Ron Dunn Podcast - What To Remember When You Can't Forget

Episode Date: August 4, 2021

Ron Dunn continues "The View From The Pit"

And all the words of encouragement. I thank your pastor and the staff for the way they've taken care of us. It's just been a delight to be here. And it's one of those times when you're grateful as never before that God has put you into this kind of ministry so that you get to meet these kind of folks. And so I want to thank you for it. Thank you the way that you've listened. I know there are different ways of evaluating churches. You can do it by size or by the facilities. I always do it by the way they listen. I think one of the great evidences of a real church is the way they hear the Word. When Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, he said that he knew they were the elect of God because of the way they received the word. And the fate of any spoken word lies with the listener.

You can be a good sower and have good seed, but the harvest depends upon the soil into which the seed falls. I remember when I was in seminary, I came to the time to take Hebrew and everybody said, oh, Hebrew's easy. And I struggled along there and I went to see the professor several times and he said, now you just stay with it and hang in there. And after a while, it'll just open up to you. It'll just open up to you. Well, it's been 20 something years. I'm still waiting for it to open up. Hebrew is Greek to me. And I just said, well, it's the teacher. If I just had a decent teacher, I could learn this stuff. And then I didn't know what to do when the fellow sitting next to me was learning it, you see. It wasn't the teacher, it was the student. And it's why I say it's important the way you listen. And the fate of any spoken word lies not so much with the way it is spoken,

but with the way it's received. It takes good listening to make good preaching. I know because I've had some mighty good sermons ruined by lousy listening. And so the sermon doesn't seem good tonight. It's just the way you're listening, folks. It's a great sermon. But I do appreciate the privilege of being with you and thank you for your warmth and your love. And I pray God will continue to bless you and your pastor and your church as you glorify him. I want you to open your Bibles tonight to the Old Testament,

to 1 Chronicles chapter 17 and to 2 Chronicles chapter 6. 1 Chronicles chapter 17 and 2 Chronicles chapter 6. 1 Chronicles chapter 17, we'll just read for now the first four verses. We'll come back to this chapter a little bit later, and then we'll read the first nine verses in 2 Chronicles chapter 6, the first in 1 Chronicles, the 17th chapter, verses 1 through 4. Now it came to pass, as David said in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in a house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains. Then Nathan said unto David, Do all that is in thine heart, for God is with thee. And it came to pass the same night that the word of God came to Nathan saying, go and tell David, my servant, thus saith the Lord, thou shall not build me a house to dwell in. And then in 2 Chronicles

chapter 6, in the first nine verses, now the temple that David had wanted to build has been built by Solomon and they're having what I guess could best be described as a dedication service and in the chapter 6 beginning with verse 1 we read then said Solomon the Lord has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness but I have built a house of habitation for thee and a place for thy dwelling forever. And the king turned his face and blessed the whole congregation of Israel, and all the congregation of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath with his hands fulfilled that which he spake with his mouth to my father David, saying, Since the day that I brought forth my people out of the land of Egypt, I chose no city among all the tribes of

Israel to build a house in, that my name might be there. Neither chose I any man to be a ruler over my people Israel. But I have chosen Jerusalem, that my name might be there, and I have chosen David to be over my people Israel. Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel. But the Lord said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well that it was in thine heart. Notwithstanding, thou shall not build a house, but thy son which shall come forth out of thy lawns, he shall build a house for my name. In the past couple of years, there's been a new game that has caught the fancy of the American people called trivialvial Pursuit. I'm sure most of

you, if not all of you, have been exposed to that. And it's quite an intriguing game, a simple game. And I was watching network news one night some months ago, and they were interviewing one of the creators of this game. And the game has just, I forget how many hundreds of millions of dollars it has produced in a very brief time. And for a while there, the stores couldn't keep it stocked because it was so popular and there was going to be a television show spinoff and all of that. And they were interviewing one of the creators and asking him how they came to create this game. And it just so happens that one night they were wanting to play, I think Scrabble it was, and couldn't find the game. So they decided to make up their own.

