February 1, 2024 • 33 mins
Recommended Reading -
Psalm 1 - Psalm 91 - Psalm 37 - Psalm 103 - Psalm 90 - Psalm 139 - Psalm 145
(If you read Psalm 145 and want to share how it relates to your life right now, please email me at JanLBurt@outlook.com)
Welcome to this episode of "The Burt Not Ernie Show", hosted by Jan Burt. This episode is part of our 'Every Book a Promise' series where we dissect the wisdom and promises contained in the books of the Bible.
It was incredibly difficult to choose just one promise from just one psalm... and so I'm adding a list of psalms to read for yourself. Expect these passages to be life-changing!
Psalm 37 will be our focus for this episode, and the verses discussed on the show are here in the show notes for you to read yourself.
Psalm 37 from the NLT:
3 Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. 4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
5 Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.
18 Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever. 19 They will not be disgraced in hard times; even in famine they will have more than enough.
23 The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
30 The godly offer good counsel; they teach right from wrong.
39 The Lord rescues the godly; he is their fortress in times of trouble. 40 The Lord helps them, rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them, and they find shelter in him.
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Burt (Not Ernie) Show. God's promises are true - and they are true for you today!
See ya next time! Bye bye.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Well, hello there. My name is Jan Burt, and this is my podcast,
The Burt Not Ernie Show, where we talk about God's promises and the hope those
promises bring to our everyday lives.
Whenever I meet somebody new, I introduce myself as Jan Burt and say,
like Burt and Ernie, since it's easy to confuse my last name with a different one.
And almost always, people smile when they think of Burt and Ernie.
(00:26):
That got me thinking, I'm a Burt and I'm not an Ernie.
But how often do we live as if we're someone God never meant for us to be?
Part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.
Hence the name, The Burt Not Ernie Show. I'm so glad you're here.
Let's dig into God's promises.
Music.
(00:54):
Well, hey there. Hello to you again. Welcome back to this episode of the Burt
Not Ernie Show podcast, getting the promises of God into the people of God.
I really do believe it makes a difference when we know what the Word of God
says, and then we live it out.
You know, I was recently reading in Colossians chapter one, and it was just
so encouraged to see right there from the pen of Paul to the believers in that particular church,
(01:23):
right? A group of believers he had never met in in person.
It was wonderful to read him just describing how the Word of God is life-changing.
The good news is life-changing, and that when it changes our lives, there's fruit.
Fruit is born. Isn't that a beautiful picture? I have said before,
and I firmly believe that God's Word is life-changing.
(01:43):
God is still in the life-changing business, my friend.
Hopefully, one of those lives that's been changed is yours.
You're listening to the Burt Not Ernie Show podcast, part of the Spark Network.
And as always, you can find it on the Edify app, as well as other places such
as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. I love being on iHeartRadio.
(02:06):
The traction I get there is really just, it's a gift. I love it.
So if I do an extra shout out to iHeartRadio, that's why.
This is episode number 173.
Alrighty, so today we are continuing our Every Book a Promise series.
So listen, last week was Job. That means this week is the Psalms.
(02:31):
We can't go through one Psalm at a time. I'm kind of doing that in my private
online prayer retreat group, but we can't like go through them.
There's 150 and some of them, like Psalm 119 are super duper long.
So we can't go through them all.
I was on the struggle bus. That's not a saying anymore, but I just said it anyway.
Like, because it's hard to pick one. Okay, I've got to pick one Psalm.
(02:55):
And then just like one verse from all the Psalms as like the promise for the
whole book of Psalms, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.
So I'm going to share with you some, before we get to our actual Psalm that
we're going to focus on today, and it's a good one. It's a really, really good one.
I'm not going to say it's my favorite or the best, because how could you say
(03:16):
that about the book of Psalms? But it is, it's a good one. It's a keeper, right? Right?
Listen, I'm going to share with you some other ones that I'm going to call like
recommended reading in the Psalms.
If you are, actually, it doesn't matter where you're at.
You can be on the mountaintop. You could be in the lowest valley.
These Psalms are for you right now, and you will be blessed by them.
(03:37):
Read them, apply them to your life, write out the verses that kind of jump off
the page at you that speak to you.
That's the Holy Spirit speaking to you from the word of God.
And remember, Jesus is the living word. The word of God is living and active,
we're told in the New Testament in Hebrew.
So listen, when a verse jumps out at you, can you just write it down?
Or at the very least, if you're like listening in the car or something like
(04:01):
audio Bible, which is great, keep doing that. If you do that,
don't stop that, keep doing that.
Just pause for a second and like hit pause on your app and just listen to the
Lord and what he's telling you about that verse.
Pray about that verse, kind of meditate on it. meditate on it for a moment or two.
As you know what, if you've listened for a while, you know that when I stumble
(04:23):
and bumble, I tend to leave it in the podcast because.
As I've said before, God told me right from the very get-go of this thing before
I even started podcasting, he told me not to be fake, to be very,
very real, because it's just life.
This isn't a show, and it's not a dress rehearsal.
It's actually life. And so I leave the stumblings and bumblings in.
(04:44):
And that was definitely one of them. Meditate on the word that jumps off the
page at you, jumps out of the phone app, Bible app at you.
It's for you and it's going to change your life because it's still life changing.
So here are some passages from the Psalms to read and to pray and to believe.
(05:05):
Like this is for you. I'm telling you, you have to believe it.
If you just read it and it's just head knowledge and it never changes your life,
changes your thinking, it's not doing what God intends for it to do.
Okay, so here we go. So I'm going to give you some passages from the Psalms,
some entire Psalms as recommended reading, and I will list these in the show notes as well.
(05:26):
Psalm 1, that's solid gold right there. You want some wisdom for how to live
and some insight as far as like how to not live? This is it, Psalm 1.
Psalm 91, super duper quadruple gold.
If you have never studied Psalm 91, and like I'm talking about like historically,
look Look into like World War I and World War II, soldiers who prayed in even
(05:48):
more modern wars, warfare times, soldiers who prayed that psalm and took it
literally, what happened to them and what did not happen to them,
even though it was happening all around them.
It's a powerful psalm. I did a 17-week study on that in my own life and then
shared it in my online private prayer group. I was super blessed by that. I learned a lot.
(06:10):
This is a life-changing psalm. And if you memorize it and pray it and believe
it, it'll change your life. It really will.
And also, side note, I have a course I created on Psalm 91. It's an audio-based
course so that you can listen to it.
It's an on-the-go kind of a thing. And I'm going to put the link for that in
the show notes in case you'd be interested in purchasing your copy,
(06:31):
Lifetime Access of the Psalm 91 Pray It and Believe course.
I get passionate about this because, as I keep saying today,
I guess this is today's like mantra for the show, this will change your life.
And I want your life changed the same way Paul wrote it in Colossians chapter
one, about life change, changing your life. That's the same thing I want.
(06:52):
Same spirit living in Paul, the same spirit living in me and living in you that
wants the good news, the word of God to change your life.
So check that out. The next one is Psalm Psalm 37. And that is actually our Psalm for today.
Psalm 37. So we have Psalm 1, Psalm 91, Psalm 37.
