Dr. Michael Youssef: Blessed Memorial Day.
As we think of those who gave their all for the freedom
that we now enjoy, may we never
forget what they've done for this country.
Dr. Youssef: It is my prayer that you are being blessed
and encouraged and motivated by this series of messages.
God has an answer to every problem.
There is not a single problem that's in your life that Jesus
has not experienced, and that is why the Word of God
is so relevant.
And that is why God's speaking to us today through the Psalms
written 3,000 years ago.
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Dr. Youssef: Most of us, if not all of us, at some point,
some point in our lives, might not be now, but at some point
in our lives, whether we've experienced injustice
in our own life, our own experience, or watched
a friend or a family member or somebody
go through this experience,
seeing injustice done to them, or when we saw someone
literally get away with murder, or we watched how wickedness
is succeeding beyond all measures, or when countless acts
of injustice take place all around us, if we are honest,
that makes me angry, right?
You see, the success of the dishonest
and the suffering of righteousness and the turning
of moral absolutes upside down, that is happening
all over the place.
All that makes us angry.
When we experience that injustice personally,
firsthand, that is much more intense than when we see it
in somebody else.
And the great thing about our Bible is that it
does not hide, it does not deny, it does not mock this rightful
emotion of righteous anger.
As a matter of fact, Ephesians chapter 4 tells us
that it is okay to have righteous anger as long as you
don't let that anger lead you to sin.
History's filled with people who
experience righteous anger over some injustice, and then they
began movements, they began many things, great things for God.
And you know history as much as I do.
See, when righteous anger is channeled positively,
it can accomplish great things for God, amen?
Turn to Psalm 37, it's a very long psalm, 40 verses.
So, what I'm doing, I'm splitting it in two.
Today, the message is going to be verses 1 to 20.
And then in the next message, it's going to be
verses 21 to 40.
Most Old Testament scholars agree that this is most likely
a psalm that was written by David.
And they also agreed that, most likely, this was a psalm
that was written by David, inspired by the Holy Spirit
toward the end of his life.
David, who spent his early years running from wicked King Saul,
he was running and running and running as a fugitive.
During those years, there is no doubt, at least in my mind,
that David must have asked himself many times,
"How come, Lord, that this wicked king,
even though he's your anointed," and he wouldn't touch him, he
wouldn't hurt him even when he could, "how come he is living
in the lap of luxury in the king's palace?
And here I am, as faithful as I know how, I've been living
for you, I am living in these crags and living
in these caves in the mountains, and hiding and sweating it out
over there?" As older King David, he reflects
on those early years of how God has been faithful to him,
how God protected him, how God took care of him,
how God guided him through the fire and through the flood.
And he brought him a long way.
As he reflects on those days, he looks back and he realizes
the following.
Things don't turn out the way they appear to be
on the surface, amen?
And so, he gives us his advice.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, he records Psalm 37.
And in it he tells us--basically here's a Youssef translation,
summary of the Psalm, "Stay calm and look up."
David, inspired by the Holy Spirit, he gives us
four reasons as to why those who know the Lord and love
the Lord must stay calm and look up, four reasons.
Stay calm and look up, verses 1 to 3, because of what
you cannot see with your physical eye.
Secondly, verses 4 to 7, stay calm and look up because of what
you already have.
Thirdly, verses 8 to 11, stay calm and look up because
of what is coming to you.
Finally, fourthly, verses 12 to 20, stay calm
and look up because of the coming judgment
on the wicked.
When you only see the success of the wicked, when you only see
success of evil and you cannot see anything else,
we're basically like a person who's physically blind
and he cannot see 24/7.
He lives in darkness 24/7.
That's what happens.
But if you start seeing with your spiritual eyes,
you're going to realize that these people are not
as happy as they appear to be.
You will see that these people, deep down, they are miserable.
You're going to see some things that you were not able to see
with your physical eye, but you'll see it
with your spiritual eyes.
When you see these people come on television, I'm talking about
those lobbyists who are out there forcing the immorality
and the turning upside down of biblical morality,
and forcing all of that on us and upon our children,
when you see them on television and just want you to see them
with your spiritual eyes, not with your physical eyes,
you're going to see them absolutely seething with anger.
They are burning from the inside
with guilt, and it shows.
You realize that inside, there is a volcano over
against their transgressions.