Forty-five minutes later, they had invented Trivial Pursuit. And so the reporter asked this man, to what do you attribute its amazing success? Why do you think people are buying it so rapidly? And I was surprised by the answer that the man gave. I would never have expected such a philosophical answer from the man. He said, they are simply buying memories, for that's all you can buy with your money is memories. They are simply buying memories. Now, I don't know if that's true or not, if that's why people are buying the game. But I was intrigued by that statement. All you can buy with your money is memories, and they are simply buying memories.

When I heard that statement, first thought that came to me was, I've got a few memories I'd like to sell. Matter of fact, I have some memories I'd be happy to give away free. And I imagine every one of us tonight could say the very same thing. There are memories I'd just love to sell. Memories I'd be happy to get rid of. Memories are a very funny thing, a very strange thing. It can bring joy to the heart or it can bring pain to the heart. I'm reminded of what Jesus told us in Luke chapter 16 of the story of the rich man in hell,

and he looked up and saw Abraham and Lazarus in his bosom and begged that Lazarus might come and just give him a drop of water to cool his tongue. And Abraham said, son, remember that in your lifetime you received good things and Lazarus evil things. And now he is comforted and thou are tormented. Son, remember. And I have an idea that the memory that that man had was more painful to him than whatever fires they may be in hell. Son, remember. I found myself lately doing something. I'm sure you've done it also. At some idle moment, my mind will head down a certain track, and I can anticipate where that path is going to lead. And if I allow my mind to keep on going down that road, it's going to end up at a very painful destination. And so I will deliberately do something to shift gears and to

get my mind heading in another direction. You've done that. I know where that's going to lead. There have been times when I've been watching television and a certain program will come on and I can tell at the very moment it's going to stir up some painful memories in my life and so I'll switch channels. I'd rather watch commercials. I have some memories that I'd be very happy to get rid of, wouldn't you? And I think that one of the things that sometimes slows us down in our spiritual maturity is the fact that all of us have memories. There are certain things we can't forget. It's amazing. There's something about fallen nature that finds it easy to forget the good things that happened to us and remember the bad things.

I don't remember a lot of the kindnesses that people have done for me, but I guarantee you I've never forgotten one bad act that was ever done towards me. I don't remember a lot of the compliments that I've received, but I've never forgotten a single insult. And if you want to make a lasting impression on me tonight, just come up after the service and say, preacher, that was a terrible sermon. And I promise you, I'll never forget you. I don't remember a lot of the good things that happened, but I've never forgotten a single bad thing that happened.

And I think the same thing is true with us spiritually and I'm convinced that one of the reasons that we fail to grow and mature spiritually is because there are memories in our lives of where we feel we've been unjustly dealt with and perhaps where God has not dealt with us fairly, some unanswered prayer, some unfulfilled desire, someone has wronged us. It may have been yesterday or 40 years ago, but it is as real as though it happened this morning. And we cling to that memory and it stifles our growth

and bitters our spirit and makes us cynical towards God and life in general. And I'm convinced that if we are to be what God wants us to be and grow as God wants us to grow, we're going to have to deal with some of these unpleasant and painful memories, the bitterness that they bring about, the cynicism that they cause us to have in our spirits. I want to talk to you tonight for these moments on the subject of what to remember when you can't forget. There are some things that we'll never be able to forget. You've tried to forget them. There've been unpleasant things, some tragedy, some disappointment,

some heartache in your life. And every time you kneel to pray or every time you try to do something positively, this memory comes back and you just can't forget it. It may be a person that has wronged you. And no matter how much good they have done since then, every time you see them, you don't see the good they're doing now. What you see is the one thing they did years and years ago that injured you or hurt your feelings. There's just some things we can't forget. I think David was this way, and this story that I've read to you tonight may sound sort of strange and peculiar, but I think it stands as one of the hallmarks of David's life because it represented

for him one of the great disappointments in his career. David is an old man now, and he's coming to the end of his life, end of his reign as king. And it says that one night he was sitting in his house, a house made of cedars, some palatial mansion. He was sitting there, and Nathan the prophet was there. And suddenly David says, you know, it's not right that I should live in a house of cedars and that God still lives in a tent. The ark of the covenant of the Lord, the presence of God was still dwelling in a temporary tent. He said it still is behind curtains. And it just doesn't seem right that I should live in such a beautiful mansion and God should dwell in a tent. What David wanted to do, of course, was to build God a temple. And Nathan said, do all that is in thine

