WEBVTT 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:11.679 You're listening to the road by Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.280 My soul has been created by God for excitement. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:19.839 God gave us passion. 00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:22.160 Gave us joy. 00:00:22.640 --> 00:00:23.039 Love. 00:00:23.600 --> 00:00:32.000 Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control all emotional. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:36.240 The fruit of the spirit is what I believe he's saying. 00:00:36.399 --> 00:00:50.560 David is talking about drinking from the pleasures of God is to drink from God's love, God's joy, God's patience, God's self-control in our life. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:56.399 At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ. 00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.960 For more information on The Road, visit the Road.org. 00:01:01.119 --> 00:01:06.319 We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:01:08.799 --> 00:01:36.480 Hey, I want to um talk about the beauty of the Lord today, and um my wife's been watching me prepare and research this for weeks and weeks and months, and it's been personally uh a powerful time, but I feel like there's so much to say, and there's such a dinky time to say it in this time together that it's not gonna do it justice at all. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:52.159 But but it's really been moving in my heart because, first of all, um I think since about seventh grade, sixth and seventh grade as a kid, we we moved out to a cabin out in the uh on my grandfather's ranch. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:02:05.280 My dad was going back to graduate school, and I had just been a city kid, um suburban kid, grew up in Atlanta and Huntsville, Alabama, and then we came there and I'd never been in the country. 00:02:05.439 --> 00:02:18.159 And suddenly I had time, and we were around all these ponds and marshland, and I just fell in love with being outside and and being outdoors. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:25.599 And as I've grown in my relationship with God, my love for the outdoors has only grown deeper. 00:02:25.680 --> 00:02:31.439 I I'm honored and blessed that God would call us to Colorado. 00:02:31.520 --> 00:02:38.879 I mean, we were living in Japan as in as missionaries in the second largest city in the world, who are back in the city. 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:41.919 And then I went to graduate school in LA. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:44.080 Um, and then God called us here. 00:02:44.159 --> 00:02:56.960 And so um, in the process of that, I think God began this work in my life as a sixth grader and a seventh grader and on through my life of love for creation. 00:02:57.520 --> 00:03:01.520 And in that love for creation, a love for a creator. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:15.599 And I didn't know the creator during those early years, but but I began to discover as the years went by that intricate design leads to an intricate designer. 00:03:16.479 --> 00:03:23.120 And beautiful design points us toward a beautiful designer. 00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:37.280 And somehow today, and in the process of us talking about worship in spirit and in truth, I want us to start working toward, as a congregation, cultivating a passion for the beauty of God. 00:03:37.439 --> 00:03:43.520 And it is a cultivation, it takes time, it does, it's it in some ways it's natural. 00:03:44.319 --> 00:03:57.120 I think when you see a beautiful painting, or maybe you guys that are in high school, you see a beautiful girl or a handsome guy, or you see a beautiful flower. 00:03:57.280 --> 00:04:01.759 There's something within us that is drawn toward beauty. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:10.479 But I'm not sure it's possible to know the designer and the beauty of God without a personal, vital, dynamic, growing relationship with Jesus Christ. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.479 And we've got to get that into our DNA. 00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:16.480 I like what Mike Bickle says. 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:22.160 Mike Bickle says that David was the theologian of the beauty of God. 00:04:22.480 --> 00:04:25.120 I love that phrase, a theologian of the beauty of God. 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:37.279 Wouldn't it be exciting if we at the road could become theologians of the beauty of God, could become scientists of the beauty of God, could become architects of the beauty of God. 00:04:37.680 --> 00:04:42.639 Because beauty is all part of the universe. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:48.240 There's beauty to this stage, there's beauty to that lobby, and we love beauty. 00:04:48.319 --> 00:04:56.560 It's one of our highest values at the road that what we've done and what we do is done and with the beauty and with beauty in mind. 00:04:56.879 --> 00:04:57.920 Look at the communion tables. 