Obviously, I did not put these in like numerical order. I just prayed about
(07:14):
which ones to share here and then wrote them out as I thought of them,
or as the Lord told me which ones really to share with you. Psalm 103.
Another one that's like, that's a rock star, I'm telling you.
Psalm 90, this is, think back to Moses now, Psalm 90, this is an amazing Psalm.
Don't skip it. A lot of people don't ever really read Psalm 90 because they
(07:36):
just, that's just like, oh yeah, on my way to Psalm 91, that really great Psalm,
Psalm 91, and they skip Psalm 90.
Psalm 90 is a rock star too.
Psalm 139.
Every believer should be reading this regularly. I would say at least once a
year, more than that, if possible.
(07:57):
And then Psalm 145.
That's one that I was not thinking about. It's not like one that comes to top
of mind, but the Lord, it just kept bringing me back to Psalm 145, share Psalm 145.
So there may just be one person who listens, who reads Psalm 145,
(08:17):
and it is just exactly exactly what they need.
This is like where they're at in life, what they're going through.
This is going to give them the hope that they need. If that's the case,
I would love to hear from you because this was not on my short list to share.
So Psalm 145, and you can let me know that. Just email me.
My email is J-A-N-L-B-U-R-T, Jan,
(08:43):
middle initial L, last name Burt, b-u-r-t at
outlook.com j-a-n-l-b-u-r-t at
outlook.com and share with me what Psalm
145 means for you because I'm like hankering to know
because the Lord really put that one
heavy on my heart and I haven't I really honestly
don't really know why other than I know there's a reason there's
(09:07):
a person that's the reason and God's thinking
about you right now he's got your back he's got
a blessing for you he's right there with you he's going to get
you through sometimes we've got to go through sometimes we've got
to pray through through that might be a key word for
you right now just got to get through well you're not getting through it on
your own my friend because jesus is right there with you isn't that beautiful
(09:27):
so i'll tell you those again psalm 1 psalm 91 psalm 37 psalm 103 psalm 90 psalm
139 and psalm 145 all right now Now, on with today's episode.
The promises in Psalm 37, and I pulled out a few verses, not all of them,
because it's too long of a psalm for me to read all of it to you today.
(09:53):
And it's not every bit of it, obviously, isn't just like every word and every
sentence is a direct promise to us from the Lord.
And so reading it aloud wouldn't really fit with the Every Book a Promise format,
but I'm going to read several verses to you.
And I am in the New Living Translation today. Let's jump to verses three and
four. Okay, you know this one.
(10:14):
Actually, I'm going to say three, four, and five. I'm going to read all three of those.
You know this. As soon as I read it, you're going to go, oh,
yeah, yeah, I know that. I know that. And you might think, like,
oh, that's where that's from?
I thought that was a proverb because it does sound kind of proverbish. Okay.
Psalm 37, 3, 4, 5, those three verses, New Living Translation,
trust in the Lord and do good. Oh, that's a good one, my friend.
(10:34):
Can you do good and just trust in him while you're doing it?
You know what I'm talking about? Sometimes it's like the last thing I want to
do is go into this workplace situation and do good.
I want to punch them in the nose. I want to bloody their nose a little bit.
Well, how about we just, sometimes we've got to just do what the God of the
Bible, the Lord God of heaven's army says, and in this case,
(10:55):
it is to trust him and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then, oh, here's your promise. When you do that, then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord. No matter what's going on in your life,
my friend, take delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desires.
I almost read that from memory in a different translation.
(11:17):
Commit everything you do to the Lord, trust him, and he will help you.
We got some wills in there.
So I'm going to read this again and really emphasize where God says will,
because when he says will, he means will.
Will he not do it? When he says he will, he will. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
(11:38):
Take delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desires.
Commit everything everything you do to the Lord. Trust him and he will help you.
Okay, we got some promises, three verses, three wills. This is good stuff.
And it doesn't say commit just what you feel like or commit most things.
(12:01):
Can you commit? If there's something you're doing and you can't commit it to the Lord,
maybe you want to stop doing that because he's going to help you and bless you
and prosper you and give you safety and just give you your heart's desires when
these are things that you can commit to him.
If you're immersed in some kind of sin, cry out to him for help and deliverance.
(12:21):
Expect him to give it. He will.
He's still a mighty deliverer. He has not stopped delivering people.
He does it daily. I think he probably wants to do it far more often than we
think he does because we get in it and we're like, oh, I'm just such a horrible person or whatever.
Or we've been in the church, been saved for so long, we forget that people still
(12:44):
need to be delivered and we still need to be delivered.
So if it's something you can't commit to him, deal with that.
Crucify the flesh, deal with that.
Depend upon the Lord, cry out to him, expect him to help you, and he will.
Then as you commit everything to him, oh man, these promises are yours.
And does God not keep his promises sometimes?
No, he always keeps them.
(13:07):
Always. Okay, verses 18 and 19 of Psalm 37.
Day by day, the Lord takes care
of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that last forever.
They will not be disgraced in hard times. Even in famine, they will have more
than enough. Okay, listen, day by day.
That's the first thing we need to grab hold of here, day by day.
(13:29):
This is constant. Your God is constant. Nothing else in your life might feel
constant right now, but your God, he's constant. He takes care of the innocent.
Okay, in light of what we just mentioned, where we can't commit everything to
the Lord, if we've got sin in our lives, we need to deal with that.
And we do, we need to repent, cry out for grace and mercy, receive the help
that he's going to give us in our time of need and walk into the freedom Jesus has for us.
(13:53):
Remember, he's still in the life changing business and your life is one of those
lives that needs to be changed.
We jump down here to verse 18. It's like, how can, well, I'm not innocent.
Oh, but you bear the righteousness of Christ.
That's how God sees you once you're in Christ. And so Jesus was innocent.
We get his righteousness.
It's such such a gift, don't take it for granted. So you can,
(14:15):
if you can claim this verse, and I mean, I don't mean like name it and claim
it like, you know, I'm going to have a big old jet airliner,
not talking about that nonsense that is not biblical.
I'm talking about claiming it like, I have to believe it. I have to make the
word of God my own. I can stand far off.
(14:35):
Even as I read, I can have my Bible right here by my face up close,
and I can still be standing inside of myself.
My inner being can be standing so far off from believing that it applies to
me that I may as well be a million miles away from it.
Day by day, the Lord takes care of the innocent. Are you in Christ? Do you know Jesus?
Does God see you as the righteousness that is all Jesus? Then you can believe this.
(15:00):
And then they, all who are innocent, all who would like Like, just believe it.
If you meet the qualifications, if the qualifiers are there,
you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
You will receive it. So day by day, he's going to take care of you.
And he's also got your forever covered.
(15:21):
He's got you now and then.
Sometimes we can be so focused on now that we forget about eternity.
Other times the now can be so hard that we're like, I'm just longing for heaven
and eternity. And we forget that it's day by day he's taking care of us here.
He's dealing with both of those, the immediate and the long term.
(15:42):
He's such a good God. Nothing slips through the cracks with him.
They will not be disgraced in hard times. There's a promise.
Anybody in a hard time, you're not going to be disgraced. That's the promise.
Even in famine, they will have more than enough. One of the things that the
Bible talks about is going to happen in the last days, that there will be shortages
of food. Famines, Jesus said.
