Made to Worship | Week 2

But I do remember just parenting when they were little, and I was thinking about this. My son, I remember one time, I got him one of those Nerf dart sets. It comes with a a a target

they can shoot at. It's like English language just evaded me there for a minute. But this target, and they have these little darts, and they're Velcro. It's the Velcro targets to to to shoot

at and and stuff like that. And I don't know if if do you guys know what Velcro is? Okay. Good. I'll but but anyways, he was he he was I would shoot at it, and it would stick, and it was fun. He loved it, but then, you know, he did what little boy does. He proceeded to start shooting at other things other than just the target. He was shooting at the walls, the ceiling, the windows, glasses,

his sisters. You know, whatever he could find, he would try to shoot at. But then after he was shooting at all these other things, he got really frustrated. He came to me and said, it doesn't work. I And go, what do mean doesn't work? I put the dart in, shot it, it goes, works fine. He goes, but it's not sticking.

It's not sticking. And what he meant was, when he shot his sister, he goes, it wouldn't stick to her. And I go, you don't understand. It won't stick unless you shoot at the target. Now I find myself trying to explain to a little kid the idea of Velcro.

Some of you say you know what Velcro is, but you don't know, do you? Here's a picture of what Velcro actually is. It's hooks and loops, did you know that?

The soft, the velour side, that's the loops. It's softer. The hook side is the scratchy side. That's the hooks. They're little tiny little hooks and loops. So when you stick them together, the hooks grab ahold of the loops. So I told them, I go, this side, the scratchy thing on your dart, there there's no none of the the loops aren't on your sister. They're not on the wall. They're not on, you know, these things. It's like you it's gotta have the right surface. The gun and the dart there's nothing wrong with the dart.

What's wrong is the surface of what you're hitting. And that's really what I want to talk about today. We're in this series called Made to Worship, and what I want to talk about today is this idea that many of us

we are not connecting to God, and it's not because there's something wrong with God or even something wrong there's something missing in our heart.

That we need to have that soft heart, the heart with the loops, that when the dart of God's presence comes into our life, when God wants to move in our lives, it can stick to something. It has to have something to stick to.

And if we don't have that, it's gonna bounce off. Or worse, have you ever taken a scratchy part of Velcro and just rubbed it against your skin? I realized when I said that last service is, who would think to do that? This guy. And it's it's really irritating.

And so for many of us, you're like, hey, I'm coming to church. I'm trying to trust God. I wanna worship. I this series made to worship, I believe. I I wanna be a worshipper of God. But for some reason, as you try, it just doesn't seem to be working, and it seems like almost like your life seems more irritated.

There seems to be like it's getting agitated, that things are rubbing you wrong. It might be God actually trying to work in your life, trying to dart into your life, but but you you don't have the heart. You don't have the surface for it to connect to.

You see, what we're gonna talk about today, the big idea for today about being made to worship is this.

I can't worship a God I don't know. I can't worship a God I don't know.

See, last week we opened up and the whole kind of the whole concept of this made to worship is, we kind of had to expand the idea of what worship is. Because when you say made to worship, most people that have been to church for very long say, oh, sing.

And and that, but worship isn't really about that. What we looked at was in Colossians chapter one, where it says the immensity of who Jesus is, and we have to realize that Jesus made us. But it says in in in that passage, we were made for him by him. Actually, the other way around. By him and for him.

So so so we are not not only made by God, by Jesus, but we also were made for Jesus. And in that, that's the heart of worship. Then the passage ends with realizing, and we're able to do this through Jesus. It's through his power and his love. It's by him, for him, through him. And here's the thing. I have to embrace

with all of my life being made by and for,

and I do it through. See, a lot of us will accept I'm made by God, but we don't embrace with our life that I was made for God. And worship is when I embrace with all of my life being made for God as well. So it includes more than just singing. It includes more than just coming to church. And at its very heart, its very nature, we're to see today,

we're going to talk about this thing we do that's an act of worship that many of you even grown up in church never thought of as an act of worship. It's an essential. It's a private practice, as we call it around here, but it's a thing that helps us connect to God. Because if I don't connect to God,

I can't know God, and I can't worship what I don't know. Because as we said last week, if you're still a little skeptical, you're newer here, what we said last week was everybody on this planet worships. Humans were made to worship.

If you don't believe me, go listen to last week's sermon if you weren't But the reality of this is it's not if we worship. The reality is what are you choosing to worship, and how are you choosing to worship it.

So today, we want to talk about connecting to this God. Because if I don't know God, I can't connect to him. And so I want to start off in a Psalm again, just like I did last week. We're gonna be in a Psalm. Psalm 42.

