All The Feels | Week 4 | Bill Bush

But what's the deal with happiness? You know, I've I've heard a few of these statements about happiness. It says here, like, money can't buy happiness, but it does keep the kids in touch.

True. Here's one. I didn't find out what happiness means until I got married, and then it was too late. Uh-huh. Got some of you with that one. Money can't buy happiness, but it's more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle. True. True. And then one of my favorites,

some people cause happiness wherever they go, others whenever they go.

So those are just some fun things about happiness. But but what's the deal? We've been in this all the feels series, and we've been in the book of Psalms that declares all the feels. Because the Psalms is the one part of scripture where God inspires the writers to basically

talk to God instead of God just talking to us. And in that, we see how they handle all of these feelings because we saw in week one that, hey, feelings are are like waves. You can't stop them from happening, but you can decide which ones to ride.

And all the feels are important. And and one of the biggest mistakes we make when it comes to feelings is we we we think of them as the goal instead of guides. They're dashboard lights. They're guides. They're not goals.

And so the problem is we then get this list of these are the good feels. These are the ones we run after, and we do whatever it takes to feel this. These are the bad feels. I do whatever it takes to stay away from them. The problem is I lift my life that way, I'm gonna miss out on what God has. I I and I'm gonna have a really erratic life, and I'm gonna make some really, really dumb decisions

to just get my fix of the feeling I want. So what am I supposed to do? I need to manage the feels. I need to use them for the guides they are. Well, how does that work with happiness? We're gonna look at that today. Well, let let me let me let me explain this, like, how happiness kinda works and how it should be a guide.

Back when I was in college, it was my birthday, and my best friend said, hey. You know what? We need to do something special, man. We're in college. Let's we can get out of town. He goes, my uncle has a beach house in San Diego that he's gonna let me have for, like, four days. And he goes, it's literally

on the beach. You open the back door, you're in the sand. And he goes, really? He's like, yeah. He's letting me have just you and I. We're gonna go experience a beach house in San Diego for four days. It's gonna be epic. And so he said, pack a bag. We met we met at the gym like we would do and workout. He was we're gonna clean up. We'll go back to your house, drop your car off, get your bag, and then we're gonna head out. And the whole time we're working out, he just describes all the fun things we're gonna do that he has set up. And all the the you know, this guy was a foodie. He knew every great he's like, we're gonna go here for this food and here, and we're just gonna have fun. And, you know, we're in college, so we're gonna flirt with lots of girls on the beach. You know? That was that was epic and stuff. So I was getting so pumped, and I was so excited. I couldn't wait. Finally, we finished row. We get cleaned up. We go to the house. I go in. I go, let me go grab my bag. We walk in the house. I go, why is it so dark? I walk in, all the lights go on, there's a 100 people yelling, surprise.

Has anyone else ever had the person that's supposed to sell a distraction oversell the distraction? Anyone else experience that? I mean, my grandma was even there.

You would think I would be blown away and happy. You know the first thing I said to him? I was so in shock. I leaned over and go, how long do we have to stay before we head to San Diego?

And he looks at me and goes, there is no San Diego. You think I have an uncle that owns a beach house on the sand and I wouldn't have told you about it before? I'm like, that's not real? I was mourning the loss of something that never existed.

I should have been if I didn't know anything, but I would have loved the party. It was an epic thing. It was cool. All my friends, my family celebrating my birthday. I should be happy. Instead, I wasn't. I was more sad because he oversold the distraction.

It's like the the the less the more powerful version of you go to a movie and you see a preview for a movie you'd rather see. Then you're like, now I gotta watch this movie.

And that's the thing with with with happiness.

The big idea we're gonna see today on how it's a guide is simply this. Our happiness reveals our hope. Happiness is an indicator of what you're hoping it.

It really is. And we're gonna unpackage that and go, so what am I supposed to do with this? But there's I gotta set a little don't hear what I'm not saying as we go into this message. First of all, there's been some dichotomies preached, maybe even by me in the past. And what you'll hear is they go, well, there's happiness that's circumstantial. The happiness of this world. You get that new car. You get the better house. You get a promotion. You you you you you you get married.

Your kid finally moves out of your basement. You know, all of those happy moments in life that that that happen, these tragedies, and those are circumstantial. They're controlled by the circumstance. And you might have heard messages that go, well, those are kind of of the world.

What we really need to pursue is joy because the Bible talks about joy. Right? You've probably heard that and preached that. I'm just here to not burst our bubble, but you do realize in scripture, there is no difference between joy and happiness. The words in the Greek and the Hebrew are the exact same thing.

There is not a dichotomy. There's not happiness that's worldly and then joy that's something different. What there is is there's circumstantial happiness, and then there's a happiness that's still happiness, but it can transcend circumstances. You can have a happiness despite the circumstances.

The other thing I wanna say is a lot of preachers say, and if you if you just you know, the circumstantial happiness, we should reject that. There's even religions that teach that. Reject. No. Circumstances can bring happiness, and in many ways, they're supposed to be celebrated as a blessing.

Now if you run after circumstances to bring happiness that's running away from the Lord, that's the problem. You see, circumstantial happiness is a great gift but a terrible goal. If you make it the goal, you are gonna pursue it and run away from God sometimes because God's primary objective in our life is not happiness.