(16:03):
Famines and earthquakes. There's a verse in, I'm going to say Matthew 24,
part of a verse where he says you will hear of, I think it's where he says,
but the end is not yet. Then you will hear of famines and earthquakes.
Listen, famine is going to be an ever increasing issue in this world, like a lack of food.
(16:25):
And I don't believe it's going to just stay on the other side of the world over
there near Africa. I think it's going to spread farther than that because it's
just the way things are going to go.
I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but that's the way the book plays out
and everything in the Bible has so far happened exactly, exactly perfectly down
to the every jot and every tittle perfectly right.
(16:47):
So this part will be right as well. But listen to this promise.
Even in famine, they'll have more than enough. Can you even believe the kinds
of promises that God makes us? We miss so much when we don't know what God's
word says and we miss so much more when we know what it says.
We study it, we read it, we're a scholar, we're very religious in that sense,
but we do not live a life of belief.
(17:11):
We don't believe that it's true. Our actions change.
Show that we don't believe that it's true. I know that's true.
How do I know it? Because it's in the word of God, period.
That settles it, period. It's true, period. Verse 23, Psalm 37,
verse 23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives. This is fantastic.
(17:32):
I'm going to quickly read verse 24 as well. I hadn't planned that, but I'm going to.
Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
Okay, okay, I'm going to do 24 first and then jump back up to 23.
You're going to stumble my friend because we're not perfect, but you know what?
And you have an enemy and he's like, you know, taking potshots at you.
He's trying to trip you, grab you by the hair and kick the back of your knees
(17:55):
and like mash your face into the ground. He's brutal. He's nasty.
He's mean. Satan does not play nice.
He doesn't know how to do that. It's not his MO. He's not able to.
He has been been thrown out of heaven, his ability to be walking in the grace
and the glory of God is gone.
It's been stripped from him. He has been cast out.
(18:16):
And so sometimes I think we forget that oh, he can only behave in ways that are really heinous.
Yeah, he can't do otherwise.
The ability of anybody to be good and kind and loving in this world,
even somebody that doesn't know Jesus from I'm a hole in the wall.
It only comes from God's grace.
I don't know if we always know that, but that's the reality. That's the reality.
(18:40):
So Satan has been removed from access to the grace of God.
He cannot be good to you. He's going to try and make you stumble.
So is your flesh. So is just life. But guess what? Even if you do stumble, you will never, never.
Okay, this is will. Will, will, one of my favorite words to emphasize in God's
promises, and never combine this as a powerful punch they pack.
(19:03):
You will never fall. Why?
Because the Lord is holding you by the hand. Oh, like when you're walking with
your toddler, oh, I got you.
And you pull them back up again and you don't let them fall down and scrape
their knee because you're walking on that bumpy, rocky path,
but you're holding their hand.
So even when they trip over that rock, because they got little feet and their
little legs are short and they can't lift their feet up over all the rocks and
(19:24):
they stumble and fall all because they're looking over here and not where their feet are.
And you still got to buy the arm so you don't let them fall.
Whoop, I just pick you up right at will. Now look at that we went right over that little rock.
And now your feet are back on the level ground. And we're going to keep walking.
And I'm going to keep holding your hand.
You're not going to fall.
Even if you stumble because the Lord's holding you by the hand. I love this.
(19:47):
And also how close is he to you if he's holding your hand.
He's right there, right like, oh man, sticking to you like glue.
It's such a great picture. Verse 23, back up to verse 23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
If you will ask him regularly, ideally daily, you know, I think it was Chuck
Smith that used to say, good morning, Lord. I'm awake. It's another day.
(20:11):
I love you. What are we going to do today, Lord? You guide, you lead.
And Calvary has quite a legacy, in case you haven't noticed.
If you ever saw the film, Jesus Revolution, watch it. I think you'll be blessed by it.
Listen, Listen, if you ask him and you want to live a life that honors him,
man, you're all in with Jesus.
(20:32):
Just glorifying God means so much to you. He's going to direct your steps.
Ask him and he will. Expect it and he will.
He delights in every detail of their lives. What kind of promise is that?
He delights in every detail of your life.
There's nothing lacking. There's no part of it that's like over here outside
(20:52):
of God's gaze, unless it's real wicked sinfulness and you know he can't look
on it because he's holy, right?
And that's the kind of stuff that is mentioned in verses 3, 4,
and 5 that we need to deal with.
But listen, the reality is, the reality is, if you are sold out to him, living for him,
you love him, you don't want to just wallow in your sin, you want everything
(21:16):
he has for you because you want to make the most of of this one singular life
you've got, you can count on this verse being true for you.
It's a beautiful, beautiful promise.
It's a beautiful promise. I mean, I almost can't even, you know,
hardly get like enough of the fact that the Lord delights in every detail of
my life. That's amazing.
(21:37):
That's amazing. You're not hopeless and you're never alone. You can't be abandoned
with a God who delights in every detail of your life.
Verse 30, the godly offer good counsel. They teach right from wrong.
This should be something that believers should be doing. The Apostle Paul talked about that.
Do I have to teach you again the basics of salvation and the good news when
(21:58):
you should be teaching yourself?
I shouldn't be teaching you again. You yourself should be teaching.
We all need to think that way, like apply that to our own lives.
If we are walking with the Lord, if we are godly, read your Bible and you'll
know what that means to be godly, then we should be offering good counsel.
People around us need counsel.
(22:19):
Make it good counsel. They teach right from wrong.
For that to be true, we have to realize, acknowledge that there is a right and
there is a wrong. The world we're living in right now, they don't like that.
They don't want there to be right and wrong or black and white.
I mean, you can love anybody and you can love everybody and love is love,
except wait a minute, wait, you love Jesus? That part we don't like.
(22:40):
We don't mean that though. You Christians who love Jesus, that's not what we
mean when we say everybody should love everybody and love is love. Am I wrong?
Anybody else? Anybody raise their hand and feel like they know what I'm talking
about? Like, you know, this is the truth.
God's word says there is a right and there's a wrong and godly people should
be teaching right from wrong.
(23:02):
If you're on the sidelines and you never, ever, ever, ever, ever say anything
because it's It's controversial.
You're outside of what the word of God says you're supposed to be doing as someone
who follows the Lord. I don't know if you ever thought about that before.
Probably can't unthink it now that you've heard it. I'm going to read the verse
one more time and ask you to really ponder how this applies to your life,
(23:26):
your circle of influence, the people that are in your world.
The godly offer good counsel. Offer. That doesn't mean you have to make them.
You're not force feeding them. You can't make them take it, but you offer it.
They teach right from wrong. You teach. They don't have to learn,
but you're still going to be teaching
and offering because God's word says that's what you're to be doing.
(23:48):
Last two verses for today, 39 and 40. Psalm 37, verse 39 and 40.
The Lord rescues the godly. He is their fortress in times of trouble.
The Lord helps them, rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them and they find shelter in him.
Do you need to be rescued? God is your man.
(24:10):
He's your fortress in times of trouble.
Think about a fortress. We don't really think of them regularly because it's
not a part of our everyday life.
There was a time when you would have needed to know where the nearest fortress
was for us. We need to know where the nearest fortress is.
And I'll tell you what, it's in the Lord. He is our fortress in times of trouble.
