WEBVTT 00:00:06.480 --> 00:00:07.440 Hello everyone. 00:00:07.440 --> 00:00:08.960 This is Pastor Benjamin. 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:12.000 You're listening to Sermon Audio from New City, Orlando. 00:00:12.000 --> 00:00:15.439 At New City, we long to see our Father answer the Lord's Prayer. 00:00:15.439 --> 00:00:19.920 For more resources, visit our website at Newcity Orlando.com. 00:00:22.559 --> 00:00:28.640 Please stand with me as we ask the Holy Spirit to open our hearts to his word this morning. 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:36.799 Give us understanding that we may keep your law and observe it with our whole hearts. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:41.840 Lead us in the path of your commandments, for we delight in it. 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:50.159 Turn our eyes from looking at worthless things and give us life in your ways through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:00:50.159 --> 00:00:51.119 Amen. 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:54.240 Today's scripture reading comes from Psalm 16. 00:00:54.240 --> 00:00:58.079 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:02.240 I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:07.439 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. 00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:11.599 The sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:16.480 Their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. 00:01:16.480 --> 00:01:19.200 The Lord is my chosen portion in my cup. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:20.480 You hold my lot. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.599 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 00:01:23.599 --> 00:01:26.079 Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:28.480 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:31.120 In the night also, my heart instructs me. 00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:35.200 I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand. 00:01:35.200 --> 00:01:36.799 I shall not be shaken. 00:01:36.799 --> 00:01:40.000 Therefore, my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. 00:01:40.000 --> 00:01:41.920 My flesh also dwells secure. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:47.120 For you will not abandon my soul to shield, or let your holy one see corruption. 00:01:47.120 --> 00:01:49.280 You make known to me the path of life. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:51.680 In your presence there is fullness of joy. 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:54.560 At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:55.840 This is God's word. 00:01:55.840 --> 00:01:58.239 You may be seated. 00:01:58.719 --> 00:02:00.879 The beginning of evil is. 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:08.000 Fill in the blank. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:09.280 What would you put there? 00:02:09.280 --> 00:02:16.719 Well, this is how the fourth century desert monk Abba Poeman finished that sentence. 00:02:16.719 --> 00:02:20.800 The beginning of evil is distraction. 00:02:20.800 --> 00:02:22.960 Really? 00:02:22.960 --> 00:02:36.639 Well, there was a researcher at the University of Charleston Southern named Michael Ziggorelli, and he did a five-year worldwide study of more than 20,000 Christians. 00:02:36.639 --> 00:02:38.159 It's a big study. 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:44.639 And his point was to look at what are the obstacles to growth in the spiritual life. 00:02:44.639 --> 00:02:49.120 And he found a five-fold pattern that is repeated. 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:51.039 And this is the fivefold pattern. 00:02:51.039 --> 00:02:56.719 First, Christians assimilate to a culture of busyness and distraction. 00:02:56.719 --> 00:03:01.599 Second, because of that, God becomes marginalized in their lives. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:02.960 They're too busy. 00:03:02.960 --> 00:03:10.479 Third, as a result of that, marginalization of God, their relationship with God deteriorates over time. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:27.199 Which fourth makes them more vulnerable to adopting secular assumptions about life, which results in, fifth, rinse and repeat, more conformity to a secular culture of busyness, hurry, overload, and exhaustion. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:33.120 And Michael Ziggorelli titled this research project Distracted from God. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:35.759 Distracted from God. 00:03:35.759 --> 00:03:42.240 So what is this distraction that we all know so well? 00:03:42.240 --> 00:03:43.919 Where is it coming from? 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:52.159 The easy, more shallow answer would be it comes from this weapon of mass distraction in my f in my pocket called a smartphone. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:57.120 And that would be true, but I think our distraction is deeper than our devices. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:04:00.639 I think our distraction is a matter of our desires. 00:04:00.639 --> 00:04:02.240 Our desires. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:13.439 Now, in all of my research and reading and clinical work, I have tried to summarize and distill all of human desires into three things. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:16.879 I'm a simple man, I like things as simple as possible. 00:04:16.879 --> 00:04:26.000 I think all of your desires can be summarized under these three broad buckets: the desire for security, the desire for satisfaction, and the desire for significance. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:41.040 If it's not our devices but our desires that are causing our distraction, then to inverse that would be to say that maybe if the beginning of evil is distraction, maybe the beginning of good is attention. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:49.759 Simone Vey, the French philosopher, said it like this: attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:50.959 Think about that. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:59.360 When you're with somebody and they are attending to you fully, how generous that feels in an age of distraction. 00:04:59.360 --> 00:05:08.160 And so in this series called Subversive Spirituality, we've been looking at how the Psalms offer an ancient antidote to our modern maladies. 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:13.680 And today I want to look at the modern malady of distraction and the ancient antidote of attention. 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.000 And I get that from Psalm 16, verse 8. 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:22.480 If you have a Bible or a device or the worship God, go ahead and get Psalm 16, verse 8 in front of you. 00:05:22.480 --> 00:05:25.360 I think this is David's spiritual secret. 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:32.319 Like it was a big deal when KFC released their secret sauce recipe, how they made their chicken. 00:05:32.319 --> 00:05:36.879 This is David releasing the recipe on how to walk with God in the world. 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:38.319 Right here, verse 8. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:39.759 Look with me. 00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:44.800 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. 00:05:44.800 --> 00:05:46.800 I shall not be shaken. 00:05:46.800 --> 00:05:49.519 This is attention. 00:05:49.519 --> 00:05:52.560 David has learned to attend. 00:05:52.560 --> 00:06:00.000 Always, he says, always attending to the Lord, setting the Lord always before him, over and over and over again. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:04.480 And this results in an unshakable life, according to David. 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:18.240 So with that, what I want to do is a little Christian psychology here of the modern malady of distraction and the ancient antidote of attention based on these deep desires that I think are the source of our distraction. 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:19.360 So I have three points. 00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:24.720 That is the desire for security, the desire for satisfaction, and the desire for significance. 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:26.240 And then I'll get out of your way. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:28.720 Look with me at the desire for security in verse one. 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:31.040 Psalm 16, verse 1. 00:06:31.040 --> 00:06:37.600 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:39.439 Now listen, this is important. 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:43.120 Security, the desire for it is a good thing. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:48.480 The number one metaphor in the book of Psalms is the metaphor of refuge. 00:06:48.480 --> 00:07:00.399 It's not an overstatement to say that the book of Psalms exists in the Bible to teach you, to train you how to take refuge in God, how to find God to be your sanctuary. 00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:02.319 I love that word sanctuary. 00:07:02.319 --> 00:07:08.560 It's a place of safety, it's a place of holiness, it's a place where you go to preserve life. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:13.600 David is trying to teach us through this psalm how do we find our security in God? 00:07:13.600 --> 00:07:18.959 Now, in the early 1900s, there was a man named John who was born in England. 00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:24.160 And John grew up in a time and place when children were to be seen and not heard. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:29.199 And in fact, if you gave them too much time and attention, you would spoil them. 00:07:29.199 --> 00:07:36.240 And so he had about one hour of his mom's attention a day until he was seven years old. 00:07:36.240 --> 00:07:39.920 And at seven years old, he got shipped off to boarding school. 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:49.680 Now, fast forward, like many of people who become therapists because of their family of origin, he became a world-renowned psychologist. 00:07:49.680 --> 00:07:56.560 And he really was doing his clinical training in the midst of and after World War II. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:04.000 And he was in a hospital working with orphans, children who'd been orphaned because of the Great War, World War II, that is. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:13.199 And as he's working with these orphans, he found that there was this deep need and this deep desire for relational connection, what he termed attachment. 00:08:13.199 --> 00:08:17.759 This man, of course, some of you know, is a man named John Bowlby. 00:08:17.759 --> 00:08:26.879 He invented what's called attachment theory, which I'm gonna argue is maybe one of the greatest scientific advancements in the 20th century. 00:08:26.879 --> 00:08:30.959 Not psychological advancements, scientific advancements. 00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:40.799 Attachment theory gets closer to what it means to be human than any other theory, especially from the sciences of humanity, up until that point. 00:08:40.799 --> 00:08:47.360 And John Bowlby really distilled three things that make the foundation of an attachment relationship. 00:08:47.360 --> 00:08:53.039 The three things are a secure base, a safe haven, and proximity seeking. 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:54.720 Now let me make that plain for a moment. 00:08:54.720 --> 00:09:03.679 Imagine you're at a playground and you see some kids with their caregiver, mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, something like that. 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:14.639 And and they're hugging grandpa's leg, and then they kind of run off to the playground to have fun and do something, and then they fall down and get hurt and they run back. 00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:22.320 That leaving the caregiver is moving out from a secure base into a dangerous world. 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:23.039 That's what you need. 00:09:23.039 --> 00:09:25.600 You have to have a secure base to explore a dangerous world. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:31.440 But you also need a safe haven, a place you can come back to from that dangerous world and find security again. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:38.159 And that pattern of going out and coming back, going out and coming back is what's called proximity-seeking behavior. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:40.639 Does this sound like the book of Psalms to you? 00:09:40.639 --> 00:09:42.960 Preserve me, O God. 00:09:42.960 --> 00:09:45.519 Proximity-seeking behavior. 00:09:45.519 --> 00:09:47.519 For in you I take refuge. 00:09:47.519 --> 00:09:50.159 You're my secure base and my safe haven. 00:09:50.159 --> 00:09:52.080 The psalmist can't help himself. 00:09:52.080 --> 00:09:55.679 He's regularly going, You're my fortress and my rock and my strong tower. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:09:59.039 He could easily have said, My secure base and my safe haven. 00:09:59.039 --> 00:10:04.799 You see, David had a securely attached relationship with the invisible God. 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:05.919 I believe this. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.679 And he's trying to train us how we can have that as well. 00:10:09.679 --> 00:10:21.279 And so listen, it is an oversimplification, but not too much, to say that the two things that fuel a human life are either fear or joy. 00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:26.080 The only two fuels for a human life, fear or joy. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.600 What fear would say if it could talk is it would say, I am powerless and alone. 00:10:31.600 --> 00:10:37.840 And trauma researchers have shown that not everybody's traumatized by a traumatic event. 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:44.799 What makes the difference is in that event and in the aftermath of the event, did you feel powerless and alone? 00:10:44.799 --> 00:10:47.600 That's how you get a PTSD diagnosis. 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:53.120 But if Joy could talk, Joy would say this, I'm so glad to be with you. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.919 I'm so glad to be with you. 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:58.240 That's the language of joy. 00:10:58.240 --> 00:11:01.759 That's the language of a securely attached relationship. 00:11:01.759 --> 00:11:04.720 And so here's my invitation. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:09.600 What does it look like to find God as your refuge? 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:13.360 Here's what I think it means three things. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:16.399 Notice, name, nearness. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:17.759 Notice, name, nearness. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:18.799 Here's what I mean by this. 00:11:18.799 --> 00:11:22.960 The first thing is you have to notice the moments when you feel insecure. 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:26.000 Some of you are like, I don't think I'm ever insecure. 00:11:26.000 --> 00:11:28.080 No, you're just not self-aware. 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.600 You are regularly insecure, and it looks like an increased heart rate. 