00:04:58.079 --> 00:04:58.959 Look around today. 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:09.040 We're gonna be taking communion together, and the way in which the team has designed those tables with the cross and the candles speaks of the beauty of God. 00:05:09.279 --> 00:05:17.839 So turning your Bibles to Psalm 27:4, let's see what the theologian of the beauty of God has to say to us. 00:05:18.000 --> 00:05:28.959 Really, David is the first, first leader in the Bible, first prophet in the Bible to talk about the beauty of God. 00:05:29.199 --> 00:05:38.959 And he brought a whole new, incredible worldview of God that no one in Scripture has ever done before or since. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:43.120 And we turn to him, really in a time of trouble. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:51.680 We probably should read verses one through three first, because he says in Psalm 27, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? 00:05:51.920 --> 00:05:54.959 The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? 00:05:55.199 --> 00:06:01.920 When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:10.720 Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear, though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. 00:06:10.879 --> 00:06:12.240 So here's the context. 00:06:12.480 --> 00:06:17.040 He's full of temptations toward fear. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:19.439 He's had armies against him. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:21.279 You know, we know the story of David. 00:06:21.519 --> 00:06:27.439 He's had he's had huge enemies up against him at times in his life. 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:31.600 And it could be, because we don't know exactly, that could be exactly the context here. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:43.759 And yet here's what he, I mean, if I was him, and I'm a warrior king, I'd be thinking about this one thing that I need, Lord, right now is a refuge. 00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:51.439 This one thing I write now, I need a strategy for fighting the enemy and enabling the kingdom of God to go forward on the face of the earth. 00:06:51.600 --> 00:06:56.399 Here's what he says in verse 4 in that context. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:00.720 One thing, underline that, highlight that, circle that. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:04.000 Mine circled in my Bible because I still have one of these kind of Bibles you write in. 00:07:04.240 --> 00:07:05.360 It looks like this. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:17.839 One thing I have desired of the Lord that I will seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:07:18.000 --> 00:07:20.959 What a strange worldview. 00:07:21.199 --> 00:07:30.639 In the midst of this kind of trouble, he wants to behold the beauty of the Lord all the days of his life. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:37.600 David is enraptured by God's beauty. 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:40.079 And here's what I think he's saying. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:53.360 He's saying, when I behold the beauty of the Lord, when I see his beauty, when I cultivate beauty in my heart toward the Lord, all my worries go away. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:56.160 All my fears are taken care of. 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:02.879 Men and women, how many of you would say you've had some fears this week? 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:03.759 Ah. 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:05.920 The rest of you are liars. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.519 You know you have, you know. 00:08:07.920 --> 00:08:22.959 But but David is saying that in the midst of his fears, worries, and stress, he's gonna go into the sanctuary of the Lord, he's gonna behold the beauty of the Lord, and that's gonna take care of all those issues. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:27.439 There's something about that we've got to cultivate. 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:36.960 And I don't know that I get it all right now, but I want to commit myself to understanding that I want to I want to build into us a cultivation for the beauty of God. 00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:40.960 Because so that as we come into that beauty each day and worship. 00:08:42.399 --> 00:08:46.879 I think I told you a couple weeks ago when I was speaking that I got really weird. 00:08:47.440 --> 00:09:00.159 And I took my took my little phone, I was out in the woods, nobody around, and I just felt like dancing before the Lord, so I did, and I'm glad that you weren't there because it would be awful for you to behold. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.559 But I was beholding the beauty of the Lord. 00:09:02.639 --> 00:09:05.919 You would have been beholding something else. 