(24:30):
When your trouble hits, run to your fortress and be safe and protected there.
The Lord helps them. There's your promise. He's going to help you.
Rescuing them from the wicked. There's wicked in the world. You need a rescuer. were. God is it.
And he has promised to rescue you and help you. He saves them.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our savior. And they find shelter in him.
You know, as a mom who homeschooled her kids for all five kids for about 25
(24:54):
years, preschool to high school graduation, sent them off to college,
I would hear a lot about like, oh, aren't you worried about socialization?
No, they're very social children. My five children are very,
very social. Am I worried about that?
Absolutely not. I'm an extreme introvert. In fact, if I'm worried about anything,
it's about the fact that I am,
like exhausted from all of the socializing that I have to be part of as I drive
(25:19):
my children to all of their things. Like, no, I was never worried about that.
You're sheltering them. Oh, okay.
Well, in the Bible, when God shelters us, it's a good thing.
But when parents are accused of sheltering, it's a bad thing.
And usually those accusations, they came from people within the church.
We need to stop saying that to parents who are in particular homeschooling,
(25:42):
but if they're in other areas, they're like, we don't watch that movie.
We don't watch that Netflix series. My kids can't have a phone until.
Stop doing what we tend to do. And I'm speaking broadly to the church as a whole
and trying to get in there and tell them things like, but you're sheltering them.
They got to experience the real world someday. And they will.
And they surely, surely will. And it's going to be brutal enough then.
(26:05):
Let them have their childhood.
And let each parent do the parenting.
Like it's, we don't do this when people, we don't want to confront the parents
who are like, your kid is out there running wild.
They are making a mockery of Christianity. They are slandering Jesus with their behavior.
We ain't going to talk about that because, you know, that's and then out comes
(26:27):
the judgy pants verses, right?
Which are also like, read what Jesus meant, you'll understand.
And then read everything that Jesus said, and Paul said, and John said,
and Peter said, the founding, you know, I mean, the founders that Jesus said
about Peter on this church, on you, Peter, I'll build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
So listen, even Jesus himself told us that we are to judge fruit,
(26:50):
we are to judge character.
You know, I can't judge you and render a judgment that indicts you,
that enacts an actual punishment.
I don't have that ability. What we think of as judgment that's too harsh is
usually just like, I'm told to judge the fruit in your life.
I'm told to be aware of this, who I'm supposed to be in fellowship with and
(27:10):
who I'm not. and there's biblical models for, okay, at this point,
you can't be in the church anymore, right?
I mean, read your New Testament. You know what I'm talking about here.
We've taken it so far that we're like, we've reversed it.
You can't say this, and I'm saying this about children, because that's my example
with the sheltering. Keep that in mind.
I'm not throwing down on all of y'all with your kids. I'm not doing that.
(27:33):
I'm just using it as an example.
We tend to say that you shelter your kids too much or when are you going to
quit homeschooling or why don't they do more things or don't just give them the phone.
Oh, they're going to be exposed to it anyway, blah, blah, blah.
Sometimes we do that because we don't want to deal with our own kids and their issues.
We know you're right over here taking this stand because we've seen the bad
(27:54):
fruit of the bad fruit of the bad fruit,
and the corruption and the filth and the garbage in our kids' lives from just
letting them do whatever they want to do.
But yeah, we really don't want to deal with all that.
And so it's easier to just kind of poke at you and say, man, how come you don't?
You know how terrible that is when one parent says to another parent,
especially when the kids are there.
So the kid that has been told, no, you can't do this thing that quote unquote,
(28:18):
everybody else is doing.
I mean, all the other kids in youth group, that's the church kids,
folks. So listen, this is hard for them.
My husband and I did youth ministry for 12 years. We know how hard this is. This is the way it goes.
You're not talking about the kids in the world so much. You're talking about
the kids in the youth group.
When they start putting pressure on you, how come your parents don't let you watch this show?
(28:39):
Well, it's got too much graphic content and the language and the immorality and the sexual.
It's just not something we've ever had in our home and they stick by their standards.
Just let them, just let your kids do it. When you're having that conversation
with those parents in the church lobby in front of their kid,
questioning them, and your kid now has more ammo to shoot at them with later
(29:02):
about, see, you're just the dorky kid whose parents are too strict,
when really they're just following what the Bible says about raising children.
We do that kind of judging. But what we don't do is back it up,
stop, and say, wait, you're doing a good job there.
You chose the hard right. You're following the word of the Lord.
Like, We should reverse that. This whole thing should be reversed.
(29:24):
We shouldn't be judging them and saying, you're sheltering too much.
You're following the word of God too closely, and so you're ruining your children.
That's in essence what people are saying.
Can we just check that and say, whoa, what's going on? There needs to be a huge about face.
And we need to support each other as parents in the church when we're trying
to follow the mandates that the Bible gives us for how to raise godly children.
(29:50):
Children, because the Bible says the purpose of marriage is,
oh, I don't know what you thought the purpose of marriage is.
And sometimes when people say, I can't wait till my kids turn 18,
throw them out, kiss them goodbye, you know, change the locks and I'm happy for it.
Well, okay, that's weird because the Bible doesn't say the purpose of marriage
is about you and your spouse.
Culture says that. The Bible says the purpose of marriage is to raise up godly seed.
(30:14):
Seed we're raising little christians to be big christians you want a full quiver
so that you can shoot them out and have them launched into the world to do what
god has for them to do as godly seed as godly people that's the purpose of marriage.
So let's maybe stop with the, oh, you're sheltering too much and start realizing
(30:35):
that if we're going to criticize people, parents for sheltering their children,
then we've got to look at verses like Psalm 37, verse 40 and say,
the Lord helps them rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them.
Oh, but God, that shelter thing, I cannot find my shelter in you.
I don't want to be sheltered. I don't want to be protected.
I don't want to be helped. I don't want to be saved. I don't want to be rescued
(30:57):
from the wicked. I can't because I don't, because in my kid's life,
I just, because I was harping on, on Chuck and Louise.
Those aren't people that I know. I made up those names. I'm sure you can tell
Chuck and Louise about how they shelter their kids.
So, okay, then let's apply it across the board or let's change the narrative.
The narrative won't change though, if we do not change the way we think.
(31:17):
So I'm ending this on a little bit different note than I thought I would.
But I think this is probably something that some of us need to hear because
we haven't thought about it. We just go with the flow of culture.
And sometimes culture on the outside gets enmeshed into culture in the church.
And we end up saying things like that, that we shouldn't be saying to each other.
We have to put everything through the word of God, run it all through the word of God.
(31:40):
And what comes out, what stays is like, oh, that's been strained away. Okay, good.
Yeah, yeah. That's that's dross that needed to go. And what comes true,
like that's a pure water that runs out.
I think about like those like, oh, you've seen it take the cruddy water and
you dump them in way up here in this like natural habitat and it filters through
this particular type of dirt and there's this moss and there's this grass and
(32:04):
then there's this kind of gravel and this kind of sand and at the end, the water is so pure.
It's like that. If we run this stuff through the word of God like that,
what comes out is like, oh, that's pure.
That's pure. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that.
So, okay, I'm going to end on that note.
