WEBVTT 00:00:02.560 --> 00:00:05.280 Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast. 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:10.960 Make sure you connect with us on social media to stay up to date on ministries and events happening at CCW. 00:00:11.279 --> 00:00:14.960 We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:19.120 To find out how to connect with us, keep listening after the message ends. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:27.039 Y'all are gonna have to amp it up this morning. 00:00:27.120 --> 00:00:32.000 We've been spending time with first through fifth graders or kindergarten through fifth graders all week. 00:00:32.240 --> 00:00:34.880 So I'm gonna need some of that energy, alright? 00:00:35.920 --> 00:00:37.840 Psalms chapter 37. 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:42.159 And Dave shared with you, we're gonna be talking from the topic this morning. 00:00:42.240 --> 00:00:43.920 Don't worry, be happy. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.880 What a fantastic summerama week. 00:00:47.039 --> 00:00:52.719 Pastor Eli's gonna be here a little bit later to share a recap, but it was so good. 00:00:53.039 --> 00:01:00.560 And I just want to say, I know he'll say it, but thank you, church, for showing up and being the hands and feet of Jesus this week. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.119 And really, Dave covered it all summer. 00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:06.560 We may be the busiest church in Shelby County, I don't know. 00:01:06.879 --> 00:01:07.760 We try to be. 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:11.840 I used to have people would tell me about youth ministries and churches that would take the summer off. 00:01:11.920 --> 00:01:13.359 I'm like, what are we what? 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:15.920 That's when the kids are out of school. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:17.760 Why are we taking off then? 00:01:18.239 --> 00:01:20.480 Take off when they're in school, anyways. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:22.079 Psalms 37. 00:01:22.239 --> 00:01:29.519 In the late 80s and early 90s, many of you will remember the phrase that took over pop culture. 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:33.359 Some of you had posters of it with a smiley face on your wall. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:37.519 Some people had t-shirts with it on and bumper stickers. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:39.280 It was inescapable. 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:52.480 And Bobby McFarn won a Grammy for the one-hit wonder that took basic life situations and punched them with his phrase: don't worry, be happy. 00:01:52.959 --> 00:01:58.400 I bet for some of you you can hear it starting to click in your mind if you had ever heard it before. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:01:59.920 The whistling of the song. 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:03.359 A couple of fun facts about the song that you might not know. 00:02:03.599 --> 00:02:10.960 It sounds like a reggae song, and Bobby McFarn, this is gonna mess with some of you, was not at all Jamaican. 00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:15.840 He sung that song in a tone that he made up for the song. 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:17.520 He was born in New York. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:22.800 Bobby McFarn had eight Grammys throughout his singing career, and this is interesting. 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:26.400 The song has zero musical instruments. 00:02:26.719 --> 00:02:28.319 Go back and listen to it. 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:32.319 Completely a cappella, but don't worry, be happy became an anthem. 00:02:32.719 --> 00:02:39.280 I want you to fast forward to 2024, and I want to give you some information. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:47.680 Over 40 million United States adults suffer with an anxiety-related illness. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.599 That's almost 20% of the adult population. 00:02:52.400 --> 00:03:13.520 Leading causes of anxiety today, of worry, are death, sickness leading to death, financial security, job security, change in job, divorce, marital separation, and on and on the list goes, with a multitude of others falling closely to that. 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:18.159 Anxiety and worry are lurking around every corner. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:21.120 And I want you to think about a question before we pray. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.240 What makes you anxious? 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:26.080 What makes you worry? 00:03:26.240 --> 00:03:32.560 As we begin to go and cry out to our Lord this morning, is there anything that you carried in from your week? 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:40.560 Just be honest with yourself, that's causing anxiety, that's causing stress, that's causing worry. 00:03:41.280 --> 00:03:50.960 Because I believe in Psalms 37 that we're gonna look at, it's not written as a psalm to God, but David wrote a psalm for us to hear today. 