Psalms two. Psalms right in the middle of your Bible. The book of Psalms, psalm, as many of you might think it is. And and it's like I said before, this is Hebrew poetry. They would sing these. This is kind of their hymn book too. Matter of fact, if you look in if you have a Bible and you look, sometimes there's these little notes for the choir director. You know, it's telling them what to do and and and and all of that. But but it it it's in here you find a lot of the crying out of what does it mean to connect to God. And this Psalm was written by King David again, this guy named David. He was a shepherd boy. We talked about that last week. But but he was a musician. He was called a man after God's own heart.

And and a lot of his Psalms, he just pours out his heart. You could tell that this guy knows God. But in this psalm, he's having a struggling moment. Most theologians, they believe that it was at a time when he was maybe being pursued by the current king,

Saul, and even though he'd been anointed to be king, he's being pursued. He's running away. What he's going to start off, you're going see, he pours out his heart that he's like, he somehow can't go to church. He can't go to the temple and worship with all the people like he loves to do. So he's in kind of a dark place.

And what we're gonna see is he's longing for a connection. Because that's really the heart of what worship is. So here it goes. It starts off. It says in verse one, as the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, o God.

So he's saying just like a a deer that's dehydrated, that just needs a drink, that's what I'm longing for. I'm I'm dehydrated. I want the presence, a connection to God.

He says, I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go stand before him? So he's questioning, when can I go worship? When can I stand? And he's kinda thinking like, because he can't get to church, so to speak. He can't go to the temple. He's thinking, I I I can't worship.

And then look, he says, day and night, I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, where is this God of yours? So he feels abandoned. He feels like, man, life isn't working right, and I do long for God, but I can't really go, so to speak. He says in verse four, my heart is breaking

as I remember how it used to be. You ever do that when you're really sad? Do you remember the good old days? He's remembering how it used to be. He says, I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration.

She's like, remember when we used to just go to church and we used to be able to worship God? It was so awesome. But verse five, he goes, why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?

Now he's saying this because he is kinda discouraged, but he's also answering the question. It's he's writing this saying, I'm discouraged, I'm sad, but why am I? Why am I? Do I have to be? Do I have to be because I can't worship? I can't connect to God? Because I can't go to the temple?

And then he realized look what he says. He goes,

I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my savior and my God. So what he's realizing is he transitions. He goes, you know what? It is great to go worship in the temple. Worship with all of God's people. We're gonna talk about that aspect of worship next week. Why do we come here and do what we do? But he realized, I don't have to just go there to connect to God.

I don't have to be there just to worship. Worship is more than that. He goes, I don't need to be so discouraged. Why am I? He goes he goes, now I am deeply discouraged, but look what he says, I will remember you. I will remember you.

And what's interesting is that little phrase, why am I discouraged? Why am I his heart so sad? And he says, I'm gonna choose to remember you. I'm gonna praise you. If you go to verse 11, it repeats this again. In in Hebrew poetry, anything's repeated is really the point.

So the point of this psalm is trying to say this thing. Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad?

I will put my hope in God. I will praise him again, my savior and God. He's saying I got disconnected because I thought it was all about just doing it this way, and I realized I just need to connect to God. I long for him. I can praise him wherever I'm at. See, this psalm is talking about that the heart of worship

is knowing the heart of God. It's being able to be in his presence. It's not about going to church. We don't go to worship. We don't go to church. We go worshipping as the church. That's what we are.

And that's what we need to realize, and that's what he's realizing. He's realizing it's about connecting to God, so I will praise him again. I won't let my life situation

run me away from worship. And think about it, I know he's this guy that was a shepherd king, and it's in the middle. You know, I've been to the place where he hid out. Pretty cool if you've ever been there. And this is thousands of years ago, and it's like he was supposed to be king. He's getting around. Like most of us are not anointed to be king, and then the current king's trying to kill us, and we're running for our lives and all that. But guess what? We have things that make us feel like we're running for our lives. We have precious lives. We have things that make no sense. We have those moments like, wow, God, why are you letting me do this? And do you know what we do? We pull away from worshiping God.

That's exactly what he was doing. You know why? Because he felt low, he felt discouraged, and he couldn't worship the way he wanted to. Think about that. But what he realized, it's about connecting to God. We all long for this connection. But like I said, we can't worship a God we don't know.

And in Colossians one, we looked at last week after it said, remember the bigness of who God is. And remember I said mind the gap like they say in England and the subways? Liz knows that. Right? Mind the gap. We need to mind the gap of how that huge gap between who God is and who we are. Not to feel terrible,

but to realize that the God that this is this big loves us anyways. Thinks about us anyways. Wants to connect with us anyways. What I need to do

is stand firm in that truth. So what it said last week, stand firm. And what we're talking about this week and next week is what does he mean? What are some ways you stand firm in that truth?