And again, don't forget those Psalms that I mentioned earlier that are Psalms
(32:25):
of hope and promise. Psalms 1, Psalm 91, Psalm 37.
That's this one. Psalm 103, Psalm 90, Psalm 139, and Psalm 145.
And I went a little long today.
That's okay. I'll see you back here next time. And thanks so much for listening. All right. Bye-bye.
I'm so glad you joined me for this episode of the Burt, Not Ernie show.
(32:49):
It's an honor and a blessing to talk about God's promises with you. Have a fabulous day.
And remember, part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.
Lord bless. I'll see you next time.
Music.
Well, hello there. My name is Jan Burt, and this is my podcast,
The Burt Not Ernie Show, where we talk about God's promises and the hope those
promises bring to our everyday lives.
Whenever I meet somebody new, I introduce myself as Jan Burt and say,
like Burt and Ernie, since it's easy to confuse my last name with a different one.
And almost always, people smile when they think of Burt and Ernie.
(00:26):
That got me thinking, I'm a Burt and I'm not an Ernie.
But how often do we live as if we're someone God never meant for us to be?
Part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.
Hence the name, The Burt Not Ernie Show. I'm so glad you're here.
Let's dig into God's promises.
Music.
(00:54):
Well, hey there. Hello to you again. Welcome back to this episode of the Burt
Not Ernie Show podcast, getting the promises of God into the people of God.
I really do believe it makes a difference when we know what the Word of God
says, and then we live it out.
You know, I was recently reading in Colossians chapter one, and it was just
so encouraged to see right there from the pen of Paul to the believers in that particular church,
(01:23):
right? A group of believers he had never met in in person.
It was wonderful to read him just describing how the Word of God is life-changing.
The good news is life-changing, and that when it changes our lives, there's fruit.
Fruit is born. Isn't that a beautiful picture? I have said before,
and I firmly believe that God's Word is life-changing.
(01:43):
God is still in the life-changing business, my friend.
Hopefully, one of those lives that's been changed is yours.
You're listening to the Burt Not Ernie Show podcast, part of the Spark Network.
And as always, you can find it on the Edify app, as well as other places such
as Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeartRadio. I love being on iHeartRadio.
(02:06):
The traction I get there is really just, it's a gift. I love it.
So if I do an extra shout out to iHeartRadio, that's why.
This is episode number 173.
Alrighty, so today we are continuing our Every Book a Promise series.
So listen, last week was Job. That means this week is the Psalms.
(02:31):
We can't go through one Psalm at a time. I'm kind of doing that in my private
online prayer retreat group, but we can't like go through them.
There's 150 and some of them, like Psalm 119 are super duper long.
So we can't go through them all.
I was on the struggle bus. That's not a saying anymore, but I just said it anyway.
Like, because it's hard to pick one. Okay, I've got to pick one Psalm.
(02:55):
And then just like one verse from all the Psalms as like the promise for the
whole book of Psalms, I couldn't do it. I just couldn't do it.
So I'm going to share with you some, before we get to our actual Psalm that
we're going to focus on today, and it's a good one. It's a really, really good one.
I'm not going to say it's my favorite or the best, because how could you say
(03:16):
that about the book of Psalms? But it is, it's a good one. It's a keeper, right? Right?
Listen, I'm going to share with you some other ones that I'm going to call like
recommended reading in the Psalms.
If you are, actually, it doesn't matter where you're at.
You can be on the mountaintop. You could be in the lowest valley.
These Psalms are for you right now, and you will be blessed by them.
(03:37):
Read them, apply them to your life, write out the verses that kind of jump off
the page at you that speak to you.
That's the Holy Spirit speaking to you from the word of God.
And remember, Jesus is the living word. The word of God is living and active,
we're told in the New Testament in Hebrew.
So listen, when a verse jumps out at you, can you just write it down?
Or at the very least, if you're like listening in the car or something like
(04:01):
audio Bible, which is great, keep doing that. If you do that,
don't stop that, keep doing that.
Just pause for a second and like hit pause on your app and just listen to the
Lord and what he's telling you about that verse.
Pray about that verse, kind of meditate on it. meditate on it for a moment or two.
As you know what, if you've listened for a while, you know that when I stumble
(04:23):
and bumble, I tend to leave it in the podcast because.
As I've said before, God told me right from the very get-go of this thing before
I even started podcasting, he told me not to be fake, to be very,
very real, because it's just life.
This isn't a show, and it's not a dress rehearsal.
It's actually life. And so I leave the stumblings and bumblings in.
(04:44):
And that was definitely one of them. Meditate on the word that jumps off the
page at you, jumps out of the phone app, Bible app at you.
It's for you and it's going to change your life because it's still life changing.
So here are some passages from the Psalms to read and to pray and to believe.
(05:05):
Like this is for you. I'm telling you, you have to believe it.
If you just read it and it's just head knowledge and it never changes your life,
changes your thinking, it's not doing what God intends for it to do.
Okay, so here we go. So I'm going to give you some passages from the Psalms,
some entire Psalms as recommended reading, and I will list these in the show notes as well.
(05:26):
Psalm 1, that's solid gold right there. You want some wisdom for how to live
and some insight as far as like how to not live? This is it, Psalm 1.
Psalm 91, super duper quadruple gold.
If you have never studied Psalm 91, and like I'm talking about like historically,
look Look into like World War I and World War II, soldiers who prayed in even
(05:48):
more modern wars, warfare times, soldiers who prayed that psalm and took it
literally, what happened to them and what did not happen to them,
even though it was happening all around them.
It's a powerful psalm. I did a 17-week study on that in my own life and then
shared it in my online private prayer group. I was super blessed by that. I learned a lot.
(06:10):
This is a life-changing psalm. And if you memorize it and pray it and believe
it, it'll change your life. It really will.
And also, side note, I have a course I created on Psalm 91. It's an audio-based
course so that you can listen to it.
It's an on-the-go kind of a thing. And I'm going to put the link for that in
the show notes in case you'd be interested in purchasing your copy,
(06:31):
Lifetime Access of the Psalm 91 Pray It and Believe course.
I get passionate about this because, as I keep saying today,
I guess this is today's like mantra for the show, this will change your life.
And I want your life changed the same way Paul wrote it in Colossians chapter
one, about life change, changing your life. That's the same thing I want.
(06:52):
Same spirit living in Paul, the same spirit living in me and living in you that
wants the good news, the word of God to change your life.
So check that out. The next one is Psalm Psalm 37. And that is actually our Psalm for today.
Psalm 37. So we have Psalm 1, Psalm 91, Psalm 37.
Obviously, I did not put these in like numerical order. I just prayed about
(07:14):
which ones to share here and then wrote them out as I thought of them,
or as the Lord told me which ones really to share with you. Psalm 103.
Another one that's like, that's a rock star, I'm telling you.
Psalm 90, this is, think back to Moses now, Psalm 90, this is an amazing Psalm.
Don't skip it. A lot of people don't ever really read Psalm 90 because they
(07:36):
just, that's just like, oh yeah, on my way to Psalm 91, that really great Psalm,
Psalm 91, and they skip Psalm 90.
Psalm 90 is a rock star too.
Psalm 139.
Every believer should be reading this regularly. I would say at least once a
year, more than that, if possible.
