The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 1: Glory of God

Episode Date: September 25, 2022

The next thing I should do is the most God-glorifying thing I can do.

Well, church, you know what today is? It's kind of a big day. You don't know what today is? Today's your 10th birthday as a church. How about that? We used to say we were like a big giant-headed toddler, just like falling all over the place, but we're sort of like that awkward preteen now.

So in 1st Corinthians 1, 31, it says, Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. And so I asked for a few statistics of things that have happened over the last 10 years. So I thought I'd just share a few. few of them. We've had 2,392 sermons preached. If you total them all up, which means you've sat under, hold on, this is better. You've sat under 133,000 minutes of preaching. Some of you all don't have any excuse. None. Zero. We've done 341 weddings, 323 baby dedications. We have no idea how many

babies have been born, especially since we brought St. John's campus on. That group loves to make babies down there in St. John's County. Check this out. We have trained almost 200 people in our school of ministry. We have sent 467, long-term missionaries to 19 countries, 467 church plants in 31 countries and sent 2,263 people on short-term trips to 16 countries. How about that? The clock is ticking on your three years for some of you. So happy birthday. You've been forewarned.

But listen, all of that is for the one name and the one fame and the one renown of Jesus Christ. Amen? That is not our brand. That is not our name. We want to make much of the name of Jesus. So if you've got a Bible, turn to 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10, that's in the New Testament of the Bible.

And it was about, gosh, almost seven years ago, I was here at 1122. I was actually planting a church south of here, about 45 minutes south of here, and 1122 had partnered with us in planting, and there was a service on a Thursday night where we were highlighting church planting, and so a video had been made,

and I was asked to come, on it and got done with that on Thursday night, and it was probably nine o'clock at night, and Pastor Jobby and I went over to Ale House, which is what you do after the Thursday night service, and ate dinner, and we probably didn't get done with dinner until midnight or one in the morning, I have no idea. And we walk out in the parking lot,

and we just kind of, we're talking about church planting, and we'd said, what would it look like if our two churches partnered together, and we thought we could plant, be a part of planting, a thousand churches all over the world. We were like, yeah, let's do that. And so we fist bump and then get in our cars and drive home. We just thought that was going to be two churches

partnering together to do this thing. But what that kicked off for me was about the next six months of really agonizing over. Lord, what do you want me to do next? Somehow that conversation turned into some other conversations, turned into some other conversations that became this invitation.

to hey Adam, what would it look like if you came to 1122, oversaw kind of everything that we do globally and church planting, helped out with some of the preaching and teaching. And I'm telling you, I really had to get down on my knees and ask God, God, is this what you want me to do next? Do you want me to stay here? Do you want me to go there? What do you want me to do next?

And we've all been there, haven't we? Like in little ways or big ways? I mean, just this past week, I was with two of our long-term missionaries. They were in town. Some things have changed in their context, and they're committed to stay in there. But they're asking God, God, what do you want us to do next in light of these things that have changed? Or I was just out of the country with probably about a dozen of our church planners, meeting with them, seeing where they're planting, coaching, all of that.

And every single one of them without fail is asking, Lord, what's the next thing you've got for our church? what's the next thing you've got for our family? And every single one of us have asked that question or are asking that question. I bet right now you could write down, here's the thing I'm trying to figure out in my life. Here's the thing I'm trying to figure out what to do next. I don't know how scientists know this,

but scientists have figured out that on average we make about 35,000 decisions a day. Think about that's a decision every, other second of your life. I mean, no wonder you're worn out. But some of them are totally unconscious, right? Just, like, you don't decide when to blink. You just blink, or last night I'm driving home, and all of a sudden I'm at a stoplight, and I hear just the screeching of a car coming, like, laid on their brakes, and I thought, and I just instinctively jerked the wheel to the left because I'm here, and I didn't make that decision. I just unconsciously did that. Well, we've got little

decisions like what to eat or what to drink or what to watch on TV. Bigger decisions like, you know, what job do I take, what car or really, like really big decisions. Do I marry her? Do I marry him? Really godly decisions, like big enormous decisions. Like it doesn't matter if the Gators lost to Tennessee. I'm still going to follow the best team in the country, right? No? Come on. somebody's got a cheer for the gators on this staff. No, it's true. But have you ever thought, like really thought about why you make the decisions that you make?