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:15.200 But but to cultivate the beauty of the Lord in worship is what David is longing for. 00:09:15.440 --> 00:09:25.679 And we've been in the book of Philippians, and I can't think of a better um synchronization of joy in our hearts than beholding the beauty of the Lord. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:28.240 And we're we're gonna see that later on in this Psalm. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:33.919 That David experiences joy by beholding beauty with his enemies all around him. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:35.759 Can you imagine that? 00:09:36.240 --> 00:10:04.559 That the debtors are coming, that they're calling the loan, that the company's in trouble, that your marriage is in trouble, that your kids are going wayward, that your finances are not where they should be, and you're not sure about what to do to cultivate in the midst of that, surrounded by all that stress, to cultivate a worship of the beauty of God. 00:10:04.720 --> 00:10:07.039 Now that's radical stuff, folks. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:08.960 People don't do that. 00:10:11.200 --> 00:10:21.200 American Christianity is figure it out, figure it out, figure it out, and I'm not saying anything's wrong with that, if that's part of it. 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:27.840 But if that's the only thing we do, we're gonna be stressed out. 00:10:28.080 --> 00:10:41.840 And from what I'm seeing and all the stats on pharmaceuticals, what I'm seeing about all the stats with counselors, what I'm seeing with all the stats as it relates to therapy, we are choosing stressed out. 00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:46.080 David's choosing beholding the beauty of the Lord. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:49.840 Surrounded by all his enemies, I'm gonna behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:53.039 God's gonna speak to me as I behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:55.440 We've got to get that into our DNA. 00:10:55.840 --> 00:10:57.120 Is it possible? 00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:15.840 Is it possible that we might change our worldview, even as young people, even as adults, that we might become a people that is learning and growing and how to cultivate that worldview. 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:17.279 So, what is beauty? 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:18.799 What is the beauty of God? 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:24.159 Let me give you a few definitions on the beauty of God for contemporary science. 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:30.559 Their definition is the first trait of beauty is elegant simplicity. 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:31.600 Isn't that interesting? 00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:34.799 Elegant simplicity. 00:11:35.360 --> 00:11:40.720 As in, in the stuff I was reading, as in Einstein's theory of gravitation. 00:11:41.200 --> 00:11:45.840 So simplicity is the key to beauty in science. 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:57.759 In philosophy, centuries have taught that beauty is unity, harmony, symmetry, wholeness, and radiance. 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:10.879 Theologian Wayne Grudom defines the beauty of God as that attribute of God whereby he is the sum of all desirable qualities. 00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:21.600 Other words for beauty would be wonder, mystery, splendor, humility, delight, thrill, excitement. 00:12:22.879 --> 00:12:27.279 So I got to go fly fishing twice this week. 00:12:27.679 --> 00:12:29.360 That never happens. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:43.679 And I took Josh one day, I took Samuel the other day, and both of them had never seriously fly fished, so I took them out and and uh and showed them how to fly fish. 00:12:44.720 --> 00:12:57.039 And we got into this river early and I did that because it's been so hot, and you you can catch more fish in four hours between 6 a.m. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:13:01.279 and uh and about noon than you can for the rest of the day. 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:07.360 So we were there, and um I just have to be honest with you. 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:09.440 I mean, I like to fly fish, I think it's great. 00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:25.840 But but being in the river and being with uh around these huge rocks and being down in the in the in the sounds and the beauty and the sun starting to ripple down into the area where we where we were is just stunning. 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:28.399 It's just beautiful. 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:36.240 God made all that, church, for us to enjoy, for us to experience. 00:13:36.639 --> 00:13:38.720 I like what Jonathan Edwards said. 00:13:39.039 --> 00:13:42.799 God created man for nothing else but his own happiness. 