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:34.799 Just subtle. 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:41.679 It looks like the chatter in your mind sounding like self-protection and self-promotion. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:43.600 That's what it that's what you notice. 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:50.399 So you begin to notice those moments and situations and times where you feel insecure when you feel fear. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:53.759 The second thing is, is you name it. 00:11:53.759 --> 00:11:55.120 Call it what it is. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:11:56.879 I'm afraid right now. 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:02.799 Name it to yourself, to the Lord, to a somebody in your community, name it out loud. 00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.120 If you have a hard time with that, you can ask the Lord. 00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:06.559 I believe the Lord wants to. 00:12:06.559 --> 00:12:10.639 Uh as verse 7 says, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. 00:12:10.639 --> 00:12:12.639 I think the Lord's a good counselor. 00:12:12.639 --> 00:12:17.679 And you simply go something like this: Lord, what am I afraid of right now? 00:12:17.679 --> 00:12:22.240 Or where did I learn to be afraid of this? 00:12:22.240 --> 00:12:27.039 Or, Lord, what do I typically do when I'm afraid? 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:34.399 Or, Lord, where what do you want me to know about this fear? 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:38.480 Or, Lord, what do you want me to do with this fear right now? 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:39.759 Ask those questions. 00:12:39.759 --> 00:12:45.440 I can promise you, one of the primary things God will lead you to is to draw near. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:51.919 So you not only notice, you name, and then you draw near to God in the fear. 00:12:51.919 --> 00:12:54.799 And you tell him, you say, Lord, I'm afraid of this. 00:12:54.799 --> 00:12:56.240 I'm just telling you that right now. 00:12:56.240 --> 00:12:58.480 Would you preserve me, O God? 00:12:58.480 --> 00:13:01.200 For in you I take refuge. 00:13:01.200 --> 00:13:11.679 This is what it looks like to take your desire, your good desire for security, and to direct it to the only place that really can give you security beyond death, which is the Lord Himself. 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:16.559 So not only do we want to be safe, we also want to be full. 00:13:16.559 --> 00:13:19.360 Look with me at the desire for satisfaction. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:21.679 The desire for satisfaction. 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:24.720 Verse 2. 00:13:24.720 --> 00:13:31.440 I say to, now, L-O-R-D, all caps is Yahweh, the proper name of God. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.320 I say to Yahweh, you are my Adonai. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:36.320 That's the word for Lord or King. 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:39.120 I say to Yahweh, you are my Adonai. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.120 I have no good apart from you. 00:13:41.120 --> 00:13:48.799 Listen, the desire for satisfaction is always a felt sense of emptiness, longing for fullness. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:50.960 That's what the desire for satisfaction is. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:55.919 And so it doesn't really matter if it's food or sex or art or ambition. 00:13:55.919 --> 00:14:01.200 You're always, when you're dissatisfied, it's emptiness, longing for fullness. 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:06.639 Now listen, you were made with that desire. 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:16.480 A principle, a foundational principle of Christian psychology or anthropology is that evil does not have its own clay. 00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:17.919 What do I mean? 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:25.759 All that evil can do is to come in and to warp, pervert, distort, and bend God's good creation. 00:14:25.759 --> 00:14:37.600 So the good creational desire for satisfaction, this emptiness, longing for fullness, evil comes in and warps and distorts and perverts and misdirects it. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:41.919 One of the words translated iniquity in your Bible means bent. 00:14:41.919 --> 00:14:46.000 You have a bentness in your desires. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:51.840 And so it's not the desire that's the problem, which is a real issue that Christians have to wrestle through. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:15:02.399 Your longing, your emptiness, longing for fullness, what the Chilean poet Pablo Naruto calls the infinite ache is something given to you by God. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:10.559 The problem is when we take that infinite ache and put it on finite objects. 