heart, for God is with thee. And yet that night when Nathan returned to his own quarters, God came to him and said, Nathan, you must go back to David and say to him, thou shall not build me a house to dwell in. And over in 2 Chronicles, when Solomon is having that dedication, he says that God said, thou didst dwell that it was in thine heart. And those words are not just words, but they are a Hebrew expression indicating a fixed and earnest longing. In other words, this desire to build the temple was not some passing fancy. It wasn't just a spur of the moment idea that occurred to David, but rather it was something that he had a long time pondered.

It was an earnest and fixed determination. It was the longing of his heart. It would be the crowning act of his reign as king. I have an idea he built that temple every night in his sleep. It was something he wanted to do more than anything else. And yet at the end, God came to him and said, no, thou shall not build me a house to dwell in. Maybe God has said no to us in one way or another, and so I want us to examine this passage tonight, and there are just some things that I think we ought to remember when we can't forget some of the bad things. The first thing that I think is

obvious is we need to remember that a good idea is not necessarily a godly idea. A good idea is not necessarily a godly idea. Now, David had a good idea. I mean, he had a great idea. It was to build God a temple, a permanent dwelling place. Now, what could be wrong with that? I mean, his motive was right. It says that he wanted to build it for the name of the Lord God of Israel. That meant that David wanted to honor God. He wanted to erect an everlasting monument of his devotion to God, something that would bring honor and glory to God. And you couldn't question his motive. He had a right motive. Not only that, I think David felt that such a temple would unite the divided kingdoms. You remember the kingdom was still divided, Israel and Judah. And David somehow reasoned in his heart if there was a permanent dwelling place

where the Ark of the Covenant could be situated, that would bring together those divided kingdoms and reunite once again the kingdom. And anybody knows that whatever you do to bring together God's people has to be of God. Not only that, but he had what I would call prophetic sanctification on it. Nathan said it was a good idea. Nathan was the most, probably the most spiritual man in the kingdom at that time. You remember he was the prophet that pointed out David's sin and gained David's respect. And Nathan said, David, do all that is in thine heart. God is with thee. Now, I want to tell you something. Every once in a while, I'll get what I think is a good idea.

And there are times when I like to sort of bounce it off to somebody else, you know. I have some folks, friends that I think walk with God and I feel are spiritually sensitive and discerning, and I'll go to them and I say, I just want to tell you what I've been thinking about. I've had this idea, and I want to know what you think about it. And I pick very carefully the people that I share that with. I just don't go out on the street and grab the first person that comes along. I want to get somebody that's halfway spiritual. And so I say, now I've had this idea. Now, what do you think about it? And when those folks say, hey, man, that's a great idea. Boy, I mean, that is a great idea. That has to be of God. Go ahead and do it. God is certainly

with you. Well, you see, that sort of confirms it in my heart. And so David has this great idea to build this temple and he shares it with the most spiritual man he knows, Nathan the prophet. And Nathan says, my soul, that's a great idea. Do all that is in thine heart. God is with thee. That night when Nathan got back to his home, God said to him, and I'm sort of paraphrasing, he said, Nathan, you're shooting from the hip again, son. And you missed it on that one. You should have prayed about that a little bit. He said, you go back and tell David, thou shall not build me a house to dwell in. What I'm trying to say to you is this, a good idea is not necessarily a godly idea. You see, it's very difficult for us at times to discern the will of God because it's hard for us to be objective in discerning the will of God. And there are times when we enter

into a project or an enterprise or we have some vision, we have some idea, we say, man, this is so good, and all the motives seem to be right, and the results would seem to glorify God. This just has to be the will of God. I was in Atlanta not long ago, and a man came forward one night in the invitation and said, I'd like to give a word of testimony. And after the service or after the meeting was concluded, he stood up and gave his testimony. And this is basically what he said. He said, 17 years ago, my wife and I came into a large sum of money, a great deal of money. We'd never had money before. And he said, we've suddenly found ourselves with this large sum of money.