00:03:51.599 --> 00:03:52.319 Pray with me. 00:03:52.560 --> 00:03:58.800 Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have to come into your house once again. 00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:13.439 And God, I know that there are many people, Lord, just if this statistic rings true, there's about 75 to 100 people in this room may be riddled with anxiety, anxiousness, stresses. 00:04:13.599 --> 00:04:18.560 And God, if they're not, I know that some may be coming. 00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:25.600 Some may have just got over some, but God, you are God, you're sovereign, you're in control over all of these things. 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:31.279 And God, I pray that when we leave here today, we can rest more in you and less on us. 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:34.959 We thank you for your word and the gift that it is in Jesus' name. 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:35.920 Amen. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:39.600 The first point, and it'll go along with every point today. 00:04:39.680 --> 00:04:45.839 The outline's a little different for those of you that need the three points and the two subpoints that I've gotten used to doing. 00:04:46.000 --> 00:04:46.959 I'm sorry. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:51.680 This will be alliterated in the points, it'll spell out happy as we go through. 00:04:51.759 --> 00:04:56.959 But every point is don't worry about evildoers instead, and then we'll go through it. 00:04:57.040 --> 00:04:59.759 So that's the first point, and it will go with every point. 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:03.439 But three times in eight verses, you're gonna see a command. 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:04.560 Do not fret. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:05.759 Let's look at it. 00:05:06.000 --> 00:05:08.639 Let's look at verse one through three to start with. 00:05:08.800 --> 00:05:20.000 Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they soon shall be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. 00:05:20.240 --> 00:05:25.279 Trust in the Lord and do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. 00:05:25.439 --> 00:05:31.519 We'll pause there, but as you go through this passage, three times in eight verses, look for patterns in the Bible. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:34.560 It says, the phrase, do not fret or worry. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.720 Worry is the result of the world that you and I live in. 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:49.279 We cannot ever live in a world without worry because we live in a sin decayed, sin disease, polluted world that started in the garden in Genesis 3. 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:51.439 And it was the birth to worry. 00:05:51.759 --> 00:06:01.759 Now the good news is God is sovereign over the fall of man, and it is not our role in this scenario to worry about what others have or have not. 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:09.600 You see, David says, don't fret because evildoers or it seems like other people are doing well or prospering, but what about you? 00:06:09.839 --> 00:06:15.439 And that what about you question is important as you come in today because that's the question of comparison. 00:06:16.000 --> 00:06:19.519 Comparison is the thief of joy. 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:21.839 That would be good for you to write down. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:23.680 Comparison is the thief of joy. 00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:25.759 I want to take you to 1 Samuel. 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.759 David had some insight. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:34.000 We're gonna find out later that as David was writing this, it wasn't as a young man, but an older man. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:37.040 1 Samuel chapter 9. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:44.879 This comparison problem went back to the king that was king before David took the throne. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:47.199 And I want you to see a little bit about it. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:07:01.759 Samuel, 1 Samuel 9, and verse 1 talks about Samuel or Saul's father, and then it says, And he had a choice and handsome son, whose name was Saul. 00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:06.959 There was not a more handsome person than he among the children of Israel. 00:07:07.120 --> 00:07:10.959 And from his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people. 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:15.759 If you're there, I want you to turn over a page to 1 Samuel 10, 23 and 25. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:21.279 We'll just get a little background about Saul, the king previous to David. 00:07:21.439 --> 00:07:24.079 So they ran and brought him, 1 Samuel 10, 23. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:30.639 So they ran and brought him from there, and when he stood among the people, he was taller than any of the people from his shoulders upward. 