SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grant Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grant Parkway, visit Grantparquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, let us better understand the freedom you came for us to have today as we think about this season of faith called summer.
SPEAKER_01: Speak, God.
SPEAKER_01: Your children are listening.
SPEAKER_01: And so we pray and we listen in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a Bible, I invite you to take it and open it up to Psalm 19.
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't have a Bible, there's one on your row.
SPEAKER_01: I'm on page 456.
SPEAKER_01: As I said earlier when I first uh uh earlier in the service, we're in a series called Seasons of Faith, and we're just kind of looking at different seasons uh uh of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: As a Christian, uh uh you're gonna go, not every day is gonna be a journal entry.
SPEAKER_01: Some days are just gonna be like, okay, that was okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but you're gonna go through seasons.
SPEAKER_01: We started a couple weeks ago uh with winter.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody asked me, what order are you doing them in?
SPEAKER_01: I said, James Taylor.
SPEAKER_01: And so we did winter.
SPEAKER_01: Last week we did spring.
SPEAKER_01: Today we'll do summer, and next Sunday I'll do fall.
SPEAKER_01: Uh winter is a time of dormancy.
SPEAKER_01: Winter is when it's really cold and and God just doesn't feel like he's real close, and you just kind of bundle up and just kind of survive.
SPEAKER_01: That's what winter's like.
SPEAKER_01: Things go dormant in the winter, but every season is not a fruit-bearing season, but every season is necessary for the production of fruit.
SPEAKER_01: And so God does things in our life.
SPEAKER_01: We're in a season when we're in a season of winter that He doesn't do any other time of the year.
SPEAKER_01: So there's winter, spring's the time of renewal, of starting over again.
SPEAKER_01: Today I'm gonna talk to you about summer.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I want to do.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read from the Bible and Psalm 19 because it kind of describes, it talks about creation and and God's word.
SPEAKER_01: There's two testaments of God.
SPEAKER_01: God says, hey, if you want to understand me, look at creation and and and look at my word.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in the summer of your faith, this is what it kind of feels like, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is what the Bible says.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 19, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_01: Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: There is no speech, nor their words, whose voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_01: Their measuring line goes out through all the earth, and the word and their word to the end of the world.
SPEAKER_01: In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber, and like a strong man runs its course with joy.
SPEAKER_01: Its rising is from the end of the heavens, and its circuit to the ends of them, and there's nothing hidden from its heat.
SPEAKER_01: The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
SPEAKER_01: The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
SPEAKER_01: The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.
SPEAKER_01: The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
SPEAKER_01: The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
SPEAKER_01: More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than the honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
SPEAKER_01: Moreover, by them is your servant warned.
SPEAKER_01: In keeping them there's great reward.
SPEAKER_01: Who can discern his errors?
SPEAKER_01: Declare me innocent from my hidden faults.
SPEAKER_01: Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.
SPEAKER_01: Let them not have dominion over me.
SPEAKER_01: Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression.
SPEAKER_01: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 19 is a great descriptor of what it feels like to be in summer.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean in summer?
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way I I apologize, ladies, because I'm a guy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the only way I know to describe what summer feels like.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the basketball player Michael Jordan?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember Michael Jordan?
SPEAKER_01: Not when he played for the Washington Bullets, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But Michael Jordan, number 23, when he played for the Chicago Bulls.
SPEAKER_01: I I watched him drop 63 on the Boston Celtics in a playoff game.
SPEAKER_01: And afterwards they asked him, they said, Michael, what was that like?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, it was like the hoop was that big and I was always open.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just like, that's what summer feels like.
SPEAKER_01: And you're always open.
SPEAKER_01: He said, I just couldn't miss.
SPEAKER_01: I would know coming down the floor what I was gonna do and how who I was gonna score on.
SPEAKER_01: And I just I I never thought about missing.
SPEAKER_01: I just thought, okay, I can't miss.