And and the way we need to stand firm in this truth is is is to get have the loops of the heart to connect to God. And what does what does that look like then? How does that look? Well, let's go to the right. We're gonna go into the New Testament. We're gonna go all the way to the book of Romans. If you get to the New Testament, there's Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, book of Acts, then Romans. And that's where we're at. And in Romans, we're gonna be in chapter 12, look at two verses. But I just wanna set up the context here. Romans is written to this this group of Christians in in Rome,

and a lot of them are Jews, but a lot of them aren't now. There's a lot of non Jews that are now coming to Christ. So this is a really theological book training, and it has to give some of the history for for the non non Jews. So in chapter 11, it's talking about, hey, God had so much mercy on Israel. Here's what he did, and he's talking about God's plan. And at the very end of chapter 11, it says this,

for everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. That's the whole purpose of this series.

Everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. It's for him. All glory to him forever. So then in chapter 12, it says, here's what we need to do to start embracing this. Here's how you connect to God. Here's how you know how life is supposed to work.

This is an act of worship. And you're going be dumbfounded to say, this is worship? Yes. Look what he says. And so, brothers and sisters, I plead with you. He's pleading. He's talking to believers.

I know what it feels like. Because what I'm gonna land this message, it's gonna feel like I've heard this before, I've whatever. And I'm just telling you, I am pleading with you guys. Listen. Don't check out. Listen. He says, I plead with you. Give your bodies to God. Why? Because of all he has done for you. Mind the gap.

Let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind he will find acceptable. So it basically says Jesus died for us, and what does he ask us to do? Not die for him. He says, I died so you can live. I died for you. You live for me. That's the deal.

And he says, give your body as a holy what it means your body is, your life be an act of worship. Embrace your whole life is how you worship God. He says, this is the kind that you will find acceptable. And it says this is truly the way to worship him. So this is how we worship.

Being a living sacrifice. Well, how does that work? He says in verse two, he explains. He goes, don't copy the behavior and the customs of this world,

but let God transform you into a new person. Now he says, okay. So don't copy. That that word there in the in the Greek, this is written in the Greek, says it uses this visual illustration of if you're pouring concrete, I have a mold to pour it into. He's saying, don't be poured into the mold of what the world wants you to do. Don't be like that. And he means the world. Even all other religions. People, if you're new here, he's like, what makes Christians think they're so different? And and isn't all religions basically the same? No. He's explaining it right here. Every other religion wants to pour you in this mold that says, you have to go make yourself a better person. You do, and then God reacts.

Every other religious philosophy says, I act. God, whoever's out there, reacts. I'm good, he rewards. I'm bad, he punishes. It's all about my action, and then God's reaction. When really, it's about God's action and our response.

That's what Christianity says. Don't be poured into this mold. But look what he says to do. He says, instead of doing that, let God transform you into a new person. So who transforms you into a new person? Us. God. How? What's what do I need to do?

This is how I get the loops on my heart. The loops in my life that God can connect to and transform us is what he says next. He'll transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

He didn't say the way you act. He started with the way you think. In the Greek, it says it really cool. It says, He changes you. Basically, the way you think. The Greek word there means when you start to look at your life from God's point of view.

So what I'm called to do is simply choose, instead of looking at God from my point of view, I look at me and the world from His point of view. That's how it works. That's my goal. In other words, it's like, he's the one that changes you. But we have an illustration like this. If you're sick, I've been sick all week,

and and I'm fighting it, and and it's good, but but not sick enough to go to the doctor. But so you get sick enough, and you have to go to a doctor. Say you have to go to the hospital. Did you heal yourself? No. The doctor did using medicine. Using his powers, his superpowers of medicine.

And and and and what did you need to do? What was your choice? The only thing you had to do was what? Choose to go. And when you go, what are you choosing to do? See me from the doctor's point of view. Accept what he says. Here's what'll fix this. That's what it's saying.

My job is to let God heal me. God transform me. God change me. But all I have to do is choose to think from his point of view, and that is what he says is an act of worship. It's not singing songs. We'll see that in the end. Singing is a result of worship. It doesn't result in worship. Singing

comes out of the heart of a worshiper. It doesn't place worship into your heart. So what he's saying is we need to look at his point of view, and then look what it says.

Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Life will start to make sense. It doesn't mean everything's gonna feel nice, but it says you will start to see from God's point of view. Well, here's a quick question. If I'm supposed to then just take God's point of view on stuff,

where do I find God's point of view?

In the burrito I ate last night? Where do you find God's point of view? Bingo. In his word. So in other words, what he's saying is, the way we stand firm is a living sacrifice,

and the way we start to see how life works, the way God starts to transform us is when we get to know his point of view, and we know his point of view, and we start to see our life from that point of view by spending time in his word. And not just studying it for information. He's talking about transformation.