And so we thought, well, we want to use this in God's service. We want to use this to glorify God. And so we began to pray that God would help us to use this money to glorify Him. He said, not long after that, three men approached me. They were Christians, and they were putting together some Christian enterprise, some Christian project, and all they needed was money in order to make it go. And he said, this has to be of God. It seemed like a great idea. And after all, these men are Christians. And so he put every penny he had into that. And it turned out they were nothing more than con men. And he lost every penny he had. And he said, that was 17 years ago. And I was so bitter. I told my wife, I'm never

going to give God another penny. I'm never going back to church. And he said, tonight's the first time I've been in church in 17 years. You say, well, how do you explain that? I mean, how did that happen? Why did that happen? I don't know, folks. There are a lot of things that happen in life that I don't understand. I just know this God's bigger than my theology. And there are a lot of times when I think I've got God all figured out, and sure enough, I don't. All I can say is that sometimes when we think we have a good idea and a great idea, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a godly idea.

And I run into a lot of Christians who have gone off into some enterprise or they've gone off into this direction thinking this has to be of God, and God has suddenly closed the door and everything's falling apart. And what happens is we have a tendency to blame God for everything bad that happens. I had an occasion the other day to check up on our insurance papers, and we were redoing all our insurance, and I noticed the phrase, I'm sure you've noticed, on one of those policies, it said that this policy is not in effect in case of tornadoes and such of this and other acts of God. It's interesting that we always consider acts of God as acts of calamity or catastrophe.

I find people bitter because of some prayer for healing that God did not hear. I think one of the most difficult times to be objective is when one of your loved ones is sick and you pray that God would heal them. And my feeling is, why, if I were God, I'd heal my child. If I were God, I'd heal my wife. I'd heal my husband. Why, surely God's not going to let the innocent one like this suffer. And we pray just knowing, just believing that it's God's will that they be healed.

And yet they die. And what happens is often we get bitter in our hearts and we forget that a good idea is not necessarily a godly idea. Now, I want to remind you of one thing that David's failure did not mean God's failure. Now, here's the important thing. You see, the temple was finally built. It was built by Solomon. God wouldn't let David build the temple. And what we need to realize is that simply because we fail to accomplish some project or we fail to achieve some goal doesn't mean that God has failed. You remember why God wouldn't let David build the

temple? Anybody remember? He explained to him later on, he said, because you've got bloody hands. Now, I don't think there that God was referring to the fact that he had had Uriah murdered and committed his sin with Bathsheba. I think he was referring to the fact that David was a warrior king. David was a warrior king. That was his task. That was what God wanted him to do. But God said, when I have my temple built, it's not going to be built with bloody hands. It's going to be built with somebody else. What I'm saying is to battle, and there's some that God uses to build, but they're all used of God. God Himself sets our tasks and appoints us our jobs. We sometimes choose them, and we want to do it so badly, we feel like this has to be the will of God. And if we fail, we somehow feel like

God has failed. I remember about a year ago this time, I was in a meeting similar to this, and on the final night of the meeting, Wednesday night, I got sick. About four o'clock in the afternoon, I got sick, and I got sicker and sicker, and so I called the pastor about six o'clock, and I said, boy, I need a doctor, and so he came over. I needed a doctor, and the pastor came over at the motel, and he said, listen, you forget about the service. I'll take care of it. You're in no shape. I said, no, sir, I'm going to be there. I mean, after all, I was the preacher the last night, and they can't have a meeting without me. And I said, I'm going. And I got out of bed, and I started getting dressed. The next thing I knew, I was on my back on the floor looking up

at the ceiling. And I said, on second thought, preacher, you go ahead, and I don't think I'm going to make it. And so at seven o'clock when they started the meeting that night, I was in the hospital. Well, the next morning, the singer came to see me, saying how I was doing, and I was doing better. And I said, how was the service last night? He said, you know something, it's the best service we've had all week long. Best one we've had all week long. Best one we've had all week long. Moses may die, but God's got a Joshua waiting in the wings. Just because David fails to build the temple doesn't mean God fails.