It's holiness. He wants us to be like Jesus. So what we need to do is look at circumstances and go as long as this happiness came about without dishonoring the Lord and running away from him and doing horrible things,

then I should embrace it and celebrate it and be, wow, I was blessed because I was able to get out. I was blessed with that new car. I was blessed with that. That's a great thing. But like I said, that's a great gift. It's a terrible goal. And when we live our lives as the goal, that reveals where our hope really lies.

You see, our happiness often reveals our hopes. What are we hoping in will often reveal where our happiness is. And I think if we put our hope in the right thing, we can have a happiness that transcends our circumstances. It's kinda like this. In Arizona, it's about to get a period where our circumstances,

the environment around us, is about to get kind of hot, I would say. And here's what's so funny. So many of us, you've lived here forever, and you you dread it. You complain about it. You talk about it on the on the social media all the time. It's like it's like it's a surprise every year.

Oh my gosh. It's hot out. You live in Arizona. It's always hot out. And and and we just get so sad. And so it's like, but here's the thing. It may be hot outside, but unlike our ancestors before us, you know, we don't just have thermometers. We have thermostats. You can go inside

and turn that down unless you're cheap. You know? And then then, you know, it's like so the the so here's how it works. Circumstantial happiness is a thermometer. It just tells you what the temperature is out there. Hope is a thermostat. It doesn't change the outside temperature. It doesn't change what's going on out there,

but it can keep you cool on the inside. It can give you a happiness, a contentment. Because by definition by definition, this is what we're talking when we say happiness. It's playful, content, interested, proud, accepted, peaceful, trusting, optimistic. You can have all of those things even if the circumstances

aren't producing happiness. The key is what is your hope in? Because if your hope isn't just circumstantial happiness, you're gonna have moments of happiness. But if you run after circumstance, even when you get that because you know the way the world works,

when you get something you really want, you're gonna be worried about something taking it away.

When you're finally in that moment, it feels good. You're gonna worry about what if it's not. So even as you have it, you start to worry. And then when you don't have it, you start to worry. And then you start to scheme, and we start to struggle, and we run completely away from God.

So what do we do about this? What does it look like? How does this work?

Well, we're gonna be in in in in Psalm 30. So if you wanna turn there if you have your Bibles. But let me let me show you how this gets us twisted. Like I said in the first week, I've had the why. Why is this making me happy? Or really with happiness,

usually, you know, when I said, you get caught in a feeling loop. Why am I so angry? Why am I so frustrated? Why am I disgusted? Why it's why am I have this? With happiness, I don't think everyone says, why am I constantly happy? I mean, we we don't really ask her. It's more of why am I not happy and what's going on.

And then when you determine that, you really are saying, where's my hope? Am I is my hope because here's the problem. If I have my hope in the wrong thing, I will follow down this trail that's gonna take me way off center. Let let me show you what I mean. I'll believe I'll buy into a lie.

And and and it's this. Here's the lie. I have the grass is greener on the other side of the fence mentality. That's saying if I only had or some of us if I only didn't have blank, then everything would be wonderful. And what that does is it leads me down down this false premise.

I kind of in inherit this false premise. My happiness is God's number one agenda. A lot of us think, well, God wants me to be happy. And he get he does in a certain way, but we think my happiness is the number one agenda. I already told you. Our holiness is his number one agenda. He needs us to be like Christ. Because here's the thing, if you pursue holiness, you will always end up with some happiness.

You'll always be happy. Not meaning you'll always feel happy, your circumstances won't be happy, but you will have happiness. If you run after just circumstantial happiness, you'll have moments of it, but I guarantee you'll miss out on holiness.

So then I buy into this false premise, and that brings me to I'm gonna do a little logic here for those of you who, like, you know, think church doesn't talk logically. Well, it's called an axiom. Let's do the axiom here. The major premise, God wants me to be happy. That means so the minor premise, my situation, job, marriage, school, relationships are so painful, stressful, unhappy that in conclusion,

this situation, relationship, or whatever else it is cannot be God's will for my life. So the problem is I start following that lie. I start following that logic. I've prayed about it. I've got there is no way God wants me to be in this. Sometimes, God wants you to be in a situation that isn't happy

so you can see where the real hope lies. So then you can have the happiness that transcends all understanding. And for and it says that a peace that trans peace, contentment, that's part of the definition of happiness.

The reason it transcends all understanding, guys, is because our whole world thinks happiness is only driven by circumstance, and we should always pursue whatever circumstance we can get to that gives us the feeling of happiness. You know why? So when you have a happiness, a contentment

in a world where you shouldn't be content circumstantially, nobody understands that because only our hope in Christ can give us that.

So what does that look like? How do we get it? What do I need? We're gonna be in Psalms 30. And in this Psalm, what we're gonna see is four things that that that really we have to embrace, understand,

four critical things that will help us understand how this works and how to do it, how to have this hope in the right place to get this happiness that transcends, and to just understand what about happiness in general, of what it's about. Now it's Psalm 30.

It says here in the notes, it's Psalm of David sung for the dedication of the temple. Remember that. It's gonna come back to the end. It's gonna be really cool. It's gonna be one of these reasons I'm gonna say, this is why you should study your bible because God is awesome. He plants little things in there that if you get in and dig in, you're gonna find out. That is amazing

if you just pay attention.