He's talking about this idea that that that really is is I need to go through the word, but then I need to take time to let the word go through me. I can't just learn it to win an argument. I don't just need to know a bunch of verses. I don't just need to know information.

I need to let it really sink in, and I need to let the Bible read me more than I even read the Bible. That's what meditation is. Biblical meditation, you might have heard of Eastern meditation, you try to empty your mind. The Bible, when it talks about meditation, is you try to fill your mind. You try to focus your mind. You try to focus on what is God trying to say.

And that's what he's saying to do. That I need to have this connection with God that transforms the way I think, not just informs things I know. We have enough information that we ignore all the time. We're going to the holiday season when we're going to pack on some weight,

and then many of you are going to run back to the gym. And if you're a gym member that's always there, you get really mad. I used to call them the resolute. You just got to buckle down and deal with the crowds till about March by the latest. Everyone starts fading again. And then you don't do it.

Do you realize Americans are some of the most out of shape people on the planet, but Americans probably have the best education and understand fitness and exercise more than any other culture on this planet? How can we know so much and apply so little? Because we're not really learning stuff for transformation.

We just are informed. Too many of us sitting in church, especially if you grew up in church, is really one of the heavy weights you gotta carry if you grew up in It's an advantage and disadvantage. You grew up hearing all these stories, hearing all the Bible stuff, you are informed

so further beyond than what you're transformed. Because it just became information at some point. The renewing of your mind is not just knowing God's point of view. It says, I choose to accept God's point of view as truth,

as God's point of view as the way to live, as God's point of view. Because what does he say in the end? You'll know God's will. And what he means by know God's will, it says you will live God's will. And that is what will be good and pleasing and perfect for you. Not knowing it.

Not knowing it, because many of us, we do the spiritual version of those, yeah, I'm into fitness. Fitness is a whole burger into my mouth. That's what I'm into. I'm that way.

So so what he's saying is we gotta be transformed. We gotta go. And that comes with connecting. So here's the bottom line. What I'm really trying to say on this, and sound all fancy and and and pleading with you, is I do this by connecting with Jesus daily. Through studying his word and prayer.

If you've grown up in church, basically this whole message is about you need to have a daily devotional. You need to have a quiet time. Meaning, the only time you're in the Bible can't be just when I'm reading it to you. It can't just be story time with Bill once a week.

As powerfully awesome and transformative as that is, with his amazing gifts, I can't carry you through the whole week, sorry. It's not gonna work.

And so that's really what it's about. He's saying, and that sounds so simple, and it sounds so easy. And many of you, I've heard this message a million times, And and here's where I think we we end up with a problem, just like with working out and all this other stuff. Here's where I think the problem comes from.

You hear it, but we do not connect discipline with direction. We don't connect the direction with the discipline. So I have this direction. Hey, I do want to worship God.

I I want to live the life he wants for me. I mean, if you're sitting here, you probably are. There's a few of you that are probably skeptical, but most of you it's like, hey, I'm I'm I'm there. And and so we have this direction we see. We know what God wants from us,

but the problem is we don't connect discipline to that. Or we dis or we disconnect direction from discipline. The Bible's really clear. You gotta connect direction and discipline together. The Bible talks about having discipline.

Being saved by absolute grace and God transforming us doesn't mean we don't have to have some discipline. You you you have to choose to sit in the presence of God. You have to choose to do certain things, and that's where he can transform you, and that takes discipline.

But we make the mistake of not putting them together. Do you realize where the word discipline comes from, root word? Disciple.

If you are a follower of Jesus that you're claiming to be a disciple, you can't have a disciple without discipline. And many of us fail on that part. We just don't. And here's what we tend to do. We make one of the two mistakes. We we we we do discipline without direction.

So some of us are the way, you know, I'll read the Bible studies, you do stuff, you know it, you like to get online, you look at stuff, you have all this stuff, but your life isn't changing. Or you do it for a while, and then you fade, because you know what? Discipline without direction is drudgery.

Discipline without direction is drudgery. So if you don't connect to the other side of it my wife's a great example. She always was athletic, would work out and stuff, but she just never really understood the why at the other just never embraced what it was for. She just did it, And it was always like it's like you just

see her like this? Oh, she must be going to work out. She hated it. But then at the other end, finally, somewhere along the line, a transition where she understood, I find how I feel. I know the other side. I know the good things.

Even though it's not pleasant to to sweat for forty five minutes, you like where it takes you. So now she walks out, I'm gonna go work out. And it's like, she's more disciplined. She's like, are you gonna work out today? I'm like, I'll get around to it after I fit this burger in my mouth.

