changed since COVID. Listen to me this morning, folks. God hasn't changed. Amen? COVID didn't affect God. And what we allow, listen to me, what we allow to change us, God can change it back again. Amen? Just trust Him. I heard a church member say last week, well, the church is having a revival, and I said, well, you can forget about revival. We'll never have a revival in America again. Huh? I believe that the seed is ripe when it's the darkest. That's when the light shines the brightness. When people are questioning, when people are doubting, that's when the Word arises to the occasion. Amen? We need to have the attitude that Paul had. I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me. Amen? We're not finished yet, folks. You know how I know that? I don't hear the trumpet. And until I hear the trumpet, we need to keep working. Amen? Whatever God's calling you, whatever God's saying to you this morning, I'm going to get out of the way and let God do His work. But you respond to Him because He's calling. That's all we're saying, folks. Peace, God, and amen.