00:13:43.919 --> 00:13:46.799 God created man for nothing else but his own happiness. 00:13:47.039 --> 00:13:53.440 He created him that he might communicate happiness to him through creation. 00:13:54.320 --> 00:14:01.759 God gave us creation that you'd be happy, that you'd love it, that you'd experience as part of his beauty. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:03.919 Look at the rest of this verse. 00:14:04.080 --> 00:14:08.879 Look at the rest of this, the next two verses after verse 4, verse 5. 00:14:09.200 --> 00:14:21.519 For in the time of trouble, so here he is, he's surrounded again by trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle, he shall hide me. 00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:29.519 He shall set me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:34.960 Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:40.000 I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:56.159 So all he's doing is beholding the beauty of the Lord, and he says that in beholding the beauty of the Lord in the tabernacle of God, surrounded by this tabernacle, his head is lifted up over his enemies. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:57.759 That's amazing. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:08.879 I think what he's saying here is that when we start to make the divine strategy of God our strategy, he gives us his divine strategy. 00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:19.840 That when we make his divine strategy, beholding the glory of the God of the Lord, our highest priority, God downloads his divine strategy. 00:15:20.799 --> 00:15:22.559 Don't know what to do. 00:15:27.039 --> 00:15:29.120 Take your mind off what to do. 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:35.200 And put it toward the designer who knows what you should do. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:47.840 And as you begin to focus on the beauty of the God of the Lord and worship him, he begins to give us designer strategies from the designer. 00:15:48.320 --> 00:16:03.919 We hear from him, and David's life is turned around because even in the midst of that, in the time of trouble, verse 5, verse 6, my head shall be lifted up. 00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:07.840 There's enemies above my enemies that are still all around him. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:14.879 I'm gonna continue to offer sacrifices of joy in the tabernacle, and I'm gonna sing praises to the Lord. 00:16:15.919 --> 00:16:22.320 Now, church, this is immensely practical because it doesn't sound practical at first. 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.879 Beholding the beauty of the Lord, what are you talking about? 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:27.120 Is that for artists? 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:29.679 Is that for worship team people? 00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:34.480 Is that for people who like to take pictures and paint? 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:50.559 No, I believe this is for all of us, and it's a DNA that God wants to cultivate in us that raises us up above all our circumstances, all our problems and situations, because God changes you. 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:55.360 God is changing your heart. 00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:04.240 And there's nothing like a changed heart for understanding God's plans and his strategies. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:12.559 Because he's always speaking, he's always at work, and he's looking to and fro for those whose hearts are completely his that he might, what does he say? 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:15.680 Lift them up, that he might lift them up. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:20.160 So this beholding of the beauty of the Lord is immensely practical. 00:17:20.319 --> 00:17:23.039 Again, let me, I think Edwards captures this again. 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:33.839 Jonathan Edwards said, God is glorified not only by his glory being seen, but by it being rejoiced in. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:40.160 When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it. 00:17:41.279 --> 00:17:49.119 God made the world that he might communicate, and the creature receives the glory both with his mind and his heart. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:18:04.480 So as we receive his glory, as we receive his wisdom, and then we reflect it back and praise to him, God is glorified in that, and then God raises your head up above your enemies. 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:07.759 I mean, what's God doing at the road? 00:18:08.880 --> 00:18:11.119 I mean, really, what's he doing here? 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:15.279 I mean, why does this church exist? 00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:19.119 There's like 300 churches in this city. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:35.359 I resign from Mountain Springs, we start, we go into 40 nights of prayer, and he seeks very specifically to plant the road based on seven times him speaking, the road less traveled. 00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:40.799 Well, that sounds really exciting until you realize what I just said. 00:18:41.119 --> 00:18:44.319 The road less traveled. 00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:47.279 That means less traveled. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.640 That means most people don't travel that way. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:56.160 And if you know the road not taken by Robert Frost, that's what the poem's about. 00:18:56.400 --> 00:19:06.319 Is he comes to a juncture and he takes the one trodden less, traveled less? 00:19:07.599 --> 00:19:13.039 So if you want the well-tailored roads, don't behold his glory. 00:19:13.759 --> 00:19:20.079 Because you'll naturally think the natural way and you'll take the highway that everybody else takes. 00:19:21.200 --> 00:19:24.720 And so you'll be in all the same problems that everybody else is in. 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:40.559 Or is it not true that it's as whole-hearted disciples that God calls us many times in our life, not once, not twice, but many times, we come to this place where our natural tendency is this. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:44.000 Everybody says this. 00:19:45.279 --> 00:19:51.599 We begin to behold the glory of God, we begin to worship Him, we begin to seek Him, and He says this. 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:53.039 What? 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:56.000 I read it somewhere. 00:19:57.039 --> 00:20:12.240 His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not, and yet I has not seen and ear has not heard all that God has planned for us. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:16.799 I want what God wants because that's way more exciting. 00:20:17.039 --> 00:20:20.400 Jesus is not boring, and I'm in for excitement. 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:24.640 I want an exciting, joy-filled life. 00:20:24.799 --> 00:20:39.039 I want everything that God has, and if he's the creator of daffodils, if he's the creator of this brain, if he's the creator just of my DNA, I think he's smarter than me. 00:20:39.680 --> 00:21:02.160 And so there's something here from this theologian of the beauty of God, David, that is expressing to us a principle of beholding the beauty of God that is a road less traveled that changes our soul and changes our heart to hear from Him. 00:21:03.039 --> 00:21:09.359 I believe the Orthodox and Catholic traditions get this way better than evangelicals do. 00:21:10.160 --> 00:21:12.880 And I want to give you a few books that I've been reading. 00:21:13.039 --> 00:21:18.000 And uh, if you're a reader, researcher like I am, you might enjoy these. 00:21:18.319 --> 00:21:20.559 This is the one I'm most fascinated by. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:28.160 The Evidential Power of Beauty, Science and Theology Meet by Thomas Dubay, he's Catholic. 00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:42.480 One thing, Developing a Passion for the Beauty of God by Sam Storms, an Interior Castle by Teresa Vavilla, which is a mystic, Catholic mystic. 00:21:42.720 --> 00:21:44.000 But let's get really practical. 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:53.680 I want to just close with this two things, two really practical ways that I think are a part of cultivating a passion for the beauty of God. 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:55.440 So turn to Psalm 36. 00:21:55.599 --> 00:22:01.039 Look really quick at Psalm 36, and there's going To be a part two to this. 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:03.519 We'll get back to this later. 00:22:03.759 --> 00:22:06.480 Um, this beauty of God theme. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:09.920 But look at Psalm 36, verse 7. 00:22:11.599 --> 00:22:14.720 How precious is your loving kindness, O God. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:20.240 Therefore, the children of men put their trust under the shadow of your wings. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:30.240 They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of your house, and you give them drink from the river of your pleasure. 00:22:31.359 --> 00:22:36.400 For with you is the fountain of life, and in your light we see light. 00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:37.839 So here's my first point. 00:22:38.079 --> 00:22:49.680 First point on cultivating a passion for the beauty of God is cultivate a passion for God's river of pleasure in your heart. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:50.960 I'm gonna explain it. 00:22:51.039 --> 00:22:52.799 And that sounds a little weird what I'm talking about. 00:22:52.880 --> 00:22:53.119 Okay. 00:22:53.279 --> 00:22:58.319 Number one, cultivate a passion for God's river of pleasure in your heart. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:01.839 Parenthetically, I mean the hidden person of the heart. 