WEBVTT 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:02.640 This podcast is the Ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church. 00:00:02.799 --> 00:00:06.240 For more information on our church, please visit Grandparkway.org. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:06.959 Amen. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:07.919 You can have a seat. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:11.599 If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Matthew chapter 13. 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:17.839 And let me, uh, just by way of clarity, someone stopped me this morning and said, Oh, Pastor, you're dressed up today. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:21.199 I usually don't dress this nice, but I went and saw my mom this week. 00:00:21.359 --> 00:00:28.640 My mom who grew up in Minnesota and grew up a Lutheran and says to me all the time, Oh, I wish you would not wear dungarees in the Lord's house. 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:31.920 And I'm like, Mom, God doesn't care, but your mother does. 00:00:32.159 --> 00:00:37.600 And so I told my mom this week, hey, mom, I'll put on some slacks just for you and take a picture. 00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:42.159 And so after church, I'll take a picture and send it to my mom, and things will be hunky-dory. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:43.520 And why do I say that? 00:00:43.679 --> 00:00:47.280 Because you're if you're visiting today, no, you was you wear whatever you're comfortable with. 00:00:47.600 --> 00:00:54.000 Some people wear shorts here, some people wear, most people wear jeans, uh, some people wear khakis, or my mom calls dungarees. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.799 Uh and my mom talks like that because she smoked for 50-something years and just recently quit. 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:02.320 But anyway, uh, I just want to say, make yourself at home, all right? 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:07.040 Uh uh and we're uh in the middle of kind of explaining our mission statement as a church. 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:13.280 If you've been to our website, you saw a page on there that said helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God. 00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:15.840 Last week we talked about helping people to know God. 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:17.920 What does it look like to help people to know God? 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:19.920 It actually involves helping people. 00:01:20.079 --> 00:01:20.879 That's crazy. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:26.000 Uh but secondly, and I want to talk this morning to you about the necessity of enjoying God. 00:01:26.239 --> 00:01:28.000 The necessity of enjoying God. 00:01:28.079 --> 00:01:33.280 If you've got a Bible and it's open to Matthew chapter 13, let me just tell you, Jesus is talking. 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:46.400 You ever go to like a dinner party or a business luncheon or something, and there's the one guy that gets to talking, and he tells one story, and then he tells another story, and people kind of laugh, and then he tells another story, and he just gets on a roll and he won't be quiet. 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:47.760 Jesus was that way. 00:01:47.920 --> 00:01:54.640 Not because he just got carried away, but when he would start talking, he wanted people to so understand what he was talking about. 00:01:54.799 --> 00:02:00.959 He told stories called parables to kind of help hang flesh on what these truths that he wanted people to understand. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:03.280 That's what's happened in Matthew chapter 13. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:04.319 He's on a roll. 00:02:04.480 --> 00:02:07.760 This we're gonna read just one little verse, Matthew 13, 44. 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:10.159 It is the fifth parable that Jesus tells. 00:02:10.319 --> 00:02:11.840 Because he wants people to understand. 00:02:12.000 --> 00:02:12.879 I want you to get this. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:16.400 I don't want you just to hear this and leave and go, hey, where are we going to lunch? 00:02:16.479 --> 00:02:20.159 Uh he wants you to leave and kind of go, wow, yes to that. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:23.680 And so he's talking about what what it means to be a Christian. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:31.120 When the Bible talks about the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven, he's talking about the realm within which what God wants done gets done. 00:02:31.280 --> 00:02:40.560 And Jesus is talking, he says these words in Matthew 13, 44, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. 00:02:40.800 --> 00:02:46.560 Then, in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:49.120 Let's just stop right there and just hear that again. 00:02:49.360 --> 00:02:53.520 This is one of those things in the Bible you should read, and it's preposterous sounding. 00:02:53.680 --> 00:02:59.520 It says the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. 00:02:59.680 --> 00:03:06.240 Now, uh the way your mind is oriented towards the truth determines how you see the world, but also determines how you see the Bible. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:16.080 He says the kingdom of heaven, being a Christian, having a relationship with God is like treasure hidden in a field, and a man found and covered it up. 00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:20.400 Now, ask yourself, first of all, who finds treasure and then covers it back up? 00:03:20.639 --> 00:03:27.199 I was working in the flower bed, I have a neighbor, a widow, that lives a couple hours down from a, and I was working in her flower bed yesterday. 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:32.639 And let me just, as your pastor love enough to tell you this, I was digging, I had to dig up two sago palms. 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:34.800 Those things are rooted at the bottom of the earth. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:35.919 I hate those things. 00:03:36.080 --> 00:03:39.360 If you have one in your yard, I can come kill it this afternoon. 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:41.039 I killed two yesterday. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:47.280 I got so mad, the redneck in meat came out, I got my truck in a chain and pulled them out of the ground. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:51.759 And just to celebrate, I drove around the block with that thing dragging behind me. 00:03:51.840 --> 00:03:54.240 Somebody's like, hey, you got a tree back there. 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.479 That's right, because I'm a man. 00:03:57.919 --> 00:04:01.919 And one of my neighbors nudged his buddy and said, He's he's really a pastor. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:03.199 He really is. 00:04:03.439 --> 00:04:04.000 That's right. 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:07.120 And if I want to drag this around all week, I think I will. 00:04:07.360 --> 00:04:09.360 Because that thing just keeps producing. 00:04:09.439 --> 00:04:10.560 It's just like, ah. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:12.240 But let me just tell you something. 00:04:12.479 --> 00:04:15.360 I had to dig down two feet to get under the bottom of that thing. 00:04:15.520 --> 00:04:19.439 Had I found treasure in that flower bed, I wouldn't be here right now. 00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:24.800 Lance Williams would be up here doing shadow puppets or something. 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:30.079 Because they would have got up and said, hey, Neil said he loves you, but he found treasure. 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:31.120 Bye-bye. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:40.000 But the Bible says, and this is Jesus talking, he says, the kingdom of heaven, because see, some of you think about Christianity in lame, pathetic terms. 00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:44.560 The way you think about it discounts it from being all that the Bible says it is. 00:04:44.720 --> 00:04:51.279 Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like uh hidden, like a treasure hidden in a field, and a man found it and then covered it up. 00:04:51.519 --> 00:04:55.360 Who finds treasure and says, I got enough money, I don't need more? 00:04:57.600 --> 00:04:59.680 Jesus says that to get your attention. 00:04:59.920 --> 00:05:04.079 And then now that he's got your attention, he says the next sentence, then in his joy. 00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.079 Circle those three words. 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.879 In his joy. 00:05:10.160 --> 00:05:14.720 He goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. 00:05:15.439 --> 00:05:21.360 There ought to be behaviors in your life and my life that can only be explained because of joy. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.959 That's why I want to talk to you about the necessity of joy. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:27.839 The necessity of enjoying God. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:28.879 Here's the good news. 00:05:28.959 --> 00:05:31.120 I've only got two points to the sermon. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:36.079 And everybody said, You losers. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:39.120 If you're visiting today, pray for me. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:42.240 You see what I deal with every day, every Sunday? 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.959 The other part is that I've got four subpoints about how you do the two points. 00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:49.600 Randy doke on him right there. 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:50.160 Did you see him? 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:51.519 Oh, hey, me and two points. 00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:52.560 We're gonna get out early. 00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:53.519 Shut up. 00:05:54.959 --> 00:05:57.040 And here's the simple two points, okay? 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:02.079 Uh number one, to not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:05.920 To not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:06:06.079 --> 00:06:06.480 What do you mean? 00:06:06.560 --> 00:06:13.120 To not have God as your highest priority, deepest affection, and greatest joy is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:06:13.279 --> 00:06:14.879 Now just check, don't, don't, don't check out. 00:06:14.959 --> 00:06:17.519 Just stay with me because this is not going where you think it's going. 