00:07:30.720 --> 00:07:39.680 And Samuel said to all the people, Do you see him whom the Lord has chosen that there was no one like him among all the people? 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.680 Just a little background, Saul, the king before David, was tall, says he was really handsome. 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:52.079 I mean, when Saul walked by, the women went, Whew! Some of them catcalled, I believe it. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:58.399 Woo! Whee! The children would say, There he is, big, tall Saul. 00:07:58.720 --> 00:08:03.839 And the man, when he walked by, felt more manly just because Saul was in the room. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:10.000 And the problem that I want you to understand is that they would take the measuring tape. 00:08:10.399 --> 00:08:13.680 And that's how they looked at the measurement of who Saul was. 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:15.040 They took the measuring tape. 00:08:15.199 --> 00:08:18.879 If I pulled the measuring tape today out, had it on the floor pulled up here, right? 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.240 You would look at me and say, That sounds about right, six foot one. 00:08:23.519 --> 00:08:24.079 Right? 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:27.040 Crossed here, that's none of your business. 00:08:28.319 --> 00:08:35.440 But Saul was being measured, and in 1 Samuel 16, we're taught a great verse to take to memory. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:41.440 He says, This man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. 00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:48.000 We're told that God doesn't use the measuring tape, he uses the stethoscope to measure a man. 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:49.840 That's heaven's measurement. 00:08:49.919 --> 00:08:56.080 And when you think about comparison, I want you to know people are looking at what they can see. 00:08:56.159 --> 00:09:02.399 They're looking at your clothing, they're looking at your shoes or your purse or your walk or your wallet or your car. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:06.159 And the Bible says the Lord doesn't look at that, he looks at the heart. 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:15.200 David goes on past Saul and kills Goliath, and Saul snaps because of the comparison that he had. 00:09:15.279 --> 00:09:17.600 He was used to big, tall Saul. 00:09:17.759 --> 00:09:25.200 And when they begin to sing, Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands, Saul snaps. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.600 And this comparison trigger hits in him, and he wants David's life. 00:09:29.919 --> 00:09:32.480 We have a comparison problem in our culture. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:33.759 We compare everything. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:44.080 We compare skills, we compare relationships, we compare body, we compare height, we compare weight, we compare skin, we compare hair, strength, intellect, popularity, friendship. 00:09:44.159 --> 00:09:46.639 It's not limited to anything. 00:09:46.799 --> 00:09:49.759 We are inundated with comparison. 00:09:50.399 --> 00:09:53.519 We measure, and it's not limited to social class. 00:09:53.679 --> 00:10:04.639 Blue collar look at white collar and go, I wish I had that car, that house, that lawn, and white collar look at blue collar, and say, I wish I had less responsibility and I wish I had more time like they have. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:05.919 I wish life were simpler. 00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:10.080 And I want you to hear today, none of that is biblical. 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:14.559 You're not supposed to be them, you're supposed to be you. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:18.799 And so it is true. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:25.200 Sometimes they may have more material or more accumulation. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:28.480 But don't you have blessings, church? 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.399 So David said, fret not. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:37.440 Fret not, instead, don't worry, instead, be happy. 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:41.120 The first letter, letter A, I should have done them by their letters. 00:10:41.279 --> 00:10:42.320 It should be H. 00:10:42.639 --> 00:10:45.600 If you want to write my outline, it should be H A P P Y. 00:10:46.000 --> 00:10:48.639 But letter A is hope in the Lord. 00:10:50.639 --> 00:10:52.399 Instead, hope in the Lord. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:57.360 He said, Do not fret because of evildoers, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass. 00:10:57.519 --> 00:11:00.159 But verse 3, trust in the Lord. 00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.519 Don't be envious because of worldly prosperity. 00:11:03.679 --> 00:11:06.159 He says in verse 2, the grass fades. 00:11:06.320 --> 00:11:10.960 I've learned in Alabama there's a time where the grass fades, right? 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:14.559 Grass becomes dormant last winter. 