00:23:02.079 --> 00:23:03.680 The hidden person of the heart. 00:23:04.000 --> 00:23:11.359 Your soul, my soul, has been created by God for excitement. 00:23:11.599 --> 00:23:12.799 I really believe that. 00:23:13.119 --> 00:23:16.079 God gave us passions. 00:23:16.720 --> 00:23:18.480 He gave us joy. 00:23:19.440 --> 00:23:29.119 Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control are all emotional. 00:23:29.680 --> 00:23:30.799 Every one of those are. 00:23:30.880 --> 00:23:33.119 Probably self-control, might be a little more disciplined. 00:23:33.279 --> 00:23:37.519 But love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, what are they? 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:41.680 The fruit of the Spirit is what I believe he's saying. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:55.680 David is talking about drinking from the pleasures of God is to drink from God's love, God's joy, God's patience, God's self-control in our lives. 00:23:55.920 --> 00:24:02.880 To nurture, listen now, don't miss this, the inner hidden person of the heart. 00:24:03.759 --> 00:24:07.599 Okay, so here's what 1 Peter says. 00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:10.640 And I'm always thinking, Peter said this? 00:24:10.880 --> 00:24:13.279 He had to have been anointed by the Holy Spirit. 00:24:13.519 --> 00:24:15.680 Because Peter's like the opposite of this. 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:32.319 But 1 Peter 3, 4, Peter says this: the hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty, there's that word again, the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. 00:24:32.480 --> 00:24:39.440 Now listen, comma, which is the very pre which is very precious in the sight of God. 00:24:39.599 --> 00:24:40.799 So let me read it all together. 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:50.160 The hidden person of the heart with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. 00:24:50.880 --> 00:25:08.400 So to drink from the river of God's pleasures is to cultivate the hidden person of the character of your heart with a quiet and gentle spirit, which it says is beauty to God. 00:25:09.359 --> 00:25:21.759 So that means, men and women, when you get up in the morning and you don't feel like spending any time with the Lord, and you do, you're cultivating the inner beauty of your heart, the hidden person of the heart. 00:25:21.920 --> 00:25:23.440 No one's gonna see it. 00:25:23.680 --> 00:25:25.200 Nobody cares. 00:25:26.480 --> 00:25:32.799 Now, your spouse cares if it's changing you, but hardly anybody else cares. 00:25:32.880 --> 00:25:39.599 And you think nobody cares, but God sees it and he says, that's the hidden beauty of the heart. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:41.519 That's beauty. 00:25:42.240 --> 00:25:44.000 That's where beauty begins. 00:25:44.160 --> 00:25:47.200 When we begin to worship him, we behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:25:47.920 --> 00:25:50.400 We do some worship songs, we spend time in his word. 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:58.480 God is changing us in that hidden place of our heart that nobody sees. 00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:01.519 But it's beautiful to the Lord. 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:04.160 It's precious to him. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:08.799 So, church, let beauty grow in you. 00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:17.519 Let beauty start growing in you by beholding his beauty in the hidden person of your heart. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:26.799 We should be, as whole-hearted disciples, becoming less burdened with stress as we grow as whole-hearted disciples. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:51.200 We should be coming less angry, less jealous, less, and if that's not happening, look back at Psalm 27, and what David said is in the midst of all these enemies, I'm cultivating a passion for God, and in so doing, he was cultivating the hidden person of his heart, and he was being transformed. 00:26:52.799 --> 00:27:03.039 I believe seriously, and I say this from personal experience, 50% of our ailments physically could be wiped out by just learning this principle. 00:27:04.160 --> 00:27:08.480 Do you realize that inflammation feeds on stress? 00:27:09.680 --> 00:27:31.759 Wouldn't it be cool if there were hardly any ailments within this congregation, at least based on that alone, because we're becoming, we're becoming beholders of the beauty of God and the inflammation of our back and our neck and our shoulders is being wiped out because we're walking in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, more and more. 00:27:31.839 --> 00:27:33.440 We'll never get that perfect till heaven. 00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:38.960 But the reality is we can get stronger and stronger and relax more and more in him. 00:27:39.920 --> 00:27:43.279 But you gotta cultivate it, you gotta go after it. 00:27:43.839 --> 00:27:45.599 It's the listen, it's the road. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:47.039 Everybody look at me. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:50.480 It's the road less traveled. 00:27:51.839 --> 00:27:53.680 Nobody's doing it. 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:56.160 Everybody's stressed out. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:08.319 We gotta break the power of that through taking our heart off our enemies and our struggles and take the gaze up to the beauty of God. 00:28:08.559 --> 00:28:15.039 And say, God, cultivate in me a desire to have a beautiful hidden person character. 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:19.599 Secondly, we're running out of time here. 00:28:19.759 --> 00:28:22.079 Secondly, um, Psalm 19. 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:23.119 Love Psalm 19. 00:28:23.200 --> 00:28:29.279 Look at Psalm 19, I'm gonna do it really quick because uh a lot, oh man, I get way too much stuff. 00:28:29.359 --> 00:28:31.039 I knew this is gonna happen. 00:28:33.599 --> 00:28:39.119 The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:43.359 Day unto day utter speech, and night into night reveals knowledge. 00:28:43.519 --> 00:28:51.680 There's no speech nor language where their voice is not heard, their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:29:08.000 In them he has set a tabernacle for the Son, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoices like a strong man to run its race, its rising is from one end of the heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there's nothing hidden from its heat. 00:29:08.240 --> 00:29:16.240 Secondly, muse upon, meditate upon, think upon the beauty of God's creation. 00:29:17.359 --> 00:29:22.319 Muse upon the beauty of God's creation all around us. 00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:25.119 God's divine art gallery. 00:29:25.440 --> 00:29:28.480 God's divine art gallery is all around us. 00:29:28.559 --> 00:29:30.559 Now I'm gonna read you some stuff here. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:33.440 It's too in-depth for me to just say it. 00:29:33.519 --> 00:29:35.920 I might miss something, and it's just too good. 00:29:36.400 --> 00:29:42.559 It's amazing, God's creation, the South American glass knife fish. 00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:45.119 I don't know if any of you heard of the glass knife fish. 00:29:45.519 --> 00:29:48.960 Been turned basically a computer with fins. 00:29:49.759 --> 00:29:56.880 The swimming computer finds its way along rivers and streams by means of its inbuilt technology. 00:29:57.119 --> 00:30:07.920 Researchers Gary Rose and Walter Helgenberg report, listen, signals bouncing off an object are received by specialized cells all over the fish's body. 00:30:08.160 --> 00:30:17.839 Its brain then computes the object's location, much as our brains locate a noise by clocking the arrival of sound waves at our ears. 00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:36.240 But while our brain can distinguish two sound waves reaching our left and right ears at 15 millionths of a second apart, these fish can detect electrical impulses at 40 billionths of a second apart. 00:30:37.039 --> 00:30:38.640 How do they do it? 00:30:39.759 --> 00:30:41.680 Parallel processing. 00:30:42.240 --> 00:30:45.599 It's the soul of the supercomputer. 00:30:46.319 --> 00:30:49.519 So we thought we were so smart with our supercomputers. 00:30:49.839 --> 00:30:54.319 The South American glass knife fish has been doing this for millennia. 00:30:55.279 --> 00:30:56.880 What about a bird? 00:30:57.200 --> 00:31:01.759 Everything about a bird is elegant, beautiful, and almost beyond belief. 00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:10.240 The pneumatic skeleton air sacs throughout the body, which provide circulation that cools the bird like a radiator. 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:17.359 The intricate design of feathers and wings of diverse types cannot be reproduced by man even today. 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:33.279 While jet planes need runways two or more miles in order to take off and land, the bird can land successfully on a twig and take off from a twig one quarter of an inch in diameter. 00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.000 We're so smart. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:45.519 On a single twig, many birds can jump and turn as they fly 360 degrees. 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:53.440 Engineers, even today, continue to study birds to solve problems in designing aircraft. 00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:58.240 Then there are the mysteries of the migrations of birds and animals. 00:31:58.720 --> 00:32:04.240 Much has been written on this in popular periodicals, but still we don't even understand it. 00:32:04.480 --> 00:32:15.359 Take, for example, the green sea turtle, which makes the 1,300 mile swimming journey from Brazil to a stretch of beach on Ascension Island where it was born. 