Right, yes, I know. Well, hey, good morning. Good morning. It's good to see all of you here. It's funny how the attendance goes up when the Seahawks on a bye week. It's just funny how that works. It's great to see all of you online as well. Thank you for joining us. I'm excited. We're in week three of our series called it's personal or, or what we're doing is we're kind of looking at some of the obscure things that we find in scripture where Jesus talks about it or the Bible talks about it and, and really it's something personal that is trying to tell us that God is really trying to tell us until a couple of weeks ago we started this series with, with honesty and integrity, talking about those things. It was great. Uh, and then last week though, my friend Derek was here, and he talked all about hot tubs.
It was an awesome, awesome message. I hope you. Who was here last week for that? Who's here? Yeah, some of you are lying because I know you weren't here anyway like, but it was great. No, I think, I think it was a fantastic message. I really do. In fact, uh, but it never fails. Anytime anyone of my friends comes up and speaks a, they get more love in the lobby and on Facebook than I ever get you. I'm not bitter, but it's true. You know, like, I'm not kidding. This is not hyperbole. There must have been 20 people. They came up to me and said, rusty, did you just hear what Derek said? He was amazing. Like, you just don't know. No, rest of you understand. He was awesome and I'm looking. I'm like, yeah, okay. I get it, you know. But there was one guy, he's actually a good buddy of mine. He was out there in the lobby. He said, Rusty, why can't you be more like Derek?
I'm like, Bro, come on. I'm like, first of all, it's a pigmentation issue. But then second of all, here's the thing, okay. Uh, his church is in federal way. You are more than welcome to go there if you'd like, right? But I called Derek after and said, man, you were getting so much love. They really love that. Thank you so much for coming up. I really appreciate it, but that'll just be the last week that you're ever here. I'm just saying. Okay. This morning I wanted to hit on yet another topic that's somewhat obscure, but. But here's the thing. I think it's one of those topics that, that we are really good at talking to our kids too about. We're really good at talking to our, to our teenagers about where sometimes though it's a little more difficult for us to live out in our life. You know what we're going to talk about today?
Laziness. Mm. Lazy and yeah. His thing that I know, I say that word, I say that word and some of you already automatically write it off and say, yeah, this message ain't for me. Rusty. If you knew my schedule right, you would know that man I am. I'm constantly moving. I got no time. I mean I'm out there, I'm going to work and when I'm done with work, I come home, I take my kid to practice, right? We got soccer practice like eight days a week, you know, it's just a lot of practice. And then my youngest, I put, I've been put her in tumbling class. I mean, she's the most amazing tumbler out. You should see her tumble, right? And then after I'm done with that, I come home, and I make dinner and then we do homework. And then when I'm finally all said and done 9:00 or whatever, I kick my feet up, sit on the couch, right?
And I turned on something wholesome. So, watching the voice, this is us, right? The walking dead, just something wholesome. You know what I'm saying? Like I just turn on something, right? And I just, I just get to get to relax and say, here's what I know. I completely believe all of that to be true. I get it. I complete all of that is totally true. But here's what I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced that business is the Antonym for laziness. Okay? I'm not convinced that business is actually the Antonym for. I'm not convinced of that. And so, here's, here's what I'm going to do today. I'm a, I'm, I promise you, I'm not going to throw out a whole bunch of clichés to you, but I might, I'm going to challenge you a little bit on this because I believe that God actually challenges us all on this, on this topic.
We're might not even be in dealing with what you do, but maybe a little bit more and how you, how you think. Okay. Because here's the thing, laziness is one of those things in our culture. Uh, I don't think it's not only tolerant, but it's actually encouraged, like, have you noticed that? Like it is like, I mean, okay, I'll prove it to you. What is the, the one chair that every man when he's wanting to watch football, wants to sit in the lazy boy? Yes. My wife and I, we have been in search of a couch for the last, I don't know, six months or so. We're looking online trying to figure it out because our last couch, our, our current couch has a bunch of paint stains on it. Right. It's got some tears in it, you know, it used to be perfect and then I had kids sit on it and that's not perfect anymore.
Right. And so, and so we're in search for this couch. Well, well here's, here's my thought process on the couch. I have two prerequisites for providing any couch men. You'll agree. Every single seat has to recline and they all have to have cup holders. Like that's it, right. That's all I need. The problem that I knew I'd get an amen. The problem is though, is that she, she found a couch on like Esty or Pinterest or whatever made out of like pallet wood in mason jars. Right? Like, so it's like, it's not even comfortable. You know what I'm saying? Here's what I want to couch that's like, it's like a bed, like I just want to be cozy, you know? I want a bed like couch. That's what I. Because I want to be lazy. Right. Hey, thank you man. Jesus is here this morning for sure.
The funny thing though is that we don't celebrate other sins in our culture. Like we do. Laziness, right? Like we don't have the lust boy sleeper sofa, angry boy padded room, like we don't have these types of things. Right? But see again though, I think. I think scripture. I think. I think the Bible talks a lot about laziness. I mean Jesus himself talks about it in the parable of the talents. If you've ever read that, like he's, you know, he talks all about this and see, I think though, it's because God is trying to help us move toward a future that he has for us where we want that for ourselves too. But I think sometimes we get stuck. I think sometimes we can get stuck and so what does this reality really tell us about ourselves? Do me a favor. Pull that outline. Under your program, there's two things that I want you to write down.
Here's the first reality. The first one, it says, we all want positive momentum, right? That's a real thing. We all want positive momentum. We want to be moving forward, but reality too is this. Everything has a tendency to deteriorate, that everything if left on its own will drift when we don't give it attention. When we don't give it energy, everything has a tendency to drift. That is just how human life works. If you don't believe me, look at the person sitting next to you. No, I'm kidding. Don't, don't do that. I will tell you this though. Uh, I have not been to the gym in two months. Things are starting to drift. You know what I'm saying? Like they just, they just are. And See, this doesn't just happen to us physically, but I think it happens in our minds too. I think we get lazy in our inner, in our, uh, in our minds.