And what we're going to have to understand, as I said again, simply because we have a good idea doesn't necessarily mean it's a godly idea. The second thing that I'd say to you is this, that what we need to remember when we can't forget is that God does not judge us by the achievements of our hands, but rather by the ambition of our hearts. God does not judge us by the achievements or the accomplishments of our hands, but rather by the ambition of our heart. I love that verse, the eighth verse in 2 Chronicles 6, where Solomon says that God came to David and said, you can't build my temple, but thou didst well that it was in thine heart. I like that. He said, David, you can't do what you wanted to do. You can't accomplish nor achieve

what you set out to do, but that's all right. Thou didst well that it was in thy heart. Now, as far as I know, God is the only master in the world who pays His servants as much for their intention as for their action. It's that way with sin, isn't it? Didn't Jesus say, thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you that if you have murder in your heart, if you have hate in your heart, you're already a murderer. It's that way with sin. It's that way with righteousness. I started preaching when I was 15. I surrendered to be the next Billy Graham, by the way. I really did. Billy Graham was at his height, I guess you'd say then. He still is as far as I'm concerned.

And I'd been seeing all of these things about Billy Graham. I'd been reading biographies of men like D.L. Moody and Billy Sundin. I just knew that God had called me to be the next Billy Graham. I knew that God called me to be that kind of evangelist, preached to thousands, hundreds of thousands of people. And after a few years, it dawned on me that God had not called me to be the next Billy Graham. So I decided I'd be the next W.A. Criswell. That's not bad for second best. And I thought, well, I'll be the next W.A. Criswell, and I'll be the next pastor of First Baptist Church Dallas. Well, I'm just about to give up on that. One thing, it looks like he's going to be there forever.

And the second thing is there's such a long line waiting. You know, I don't know. They say that every person writes two books. One he writes when he's a youth and he writes it with his dreams and aspirations and the second he writes as he grows up and that one he writes with his actual performance and any similarity between the two is purely coincidental i doubt if there's a person here tonight who's reached middle age that could say honestly i have achieved everything i wanted to achieve. I am the person tonight, spiritually, morally,

every which way, I am the person tonight that I dreamed I'd be when I was a child. You see, we all have ambitions. And when we don't achieve those ambitions, suddenly all this guilt comes upon us and we somehow feel that God's standard has been the standard we set for ourselves. And I want to remind you, friend, that God doesn't judge you by the accomplishments of your hand, but by the ambition of your hearts. And I may not be the preacher tonight. Well, I know I'm not the preacher tonight. I set out to be, and I'm not the the person i'm not as holy as i thought i'd be i'm not the christian i thought i'd be but i believe i could stand before god tonight and say lord i may not have accomplished nor achieved what i wanted to but you know it was in my heart to do it i remember one night some years ago i came downstairs and my

wife was sitting at the kitchen table weeping and uh I went over to her, and I said, honey, what in the world is the matter? And she said, oh, I'm such a failure as a mother. That was just when we'd started having trouble with our teenage son. We'd never experienced anything like that before, and she said, I'm such a failure as a mother. I said, I don't want to ever hear you say that again. I don't know what perfection is. And I know this, that if God requires perfection of a parent, we're all lost. And I say, we may have made some mistakes, and there's no doubt we have, but God doesn't judge us by our achievements. He judges us by the ambitions. And there's not a person here tonight that couldn't stand up and say, I feel like a failure in some area or ambitions. And there's not a person here tonight that couldn't stand up and

say, I feel like a failure in some area or another. And all of us will feel that way, but most of the time that's the accusation of the devil as he pounds into us our own inadequacy and inability. But I want you to know tonight, God doesn't judge you by what you've accomplished, but He judges you by what's in your heart. Is it in your heart? Is it in your heart? You say, I'm not the parent I wanted to be. Yes, but is it in your heart? Was it in your heart to be the best? You say, I'm not the husband. I'm not the wife I wanted to be. I'm not the preacher. I'm not the Christian I wanted to be. That doesn't matter. Is it in your heart? Can you stand before God tonight and with all honesty say Lord you know I failed but you