00:11:14.799 --> 00:11:18.720 We pulled up bushes and we planted winter rye, and this was awesome. 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:24.559 The rest of my grass faded, and then I had bright green mohawks right in the middle of my lawn. 00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:25.679 It was awesome. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:34.879 And I was good until spring hit, and I hadn't planted spring grass, and now I have green grass with bright yellow dead mohawks. 00:11:35.039 --> 00:11:37.039 Or the opposite of mohawks. 00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:38.000 I don't know what you call that. 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.159 Landing strips, I don't know. 00:11:40.559 --> 00:11:47.360 But grass grows dormant, and what happens, what that means, dormant grass, is stress. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:48.559 Hear me. 00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:50.799 The grass website told me this. 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:55.679 Stress or pending stress causes grass to stop growing. 00:11:56.000 --> 00:12:02.240 The threat of stress causes your grass to go yellow in the winter time. 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:07.440 The world is full of stress and pending stress. 00:12:07.919 --> 00:12:12.159 Living for the world will cause you to go dormant. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:14.799 It'll cause you to stop growing. 00:12:15.039 --> 00:12:22.159 When you live for the things that the world has to offer, and David is saying, don't fret because of what they got. 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:24.559 Don't fret because of their prosperity. 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.440 Their time is withering, it's fading. 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:30.159 You don't need to worry about those things. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:34.080 You'll stop growing if you're worried about those things. 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:35.679 David Goodzik said this. 00:12:35.759 --> 00:12:37.679 He shared an illustration that I loved about it. 00:12:37.759 --> 00:12:43.679 He said, you know, evil or wickedness or people that don't know Christ sometimes are growing. 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:48.399 And his picture was this picture a man eating a very fine meal. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:56.399 And you can, as if you're looking at a portrait, and there he is sitting there with his steak, his potato, the whole meal appetizer, and it looks really good. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:00.639 And you look at it and you go, Wow, they're living in that prosperity. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:11.279 He said, But can you imagine as the picture is widened, and you're able to see that that man is possibly eating that meal in a jail cell. 00:13:11.840 --> 00:13:20.159 And it changes the perspective of the picture to see that a man has just such a fine meal, but he's in a jail cell, and possibly maybe his last meal. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:25.360 And what he said was the wicked's prosperity has a timeline. 00:13:25.759 --> 00:13:30.799 And maybe they have something good for a moment, but there's a timeline on it. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:32.639 I want you to see the wicked picture. 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:38.879 If you look through the scripture here, he goes on in verses 12 through 22. 00:13:38.960 --> 00:13:46.080 And listen, this would be good for you to write on the side, but it goes through there, and I'm not going to go through every verse, but these are the summary. 00:13:46.159 --> 00:13:50.559 Verse 12 and 13 the wicked plots, but soon perishes. 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:53.840 The wicked fights, but soon falls. 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:57.360 Verse 18 through 20, it says, The wicked grows, but then they're gone. 00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:00.159 They borrow money, but then they're broke. 00:14:00.399 --> 00:14:07.039 And so he goes into great detail, and we didn't have time to break all that down today, but I want you to understand the plight of the wicked. 00:14:08.080 --> 00:14:09.360 It's momentary. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:18.799 Sometimes I think that in culture that we live in, we're trained to live after these things that other people live after when that's not the point. 00:14:19.440 --> 00:14:22.480 That's not the point of this life and the next. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.360 It falls, it fades. 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:31.600 So he says, Don't worry, instead, trust in the Lord, hope in the Lord. 00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:40.000 That word trust is batak, and that is to confide in one or to set one's hope in something. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:44.000 I want you to flip with me to Jeremiah chapter 17 for a moment. 00:14:49.440 --> 00:14:59.200 Where the sin of Judah is being punished, and the Lord speaks to that sin, and he gives a blessing and a curse in Jeremiah 17, starting in verse 5. 