And when that starts adding things to our online to deteriorate, right, we begin to begin to become apathetic. We become complacent. We can settle for far less than we can settle for living. Not with a great life in mind, but we can settle with a, with a good enough life in, uh, in our mind. Right? I'll explain it this way. How many of you guys have ever heard of a guy named Gideon into bio? Anybody here to bring? Yeah, I've talked a lot about getting in the past, but, but, but I think there's, there's a section in Gideon story that really speaks to this and if you don't know Gideon story, basically Gideon is this guy that God calls to do amazing things. He's, he, he's called to be a leader. He, he judges over Israel. He winds battles all of this. But, but, but look at how this, how this starts out.
It's actually in verse 11, and basically, it's this section of scripture called the call of Gideon. Here's what it says. It says, the angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak at Oprah that belonged to Joe Ashley, a Bs right where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a wine press to keep it from the meionites. When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, the Lord is with you. Mighty warrior, right? And see if you've never read this before, here's what you got to understand about getting, getting is scared. Okay? That's why he's actually in a wine press. And you've heard some of you have heard that before, that, that he's afraid because the meionites are taking everything. They're enslaving their people basically by, by starving all of them, and so and so. Gideon is sitting there and he's in a wind pant and he's, and he's threshing wheat by the way, you don't do that.
That's not where you do that, but he's doing it because he doesn't want the meionites to steal the food. Right? And yet in the midst of that, the angel of the Lord comes to him. And what does he say? He says, Hey, mighty warrior, right? He says, Hey, mighty warrior. And See, a lot of times when I've read this before, I think, oh, this is where God's just being funny, right? How many of you realize that God is sarcastic? Like he's okay? Y'All realize that? Yeah. No, if you don't read the Bible, like you'll see it a lot. Okay? Anybody here sarcastic at all? Like think. It's like the sixth love language. I believe it. These are the people that are closest to Jesus. I'm not even kidding. Like God is our sarcastic God. But see, I don't believe that this is one of those moments.
They. Yes. Gideon is afraid. Yes. Gideon is timid. Yes. Gideon is scared. He's. He said he's hiding out. Right? And what does God say? God says, Hey, mighty warrior. What's God doing? What's he doing here? Here's what I think he's doing. I think he's trying to introduce him to a hymn that getting doesn't even know yet. That makes sense. I think trying to introduce Gideon. Gideon, Gideon doesn't even know yet where he's trying to say, hey, you know what? I want to introduce you to your potential self where he's trying to tell him how his future self will be. If you would just realize what God, what God is calling him to see. Here's the thing, if God will do that to Gideon, I think I do the exact same thing to every single one of us where he calls us to something greater than we would ever even really, we would never even think of.
Right? The guy that can do more infinitely more than what we could ever dream or fathom or thinking, whatever they can cause us to that see, because of our natural downward spiral, we don't always allow ourselves to go there. That sometimes we can sit there, and we can think all you know, laziness, or just about our outward efforts, right? It's just about the things that we, that we do and so I'm not lazy. I'm good, and yet and yet you know why we do that. You don't. We do it because you will always settle when you compare your present to your past. Get that you will always settle with you. Compare your present to your past. You have to compare your present to your potential. That's what you have to do,
and then you realize, oh, I got work to do. God is calling me to this. I've got more stuff that I've got. I've got to become more. I've got. I've got to go after God even more that you, whatever you aim at determines on what you want. You'll see, right? It's about our priorities it folks. Here's the reality. Here's the truth. God calls you by name and in fact, he actually says that you are a new creation, right? Scripture says you are a new creation, and yet we don't often realize that because we allow ourselves to be lazy in this area of our life and we don't fulfill the potential that God has for us.
Max Dupree, he's a famous CEO of Herman Miller. He was fortune 500 company, all of that. Uh, you talked a lot about leadership. People used to ask them a whole bunch of stuff about leadership because he was, he was, he was great at it, but they asked them this one question. He said, what is the most difficult thing that you personally have to work on? They asked Max. Then Max, his response was this. He said, it's the interception of entropy. Define entropy as a tendency for everything to deteriorate. And so, for the rest of this message, that's kind of to be our, our working definition. And so, I want to look at some, some warning sides. First of all, just on, on what are some warning signs of, of entropy. See if you can see yourselves in, as. I'm going to go through these really quickly. So, write these down. These are from Max Dupree number one, a tendency toward superficiality, and this is where you just don't go deep with people. Maybe you kind of keep it at the surface level. You live a shallow life. Uh, and the downside of that is sometimes we become a very shallow, shallow person. Here's another one, unresolved tension in key relationships. You'll see that as a part of entropy. Another one is a, is a vague sense of guilt. All the Catholics in the room know what I'm talking about.
I'm going to get in trouble anyway. No time for celebration. I'm being honest. I fall in this a lot. I don't, I don't, I don't celebrate well, um, I just don't know when I confuse heroes and celebrities, folks, Taylor swift and Kanye west are celebrities. They are not heroes. Our, our teachers, our police officers, our firemen, our military personnel, those are our heroes, right?