You say, "Michael, why?
Why?" I'm going to tell you why.
Don't ever forget this.
Because they are created in God's own image.
And because they're created in God's own image, no matter
what they say in public, well, on the inside, they are eaten up
with guilt.
You with me?
Why do you think they already started back yonder,
"We just want acceptance.
We just want to accept of all of our lifestyles,
we want to accept that everybody is accepted.
And finally, God accepted."
No, no, no, that is really not enough.
We want approval.
And so, they got approval.
But now, it's not enough.
We want you to highlight our immorality and immoral
lifestyle to be a virtue.
It never stops, it'll never stop.
It will never stop, even if the government tomorrow
says, "Yeah, that's a virtue," that's not going to stop.
And that is why Psalm 37, verse 1,
from particularly 1 to 20, you find the word "fret not"
three times.
Verse 1, verse 7, verse 8, "Fret not, fret not.
Fret not because of what you cannot see."
In my personal opinion, I always make a distinction
between my personal opinion and expounding
of the Word of God, David was saying to himself,
"Why did I ever waste my time and my energy fretting
over Saul?
Why did I even waste all that time
about Saul's apparent success?" Today, even secular
psychologists have agreed that anger, envy, and jealousy,
all of these things hurt the person who are experiencing
them more than the object of their hatred.
They really do.
It devastates the person who's doing the anger and the hatred.
It devastates them and it can really destroy them.
It can destroy them mentally, emotionally, psychologically,
socially, but even physically.
Secondly, stay calm and look up because of what you have,
verses 4 to 7.
If you've ever analyzed the situation, and we've
all been there, as I mentioned in the very beginning,
whether that injustice happened to you or to somebody dear
and near to you, and you see the success of the wicked,
you realize this is how it sits in motion.
They start with fretting.
And fretting gives way to irritation,
intense irritation.
And if intense irritation not dealt with godly way
and biblical way, it will lead to anger.
And anger, if it's not checked and challenge--channeled
positively, it will produce hatred.
And beloved, I don't need to tell you that hatred has
its own ugly consequences.
Beloved, when a believer starts fretting at the success
of the wicked and they forget that they have Christ,
which is everything, it gets you
into trouble, every time.
Verse 4, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you
the desires of your heart."
Oh, that verse, it's a wonderful verse.
He'll give you the desires of your heart.
All you need to do is just name it and you claim it
and it's yours.
They conveniently leave out the condition that leads to God
giving you the desires of your heart.
Hello.
They conveniently leave out the most important part
of the verse.
When you delight yourself in the Lord, then and only then
he will give you the desires of your heart.
Question, what does it mean to delight yourself in the Lord?
What does it mean to delight yourself in anybody?
Think with me, think of those romantic days.
Well, I really trust and hope that romantic days never stop.
Remember when you delight yourself in somebody else,
what happens?
You want to do what that other person wants, right?
When two people are in love, and I've seen it
through the years, of course, in premarital counseling
in the old days when I used to do weddings.
And man, they're just so in love, and their head
is in the cloud, and they're falling over each other
to please each other.
Then they get married.
I don't mean that, I'm just trying to make a point.
When I delight myself in the Lord, listen to me, when
I delight myself in the Lord, it means that I want to do
what he wants me to do.
I will go where he wants me to go.
I'm going to please him above all else.
If my desire is his desire, if my delight is his delight,
therefore he will grant my desire, which is his desire
to begin with.
Hello.
Beloved, this love relationship with the Lord, the nonbelievers
and the nominal Christians will never understand,
they really won't.
This delighting one's self in the Lord can never be
comprehended by the ungodly.
And so, they call us names, and they falsely accuse us
of things of which we are very innocent.
Verses 5 and 6, "Commit your ways to the Lord;
trust in him, and he will act.
He will bring forth your vindication as the light
and your righteousness as the noonday."
Today, we're so used to headline news that are fake and not true.
And then the apology comes on page 27
in a very small print.
Today, there might be someone here or somebody watching around
the world, wherever you are, and you feel that you're not
getting your just reward, or you feel you've been passed
over for a promotion, or you feel that you got a raw deal,
or that you're suffering injustice of any kind,
or you're being a victim of rumors and gossip,
or you're saying to yourself, "Nice guys finish last."
And you are carrying this huge burden and others
appear to have it easy.
