SPEAKER_02: This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_02: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: It's good to be back with you all.
SPEAKER_01: Every time I start feeling like I need a little humidity, I just come to Houston.
SPEAKER_01: Not bad today, not bad.
SPEAKER_01: But it's good to be back with you all today.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Neil is in Amarillo.
SPEAKER_01: Pray God's blessing on his ministry where he is preaching today, and for God's blessing on us as well.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, turn to Luke chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: Gospel of Luke, chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: We're only going to read one verse of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite texts in all of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 12, verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Let's read and then we'll pray.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, Fear not, little flock.
SPEAKER_01: For it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock.
SPEAKER_01: For it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Spirit of God, we ask that you would open our eyes, soften our hearts, enlighten our minds, inflame our affections, that we might not only see it and understand it, but rejoice in it and trust in it.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, we come to you now and ask for all these things, not so that we may be promoted or praised, but so that Jesus will be exalted.
SPEAKER_01: So we commit this time to you.
SPEAKER_01: In the precious name of our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I am entirely persuaded that you and I will never truly experience the abundant life that our Lord Jesus Christ came to give us until we have learned how to enjoy God.
SPEAKER_01: Now, we can be religiously active.
SPEAKER_01: You can show up every Sunday for church.
SPEAKER_01: You can be an avid reader of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: You can share your faith with others.
SPEAKER_01: You can be generous in your giving.
SPEAKER_01: You can even pray on a regular basis.
SPEAKER_01: But if we do not understand and embrace what it means to enjoy God, we will bear little fruit to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So what do I mean when I talk about enjoying God?
SPEAKER_01: What in the world could that mean?
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the experience of sheer unadulterated delight in who God is.
SPEAKER_01: Talking about the experience of deep soul-satisfying joy in all that God is for us in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: To enjoy God is to find in him the supreme satisfaction for our souls.
SPEAKER_01: It's to be captivated and enthralled by who he is.
SPEAKER_01: To enjoy God, to use the words of the Apostle Peter from 1 Peter chapter 1, is to love him and to rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory.
SPEAKER_01: My flesh and my heart may fail, said the psalmist, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means to enjoy Him.
SPEAKER_01: In His presence is fullness of joy, we read in Psalm 16, 11.
SPEAKER_01: At his right hand are pleasures forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: Enjoying God is an absolute necessity if we are ever to make progress in our relationship with him and in our experience and our effect on others in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: But we have a problem.
SPEAKER_01: The problem is our belief, a false belief, but a belief nonetheless that God does not, cannot, and will never enjoy us.
SPEAKER_01: The fact of the matter is, it's hard to delight in someone that you actually believe is disgusted with you.
SPEAKER_01: It's hard to take joy in someone that you think in your heart probably doesn't even like you very much.
SPEAKER_01: Our capacity to delight in God is only as good as our capacity to enjoy his delight in us.
SPEAKER_01: And we say to ourselves, how could a God who's worth his salt enjoy me?
SPEAKER_01: A God who is infinitely holy and righteous and pure and just, and knowing that I am the very antithesis of all those things, I find it almost impossible to believe that God could delight in me.
SPEAKER_01: It seems more likely that he is not only disappointed, but absolutely repulsed by who I am and how I live and what I've done.
SPEAKER_01: This is why every once in a while, in fact, maybe more often than that, we need to be reminded of how incredibly good God is.
SPEAKER_01: How in his heart are depths of delight in his children.
SPEAKER_01: That moves him, as Zephaniah 3.17 says, to quite literally sing over us, his children.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know for some of you this may sound a bit trite, because one of the first things that you're taught when you become a Christian is the love of God.
SPEAKER_01: You memorize John 3.16, the first time you enter into a church.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, I also think it's one of the most difficult things for Christians to believe.
SPEAKER_01: We all too live, all too often live in fear that God isn't really good at heart, and that he has little, if any, desire to do good things for his people.
SPEAKER_01: And if he does do good things, he does it reluctantly, begrudgingly, with hesitation.
SPEAKER_01: I think maybe this comes from seeing so much bad in the world.
SPEAKER_01: We look around us and we see natural disasters, we see premature deaths, we see disease and pandemics, we see the way people hate each other and fight and kill, and we say, if God is good, why is this world in such a mess?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe we think if God is good, he's only good to those who are good, and since I'm no good, he won't be good to me.