Um, and then the last one is the loss of gratitude just sounds like my children, to be honest with you. But anyway, here's the thing, if you can see any of these as a in your life decreases, these are signs that entropy is setting in and, and, and what happens is you can damage friendships, you can damage relationships, work, family, character, finances. You can, you can damage all of these things. Where here's, here's why I've seen as the most you want know where I've seen this most is actually in the church. I've seen this happen in the church and I've told you many times that my wife and I, we planted five churches. We've been the associate and senior associate pastor of two mega churches and so and so. I've been around church for a long time, but I've also seen where our church can go from, hey, we want to, we want to take on more of the world for God's kingdom that we want to help people understand the grace and love and hope that Jesus Christ has for their life. We want to be able to invest in our youth and our kids and we want to do all of these things. But then it starts to wane, right? And we started doing the exact opposite.
We're just like us. Every single church has a tendency toward a deterioration and entropy consenting. And when entropy sets in dream start, dream start to fade. And the reason why is because it. It starts to shift. The focus begins to shift from, from what God is calling us to do the mission that God has for us. It's just from all of that to internal and we start getting caught up in this whole thing is saying, how does this benefit us? Right? How is this benefiting my family? And so, it becomes subtle. It's subtle, but it's. But it's dangerous. I'm thankful though that that scripture actually gives us a way. It gives us a warning, but it also gives us a way out of this as well, which is where we're going to park for the rest of our time together. Most of the verses were we looking at is in the book of proverbs, but.
But here's, here's the. Here's what proverbs 13 says. It says, the sluggard craves and buys lotto tickets and gets nothing. I'm kidding. Anybody here buy a lotto ticket is one point 6 billion. Now I'm a bilateral tickets. So anyway, here's. Here's what it says. If you need help on learning how to tie that, I will help you need to call me sluggard trays and gets nothing but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied. How do we do this? How do we gain momentum? How do we, how do we avoid the sluggard? Right? How do we entropy in our lives? I think there's a few different ways. Here's the first one. I want you to write this down. How do we gain momentum? We look for opportunity. Look for opportunity. My kids are getting to the age now where they're not really always chasing me around and trying to hang out all the time and, and so.
And so just this last week I went up to my son and I was like, hey baby, you know what? Why don't, why don't we, uh, why don't we go play basketball together? Like, let's just go outside and we can hang out and just me and you just one on one time. And he looked at me, what he said, he said, you know what, Daddy, now I'm good. I'm going to go watch Minecraft on YouTube videos. And I looked at him and I'm like, okay baby. And then the very next morning I took him out of the will. That's called a natural consequence of actions we take. I'm just letting you put that in there. But here's the thing, uh, yesterday I was actually for the last couple of days were painting our house and so, uh, we're trying to get this all painted and I got a picture of it here.
The problem is though, is that I am terrified of heights. Anybody else in here? Like I'm, I'm terrified of I, I, I am so far. I mean folks, I am an anointed man of God. Have faith in power, but I cannot climb a ladder. Okay. So, I got up on it, see the top part up there. It's supposed to be black. And so, I had to get up there to try to paint that. But here's what happened to. So, I got halfway up this ladder. I freaked out, came back down, couldn't do it, so I tried it again. I couldn't do it. I like, I tried. So, what I did was on the other side, there's a, there's a smaller part so I jumped on the smaller part of the roof and then jumped onto the top part of the roof. But as soon as I got to the top part, you know what I did?
I went straight on my stomach and I did the army crawl everywhere I went because I was freaked like I couldn't do it. Like I was like, are you kidding me? I couldn't do it. And so, I was so scared. I started crying out to God. I'm like, Lord, there has to be asleep. Father help me right now. I need it right now. Help me. Right. And so, I'm crying out and, and uh, and he answered me. He did, he answered me, and I was like, oh, thank you Jesus. And so, he gave me this solution right here.
I was so thankful for this. This is called seizing the opportunity. Ladies and gentlemen, please do not call cps on me. This is called Hashtag father of the year right here. He did it and I was. I was literally going to pay somebody to do it and because I couldn't get up there and I paid him, but it was like 25 bucks, so it was awesome. It was so good. Right? There's a scenario in, in proverbs chapter 24, I think he can help us understand this whole opportunity thought process. It says this, it says, I went past the field of the sluggard pass. The vineyard of the man who lacks judgement. Thorns had come up everywhere. The ground was covered with weeds and the stonewall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned the lesson from what I saw, which you've got to understand is that when you read these, you got to understand the culture that was there and the culture during that time says a land that was capable of yielding crop was, was almost more valuable than anything.
I mean it was, it was one of the most valuable things in the world. Anyone who owns a vineyard was blessed. I not a billion of vineyard. Sorry can tell high I grew up, never mind, uh, but it was literally opportunity of a lifetime. It really was. There's another translation, it says this, it says, I was walking past this vineyard and I thought of what it might have been. And the writer is sitting there and he's saying, you know, it could have been great, right? It could've been this great source of joy and pride and income. It could have been a great blessing to everyone around it. And yet it felt tragically short of what it could have been. And the writer sits there, and he wonders why is that right? Is it could be, is that a catastrophe? Was there a fire? Was there what, what made that, was there some disaster? No, it was simply the negligence on the part of the guy who owned the video where he didn't take advantage of what he had. See, I think the same thing is true for every single one of us in this room, myself included, is that every single day that we come across opportunities and we can toss them away and sometimes. So sometimes it's okay, hear me. It's okay. Sometimes because you're pursuing something greater, but when it's not okay is when you toss something out because of fear
are you toss something out because of laziness or because something you because of selfishness and so we don't always capitalize on our potential where we don't make strides in becoming what God has called us to be, where I truly believe that some of you he's calling you might be worried and you're not chasing after him, that he's calling you to something greater that you don't even know you are a new creation that he says understand this, but we don't. We don't kind of strive after God to figure out what he's. What he really has for us. Number one, look for opportunity. Number two is take responsibility.