But before that, Psalm 30. There's all these backgrounds. David wrote this. What was he writing this? What era? What is he referencing when he writes this moment? He's writing about a moment in his life where he had been happy, but he relied on the circumstantial happiness. He leaned into himself. He leaned into his wealth, his power, his strength. He's like, I have it good, and he forgot about God in that moment, and he did something dumb. It's it's found in second Samuel 24,

and it's one of his greatest failures. And the only thing that here's an encouraging thing to us. This man is called a man after God's own heart, and he did some of the most knucklehead. He's done some things that I have to be honest, it'd be really easy for me to be judgmental and say, at least I wasn't as dumb as him.

It's not that he didn't do these things. It's how he responded when he realized what happens that changes everything. And so what's happening in second sandwich before? Well, what's happening is is he decided that he was going to

take a census of all the fighting men in the country. Now that doesn't sound like a big normally, it's not. But what it realizes right away, God had told him to trust him and trust him. He had this wealth. He was comfortable, and he goes, you know, how many men do I have to fight? How big is my army?

What else can I go take over? And that was an incredible failure as the spiritual leader and the king of Israel. And it was an incredible sin, and it and it broke God's heart. And and so God actually said, alright. I'm gonna sweep the legs. I'm gonna take away your happiness.

And he sends an angel of basically death that's gonna come through the land, he says, a whole day. He's gonna go through because your failures this is the scary thing to me being if you lead, you have to understand there's a responsibility to leading.

People think leading is you just get to make decisions to be the boss. Yeah. You also have to answer for things. He had so misled that now it's costing the lives of his people. And so now David's not happy.

But you know what's cool about this? Even the story, the grace of God, if you go read it, he said he was gonna come through the land for a whole day. Well, this angel gets to the outskirts of Jerusalem. He's looking over what was about to go through, and that's where you'll have a lot more death. And God says, enough.

He doesn't even follow through for the whole day. His grace and his love say enough. And and Pat McCullough talked about this in the surprise week. David had forgotten to be surprised by God, got content. In other words, he rested in his own happiness.

And and and when you remember, he said where the angel stopped, he rode out to there, and it was the site of a a man named Arun of the Jebusite owned it, and it was a threshing floor where you thresh wheat and you go out. And he goes, I need this site. I wanna worship God here because this is where God's grace showed up. And he stopped, and I'm repenting. I'm turning back to him, and I'm so thankful to him. And Aruna says, you can have it, but what does he say? No. I won't. I'm gonna buy it. I won't give anything to my Lord that didn't cost me anything. You realize that was his repentance for what he had been doing. He goes, I won't give anything the Lord that cost me anything.

I was the opposite. I wanna get everything I can get. And so he buys it. Well, why why why does that kinda matter? It's it's kinda cool in this moment. This this this Psalm ends up being the one that was sung as a a temple dedication, but where does he buy? That that spot that that he he he buys?

That's where Abraham offered his son Isaac.

It's also the spot where they ended up building the temple.

Matter of fact, if you go up on the Temple Mount, which is a huge the Temple Mount is one of the largest still the largest mount, like like, if you build to flatten the top of a mountain, you're trying to flat, it's still the largest man made version of that on the planet. It's huge. It's football fields up it's more than a couple football fields in size. The temple's not there anymore. The Romans destroyed it in 8070,

but there is the the the Jews don't even own it. Israel's a a democracy free country. Who owns it is is is Muslims. The Arabs, they own it. So they don't let the Jews go up there. It's really hard to get a tour up there. They're so nitpicky. They shut it down. They're really kinda crazy, and so rarely did tours even get up there. I got to go up there.

And it's interesting because the guy that was up there with me taught me is like, hey. Here's what the Jews believe. Where the the that that that that Dome Of The Rock is, that Israel the the Muslim country, they think they've built that where the temple was. Most Jews, they go, no. We don't think the temple was on that part. We think it was over here to the side. And the reason is there's this spot. I got a picture of it.

They've built this later. But if you notice, here's the Temple Mount ground. That's solid stone. They've evened it out. There's one spot up there where they don't have the rock. It's the mountain itself is exposed. It's Mount Moriah is exposed, and it's right under there. And if you look if you're able to look closer, that's actually solid rock, but it's just as smooth because it smoothed out. And if I show you if you look at a picture, look up a threshing floor, that's a threshing floor.

And they and when they built the temple, they left that spot open because that was the spot David bought. That was he had the land he that's where he worshiped God. It became his own place of worship, which ended up becoming the place of temple. And it's really interesting because

this is where the the Jews believe in the the temple was over this area, and that's where the holy of holies was in the temple.

It's really cool. Matter of fact, if you go to the Jews, they've actually excavated underground. Like, if you go there, if you've ever been there, the Temple Wall Mount is way up high. There's this big tall wall, and there's that Wailing Wall, the Western Wall. You guys heard about that? People go, they write prayers,

and then you go stick them in the wall.

Well, that's on the Western side. This is on the eastern, more to the eastern side. They've unearthed they have caves now where they're unearthing that down underground over there. I actually get to go on a tour and go down in. You get all up against that Eastern wall while you're underground,

And and and and that's a terrible time to find out you're claustrophobic, by the way. This this thing got so small and tight. I'm like walking like a chimpanzee going, if this thing fell, it wouldn't have to fall far. You know? And I was kinda

because I did it. And when you get all the way to the eastern end, you're actually almost directly below this area. Most Jews now, you find this prayer stuck in there now that they've opened up because they want their prayers to be closest to the holy of holies. Now none of this background has anything to with the sermon.