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:22.639 I'm not here to forbid you from enjoying certain things in your life. 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:24.800 That's what most of you think Christianity is. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:28.959 They took a poll in San Francisco and they asked people, what do you think about Christians? 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:30.560 What's your first impression of Christians? 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:32.959 And here's the main two responses they got. 00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:35.439 Number one, they're against everything. 00:06:35.519 --> 00:06:37.600 And number two, they meet a lot. 00:06:39.279 --> 00:06:41.839 And the Bible says that's not it at all. 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:47.519 So this is not about when I say to not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:48.639 You say, Well, what do you mean? 00:06:48.800 --> 00:06:50.480 Let me just read from Exodus 20. 00:06:50.639 --> 00:06:56.000 It'll come up on the screen, but if you want to turn there, Exodus chapter 20, uh, verses 1 to 6. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.360 This is also known as the Ten Commandments, and listen to what God says. 00:06:59.439 --> 00:07:00.720 And God spoke verse 1. 00:07:00.879 --> 00:07:07.759 And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:18.319 Now, when you read the Ten Commandments, don't skip over that part and just go to the commandments, because if you lose sight of who God is, then you lose value on what he says. 00:07:19.360 --> 00:07:20.000 Did you hear me? 00:07:20.160 --> 00:07:26.240 Now if you lose sight, he says, I am the Lord God who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 00:07:26.560 --> 00:07:30.399 I was telling the first service that when I didn't become a Christian until I was 18. 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:33.279 And when I started, I asked him, I said, I want to understand this. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:37.600 He said, Read the Sermon on the Mount, read the Lord's Prayer, read the Ten Commandments. 00:07:37.759 --> 00:07:40.639 And so the first time I read the Ten Commandments, I thought about my dad. 00:07:40.720 --> 00:07:42.480 Because I grew up on a farm in East Texas. 00:07:42.639 --> 00:07:46.399 We never got grounded, we never got put in timeout, we didn't get spanked. 00:07:46.480 --> 00:07:47.680 We got whipped, okay? 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.920 And if we were really bad, we got whooped. 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:52.000 W-H-U-P-P-E-D. 00:07:52.240 --> 00:07:54.800 And every time we got whooped, my dad would do this. 00:07:54.959 --> 00:07:58.160 He would tell us who he was while he was taking his belt off, okay? 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.199 He would say, I am your father, and I'm not going to put up with that. 00:08:01.279 --> 00:08:04.720 And then he would unbuckle and grab that buckle, and then the rattlesnake would come out. 00:08:05.839 --> 00:08:08.240 That's the belt hitting those belt loops on the way out. 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:09.519 And we just knew what was coming. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.560 And my dad would then put his belt back on and say, Who am I? 00:08:12.720 --> 00:08:16.319 And I would think in my mind, you're a man whose pants are about to fall down. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:22.079 But I never would say that because my dad told us before and after, this is who I am. 00:08:22.240 --> 00:08:24.079 He would say, I'm your dad, okay? 00:08:24.319 --> 00:08:25.680 I expect more from you. 00:08:25.839 --> 00:08:30.000 And he put his belt back on and I would walk away going, My dad expects more from me. 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:38.639 So next time I got to the fork in the road of being smart or being an idiot, I would hear my dad going, I'm your dad, I expect more from you. 00:08:38.879 --> 00:08:42.879 So when I read the the the Ten Commandments for the first time, I smiled. 00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:47.759 Because God says, I'm the Lord who brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:54.399 And God says, Hey, what I'm about to tell you to do or not do is rooted in who I am. 00:08:54.639 --> 00:08:56.879 And then he says these words, very simple. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:08:58.399 Anyone can understand this. 00:08:58.559 --> 00:09:04.399 I uh verse 3, the first commandment, you shall love, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:09:05.039 --> 00:09:08.159 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:13.679 That's what I mean when I say to not enjoy God supremely, is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:17.919 That's why he says, God knew we were prone to idolatry. 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:20.000 He says, You shall have no other gods before me. 00:09:20.159 --> 00:09:21.600 You go, okay, I'm a Christian. 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:22.240 I got that. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:35.120 And then he says the second commandment, which is simply this: He says, You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness or anything that is in heaven above or that is in earth beneath or that is in the water or under the earth. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:37.840 You shall not bow down to them or serve them. 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:53.279 For I am the Lord your for I, the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 00:09:53.440 --> 00:09:59.360 And again, the way your mind is oriented towards the truth determines how you see the world and how you read the Bible. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:06.399 Some of you are like, oh, God's a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation, blah, blah, blah. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:17.200 But the way my mind is oriented, reads it, and sees that, but also says, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments. 00:10:17.679 --> 00:10:18.720 What am I saying? 00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:24.480 Some of you are going to be the person that changed the spiritual trajectory of your family's legacy from here on out. 00:10:24.639 --> 00:10:31.759 You're going to be the guy at the family reunion who's 96, has more ears than teeth, and all the great grandkids are fascinated by you. 00:10:31.919 --> 00:10:35.840 They're looking at you kind of going, That's my, that's my that's my grandpa. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:37.679 Don't get grandpa. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:43.200 Grandpa's okay, but get a sexy grandpa name like Big Poppy and have it tattooed on your chest. 00:10:43.360 --> 00:10:45.600 So when they say, Big Poppy, you want to pray? 00:10:45.759 --> 00:10:49.279 You just wear those old school Wrangler denim pearl snapshirt. 00:10:49.360 --> 00:10:50.559 You can just unsnap it. 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:52.559 Big Poppy's gonna get his prey on now. 00:10:52.639 --> 00:10:54.159 Y'all bow your heads. 00:10:55.679 --> 00:11:01.440 Wouldn't you just love to be at a family union and all the little kids are nudging each other, going, see, see? 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:06.159 He changed the our family, it was a bunch of drunkards and men of no integrity. 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:08.559 And he's loved my grandma for 71 years. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:12.000 And we always ask him, Grandpa, how did you love grandma for 71 years? 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:15.360 And he smiles and says, She's that satisfying. 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:19.679 It just made changed the way I dated people when I was in high school. 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:24.799 That's what the Bible means when it says, Hey, showing love to thousands. 00:11:25.519 --> 00:11:33.200 And God says, Hey, by the way, this is what I mean when I say, hey, to not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:34.960 You shall have no other gods before me. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:36.720 Oh, I grew up in the church. 00:11:36.879 --> 00:11:39.519 I understand God is God and there is no other. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:44.320 And then he says, You shall not make for yourself a graven image. 00:11:44.480 --> 00:11:48.320 Because we're we're we'll we can say you shall have no other gods before me. 00:11:48.399 --> 00:11:53.360 And by the way, everything in your life that you enjoy says the same thing to you. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:12:00.480 Everything in your life that you enjoy says to you and to me, everything that I enjoy says, you shall have no other gods before me. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:08.879 Your spouse says that, your job says that, your kids say that, your friends say that, your hobbies say that. 00:12:09.200 --> 00:12:13.120 But only God has earned the right to say that and to mean that. 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.279 The human heart is an idol factory. 00:12:15.440 --> 00:12:23.679 We just produce, we can kind of say intellectually, okay, I know that there's one God, I got that, but our heart, and that's why God says here's the first two commandments. 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:29.759 Because your heart can manufacture things that you're gonna love more than you love me. 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:34.960 And to do that and enjoy that more than you enjoy me, God says that's idolatry. 00:12:35.519 --> 00:12:40.559 If you read the entire Old Testament, it doesn't preach against unbelief, it preaches against idolatry. 00:12:40.799 --> 00:12:42.320 He said, I don't know what you mean. 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:47.919 Just this past week, conversation, God called and said, Hey, I just want to ask something. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.799 We were talking about this, and and and I said, Well, come by and we'll we'll talk. 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:55.919 So he comes by, we sit down, start talking, and basically the question starts off kind of easy. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:58.720 He says, Hey, did God know that Adam and Eve were gonna sin? 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:01.120 And I said, Oh, yeah, absolutely. 00:13:01.360 --> 00:13:02.399 And it was on from there. 00:13:02.480 --> 00:13:04.399 He said, Oh, why'd you got a problem with that? 00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:07.120 I mean, why would God create people if he knew we were gonna sin? 00:13:07.360 --> 00:13:09.200 Why'd he just make us perfect? 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:15.440 I said, Well, think of it this way: God set the world up to where he saves the day. 00:13:15.600 --> 00:13:21.519 So you mean to tell me that there's, by the way, there's talking to people, there's what you say, and then there's the way you say it. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:23.120 I mean, we're not four sentences in. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:26.320 This guy's like talking like he's exasperated. 00:13:26.480 --> 00:13:28.399 And I said, Hey, hey, well, relax. 00:13:28.559 --> 00:13:33.360 He said, Well, uh, I mean, you mean to tell me that God set it up, set the world up where he just saves the day? 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:35.600 And I said, Absolutely, he goes, Well, I got a problem with that. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:38.559 I mean, if he knew they were gonna sin, why didn't he stop them? 00:13:38.799 --> 00:13:42.000 And I said, I don't think you have a problem with the way God has set it up. 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:45.519 I think you have a problem with who God has chosen to glorify. 00:13:47.200 --> 00:13:48.399 I don't know what you mean. 00:13:48.639 --> 00:13:52.480 Well, you you you kind of want to act like, hey, because here's the deal. 00:13:52.559 --> 00:13:55.279 Uh I said, you're in Genesis 3 talking about the fall of man. 00:13:55.440 --> 00:14:04.159 Go back a couple chapters to Genesis 1, verse 26, where God speaks, the Trinity speaks, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, pre-existent Christ. 00:14:04.399 --> 00:14:08.240 God speaks and says, Come, let us make man in our image. 00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:10.399 I said, Who is the plural there? 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:12.000 Who's the us and the oh I go, I don't know. 00:14:12.159 --> 00:14:12.879 That's the Trinity. 00:14:13.039 --> 00:14:20.080 That's why Colossians 1 says of Jesus that all things were made by him, and through him all things were made, and for him all things were made. 00:14:20.240 --> 00:14:24.159 Jesus wasn't an idea that God created at the end of the Old Testament. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:27.120 He didn't just pull him out and say, Hey, this thing's gone really bad. 00:14:27.279 --> 00:14:29.279 Let's make Jesus and He'll make it all better. 00:14:29.360 --> 00:14:33.120 Because me, no God needs an alter ego, smiley, lovey Jesus. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:35.039 He's existed all along. 00:14:35.200 --> 00:14:37.679 And the guy said, Well, I just got a problem with that. 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:42.000 And it dawned on me, and he's talking to me, and I just picked up my pen and wrote it down. 00:14:42.240 --> 00:14:44.720 Limits produce idols. 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:45.840 Limits. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:54.879 When we get to the limit of our human intellect, we just kind of manufacture stuff and just insist on believing that because it makes more sense to us, even if it's not true. 00:14:54.960 --> 00:14:58.000 And I said to him, I said, Hey, here's the hard part about being wrong. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:59.039 Well, I'm not wrong. 00:14:59.200 --> 00:14:59.840 Sure you are. 00:14:59.919 --> 00:15:01.279 But here's the hard part about being wrong. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:02.559 It's not that it's just you're wrong. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:03.600 I'm your pastor, right? 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:04.960 And I love you, right? 00:15:05.039 --> 00:15:06.879 Yeah, but you frustrate me. 00:15:07.039 --> 00:15:09.519 You think you're the first person to say that to me? 00:15:11.360 --> 00:15:14.240 I live with a woman that says that to me all the time. 00:15:15.360 --> 00:15:20.080 My wife said to me the other day, You are the most highly functioning bipolar I know. 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:23.679 Wear that like a belt. 00:15:23.840 --> 00:15:25.039 Are you kidding me? 00:15:26.320 --> 00:15:30.799 He says, Well, I mean, why would God set it up where he saves the day? 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:33.440 Who else can God depend on to save the day? 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:34.639 You and me? 00:15:35.360 --> 00:15:36.720 See, that's what you want. 00:15:36.879 --> 00:15:38.000 You want the glory. 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:42.399 And God says in Isaiah 49, my glory I will not share with another. 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:44.480 Well, we're just gonna disagree. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.279 Hey, here's here's the let me love you and be your pastor. 