Have you noticed that as a culture we kind of suck at taking personal responsibility? We do a. owning our own problems were, were, were a lot of times we can see ourselves as, as a victim, right? Oh, I'm, I'm angry all the time. Or, or, you know, I, I, I really lose control of my emotions because of the people I have to work with, or it's, or it's my spouse that I have to deal with, right? Well, the reason my financial, uh, you know, life is a mess and the reason I don't save her, I don't give or whatever is because the economy or, or because my boss just doesn't pay me what I'm, what I'm actually worth it. The reason I'm not growing spiritually because you know, the pastor of the church, right? Folks, if I had a nickel, you're right. It's, I got to tell you though, that when I look at this victim mentality, I see it when I see people embody this, this victim mentality, I, I honestly, I want to hug them, I want to pray for them, and then I want to shake them like really, really hard, right? I'm not always a good pastor, but that's what I want to do.
Proverbs says this, it says he who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies, fantasies, lacks judgement. See, the truth is that every single one of us has fantasies, every single one of us do, and we might not say it, but we acted out. You know, how through our expectations we acted out through our expectations. Oh, I actually expect to have a perfect marriage, right? It's fantasy right Spec to, to have the perfect circle of friends where I expect to have perfect relationships, are expect to have the perfect career, I expect to have, you know, control, right? Anybody love control around it? Yes. Look at it.
We expect these things. My daughter, she is cute as ever. She's six years old. She loves to play dolls and play house and all that kind of stuff. But uh, the challenges, she has three older brothers so hurt her playing dolls and what is, it looks a little bit different. It was like Elsa and like hulk and iron man, right? Like they're all hanging out together. And so, so sometimes I'll play dolls with her and, and you know, we'll get down, we'll have a little tea party or whatever, but, but here's the deal. Like she doesn't, she doesn't just want to play with her, like she wants to tell me how to play with my dolls, you know what I'm saying? No, no, no, no. Daddy, you gotta. You gotta brush their hair like this. You got to drink tea like this. Right? And sometimes I just get fed up. I do. And so, I just go to the next room. I play with my own dollars in the next room while she's over there. Kidding. If, if, if control is one of those things that you struggle with, I'm going to give you just a little bit of a side note. Um, if you want control, people will give it to you. But here's what you're gonna find. You're gonna. Find that that healthy, helpful people will drift away and you will gather a whole bunch of codependence with the Ed will let you be king and let you be queen. But you'll wonder why afterwards, why you feel so alone,
because you're going to be like the emperor with no clothes and see, the writer of proverbs says, start with reality. No more fantasies. Take responsibility of the land that you're on. Take responsibility of your, of your time, of your life, your relationship, whatever it may be. Take responsibility. Here's the third one. Number three is don't make excuses.
How many of you know people that are good at making excuses? Yeah, I know. Look at proverbs 26, 13. I love this province is the sluggard. Says there's a lie in outside or I'll be murdered in the streets. I don't know about you, but I just found something very funny when someone says, you know, I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it to work today. The lion factors really big out there right now, like maybe tomorrow we'll have to see. Right? Well folks, if you ever noticed that sometimes in our life that it doesn't take much to get an excuse that, that, that really any pretext will do, right? And, and we can justify or inactivity or we can just put it off or where we tell ourselves that we just have too, much to do or we were just so overwhelmed and so we'll do it well.
And so, what did we say? We'll do it later, tomorrow, whatever, right? We'll do it later. As Dr. Henry Cloud, he's a, he's a well-known counselor and psychologist, author, all of that. He says it's about the word later. He says later as a drug, you get a solution to your problem and you get to keep on doing what you're doing. There's a drug. I mean, it's kind of like, ah, I know that my health is important, right? Uh, uh, because I, but I still eat a whole lot of cinnamon rolls and all that and my wife documents this stuff on Instagram. I don't even know what's going on, but she does. And so, I know that I have to really, I have to work on my, on my eating habits. I'm going to, I'm going to do something about it, right? I'm gonna, I'm gonna. Uh, I'm going to work out some more.
I'm going to eat healthy. Right? But anyone who's ever said that also know there's also a day that you're going to start this new regime. What Day is that? Monday. Tomorrow. All the same. Right. Later, right? That's what we're going to start. Is he a, maybe, maybe you said this not only in, in uh, health, uh, arena, uh, but maybe you said this in your spiritual life, said, hey, you know what, I'm going to get into spiritual shape and so I'm going to get more involved. I know I need to get more involved in the church and in all that. And so you know what I'm gonna do, I'm going to do when I have kids, anybody ever said that when I have kids, as that's what I'm gonna do is I can have a sense of spiritual responsibility for, for them, it's a regardless of what it is that we say later or tomorrow or Monday to the slugger doesn't say no.
Right? Again, he simply just says later tomorrow or Monday, you see what the writer of the proverbs is, is doing? Is he sounding an alarm? When Jesus talks about the parable of the talents, they are sounding an alarm were my hope. My hope in all of this this morning is that this is sort of a wakeup call because the danger is not when we say never because we don't really do that. We just say the danger is actually when we say Monday and why? Because it gives us permission not to do today with God is calling us and so for us in this room. My fear again is not so much inactivity. Right? But my fear is that you won't realize the calling that God has on your life, that we can get so caught up in the in the things of light that that we forget how, how God wants to introduce you to a you that you might not even know yet, right?
We become lazy in that were again, it my. My concern is not your activity level because I believe that's probably really, really high, right? Or maybe you're the dad who's, whose career is going great. You're, you're climbing the ladder. You're going on your Rolodex, right? It's full of names. You know, your LinkedIn account. Linkedin account is on point, right? But you're. Your kids are drifting away. Well, maybe you're the supermom who's amazing and you're driving to every single soccer practice and you're killing it at work and you always have dinner there and you're crushing it and you're doing great, but your soul is shriveling up inside. Or maybe you're that, that great couple that on the outside, you have the great house, a great live, lots of friends, lots of stuff, but maybe you haven't had a meaningful conversation in months and, and everyday you're drifting a little further apart and everyday there's more weeds that are growing up in the, in the vineyard of your marriage and no one's doing anything about it.