SPEAKER_01: I'm in the zone.
SPEAKER_01: That's what summer, when you're in summer in your faith, that's what it feels like.
SPEAKER_01: You say, Well, why why'd you pick the 19th Psalm?
SPEAKER_01: Because he starts off and says, The heavens declare the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: The sky above proclaims his handiwork.
SPEAKER_01: Day to day pours out speech and night reveals knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in summer, everything, you get something out of everything.
SPEAKER_01: You read the Bible and it just pops.
SPEAKER_01: The words come off the pages.
SPEAKER_01: You're in conversations and you walk away with spiritual insight.
SPEAKER_01: You read something you've read 20 times before in the Bible, and you see something new in it.
SPEAKER_01: You hear a song and it makes you think thoughts you've never thought before.
SPEAKER_01: Everything just kind of clicks.
SPEAKER_01: And then you get to the verse 7, to about verse 10 of the psalm, and he says, he's talking about the word, the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: He says it's perfect, reviving the soul.
SPEAKER_01: It's sure, making wise the simple.
SPEAKER_01: It's right, and my heart rejoices because of that.
SPEAKER_01: It's pure, enlightening the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: The fear of the Lord, he says it's clean, enduring forever, and it's true.
SPEAKER_01: That's what summer feels like.
SPEAKER_01: It's enlightening to the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: You the place of your soul is big.
SPEAKER_01: It's so good when you're in summer, you almost feel guilty about it.
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the thought that goes through your mind at some point when you find yourself in summer.
SPEAKER_01: When's the other shoe gonna drop?
SPEAKER_01: This is good, but this can't go on forever.
SPEAKER_01: You're exactly right, and I'll show you in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: It it's that way on purpose.
SPEAKER_01: God designed it that way.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what summer sounds like from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just kind of give you some of the characteristics of summer.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you four of them.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, summer is a time of abundance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time of abundance, it's when rest and wonder and time and curiosity and pleasures are all in abundance.
SPEAKER_01: It's a time when the kingdom kind of comes easily and in fullness.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, let me say something that's not gonna make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you wish preachers would tell you, I'm fixing to say something that doesn't make sense, so you could not feel dumb when they said it?
SPEAKER_01: Like, I should understand that.
SPEAKER_01: You won't understand this, and it's my fault.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are looking at me like, you don't know how to do this, do you?
SPEAKER_01: You're not supposed to be that honest about this.
SPEAKER_01: No, you know, yes, you are.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's a time when the kingdom comes and your of course is in full.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you understand what I just said when I said your of course is in full?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: Three of you.
SPEAKER_01: The rest of you are like, pinch the baby, let's go.
SPEAKER_01: No, your of course is in full.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in summer, you read things in the Bible and you don't get defensive, you're not like, oh, that's not what that means.
SPEAKER_01: That was written by men.
SPEAKER_01: That was written a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: You find fault with everything when you're in winter.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in summer, you read something in the Bible and you go, of course.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Your wife says, Hey, you've been telling me for three months you're gonna clean out the garage.
SPEAKER_01: Can you clean out the garage this Saturday?
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
SPEAKER_01: You women are like, Yeah, my husband doesn't have one, of course.
SPEAKER_01: He's got a bunch of explanation.
SPEAKER_01: That's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: When you're in summer, you have this big, your of course is in full.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, your kids like, hey dad, can we get ice cream?
SPEAKER_01: Of course we can get ice cream.
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: You don't go, hey dad, can we get ice cream?
SPEAKER_01: Ice cream, that costs money.
SPEAKER_01: We're trying to save money for college.
SPEAKER_01: You want to go to college or you want to eat ice cream?
SPEAKER_01: Make up your mind.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: I'll take the ice cream for a hundred, Alex.
SPEAKER_01: By you yelling at me, Dad, it's just ice cream, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we just but when you're in summer, you just have this big of course.
SPEAKER_01: Let me give you a question for your small groups tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Where is your of course these days?
