Dumb Things Smart People Believe About God - Part 4
Well, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to light points. So glad you're here. Welcome to all of you watching online is. Well. I'm thrilled that you're here, although it looks like November out there, Dag gone it. Y'All need to stop saying Yay. Anyway, it is. It really is. Good to see. We're closing out a series we've been in for the last few weeks called dumb things. Smart people believe we're. Here's what we've really been doing. What we've really been doing is taking a deeper theological look into some of the biblical themes that we find in and trying to figure out where God's position really is and where he should be. And I think, you know, I was, I was reading scripture this, this last week, uh, here. Here's why we did it. I think the apostle Paul really says it best in second Timothy Four. He says this for a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching, they will follow their own desires, rejecting the truth and chasing after myths.
And so, and so the fact is, you know, I had a, I had a number of conversations this last week that, that are dealing exactly what the topic that we're going to be talking about today. And so, here's what we're going to talk about today. All right, here's what we're going to talk about happiness or talking about happiness. We're going to talk about how, how, you know, when we make that kind of are our overarching a desire in our life because there's a strong cultural thought process that we should live to be happy that we should do whatever it does it takes to, to make us happy. Right? And I know that when I say that, some of you in this room, you look at me like, oh man, here it goes, right? I mean, the church, they don't want us to be, ha, rusty. He doesn't want us to be happy.
It's all about suffering for Jesus. You know, like that's what we can see. If you know me at all, you know that I don't believe that at all. That's actually far more eastern mysticism than it is Christianity. In fact, over the years I've done a lot in my life to try to kind of build some happiness in there, maybe build a happiness and other people as well. I remember when I was first dating my wife, Brittany. How many of you married folks remember when you were dating your according? Remember that? Yeah, I mean, I, I did whatever it took to make her happy because she was just way above my league, you know, just being honest. I'm not even kidding. Uh, but, but it was kind of like one of those country songs, what I'm talking about, which I still believe or not on the Lord, to be honest with you.
Only thing worse than countries. Western. I'm just speaking truth. That's what I'm doing. But, and I know that doesn't fly in Lake Stevens. I don't care. I'm just trying to teach you the word of God. So here we go. Um, but I heard this one song recently, it was called drunk on. You guys know that song, like even the titles are sinful, right? I mean, you see that. Okay, Luke, Bryan Lupron. But in that line, he said in there, he says his line, is she in a Tan? She definitely a nine point nine, right? Yeah. And so that was my, what you call, you know that that was my wife. I mean, she's amazing. She's a nine point nine if she isn't a 10. Right. And so, everything I did was like, I just wanted her to know that she was awesome, and I would do anything to make her happy.
And so, everything she loved, it was my favorite. I don't care what it was my favorite. She would come up to me when we recorded you, honey, you know, I want to go to the farmer's market. I'm like, yeah baby. It's my favorite. I love all them candles and one is amazing. You know, she, she said, I really want to watch lane mess. Phantom of the opera baby. Absolutely. I love it. Is My favorite. Right? I love all that kind of stuff. She said. She said, honey, you know what I. I love Mexican food. Do you love Mexico? Absolutely, baby. I love Pinto beans, Guacamole, Tostada, Tortilla Burrito, all of us Asians. Love that stuff is great for is my favorite. Right. She said one time to me and she said, honey, I love the fact that you love coming over to my house and hanging out with my family was.
I hated that, but I said it was my favorite. She's the oldest of 11. Okay. That means there's 13 of these mugs in this, in this household, and me being a natural intro, I'm serious. I'm a natural introvert. I guess having anxiety going over to their house and I'm like, oh my gosh, I got to deal with all of this that's going on right now. I mean, but it didn't matter because it was my favorite. Right. I mean she could have asked me, baby, do you like port and Jalapeno sauce on your eyeballs? Yes, it's my favorite. It's a blast. I love it. You know, and see everything I did was to try to make her happy because all I really want. I wanted that relational connects. Right. Were because I had, I would be happy and so I did anything. It took, so I would be, I would be happy in that and see, I think at some level we all get this relationship.