Like when you start to make a decision, are you kind of the gut check person? Like, I just go with my gut. Whatever feels good, kind of whatever happens, that's what I do. Or maybe you're the pros and cons list person. You know, you're out there. on Yelp and Amazon doing all the reviews you can do.

Or you're the person that looks around and is like, okay, what's everybody else doing? I'm going to jump on that trend or that bandwagon, or I'm going to go there, I'm going to do that. Maybe you just are like, I refuse to make decisions. That's Kristen, whenever we go to dinner, I'm like, where you want to go? She's like, nope, nope. You don't want to go dinner?

No, I'm not deciding where we go to dinner. And so we're starting this new series called The Next Thing. And the question is, Lord, what's the next thing that you have for me? What's the next thing that you want me to do? And as I thought about it, I thought, what perfect timing after we come off saturated to have a series for the next three weeks that we sit and think about, Lord, what do you, we just have this incredible month of fasting and praying and worship. and singing and preaching.

It was this incredibly intense, at least the week. And now, Lord, what do you want me to do in light of that? Like, you can't just come and be a part of something like that and then just leave it back there like it just happened. It's going to have ripple effects out into all of our lives. So the question is, Lord, what do you want to do with that thing? and if you're a follower of Jesus, you're not just making decisions.

You know that, right? You're not just picking what's easy or what's comfortable or what's most profitable. That's not what you're doing when you're asking, Lord, what is the next thing that you want me to do or you're facing a choice in your life? What you're really asking is, Lord, help me discern where is you're leading me

into your future. What do you have for me in all of this? Now listen, this is a really, really important thing. It's vitally important because the scripture tells us to be discerning people. Glacentzion's 5 says, walk in the spirit. It's not an optional, it's a command.

Paul praised in Philippians 1, and he says, I pray that your love may abound. with all knowledge and discernment. And so scripture tells us this is important. And this is important because there's a huge difference between an idea coming from you, coming from your history, your past, your culture,

your sin, Satan, or the Holy Spirit. Think about it. That little voice inside my brain, who's speaking to me? Is that just me talking to me? It might be. Or maybe it's my history. Maybe it's the way I was brought up.

Maybe the family I grew up in. And I'm hearing those things or feeling turned a certain way. And what's really pointing me that direction is my history or my past. Or our culture that we live in right now. You're fooling yourself. If you don't understand that this culture is a feeling. and directing the way that we live in our lives. And there's a difference between that, those things.

And the sin that we commit, it plays out in our life, and it leads somewhere in our life. And we have an enemy that prowls around like a roaring lying, looking for someone to destroy. He steals, he kills, he lies. And there's the Holy Spirit. and what we're asking is, Lord, we want to see where the spirit is leading us next. And it's important to understand the difference in those things. John writes in 1 John 4, he says, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, meaning there's a bunch of spirits out there, your spirit,

the spirit of Satan, the spirit of sin, the spirit of the Holy Spirit. and sometimes those things look really, really similar. And so what he's saying is, you need to test those things, not test God, but test and see whether this thing is from God or not. And this is really important because your life, my life, other people's lives are deeply, deeply affected by the choices that we make. Right? I mean, when you think about it, being wrong can leave,

to temptation, to sin, to folly, to just pure stupidity. Being right could lead to joy and fulfillment and purpose. And those things really matter. And it's really important because our heart and our feelings are not always accurate. Jeremiah 17.9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things. which means that telling somebody to follow their heart is about as good advice as writing in somebody's yearbook, don't ever go changing. Do you remember that? Do you really want to forever be the 14-year-old pimple-faced kid? No. And telling someone, you should follow your heart.