(07:57):
And then Psalm 145.
That's one that I was not thinking about. It's not like one that comes to top
of mind, but the Lord, it just kept bringing me back to Psalm 145, share Psalm 145.
So there may just be one person who listens, who reads Psalm 145,
(08:17):
and it is just exactly exactly what they need.
This is like where they're at in life, what they're going through.
This is going to give them the hope that they need. If that's the case,
I would love to hear from you because this was not on my short list to share.
So Psalm 145, and you can let me know that. Just email me.
My email is J-A-N-L-B-U-R-T, Jan,
(08:43):
middle initial L, last name Burt, b-u-r-t at
outlook.com j-a-n-l-b-u-r-t at
outlook.com and share with me what Psalm
145 means for you because I'm like hankering to know
because the Lord really put that one
heavy on my heart and I haven't I really honestly
don't really know why other than I know there's a reason there's
(09:07):
a person that's the reason and God's thinking
about you right now he's got your back he's got
a blessing for you he's right there with you he's going to get
you through sometimes we've got to go through sometimes we've got
to pray through through that might be a key word for
you right now just got to get through well you're not getting through it on
your own my friend because jesus is right there with you isn't that beautiful
(09:27):
so i'll tell you those again psalm 1 psalm 91 psalm 37 psalm 103 psalm 90 psalm
139 and psalm 145 all right now Now, on with today's episode.
The promises in Psalm 37, and I pulled out a few verses, not all of them,
because it's too long of a psalm for me to read all of it to you today.
(09:53):
And it's not every bit of it, obviously, isn't just like every word and every
sentence is a direct promise to us from the Lord.
And so reading it aloud wouldn't really fit with the Every Book a Promise format,
but I'm going to read several verses to you.
And I am in the New Living Translation today. Let's jump to verses three and
four. Okay, you know this one.
(10:14):
Actually, I'm going to say three, four, and five. I'm going to read all three of those.
You know this. As soon as I read it, you're going to go, oh,
yeah, yeah, I know that. I know that. And you might think, like,
oh, that's where that's from?
I thought that was a proverb because it does sound kind of proverbish. Okay.
Psalm 37, 3, 4, 5, those three verses, New Living Translation,
trust in the Lord and do good. Oh, that's a good one, my friend.
(10:34):
Can you do good and just trust in him while you're doing it?
You know what I'm talking about? Sometimes it's like the last thing I want to
do is go into this workplace situation and do good.
I want to punch them in the nose. I want to bloody their nose a little bit.
Well, how about we just, sometimes we've got to just do what the God of the
Bible, the Lord God of heaven's army says, and in this case,
(10:55):
it is to trust him and do good. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then, oh, here's your promise. When you do that, then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
Take delight in the Lord. No matter what's going on in your life,
my friend, take delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desires.
I almost read that from memory in a different translation.
(11:17):
Commit everything you do to the Lord, trust him, and he will help you.
We got some wills in there.
So I'm going to read this again and really emphasize where God says will,
because when he says will, he means will.
Will he not do it? When he says he will, he will. Trust in the Lord and do good.
Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.
(11:38):
Take delight in the Lord and he will give you your heart's desires.
Commit everything everything you do to the Lord. Trust him and he will help you.
Okay, we got some promises, three verses, three wills. This is good stuff.
And it doesn't say commit just what you feel like or commit most things.
(12:01):
Can you commit? If there's something you're doing and you can't commit it to the Lord,
maybe you want to stop doing that because he's going to help you and bless you
and prosper you and give you safety and just give you your heart's desires when
these are things that you can commit to him.
If you're immersed in some kind of sin, cry out to him for help and deliverance.
(12:21):
Expect him to give it. He will.
He's still a mighty deliverer. He has not stopped delivering people.
He does it daily. I think he probably wants to do it far more often than we
think he does because we get in it and we're like, oh, I'm just such a horrible person or whatever.
Or we've been in the church, been saved for so long, we forget that people still
(12:44):
need to be delivered and we still need to be delivered.
So if it's something you can't commit to him, deal with that.
Crucify the flesh, deal with that.
Depend upon the Lord, cry out to him, expect him to help you, and he will.
Then as you commit everything to him, oh man, these promises are yours.
And does God not keep his promises sometimes?
No, he always keeps them.
(13:07):
Always. Okay, verses 18 and 19 of Psalm 37.
Day by day, the Lord takes care
of the innocent, and they will receive an inheritance that last forever.
They will not be disgraced in hard times. Even in famine, they will have more
than enough. Okay, listen, day by day.
That's the first thing we need to grab hold of here, day by day.
(13:29):
This is constant. Your God is constant. Nothing else in your life might feel
constant right now, but your God, he's constant. He takes care of the innocent.
Okay, in light of what we just mentioned, where we can't commit everything to
the Lord, if we've got sin in our lives, we need to deal with that.
And we do, we need to repent, cry out for grace and mercy, receive the help
that he's going to give us in our time of need and walk into the freedom Jesus has for us.
(13:53):
Remember, he's still in the life changing business and your life is one of those
lives that needs to be changed.
We jump down here to verse 18. It's like, how can, well, I'm not innocent.
Oh, but you bear the righteousness of Christ.
That's how God sees you once you're in Christ. And so Jesus was innocent.
We get his righteousness.
It's such such a gift, don't take it for granted. So you can,
(14:15):
if you can claim this verse, and I mean, I don't mean like name it and claim
it like, you know, I'm going to have a big old jet airliner,
not talking about that nonsense that is not biblical.
I'm talking about claiming it like, I have to believe it. I have to make the
word of God my own. I can stand far off.
(14:35):
Even as I read, I can have my Bible right here by my face up close,
and I can still be standing inside of myself.
My inner being can be standing so far off from believing that it applies to
me that I may as well be a million miles away from it.
Day by day, the Lord takes care of the innocent. Are you in Christ? Do you know Jesus?
Does God see you as the righteousness that is all Jesus? Then you can believe this.
(15:00):
And then they, all who are innocent, all who would like Like, just believe it.
If you meet the qualifications, if the qualifiers are there,
you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
You will receive it. So day by day, he's going to take care of you.
And he's also got your forever covered.
(15:21):
He's got you now and then.
Sometimes we can be so focused on now that we forget about eternity.
Other times the now can be so hard that we're like, I'm just longing for heaven
and eternity. And we forget that it's day by day he's taking care of us here.
He's dealing with both of those, the immediate and the long term.
(15:42):
He's such a good God. Nothing slips through the cracks with him.
They will not be disgraced in hard times. There's a promise.
Anybody in a hard time, you're not going to be disgraced. That's the promise.
Even in famine, they will have more than enough. One of the things that the
Bible talks about is going to happen in the last days, that there will be shortages
of food. Famines, Jesus said.
(16:03):
Famines and earthquakes. There's a verse in, I'm going to say Matthew 24,
part of a verse where he says you will hear of, I think it's where he says,
but the end is not yet. Then you will hear of famines and earthquakes.
Listen, famine is going to be an ever increasing issue in this world, like a lack of food.
(16:25):
And I don't believe it's going to just stay on the other side of the world over
there near Africa. I think it's going to spread farther than that because it's
just the way things are going to go.