We all get trying to be happy. Right. It's not just boyfriend, girlfriend, but, but maybe it's from those old school tv shows that we used to watch. You guys remember those where they always had something like the lone ranger. Who. Did he have tonto? Yes. Gilligan had. So, skipper, right? Captain Kirk had. Yeah, honey boo boo had in enabling mother. That's who she had for real. But it, it's in our TV. It's on our advertising. It's in our music. How many parents are in the room? Yes. Do me a favor, turn the house lights on a little bit higher for me so I can see. But uh, you know, I don't know that for real. So, I remember that for real song back in happy. Yeah. I loved it until it was like the 690, fifth time they sang it in the backseat of my van, you know, and I'm like just stop singing.
Right? Like, or maybe how many nineties people, any nineties people in here, because remember that Sheryl Crow Song, if it makes you happy, it can be that, that yes, it can and for really can write any sixties people in here. Yeah, come on. There's a lot at my first service for sure. You know, I'm just glad y'all were able to get out of bed. But anyway, like remember that song, don't worry. Yes. And see this thought process, whole thought process about happiness is pervasive in our society and see here's the reality. I'm not saying it's wrong right up until it is. There's nothing wrong with it. Right? I'm good. There are actually is when it becomes our life goal, would, it becomes something that we keep striving for above all else. I just want to be happy because that's actually what it starts wreaking havoc in our lives and see a lot of times we don't, we don't typically say that outright, but we show it interactions.
I did, I was doing a little research this last week when I was looking at this message and I was thinking, well, you know, uh, I, I looked into to happiness and there's a lot of research that's done in this, it's called positive psychology. I'm sure some of you have probably heard of it before, but it's been around for the last 35 years or so in one of the leading researchers is a guy named Ed Diner. And he wrote a book. He wrote a book called happiness unlocking the mysteries of psychological wealth and, and basically what he does is he finds after 30 years he found all of this information about, about happiness that I thought was very, very interesting and thought I thought I'd share just a few of them with you, but here's you ever heard that phrase, money can't buy happiness. You ever heard that before?
Yeah. Well, at some level he says that's actually false. He says, if you're moving from, from extreme poverty and you're able to go up into one more rung and have your basic needs met. Uh, he says that happiness levels do increase, but typically the greater resources you have an actually the more dissatisfied and discontent people become. Right. And I know some of you are thinking, you're like, I'm still willing to test that theory and I understand that because I'm right there with you. Uh, there's another one he talks about it, about age. We actually say that, that maybe for the young are the happiest you ever heard that before. Yeah, because you know, we've still got our beauty for sure. Right? Yes. Uh, you know, typically you have your health. A lot of you still have a six pack. Maybe I've graduated to a two liter, but that's what I have right now.
But see, but see Asia, you know, typically you typically say, you know, the happiest people have to be the youngest people, right? Ed says, no, that's not true. After all the research, you know, you know what age group he says are the happiest people on Earth? Anybody want to guess? Sixty. So, anyone over 55, that's what anyone. And I'm like, yeah, you know, that makes sense, right? I mean, more typically more discretionary income, uh, and they got no kids in the house. Like I think it's gonna be amazing when, when I get there, right? Or the last one that he talks about climate and he says, Hey, you know what, you think that, that people who live in sunny or warmer, warmer climates are happier. But he says that's actually not true. He says there's no direct correlation between climates and happiness tells me he didn't interview anybody from Washington in February, but I'm just telling you, that's what it says. Right? And See, I've been pastoring for a long time and I've seen a lot of people, they'll buy into this thought process that we should simply, you don't make the goal of our life to be right. That we should say, you know what, whatever, whatever makes you happy. That's what you should pursue in life. Where, again, we don't always say that outright, but we do say it in our actions where I've seen it before, over and over and over.