What you're telling them is you should follow the thing that is going to deceive you above everything else. and this becomes really, really important because of that. And it isn't always a matter of right or wrong. Sometimes we're over here trying to make choices and face it with decisions that all kind of go in the right bucket. You know what I mean? And so you're trying to figure out God, it doesn't look like one of them's wrong and one of them's right, one of them's sinful, one of them's holy. It all kind of falls over here in the right bucket. So what do I do with that?

And then there's this whole thing about, the third commandment. Third commandment is don't take the Lord's name in vain. And I think we think a lot about that is like putting a curse word after the name of God. I don't think that's what it primarily is about. What I think that is about is God saying, don't apply my name to a thing that's not me. And so when we go to make decisions, what we're doing and we say God told me or God is leading me, we're treading, right up on the edge of how we use God's name. And so this becomes really, really important. And if we're honest, it's hard.

It's just hard. Isn't it? I mean, think about it. It's hard because Jesus isn't physically right here with you. Have you ever thought? Man, this decision sure would be easier if Jesus was just sitting right here next to me and he'd just tell me, hey, Adam, you should say this.

The only problem with that is Jesus said it's better that I go away and send you the spirit. Now, Pastor Jobb, he's going to talk about this in a few weeks. There's a story in John chapter 2. It's the wedding at Cana, and there's this huge wedding and Jesus is there and his mom is there. All our friends are there. And they run out of wine, which is a big problem, Baptist. And Mary, his mom, Jesus' mom, looks around at the people that are working at the party and she says to them, do whatever he, Jesus tells them.

do whatever He, Jesus tells you to do. Now, if I stand up here and I tell you, hey, do whatever Jesus tells you to do, that's easy for them because they had Jesus literally saying, go fill up the buckets, I'm going to turn that water into wine. The problem is Jesus isn't here to do that for us. And so it becomes just hard to do it. And I think it's hard too because we can care more about knowing God's will sometimes than in God himself.

That we can actually turn God's will into an idol. And if we're honest, sometimes what we're thinking is, Lord, you're great, but what I really need is for you to show me what you're going to do for me next, and we care more about what God is going to provide for us than God himself. And we turn God into a genie, and if we rub them the right way,

he's going to give us exactly what we want. And it's hard because we're sinful and God is perfect. I mean, we just sang about it in the song, Holy, holy, holy, perfect in power. Think about that. We're dealing, Isaiah says, we're dealing with an infinite God whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways and we are not his counselor. And so there's a thing where there's a gap between us because God is perfect. and we're sinful, and we just have to approach it with a little bit of humility and say,

God, there might be a problem with my discerning because of my sinfulness. There's not a problem with his revealing. He's perfect. If you even take sin out of the equation, you're just dealing with an infinite God and a finite human being. And so we have to, again, it's just hard, and we have to approach it with some humility. and we live in a culture that is increasingly hyper individualistic. It is really, really hard to discern where God is leading when I become the captain of my own ship and I get to decide everything in my life and I'm sort of autonomous. That makes it really hard.

And we live in a culture that is morally, increasingly more, morally relativistic. You know how hard it is to follow God if you don't believe there is an ultimate authority and there is a capital T truth? That's really hard to do. And we live in a culture that is increasingly situationally motivated.

Meaning most of us are thinking just what's the next, just what's going to be best next? what's going to make me most comfortable? And we're thinking about that. We're not thinking down the road. Now, when we start to think about following God and saying, here's where God is leading me next, there's kind of two ways I hear all the time from people

when they give a reason why they're doing the next thing that they're doing. And they're not wrong. We just have to be careful because they're not definitive. They're not final. The first one is, I call it open door, closed door. Have you ever thought or heard?