also know my heart it was in my heart and God said thou didst well that it was in thine heart one last word what to remember when we can't forget is this that when God says no it is not to deprive us of a blessing but rather it is to drive us to a greater blessing. When God says no to some request, to some desire, to some ambition or plan, he doesn't do it in order to deprive us of a blessing. He does it in order to drive us to a greater blessing. Someone was interviewing me about two years ago for some Christian publication. They said, preacher, could you put into one sentence what you hope people will get out of your ministry? Just sum it up into one sentence what you want folks to get

out of your ministry. I thought about that for a moment. I said, would you give me two sentences? They said, all right, two. I said, here's what I think I want more than anything else for people to get. And it's this, number one, God is faithful. I mean, you can trust Him. And the second thing is this, God is good. Even when it looks like He isn't, God is good. He says, I know my thoughts towards you that they are thoughts of peace and not of evil. Oh, if we could ever come to the place where we really understood and believe that God is only good to His people. That's all God ever is. You say, but you don't understand. You don't understand what God took from me. Listen, if God takes something from us with one hand, it's because

He's got something better in the other hand for us. The problem is that we don't always have the same standard of values that God has. And what we need to remember when God says no to us, denies us some little trinket that we have wanted. It's not simply because he's a capricious, hard-hearted God who's trying to see how mean he can be to us, but it's because he's trying to force us up into the greater blessings that He has for us. Number one, I think He wants us to have the blessing of remembrance. Now I want you to go back to that 17th chapter of 1 Chronicles, and we'll read a few verses for just a moment. I think one of the blessings that God constantly has to force us into is the blessing of remembrance.

Look at verse 7. Now God knows human nature. He knows that when He says no to us, we're going to start whining and whimpering about how mistreated we are. And so, He says to Nathan, now, Nathan, don't just say no to David. You're not going to build my temple, but I've got something else I want you to say to him. In verse 7, now, therefore, thus shalt thou say unto my servant David, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheep coat, from the pasture, even from following the sheep,

that thou shouldest be ruler over my people Israel. And I have been with thee whithersoever thou hast walked, and have cut off all thine enemies from before thee, and have made thee a name like the name of the great men that are in the earth. Now, you know what God is doing? He's saying, now, Nathan, when you go to David and tell him that I'm not going to let him build the temple before he starts puffing up in self-pity, you remind him where he was when I found him. He was in the pasture following the sheep. I mean, you know what that

means, don't you? Watch your step. I mean, he wasn't even leading the sheep. He was following the sheep, which is the worst place to be as far as I'm concerned. He said, you remind David before he starts swelling up with this feeling of injustice and accusing me of mistreating him. You remind him of where he was when I found him and what he was when I found him. And you remind him that I took him out of the pasture and I've been with him wheresoever he has walked. And I've cut off all of his enemies and I've given him a name like the great men of the earth. I tell you something, folks. There are times when I need to be reminded as spurgeon said

i need to be reminded of the pit from which i've been digged some years ago good night it must have been 20 years ago and they opened six flags over texas it's sort of like disneyland disney world and they've got them all over the place six flags over george and all of that well i was pastor there in the Dallas area, a little old small church. And when they opened Six Flags over Texas, of course, my kids wanted to go naturally. Now, I'll tell you something. I was born an old fogey. I don't like to do things.

I'm scared to death of a Ferris wheel. And I just don't care about that stuff. My wife is an eternal child. I mean, if I were to call her tonight and say, when I get home tomorrow, we're going straight to Six Flags, she'd be ready to go. I mean, that's the way she is. I've got three children, four. I've got three children and a wife. And I mean, she just likes to go. I mean, she's always ready to go. And so they opened that Six Flags place, and they kept after me. All four of them kept after me. Dad, we need to go to Six Flags. Let's go to Six Flags. Well, man, for the