I just thought it was really cool, and it's good to know. You gotta know your scripture. It'll come back. You'll see you'll see. It'll come back. It's kinda kinda cool. So that's what's going on. So David made this great sin. Samuel says this, and that's what what he's writing in Psalm 30. So he was happy, but he was happy for his circumstances.

God took that away. He realized where his hope should be, and it gave him a different happiness. It gave him a happiness again, but one that could transcend the circumstances.

So here we go. Four things. Let's read the first three verses. I will exalt you, Lord, for you rescued me. You refused to let my enemies triumph over me. Oh my god. I cried to you for help, and you restored my health.

You brought me up from the grave, oh, Lord. You kept me from falling in the pit of death. He's not just talking about physical. That grave is like it's like shield is what it's describing. It's like, I know that you are my salvation. You are my you are life. You are eternity. And then I realized in this moment

that I'd forgotten that. And I cried out to you because even in this moment where I blew it and I deserved punishment and you took away that happiness, you also brought your grace and your love.

I think sometimes we need to understand that when we let happiness do what it's supposed to do, when we don't have it, circumstantially, it's an opportunity to look at where our hope lies. And I think the key we have to remember in this first three verses is this. Happiness comes from the source of life,

not the resources of life. A lasting happiness.

Temporary moments of happy resources are great. When God gives you a blessing, it's great. But that's not where life comes from. True happiness, lasting happiness comes from the source of life. God himself. We took communion when we read these verses because it's really pointing to Christ. Ultimately, Jesus is the one that took care of this. He's the one that saved us.

And so it says we we need to focus on the source of life, not just the resources of life. How many of you your whole faith is centered around trying to talk God into giving the resource you want? And

if he doesn't give it to you, you're disappointed, and you think there's either something wrong with God or something wrong with you. That's looking at it incorrectly. Verse four and five. Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones. Praise his holy name.

For his anger at last only for a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. So he's saying, hey. There's moments where God's gonna bring in some correction, and he's gonna sweep the legs, and circumstantial happiness is gonna go away to get you to look to the hope. And this is really cool. Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes in the morning. Once again, I told you, Hebrew poetry, when you do the opposites, night and morning, he's trying to say this is a huge thing. He's like, yes, there might be weeping when it's dark, but what always comes after sunset?

Sunrise. And when you embrace the source of life, not the resources of life, the sun always comes up. The sun always rises. It's always going to happen.

And and and and what we're gonna see here is what this is saying is, hey, you know what? If you trust God even through those tough moments when circumstances aren't happy, you're gonna end up with something on the other side that might not be circumstantially

happy, but will generate a much more hope filled happiness that transcends all understanding. In other words, God doesn't replace sorrow, this is the second thing, with happiness. He transforms sorrow into it. He doesn't replace it with happiness. He transforms it. Look at what it says in John 16.

Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he was trying to help them to understand this because they think if I'm supposed to be happy, you're following Jesus, you're our new king, gonna be great. You're gonna get rid of our problems. You're gonna get rid of Rome. You're gonna he's like, it's not gonna work that way. I'm gonna die. And they're like, they couldn't even understand that because dying is sad, dying is losing, dying is not winning. So he says this in in in John 16, I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn over what is gonna happen to me. Well, wait, we're following you and we're gonna get sad? He goes, yeah, but the world will rejoice, they'll be happy, you will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy. Then he gives an example in the next two verses. It'll be like a woman suffering the pains of labor. When her child is born, her anguish gives way to joy because she has brought a new baby into the world.

So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again. Then you will rejoice. The word for rejoice and joy, that's happiness. You'll be happy again, and no one can rob you of that joy. So this type of happiness can never be this is despite your circumstances.

And it's talking about going through that dark moment. He says it's kinda like when you have a baby. Moms in the room and dads who are in that room, they say birthing a child is a beautiful thing. That's a lie. It's a traumatic thing. It is a bloody thing. It's a messy thing.

It's a your wife curses you kind of a thing for, you know, things. And that's even with the good drugs. This is what he's saying there is the actual birth process is not beautiful. It's horrible.

It's terrible. Matter of fact, if you if you want your kids to abstain when they're about eight, nine years old, take them in and let them want a baby be born and say, this is what happens.

They'll probably be scarred for life. The beauty of childbirth is that on the other side, you have this new life that you got to help create.

There's something even more happy on the other side of that pain. If I only chase circumstantial happiness, I will refuse to go through that childbirth process in life. I refuse to trust God when it when the when the when the pain hits. I will run from that moment, and I will miss out on what he wanted to birth in my life. That's

what it's saying. And so what it's saying here is God doesn't just, you know, transfer happiness. He doesn't just he he he he doesn't just replace sorrow. When you're sad, he's like, oh, you're sad. I was so good. Alright. You've been faithful. Here. I'm gonna give you something to replace it. He transforms it.

Like childbirth, he he trans what I mean is, like, a lot of times we think of God like like like, okay. You're sad. Here you go. It's like like my mom was the most wonderful person ever. Love her to death. But one thing she did not do

do me a good service by was I used to be sick a lot as a kid, and I played a lot of sports though too. And the problem is I get really sad when I had to miss out on a baseball tournament. You know what? She'd be see me be so sad. So you know what she'd do? Here. I made you brownies. Anyone else eat when you're sad?