00:15:10.559 --> 00:15:12.799 Look at verse 4 with me. 00:15:12.799 --> 00:15:25.840 Verse 4 says it like this the sorrows of those who run after, underline that in your Bible or on whatever you got, those sorrows of those who run after another God shall multiply. 00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:28.399 That language of run after is important. 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:36.159 When you give your infinite ache to finite objects, you will find yourself on a treadmill. 00:15:36.159 --> 00:15:42.960 A treadmill that gets faster and faster and faster and results in something psychologists call addiction. 00:15:42.960 --> 00:15:46.320 The best definition of addiction I've ever heard is from C.S. 00:15:46.320 --> 00:15:46.720 Lewis. 00:15:46.720 --> 00:15:52.960 He says, addiction is an ever-increasing craving for an ever-diminishing pleasure. 00:15:52.960 --> 00:15:54.879 That's the treadmill. 00:15:54.879 --> 00:15:56.799 That's running after false gods. 00:15:56.799 --> 00:15:57.840 Do you hear it? 00:15:57.840 --> 00:16:03.200 The anxiety, the distraction, the frenetic, can I get more of what I need? 00:16:03.200 --> 00:16:04.879 Because I'm longing for fullness. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.159 Yes, you are. 00:16:06.159 --> 00:16:08.159 You have an infinite ache. 00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:11.440 And none of those finite objects will ever suffice. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:24.240 So since we're around the time of the World Cup, there's a podcast episode called Goats on Greatness, where Zlatan Ibrahimovich interviews Tom Brady. 00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:24.799 It's amazing. 00:16:24.799 --> 00:16:26.000 Goats on Greatness. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:29.759 I don't know if I can commend it to you, but I can commend this portion of it to you. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:35.440 Ibrahimovich asks Tom Brady, he says, Did you ever enjoy your achievements? 00:16:35.440 --> 00:16:37.919 To which Tom immediately responds, No. 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.600 And they both laugh. 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:42.320 Did you ever enjoy your achievements? 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:43.519 Tom Brady? 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.399 No, I never enjoyed any of them. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:50.559 To which Ibrahimovich replies, I never enjoyed whatever I won. 00:16:50.559 --> 00:16:52.159 I always wanted more. 00:16:52.159 --> 00:16:54.799 Even now, I'm still not satisfied. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.639 I cannot really enjoy it because I want more. 00:16:58.639 --> 00:17:01.679 Do you hear the desire for satisfaction? 00:17:01.679 --> 00:17:07.920 Do you hear the infinite ache beneath the surface of the goats of our generation? 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:13.519 And so the danger is to say that the infinite ache is the problem. 00:17:13.519 --> 00:17:16.480 It's not the problem, it's the finite objects. 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.200 It's putting the infinite ache on finite objects. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:21.440 That's what creates the problem for us. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:23.519 And so C.S. 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:34.480 Lewis said it like this if we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world. 00:17:34.480 --> 00:17:38.880 That's why secularism is so suffocating. 00:17:38.880 --> 00:17:43.359 There's no transcendent reference point for any of your desires. 00:17:43.359 --> 00:17:46.079 Your ache for satisfaction. 00:17:46.079 --> 00:17:52.640 And so what you do is you distract yourself to death doing what ironically is called an infinite scroll. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:54.640 And what's happening? 00:17:54.640 --> 00:17:59.920 You're looking, you're longing for your emptiness to experience fullness. 00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:06.480 Now, this is where religious people come along and they say something like the problem is that you've been indulging your desires. 00:18:06.480 --> 00:18:07.680 No, no, no. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:10.400 Instead, they won't use this word, but this is what they're saying. 00:18:10.400 --> 00:18:12.880 Instead, you should repress those desires. 00:18:12.880 --> 00:18:14.880 Repress them. 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:21.200 The problem with repression is what psychologists call the revenge of repression. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:26.400 Push those desires down, I dare you, it will pop out somewhere else, just like a beach ball in the pool. 00:18:26.400 --> 00:18:30.319 That's what happens when we push our desires down. 00:18:30.319 --> 00:18:34.960 Somebody said it like this the world offers a fast food diet. 00:18:34.960 --> 00:18:38.240 You'll die pretty well on a fast food diet. 00:18:38.240 --> 00:18:42.960 But then the church comes along and offers a starvation diet. 00:18:42.960 --> 00:18:45.680 And people with enough willpower will go, Yeah, that's right. 00:18:45.680 --> 00:18:50.160 I'm not gonna do fast food, I'm gonna starve myself, which also leads to death. 