SPEAKER_01: We just have all these objections, all these obstacles.
SPEAKER_01: And that is why I love Luke 12, 32.
SPEAKER_01: Every syllable in this simple passage, every word is designed to diminish in your hearts the fear that God is irked with you, that he just simply doesn't like you.
SPEAKER_01: And that if he does something that you consider a blessing, he begrudges it.
SPEAKER_01: That he's really constrained, he's out of character when he seems to bless us in some manner.
SPEAKER_01: That basically at bottom, he's angry, he's put out with you and me.
SPEAKER_01: But this passage is talking about the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's talking about what makes God glad.
SPEAKER_01: It's talking about not so much what God has to do, not what he does out of obligation or necessity, but what he delights to do, what he loves to do, what brings him greatest joy to do.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you may think, how in the world is he gonna spend 30 minutes on this one verse?
SPEAKER_01: Is there really all that much here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let me remind you of something.
SPEAKER_01: If you come to the Bible and only scratch the surface, in other words, if you bring a rake to scripture, all you're gonna get is leaves.
SPEAKER_01: But if you bring a shovel and dig deep, you're gonna find diamonds.
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna dig deep into this passage today.
SPEAKER_01: There are, in fact, seven words, seven statements in this one passage, all of which are designed to put your fears at rest that maybe God really hates me after all.
SPEAKER_01: The first one's right there at the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this isn't the word first time that those words have appeared in Luke's gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Back in Luke chapter 1, you may remember that the angel Gabriel appeared to Zecharias and announced to him that his wife was going to give birth to a son.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, that was John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: And when the angel appeared, Zechariah trembled.
SPEAKER_01: And the angel said, Don't be afraid, fear not.
SPEAKER_01: And then again later in Luke's chapter 1, verse 30, when he appears to Mary to announce that she is to be the mother of the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the same words.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: And then in Luke chapter 2 and verse 10, when the angels appeared to the shepherds on that momentous evening, they said, Don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: I think in each of those cases, the reason why Zacharias and Mary and the shepherds are told that is because they were terrified.
SPEAKER_01: They were fearful of their own physical welfare.
SPEAKER_01: They thought perhaps this angel has come to judge them and to kill them or to punish them.
SPEAKER_01: But here in Luke 12, 32, Jesus is saying something along the lines of, don't worry, don't be anxious, don't be filled with fretful thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: Don't lie awake at night agonizing.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's telling them not to live in the fear and the anxiety that it's just all too good to be true.
SPEAKER_01: He's addressing our concern that what we experience from God, what we sing about as we have this morning, it's just a pipe dream.
SPEAKER_01: It's just pie in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: It will never be true.
SPEAKER_01: It's the fear that keeps us from enjoying God's goodness.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus' design, his aim, his intent in this simple statement in Luke 12, 32 is to rid you of that fear that God is not the kind of God who wants to bless you and wants to be good to you, wants to take care of you from now into eternity, but rather that He's just put out.
SPEAKER_01: He's ill-disposed, he's angry.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's possible for us to kind of intellectually persuade ourselves that God is good, but deep down in our hearts we cling to the fear that his goodness is constrained.
SPEAKER_01: We think, for example, if I can use an analogy, that it's kind of like a judge in a courtroom, and he's really grown to dislike the defendant, the one who is accused.
SPEAKER_01: But this really clever lawyer has found a technicality that the judge himself couldn't even have anticipated.
SPEAKER_01: And the judge, against his better judgment, against his desires, I say, all right, charge is dismissed, you can go free.
SPEAKER_01: He'd really rather throw the book at the guy and lock him away forever, but he's been tricked.
SPEAKER_01: We sometimes think, maybe that's what happened with the Father.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came up with some argument that he hadn't thought about, some loophole in the law, and the Father has to kind of dismiss all our sins against us when really he'd like to throw us into eternal hell.
SPEAKER_01: That is not what our father is like.
SPEAKER_01: That's the sort of fear that Jesus wants to dispel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, he's not saying that we should never fear God.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we know that we tremble in awe and reverence at the majesty and the infinity of God and all of his power and his glory and his authority, but he's saying we shouldn't live in fear that God is basically a heavenly Scrooge.