five of us, it cost us about $100 to get in. You know, that's a lot of money 20 years ago. It's still a good little bit. And I thought, boy, $100 to get in, and I don't want to go. I don't like to go or anything. But I got to feeling guilty, you know. And so I said, well, I ought to go and spend some quality time with my kids. That's the buzzword today, you know, quality time. It's not how much time you spend, but quality. I need to spend some quality time with my kids. And so finally, I gave in and said, all right, we'll go six by eight. Made a mistake that went on Saturday in August, and half of the civilized world is there on saturday thing opens at 10 a.m in the morning and closes at 12 midnight nothing to do of course but

they had to be there right when the thing opened you pay i don't know how many dollars for parking then you have to pay a hundred dollars for the five of us to get in you know and they stamped it a little hand with an invisible mark of the beast. And everybody's there. I hate the place. I hate the place. I really do. You know, you stand in line for two hours to get on a 30-second ride. Have you ever noticed that? And I'd start looking for short lines, and I'd see a short line over there. I don't care what it is. I'd say, well, it's a short line over there. But you realize they've deceived you because it's a serpentine line. You know, they're doubled back and forth and they got it under a shed where you can't see it. And I think, well, there's just a few people there. You get inside and there's 5,000 folks in front of you

waiting. And we rode that log, what is that log thing? And my kids knew what would happen. So they put me in the front and so I mean I was soaking wet and I was so tired and it was on a Saturday and we had an 8 15 service on Sunday morning and I had to get up at 5 a.m. and you know get right and prepare and get ready and all that boy it's a terrible time to come on Saturday. I was so tired. I was so weary. And my mind was preoccupied. And I couldn't forget about that $100. Boy, and it's more than that.

You know, when you keep somebody out there all day, you've got to feed them. And about 6 o'clock, I said to my kids, Hey, kids, y'all ready to go? They said, No, Dad. This place is open until midnight midnight we've got six more hours and well there we were six more hours till midnight 14 hours we watched the fireworks go off and finally when they said it was over we left of course getting out is another matter i mean you get in the parking lot and you sit there and sit there and then when you get to

the exit you're in the wrong lane if you notice that you know you want to turn left and you're in the right hand lane we get back on the highway about 1 a.m I am so tired I am so worn out I think going four hours I've got to get up and I've got to get ready to preach I spent over a hundred dollars today out there. But it was quality time with my kids, you know. I mean, it's quality time with my kids. And so I was driving down the highway back home, and kids were in the back seat to sleep. My wife had gone to sleep immediately too over there. I was driving along, you know. And all of a sudden, from the back seat, I hear this little sobbing. Well, I don't pay any attention to it.

I just feel like it's the 18th hot dog finally hitting home, you know, in one of those kids. I don't pay any attention to it. And so I'm driving along. After a while, you know how children are. They turn up the volume when they don't catch your attention. They know what they're doing. And it gets a little bit louder. So I stay over my shoulder.

What's the matter? And from the back seat comes this little sob. I didn't get a balloon. Well, what, what'd you say? And this little sow, i didn't get a balloon now folks i'm ashamed to admit it but that was it i just i came apart i mean i just i just went. Blame it on the devil or blame it on weariness or whatever you want to blame it on. I just went to pieces. I pulled that car off the side of the road.

Oh, I was so angry. I pushed that gear into park. I spun around in that seat. I said, what did you say? And there are my little children huddled up in the back seat boy they know they know something's wrong they don't say a word don't say a word and they're drying eyes you know like yes you know i was saying a word i said what did you say and uh said we didn't get a balloon see when we first had entered the park they were selling these little 25 cent balloons they wanted one then i said we'll wait until we leave and then you won't have to carry it all day long i thought i can you know they'll forget and i'll save a quarter and and I started in on them. I said, I want to tell you kids something. I said, I've spent 14 hours. I've spent my whole day, all day Saturday out there. I've got to get up in five hours,

four hours and get ready to preach. I spent over a hundred dollars out there. Said, we've ridden the log roll. I'm soaking wet. We've ridden the tilter whirl. We've ridden this. And I said, I haven't heard one thank you from one of you. I hadn't heard a single thank you. About that time, my wife woke up and asked, what in the world's happening? And I said, by the way, I hadn't heard you say thank you either. Boy, I've told you I was, I'd had it. She leaned over and patted me on the legs and said, now, honey, just settle down, just settle down. I'm tired. But you know, I've been out there with those kids for 14 hours. I'd given up my Saturday to spend over a hundred

dollars. I'd spent quality time with those kids. And isn't it something? We got back in the car, there wasn't one thank you. Gee, dad, thanks for giving up your Saturday to be with us. Gee, dad, Quality time with those kids. And isn't it something? We got back in the car. There wasn't one thank you. Gee, Dad, thanks for giving up your Saturday to be with us. Gee, Dad, thank you for taking us. Boy, we had fun. Man, we had fun. No, the only thing they said was, we didn't get a balloon. I cooled off, got back on the road.