or said yourself, will the Lord open the door? Therefore, if you don't say amen, you can go, ooh, ouch, it's fine. Right? You thought, well, because it's available to me, God has made this thing available to me, it must be the next thing he's doing. The problem is availability doesn't equal God's leading all the time in our lives. Think about it. You have a computer. You open up your computer and a little pop-up window comes up and it is an open doorway, an open window into pornography. I'm telling you that availability is not an invitation from God into that thing. Satan takes Jesus up on the mountain right before he starts his public ministry and he says, all this can be yours. Here, here, look, here's an invitation, here's an open door for you to have all this

stuff. And just because it's an invitation didn't mean it was God's leading for the next thing for Jesus to do. Same is true about a closed door. Just because it's hard, just because you don't think there's a way doesn't mean that God isn't in it. Right? Think about the guys that they got their paralytic friend and they show up at this house and Jesus is teaching there. And it's, The door's literally closed. It's full of people. They can't get in. And what do they go?

Well, it must not be God's will for us. Let's go home. Sorry, Carl. No, they grab them, drag them up on the roof, rip the roof open, and drop them down in front of Jesus. The other one is, this must be what God wants, because I feel at peace. I got a peaceful, easy feeling about this.

Oh, good for you. The only problem with that is the Garden of Gassimony. on the last night of Jesus' life, right? He's in the Garden of Gassimony, and he's praying, Lord, not my will, but your will be done, and he's about to be led to the cross, and can we all agree Jesus is doing

exactly what the Father wants him to do? He is doing the next thing that God wants him to do, and at that moment, he is sweating drops of blood, the capillaries in his skin are bursting open. He does not have a peaceful, easy feeling, I promise you. And yet he is squarely in the will of God. The word peace, it means like a feeling, like a calm, but primarily it means to be in a right relationship, to not be at war. And so the question we should be asking is, not do I feel comfortable about this, or not do I

feel an absence of anxiety about this thing, but the question we should be asking is, Lord, are you and I right right now? Are you and I good on this thing? So with all of that, now that you're thoroughly like, uh-oh, I really don't know what to do now. Look at 1 Corinthians 10, 23. Big long 20-minute wind up.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 23. This is Paul writing to the church at Corinth that he had planted, spent about a year and a half, and then he has since left. And the town of Corinth is a jacked-up place, okay? It is messed up as a town, and the church is starting to feel all of these divisions and questions and confusion about what we should drink and what we should eat and who should we should associate with and all that sort of stuff.

And Paul writes this, verse 23, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. all things are lawful but not all things build up let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor now when paul twice he writes that twice he writes all things are lawful he's not telling them all things are lawful he's grabbing a saying out of culture okay it's like yolo you only live once he's not saying you should say that he's just saying everybody's saying that maybe they are i don't know i'm old maybe that's done. I can ask my daughter later. Cool went away a long time ago. Why are you laughing? I've heard of brother's feelings. But he says, you say, all things are lawful, meaning the Corinthians are saying, listen, it's fine, we can do whatever we want. It's all been, it's all been

legalized. It's fine. We can do it. All things are lawful. And Paul says, yeah, but are they helpful? He says, all things are lawful? Yeah, but do they, do they, do they, do they, build up? Like, great that you're free for freedom, Christ has set you free, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. Right? He says, let no one seek his own good. Like, don't be self-centered, but seek the good of his neighbor. Be other-centered. And then he's going to give kind of three situations around food. So here's what he says. Verse 25, eat whatever is sold in the meat market. Now, that sounds simple.

The only problem is the situation behind that is that in these pagan temples, they were sacrificing animals and using them in pagan rituals, and then when the meat was left over, they'd take them over to the meat market and they'd sell it. And so people are like,

are we allowed to eat meat that's been sacrificed to idols and then sold in the meat market? Paul says, eat whatever sold in the meat market. Without raising any question on the ground of conscience. for, and then he quotes, the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He's quoting Psalm, and Deuteronomy, and Exodus and Job.

He's quoting, this shows up about six times in the Old Testament. And what he's saying is, listen, okay, so somebody killed it for some purposes, and then they hung the meat in the meat market, and you bought it. Go ahead, it's fine, eat it. God made the meat. It's okay. You're free. Eat it.