SPEAKER_01: Where is your of course?
SPEAKER_01: What what where is your what where's your of course?
SPEAKER_01: What just oh, of course, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: See, most people experience summer right after they become a Christian, right after conversion.
SPEAKER_01: It's this sense, remember when you first became a Christian?
SPEAKER_01: That sense of euphoria, colors were brighter, music sounded better, food tasted better before you became jaded and cynical.
SPEAKER_01: I remember me and Mark Roundtree became Christians about the same time.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't come a Christian until after I got out of high school, and we were at the country club because his family's members of the country club.
SPEAKER_01: We went out to the country club, went swimming, and we practiced baptizing each other in the swimming pool.
SPEAKER_01: Is that nerdy or what?
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean like six-year-old, but I mean two 18-year-olds out there baptizing each other.
SPEAKER_01: We were in summer.
SPEAKER_01: We were just had this sense of, oh, this is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, it gets worse.
SPEAKER_01: We would make appointments with our pastor about every 10 days to tell him we were concerned that the church was cooling down because we'd had this big spiritual movement and people were kind of easing back into the rut, and they would see us coming, and he would just kind of smile and go, Okay, boys, why are you here today?
SPEAKER_01: Well, Brother Sam, we're concerned.
SPEAKER_01: Church kind of seems to be cooling off, and he would just kind of patronize us and pat us on the head, and it kind of bugged me because I thought, should we just get over this?
SPEAKER_01: Should we just kind of be like, okay, let's just kind of sing like this?
SPEAKER_01: Like, hey, I'm saying these words, but this is not enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, son, the longer you're a Christian, the harder it is to hold on to your joy.
SPEAKER_01: I remember the first time the Holy Spirit spoke to me, and it was then.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit just said, No, let's close ourselves off to that.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember thinking, Am I hearing voices?
SPEAKER_01: Am I going crazy?
SPEAKER_01: Uh he said, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there, but it the the the stories in John chapter 8, where these these religious people, the Pharisees, come to stone this woman, and Jesus just kind of just just just fillets them.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, just, I mean, mmm, mmm.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's it's like the great line from the House of Pain song, jump around.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, because when I shoot the gift, I shoot to kill.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus gets up and just kind of tells him, Hey, I'll tell you what, whoever's without sin, be the first to cast a stone at her.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says, and they dropped their rocks and left, beginning with the older ones.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'd read in the Bible, the older you become, the more gracious you should be.
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, Well, you just, you know, you just basically he patronized and tells you you'll outgrow this one day.
SPEAKER_01: And I just kind of walk away like, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, okay, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: But that was summer, right after I was converted.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I just I looked forward to going to church.
SPEAKER_01: We went Sunday morning and Sunday night.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, awesome, this is great.
SPEAKER_01: I wish we had church another night of the week.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I that's a thought I've not had in a while.
SPEAKER_01: So don't relax.
SPEAKER_01: You're like, where are you where are you going with this?
SPEAKER_01: Summer's a time where you're made to believe Bible verses like this.
SPEAKER_01: This is 1 Timothy chapter 6, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He says, As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, when he says the rich in this in this age, that's you and me.
SPEAKER_01: You know that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's don't let's don't kid ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Stop underselling how good God's been to you for fear that somebody may ask you to borrow something.
SPEAKER_01: Stop looking around like, hey, hey, let's hide it in the mattress.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want anybody to know.
SPEAKER_01: You know, you you never can't.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, here comes the pastor.
SPEAKER_01: They're building a children's building.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he he may ask us for a donation.
SPEAKER_01: Quick, honey, cover up the furniture.
SPEAKER_01: I I really there's no furniture here.
SPEAKER_01: We're barely making the bills.
SPEAKER_01: Well, whatever, man.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: He says, as for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, to rich people like you and me, don't set your hope on riches, which is so uncertain, but set your hope on God.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because he's certain, number one, and number two, because he freely provides, richly provides us with everything.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he does.