SPEAKER_01: And he gives reluctantly, he gives against his better nature, and maybe one day he'll just all take it back.
SPEAKER_01: Take it all back.
SPEAKER_01: That's the fear that Jesus wants to put to rest.
SPEAKER_01: We live in fear that maybe God's love is like the love of others.
SPEAKER_01: Most of you know, at least to some degree, somebody who's promised their friendship, promised their love.
SPEAKER_01: They said they'd be with that, be with you whenever you had need.
SPEAKER_01: And just when you had need, you looked around and there's no one there.
SPEAKER_01: They abandoned you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe God's telling us that he loves us and that he's good because he's setting us up to so we'll lower our defenses and become vulnerable, and then he'll pop some command on us, like, well, you need to move to North Korea and be a missionary.
SPEAKER_01: Although that wouldn't be a bad thing.
SPEAKER_01: That's the kind of fear that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to dispel from your hearts.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing, he says, fear not, little flock, it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Now, translations differ on how they render this word.
SPEAKER_01: The New American Standard says your father has chosen gladly.
SPEAKER_01: The NIV says your father has been pleased.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually one verb in the original text.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's the interesting thing: this verb appears six times in Scripture, all of which are in one of the four Gospels, and always in the same context.
SPEAKER_01: You remember at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan, the heavens were open and a voice speaks audibly.
SPEAKER_01: This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have good pleasure.
SPEAKER_01: On the Mount of Transfiguration, once again, the heavens open, the audible voice comes down.
SPEAKER_01: This is my son in whom I have good pleasure, in whom I am delighted, with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_01: That's the word that Jesus chose.
SPEAKER_01: The only other place that word appears in the Gospels is right here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus could have chosen some other word.
SPEAKER_01: He could have made the same point, but he chose that word to describe how the Father feels about you and me.
SPEAKER_01: He says, if Jesus says to his disciples, hey guys, do you remember what I told you happened at my baptism?
SPEAKER_01: How the Spirit descended like a dove upon me, anointed me with power, and the Father spoke audibly from heaven about how he is glad and well pleased with me, his only begotten Son.
SPEAKER_01: That's how God feels about you and giving you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: God the Father is no less happy, no less delighted about giving you the kingdom than he is about me doing what I am in fulfillment of his will.
SPEAKER_01: The Father's heart is bursting with affection, bursting with joy and excitement in giving you and me the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how to express that in a way that can make the point with any more force.
SPEAKER_01: Just as God delights in Jesus, just as he is pleased and happy and thrilled with his incarnate Son, so he is happy and pleased and delighted and brimming with joy to give you and me the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Simply put, God is not acting in generosity toward us to hide some ulterior motive.
SPEAKER_01: He's not got some malicious intent.
SPEAKER_01: He gives freely, lovingly, and joyfully and sincerely.
SPEAKER_01: It reminds me of what he said to the people of Israel back in Jeremiah 32.
SPEAKER_01: I will make them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them.
SPEAKER_01: And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they may not turn from me.
SPEAKER_01: I will rejoice in doing them.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not just going to do them good, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul, not half-heartedly, with all my heart and with all my soul.
SPEAKER_01: Notice the next thing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus could have said it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, and we would have understood it.
SPEAKER_01: But he uses the word father.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't want us to think of God as our employer or our boss or our teacher or our coach or even a friend or a relative, but as our father.
SPEAKER_01: Now I realize that that doesn't help some of you very much.
SPEAKER_01: I know that some of you sadly were raised in homes where your father left many scars on your soul.
SPEAKER_01: It may be that it's not so much that he did anything bad, he was just absent.
SPEAKER_01: He just wasn't there.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you had an accusing father, who the only time he opened his mouth is to point out all your faults and all your failures and how you don't measure up to other kids.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe he was just an apathetic father.
SPEAKER_01: He just didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: But God is unlike any earthly father, even the very best of them.
SPEAKER_01: I was blessed with the most wonderful earthly father I could have ever imagined.
SPEAKER_01: Not all of you were.
SPEAKER_01: But our Father, our Heavenly Father, never fails to speak the truth, never fails to be present when we need him, never fails to come through for us when we're desperate.