We're also them, as you know, is it was their personal happiness that justified that affair. Right. What was that personal happiness that justified them continuing to swipe the credit card and now they're living under crushing debt that's causing turmoil in their relationships, right? Or maybe it was a personal happiness that justified the casual sex in their life or is the personal happiness that justified them walking out of their marriage because I'm just not happy anymore and I've seen it over and over and over again and see at some point, I think all of us honestly right on all of us have made terrible decisions in the name of happiness. Anybody willing to admit the person sitting next to you has done that? Yes. Hand shooting them. Where does this theology of happiness come from? Where does this stem from?
Like, I think like a lot of things like we've talked about the last few weeks, it often comes from a misunderstanding, uh, that, that is often talked about in scripture. And so, we're going to we're going to dive into this, but, but I just got to let you know upfront. I'm actually going to go a little bit shorter today and some of you are saying thank you Jesus. See, I knew it, see, that's my friend Kevin again, you know, with friends like that. But anyway, and here's why though, we, you know, on Tuesdays the staff of pastoral stuff would get together and we dissect the service and we said, well, you know, how'd that go? How was that, you know, and, and so we'd got to my sermon last time and, and, and I said, yeah, how was it? And it's, Oh yeah, it was, it was okay, you know, no, not that great, but it was okay, right? And, and I said, well, how long did it go? And he said, Pastor Trevor speaks. He said, 36 minutes. He said it felt like 42 but 36 minutes, bro. That's, that's what it was. And so, if anybody's looking for a great employee, there's gonna be one available for you asked, whichever is a good dude. Uh, but I want to dive into this today. Okay? And so, pull that outline of your program online. Go ahead and press the button right, take some notes. Here's the first Missoni. Here's where it stems from. It stems from this. Number one is God's position in the universe,
guys position in the universe is who this is especially true for those of us who call ourselves Christ followers, where we can begin to think that, that sometimes God's primary concern for us is to be happy to, to make things go smoothly in our lives, and see the danger of us thinking that this is the way that God has, has wired the world. You know what it is, it elevates us to a position where the god of the universe now exists to serve us rather than we exist to serve the god of the universe. See, it's subtle, but it's seductive, right?
So, this morning, here's what I want to do. I want to point us back to a story that we find in the Old Testament where we've kind of been doing that over the last few weeks, but I think it really is going to help us figure out, you know, God's position, uh, in the universe. And so, I want it to look at the book of Daniel. I don't know if you've ever read the book of Daniel. It's a, it's a phenomenal book, uh, but, but I think it will be helpful and so I'm going to start out with telling you the sits and Laban alright. Sits and Laban is German word. Its German scholars use to use it. And since I spent $20,000 on seminary, and six years of my life, I'm going to use it as much as I pleased to use that word. Uh, basically it means context.
Okay? So, I'm going to give you the context of what's going on here. And so, book of Daniel, basically it takes place in, in 580 BC. And what you're going to see if you go in and read it at home is you're going to see that the Babylonians who were the big dogs on campus, they ruled everything. They started conquering nations. They conquered kingdoms and they would assimilate all of these, conquered people into their culture. And so, in this particular time where we're going to pick this up, uh, you know, the Babylon, they've overthrown the Israel lights, right? God's chosen people. And so, they are taking the best and the brightest captive. And, and so they've taken capture of a guy named Daniel. And so, take him to the palace, to, to assimilate him. Well, the king of the Babylonians, his, he was a guy by the name of Nebuchadnezzar, a great baby name, if you're looking for one right now, but he was, he was literally called the king of kings.
He was called the king of kings because he had conquered everyone. And so, at this point in history, uh, the nation of Israel has had been destroyed. And so, for all intents and purposes, the religion of the Israelites had also been destroyed as well. And so presumably the sovereign God of the Israelites was dead as well. And so, the Babylonians were, were forcing people to worship their gods. And so, it's in this setting that God decides I'm going to teach the world something right here, and specifically it says, I'm going to teach Nebuchadnezzar about, about his position in the universe. Look at, look at this first verse there in Daniel. This, it never [inaudible] words, Daniel four forces. I was living in my palace and comfort and prosperity. But one night I had a dream that frightened me. Folks. Here's the translation. Nebulous. Happy. He was loving life.