And he folks to the wisdom of the sluggard convinces us to thing. Hey, I'm working so hard and all these other Irish just give me a break. And God is sitting there and he's saying, Hey, I get it. You're working. I understand. Just don't let entropy set in where I've called you to work because I've called you in this there. Don't let it sit in. Sit in there and sometimes we can look at what God calls us to and the word that he says and we can think, oh, but he's. He's just super restricted that that's why he called no, what, what, what we, we don't, we don't get it right. So, we think he's super restrictive and we, we don't trust his ways and sometimes you say, well, if it's gonna be its gonna, be up to me. You don't have to. What we don't realize is that he's not trying to be restricted, but he's trying to be protective and parents in the room. When you tell your kids not to, not to play with matches, you being protective or you don't want your house to burn down. You know what I'm saying? Like switch you one. See, the problem is that they don't see what you see because they don't sit where you sit.
Sometimes we don't. We don't. We don't see what God sees because we don't sit where God sits.
We don't, we don't. We don't see it. Right? Which is why we have. We have to trust him when we don't see what God sees. See, God is God is calling you to, uh, you that you might not even be aware of, but what that requires is surrendering and other areas of your life, areas that you think are important, areas that you think you're actually controlling, but it's working hard in, in, in, in the areas that God is calling you to do. We're again, final thought. I believe he's calling you to do that. Why? So he can introduce you to a you that you don't even know yet that he has so much more for you, but the question is whether or not we're going to run hard after that or we're going to say, ah, I'm better than I was yesterday, or I'm better than I was a year ago. Don't compare yourself to the past. Compare your present to your potential and I believe God has something greater for you than you ever could ever imagine. Let me pray for you. God, I thank you. I thank you God that you call us to something even more. I think you got the juice to say, wow, we are greater than who we might even think we could possibly ever become. And so, lord, I pray for every single one of us. Lord, I pray for the energy. I pray for the strength. I pray for the discipline, determination, whatever it may be to run hard after you understanding that, that, that you call us at it's not, not because you want to chastise or judge or criticize or anything,
but because you, because you want more for us, John Ten, 10, that you've come to give us a life and life to the full father. Help us to understand that I was to grab hold of that. Help us to wake up in the morning and seek you first before we seek anything else. Before we look at our phone, before we look at, at, at our email and our ESPN, whatever it may be, before we look at whatever it is, can we seek after you would say you, because we know that because that's where we're going to be able to find this live. We're going to be able to find more. Father, lead us as a church, be known, LifePoint being known as the church that seeks hard after God. Whatever you call us to, we're going to say yes to you before we ever know the question. God, I thank you for your love and your grace
further, push us because you love us in Jesus' name.
Oh, that's too good. That is too good in into the flow at the same time. Right? I don't know. Well, you know, I've been there. Actually, I am there. Um, hey, my name is Derek. It's good to be here with you all if you're happy to be in church. Makes so yes. All right. All right. Hey, well, I believe that God has a, um, has a word for us today. I'm in my prayer is that you take a posture of openness, posture, of humility, and let's really come really expecting God to do some great things today. Amen. Amen. All right. Hey, well, what we're going to do, we're going to turn right into our scripture. Scripture is a Luke chapter 24 verses 13 through 16. Will read that to, to gather. We'll pray a little bit and then we'll dive right in. Does that sound good?
All right, well, let's go on and look right at here at Luke Chapter Twenty four verses 13 through 16. It reads as follows, it says now that same day, two of them were going to a village called a may have someone say a going to a village called a May. It's about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened and as they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them, but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked him, what are you discussing together as you're walking? Actually, I'll keep reading, or they stood still and their faces downcast. One of them named Cleopas asked him, are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened in these days? Let's pray. God, we thank you for what you're up to.
We thank you for what you're doing. We thank you for your spirit already being present with us today. Lord, we pray that we would encounter you in a new way, that our eyes would be open to, that our hearts would be attentive, that our minds will be clear so that we might see what you are inviting us to do. In the name of Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen. Amen. I kind of just read another scripture there that you didn't really have a. that's kind of how the Bible works. We only read sections, but you know, there's able to keep going all the way through revelation. So, if I had a title of today's message, I'd simply call it a road trip for the person to the right of you and say a road trip person to the left. Go on, do it. I know it's different.
That's all right. Just do it right. A road trip. If I had a towel, the today's message, I would call it a road trip. And let me tell you about my first road trip as well. One. Has anybody ever been on a road trip? On a road trip? Okay. All right, good. Good. My first road trip was in 2015, so not that long ago. That was my very first one. My first road trip was in 2015. And I remember I had just finished finals, um, while I was finishing up my master's in Princeton. I just finished finals and I was on the road. I was ready to get on the road and I was going for a particular special reason, a specific reason with intentionality, purpose, clarity, reason, vision. I was going to go see a lady.
That's all right. It turned out to be the woman that I'm married so, so we good. Hey, how are you doing? Right. But I was on my way to. I was on my way to go visit my then girlfriend and I had just finished finals and I mean I was studying like crazy, so my brain, I didn't have time to really get all the logistics in order. I said I'll figure it out on the, on the day that I have to go. So, I go into my dorm room and I'm getting all my clothes. I'm not even really packing, you know, you just empty drawers and just put them in a suitcase because I have to get on the road. Right. And I, and I remember doing all that and I look above my tv, above my tv, there's a map and I looked really quick and I said, okay, let me see. I'm in new, I'm in New Jersey, I got to go to Orlando, I'll be there in six hours.