SPEAKER_01: He after the first service, I went berserk in the first service, and a man came up to me and he goes, Man, come outside, I gotta show you something.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, All right, remind me of high school.
SPEAKER_01: My friends go, here, hold my beer.
SPEAKER_01: Something's fixing to happen right here.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Come outside, come outside.
SPEAKER_01: He had a brand new truck parked right there, fully loaded Texas edition, Chevy Silverado.
SPEAKER_01: And he I was like, Man, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And what I loved about that, he didn't feel guilty.
SPEAKER_01: And he didn't say, and I'm gonna I'm gonna make a donation to the children's building, too.
SPEAKER_01: He just said, Check out my sweet truck, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, that is awesome.
SPEAKER_01: You should come and ride me around in that this week.
SPEAKER_01: I sit on the hood like the prom queen.
SPEAKER_01: We just drive through Charlotte Estates over here, and I'll sit up on top.
SPEAKER_01: Play some music.
SPEAKER_01: No, the Bible says he's freely, he richly provides us with everything.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he does, and here's why.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he richly provides us with everything.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: To enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: The issue is not that you have too much, the issue is that you don't know how to enjoy what you have.
SPEAKER_01: That's the issue.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the issue, oh, I have too much and I need to somehow keep it on the down low or put it in a bank account out in a Cayman so the government can't find it.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: God is the God of Lamberts, is what I want to say to you.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody know what Lambert's is?
SPEAKER_01: Anybody?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I see two hands over there.
SPEAKER_01: They'd go to Pensacola and you drive down I-10.
SPEAKER_01: We go every year at Christmas, I go to my in-laws, I fix stuff for my father-in-law, my mother-in-law, and I just stay out of the way.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even exist.
SPEAKER_01: As I get my wife and those two girls there, they just look like, hey, handyman, here's the list of stuff you should fix.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but if you drive down I-10, about a mile, about an hour and a half, or a little bit, maybe not this side of Pensacola, you see a big sign on the side of the road that says Lambert's, home of throwed rolls.
SPEAKER_01: And you just kind of, what is it?
SPEAKER_01: It's this country cafe.
SPEAKER_01: You get there, it's a huge restaurant, it's close to a big ginormous outlet mall.
SPEAKER_01: You get there, there's buses in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: You think that's a bad sign.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's a good sign.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is like an experience.
SPEAKER_01: You go there and they say throwed rolls, they mean it.
SPEAKER_01: They have pans, big industrial cooking sheet pans, and guys, men and women walking around, and they take a paintbrush and butter these rolls down, and they come out and they'll just grab them and you raise your hand, they'll throw them across the restaurant to you.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids are like, roll, and rolls are flying everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: But here's why God, when God the Bible says, hey, in summer, you you've got to believe this.
SPEAKER_01: You because when you're in winter, you're like, well, that can't mean that.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't richly provide us with everything for us to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: God doesn't want us to enjoy ourselves, He wants us to be miserable.
SPEAKER_01: Where's that in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: I've not found that yet.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why God is like Lamberts, because all there are rolls flying around, there's people walk around these big bowls and kettles and pots full of vegetables.
SPEAKER_01: And they're called pass-arounds, and they're free.
SPEAKER_01: Like they came to our table and they had a big kettle full of fried okra and a spoon.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Would you girls like some okra?
SPEAKER_01: Sophie's just kind of like just cleared her plate, just put it all right there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she was stuffing it in her pockets, and we got in the car.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, What do I smell?
SPEAKER_01: She's in the backseat, nothing.
SPEAKER_01: You just drive.
SPEAKER_01: And I was just kind of like, What?
SPEAKER_01: She ate two plates of okra in three rolls.
SPEAKER_01: That was it.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't care.
SPEAKER_01: My wife's like, are you gonna do something?