SPEAKER_01: So how can some of you unlearn the pain of an either absent, apathetic, accusing Father?
SPEAKER_01: By looking to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we learn in John chapter 14 when Philip said, Lord, we'd like to see the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus said, Philip, have I been so long with you and you haven't figured it out yet?
SPEAKER_01: When you see me, you see the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So if you struggle with God as Father, if that kind of sticks in your throat, just look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Explore his character, his compassion, his love, his power, his beauty, and realize that that is true also of your Father.
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's move on to the fourth thing he says.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Our father takes great delight in giving the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't put it up for sale.
SPEAKER_01: You aren't in competition at some auction with other Christians as to who can offer up the most good works, who can fulfill the most promises, who can make the greatest sacrifices, and you'll get the kingdom from God, and they won't.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: You can't purchase God's blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you thought that you could trade for it.
SPEAKER_01: You amass all the good deeds you've done, all the promises you fulfilled.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Lord, I'll swap you all this stuff for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: God says, No, I don't trade, I don't bother, there's no barter, there's no exchange.
SPEAKER_01: I love giving you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Think about the dynamics of giving.
SPEAKER_01: God is himself a giver, not a getter.
SPEAKER_01: God's greatest delight does not come from making demands, it comes from meeting needs, the needs of his people.
SPEAKER_01: One of our greatest joys is the delight we experience when we are able to give something to somebody we care about and to watch the glow and the joy in their face.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had it happen where you've really worked hard and labored for a gift to maybe a family member or a friend, and you gave it to them and they went, oh my, I'm sorry, this is too much.
SPEAKER_01: I can't accept it.
SPEAKER_01: And they hand it back to you.
SPEAKER_01: Your countenance will fall.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because they just robbed you of the joy of giving.
SPEAKER_01: Their joy in giving comes from your joy in receiving.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't really delight in receiving, it spoils their delight in giving.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the problem here, we just don't trust givers.
SPEAKER_01: We really don't.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe a one-time gift, and we can say, well, I don't quite understand this, but okay, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And then they come back a week later with another, and you start saying to you, what are they up to?
SPEAKER_01: And then they come back again the next week with another, and you say, All right, what do you want?
SPEAKER_01: You're up to something.
SPEAKER_01: You're trying to butter me up, you're trying to smooth the path, and you're gonna make some demand on me, or place some burden on me.
SPEAKER_01: I know you can't mean this in the way that it seems like you do, but that's not how God operates.
SPEAKER_01: He gives and gives and gives because he enjoys giving and he enjoys the joy we get from getting what he joyfully gives.
SPEAKER_01: God is a giver.
SPEAKER_01: So how do you honor a God like that?
SPEAKER_01: I remember many years ago reading in one of John Piper's books, an illustration that has stuck with me all these years.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Do you serve God like he's a watering trough or like he's a self-replenishing mountain stream?
SPEAKER_01: What do you do with a watering trough?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you go out and you recruit other people and you create this bucket brigade and you keep walking up the hill and pouring water into it and making sure that it's still full and you're constantly filling it up with what it lacks.
SPEAKER_01: That's no way to serve God.
SPEAKER_01: To honor God, the giver, you get out on your knees and you drink from that self-replenishing mountain stream, and then you run down in the valley and tell people where they can find water.
SPEAKER_01: Because God is a self-replenishing mountain stream who just overflows again and again in giving.
SPEAKER_01: The fifth thing he says here, look at how we're described.
SPEAKER_01: We're a flock, a flock of sheep.
SPEAKER_01: We're not a thundering herd of elephants or a pride of ferocious lions or a pack of ravenous wolves.
SPEAKER_01: We are a flock.
SPEAKER_01: Helpless, dumb, utterly dependent on the shepherd.
SPEAKER_01: And this is one of the biggest roadblocks to our capacity to be able to enjoy God.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not little flock, sheep.
SPEAKER_01: What I mean is this you know who you are.
SPEAKER_01: I know who I am.
SPEAKER_01: I am very keenly aware of my history of sin and failure and rebellion and unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: So are you.
SPEAKER_01: And you look at your own soul, and we say, My goodness, given how prone I am to just repeat the same sins all over and over and over again, knowing myself as I do, there's no way that God could ever want to give me anything good.