00:18:50.160 --> 00:18:57.519 And so either you'll starve yourself to death or you'll run back to the fast food diet because Christianity didn't really work out for you, anyways. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:19:07.440 So if you're not supposed to indulge your desires, if you're not supposed to repress your desires, what are you supposed to do with this infinite ache, this emptiness, longing for fullness? 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:10.799 You're supposed to direct them to the proper place. 00:19:10.799 --> 00:19:14.000 Direct those desires and redirect those desires. 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:15.839 Look at verse 2 again. 00:19:15.839 --> 00:19:18.960 I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. 00:19:18.960 --> 00:19:21.440 I have no good apart from you. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:29.200 Something really beautiful happening here because I'm confident there's people in this room who are not yet believers in Jesus, not yet disciples of Jesus. 00:19:29.200 --> 00:19:29.920 Welcome. 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:31.119 We love having you here. 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:35.759 You're no more welcome anywhere in Orlando that I know of than you are right here, right now. 00:19:35.759 --> 00:19:42.079 And I also know there's people in this room who think they know Jesus, but they really don't. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:44.559 And that's a real concern in the scriptures. 00:19:44.559 --> 00:19:53.359 In fact, in James 2, James, brother of Jesus, says it like this You believe that God is one, good on you. 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:54.720 So do the devils. 00:19:54.720 --> 00:19:57.279 The demons have good theology. 00:19:57.279 --> 00:19:59.680 Good theology doesn't save anyone. 00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:03.680 The devil can never say what the psalmist says here in verse 2. 00:20:03.680 --> 00:20:06.960 I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. 00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:14.160 The first step with your desire for satisfaction is to bring your desires under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:16.559 Jesus, you are Lord over my desires. 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.640 I don't get to determine what I do with them. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:22.079 I'm not what our cultural moment would say about you. 00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:24.319 I am not simply, merely my desires. 00:20:24.319 --> 00:20:27.759 Whatever I feel, whatever I desire, whatever I long for, that's who I am. 00:20:27.759 --> 00:20:31.119 Jesus, I'm submitting and surrendering that to your lordship. 00:20:31.119 --> 00:20:33.279 I say to the Lord, you are my Lord. 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:37.759 And then he goes on, he says, I have no good apart from you. 00:20:37.759 --> 00:20:38.880 I love this. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:42.559 There's something brilliant in this in this insight here. 00:20:42.559 --> 00:20:44.640 No good apart from the Lord. 00:20:44.640 --> 00:20:58.319 The invitation here is to take everyday experiences of goodness as shafts of glory, as sunbeams that you follow back to the sun. 00:20:58.319 --> 00:21:06.799 Every little bit of pleasure you experience, the enjoyment of it, and you respond and make it a channel for adoration. 00:21:06.799 --> 00:21:09.839 Not just thanksgiving, although I think it's really important. 00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:11.599 Experience good things. 00:21:11.599 --> 00:21:13.279 Give thanks to God for them. 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:16.319 That sounds like, God, thank you for filling the blank. 00:21:16.319 --> 00:21:21.599 But even more is not thank you for these things, but thank you, the giver. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:22.480 Praise you. 00:21:22.480 --> 00:21:25.440 I adore you, the giver of these good things. 00:21:25.440 --> 00:21:50.319 One of my favorite stories is uh Augustine of Hippo, who's walking on the Mediterranean beach and he's looking out at how beautiful the Mediterranean Sea is, and he ponders to himself, oh Lord, if these are the beauties afforded to sinful men, how much more do you have in store for those whose hearts are yours? 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:59.119 That's what it looks like to say, I say to the Lord, You are my Lord, I have no good apart from you. 00:21:59.119 --> 00:22:04.240 Every experience of goodness in your life is a channel for adoration. 00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:09.039 It's intended to draw your heart up to go, wow, God, you are amazing. 00:22:09.039 --> 00:22:14.559 If this sunset is so beautiful, how much more are you beautiful, the maker of that sunset? 00:22:14.559 --> 00:22:17.119 That's the invitation. 00:22:17.119 --> 00:22:31.839 And so not only are we safe, needing safety, not only are we empty, longing for fullness, this infinite ache is a signature of our infinite author who's saying, Find that satisfaction in me. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.200 But we also wonder, do I matter? 