You know where this is going, don't you? I said, I'll be there at six. This is a true story. So, I'm looking, I get it, I get on the road and then mind you, I actually don't even say like, how did this full get to Princeton? I get on the road and I don't even look. And I just, I just say, well I just got to go south, you know, I'll just, I'll just, I'll get there when I get there, just start getting on the road. This is your story. I'm just driving. I'm driving about three hours. Go, go by, like, well let me, let me just figure out where I need to go. I'm in DC now and I'm like, okay, okay, let me, um, and, maybe, just maybe, maybe some on the holy words came out
maybe
and I had another 17 hours to go my first road trip, but you know, it turned out to be a great time, but here we are here. We find ourselves at this particular passage of scripture, passage of scripture. We have two disciples on a road trip, but that particular road trip that they are on is not a road to go to a love, but it's a role now of defeat. It's a role somewhere else. It's a road after love and hope has, has vanished if they are on this road to amaze. You. See, it's interesting to note that these men, these two disciples, right? They appear out of nowhere. It's clear that they're not on the inner circle of things. They're just simple disciples, simple disciples on a journey. They're disciples without a platform and apparently not too dissimilar for many of us in this room today, and like many of us, these disciples, they weren't famous.
They didn't have a large following. The recognition wasn't vast and evidently people didn't know them well enough to remember both of their names. You see the scriptures tells us that there was two of them. One is name, the other is not and we don't know much about them. The only details that we've gathered them is that they followed Jesus and had been in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus, his death, his execution, and we also learned that one of them is named Cleopas. Somebody say clear purpose. One of them is named Cleopas, a name that literally means child of an influential father. He's so unnamed that his name is not who he is. He's. He has no name other than the fact that, Hey, we know your dad Cleopas, so sure we have the name of Cleopas, but even Cleopas isn't someone that stuff influenced because it's only his father that is actually recognized and then the other person we just don't get a name for them at all.
Some scholars say, hey, it might be as wife. Some scholars say it could be his friend and some other folks say it could even be just a buddy that he was traveling with. We don't know. And here's the thing, right now you're sitting in your chair and you're saying, all right, what, uh, what, what does it have to do with anything that I'm saying? Here's what I want you to know. Just hang on a little bit. This is important. This will tie in everything in the end. Okay? So here we always see these two disciples, Cleopas and this other person there on this road to a maze. And so here we are to make things even more interesting. We don't even know the particular name of the road that they're traveling on. We only know where they're intending to go. It's the road to amaze.
They're on their way to a mess, which is a seven-mile journey from Jerusalem. Now, I don't know about you, but I find this section of scripture right here, very interesting, very perplexing, very put, particularly peculiar, if you will, and it's largely because I'm fascinated by the level of radiation and nuance that Luke begins to speak about here he's. He speaks in obscurity. Now mind you if you're familiar with the gospel of Luke, you know this in the very first chapter as it opens up, Luke begins to say these words. He says, I decided after investigating everything carefully for a very long time to write an orderly account to you so that you may know the truth concerning all of which you have been instructed. You see the very first Gospel, the very first chapter of the Gospel, the very first verse, Luke says, I'm going to tell you everything. I'm going to give you an orderly account of chronological events. I'm going to be very specific, very detailed, very on the nose, very on the point, but then here we discover in Luke chapter 24 around verse 13 through 16. Now we
move into a space of gradation, a space of nuance. You see, I find this so peculiar, and here's why, because Luke just only a few verses earlier, was giving us a complete rundown and keeping into the theme of his original intent is what's given us a very, very informative rundown of every event specifically, especially at the resurrection mind. You Watch this at chapter 24 verse one. It opens up like this. Luke tells us the WHO, he says, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James. We're all at the tomb, the WHO. Lou gives us the, where he says, Luke tells us the specific events were taking place in Jerusalem at the tomb of Joseph, a rich man in a Jewish town called Arimathea and a member of the council and a member of good and righteous standing. The why Luke tells us that women were going to the tomb to finish the burial rituals.
When they discovered that the tomb of Christ was empty, the what? Luke tells us that the tomb was empty. The stone is rolled away in the, in. The woman had back to report to, to, to the disciples. And then Luke even says, and then Peter ran out to go see it for himself, came back, right, loops, giving us the WHO's the, what's the, where's the why's, the how's the winds, the outcome is the wood, the could, the should the deed, the is, Luke is giving us every single detail and then we get verses 13 through 16 and immediately we transitioned into a space and into a place of watch this, two of them going through a village called the mayor, about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all the things
that happened. And as they talked and discuss these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked alongside of them, but they were kept from recognizing him. You see the WHO's the, what's the, where's the why's? The house. They're not clear. Luke's nuance and gradation almost seems to force us to ask the question, who are these disciples? Why aren't you telling us? But here's what I believe is that Luke is doing this intentionally to give us a lens, to give us an invitation to find our own selves in the scripture. This is a space where Luke is giving us a chance to become the nameless and faceless, discipled and inviting ourselves to are inviting us to see ourselves on the road to a maze. Luke is positioning the readers to find themselves in this story. And so, here's my first point, and that is, this is what is your amazing story?
How do you find yourself in this story? What is your story? You see folks? What role do you find yourself traveling on these days? What role do you find yourself walking along? What highways and byways of regret? Remorse in defeat do you find yourself traveling most? What is your, uh, mayor story? You see? The Bible says that these disciples traveled down this road after they experienced the blows and woes of compounded grief. That is to say the grief that accompanies great loss, the greed that escorts hopelessness, the grief that comes with unfulfilled expectations. You see, these disciples experienced all of these things. These disciples had hoped that Jesus would be the one to redeem Israel, but because it was already now the third day since his death, they find themselves in them themselves and hopelessness and despair and unable to recognize the presence in Providence of God. They thought that all hope was lost and now they found themselves on a road without purpose heading to a village whose name literally means hot springs mess, hot springs. They had become Jacuzzi seeking Christians.