Yeah. I eat when I'm sad. I do. I eat when I'm happy. I eat when I'm bored. I eat when I'm not even hungry. But the reality is I had learned that that there's something about why food controls us so much because if you connect that dot, a lot of us run to food because that does give you immediate gratification. Immediate.

I can feel a rush of happiness. And she taught me to go, hey, just run to this. What she's trying to do is replace my sadness with just something that feels happy.

And a lot of us, that's how we approach our relationship with God. Hey. I'm in sadness. God, give me this. We start praying for things. Get rid of that. Take me away from this. What you're trying to say is just replace it.

Just replace it. Don't use it for what it's supposed to do. Don't let it birth something better. Just give me a brownie in its place. But that's not what he does. He transforms it. He he he he he goes around and he transforms it, but we miss it. In other words, we we do kinda like what I do with with working out.

Who actually likes to work out? There's always one of you. There's always one of you. And even the couple of you that say you like to work out, let me challenge you because you probably lying to yourself, but or you're more longer like me. I don't like to work out. I love to have worked out.

That's a difference. The process of working out is painful, especially as I get older. Everything hurts. Everything hurts. You know, you go to get a shot, they go, your arm might hurt. You get a flu shot. Your arm might hurt tomorrow. My arm hurts right now. I mean, it's like, well, how's that gonna make a difference?

It's like you you you get anything. It's like that's what it is, but I go, it's hard, but I like having worked out. I like the result. I like what's on the other side of it.

But here here's the the problem I have with this. When when I do that, I have this other struggle with that is is I used to call myself break even bill. I work out to support my eating habit

because I like to eat. So I feel like if I work out and I do the biggest mistake, I do this, I'll sit there and I'll do a really good workout. Man, I burned a ton of calories. That was awesome. That was intense. It was great. Then I'm gonna go across the street and eat an entire large pizza and then go get some ice cream. And you know what I tell myself in my heart?

I deserve this. I earned it. I earned it, but I can't do that anymore. I can't break even. I can't exercise it. Not break even bill. I'm bigger and bigger belly bill is what's happening. I mean, I think about eating and I gained two pounds. I used to go, oh, I should've eaten ten minutes ago. I lost nine pounds.

I go, you can't do that. If you I really wanna be healthy, yeah, I gotta go through the hard part of exercise, but I also have the discipline of eating right. Here's what I think. When some of us look at and we get too much into circumstantial happiness, we we we don't understand, we don't let God transform sadness

into happiness instead of transfer, we will do the same thing. I worked out to support my eating habit. Some of us come to worship to support our sinning habit. I could just walk off stage right now and be done.

You see, we come here and we do a hard work, and we come and we sing some songs. We did this. And, you know, we might get a couple other workouts in during the week, and we go to bible study, do that. But then we run out there and we ignore God and the other things in life, and we pursue those those those those circumstantial happiness. I'm not gonna listen to God what he says to do with my money because I really, really feel better if I buy this bigger house. I'm not gonna trust God with my time because I really, really, really love this activity more. So but then you show up at worship, and you're like, alright. I got the workout in, and now I deserve to go eat what I wanna eat.

And that's not healthy.

And that's why we, as Christians, don't have a happiness that transcends all understanding. We act just like everybody else.

But we have to embrace this idea that that that God doesn't replace our with happiness. It transforms it. And you don't believe me? Remember I talked all about the holy volleys, the temple site, and all this stuff, and now how this psalm was actually

sung? Because remember, it says this was for the dedication of the temple. This was Israel's hymn book. They sang these. This was their songs. This psalm was the song that was sung when the temple was dedicated. Now now go with me. This is really cool. You can see how he takes sorrow. Even sorrow that was caused.

It's not just things that happened to David. It was things he did. And when he turned back and repented and trusted God, God transformed even those broken things into something that was happy in a greater way. David did two major major failures

scripturally in his life that if you went back and asked him, he's like, these are the two mulligans I want back. The first one was this moment when he counted his census, and it all got a lot of people killed. Out of that, he ended up with the land for the temple.

His other greatest failure was when he slept with this woman named Bathsheba, who was married to one of his mightiest men, his greatest heroes, this most one of the 70 men that stayed with him through those ten years when he was running.

Think that's bad enough that he betrayed his friend by sleeping with his wife? Well, she got pregnant. He tried to cover it up. When his friend had more honor than him, he had him killed.

Now here's the thing that you can trust no matter where you're at in that incredible redemptive love and mercy and grace of God. Most of in this room, probably all of us could probably judge David and go, I have never been that bad. And God still restored it to something beautiful because, you know, his second failure,

when he repented, he ended up with the land for the temple. This earlier failure, he ends up repenting, making it right. He marries Bathsheba, and they have another child. You know what his name is? Solomon. Who built the temple? Solomon. This first major failure

created the king that would build the temple, which he always wanted to do. This other failure gave him the spot for the temple, And then the song he wrote was the song that ended up being the song they sang when they dedicated the temple. That is God transforming sorrow, even his own failure back in

to something beautiful, back into happiness. What song is not gonna be sung in your life because you refuse to return back to God? You refuse to to to stop running towards circumstantial happiness and running around God and literally seeing him as the hope, first and foremost, and then enjoying the ups and downs.

When you get blessed, yay, God. When you're not being blessed circumstantially, praise God, and trust him anyways because you have this hope that goes beyond it. Well, how do I do that? How do I get back to that moment? It's these last few verses. Two things that will help me be able to do that.