SPEAKER_01: She needs to have a protein and a blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: You need to have a hot cup of shut up.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you need to have.
SPEAKER_01: Now, just for the record, I thought that, but I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_01: Just wanna be transparent up in here, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I don't care.
SPEAKER_01: We're at Lambert's.
SPEAKER_01: People are coming around just, oh, you like some.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how about some sweet potatoes?
SPEAKER_01: How about some, how about some corn?
SPEAKER_01: Did you get some corn?
SPEAKER_01: See, here's the problem.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says that he richly provides us with everything to enjoy, you're like, well, I don't believe that.
SPEAKER_01: But when you're in summer, that makes your eyes get wet and your heart get big.
SPEAKER_01: And you're just kind of like, yeah, he does.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I need to ramp up my enjoyment.
SPEAKER_01: You say, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Because some of you that's hard to believe because you picture God coming around with a big kettle of okra and some tweezers.
SPEAKER_01: And he reaches in there and he gets one and puts it on your plate, and he puts another on your plate and says, That'll be 50 cents.
SPEAKER_01: Where's your check?
SPEAKER_01: I didn't put it on your check.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the God of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: So summer is a time of abundance, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, summer is a foretaste of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why you gotta, it's so good you almost feel guilty, but you gotta push through that unnecessary feeling of guilt, okay?
SPEAKER_01: You gotta push through.
SPEAKER_01: Just because you go to church, just because you're a Christian, doesn't mean it's always gotta be hard.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, the Bible says the more you walk with God, the easier it gets.
SPEAKER_01: Let's stop baptizing dissatisfaction and and cynicism like those are fruits of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's a foretaste of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Unless you embrace what the season of faith called summer, you'll have a flawed eschatology.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Bam! Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: I dropped a big word on you right there.
SPEAKER_01: Eschatology is your theology, your understanding of the end times.
SPEAKER_01: See, every once in a while, like when summer, when you find yourself in that, you you you kind of get this, you need to embrace it, not feel guilty about it, because we start thinking, well, you know, when's the other shoe gonna drop?
SPEAKER_01: I know this can't last forever.
SPEAKER_01: Not here it can't.
SPEAKER_01: But when you're in that season of summer where it's just going good, let summer remind you of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Let it just remind you, you know what, this is just a little foretaste what heaven is gonna do.
SPEAKER_01: It's like being at the ice cream store and you got you're between six flavors.
SPEAKER_01: I I go in there, I'm between eight, I get eight samples.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm good, never mindful, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Because they give you those little video spoons.
SPEAKER_01: You ever seen those?
SPEAKER_01: About as big as your pinky fingernail?
SPEAKER_01: And they get you little, they just give you enough to help you make your mind up.
SPEAKER_01: What if during summer what God is doing is giving us a little foretaste, quote the hymn of glory divine?
SPEAKER_01: It's just saying, Hey, just sweat your whistle with this, because I got more where this came from.
SPEAKER_01: That's what summer is like.
SPEAKER_01: And so in summer, you should think about heaven, because thinking about heaven affects how you live on earth.
SPEAKER_01: For example, my wife and I have been talking and praying about what do we feel like we're gonna give to this matching gift opportunity of the children's building?
SPEAKER_01: She always gets a bigger number than I do.
SPEAKER_01: She's just crazy talking.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, shh, woman, shut it down, okay?
SPEAKER_01: B.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're talking this week.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Have you heard anything?
SPEAKER_01: And she said, Yeah, I got a number.
SPEAKER_01: And she said something, and my first thought was I said, What?
SPEAKER_01: And then I thought about heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, man, I I I don't want to get the Bible says, lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where where thieves don't break in and steal, moth doesn't corrupt, and rust doesn't corrode it.
SPEAKER_01: And I just thought, I don't want to get to heaven and have no treasure there.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, we got nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing with your name on it, you stingy weasel.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the here's the crazy thing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not stingy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm wildly generous.