See, if you have discipline but no direction, you don't really know. It just turns into drudgery. That's how many of are. You're like, that's why you need to see mind the gap, see the bigness of God. You need to see the love of God. You need to know that when I'm in the word, I'm preparing my heart to connect to God.

And when I understand that connection by seeing who he really is, it becomes something I get to do. Instead of how many of us Christians,

even the message I've talked so far, you've already started to feel the guilt train. You're on the you're on the guilt train, whoop whoop, pulling out of the station. I get it. I should read my bible more. Please don't hear what I'm at. That's not the intent of the sermon.

Because if that's what you take away, that means you are a person that has incredible discipline but has a hard time seeing the direction. Now many, many, many of us in this room have it the other way around. You see, direction without discipline is just daydreaming.

Direction without discipline is just daydreaming. If you've been a parent for more than ten seconds, you know what I'm talking about. You try to help someone. You try to help your kids like, hey, this is what I want do with life. Okay. Well, here's what you need to You need to go to school for this. You need okay. Well, I I don't want that. Well, if you wanna do this, this is what you have to do. Well, okay. I wanna be this. This what I wanna okay. Well, here's what you have to do. I don't wanna do that. If you're gonna do this, here's what you have to do. I don't wanna do that. My son, he he played baseball. He liked it because I think it was the sport that moved the slowest so you can talk the most. That's why I think he liked it. And he went off and he was like trying to play, and then he never would practice, never practice. And finally comes back to me like a couple weeks before the tryouts in his junior year and says, alright dad, I've decided I will be a pitcher now. They kept trying to make him a pitcher and he refused. They said, you can make varsity if you'll be a pitcher. You're left handed. I don't wanna be a pitcher. I quit. And then all of a sudden, right before he goes, I wanna do this. It's too late. I've been telling you, you have to practice.

If you wanna do this, this is what you gotta do. He goes, well, wanna do that, but I just don't wanna do all this stuff in between. Guys, and you know what? You you've seen it. You've seen it in your kids. You might have seen it in your own life, but that's what many of us do with our spiritual walk.

Our walk with God is 100% feeling based. When you're emotionally on a high, you're into it. The second you're not on the most high, you're done. That's why a lot of your attendance looks like this. Service. Oh, felt guilty. I'll serve. Oh, I got busy. I won't. Same with giving.

It's all these acts of worship that we get so erratic with because we're probably trying to fuel that out of just our emotion. There's no discipline of connection with God, which fuels our ability to be consistent. So we have this this this idea of where we want to be, but there's no discipline in between.

Can I give you a little bit of the direction of why, what the Bible, how it really does change our change us? So maybe you can learn to have more of a love of connecting with God instead of just making it a have to? Go further to the right in your Bibles. It's a book of second Timothy.

And in this passage in second Timothy, it's to a pastor named Timothy, a young man, and this is actually the last thing Paul ever wrote. The last thing God inspired the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this before he was put to death, And as he writes this to this young pastor,

he realizes this is he's done, and he's trying to pass on this legacy of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and especially what it means for him to be a leader.

And in chapter three, he starts saying, hey, there's gonna be dangers in these last days. And I think around us in our culture, it feels something like the same thing he's describing here. He says, there's gonna come times when people will surround themselves with teachers that say what they want to hear.

He's talking about even in churches. He's talking about people are gonna get where all they want to hear is, tell me what I already want to believe. And if they hear something they don't like, they walk away. Pretty much sounds like our culture.

We can insulate ourselves and hear what and here's the problem. We get that way with every other area. It affects us. So you come into church, and you start church shopping, which is a stupid term. And

what happens is, you have your list of here's what they better say, here's what it is, and you know what? That's a great list, as long as the list is 100% it biblical.

I want to find a church body that sticks to the truth. That's what he's saying. You need to be a preacher that sticks to the Word. Preach the Word no matter what, and there are gonna come a time when there's even believers that aren't gonna like what you have to say.

And he says you have to be faithful to it. Because here's the problem. What if you listen to the word of God being preached, and you like nine out of 10 things said? I will accept nine out of 10. But that tenth one, I'm not going there. Even if it is scriptural. You accepted 90%. Right? Make it 99 out of a 100.

99 out of a 100 things. But you say the one thing, you're like, nope, not going to accept that. That's not for me. Even with that 1%, what does that prove who's really in charge? Who's really the decision maker? Who is the authority in that situation? The word of God, or you? Alright. I want an answer. Which one? You are.