He could have anything you wanted. He could have anyone he wanted. Every day was a Friday. I mean, it was good. He was having a good, good life, right? But then one night something scared them to death is he had a dream in it and it and it absolutely scared him to death. And so, and so. I'll tell you what, that, what that dream was, it was basically this, that he dropped it. There was this enormous tree, right? Enormous tree in the center of this, of this landmass. And this tree gave life to everything. Everything in the air, all the birds took, took shelter in the tree. All the animals underneath a found, found life underneath this tree. Like they, like everything was surrounding this tree. And you could walk up to this tree and if you walk to this tree and he had a really long hair, you could plug into it.
No, that's Avatar. My bad. No, but there was this enormous tree, right? The center of everything. And then at one point in time, this messenger shows up from heaven, he says, this tree is going to be cut down, but the roots are going to be left to wallow for seven years among the beast of the fields. And right then Nebuchadnezzar wakes up. Instead of making a long story short, basically he calls in all these astrologers and magicians and all that nobody could interpret as James and he heard the Daniel was, was an individual that could do that. And so, he calls Daniel in and so Daniel comes in and he says, okay, I'll, I'll interpret it. So, so here's the scene, right? You've got Daniel standing there and he is literally standing in front of the king of kings. And he says, okay, I'm going to interview Bircher dream for you.
He says, here's what the dream means. He says, you are that tree. You are the tree, and God is going to cut you down in one year he's going to cut you down. And the reason why is because you've positioned yourself in a place where the world looks to you. The world sees you as his ultimate power. The world sees you as the king of kings and so God through you is going to teach us for the lesson that you do not rule this world. That's what he says. He's going to cut you down and, and not only are you gonna lose your power, but you're actually gonna go mentally insane for seven years and you're going to live like an animal. Glad I could help you out. Drop some. Mike walks off Wiki Wiki, like done, walks out, right? Let's see. I don't. I mean, could you imagine? Could you imagine that? Could you imagine standing there and you can picture it on. It's crazy, right? But See, God tells us why. Why he did it. Daniel four, verse 25, he said, until you learned that the most high rules over the kingdoms of the world and gives them to anyone he chooses.
See if you're like me, you read this in scripture and you're like, man, that is harsh. I mean, this is this. Wow, right where this doesn't. This doesn't paint God in this kind of happy go lucky. You know, blonde hair, blue eyed Jesus traipse into the lily fields with a lamb on his shoulder like this is not. This is not that God that Jesus right. This is God saying I am the I am and he's saying this isn't about you. It's not about us, but it's about him. And yet sometimes
I think in our own universe we can place ourselves at the center of it where our priority becomes our own happiness. Our priority becomes our own desires. Our priority becomes us and it's a very dangerous place to be again because it puts us with this, this mindset that God exists to serve us rather than we exist to serve God, which is exactly what God was trying to teach, never condenser, and when it was all said and done, after he had wallowed for seven years living like an animal, all of that, it's never, never, never stands up and he says this. He says, all the people of the earth are nothing compared to him. He does as he pleases among the angels of Heaven and among the people of the earth. No one can stop them or say to him, what do you mean by doing such things? It was powerful. See, the reason I tell you that story because my hope is this. My hope is that when you walk out of this room, you will have a greater understanding of who God is and his position in the universe and not because of condemnation or retribution or any of that, but because I think there's some of you in this room and you need to hear this, that I think that your picture of God is deficient.
I think you see God. Do you see this? Maybe a small guide that you see Jesus traipsing to the lily fields again, but you don't see this all powerful, mighty God who can actually help you when you're going through struggles. Because I have conversation after conversation after conversation with people and I'm not trying to minimize the pain or the hurt or the difficulties, but I also know that there are people who come to me and say, rusty, I can't get through this.