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:02.639 This is great application. 00:15:03.039 --> 00:15:18.080 It says, Thus says the Lord, cursed is the man whose trust in man, who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert. 00:15:18.240 --> 00:15:21.039 Picture that as far as prosperity. 00:15:21.200 --> 00:15:30.399 And he shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. 00:15:30.720 --> 00:15:40.159 He says there, it is a curse for you and me to focus on the prosperity of what the rest of the world focuses us on. 00:15:40.480 --> 00:15:43.039 He says, It's a shrub in a desert. 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:46.240 It's a dry land, it's an unfulfilled place. 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:47.200 And then it goes on. 00:15:47.360 --> 00:15:52.720 Verse 7, the blessing, but blessed, happy, you want to be happy today. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:16:09.360 You want to be anxiety free, blessed and happy is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord, not in finances, not in vacations, not in big houses, not in whatever you can put in the blank that the world says, this is how you gotta climb. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:23.039 He says, Blessed is a man whose hope is in the Lord, for he, transversely, will be like a tree, not a shrub in the desert, but a tree planted by rivers of waters, which spreads out its roots by the river. 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:35.759 And hear this, and will not fear, will not stress when heat comes, but its leaf will be green, and it will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:43.120 He says, You want to not be anxious, then your hope has to not be on that bottom line of the thing. 00:16:43.360 --> 00:16:45.519 Your hope has to be in the Lord. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:50.159 So many people today, he said, remember that statistic? 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:55.919 20% are anxious and are living for something that's not going to fulfill them. 00:16:56.000 --> 00:16:59.759 He says, Your hope has to be in the Lord, and then you'll be like a tree. 00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:02.159 It finishes with what we know. 00:17:02.320 --> 00:17:06.960 You know this scripture, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? 00:17:07.119 --> 00:17:15.599 I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. 00:17:15.839 --> 00:17:21.039 He says, So where you put your hope, you're being tested upon that, and that's what you'll receive. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:26.559 Based on your hope, if you're hoping in the world's things, you are gonna leave anxious. 00:17:27.200 --> 00:17:36.240 If you're hoping in the things of the Lord and trusting in that and looking to that for your purpose, you're gonna leave happy and blessed and hopeful. 00:17:38.319 --> 00:17:46.079 Because Jesus, when I put my hope in Jesus, John 10, 10 said, He came to give me the abundant life here and now. 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:47.920 Thief came to steal, kill, and destroy. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:49.440 He came to give me the abundant life. 00:17:49.599 --> 00:17:51.680 And John 3.16, the eternal life. 00:17:51.839 --> 00:17:53.519 That's my hope placed in him. 00:17:54.160 --> 00:17:57.599 I can be a person who gets anxious. 00:17:57.759 --> 00:17:58.799 How about you? 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:02.720 I can lose a lot of sleep if my hope becomes man. 00:18:03.839 --> 00:18:09.759 I can lose a lot of sleep being concerned about how every member of CCW feels about me. 00:18:10.880 --> 00:18:11.519 I care. 00:18:11.759 --> 00:18:13.039 I'm telling you, I care. 00:18:13.119 --> 00:18:14.400 And I'm doing my best. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:18.319 I love you, but what if everybody doesn't love me back? 00:18:19.279 --> 00:18:20.640 What do I do? 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:24.880 That's an impossibility for me to live in. 00:18:25.039 --> 00:18:28.720 What that is, that's a mental shrub in the desert. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:35.119 If that's where my hope is, that everyone here has to be my best friend, that you have to love me. 00:18:35.200 --> 00:18:36.480 No, my hope is in the Lord. 00:18:36.640 --> 00:18:38.160 My audience is of one. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:40.720 There's a difference here. 00:18:40.880 --> 00:18:45.599 He says, blessing is purpose, but cursing is hopelessness. 00:18:45.759 --> 00:18:48.880 So we have to place our trust in the right thing. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:53.759 Placing my trust in the Lord means I'm placing my trust in something that's immutable. 00:18:54.079 --> 00:18:55.119 He doesn't change. 00:18:55.279 --> 00:18:56.480 People change. 00:18:56.880 --> 00:18:58.559 Cultural trends change. 00:18:58.720 --> 00:18:59.680 But he's immutable. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:04.240 Not only immutable, but he's omniscient, he's omnipotent, and he's every place. 