You are. If you sit there and say, I'll accept 9,900,

but that I'm not gonna go there. I'm not gonna believe God. I'm not gonna do that. You have made a huge you're thinking it's just one thing. It's just one thing. That's exactly what Satan got Adam and Eve to believe in the garden. You know what? God's holding out one thing on you. Everything else okay. Just do this one thing. The second you do the one thing you said, I'm God, and you're not, you've reversed the whole moment. You didn't mind the gap. You don't know what's going on, and you're just building your life on your own strength. You're trying to be a spiritual person in your own power.

You have not really surrendered to God. And that's what he's warning them about. He's warning them there's gonna come people, and you gotta preach the truth. This is one of my favorite passage I go to whenever I'm discouraged. Whenever I sit there, I try to sit there and I read through this. I pray through

second Timothy chapter three, So I don't fail you.

Because it is so easy to get poured into the mold of this world. It is so easy to be someone that likes to be liked. It's so easy for me say, well, I'm not going to lean into that because that might hurt someone's feelings. Little secret. I don't like throat punches.

They don't come natural to me.

But I want to do what the word says because I know what happens when you do. Because look, he goes down and and after he gets down to this, he says this in in verse 16.

Sixteen, seventeen. He says, all scripture, the word of God, is inspired by God and is useful. Here's the why. Here's the direction, guys. Here's why you want to be in the word. Not because God will be mad at you. Not that you'll get it's not so you can win an argument. He says, it is useful to teach us what is true.

See, the first thing the first thing he says is when we're in the word, it teaches truth. We live in a world that truth has become so subjective. And even in the church now, people are arguing, well, that's not really true. Have been in saw debates with people that are going to seminary,

and they're talking about all these and they quote more authors than scripture than I've ever seen in my entire life. I don't give a room about what this podcaster says. I don't care what that author says. I care about the author. What does God say?

And he says, and here's the problem. We get so caught up in this article, and that article, and this thing, and that thing, that we don't know what truth is anymore. The word of God gives you something solid.

This is absolute truth, and there's no way to dilly dally around. People won't argue, well, that's not really true anymore. Yes, it is. And here's the problem. You want to get all philosophical? If you tell me there's no such thing as absolute truth, you just contradicted what you just said. Think

about it. Some of you that think you're so smart. I'm not that smart. But I know that if I say there's absolutely no absolute truth, I just said something absolutely, didn't I? And now I'm wrong. So your declaration of no absolute truth just proved to me there is absolute truth. How do you like them apples?

Go figure that. You know where I learn stuff like that? Studying this.

So he says it's it's it's useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. There's the part we don't like. It's a mirror. The Bible says it's it's like a double edged sword. It cuts to your soul. And I think that point

a lot of you ladies, you can relate to, but I'm just gonna guys, I is one. I I think that's the number one excuse. Number one reason we make excuses to not read the word. Oh, we say we're busy. We say we're this. We say it's hard to guys, we are so we do not like to be wrong. We don't like to look weak.

And if you really do read the word of God and meditate, you're going to see that compared to God, how lacking we are. But if you would read it all the way through, you'd understand that when you throw up the white flag, that's when you get victory.

Because look, it doesn't just leave you there. It says it shows what's wrong with our lives, but it corrects us when we are wrong. It shows us the right way. It teaches us to do what is right. It shows us the way out. It fixes our problems.

And then verse 17, God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work. That verse is one of the reasons why many of us have a hard time being consistent in the word.

If I don't care about being equipped to do the good work of the Lord, all I want is my salvation. I want to feel good. I want to have some good music. I want to hear some good teaching. I want to be in the word and and learn all this stuff because you just wanna learn stuff. Do you think somehow knowing more information about God is what's making you spiritual?

But not understand that the direction that you're supposed to have discipline mind the direction here's the ultimate direction. The direction is God is equipping us to be what he made us to be. He's equipping us for his mission. So if I don't accept in my heart and in my life that I wasn't just made by God, but I was made for God, not for me, not for something else, not for what I wanna do, if I don't accept that, I'm always trying to manipulate God in my walk with God to get him to give me what I want, and I never get to what he wants. I never get to doing what he's asked me to do. I never be what he called me to do, and that's why I don't like reading the Bible.

Because it doesn't get you where you wanna go. But it gets us where we desperately need to go. You were built by God and for God, and he has a mission for you. And it'll equip you and prepare you, but if I don't accept that mission,

I don't see the need. Does that make sense? That's why I need to be reading. I need to be in the word. I need to and then the best thing is when you meditate on the word, you let it go through you, it'll change the way you pray. A lot of us, we can't get past the God, heal my uncle Fudd's infected toe kind of prayer.

It's just this list of to do things for God because we don't know what else to ask him about.

You spend time letting God's word go through you, it will change the way you pray. Trust me. It will. And I just need to spend that time. And you know what? Yeah. Chapter two. See, someone's getting in the word right now. That's awesome.