Yes,
I can't understand how I'm going to overcome the struggles in my marriage or my financial struggles or the struggles with my addiction on of, of alcohol or drugs or porn or greed or whatever it is. I can't do it and I keep pointing them to Jesus because he's powerful. He is the I am
and he says that, I got you. He says, I am the one that can help you see, well, we have a proper view of how great our God is and his position in the universe. Folks, everything thing begins to change and it's no longer God exist to serve us, but as we that we exist to serve God and we find our rightful place and we experienced joy and blessings in our life and our response will be this, that we find a beautiful response in revelation 4:11. Look at what it says. You are worthy. Oh Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and they exist because you created what you pleased folks and we can get there. We can begin to learn that, that we can trust everything he says because his promises are always true, and his word never returns void. That God will always, always be there for you. First one is God's position in the universe. Number two, that often we can misunderstand the priorities of God in our life.
We can misunderstand the priorities of God in your life. And I, you know, sometimes I see this in the strangest of places, you know, every once in a while, I like to take my kids to make Donald's. I do. Some of you just realized how much better you are than me. That's okay. I understand for sure. But anybody else loved their kids in here not to take them to McDonald’s. Yeah, for sure. Right? Yes. And if you have small children, if you have young children, what's the number one thing they always wanted? McDonald’s. Yeah, the crappy meal for sure, you know, and they begged for it and whatnot. And, and here's the thing, it's not even the meal, right? Is that ten cent dinosaur stamp that they got in there that they absolutely love, right? I mean, they could care less about it, but some marketing genius and I think they're geniuses because some marketing genius, I've put some McNuggets, some fries, chocolate milk, and a dinosaur stepping. My kids will just yell for it, you know, they do. Where, where I, actually personally don't have a problem he taught, but except my youngest son, he feels like, Daddy, I've got a McDonald's shape hole in my heart that it can only be filled with a happy meal. You know? That's the only thing in fill it daddy, whatever. Right? And I'm not dogging on McDonald’s because I loved that ninety-nine cent dollar menu. Anybody else loves that? Yeah, anybody's cheap. Yeah, come on. That's right. It's good.
But see, sometimes I'm not as strong as I should be and so I give into my kids that are always asking for it and whining for it and whatnot. And then what do they do? We don't even, we don't even get to the table to sit down, but they've already taken out that toy and by the time you've gotten home, they play with that toy. They broke that too. And they lost that 20 underneath my seat in the minivan with the French fries. I'm not bitter, but that's what happens because their little centers, that's why that happens. Right? But see, you want to know the problem with happy meals. You want to know how the happy wears off, doesn't it? The happiness always wears, wears off. As soon as we get older. I don't. I don't think we really get all that much smarter. Our happy meals, what happens is they just get more expensive, don't they? They do. They just get more expensive.
If we can buy into this theology of happiness where we're. When we do that, we're, we're making some pretty big assumptions where they're really assumptions about what God finds most important in our life. Matthew Chapter six, verse 31. We've looked at it many times in the last couple of years, but. But basically, you know what it tells me, it tells me that people's priorities haven't really changed in the last 2000 years. It really hasn't. Look, look at what it says. Matthew chapter six says, Jesus says this. He says, don't worry about these things. Saying, what will we eat and what shall we drink and what will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else underlying that and live righteously and he will give you everything
you need.
Here's a couple of things about this passage of scripture. Number one, I think it reveals the priority of God. Jesus says, quit chasing all the stuff of life, but I think number two, it also reveals a conditional promise. And over the last few weeks, every single one of the verses that we've looked at have revealed this conditional promise, right where it says that if we, if we, uh, God will meet our needs when we seek him and his purposes above all else, it's been this under arching theme of this entire series where we're, God's number one priority is not our happiness, but it's his kingdom, that we would align our, our, our life with his kingdom and his purposes and all that he wants to accomplish in the here and now. And so, here's the question. The question is, what are you seeking in your life? Above all of them? I seriously, I want you to think about that for a second. What are you seeking in your life? Above all else? What are you seeking? What drives you? What motivates you, what, what caused you to pursue whatever it is that you're pursuing?