If I'm gonna realize that life happiness comes from the source, not the resources, and then I want to embrace that God can replace sorrow with happiness, not replace, but actually transform it into it in my life, then I gotta do these last two things. I gotta understand them. Verse six through 10 here.

When I was prosperous, I said nothing can stop me now. See, when he was when he was having it good, he's like, he didn't listen to God. He just wanna do what he wanted to do. But then look what he says Your favor, oh Lord, made me secure as a mountain. He realized when I was prosperous, it wasn't because of me. It was even my prosperity.

Those blessings that God gave me, the wealth, the power, is like, that even came from God. A lot of us make this mistake that you think, why I can't I don't wanna trust God with my time or my money or whatever. You talk about this. Well, it's my money. It's my time. I'm like, no, not. God gave this to you.

I mean, I gotta tell you, if you sit there and you especially if you know Christ, and you're like, I don't have to give out. It's like, I I work hard. I need this. I got this. You know what? You're being stupid. You're just stupid. And I'm can include myself because I am stupid this way a lot as well.

David had these struggles in and out. It wasn't like one and done. We don't just these Bible guys struggle like we do, but we have to come to a realization. It's not mine. And when I thought it was mine, God took it away to remind me, where is my hope?

He goes, then you turned away from me and I was shattered. I cried out to you, oh, Lord, I begged the Lord for mercy saying, what will I gain if I die? If I sink into the grave, can can my dust praise you? Can can it tell of your faithfulness? Hear me, Lord, and have mercy on me. Help me. He's saying, hey, you know what? I realized the whole thing was I needed to be giving praise to you. I need to give you glory. I need to fight. But if I just die from this, if you let me end up dying in this and it getting wiped out, I can't turn back and praise to you.

He wasn't just saying, make it nice so I can go on the way I was. He was like, I realized I need to turn back to you. In other words, how do we get to see God replace,

not replace, but transform sorrow into happiness? Is I have to I have to pursue God, not play God. In other words, I have to understand that lasting happiness is found in pursuing God, not playing God. He realized

in that first verse, he says, when he goes, I was prosperous, said nothing can stop me now. Guess what he transferred? Everything God had given him, he thought it was him. He thought it was his ginger. He thought it was her. He started playing God. And in our lives, if I only listen to part of what God says to do,

and I wanna do my worship workout so I can go eat my sinful diet, when I'm making those decisions, who's really the authority? Me or God? I've made myself the authority. I'm judging God. I'm saying, nope, God, you don't understand. That's not really what I need. I need this, not that.

But he realized, I've been playing God. Instead, I'm gonna turn around. That's what repentance is. I'm gonna pursue God. So no matter what your circumstances are, good, bad, happy,

pursue God. Pursue what it means to be in a relationship with him.

Because then that should lead to verse eleven and twelve.

You have turned my morning into joyful dancing. That's joyful is happy. Happy dance. You've allowed me to happy dance even through this tough circumstance. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy that I might sing praises to you and not be silent. Lord, my God, I will give you thanks forever.

In other words, he's saying this last thing is, okay. If I'm really gonna see him transform sorrow into happiness and birth something better, I'm gonna have to be willing to go through that. And what I'm how I'm gonna have to be able to go through that is I gotta pursue God, not play God. And then also, I need to understand that happiness

should produce praise parties, not pity parties.

That's why it reveals our hope. If you're not circumstantially happy, are you if you know Christ and you're not circumstantially happy, are you just having a pity party? Are you always feeling sorry for yourself?

Or you feel shame and guilt over the dumb things you did do, and you just get stuck in that. Well, I guess I did this to myself, so I gotta sit here. I made this bed. I gotta lie in it. I never understood that phrase, by the way. Don't you make the bed after you lied in it? Anyways, sorry, ADD.

But but think about it. It's like you you you could sit there and and and really have a pity party

even for yourself. Like, I know I caused this, but David didn't. He pursued God. He turned back to God. He understood that he's the source of life. It's not the resources of life, and he ran back to God and he repented, and God's the one that brought him out of that. He had his grace, his love, and it embraced him, and he was able to move past that.

But then some of us are in pity parties for stuff that's been done to you, and I get it. We live in a broken world. Hurt people hurt people. But here's the problem. Some of you've been hurt deeply, and you're letting it still hurt you even though that person doesn't even care. You've moved on. They're gone, and you've held on to a bitterness or a pain or an anger, and you won't forgive. You won't let it go. You know, reconciliation takes two. Forgiveness takes one.

And I'm telling you, you don't have to reconcile with everybody to hurt you. But if you are hurt and now it's bothering you and you have this pity party, you can't get past it, the only one that's getting hurt in that scenario is you. But we believe this lie that says, if I let it go, I let them off the hook. No. You didn't. You let yourself off the hook. You're not God. God is the God of justice. We looked at that. We looked at disgust last week. God takes care of justice. You just need to take care of pursuing God. So some of you are having a pity party over things that people have done to you, and it's unfair, and it's wrong, and it's sad. But guess what? The love and the mercy and grace of God is just not for you when you mess up. It's also for you when other people mess with you. You need to point the love and mercy to let yourself off,

and that's why we worship God, and that's why we choose to worship. And even in these Psalms, most of the words he says, come to me. Come with me and worship together. There is something about corporate worship, but a lot of us, we treat this as like an extra thing. We treat it like, oh, we sing, I don't need to sing, I'll come in late. We're gonna close with a little short song. So we're gonna get up and walk out.