Here's the truth, my beloved friends.
Please listen, here's the truth.
The judge of the universe is watching you.
The judge of the universe is making sure that you will be
openly vindicated one day.
He will publicly exonerate you one day.
He will publicly justify you one day.
You will be generously rewarded one day.
You will be lavishly blessed
one day.
Stay calm and look up, say it with me.
For what you cannot see.
Secondly, stay calm and look up because of what you have.
Thirdly, stay calm and look up because of what is coming
to you, verses 8 to 11.
You will not be merely vindicated, you will not be
merely exonerated, you will not be merely justified,
but you will be rewarded.
You will be rewarded.
You will inherit the whole earth that's a new earth.
Remember the Bible talks about the new heaven
and the new earth?
The whole new earth is yours.
And those who caused you to fret, those who caused you
envy, those who caused you anger, they'll be like a puff
of smoke, gone.
And while you will have it all, they will be like soot.
I know, listen to me, I know that what we see is
this invasion of an extreme secularism in our culture,
in our society.
And you know what the word "secular" means, this world,
this life, this is now, here and now.
And you see the emphasis everywhere you go.
And even preachers today, they are only preaching messages
about the here and now.
They're just focusing on this life and focusing
on this life.
There's nothing wrong with this life.
Let me tell you, I preach about this, but that's not all
that there is.
If there is, we're wasting our time.
Because of what you?
Secondly, stay come and look up because of what?
Thirdly, stay calm and look up because of what?
Amen.
Finally, stay calm and look up because of the penalty
of the wicked.
Here's David telling us that if
we can see, if we can see what God sees, only if we can see
what he sees, we would not waste a minute of our lives.
We would not waste any of our energy, not a single
minute of our time fretting, envying the wicked
and their apparent success.
If you and I could see what God sees, we too would laugh
at the wicked just like God does.
You would laugh even at your own waste of time
and energy fretting.
You too would laugh at the foolishness
of the wicked.
You too would laugh at the cruel joke that Satan
is playing on the wicked.
Let me ask you a question, have you ever overreacted, I mean
really overreacted to some information that you received?
I mean, you really flew off the handle as they say,
only to discover later that that information
was erroneous, that was wrong information.
Answer the question to yourself, you don't have to tell me.
Think of how you felt when you realized that was
false information.
I mean, you felt that you made a fool of yourself, right?
Now, don't laugh because I've been there.
I've been there, few times.
And that's exactly what happens when we envy or fret or become
angry over the success of the ungodly.
Listen to me, you have the wrong information because you have
partial information.
You have the wrong information.
Begin to look at the things from God's perspective,
not from your own.
In fact, instead of envying them and being angry at what they're
doing, you know what we need to do?
We need to weep for them.
And I mean that with all my heart.
We should be weeping over their horrible fate,
their dreadful end.
We should be weeping over the terrible coming judgment
on the wicked because of their coming torment.
That will not be for a period of time, that'll be forever
and ever and ever.
I know we don't weep over sinners in the church anymore.
These days, professing Christians either
join the sinners or envy the sinners.
Someone said that there are more tears shed in the movie theaters
over imaginary tragedies than in the churches
where there are real ones.
Sir Winston Churchill once said, "Men occasionally stumble over
the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off
as if nothing happened."
Beloved, we live in a time when we have totally, I'm talking
about our culture as a whole, totally confused fiction
with reality.
There's some people living in an unreal world.
And yet, what we think is real and permanent, God scoffs
at because he knows that what we see is not real
and it's not permanent.
God knows the end of the wicked, he knows the judgment
of the wicked, he knows the eternal fate of the wicked.
And if God can laugh at the foolishness
of the wicked, at least you and I can stay calm and look up,
amen?
Take a moment to reflect as I come to an end.
I just want you to reflect just for a moment.
I'm not talking about reflecting on history centuries ago.
I'm talking about just a few decades ago.
And most of us have not lived those days, but we know it
in history.
Ask yourself the question, where are all the mighty
and powerful people?
Where?
Hitler used to have millions of adoring crowds
saluting him and bowing to him.
Mussolini was feared by millions of people,
where are they now?
Where are they now?
Well, their bodies are rotting in the ground, and their souls
are being tormented in hell right now at this moment, while
the righteous are rejoicing in the presence of Jesus
right now.