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:12.480 To trust the Lord, I place my hope in something that doesn't age or fade or burn out or fat out or fail. 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:16.160 He's from everlasting and to everlasting. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:18.400 He is a sustainer. 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:21.519 He's the breath and bread of life. 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:24.319 He is literal stability. 00:19:25.839 --> 00:19:44.240 And so that same person can take a seed, a corrupt seed, by the way, and he can turn that corrupt seed, me and you, into a fruitful tree that never stops producing fruit if we will keep our hope in him. 00:19:46.640 --> 00:19:48.160 God has enough for you. 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:50.319 But let me tell you what it takes, church. 00:19:50.400 --> 00:19:50.880 It takes faith. 00:19:51.039 --> 00:19:52.480 Hebrews 11:1, faith. 00:19:52.720 --> 00:19:56.880 Faith is the evidence of things, Lord, that are not seen. 00:19:57.680 --> 00:20:00.319 The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:04.559 It keeps keeping our eye on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. 00:20:04.880 --> 00:20:07.680 I found this quote this week, and you need to hear it. 00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:12.079 The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:15.200 And the end of faith is the beginning of anxieties. 00:20:16.880 --> 00:20:22.319 The beginning of your anxiety is the end of your faith rope, and the end of faith is the beginning of your anxiety. 00:20:23.839 --> 00:20:25.440 So we hope in the Lord. 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:27.039 Letter B. 00:20:27.359 --> 00:20:30.000 Or letter A, if that's messing with you. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.519 Appetite in the Lord. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:35.440 Our appetite has to be in the Lord. 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:39.440 In verse 3, again, it says, Trust in the Lord, do good, dwell in the land. 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:44.480 And here's this phrase and feed on his faithfulness. 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:48.960 You ever heard a mother say to their child, Don't ruin your appetite. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:51.440 Don't go ruining your appetite. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:59.039 Heather and myself and the kids, we went over, got a gift card, and went over to Texas Roadhouse the other week. 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:05.039 And we're in there, and uh I'm listening to the kids, and I'm just gonna be honest, I'm cheap. 00:21:05.119 --> 00:21:06.319 Even with a gift card, I'm cheap. 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:08.319 So I'm sitting there and I'm calculating the things that they want. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:10.319 And I hear why I go, I want a big steak. 00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.559 I'm like, oh man, I wanted a big steak. 00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:13.759 So I'm over there, okay. 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:15.039 I'm gonna have to get a smaller steak. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:15.680 That's okay. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.000 He gets his New Year's strip, whatever. 00:21:18.400 --> 00:21:22.960 And you know, I'm calculating because I don't want to, I really don't want to spend an extra dollar if I can help it. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:25.119 So I'm sitting there and I got my calculations. 00:21:25.279 --> 00:21:29.680 I'm gonna have my six-ounce steak while my son has his 14 ounce steak. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:34.000 And as the food comes, I watch Wyatt and he is pounding. 00:21:34.079 --> 00:21:36.400 Y'all had these cinnamon butter rolls. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:40.160 He's pounding rolls, oh, just killing them, killing them. 00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:44.400 And they keep bringing baskets like it is their job to fill us. 00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:49.440 And, you know, I left after because I was so amazed at the consumption that took place. 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:51.599 I think he ate five, maybe six. 00:21:51.759 --> 00:21:58.319 There's 250 to 275 calories in every cinnamon roll at Texas Rotterdam. 00:21:58.720 --> 00:21:59.759 The kid had over 2000. 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:03.359 Thousand calories pounded before the steak started. 00:22:05.039 --> 00:22:07.839 And he took home ten ounces of steak. 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:10.319 And there I was. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:14.960 These three pieces are delicious. 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:26.559 There is less calories in the steak than there was in those rolls that he ate. 00:22:28.319 --> 00:22:30.400 But you've heard it before. 00:22:30.720 --> 00:22:33.039 Don't go ruining your appetite. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:34.799 Don't ruin, you gotta leave room. 