SPEAKER_01: Because He knows me better than I know myself.
SPEAKER_01: See, one of the greatest obstacles to enjoying God is our knowledge of His knowledge of us.
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing for me to be honest about who I am and how I have fallen short, but then I think, wait a minute, God is omniscient.
SPEAKER_01: He sees and penetrates my soul and all my excuses and my behavior and every bad motive and every ugly word, and he sees it more clearly than I could ever hope to see it.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm disgusted with myself, how much more must he be?
SPEAKER_01: I think that's why when we sin, we run from God rather than to him.
SPEAKER_01: Each of us is painfully aware of the depth of our sin and our depravity.
SPEAKER_01: And it's that inescapable, very painful knowledge that we have of ourselves, and we say, well, God knows it even better than I do.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way that he could care for me or love me or even want me.
SPEAKER_01: That's why I talk to people all the time who just are convinced that God is disgusted with them, disillusioned, disappointed, frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: After all, why shouldn't he be?
SPEAKER_01: That's how I feel about myself.
SPEAKER_01: So surely a God who is holy would feel even more so.
SPEAKER_01: Do you realize how this affects the way we relate to other people?
SPEAKER_01: If you think that if other people saw the true you, that they would be disgusted and turn away, what do you do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you put up some sort of outward facade, you take on some image, you assume a certain relational style to make sure they can never get too close to see you for what you know you really are.
SPEAKER_01: If we react that way to people whose knowledge of us is limited, imagine how we react to God whose knowledge of us is infinite.
SPEAKER_01: We might be able to fool some people some of the time, but we can never fool God at any time.
SPEAKER_01: His knowledge of us is exhaustive, penetrating, comprehensive.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not suggesting that God isn't displeased with our sin.
SPEAKER_01: Of course he is.
SPEAKER_01: But he's displeased as a father is with an erring child.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to take us into his arms and bring conviction and transformation into our lives.
SPEAKER_01: But my point is simply our knowledge of God's knowledge of us poses a great obstacle to our ability to enjoy God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just remind you of this by reading from a very familiar Psalm.
SPEAKER_01: You know Psalm 130.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you probably haven't memorized.
SPEAKER_01: We're told in verse 8 that the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: We go, wow, great God, amazing.
SPEAKER_01: It gets better.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 10, he does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.
SPEAKER_01: And then it follows on that, it even gets better in Psalm 103.
SPEAKER_01: For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
SPEAKER_01: As a father shows compassion on his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
SPEAKER_01: We say, Oh, well and good, that sounds great.
SPEAKER_01: But it will never happen with me because I'm everything that God isn't.
SPEAKER_01: I'm fallen and wretched and weak and selfish and fickle.
SPEAKER_01: And then we come to one of the most amazing verses in the Bible that I think people oftentimes just skim right by.
SPEAKER_01: After all of these blessings, these expressions of love and kindness and compassion that God has toward us, we come to verse 14 of Psalm 103.
SPEAKER_01: For he knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust.
SPEAKER_01: Time out, Lord.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't make any sense at all.
SPEAKER_01: When you see the connection between verse 14 and all that has preceded, all these glorious things that God is and what he does for his children, and then he comes and he says, God knows our frame.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how weak we are, he knows that we were made from dust.
SPEAKER_01: I don't get it.
SPEAKER_01: It took me forever to figure this out.
SPEAKER_01: God loves us and has compassion on us and forgiveness because he knows us.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would have thought his knowledge of us repels him and drives him away.
SPEAKER_01: But his knowledge of us doesn't terminate his blessings.
SPEAKER_01: His knowledge of us, in some sense, is the reason or the explanation for why he's so compassionate and kind.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, that is divine logic, because that's not how a human being thinks.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd asked me if that makes any sense on a human level, I'd say that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
SPEAKER_01: It's not how you and I would reason.
SPEAKER_01: Our tendency would be to say it's because he knows my frame.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how fickle I am, he knows how weak and prone to wander I am.
SPEAKER_01: That is why he will have nothing to do with me.
SPEAKER_01: But no, God says, no, it is precisely because I know that about you that I've chosen to be compassionate and forgiving and patient and kind and loving.
SPEAKER_01: So your knowledge of God's knowledge of you is not a good reason to run from him when you sin, but rather run to him.