SPEAKER_01: My friends love to go to lunch with me.
SPEAKER_01: The check comes, they all become astronomers.
SPEAKER_01: Or they have to go to the bathroom.
SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm like, all right, I got it, guys.
SPEAKER_01: I got it.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: All right, we've got the staff goes out, they're all like, hey dad, you got this?
SPEAKER_01: Ain't you dad?
SPEAKER_01: Let's don't even go there.
SPEAKER_01: Summer is a forte.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you another question for your small group.
SPEAKER_01: How is thinking about heaven affect the way that you live here on this earth?
SPEAKER_01: Because, see, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Unless we learn to recognize heaven and excuse me, recognize summer for what it is, and when it is, we we miss out.
SPEAKER_01: We miss the opportunity to let the kingdom of heaven kind of invade the kingdom of earth.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this past week, I would I I was talking to a friend of mine that lives up in the Fort Worth area, and and it dawned on me.
SPEAKER_01: This hooked me.
SPEAKER_01: You ever have you I I meet I keep meeting people that are kind of always in transition or in transit.
SPEAKER_01: They're always kind of moving to the next thing.
SPEAKER_01: They want to move to the country and and raise goats, or they want to do this.
SPEAKER_01: My buddy, his thing was emoose.
SPEAKER_01: Anybody remember when Emuz was the big thing?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he did Emu.
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna escape civilization and get off the grid, not be on the power, and the church is a bunch of sellouts and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: So he's always been on transition.
SPEAKER_01: Well, now he's getting towards the end of his life.
SPEAKER_01: He lives way out in the country and has no friends.
SPEAKER_01: One of the loneliest people I know, and I just kind of like, I meet so many people.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna move to the country.
SPEAKER_01: We hate the city.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we'll move to the country, but don't be so bitter, you're no fun to be around.
SPEAKER_01: My friend is so inconsolable.
SPEAKER_01: I said this on the phone.
SPEAKER_01: I'm out of words.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to say to you.
SPEAKER_01: And be careful, you're not that person.
SPEAKER_01: That person that it's always gonna be better when you go there.
SPEAKER_01: When I go back to school, when we move down inside the loop, when we move to the country, when we move from the country, back into the city, when I lose 20 pounds, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just tell you this.
SPEAKER_01: I got no plans for losing 20 pounds about the next two months.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get after it up in here for the next two months.
SPEAKER_01: And then come about January the 5th, I'll get me some running shoes and take my fat self around my neighborhood and frighten small children.
SPEAKER_01: Look, the fat guy whistles when he runs.
SPEAKER_01: You know why that is?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm in summer.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna get my grub on in summer.
SPEAKER_01: So if you want to have lunch sometime between now and Christmas, ring me up.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my thing.
SPEAKER_01: You you I was thinking about that this week and just kind of, why is everybody just kind of and clear as a bell, the Holy Spirit, God said, It's my fault.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, yes, finally, someone to blame.
SPEAKER_01: It's your fault.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: And I read this and clear.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 9 says, What gain has the worker from his toil?
SPEAKER_01: I've seen the business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with.
SPEAKER_01: He's made everything beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: Also, he has put eternity into man's heart so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning.
SPEAKER_01: It's that line right there.
SPEAKER_01: He said, First of all, I stumbled over.
SPEAKER_01: He's made everything beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: Ask yourself today, can you see this time, wherever you are in life right now, is beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Is it beautiful to you?
SPEAKER_01: Are you just kind of gritting your teeth and getting through?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, I mean, when we save enough money to do this and do that, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: God said, the Bible says God's made everything beautiful in its time.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the question maybe you could talk about in your in your small groups tonight is what's the difference between dissatisfaction and longing?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's my question.
SPEAKER_01: I wrote in my notebook after I read Ecclesiastes 3, by verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I've set eternity in the hearts of men.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: That means that you're never going to be fully at home in this world.
SPEAKER_01: But you can be content.