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:49.120 Here's the bad thing, here's the hard thing. 00:15:49.279 --> 00:15:50.399 Not just that you're wrong. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:54.240 You gotta spend the rest of your life making this look enjoyable. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.039 And he looked at me and said, I understand now why your wife gets frustrated. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:02.480 I don't. 00:16:02.639 --> 00:16:04.000 Maybe you can explain to me. 00:16:04.799 --> 00:16:07.120 Because here's the thing that's what the Bible says. 00:16:07.360 --> 00:16:08.480 God sets it up. 00:16:09.120 --> 00:16:11.519 And because God sets it up that way, guess what? 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:22.960 You and I, regardless of your background, your religious pedigree, if you grew up in church, you've never been to church, you started dating a girl, and two Sundays ago she said, or two Saturdays ago, she goes, Hey, let's go to church in the morning. 00:16:23.039 --> 00:16:29.840 And you're sitting in here right now, kind of going, I'm here because my girlfriend, you know, kind of let me know that if I want to keep dating her, I got to come to church. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:31.039 That's great. 00:16:31.279 --> 00:16:32.080 Relax. 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:41.279 God has set up the world to where you and I now have something that we can enjoy supremely for the rest of our lives. 00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:46.240 And to not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry. 00:16:46.320 --> 00:16:46.799 What do you mean? 00:16:46.879 --> 00:16:51.360 It means you're enjoying something else, the way you were intended to enjoy God. 00:16:51.519 --> 00:16:56.960 Now there's nothing wrong with enjoying other things, which brings us to our second point in the talk this morning. 00:16:57.039 --> 00:17:02.080 And it's simply this it you set the standard of enjoyment in your life. 00:17:02.399 --> 00:17:05.119 You set the standard of enjoyment in your life. 00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:06.319 You say, What do you mean? 00:17:06.400 --> 00:17:07.680 Uh this happens every year. 00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:09.039 It's already started happening. 00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:18.559 Uh ladies and gentlemen, there's some men in our church that about in a couple, sometime later this month, they'll disappear for two weeks because they have a thing called a dear lace somewhere in Texas. 00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:21.039 Some of them are in Mexico, New Mexico, and they come up to me. 00:17:21.119 --> 00:17:24.319 I didn't I didn't grow up in church, so I didn't know this when I first became the pastor. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:29.279 Guys would, families would come up and say, No, Pastor, we're not gonna be here next Sunday, and I'd be like, Okay. 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:30.480 So? 00:17:30.799 --> 00:17:36.799 And my wife, who grew up in church, is like, well, babe, people feel guilty when they're not in church and they want to tell you so you don't think bad of them. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:38.640 Oh, okay. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:40.240 I I I don't think bad. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.000 By the way, I was on sabbatical this summer. 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:43.680 There's a lot of Sundays I didn't go to church. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:45.440 I didn't feel bad at all. 00:17:46.559 --> 00:17:49.599 I heard God saying, You've been to enough church for a while. 00:17:49.680 --> 00:17:51.039 You can have a break, Neil. 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:56.720 And I was like, okay, but this is what happened because you kind of feel guilty because you enjoy deer hunting, okay? 00:17:57.119 --> 00:18:02.079 It's your business that you pay money year-round to hunt on this thing for two weeks. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:08.799 That's your business, and that you put on clothes that you never wear anywhere else, and you put deer urine on you. 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:10.640 Yeah, they do. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:13.680 And you go out, here's the craziest part. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:32.240 You go out there and you bait these deer, you feed them corn, you put out all this sin, and then you go over here in your little tree house on steroids with a slit in it where you can stick your rifle out of the heated air-conditioned hunting hut and kill the deer that you've taught to come eat food right there. 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.759 That's not hunting, that's assassination, okay? 00:18:38.559 --> 00:18:41.119 But, but that's your deal. 00:18:41.279 --> 00:18:42.000 I don't care. 00:18:42.160 --> 00:18:43.599 Here's my thing. 00:18:44.079 --> 00:18:47.839 Don't feel you you've never heard this in church before, some of you. 00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.160 Don't feel guilty that you enjoy that. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:19:00.319 Don't come up to me and go, well, you know, God, hey, I'm gonna be gone for a couple weeks, and you know, and you know, well, you know, I don't want here's my favorite lie you tell. 