They wanted to retire their belief in the palm springs of faith, the palm springs, if you will, of disbelief, and it's interesting to know this, that the word that's used for village here in its original language or in its original Greek, it literally means this. The place where laborers go to sleep. So here you have these once upon a time and go for inflamed and developed fierce. I'm filled with zeal, believers now heading to a city of disbelief where they can live into the hot tub and get one of those drinks with umbrellas in it. They want it to let it go and we have to ask ourselves. The question is, what road do we find ourselves traveling on? What is our particular mayor story? You see some of you are on the road to a maze because you've. You're tired of trying and failing and so now you just simply failed to try. Some of you are on the road to amaze because you've got that admissions letter response and it didn't have the favorable outcome that you wanted. Some of you are on the road to mass because you remember that you've now been sick longer than you've been. Well,
and some of you are on the road to a maze because you didn't receive that favorable doctors report and some of you are on the road to a mass because you were promised that they would spread and spend the rest of their life with you. Some of you are on the road to a maze because you've been trying and failing to have that child that you so desperately want. Some of you are on the road to a maze because you still. You still
still can't fit into those skinny jeans. You better give up on that and get some Jayden's. Let that go and find you something, Jake, because that thing stretched into snap back. You'd be all right. Go on and get you some Jacobs. He'd be all right, so I just simply stopped by to let you know this. If you don't have to lose hope, don't lose hope. Jesus meets us in the midst of our suffering on the road. Jesus meets us in the midst of our doubt on the road Jesus meets us in the midst of our misfortune. Jesus meets us in the midst of despair, in the midst of our turmoil, in the midst of our trouble, in the midst of temptation to give up and to let go. Jesus meets us on the role and I just pray that you would have the eyes to see and the ears to hear that God's been walking with you long enough, in every step of the way.
You see God has been with us. Jesus meets us on the street. Jesus meets us. Jesus meets the fully unnamed disciples. Jesus meets people like you and me. Those who aren't on the inner circle, Jesus meets you and me. Those of us who go unnamed, Jesus meets us on the street and walks with us, talks with us. Matter of fact, I remember growing up in church when I was growing up in church, I remember the old, the older women in the church, they often had a. they, they, they, they walked, if you will, with a cloud of witnesses or maybe it was just a cloud of perfume, but they would sit down in church and for the next four rows over, you would smell their, their perfume, and they would have the big hats, white hats and sometimes like loves and they rock and a home and a home in Iraq and sing the song.
But I remember one song that they used to sing, and they would say, oh, he walks with me and talks with me and tells me I'm his own in the joy we share as we tarry there. None other has ever known. He speaks, and the sound of his voice is sweet, that the birds hush, they're singing in the melody that gave hope to me within. My heart is ringing, and they rock. Oh, he rocks. Oh, he walks with me and talks with me. It tells me I'm his own. I think about also the, the, uh, the life of King David,
what King David was going through such struggle and turmoil and King Saul was down on his back. I remember in psalms 23 word ends with these powerful, prolific pronounce words and says, goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I think, oh, he walks with me. He talks with me. Goodness and mercy follows me all the days of my life. You want to know how I know that God walks with me and talks with me and that goodness and mercy follows me every day of my life. I think a back only on my own story when my dad was strung out on crack. I think about those times when my dad was homeless, and my dad found the wherewithal within himself to pull himself up to seek hope. And even during his homelessness, my dad stole Christmas presents from a goodwill to ensure that we can have Christmas. Oh, he walks with me,
it talks with me and he tells me I'm his own.
I think about my own journey and my own temptation and frustration and wanting to give up and wanting to move into a place of disbelief and to a place of doubt and I have to find deep within myself, deep within myself the fact that we've got a god that walks with us and talks with us that meets us on our road of despair, of turmoil, of trouble, of wanting to give up a frustration in temptation. God walks with us, talks with us, moves with us, grooves with us. God is for us, amongst us, with us, within us and always by our side, and what we discover with these disciples is that they did not even realize that God was
there the whole time walking with you, talking with you. I want to bring your attention now to Luke Chapter Twenty four verses 27 to 31. Watch what happens here and beginning with Moses and all the profit, all the prophets. Jesus explained to them what was said in the scriptures concerning himself and as they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going to go further,
but they urged him strongly, stay with us for nearly evening. The day is almost over, and so he went to stay with them and when he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and begin to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us. You see, according to verse 30, these disciples didn't recognize that Jesus had been with them all along until he had broken bread with them around the table in a mess. But verse 32 reveals that they're misunderstanding initially begin to gain clarity. When Jesus shared the stories of the old stories of Moses, the stories of the Prophet and the stories of all the scriptures that he fulfilled a scripture set were concerning himself. The disciples even go as far as saying, when Christ begin to tell these stories that they felt within themselves a burning at wellbeing, a welling up, if you, if you, if you, if, if you will, and so you see what we discover in this passage, we discovered that there's healing power in those stories from our ancestors have owed. If we look back far enough, each of us, we'll discover that we have all have already experienced the providence, the presence, the, the wonders, the works was the
enjoyment, the embodiment of God's activity amongst our life already. So, I have to ask you though,
question, what stories can you look back and see if where God has been with you every step of the way, what stories can you look back on your life, those stories that should have, I should have taken you out. Those stories. It should've made you lose your mind. Those stories of where you were this close to giving up, yet somehow things still worked out. What stories can you revisit in review of it?