SPEAKER_01: You can be content.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be like my friend.
SPEAKER_01: He's friendless.
SPEAKER_01: He just, he's bitter.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey man, lighten up.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, if I want to know what's wrong with the world, I call him.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's always up to date on the latest government conspiracy, and the United Nations is going to invade us.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, it just, okay, dude, you're depressing me, and that takes a lot of work.
SPEAKER_01: What am I saying?
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying, what's the difference between dissatisfaction and longing?
SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to be pulled by vision, it's another one to be pushed by need.
SPEAKER_01: Third thing about having, I mean, excuse me, about summer.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's where we experience the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: Summer is where we experience the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: Summer's not for agendas, goals, or spiritual growth plans.
SPEAKER_01: It's a place where we experience the byproduct of what we make the goal.
SPEAKER_01: Remember when you're in college and you had to read certain books?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: I remember being in college and in seminary, I had to read all these books.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't wait for summer because I could read something I wanted to read.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's that way spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: When you get in that season of summer, it's where we experience the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
SPEAKER_01: This is uh like let me say it like this.
SPEAKER_01: You don't think about, in summer, you don't think about deepening your relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: You just focus on enjoying it and it gets deeper.
SPEAKER_01: This is my confession.
SPEAKER_01: Cover the ears of your children.
SPEAKER_01: I have never not one day in my life got up and said or thought, today I'm gonna deepen my relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: It's never come out of my mouth.
SPEAKER_01: I've never said, you know, today I'm gonna read the book of Leviticus, I'm gonna fast on Wednesday and Friday, and I'm gonna look sad on Saturday, just so no one thinks I'm enjoying myself.
SPEAKER_01: Summers where you experience the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: Let me talk out of my own life.
SPEAKER_01: Just yesterday, both of our kids were gone.
SPEAKER_01: Our oldest, our 17-year-old, went on a youth retreat, which is where all our kids are.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have kids, they went to the warehouse, like, did the rapture happen?
SPEAKER_01: Uh they're all at a breathe retreat.
SPEAKER_01: Middle school, high school students.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, some friends of ours, uh, one of our 11-year-old buddies that went to do the polar express train somewhere, and they come back and spent the night at our house.
SPEAKER_01: And so I went and ran a few errands yesterday, and I was coming down 1464, and my wife was right in front of me.
SPEAKER_01: We both pulled in the driveway together.
SPEAKER_01: No children.
SPEAKER_01: From about 11 o'clock yesterday morning.
SPEAKER_01: Now, men think one thing about that, and women think another.
SPEAKER_01: Men are like, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: So, what do you want to do for the next 12, 24 hours?
SPEAKER_01: Women are kind of like, oh man, I need these kids on the floor.
SPEAKER_01: I can get so much sleep.
SPEAKER_01: So my wife started cleaning our kids' bedrooms, which looked like a bomb had gone off.
SPEAKER_01: So I went and stood in the door.
SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like taking a break from clean?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are like, that's what my husband does.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: This is this is pathetic, okay?
SPEAKER_01: She cleaned our kids' bedroom.
SPEAKER_01: I went and started cleaning my office.
SPEAKER_01: There was stuff everywhere because both of my kids study for new schoolwork in there.
SPEAKER_01: So I was just cleaning.
SPEAKER_01: I broke out the vacuum cleaner, I vacuumed the thing, I propped the door open with a golf club so my wife could walk by and go, oh, honey, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: It's never been this clean.
SPEAKER_01: She hasn't even acknowledged it yet.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going home after church.
SPEAKER_01: I'm taking the door off the hinges.
SPEAKER_01: After that, we had lunch, watched a little bit of the Alabama game, saw that wasn't going to go well for Mississippi.
SPEAKER_01: I had a wedding rehearsal last night, came back from that, we shared a pizza on the couch watching the Florida State game.
SPEAKER_01: She got up right in the middle of it and said, I've seen enough football today.