My wife said, hon, they're just children. That's the way they are. And there have been many a time when I have shaken my fist in the face of God and said, Lord, I didn't get a balloon. And God's had to remind me of all the things that he's given me. And I've spent a great deal of my life crying over some little balloon I didn't get when I've forgotten all the good things God's given me. And there are times when he has to force us to the blessing of remembrance.

Where would you be tonight if it weren't for the grace of God? Where were you when God found you? Where would you be now God hadn't found you? One more word. I think he tries to drive us to the blessing of reassurance. He goes on and he says, I will build my house and I'll make of thee a name. And he says, out of thy lawns shall come, son. You see, David's idea was this. And this is so often we think like this. David said, what is the greatest thing I can do for God?

How can I leave behind a monument that the world will never forget? There'll be an everlasting memorial of my devotion to God. He said, a temple, a magnificent temple, that's the best thing. Well, you know there were three temples built, Solomon's Temple, and never has there been a temple like it. It was destroyed. And then there was Zerubbabel's Temple, and it was destroyed. And then the last temple was Herod's Temple and destroyed in 70 A.D. And if you were to go to that place today, you know what you'd find on that temple site?

Moslem Mosque. So much for everlasting monuments to God. You see, David said, the best thing I can leave behind is a temple. God said, no, there's something else better than that you can leave behind. And it's called, well, one of them is called the book of Psalms. And there isn't a dotting of the I or crossing of the T that's passed away from that. And we're still blessed by it tonight. And by the way, he left behind something else, didn't he? I think it was called the seed of David, the Messiah. Now, God's blessed me.

You know, I'm amazed. John said he came from Turkey, Texas. I was born in Poto, Oklahoma. That's not as bad as Turkey, Texas, really. I know, I'm amazed how God, how good God's been to me. Folks, he's given me every desire of my heart.

If God were to give me a pencil and paper tonight and say, write down what you want on it, I don't know what I could write down that I haven't already received, God hadn't already blessed. One thing I can think of that would make me happier than I am, I've got a son that's in seminary, and like every parent, I'm happy for him, proud of him. You know, there's only one thing I can think of tonight that I'd wish, and that's this,

that God would honor him. I'd rather have God honor him than God honor me. Isn't that the way all parents are? Isn't that what we want? We want to see them succeed even more than we do, to be blessed even more than we're blessed. And if God were to say to me tonight, I'll give you this honor, I'll save it and reserve it for your son, whichever one make you happy.

I'm honest. God knows my heart. You know the same thing that I would say, I'd rather see my son honored. There's no greater thrill. See your son or your daughter succeed even more than you. And this is what God is saying to David. He said, David, you can't do it, but your son Solomon will do it. I think that must have meant more to him than anything, especially after Absalom, don't you imagine? And God drives us to the blessing of reassurance.

He said, I want to build you a house. That's what he says. You go ahead and read it. He said, David, your trouble is you're trying to build me a house, and I want to build you a house. That's what he says. You go ahead and read it. He said, David, your trouble is you're trying to build me a house, and I want to build you a house. So what you need to remember when you can't forget is that when God says no, it isn't because he wants to deprive you of something, because he has something better he wants to give you. I wonder tonight if some of us haven't grown bitter because of memories.

Somebody injured us. Somebody did us wrong. Someone offended us. And even when we try to pray, our prayers are strangled in our throat because of the memory. Maybe we're still whining tonight over some little balloon that God didn't give us. And we need to be reminded of all the things God has given us. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church.

If you would like to listen to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondon.com.