Here's an easy way to start. I want to get practical before we wrap this up. A simple way to start is we like to use a term around here, soap. If you use SOAP, you get clean. It's just pick a time every day, and simply SOAP means scripture. Read something in the Bible.

Now we have some great resources that can help you. So instead of like a lot of I need I need to know you, Lord. I need

if you keep yourself pure, you'll be special utensil for honorable use. Darn it. I didn't like that one. You know, and that's what we do. And the reality is Scriptures, we have a reason why, think there's a website they put on, it's on our website. We have a page where you can go to and get some devotionals.

They can help you, guide you. There's some good ones in there. They're simple ones, they go deep, but you can get some joy. Matter of fact, I'm super excited. You do not want to miss after this series, the next series we're starting, our Christmas series lead up, it's called Ugly Sweater.

You'll know why when we get there. Really, we're just going through the first three chapters of the book of John. And if you're new to church, you're new to this Christian, you're new to reading it, the book of John is one of best places to start. And here's what's really cool. I'll let you know a little secret.

We're gonna be in the book of John all the way till Easter. Now we're gonna call it different series when we get to different sections, but we're really just going to go straight to the book of John. And our adults pastor, Pastor Mark, he's great at writing. He's writing these devotionals

that in a prayer journal and stuff, just like what we did with Courage. We're going to have this thing to go through. And we're going to film some little short video text like we did before, devotionals that you knew. So if you've never gone straight through something, here's a chance for you to jump in with us on that.

And the reason we really did it, to make it super easy for you, is so you don't have any excuses, to be honest.

But the reality is we're going to do that because Scripture is where it starts. The O is observation. You've to spend time observing, figuring out what is it really saying, find out the meaning, get to the interpretation. But also observe to start to apply. That's the A. Start letting it observe you.

After you've seen what scripture says and means, you've got to transition. That's the thing that takes time. What does this mean for me? And that's where prayer comes in. What would happen if your prayers started to be actually more based on what God is speaking to you through his word about? So just start there. Simple.

Just do something. Just be in the word. Because here's the thing. Here's craziest thing. It says in that Psalms passage, and in Isaiah 40, that worship renews our strength. It says right here that the word of God is where we get wisdom. So it gives us wisdom and understanding. The will of God, Romans 12.

It says that prayer, all through scripture says, bring your prayers and petitions. When you're brokenhearted,

what David did in Psalms 42, prayer brings us peace of mind. Because we can talk to God about the truth of God through the love of God, and something about talking to him just kinda helps us get peace of mind. So we get strength, wisdom, and peace of mind when we spend time daily in the word of God and prayer. Get it?

Now let me ask you something. In your heart of hearts, some of you who know the Lord, in your heart, you know I ought to. But if you were honest right now and said, but here's what's always prevented me, it goes something like this. I know I should read the word of God. But man, I am worn out.

Life is kicking my butt right now. I got to work this job. I got this. I got kids. I got the spouse. I got that. I am tired. I don't know when I could do that.

And then on top of that, some of you are saying that and this or just this and and go, and you know what? I don't even know what to do with my life right now. I am in so much confusion. My my relationship's in a mess. This is a mess. I'm not even sure if I should keep this job. I don't even know what to do right now.

And the third thing you're saying is, and I'm about to go crazy. I just described if you're a stay at home mom, basically.

Think about that. I know I'll call my shot. I know that I just totally explained many of you. That's how you feel. I would love to do this. Worn out, don't have the time. Don't even know what I'm doing with what I got on my plate already, and I'm going crazy.

Worship renews my strength. The word gives me wisdom. Prayer gives me peace of mind. Could it be, don't shoot the messenger, that the very thing you're avoiding is actually the cure for your problem? Or as Martin Luther used to say, I have a crazy busy overfilled day today. I better pray for three hours instead of two. Guys,

the thing that you're avoiding the Bible for is exactly what God says, I will connect with you there. And you will get strength. You will get clarity and wisdom. And you will get peace of mind. And that's usually those three things is what's keeping us. Don't let the lies of the enemy say you're too busy.

You're not. You're too busy not to. You have to do this. Because it really is what you're building your life on. What are you building your life on? You know, one thing I got kind of sucked into, my wife and I started watching those like home flip shows.

When they when they fix them up and stuff. And at first I was like, don't want anything to do with this. I don't really care about shiplap and all that. Apparently that's going out now anyways. But You start watching these shows, and you know what it sucked me into? I did start to get sucked in. Because I am a sucker for a transformation story.

And I got sucked in when you see, like for me, when the house already looks kinda okay, I'm not as impressed. I like when I was like, man, did Scooby Doo actually just get done solving a mystery there? Those are the houses that you like to watch, because they turn it into something beautiful.