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:04.480 I don't want to go, but I've already paid, and so I think it'd be bad stewardship. 00:19:09.119 --> 00:19:14.079 And I just think, man, hey, you worked hard on that lie right there. 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.640 There's lies you only tell the preacher, by the way. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.319 That's one of them. 00:19:18.640 --> 00:19:21.599 And so I always say, enjoy yourself. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:27.839 And you always look at me like what you're talking about, Willis. 00:19:29.359 --> 00:19:35.759 You set the standard of enjoyment in your life and by by the things that you enjoy. 00:19:35.839 --> 00:19:37.200 And so let me just say this. 00:19:37.839 --> 00:19:44.720 What I'm saying is that whatever you enjoy, let that be a reminder of the kind of enjoyment that you're capable of. 00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:46.000 Enjoy it. 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:49.039 If you enjoy your grandkids, enjoy your grandkids. 00:19:49.279 --> 00:19:51.839 If you have a beach house, enjoy your beach house. 00:19:51.920 --> 00:19:56.720 Don't come to me and say, hey, we're gonna miss a couple Sundays because we got a beach house. 00:19:57.119 --> 00:19:58.160 Glory to God. 00:19:58.319 --> 00:20:00.160 I'm excited that God has blessed you. 00:20:00.240 --> 00:20:02.640 You have a house house, and you have a beach house. 00:20:03.119 --> 00:20:04.960 Great! Go to it. 00:20:05.759 --> 00:20:10.079 But see, here's the thing we feel guilty when we enjoy things. 00:20:10.160 --> 00:20:17.839 And what I'm saying to you, and more importantly, what the Bible is saying to you, is that God created you to enjoy those things. 00:20:18.880 --> 00:20:24.079 But he reserved the place of highest enjoyment in your life for him. 00:20:24.480 --> 00:20:27.759 And if you have anything in that place, that is idolatry. 00:20:27.920 --> 00:20:41.119 So if you enjoy hunting or golf or fishing or four-wheeling or scrapbooking or whatever you enjoy, enjoy that as a reminder of the kind of enjoyment you're capable of. 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:45.839 For example, today, and this is just again the way my crazy mind worked. 00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:48.720 I will turn on the TV today, the Texans game. 00:20:48.799 --> 00:20:50.799 It's in Baltimore, so don't worry, I gotta holler. 00:20:51.039 --> 00:20:51.759 It kicks off at noon. 00:20:51.839 --> 00:20:53.680 You'll be home in time to turn on your TV and watch it. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:21:23.839 And you'll turn on the TV, and there will be people in Baltimore, Maryland, who live in Houston, Texas, who bought airline tickets and flew up there and got a hotel and went out and ate and drank too much beer or whatever, and they go to the game, and someone's gonna have their shirt off, and they've painted their whole upper body battle red, and they've got a helmet on with deer antlers on it, and they're in the crowd going crazy, and I see that, and everybody expects me to go, oh, that person wasted all that money on that trip. 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:24.880 I don't think that. 00:21:25.039 --> 00:21:27.680 I think, what's that guy like in church? 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:34.000 Don't you want to come to church next week? 00:21:34.319 --> 00:21:45.359 And right down here, somebody who's got their whole upper body painted red with a big flag that says Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our God is a banner God. 00:21:46.400 --> 00:21:49.599 Wouldn't you just be kind of going, what does that guy know that we don't know? 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:54.079 There was a guy that went to the Denver Broncos when they were in Mile High Stadium. 00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:59.839 I don't know what they called him, but he wore a brown cowboy hat and boots and a barrel and orange suspenders. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:00.960 Remember seeing that guy? 00:22:01.039 --> 00:22:03.599 And he would, it'd be 12 degrees, and he'd be up there in the stands. 00:22:03.680 --> 00:22:06.079 And I'll be like, please tell me you got something on under that barrel. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.720 And everybody's like, oh, isn't that dumb? 00:22:08.880 --> 00:22:09.440 Isn't that dumb? 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:11.279 No, that's pleasure. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:12.559 That's enjoyment. 00:22:12.880 --> 00:22:23.519 God created you to feel things deeply, to love things deeply, but he also created you to not love or enjoy anything more than you enjoy him. 00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.440 So you set the standard of enjoyment. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.559 Stop apologizing for enjoying your grandkids. 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:33.039 Have fun with your grandkids. 00:22:33.279 --> 00:22:37.359 I got rednecks in here that loves to go shoot stuff. 00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:40.720 And so we went and shot stuff a while back out in the pasture. 