Even and I'm gonna say this, and somebody will still get up and walk out. You know who you are.

And somehow I didn't help you understand this. The best time to praise is when you're the least happy. The best time to praise. When it's the other way around, that means you only praise God when your circumstances are happy. The best time to praise is when life makes no sense because it pulls us back to the hope,

and it gets us out of the pity party. Have a praise party. That's how it works. Otherwise, you're gonna let circumstantial happiness take you on a roller coaster through life. That's all it's gonna be. She's like, I'm out here before the song starts. Sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you.

That's just how I think. If I really wanted to leave, I would probably get out of here before the song after what I just said. She's like, I just have to go to the bathroom.

This is why some of you come to this service. This only happens I get loopy in the last service. Sorry. Praise party, not a pity party.

Let let let me sum it up. I probably could have summed this whole thing up with these couple verses out of Philippians four that Paul writes about. Matter of fact, if I just read these, it would have landed everything I just spent the last forty two minutes saying.

And but then again, gotta earn my paycheck somehow. Right? So he's the the Philippians were struggling. Their circumstances were not happy. And he said, but you know what? You can find this happiness, this thermostat of hope that can give you a happiness even when circumstances aren't happy.

And he talks about it. So in verse seven, I'm just gonna jump around to a few verses to show you what it is. In Philippians four verse seven, it says,

then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand when you embrace the hope in Christ. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ. Now if we jump down to verse well, that was verse seven. Should've read verse four first. But can we go back to verse four?

Go back to verse four. There we go. This my bad, not theirs.

Always be full of joy in the Lord is what he said first. I say it again, rejoice. Always be happy. Sin. Now if you don't understand what he says next, you don't understand what I've been talking about? This doesn't this just sound like the God version of your dad saying, if you don't stop crying, I'll give you something to cry about?

That's not what he's saying. He's saying, we can always have a happiness if we embrace Christ.

That's what he says in verse seven. Now the verse to 11, he goes further. He he says this, not that I was ever in need for I have learned. He's like, I get it. I understand how you guys are in need. Circumstance is bad, but, you know, for me, I've learned I don't worry about that. For I have learned how to be content with whatever I have.

And he goes on, he says, I know how to live almost nothing or with everything. Paul was extremely wealthy before he started following Christ. He ended up in prison and very poor. And when he was following Christ, had moments where he still had lots of resources. He had moments when he had nothing.

He goes, I've learned to be happy and all that. I've learned the secret of living in every situation whether it is with a full stomach or an empty with plenty or a little. In verse 13, the most misunderstood,

misapplied verse in the universe of verses, after all of that, he says, for I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. How many of you have this stenciled somewhere in your house or it's in a poster or it's your car or you say this before you're going to that sales meeting, you're saying this before that thing you're gonna do, you're thinking, because you know what? When we have a circumstantial

happiness goal in our life instead of it's a gift, but not the goal, when I make it the goal, I will read this verse and I make it my self pep talk about it's really I'm wishing upon a star of Jesus. Jesus, I love you. I wish upon a star. Here's what I'm really gonna do, and I know. I know that this is the thing I really, really, really want. I really wanna have this, and if I just use your name and say, believe in you, you're gonna give me the strength to give me all the victories that I want.

That's not what it's saying. It's saying the exact opposite. Some of you have that posted, you've read it, and you've applied it exactly

opposite of what God is trying to say to you. What he's saying is, you're gonna have failure. You're gonna have losses. There are gonna be things you desperately want, and you will not achieve it. And there's gonna be moments in life that are dark and sad and hopeless, but you know what he's saying is? When you have Christ, you have all the strength you need

to go through that. It's not a a mantra. It's not some magic indentation to go around it. It's actually embrace it. And the problem is if you believe that, you know that doesn't actually work. And if you believe it's the other way, when it stops working, you think God isn't there or doesn't care.

But sometimes it's the strength he's talking about is the strength to go through the pains of childbirth and let God birth something better on the other side.

That's what we need to do. Let me sum it up. Personal story. Just trusting God in this way and seeing what happens on the other side. I grew up in Arizona, but I didn't come to start Rock Point still living in Arizona.

I I had I had moved away, went to California for college, married a California girl, stayed there. And before I came back, the last seven years, I lived in this godforsaken place called Dana Point, California. I had a horrible office that looked right at the ocean.

I never even had to turn a fan. I just opened the door. Ocean breeze. I had to actually put stuff on papers because I'd always had that ocean breeze blowing in my face. I mean, I was suffering so bad. Had a great ministry. What I got to do? The only problem is there was something that was very, very circumstantially

difficult and not happy. Being in ministry is not the most profitable career in the first place. In this church, being in that area, the one thing I always struggled with was providing for my family. We could never afford to live there. It was hard.

I worked. My wife worked. We had two kids. We were still in a little apartment. And just to let you know something, my apartment rent twenty years ago, twenty actually, more than twenty, like twenty one years ago, was $300 a month more than my house payment is now. That's how expensive it was there.

I couldn't afford it. It was always a stress. And I said, God, I trust you. I'm gonna do what you asked me to do, but this is hard. And it was difficult. But I said, you know, I just gotta trust God. My wife, she trusted God. We've been doing this for a long time. But as a man trying to take care of his family

and looking at my kids, the two kids I knew were gonna get bigger, I go, dude, the kids around them, if if I stay here, they're gonna grow up. And and I told my daughter, my oldest daughter was the only one old enough for me to say this to her. I go, hey. I'm just telling you, there's gonna be things that you see your friends get, and I'm just wondering right now, you ain't get it.