SPEAKER_01: And she went in our bedroom to watch HGTV, a show called International House Hunters.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to watch people in this country buy a house, and I don't want to watch people in another country buy a house.
SPEAKER_01: I fell asleep about 9 o'clock and woke up at 10:30.
SPEAKER_01: And I was all my circadian rhythm was all off.
SPEAKER_01: I was up till 2.30 this morning.
SPEAKER_01: And y'all are like, well, that explains this.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was up till 2.30.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the thought.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thought I had.
SPEAKER_01: Man, I love this woman.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, almost, my eyes kind of got, I got a good weep.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_01: That's the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: Somewhere's where you experience the byproduct.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't talk a whole lot.
SPEAKER_01: I cleaned my office and she cleaned our kids' bedrooms, took all their clothes out of their drawers and folded it up because they just opened up and throw it in there and just push it down and close it.
SPEAKER_01: My wife folded all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Cleaned it all up.
SPEAKER_01: Nothing profound happened.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't get up yesterday and go, today I want to deepen my marriage relationship with you, Marcy.
SPEAKER_01: Here's three ideas about what we can do.
SPEAKER_01: Which one do you want to start with?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: I just enjoyed my wife, and as a byproduct, our relationship got deeper.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's where that happens between you and God.
SPEAKER_01: Fourthly and finally, summer's a time of first fruits.
SPEAKER_01: Summer's a time of first fruits.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 10 says this.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: It says he who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps and harvests is a son who brings shame.
SPEAKER_01: Let me say that again.
SPEAKER_01: He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps and harvests is a son who brings shame.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, in every season, there's things that you could do only in that season.
SPEAKER_01: You can only shovel snow in winter.
SPEAKER_01: Can't shovel snow in summer.
SPEAKER_01: And in summer, there's some first fruits that need to be.
SPEAKER_01: You say, what are first fruits?
SPEAKER_01: First fruit, the principle of first fruits is that we give our best to God because he gives his best to us.
SPEAKER_01: The other seasons of faith can be so taxing that during summer it's easy just to coast and recover and live in this sense of entitlement.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, hey, gather first fruits.
SPEAKER_01: Summers where we gather the sweet fruit of generosity, perspective, trust.
SPEAKER_01: Said differently, we taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_01: And if not, we'll waste our lives building bigger barns and waiting for the shoe to drop.
SPEAKER_01: Summers remembering how good and generous and gracious God's been and asking yourself this question: how do I respond to that?
SPEAKER_01: What would it look like for me to be generous towards God?
SPEAKER_01: Earlier, and I want to close with this, we read from 1 Timothy 6, verse 17, which says, He richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
SPEAKER_01: The text goes on and turns to our response to God's generosity with these words.
SPEAKER_01: This is verse 18 and 19.
SPEAKER_01: They're to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future.
SPEAKER_01: So they may take hold of that which is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that again.
SPEAKER_01: There to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.
SPEAKER_01: And by doing these things, you store up treasure for yourselves and a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.
SPEAKER_01: That's the first fruits of summer.
SPEAKER_01: That's not just coasting and sleeping in all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of looking around and going, let me say, I said it to the last service like this, maybe it'll make sense.
SPEAKER_01: Summer is a time where the goodness of God creates space for us to see clearly the nature of God.
SPEAKER_01: Summer is a time where the goodness of God creates space for us to see the nature of God, to see what God's really like.
SPEAKER_01: If that's true, and I believe it is, what have you seen about God this morning?
SPEAKER_01: Stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: We close our service by me speaking a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'd hold your hands out, your God is the God of throwed rolls and good okra.
SPEAKER_01: He has more than you have appetite.
SPEAKER_01: So stop thinking you're gonna get all that he has.
SPEAKER_01: You can't.
SPEAKER_01: But you can enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: Get out of here now and go enjoy the generous provision of your Father.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.
SPEAKER_01: You're dismissed.