God's presence, God's activity, God's focus. I don't know if it was a loss of a job, but somehow the mortgage will still get paid. I don't know if it's. If you found yourself in a hospital and you thought things were over, but somehow you find yourself here worshiping God today, I don't know if it was that, that that loved one, let's you that will never get their life right, but somehow God worked away and things are still beginning to play out, a little bit smoother, a little bit better. What stories of the old do you have within your own journey? Maybe it's not your story. Maybe it's your friend's story. Maybe it's your relative story. Maybe it's a story from, from the neighbor that's across the street. Well, God has always been in, is already active and present within our life, but we've got to wake up, open our eyes, open our minds, open our hearts to see that God has been faithful presence for a long time so that even in the midst of your despair, that even in the midst of your temptation, he even in the midst of your frustration and wanting to give up, you say, no, God, you've done it before.
I know you can do it again. God, you've been there in the past and you'll be here in my presence. God, you told me, you showed me. You are a way maker. You made a way out of no way in May and I know you'll make a way out of this difficult moment. What stories in your own life can you review and rewind and see the presence of God active and immediate and
and activated for you? What is your amazing story? Now, here's what we discovered. The very next thing. Jesus is now with these disciples in a maze around a table, and the Bible says that when Jesus took this bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to them. Did you catch it? Jesus took this brand broken, gave things, gave it to them. The scriptures then say at once they got up and went to Jerusalem. Here's my second point, is that the road to a mess is the same road to Jerusalem. The role of your disbelief, the road of your doubt and frustration and temptation and wanting to give up and wanting to let go, is the same road to Jerusalem. When you sit with Jesus, you say, is this place of hot tubs, a false Eden, but Jerusalem is actually. Here's what Jerusalem means, Jeru Shalom, Shalom, Shalom, peace.
The city of peace, Jeru Shalom. Here were these disciples that wanting to go to the place of hot tubs and hot springs and Palm Springs, but Jesus says, you think this is peace? Sit with me a little while and you'll discover that that job that you thought you needed, that yacht, that you really wanted, that that relationship that you thought was going to be the fulfillment of everything that you desire, that that type of income was going to make everything work out, that you'll discover that all of that when laid against me, it's false peace. If you want real peace, you can't stay here. You've got to get up and go to the real piece that's in Jerusalem, but you discover this when you sit with Jesus just a little while. Here's the solution. When you're experiencing those moments of doubt with the frustration of temptation, of wanting to give up a warning to let go, sit with Jesus just a little while in Jesus will shift perspectives and all of a sudden those cornerstones, those rocks, those bricks, that road that you thought you walked down and was full of disbelief of despair, becomes the exact road that brings you to a new piece, a restored hope, a restored mind, but you've got to sit with Jesus just a little bit and you can confront all of those things that you thought were going to destroy you.
You can confront all those doubts that you thought were going to have you throw in the towel. You can confront all those things that you thought were going to take you out. When you sit with Jesus just a little bit. That's actually my third point. Sit with Jesus in shift perspective. When you sit with Jesus, you can shift perspectives. Oh church. Oh People, oh folks. Listen to me. Listen to me. Sit with Jesus and I promise that things don't stay the same. You. You sit with Jesus long enough and you start reliving in reentry and replaying the fact that God has been already working on you. God has already been working on your situation. God has already been traveling with you. God has already been walking with you and watch this. If you've been paying attention, Jesus walks with them to mas. Jesus sits there with them in the place that they thought was the real thing and Jesus says, are you ready to go something bigger? Are you ready to go now to something better? Are you ready to get up from this thing you thought was going to fulfill you and move into a place of real peace? I want to ask you the question,
what things in your life have you found a false sense of security in a false Eden, if you will, a false relaxation and restoration that runs out? What things in your life are you building your hope on? What things in your life do you finally find? Do you currently find yourself giving more credit than the god that's been with you? Every step of the way? This becomes a question for all of us and I pray that your answer would be that it's not working, that you would turn to Jesus, turn to Jesus, sit with Jesus and shift perspectives. Once you pray with me, God we do thank you for this day. Lord, we do thank you for opening up our eyes to see we thank you for opening up our ears to hear, oh Lord, we pray that you would give us your insight that we might see how you are active. You are attentive and how you've always been present. Let us no longer turn to that, that false sense of relief. Let us sit with you a little while. Enjoy your presence. Experience your words, your challenge, your call. Let us get up
from the place that we've found a false sense of security and move to a real city of peace. Let us move to the real city of peace.
Lord, I believe
that in this place, there's someone who has, has a desire to make a commitment towards you. I believe that here in this room, there's someone, someone that's ready to make that next step. I do. I do, I believe here there's someone that's been relying on a false hope. They're beginning to discover and it's not working out, but I pray that you would sit with them, that they would sit with you
and that they would meet you around the table of brotherhood, sisterhood, Camaraderie, fellowship, and that they'll take that journey with you to a real peace, real peace centered in relationship with you say affects you, which you just and pop your hand right up there in the air. No one's watching. No one's looking. This is between you and God. God sees your hand. God sees your hand. God sees your hand. God feeds your hand. You can put it right back down. God sees your hand. Lord, here we are. Here we are where yours. Sit with us, change our perspective. Help us see you've been there every step of the way. Journey with us in this life journey with us to real peace, real hope or come into their hearts. Give them a renewed sense of purpose, a renewed sense of your faithfulness and presence. God. Journey with us. Walk with us, talk with us. Lord, let us not leave this place, leave this place saying, if you've partnered with me in that prayer, Lord is with you. If you partnered with me in that prayer, God is with you. Your life doesn't have to be the same. That's not to say that things won't ever get hard again. We know that, but it's to say that now you'll be able to recognize God is with you,
the name of Christ. Jesus, we pray. Amen.
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.