SPEAKER_01: You see, God sees you clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He sees in you the work of grace and the fear and the reverence and awe in which you in which you respond to him.
SPEAKER_01: So no matter how well we know our own hearts, no matter how thoroughly you think you know your own soul, if we would but know God's, all fear, all hesitation would disappear.
SPEAKER_01: He is an ever-flowing, never-ending fountain of forgiveness to those who in repentance and faith seek him through Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we've come to the last two words.
SPEAKER_01: You know, it's one thing to say we're a flock of sheep, but we're just a little flock.
SPEAKER_01: We're not even a big flock, a moderately sized flock.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that word little there could be taken in two ways.
SPEAKER_01: It might be simply a term of endearment.
SPEAKER_01: When my daughters were very young and a thunderstorm and lightning would be flashing in the sky, and they would be terrified, and they'd run into me and my wife, and I'd take them in my arms, and I'd say, Little Mel, little Joey, it's okay, don't worry, I've got you.
SPEAKER_01: It's a term of affection and endearment.
SPEAKER_01: But it may also point to size and influence.
SPEAKER_01: It's Jesus saying to them then and to us now, you're not a very big flock.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have a lot of fame in the world, you don't have a lot of influence, you're not very impressive, your numbers are few, worldly expectations are meaningless to him.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Don't be afraid, little flock.
SPEAKER_01: And then we come to the clincher, the seventh and final thing.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock, because it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: You know, one of the reasons why we find ourselves doubting God and getting mad at him is because we have trusted him for things he never promised to give.
SPEAKER_01: We think God has promised us wealth and health for all of our days, that we will never be persecuted or slandered by others, especially by Christians.
SPEAKER_01: And when that doesn't materialize, we we, hard God, I've had enough of you.
SPEAKER_01: Imagine this: your birthday.
SPEAKER_01: Try to go back many, many years.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're a uh early teens or even younger than that, and your birthday is coming, and you've dropped every hint possible to your parents what you want.
SPEAKER_01: You've even got a catalog or a newspaper, and you found a picture of what you want, and you rip it out and you tape it to the refrigerator door so that they'll see it every time they go there.
SPEAKER_01: And then your day comes and they come in with this package.
SPEAKER_01: You think, well, it's not exactly what I thought.
SPEAKER_01: I it wouldn't fit in a box, but you say, okay, you rip it open, you it's the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of all things.
SPEAKER_01: I was hoping for a dirt bike, or maybe a car, or a gift card worth several thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_01: All I get is the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: What the kingdom of God is.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God means you will inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_01: You'll judge angels, you'll reign forever with Christ, you will never see war or injustice again.
SPEAKER_01: All death will be gone.
SPEAKER_01: Righteousness and joy and peace will prevail at every single moment of your life for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: You'll experience firsthand God's promise that he will never ever leave you or forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: But the greatest treasure of the kingdom, folks, is the king.
SPEAKER_01: Fear not, little flock, for your father's good pleasure is to give you himself, the great God of this universe.
SPEAKER_01: If you could have all the blessings of heaven, walking on streets of gold, a new glorified resurrected body, reunion with all your friends and family, but not have Jesus, would you be happy?
SPEAKER_01: I hope not.
SPEAKER_01: Because the greatest blessing of all is the King, his presence, his power, his beauty, his love for all eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So little flock, don't be afraid.
SPEAKER_01: Don't live constantly in anxiety and fear, fretting yourselves about God's intentions toward you, what he will or won't do, depending on what you will or won't do, because it is your father's glorious delight, his greatest pleasure to freely give you, not to sell you, not to exchange for something you might give him that he wants, but to freely give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: And in the kingdom is the king himself.
SPEAKER_01: That's why if you and I are ever going to be of any success in honoring Christ in our lives and blessing others, we need to come to the place where we can enjoy that God.
SPEAKER_01: And that will only happen when we come to understand how much He enjoys us and how delighted He is to give us as an act of grace the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I know that some here are probably still struggling to believe that you could possibly be that good.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe their lives have taken a turn for the bad, a business has gone under, maybe children have rebelled, or a spouse has walked out, or finances are in the tank.
SPEAKER_01: Who I am and what's happening to me?