I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but that's the way the book plays out
and everything in the Bible has so far happened exactly, exactly perfectly down
to the every jot and every tittle perfectly right.
(16:47):
So this part will be right as well. But listen to this promise.
Even in famine, they'll have more than enough. Can you even believe the kinds
of promises that God makes us? We miss so much when we don't know what God's
word says and we miss so much more when we know what it says.
We study it, we read it, we're a scholar, we're very religious in that sense,
but we do not live a life of belief.
(17:11):
We don't believe that it's true. Our actions change.
Show that we don't believe that it's true. I know that's true.
How do I know it? Because it's in the word of God, period.
That settles it, period. It's true, period. Verse 23, Psalm 37,
verse 23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
He delights in every detail of their lives. This is fantastic.
(17:32):
I'm going to quickly read verse 24 as well. I hadn't planned that, but I'm going to.
Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand.
Okay, okay, I'm going to do 24 first and then jump back up to 23.
You're going to stumble my friend because we're not perfect, but you know what?
And you have an enemy and he's like, you know, taking potshots at you.
He's trying to trip you, grab you by the hair and kick the back of your knees
(17:55):
and like mash your face into the ground. He's brutal. He's nasty.
He's mean. Satan does not play nice.
He doesn't know how to do that. It's not his MO. He's not able to.
He has been been thrown out of heaven, his ability to be walking in the grace
and the glory of God is gone.
It's been stripped from him. He has been cast out.
(18:16):
And so sometimes I think we forget that oh, he can only behave in ways that are really heinous.
Yeah, he can't do otherwise.
The ability of anybody to be good and kind and loving in this world,
even somebody that doesn't know Jesus from I'm a hole in the wall.
It only comes from God's grace.
I don't know if we always know that, but that's the reality. That's the reality.
(18:40):
So Satan has been removed from access to the grace of God.
He cannot be good to you. He's going to try and make you stumble.
So is your flesh. So is just life. But guess what? Even if you do stumble, you will never, never.
Okay, this is will. Will, will, one of my favorite words to emphasize in God's
promises, and never combine this as a powerful punch they pack.
(19:03):
You will never fall. Why?
Because the Lord is holding you by the hand. Oh, like when you're walking with
your toddler, oh, I got you.
And you pull them back up again and you don't let them fall down and scrape
their knee because you're walking on that bumpy, rocky path,
but you're holding their hand.
So even when they trip over that rock, because they got little feet and their
little legs are short and they can't lift their feet up over all the rocks and
(19:24):
they stumble and fall all because they're looking over here and not where their feet are.
And you still got to buy the arm so you don't let them fall.
Whoop, I just pick you up right at will. Now look at that we went right over that little rock.
And now your feet are back on the level ground. And we're going to keep walking.
And I'm going to keep holding your hand.
You're not going to fall.
Even if you stumble because the Lord's holding you by the hand. I love this.
(19:47):
And also how close is he to you if he's holding your hand.
He's right there, right like, oh man, sticking to you like glue.
It's such a great picture. Verse 23, back up to verse 23, the Lord directs the steps of the godly.
If you will ask him regularly, ideally daily, you know, I think it was Chuck
Smith that used to say, good morning, Lord. I'm awake. It's another day.
(20:11):
I love you. What are we going to do today, Lord? You guide, you lead.
And Calvary has quite a legacy, in case you haven't noticed.
If you ever saw the film, Jesus Revolution, watch it. I think you'll be blessed by it.
Listen, Listen, if you ask him and you want to live a life that honors him,
man, you're all in with Jesus.
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Just glorifying God means so much to you. He's going to direct your steps.
Ask him and he will. Expect it and he will.
He delights in every detail of their lives. What kind of promise is that?
He delights in every detail of your life.
There's nothing lacking. There's no part of it that's like over here outside
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of God's gaze, unless it's real wicked sinfulness and you know he can't look
on it because he's holy, right?
And that's the kind of stuff that is mentioned in verses 3, 4,
and 5 that we need to deal with.
But listen, the reality is, the reality is, if you are sold out to him, living for him,
you love him, you don't want to just wallow in your sin, you want everything
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he has for you because you want to make the most of of this one singular life
you've got, you can count on this verse being true for you.
It's a beautiful, beautiful promise.
It's a beautiful promise. I mean, I almost can't even, you know,
hardly get like enough of the fact that the Lord delights in every detail of
my life. That's amazing.
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That's amazing. You're not hopeless and you're never alone. You can't be abandoned
with a God who delights in every detail of your life.
Verse 30, the godly offer good counsel. They teach right from wrong.
This should be something that believers should be doing. The Apostle Paul talked about that.
Do I have to teach you again the basics of salvation and the good news when
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you should be teaching yourself?
I shouldn't be teaching you again. You yourself should be teaching.
We all need to think that way, like apply that to our own lives.
If we are walking with the Lord, if we are godly, read your Bible and you'll
know what that means to be godly, then we should be offering good counsel.
People around us need counsel.
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Make it good counsel. They teach right from wrong.
For that to be true, we have to realize, acknowledge that there is a right and
there is a wrong. The world we're living in right now, they don't like that.
They don't want there to be right and wrong or black and white.
I mean, you can love anybody and you can love everybody and love is love,
except wait a minute, wait, you love Jesus? That part we don't like.
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We don't mean that though. You Christians who love Jesus, that's not what we
mean when we say everybody should love everybody and love is love. Am I wrong?
Anybody else? Anybody raise their hand and feel like they know what I'm talking
about? Like, you know, this is the truth.
God's word says there is a right and there's a wrong and godly people should
be teaching right from wrong.
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If you're on the sidelines and you never, ever, ever, ever, ever say anything
because it's It's controversial.
You're outside of what the word of God says you're supposed to be doing as someone
who follows the Lord. I don't know if you ever thought about that before.
Probably can't unthink it now that you've heard it. I'm going to read the verse
one more time and ask you to really ponder how this applies to your life,
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your circle of influence, the people that are in your world.
The godly offer good counsel. Offer. That doesn't mean you have to make them.
You're not force feeding them. You can't make them take it, but you offer it.
They teach right from wrong. You teach. They don't have to learn,
but you're still going to be teaching
and offering because God's word says that's what you're to be doing.
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Last two verses for today, 39 and 40. Psalm 37, verse 39 and 40.
The Lord rescues the godly. He is their fortress in times of trouble.
The Lord helps them, rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them and they find shelter in him.
Do you need to be rescued? God is your man.
(24:10):
He's your fortress in times of trouble.
Think about a fortress. We don't really think of them regularly because it's
not a part of our everyday life.
There was a time when you would have needed to know where the nearest fortress
was for us. We need to know where the nearest fortress is.
And I'll tell you what, it's in the Lord. He is our fortress in times of trouble.
(24:30):
When your trouble hits, run to your fortress and be safe and protected there.
The Lord helps them. There's your promise. He's going to help you.
Rescuing them from the wicked. There's wicked in the world. You need a rescuer. were. God is it.
And he has promised to rescue you and help you. He saves them.
Thank you, Jesus, for being our savior. And they find shelter in him.
You know, as a mom who homeschooled her kids for all five kids for about 25
(24:54):
years, preschool to high school graduation, sent them off to college,
I would hear a lot about like, oh, aren't you worried about socialization?