00:22:35.200 --> 00:22:39.119 That's the third and final point here is our desire for significance. 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:41.359 Look at verse 5 with me. 00:22:41.359 --> 00:22:47.839 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup. 00:22:47.839 --> 00:22:49.440 You hold my lot. 00:22:49.440 --> 00:22:52.079 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:55.920 Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. 00:22:55.920 --> 00:23:11.119 When I say significance, what I mean by that is this question, this desire to have meaning or status or purpose or weight or a future, all of those things I'm kind of wrapping up in this sense of significance. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:13.759 We were made to matter. 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:19.680 There's a psychological literature base called the psychology of mattering. 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:22.240 Studying this thing right here. 00:23:22.240 --> 00:23:30.160 And it's actually important to note 30% of people, 10 to 19, do not feel like they matter to anybody. 00:23:30.160 --> 00:23:35.440 We have the joy of being a multi-generational, intergenerational church. 00:23:35.440 --> 00:23:44.240 Listen, if you're in your 30s or 40s in this room, you have a responsibility to communicate mattering to people in their 10s and 20s in this room. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:45.920 Now, what does that look like? 00:23:45.920 --> 00:23:48.000 There's an acronym, SED, S-A-I-D. 00:23:48.000 --> 00:23:48.799 It looks like this. 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:54.880 You communicate to them you're significant, you're appreciated, you're invested in, and you're dependent on. 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:59.440 We need you, we want you, we delight in you, we enjoy you. 00:23:59.440 --> 00:24:05.839 30%, one in three, nine, 10 to 19-year-olds doesn't feel like they matter to anybody. 00:24:05.839 --> 00:24:12.000 This longing to matter, this desire for significance is something God gave us. 00:24:12.000 --> 00:24:13.279 So what do we do? 00:24:13.279 --> 00:24:16.880 Well, listen, in order to unpack verse 5, I've got to tell you the background. 00:24:16.880 --> 00:24:18.640 There's a story behind this. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:22.319 This fall will be in Deuteronomy, maybe next fall will be in Joshua. 00:24:22.319 --> 00:24:23.039 Who knows? 00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:30.319 Joshua is the story of how the people of Israel, 12 tribes, are entering into the promised land called Canaan. 00:24:30.319 --> 00:24:37.119 And as they're going into the promised land, Joshua is told by the Lord to divvy up the land among the 12 tribes. 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:39.440 So you can imagine this. 00:24:39.440 --> 00:24:42.640 Handing out parcels, and you know, he's going to Gad. 00:24:42.640 --> 00:24:44.319 He's like, Gad, you get the gardens and the groves. 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:47.519 Reuben, you guys are gonna be ranchers, you're gonna get good hamburgers. 00:24:47.519 --> 00:24:49.599 Uh I don't know if that's kosher actually. 00:24:49.599 --> 00:24:56.240 Anyways, you get the hamburgers, and then the Lord looks at the Levites and says, Levites, you don't get land, you get me. 00:24:56.240 --> 00:25:05.599 Now listen, for generations the people of Israel have been longing, aching to be in the land. 00:25:05.599 --> 00:25:12.400 And now it gets parceled out, and eleven tribes get portions, except for one, the Levites, they get the Lord. 00:25:12.400 --> 00:25:15.359 This might be a recipe for discontentment. 00:25:15.359 --> 00:25:21.359 Honestly, it's kind of like maybe some of you, when you were kids, you grew up and your parents would say, Hey, can you go do this thing for me? 00:25:21.359 --> 00:25:24.079 And you say, What do I get if I do? 00:25:24.079 --> 00:25:26.960 And they replied, The satisfaction of a job well done. 00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:29.759 And you're like, You could have just said nothing like that. 00:25:29.759 --> 00:25:32.480 Instead, you patronized me. 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:35.359 Like, is that what the Levites are saying here to the Lord? 00:25:35.359 --> 00:25:37.920 Are they like, Lord, we get you? 00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:40.400 We wanted something more tangible, maybe. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:42.079 Something we could grow crops on. 00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:47.440 You see, in ancient Israel, land was the source of your wealth, your future. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.279 To be landless was a curse, not a blessing. 00:25:51.279 --> 00:25:57.200 That's what makes verse 5 so startling, so scandalous. 00:25:57.200 --> 00:26:04.640 Because King David of the tribe of Judah says, The Lord is my chosen portion. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:08.240 He's a Judahite, he had a portion in the land. 00:26:08.240 --> 00:26:11.680 Not only that, he's not only a Judahite, he's the king. 00:26:11.680 --> 00:26:14.000 In one sense, all of Israel belongs to him. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.119 He has everything, and he says, I don't want it. 00:26:17.119 --> 00:26:21.359 I don't want all the significance that comes from owning all this land, being the king. 00:26:21.359 --> 00:26:22.400 I want the Lord. 00:26:22.400 --> 00:26:23.920 He's my chosen portion. 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:25.359 I wish I was a Levite. 00:26:25.359 --> 00:26:26.720 I wish I had what they had. 00:26:26.720 --> 00:26:29.359 So I'm gonna choose that portion instead. 00:26:29.359 --> 00:26:31.200 Why is that? 00:26:31.200 --> 00:26:38.799 Well, because David knows that if your significance is built on anything that can be taken away from you, it makes you profoundly vulnerable. 00:26:38.799 --> 00:26:40.799 Profoundly vulnerable. 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:43.200 That causes a lot of distraction. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:46.480 So I don't know, how would you fill in the blank here? 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:48.319 I matter if. 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:56.880 I matter if I'm noticed, I'm needed, I'm admired, I'm successful, feel in the blank. 00:26:56.880 --> 00:27:10.880 I matter if whatever it is, if it's not some version of, I matter if I belong to the Lord, if he's my chosen portion, he's my inheritance, if it's not that, you're vulnerable. 00:27:10.880 --> 00:27:16.799 If you don't believe me, believe Warren Buffett, who was a pretty significant dude, is a pretty significant dude. 00:27:16.799 --> 00:27:22.160 He says it like this the most dangerous distractions are the ones that you love but don't love you back. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:25.680 How would you fill in the blank? 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:26.960 I matter if. 00:27:26.960 --> 00:27:36.880 So listen, if distraction is the beginning of evil, and maybe attention is the beginning of good, let's end where we began with verse 8. 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:46.079 In verse 8, David says it like this I have set the Lord always before me, because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. 00:27:46.079 --> 00:27:46.799 You hear this? 00:27:46.799 --> 00:27:54.240 He's invulnerable because it's the Lord who's his security, it's the Lord who's his satisfaction, it's the Lord who's his significance. 00:27:54.240 --> 00:27:56.319 That's why he's unshakable. 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:01.599 He's saying, Lord, it's not control or my security system or my bank account. 00:28:01.599 --> 00:28:03.519 It's you are my security. 00:28:03.519 --> 00:28:07.599 Lord, it's not more of whatever already is not satisfying me. 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:11.759 It's not just more of that thing, it's you are my satisfaction. 00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:17.119 It's not more of mattering to those who matter and being seen and looked at well in other people's life. 00:28:17.119 --> 00:28:17.680 It's not that. 00:28:17.680 --> 00:28:19.839 It's you, Lord, are my significance. 00:28:19.839 --> 00:28:26.079 A modern example of this, maybe better than anybody else I know, is a guy named Frank Laubach. 00:28:26.079 --> 00:28:29.440 Frank Laubach is a literacy genius. 00:28:29.440 --> 00:28:33.200 He kind of proliferated literacy across the globe in a lot of ways. 00:28:33.200 --> 00:28:37.920 Um, but but he has this book called Letters by a Modern Mystic. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:40.559 It's a good summer read by Frank Laubach. 00:28:40.559 --> 00:28:44.160 And in that he talks about this thing he calls the game with minutes. 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:52.720 And what the game with minutes was is he he endeavored to think about God for at least one second of every minute of the day. 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.079 Not that easy, but he claims to have done it. 00:28:56.079 --> 00:28:59.759 And the reason why he could do it is because it became a habit over time. 00:28:59.759 --> 00:29:03.599 He just drew his attention back to God, back to God, back to God, back to God. 00:29:03.599 --> 00:29:10.480 And what starts as an action that requires willpower becomes a habit that requires a lot less willpower. 00:29:10.480 --> 00:29:21.359 Dallas Willard says it like this if we learn to constantly redirect our attention back to God, our minds will return to God as the needle of a compass points north. 00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:24.400 There's a secret here. 00:29:24.400 --> 00:29:27.119 David's showing you, Frank Laubach's showing you. 00:29:27.119 --> 00:29:30.559 This is the secret to unshakable confidence right here. 00:29:30.559 --> 00:29:33.200 Setting the Lord always before you. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:49.440 So some of you in the room are going, okay, so if I hear you, what you're saying is if I develop a habit of always bringing God into my mind, or you know, one second of every minute or whatever it is, uh, if I do that, I will be safe, full, and never forgotten. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:51.279 Sadly, no. 00:29:51.279 --> 00:29:53.119