And but I was sad. But then all of a sudden, circumstance changed. God's open God opened doors. Church gave me a huge raise out of nowhere. My wife got a huge raise.

And then four families had been in the church and saw me have two kids be there all this time, realized how expensive it was. They came to the church saying, hey. We're gonna donate money to give they gave me $80,000 to put down on a house.

And it never made sense on that. I could have ignored God. I could have not given. And then we stayed faithful with our finances through this whole thing, giving to God. And it wasn't just 10% we gave more. We gave to the building campaigns and all that stuff, even though we were broke.

And then all of a sudden, God opened a floodgate. And you're like, see, that's how it works. You just trust God, then it always gives you certain kinds companies. It did for a year. Got really happy, got really content, And then God started saying, hey, think it's time to move to the next level.

Started have churches approach me. You need to be the lead guy. And I didn't have a problem with that. Started interviewing with churches. One was in his even more beautiful area. And the nice thing about an established church is they tell you what the salary is. I can negotiate.

I go, I'm gonna go into this and step up to this level and probably be even better off. That's good. Right? But then God started tugging on my wife's heart

in a way that scared the snot out of me. She came to me and she says, Bill, I don't think we should go to an established church. I go, why? She goes, because within six months, they will hate you. How am I supposed to take that? Really?

Did you get that way six months after we got married? I I don't are you trying to tell me something deeper here?

And she's like, no. You're just the way you're built, the way you're wired, you're gonna go in a church that has its established ways, and you are gonna rattle some cages, man. You're gonna go all locker room bill, and you're gonna just they're just they're just gonna hate you, and you're gonna hate them. Like, well, then what am I supposed to do? She goes she said something I knew was from the Lord because she never ever says stuff that's scary. She goes, I think we need to start a church.

Are you kidding me?

We finally, for the first time in our entire ministry life, own a home, can afford to pay for it, can pay for stuff. We don't if we get a flat tire, I didn't have to find someone that could help me out here because I don't have the money to put a new tire on my car. We can now actually do that. We're not getting rich here, but we can actually live here. And now you're telling me planting a church is like nobody's paying you. There's no guarantee.

You've got in the middle of nowhere. And she goes, yep. And I go, you can't mean this. She goes, you know what? I just in my heart, I feel like we can't not do that. And I didn't want to. I I cannot do that. I cannot do that so hardcore.

See, here on my path. A lot of you guys, it's your wife the ones that's pushing you, and you think, well, Bill's got it different. No. My wife's still the Holy Spirit. And

and I knew she was right, but I didn't wanna I didn't wanna walk away from the happiness. But I knew that there's this moment that I go, I have a hope. And there is God is asking me to do something, and it's scary. And I knew I'm gonna have to walk away from the circumstantial happiness

to do this. So we did. We moved out here. And you think, oh, it's so happy. No. It was terrible. It was hot. I for I'd lived away from Arizona, I forgot how hot it got.

And and we move in, and we we were so broke that that before we could even get this house, we we had to move in and rent a house with another family that moved. There was 10 of us in a 1,500 square foot house. Eight of us shared one bathroom,

which I knew God was moving in my wife's heart because she doesn't even like sharing a bathroom with me, let alone seven other people.

And my whole family was in one tiny room. All we had was mattresses on the floor. We were broker than but I went from already struggling in ministry to this was the poorest I've ever been. The only way we could even live is I cast out my retirement. And I'll be honest, still hasn't gone back in.

So you're stuck with me till I'm 95 years old. I can't retire till two years after I die. It's scary. It was hard. It was difficult. It was tough. It was hot. It was sweaty. Circumstantially, was nothing in it that would make me happy. It was childbirth,

birthing a church. It was difficult and dark, and it was hard, and I didn't wanna do it. But I had to come to the same thing my wife did. I can't not trust God. I just can't not do this. And we all get to this moment. There's moments many of you are sitting in one of those moments right now, and you have to make a choice.

Am I going to trust God or am I not? So I did, and it was difficult. It was hard.

But here we are. Look around. Here we are.

And I wish I can just open up my heart. And if any of you that don't understand this, pour this into you. Looking at your faces, the joy of even the tough stuff going for what I've done to be in this moment for God to let me, me, just stupid old me, just like David, I'm an idiot. But he says, I've invited you in,

son, and I am letting you have a front row seat on what my glory can do, what my source of life can do, what my power can do, what my love can do, what my holiness can do, what I can do in you and through you and around you in ways that running after those circumstances

will never do. And I would never give that back, not in a million years. Because you know what? I understood the secret was everything David just wrote about was that God God is the source of life. It's not about the resources that we can pursue him and not play God. And he will take sorrow and sadness in tough moments when you trust him and transform

it into something beautiful. And the only reason that works is because he is the only one can take graves and make them into gardens. Only God can turn graves into gardens. We only turn one grave into another grave. But if you would let go of circumstance

and just trust in the hope of Jesus, you can let him take whatever grave is in your life, and it will eventually be a beautiful garden because of his love and his might and his power and his grace. Amen? Well, let's stand and let's end with a little praise party singing to the God of life who turns grace into gardens.

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