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:38.240 Any of you ever eat at the Mexican restaurant and they pull out them chips? 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:41.599 Come on, people, you know I'm hungry. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:44.480 Bring them out when my meal comes out. 00:22:45.279 --> 00:22:57.759 Well, what happens is when you're looking often at what's in front of you, you'll settle for what's in front of you instead of what you really came for. 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:05.039 The Bible says man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 00:23:05.359 --> 00:23:10.240 Prosperity is much more than material things. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:14.960 It's much more than that new shirt or that new shoes or that new car. 00:23:15.440 --> 00:23:18.640 Prosperity is much more than materials. 00:23:19.599 --> 00:23:23.839 The psalmist said previously in Psalms 34 that we looked at the other week. 00:23:24.000 --> 00:23:27.920 Taste, come taste and see that the Lord He is good. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:36.079 Psalm 63, which Job did such a great job of speaking last week, he said, My soul thirsts and longs for thee. 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:39.839 He said, Do good and enjoy God's feeding. 00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:42.960 Church, do you enjoy God's feeding? 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:47.359 Is your appetite for the things of the Lord? 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:51.440 Proverbs 23, 1 through 3 says this, you need to hear this first. 00:23:51.599 --> 00:24:01.599 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, consider carefully what is before you, and put a knife to your throat if you become a man given to that appetite. 00:24:01.839 --> 00:24:06.160 Do not desire his delicacies, they are deceptive foods. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:21.440 Colossians 3 5 tells us a list of things to put to death, and at the top of it is our lusts, the lust of this flesh, the things that drive us right into anxiousness. 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:27.920 In 1 John 2 15, 16, it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are of the world. 00:24:28.480 --> 00:24:32.000 If a person loves those things, the love of the Father is not in him. 00:24:32.240 --> 00:24:40.160 You see, it makes a person anxious because it provides something for a moment, but it makes us empty forever. 00:24:40.960 --> 00:24:45.920 And today, church, is a good day to lay down wrong appetites. 00:24:46.960 --> 00:24:52.319 Jealousies, lies, immoralities, lust, they all cause worry. 00:24:52.960 --> 00:24:55.279 Comparison causes worry. 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:57.839 You don't have to live in worry today. 00:24:57.920 --> 00:24:59.839 You don't have to leave in worry. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:04.000 Well, Pastor, how does a person turn their appetite? 00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:06.319 I gotta thinking about this. 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.119 How many of you love coffee? 00:25:09.920 --> 00:25:11.119 I love coffee. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:18.720 Man, I like drip coffee, curry coffee, espresso coffee, espresso coffee, pour over coffee. 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:19.680 It doesn't matter. 00:25:19.839 --> 00:25:21.039 I love coffee. 00:25:21.599 --> 00:25:23.519 There's more French press coffee. 00:25:23.599 --> 00:25:25.279 I mean, I love coffee. 00:25:25.519 --> 00:25:28.880 I like hot coffee, and now I like cold coffee. 00:25:29.200 --> 00:25:31.440 Lattes, it's all good. 00:25:32.160 --> 00:25:33.759 A lot of you raise your hand. 00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:35.599 Coffee is bitter. 00:25:36.720 --> 00:25:37.359 Right? 00:25:38.559 --> 00:25:43.599 When I first started to drink coffee, I needed a brownie with it. 00:25:44.960 --> 00:25:47.440 Or a chocolate chip cookie with it. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:52.799 For three months, when I started a job as a dispatch manager to wake up, I needed to call. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:57.680 For three months, every morning I had two Reese cups and a cup of coffee. 00:25:57.920 --> 00:26:01.039 I'm serious, that's how I got this nice physique. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:05.759 So, but what was happening? 00:26:06.160 --> 00:26:09.359 My appetite for coffee was changing. 00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:12.720 It takes 14 days, they say, to create a habit. 00:26:12.960 --> 00:26:15.200 How do I change my want to want? 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:21.440 Practically, if I wanted to want coffee, I had to get where it was at. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:25.839 I had to want coffee and I had to get where people were drinking coffee. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:27.599 I had to get a good cup of coffee. 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:30.799 I had to have a cup that I like to pour my coffee in. 00:26:30.880 --> 00:26:32.000 I need to smell it. 