Go ahead. Then he gives a second situation. He says, if one of the unbelievers invites you to dinner and you're disposed to go, eat whatever he sets before you without raising any question on the ground of conscience. So he says, okay, first situation, go ahead, buy it in the meat market. Second one, you show up at your friend's house. They don't believe in Jesus and they serve this dinner with meat and everything else there and they don't say anything about it.

Go ahead. Eat it. eat whatever is set before you. And it's so funny when he says that, it's almost the exact same phrase that Jesus uses in Luke chapter 10, verse 8, when he sends the disciples out, the 72 out two by two. And he says, go into towns and we show up

at somebody's house. If they put something in front of you, he says, eat whatever is set before you. And so Paul is just echoing Jesus's words. And then he gives a third situation. But if someone says to you, this has been offered in sacrifice, then do not eat it. Okay, so you're at dinner with them, and they just sort of serve it and don't say anything,

go ahead. But then if they tell you, hey, this steak, yeah, we sort of sacrificed it to the God pan. Paul would be like, don't eat that. But listen to why he says, don't eat it. Don't eat it for the sake of the one who informed you. and for the sake of conscience. That's the third time he's brought up conscience, and you're thinking, okay, I'm not going to eat it for their sake,

and I'm not going to eat it so I violate my conscience, but then Paul says this, I don't mean your conscience, but his. So what Paul is saying is he's saying, listen, there is a time to act counterculturally. It's actually a better strategy evangelistically for you to act counterculturally, than it is for you to look like everybody else in the world, because you're never going to change the world

by acting just like everybody else does in the world. Then he raises this question. It's as if he's anticipating what the readers are going to ask him. So, so for why should my liberty be determined by someone else's conscience? If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of that for which I give thanks? Great question. Why does somebody else's conscience,

why does somebody else's disbelief or unbelief get to determine what I eat and don't eat if everything God has made is really, really good? Skip down to 32. We'll come back to verse 31. Give no offense to the Jews or to Greeks or to the Church of God. just as I try to please everyone and everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.

Paul's saying, listen, you're free to do whatever you want. However, the bigger question is not, can I do this and it makes me happy. The bigger question is, is this going to lead somebody to put their faith in their trust in Jesus or not? Now, if you take all of that and you go, okay, is it helpful, does it build up? Is it good? Is it loving? Okay, now I've got to think about all the different situations about my life, this context, that context, these people, that people, okay, am I acting counterculturally appropriately? Or am I just being a weirdo? And is this going to lead people to be saved and all of that? And then I love this. This is why I wanted to skip verse 31 and come back to it. It's like Paul puts a summary statement. right in the middle. He says, okay, take all of that. Basically, take all your notes,

scratch them out, and then remember this one thing. So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do you know what falls into whatever category? Whatever. It doesn't matter. Whatever you do, wherever you're going to go to lunch today, whether you decide to mow the yard or watch a football game or go on a walk or whatever whatever

go shopping it doesn't matter whether you what so whether you eat or drink whatever you do do it all not some not just the big things like all of it even the little teeny things boil it all down here's the thing so whether you eat or drink whatever you do do it all to the glory of God. That's his thing. And Paul writes this all over the New Testament. It shows up all over the place. He's constantly saying, whatever you do, in word or deep, do it all.

Give thanks to God. Give glory to God, whatever you're doing. So the question is, what's the glory of God? That's going to become the standard upon which that's going to become the one thing we're going to think about in our decision making, what is the glory of God? The glory of God, the word literally means weight. It's like the weightiness of all of God's attributes. It's the perfection of all of who God is. It's all of God's all knowing, his all loving, his all present. It's all of everything that makes smoke come out of our ears when we think about God. It is the greatest thing

there is. There is nothing higher, nothing better, nothing greater than the glory of God. The glory of God is the manifest presence of God's holiness. It's all of God's holiness on display for all

the earth. That song that we just sang, holy, holy, holy, coming out of Isaiah 6.3 that says, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. the whole earth is full of his glory. Why is the earth full of his glory? Because God is holy, holy, holy.