[music]
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Dr. Youssef: I'm sure you watch the news, and then you
scratched your head and said, "What in the world is going on?"
Well, this book is going to explain to you
how to understand the way things are going
right now, so get your copy.
announcer: "Jesus, Jihad, and Peace,"
a timely book from Dr. Michael Youssef.
Dr. Youssef: On the 30th of June, 2013,
we watched as 33 million Muslims and Christians took
to the streets of Egypt in revolt
against Islamist rule.
We have a God who brought about a monumental change
in the Middle East as a result of faithful Egyptian Christians
praying and fasting and calling upon him.
Everything began in the Middle East.
It is what's happening in the Middle East that's going
to grab the headlights until Jesus comes back.
announcer: "Jesus, Jihad, and Peace,"
a timely book from Dr. Michael Youssef.
In "Jesus, Jihad, and Peace," Dr. Michael Youssef shares
the unvarnished truth about where we are.
You'll be filled with hope as you see where God is
and what he is doing.
"Jesus, Jihad, and Peace" is available now for your gift
of any amount.
Call or visit us online at ltw.org to purchase
your copy today.
Dr. Youssef: I want you to celebrate with me and with us
at "Leading the Way" this milestone,
30 years of faithful ministry.
We brought the gospel to many a living room
and to many cars and radio,
television around the world and here in the United States.
It is my privilege and my honor and great joy to know that we
have been ministering to you faithfully.
As you know, I receive no compensation
from "Leading the Way."
It has been, for 30 years, my labor of love.
So, I want you to join with me as we celebrate
this great milestone in the life of this ministry.
Dr. Youssef: And God the Father through God the Son
will welcome you and forgive you.
[speaking foreign language]
Joe Emert: But once we began to get on a significant number
of stations, then we began to be noticed by people
at Trans World Radio.
Dr. Youssef: They kept calling my colleague, Joe Emert,
and saying, "You know, we really want Michael's message to be
translated and we'll put it on Trans World Radio."
I am very familiar with Trans World Radio because I
used to listen to it growing up.
Once we said, "Okay, I will try,"
God gave me a new idea.
I will preach several messages at a time and have a translator
next to me and broadcast them in order to call it
dual language.
That was a unique concept at the time.
Gene Hall: Michael explained that thousands
upon thousands of young people in the Middle East were learning
English.
They're learning English all over the world.
It's the number one language in the world, and he said,
"People will tune in just to hear the English."
Dr. Youssef: I am so glad that you have joined us
on this broadcast.
[speaking foreign language]
Jonathan Youssef: He actually rewrote all of his sermons
for an international audience.
He took the time to go through it.
Elizabeth Youssef: Sadiqa was his interpreter.
He had ten years of doing that with Sadiqa before they went
into the studio.
Dr. Youssef: Jesus died for both.
[speaking foreign language]
Elizabeth: Sadiqa knew his style,
he knew when to break.
He--there was almost like a seamless translation.
Gene: And they put him on once a week, and they had
an incredible reaction.
And it was not too long before they said,
"We want you on daily."
And that was a major milestone 'cause that put him
all over the world.
The whole thing is really just beginning.
Dr. Youssef: Our dual language radio broadcast
is available in 25 of the most spoken languages
around the world.
announcer: "My Journal" is the monthly publication
of "Leading the Way" with Dr. Michael Youssef.
Dr. Youssef: And Jesus said that in the Beatitudes.
announcer: Each month, "My Journal" offers
practical weekly devotionals from Dr. Youssef and exciting
ministry reports from our on the ground field teams.
This is a great resource to not only cultivate
your personal faith, but to also stay informed
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As our gift to you, we would like to send you
a free six-month subscription to encourage you in your walk
with Christ.
To receive your free "My Journal,"
call now or sign up at ltw.org.
announcer: "Leading the Way" with Dr. Michael Youssef thanks
you for your faithful support through your continued prayers
and gifts.
Dr. Youssef: At the Church of the Apostles
in Atlanta, Georgia, every Sunday I meet people
from all over the United States from Maine to California.
And they love the experience.
They said, "For years, we're wanting to come and visit."
And so, if you're ever in Atlanta, Georgia, I would
love for you to come and visit, shake my hand, and I want
to thank you in advance for making that to be a priority
in your life, visiting Apostles, God bless.
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is a paid program sponsored by viewers like you.
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