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:36.960 And sometimes I need to go to a fun new place to experience coffee in a new way. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:40.720 I needed to take pleasure in coffee. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:55.519 And if you want to change your appetite, it means you need to starve yourself of certain things and begin to look towards other things and get around it, even if it's hard. 00:26:55.759 --> 00:26:57.039 But you need to try. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:00.400 Even if you're having a hard time reading his word, you need to try. 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:02.720 If you're having a hard time in prayer, you need to try. 00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:06.160 Go to a new place, go to a mountaintop, go to the beach. 00:27:06.400 --> 00:27:09.599 Find a way to begin changing your appetite. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:11.119 You've got to change old things. 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:13.680 This is like if you wanted to start eating vegetables. 00:27:13.839 --> 00:27:15.359 You got to find a way. 00:27:15.599 --> 00:27:15.920 Right? 00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:17.680 Some people in here say, I don't do it. 00:27:17.839 --> 00:27:18.799 Well, you can. 00:27:19.519 --> 00:27:21.200 You may not, but you can. 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:25.599 When I met Heather and we got married first, I didn't eat hardly any vegetables. 00:27:25.839 --> 00:27:27.039 Now I eat any vegetable. 00:27:27.279 --> 00:27:28.480 I eat anything. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:31.839 I like good food, but my appetite had to be changed. 00:27:32.079 --> 00:27:33.519 That takes us to the next letter. 00:27:33.599 --> 00:27:37.839 I said you had to take pleasure in coffee to change that appetite. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:42.000 Letter C is pleasure in the Lord's treasures. 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:43.279 Look at verse 4. 00:27:43.440 --> 00:27:51.440 It says, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of your heart. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.960 This scripture is often misunderstood and misused. 00:27:57.359 --> 00:28:03.920 It says, delight in the Lord, and many people will say, if I delight in the Lord, then he will give me my desires. 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:14.000 As if to say that if you give effort in your walk with God, following his rules, he will produce goods and services. 00:28:15.279 --> 00:28:20.480 That's prosperity theology, prosperity, gospel. 00:28:22.400 --> 00:28:29.440 Scripture says this in John 14, 14, you may ask for anything in my name, so that the Father may be glorified. 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:40.240 James 4, 3 said, You have not because you ask not, and sometimes you don't have because you ask amiss, meaning, how do we need to then ask? 00:28:40.640 --> 00:28:42.640 Listen to what it says again. 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:46.400 Delight yourself in the Lord. 00:28:47.039 --> 00:28:50.640 Better said, delight in what the Lord delights in. 00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:57.119 Bring your heart into alignment with what the Lord desires. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:02.799 And when you bring your heart into alignment with the Lord, he will do it. 00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:06.319 Well, what does the Lord delight in? 00:29:06.640 --> 00:29:08.559 Is then a great question. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:14.240 It says, when we delight ourselves in the Lord, he gives us our delight. 00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:17.440 McLaren said it this way, and this is a good summary. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:22.559 If he, church, is our delight, he gives us more of himself. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:27.359 Longings fixed on him fulfill themselves. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:30.960 If he is our delight, we get more of him. 00:29:31.279 --> 00:29:35.680 And when we get filled with more of him, we want more of him, and then he gives us more of him. 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:37.440 Can you see it? 00:29:37.839 --> 00:29:39.599 Delight yourself in the Lord. 00:29:39.839 --> 00:29:48.480 Matthew 11, 28 and 29, Dave had mentioned, but it's often used as a verse for rest mainly, but it's an exchange also. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:51.279 He says, Come to me all ye that are labored. 00:29:51.440 --> 00:29:53.119 Many of you say, Pastor, I'm labored. 00:29:53.680 --> 00:29:55.599 This summer, my job, I'm labored. 00:29:55.680 --> 00:29:59.920 It says, Come to me all that are labored and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:03.440 And we would pause there and say, Man, that's good. 00:30:03.680 --> 00:30:11.599 But it says, after that, take my yoke upon you, for my burden is light. 00:30:11.839 --> 00:30:15.279 It doesn't say rest, lay down, get on the hammock, and stay down. 00:30:15.440 --> 00:30:24.880