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray that these incredible diamonds, these incredible nuggets of gold in this one verse of scripture would resonate in our hearts and would change us by the power of your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I can only try to unpack what I think Jesus is saying, but Spirit of God, you have to embed that within our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You have to use it to powerfully transform us.
SPEAKER_01: So we ask now that you would do that for the sake and for the glory of Jesus our Savior, in whose name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Each week we take some time and we ask God what has my name on it from the sermon.
SPEAKER_02: So I just want us to take some time now in our heads and in our hearts.
SPEAKER_02: What's the one thing you take away from the word today?
SPEAKER_02: Let's do that together.
SPEAKER_02: We're reminded there's a difference between just surface mining and actually digging a mine shaft and getting down the side of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: So we pray that the seed of your word that's been sown among us would take deep root, and that the burning heat of persecution would not cause it to wither.
SPEAKER_02: That the thorny cares of this life would not choke it out.
SPEAKER_02: Would make of us good soil so that we would bring forward good fruit in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: And all God's people said amen.
SPEAKER_02: I want to thank you so much for your presence today.
SPEAKER_02: If you're new, this is your first time with us, there's a number on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: You can text, welcome to that number.
SPEAKER_02: That way we know you are here and we'll get you connected with the life of our church.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, if today is the day you worship through giving, there's boxes by the doors, you can do that uh on your way out.
SPEAKER_02: This is a large church, as you've probably noticed, if it's your first time.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and we want to get you outside of the large room into smaller environments.
SPEAKER_02: One of the ways we do that is tonight we've got community groups meeting all over our city.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we'd love for you to be a part of one of those.
SPEAKER_02: If you want more information, you can go to our website.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, this next video has some other ways you can be involved as well.
SPEAKER_02: So let's take a look.
SPEAKER_00: Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: The table is next Sunday, November 10th, from 6:30 to 8.30 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_00: This is a woman's only event filled with worship and the word.
SPEAKER_00: This Thursday, November 7th, is the last chance to register for child care for the table.
SPEAKER_00: On November 6th, join us for an evening of food, fellowships, and fun at Home Run Dugout.
SPEAKER_00: We have reserved two batting days with a large dining area.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you want to play games or relax with friends, it'll be a great time.
SPEAKER_00: This is a men's only event with a cost of$5 per person plus your meal.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, we're making big plans for our upcoming Family Christmas Fest event on December 7th from 9.30 to 11:30 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: There will be many fun activities for the whole family, including our live nativity and petting zoo, face paintings, train rides, sounds houses, crafts, food trucks for purchasing food and drink, and new this year, SNOOOOOOOO! This will be a free event, but if you would like to donate and help be a blessing to our community, there's a place to do this on the registration form.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you are making plans to join in the fun and advice your friends and neighbors.
SPEAKER_00: For more information or to register for these events, please visit our website at gramparkway.org.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions or want somebody to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.
SPEAKER_02: So I'll be there like a polar bear.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I want to say thank you so much, Sam, for being here today.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, Sam and some of the other pastors are gonna be down.
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
SPEAKER_02: Sam and some of our other pastors will be down here at the front of the stage.
SPEAKER_02: If you have any questions from the sermon or want somebody to pray with you, we'd love to do that.
SPEAKER_02: I want to take some time to do one more thing.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, where's Wade Burgess?
SPEAKER_02: Wade is right here.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna ask Wade to come down at the front of the stage as well because Wade is about to leave for eight weeks on sabbatical.
SPEAKER_02: Uh Wade is uh he works hard and he's ready for a break.
SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna ask you to do one thing.
SPEAKER_02: Don't bother Wade for eight weeks.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so he and Amy can rest and recover.
SPEAKER_02: So please pray for them.
SPEAKER_02: Uh come down.
SPEAKER_02: You may have a word you want to speak to Wade.
SPEAKER_02: You may have a, what did Neil call it in his email?
SPEAKER_02: A Pentecostal handshake.
SPEAKER_02: If you know what that is, a little something, give him a little gas money for a few road trips.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, that'd be great as well.
SPEAKER_02: So let's stand to our feet.
SPEAKER_02: We'd like to close our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out like this.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord bless you and keep you.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord, lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.
SPEAKER_02: You're dismissed.