Now? I'm the father of four kids, 13, 11, nine, and six, right? But as a dad who, who loves my children with everything I've got right, my, my, my motivation, but you know, it's not their happiness. It's not about do I want my kids to be? Absolutely I do. But you know what? I want more. I want them to have joy. I want to have joy. I also want them to be, you know, responsible, contributing, mature adults who leave my house at 18, but I want joy in their life and see the reality is I want, I want way more than fleeting moments of happiness for them. I do. I love it when I give him those. Absolutely. But because I see a bigger picture for my kids, I often will say no, why? Because I'm and I'm cruel and I'm angry at no, but it's because I see things that they don't see it in. God does the same thing in our life that he sees things that we don't see. I mean, if we, if we went with what my kids wanted to do every single day, folks, we would have Krispy Kreme’s for breakfast, right? We'd eat ice cream for lunch, McDonald’s for debt. We live in Disneyland. That's like, that's what we would do, right? And all of us would be miserable.
Let's see. The pursuit of the point of the pursuit of happiness cannot be the purpose of our lives. Again. Why? Because it's not strong enough to carry the weight. It's not strong enough to do. The scripture says, when we're willing to put God in his rightful position, despite all the calamity, despite all the difficulties, by the troubles and the and the danger, Paul says what he says, overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus Christ. Why? Because he's strong enough to handle it because he's strong enough to carry that.
So, here's what I want us to do. Our remaining time together. I want us to receive communion together. I'm going to ask the band to come back on a couple of reasons. One, because I want to. I want to end this series that we've been learning things and understanding God's positioning. The I want. I want to say, God, we, we understand, thank you for what you've done for us, but it also want to give us an opportunity to say, Lord, is there a place when I was asked that question of what do I seek above all else? If there was anything other than God in that position, forgive me, search me, O Lord, see if that's in me. Help me take that out, God, that I can put you in your rightful place in this universe and I exist to serve you. Is he around here? We practice open communion where you don't have to be a member of the church. You don't have to go through any classes,
but again, scripture is clear that, that the weirder to take this with reverends, Holy Spirit's search us. Let us be thankful and have gratitude for what God has done for us, but at the same time, let us be. That has be made pure and say, okay, well we want to. You want to be about your business again, so the ushers, please come on forward. They're going to come on to her to hand out the elements. Take one, hold it. Now after this song, I'll come back up and lead us in receiving communion.
He me, yes. Sad sets for me. Yay. Yes, yes. No, you not a chance. Oh yes. Yes.
I think the beauty of our God is that he is the I am, that he is powerful and great and awesome and worthy to be praised and yet he comes to us sacrificially and says, I'll serve you the creative. He dies for us because his life for us. He takes his buddies up in an upper room and he says, this is represents the bread. The bread represents my body, which I will willfully give for you. Take you need in every time you do it in remembrance of me and in the same manner he. He takes the wine and he says, this is represents my blood that I willfully shed for you because I love you because I care about you because I care about what you're going through, but I want to be invited in and say, Hey, I can help you through this stuff. Just kind of let me just take a drink and do, and every time you do it and remember to me, father, I pray that we would truly begin to understand your position in this world, that you are the ultimate father, but you are the ultimate giver of life that you, that you love us.
You got your worthy to be praised. Father, forgive us as well. If we put ourselves in that position, we put ourselves in the position that is, it's all about us. God, I pray that you will teach us. This would be a church that says no. It's all about God and spot other people, always father, help us to understand that. So, Lord, I pray that as we go out of this room, God, we will be better servants or because of this knowledge will be better. Husbands, better, better wives, better parents, children, because you, you are in your rightful place. We love you this morning. We thank you in Jesus' name, Amen.