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:42.880 And just I have a 40-caliber pistol. 00:22:42.960 --> 00:22:44.000 I like shooting at. 00:22:44.160 --> 00:22:47.759 You break into my house, I'll demonstrate to you how much I like shooting at. 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:52.960 I'll double thumb up on you and I'll kind of walk up on you sideways. 00:22:53.599 --> 00:22:55.039 Wrong house. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:23:00.720 When I call 911, I'm gonna have our business right here. 00:23:01.359 --> 00:23:04.240 We got too many idiots in the world running the place. 00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:07.279 We can thin the herd right here. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.960 Anyway, we'll edit that off the podcast. 00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:13.039 Jesus. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:18.880 But somebody asked me, I'd been out with my buddy Mike shooting, and somebody said, What'd you do today? 00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:20.400 I said, I went and shot stuff. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:27.200 I put about from about 10, 15 yards, I put about five in a pattern about that big, right there in the center, center mass, right in the heart. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:30.799 Well, Pastor, why do you practice shooting stuff just in case the need arises? 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:36.400 And then people walked off and said, our pastor's really violent. 00:23:37.440 --> 00:23:39.839 No, I just enjoy shooting stuff. 00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:41.119 Ain't nothing wrong with that. 00:23:41.279 --> 00:23:45.519 You can't find a verse in the Bible, hey, pastors shouldn't own firearms. 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:50.000 Hey, listen, if our country keeps going the way it is, every pastor is going to need a firearm. 00:23:50.960 --> 00:23:55.920 But here's the thing: it's just, it's not, hey, you set the standard of enjoyment. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:23:56.880 You set the level enjoyment. 00:23:57.039 --> 00:23:58.160 I enjoy playing golf. 00:23:58.319 --> 00:24:00.799 I really enjoy, I enjoy playing golf. 00:24:00.960 --> 00:24:08.720 I enjoy playing golf with certain people more than others because I can get in their head and they just go crazy and they just self-destruct. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:13.519 They'll get ready to putt, and they'll just hit it like nine feet by, and I go, does your wife play? 00:24:15.039 --> 00:24:15.680 Really? 00:24:17.359 --> 00:24:18.400 I mean, really? 00:24:20.480 --> 00:24:23.440 I was just curious because maybe she could make that putt. 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:28.000 So here's what it comes down to. 00:24:28.319 --> 00:24:37.519 If to not enjoy God supremely is to be guilty of idolatry, and if, secondly, we set the standard of enjoyment in your life, that's the sermon, by the way. 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:38.400 It's over. 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:39.440 That's it. 00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:41.759 But now, how do you apply this? 00:24:41.920 --> 00:24:42.960 Let me give you a fourth thing. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:46.319 So the question ought to arise in you, how do I enjoy God? 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:50.640 If I've got to enjoy God like that, how do I, because that's what Jesus said. 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:51.519 Remember, that's where we started. 00:24:51.680 --> 00:24:57.359 Matthew 13, 44, the kingdom of God, the realm within which what God wants done gets done. 00:24:57.519 --> 00:25:01.519 That's why when the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, Jesus said, When you pray, pray this way. 00:25:01.680 --> 00:25:09.519 Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:25:10.640 --> 00:25:11.359 That's what we mean. 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:13.680 The kingdom is a place where God's will get done. 00:25:13.839 --> 00:25:18.559 Don't you want your life to be the place where what God wants to happen happens? 00:25:19.680 --> 00:25:24.559 And one of the ways that makes that easier is that you enjoy God. 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:30.079 That's why, as your pastor, I have to say, hey, hey, there's a necessity to enjoy in God. 00:25:30.160 --> 00:25:32.160 And church people aren't good at it. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:35.119 We feel guilty when we enjoy something. 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:40.640 And by the way, when I come to your house, you don't have to apologize for how nice your house is. 00:25:41.279 --> 00:25:49.119 Anytime I go to someone's house that has a beautiful home, they explain to me, well, you know, my wife's dad died and my mom died, and we've got that money. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:50.960 And I don't care. 00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:52.880 Enjoy your house. 00:25:53.039 --> 00:25:57.599 If you've got a nice car, when I get in your car, don't tell me what a deal you got. 00:25:57.759 --> 00:25:59.440 Otherwise, you wouldn't drive this. 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:01.039