And I've also discovered I don't like the hour long ones. Too many details. Too much stuff. I want the half an hour one. If I have my DVR in eighteen minutes, I saw a dump go to something awesome. Eighteen minutes. It's it's great. But we'll watch these things and see these transformations,

and it's crazy. And one we just watched like last week, they went up to this old style house that they knew in the neighborhood. They go, man, this is beautiful. They got it so cheap. They're like, all we have to do is gut the inside, make it we're gonna make a bundle off this. And they started to fix it up, but then they walked into one room, and they noticed something was wrong with the floor.

And the guy goes, look at this. He walks over. He goes, this is janky. He goes to the other end, and it's like, I feel like I'm in a fun house. Like, I'm really tall on this end of the room, and really short on this end of the room. You know, it's like this weird weird fun house look. And so they started to investigate,

and they realized when they tore up the floorboards that the underneath

and have you ever seen the underneath of a floor of, like, below the foundational where the joist is or whatever it is that holds it all? I don't know the names. I just watch it. And and and and under there, it looks like it's just like this is this dirt pile. Looks like Jimmy Hoffa's probably buried down there or something. But you go under there, they tore it up, and they got down, and they saw what was holding up the actual

wood foundation of the the house. They had spots where instead of a solid rock built in thing, there was a pile of stones. Like like this big rocks, like four of them, and that's what this entire part of the house was leaning on. So it's like getting tilty and wobbly.

One place had something weird, one place it was all rotted out, and they're looking and they're like, oh, no. They were gonna put a beautiful house up top, but they knew they had to spend the money. It was gonna be really costly. They go, we have to redo this foundation.

Because they knew it doesn't matter what we put on top of this. It could look gory. You could just cover it back up, and no one will see. But what's eventually gonna happen? It's gonna fall apart. Jesus talked about that in one of the parables when he says, hey, what do you build your life on?

Two people can try to build a house. Same house, beautiful house. One build it on the solid rock, a firm foundation. One builds it on sand. What happens when the wobbly foundation gets hit with a storm? It falls apart.

It falls apart. It doesn't matter what you built on top, it matters what's underneath. Can I just ask you this question? You might be building the Christian life on top. Coming to church, serving, maybe even giving. You're you're doing these things. I'm not talking about you might be doing these things.

But what is the foundation of your life? What is the foundation? If if if you're too busy to have an appointment with the God of the universe that made you and loves you, what do you think is important in your life? What is important for you?

If the one who made you that is so far beyond you says, I want to meet with you and give you my wisdom, my truth, my love, and you say, don't have time? What does that say about what your foundation is? And could it be that some of us here, some of us here,

your foundation is only holding up because you have some rocks. You got this sermon. You got maybe next week. You had that one time you're praying for I opened my Bible last Tuesday. You you you have some rocks, but they're just pebbles. You're trying to hold up your whole Christian life on this really limited tiny little amount of foundation.

And that's what you're trying to balance everything on. It doesn't matter what else you do, whatever you build, no matter how beautiful it is, there's gonna come a storm. It's gonna wobble and fall apart, and then you're gonna be so crushed. And you're gonna ask like David asked, why am I so discouraged? Why am I so downtrodden?

What are you building your life on? Because the thing you gotta remember, the heart of the foundation if you do get into the word of God, is that he loves you. And the more you realize that, the more you can get into his word. He loves you.

He wants to show you his love. He wants you to be connected to a life that is built on that foundational truth. Or do you wanna wobble on a few pebbles? Do you want to build your life on the love of God? You can't worship the God you don't know.

So here's what I wanna do. I'm gonna give us a chance to have that moment like David. Because in a moment, he snapped out of it. And he realized, you know what? I can remember God. It's not about where I'm at in my life. It's about who God is. And so he says, I will remember him again. I will praise him again. I will choose to build my life on that again. And it doesn't matter where anything else is. I will build that foundation. Says, will you stand with me? Just stand with me right now. And

maybe you can sing these words, and this can be your prayer.

The simple question that I plead with you is will you? Is will you? Will you do what you're made to do, worship? And you can't worship a God you don't know. Because when you know this God, you know how much he loves you. And that will draw you to him. And you find the wonder of this God through his word. Will you?

Father God, thank you, Lord. Lord, it's simple. I just pray that myself included that would would have that discipline to spend that time with you and not get distracted. Cause it's so easy for us to just go our own way and get distracted. And Lord, I'm sorry when I do.

But Lord, I don't want to turn back to this just out of shame. But Lord, it's because I see that when I spend time with you, wow, all my other problems don't really matter that much. Because I see your wonder. I see your love. I see your grace. I see your wisdom. I see your power. I see your glory. So I pray that we would all

be blessed with the courage and the conviction to worship you as we know you. And I pray this all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.