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:21.279 It lays its eggs and then after a few hours begins the journey back to South America. 00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:34.319 In two months, the newly hatched young begin their own journey back to Brazil and then return sometimes between eight and thirty-five years later to their birthplace to lay their eggs. 00:32:34.640 --> 00:32:42.079 Scientists still don't understand the navigational skills of these turtles in a featureless ocean. 00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:49.039 Zoologist Archie Carr of the University of Florida remarks, it's aesthetically irresistible. 00:32:49.680 --> 00:32:51.680 Doesn't that sound like a scientist? 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:55.119 It's aesthetically irresistible. 00:32:55.839 --> 00:33:02.559 Even the most moderately informed person is readily amazed at the human body and our awesome mind. 00:33:02.880 --> 00:33:05.920 To just refresh our minds on DNA. 00:33:06.640 --> 00:33:11.200 This is the fundamental building block and the nucleus of each living cell. 00:33:11.440 --> 00:33:17.839 It carries the genetic information that determines the individual heredity characteristics of each person. 00:33:18.400 --> 00:33:29.359 John Dubay writes the incredible complexity and beauty of this tiny reality in each of our billions of cells is mind-boggling. 00:33:29.680 --> 00:33:37.119 The Human Genome Project is an international scientific effort to map the entire DNA code of Homeo sapiens. 00:33:37.599 --> 00:33:53.119 They write, this code, listen to this, this DNA code is expected to be so big that it will occupy 200,000 pages of dictionary-sized small print. 00:33:53.680 --> 00:33:58.960 This would be 16.6 feet deep thick. 00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:05.599 Men and women, we are indeed God's work of art. 00:34:07.039 --> 00:34:14.320 Well, as the worship team comes up, I would be remiss if it didn't at least broach the subject of evolution. 00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:27.119 What is clear to honest and competent biochemists and microbiologists is that Darwinian natural selection cannot account for any of this. 00:34:27.760 --> 00:34:33.760 Honest and competent research biologists are abandoning in drugs Darwin's chance theory. 00:34:33.920 --> 00:34:36.559 They're searching for alternative hypotheses. 00:34:36.800 --> 00:34:38.719 None have been found yet. 00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:43.519 They should turn to the very first part of this book. 00:34:44.079 --> 00:34:52.480 New discoveries in microbiology, chemistry, and astronomy is almost daily dismantling the premises of evolution. 00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:57.199 Living plants and animals are so this is listen to what I'm gonna say now. 00:34:57.280 --> 00:34:58.400 I'm gonna read it. 00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:24.320 Living plants and animals are so fantastically complicated that astronomer Fred Hoyle and astrophysicist Chandra Wikrazom, or some name like that, have calculated the odds against life happening by chance, which is Darwin's theory, as ten to the forty thousandth power. 00:35:25.440 --> 00:35:28.800 That's unspeakably impossible. 00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:45.280 Church, listen, don't let your kids listen to evolutionary theory without you giving them the creation story. 00:35:46.800 --> 00:35:54.480 I mean, I wish we'll do a part two to this, but there's so much information out there. 00:35:54.639 --> 00:35:56.159 Just just take the book I mentioned. 00:35:56.239 --> 00:35:56.960 Let me just say it again. 00:35:57.039 --> 00:35:58.320 I encourage every one of you to read. 00:35:58.639 --> 00:36:02.719 The Evidential Power of Beauty, Science and Theology Meet by Thomas Dubai. 00:36:04.239 --> 00:36:12.000 The complexity of oneself is more complex than a jet airplane. 00:36:12.320 --> 00:36:15.760 There are more stars that your eye can see in the sky. 00:36:15.920 --> 00:36:20.480 Listen, this is one that Jay Inman shared with me before I got up this morning. 00:36:20.719 --> 00:36:33.280 There's more stars in the sky that can be visibly seen than all the bricks that man has ever made since the Tower of Babel. 00:36:34.159 --> 00:36:39.199 And here's what we're finding: the universe is expanding. 00:36:40.239 --> 00:36:43.840 It's continuing to expand. 00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:48.639 Folks, behold the beauty of the Lord. 00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:55.119 You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt. 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:58.320 We hope you have been blessed by today's message. 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:02.400 To connect with us further, visit the Road.org. 00:37:02.639 --> 00:37:06.400 If you are walking through a difficult time, we want to pray for you. 00:37:06.639 --> 00:37:13.519 Go to theroad.org, click on the Ministries tab, and go to our prayer page to send us your prayer request. 00:37:13.920 --> 00:37:21.760 Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.