No, they're very social children. My five children are very,
very social. Am I worried about that?
Absolutely not. I'm an extreme introvert. In fact, if I'm worried about anything,
it's about the fact that I am,
like exhausted from all of the socializing that I have to be part of as I drive
(25:19):
my children to all of their things. Like, no, I was never worried about that.
You're sheltering them. Oh, okay.
Well, in the Bible, when God shelters us, it's a good thing.
But when parents are accused of sheltering, it's a bad thing.
And usually those accusations, they came from people within the church.
We need to stop saying that to parents who are in particular homeschooling,
(25:42):
but if they're in other areas, they're like, we don't watch that movie.
We don't watch that Netflix series. My kids can't have a phone until.
Stop doing what we tend to do. And I'm speaking broadly to the church as a whole
and trying to get in there and tell them things like, but you're sheltering them.
They got to experience the real world someday. And they will.
And they surely, surely will. And it's going to be brutal enough then.
(26:05):
Let them have their childhood.
And let each parent do the parenting.
Like it's, we don't do this when people, we don't want to confront the parents
who are like, your kid is out there running wild.
They are making a mockery of Christianity. They are slandering Jesus with their behavior.
We ain't going to talk about that because, you know, that's and then out comes
(26:27):
the judgy pants verses, right?
Which are also like, read what Jesus meant, you'll understand.
And then read everything that Jesus said, and Paul said, and John said,
and Peter said, the founding, you know, I mean, the founders that Jesus said
about Peter on this church, on you, Peter, I'll build my church and the gates
of hell will not prevail against it.
So listen, even Jesus himself told us that we are to judge fruit,
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we are to judge character.
You know, I can't judge you and render a judgment that indicts you,
that enacts an actual punishment.
I don't have that ability. What we think of as judgment that's too harsh is
usually just like, I'm told to judge the fruit in your life.
I'm told to be aware of this, who I'm supposed to be in fellowship with and
(27:10):
who I'm not. and there's biblical models for, okay, at this point,
you can't be in the church anymore, right?
I mean, read your New Testament. You know what I'm talking about here.
We've taken it so far that we're like, we've reversed it.
You can't say this, and I'm saying this about children, because that's my example
with the sheltering. Keep that in mind.
I'm not throwing down on all of y'all with your kids. I'm not doing that.
(27:33):
I'm just using it as an example.
We tend to say that you shelter your kids too much or when are you going to
quit homeschooling or why don't they do more things or don't just give them the phone.
Oh, they're going to be exposed to it anyway, blah, blah, blah.
Sometimes we do that because we don't want to deal with our own kids and their issues.
We know you're right over here taking this stand because we've seen the bad
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fruit of the bad fruit of the bad fruit,
and the corruption and the filth and the garbage in our kids' lives from just
letting them do whatever they want to do.
But yeah, we really don't want to deal with all that.
And so it's easier to just kind of poke at you and say, man, how come you don't?
You know how terrible that is when one parent says to another parent,
especially when the kids are there.
So the kid that has been told, no, you can't do this thing that quote unquote,
(28:18):
everybody else is doing.
I mean, all the other kids in youth group, that's the church kids,
folks. So listen, this is hard for them.
My husband and I did youth ministry for 12 years. We know how hard this is. This is the way it goes.
You're not talking about the kids in the world so much. You're talking about
the kids in the youth group.
When they start putting pressure on you, how come your parents don't let you watch this show?
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Well, it's got too much graphic content and the language and the immorality and the sexual.
It's just not something we've ever had in our home and they stick by their standards.
Just let them, just let your kids do it. When you're having that conversation
with those parents in the church lobby in front of their kid,
questioning them, and your kid now has more ammo to shoot at them with later
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about, see, you're just the dorky kid whose parents are too strict,
when really they're just following what the Bible says about raising children.
We do that kind of judging. But what we don't do is back it up,
stop, and say, wait, you're doing a good job there.
You chose the hard right. You're following the word of the Lord.
Like, We should reverse that. This whole thing should be reversed.
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We shouldn't be judging them and saying, you're sheltering too much.
You're following the word of God too closely, and so you're ruining your children.
That's in essence what people are saying.
Can we just check that and say, whoa, what's going on? There needs to be a huge about face.
And we need to support each other as parents in the church when we're trying
to follow the mandates that the Bible gives us for how to raise godly children.
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Children, because the Bible says the purpose of marriage is,
oh, I don't know what you thought the purpose of marriage is.
And sometimes when people say, I can't wait till my kids turn 18,
throw them out, kiss them goodbye, you know, change the locks and I'm happy for it.
Well, okay, that's weird because the Bible doesn't say the purpose of marriage
is about you and your spouse.
Culture says that. The Bible says the purpose of marriage is to raise up godly seed.
(30:14):
Seed we're raising little christians to be big christians you want a full quiver
so that you can shoot them out and have them launched into the world to do what
god has for them to do as godly seed as godly people that's the purpose of marriage.
So let's maybe stop with the, oh, you're sheltering too much and start realizing
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that if we're going to criticize people, parents for sheltering their children,
then we've got to look at verses like Psalm 37, verse 40 and say,
the Lord helps them rescuing them from the wicked. He saves them.
Oh, but God, that shelter thing, I cannot find my shelter in you.
I don't want to be sheltered. I don't want to be protected.
I don't want to be helped. I don't want to be saved. I don't want to be rescued
(30:57):
from the wicked. I can't because I don't, because in my kid's life,
I just, because I was harping on, on Chuck and Louise.
Those aren't people that I know. I made up those names. I'm sure you can tell
Chuck and Louise about how they shelter their kids.
So, okay, then let's apply it across the board or let's change the narrative.
The narrative won't change though, if we do not change the way we think.
(31:17):
So I'm ending this on a little bit different note than I thought I would.
But I think this is probably something that some of us need to hear because
we haven't thought about it. We just go with the flow of culture.
And sometimes culture on the outside gets enmeshed into culture in the church.
And we end up saying things like that, that we shouldn't be saying to each other.
We have to put everything through the word of God, run it all through the word of God.
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And what comes out, what stays is like, oh, that's been strained away. Okay, good.
Yeah, yeah. That's that's dross that needed to go. And what comes true,
like that's a pure water that runs out.
I think about like those like, oh, you've seen it take the cruddy water and
you dump them in way up here in this like natural habitat and it filters through
this particular type of dirt and there's this moss and there's this grass and
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then there's this kind of gravel and this kind of sand and at the end, the water is so pure.
It's like that. If we run this stuff through the word of God like that,
what comes out is like, oh, that's pure.
That's pure. We need to get back to that. We need to get back to that.
So, okay, I'm going to end on that note.
And again, don't forget those Psalms that I mentioned earlier that are Psalms
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of hope and promise. Psalms 1, Psalm 91, Psalm 37.
That's this one. Psalm 103, Psalm 90, Psalm 139, and Psalm 145.
And I went a little long today.
That's okay. I'll see you back here next time. And thanks so much for listening. All right. Bye-bye.
I'm so glad you joined me for this episode of the Burt, Not Ernie show.
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It's an honor and a blessing to talk about God's promises with you. Have a fabulous day.
And remember, part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.
Lord bless. I'll see you next time.
Music.
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