The glory of God is the perfect holiness of God on display across the earth. And the glory of God is power beyond measure. Last week when we were talking about baptism in the message, In Romans 6th, 4, we read this, and it was sort of, we just kind of went over it, but it caught my mind, and I went, yes, that's it. Romans 6.4 says, Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. Think about that. It's the perfection of all of who God is.

Christ is raised from the dead by the glory of God. If you go to Revelation in Revelation 21-23, this is drawing a picture of the eternity and what the new heaven and the new earth is going to be like. And he says the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it its light. The thing that is going to keep eternity rolling into eternity is the glory of God. We're talking about resurrection, eternity, power. That is the glory of God. And so here's why the glory of God gets to be the determining factor in our lives. There's nothing greater than the glory of God.

So give yourself to the greatest thing you can in everything that you can. There's nothing better. There's nothing greater. So aim at the greatest thing there is. Why aim your life at anything less? We do it because this is what Jesus was all about. Jesus repeatedly was saying, Father, be glorified in me.

And so let's make our lives be about the thing that our Lord is about. Here's a warning. In John 854, Jesus says this. This is Jesus speaking. He says, if I glorify myself, Now, if there's ever a person on the planet that could glorify himself, it would be Jesus, right? Okay, Jesus says, if I glorify myself, I am nothing.

Don't, don't aim your life at something, namely your glory that is guaranteed to lead you to nothing. Don't do that. I love you too much. Now there's a passage in Acts chapter 12, verse 23, that I've never heard a sermon on. I'm not going to preach a whole sermon on it, but I just want to read it because it's one of the craziest passages in all of the Bible, and it fits exactly right here. And it's talking about Herod. The Herod's kind of ruled this whole area of the world during Jesus' lifetime and after

him. It says, immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him, Herod, down. because, now listen to why the angel strikes Herod down, because he didn't give the glory to God. And he was eaten by worms and breathed his last, which I just think is hilarious. Like Luke, the doctor is like, oh yeah, and he was eaten by worms. I don't know what category, theological category you want to stick this in other than just warning Will Robinson. Don't be like Herod. Don't aim your life at nothing and don't aim your life at a thing that historically we've seen

God strike people down for. And then if the glory, if God's glory is so powerful that it can raise the dead and light all of eternity, then don't live in your power. Live in that power. Aim your life to be filled with that thing. Wouldn't you rather your life be driven by? by resurrection, eternity, power than you and me. I don't care how strong you are, how awesome you are.

You are not resurrection, eternity, lighting power. Live in that kind of power. And so here, let me just, bottom line, the next thing I should do is the most God-glorifying thing I can do. The next thing I should do is the most God glorifying thing I can do. Whatever it is you're going to do next. Is that the most God glorifying thing you can do next?

Or here, let me put it in a question. Maybe a question is easier to kind of remember and ask yourself. So when you're faced with a decision, big or small, whatever it is, ask yourself this, is blank the most God glorifying thing I can do next? Is this job taking this job off? is this the most god glorifying thing i can do next is moving my family from here to there the most god glorifying thing i can do next maybe it's dating that guy the most god glorifying thing i can do next

is marrying that girl the most god glorifying thing i can do next is the is what i do on Instagram and social media, is that the most God glorifying thing I can do next? Is that post of me the most God glorifying or me glorifying? It's how I handle my money. Is this purchase the most God glorifying thing? Maybe it is. Listen, I was, we were in Maine on vacation. This was a long, long time ago, way up in Maine.

And we were driving down this little two-lane road. And there was a dirt road that kind of shot off to the left. And there were all these ruts in the road from trucks that had driven back in there, go full wheeling or whatever. And there was a sign, an old plywood sign that was nailed up on this tree and painted on it, just in hand, it said, pick your rut, you're going to be in it a while. And I thought, that's life right there. This question, is this blank the most God-glorifying thing I can do next?

It's a rut picking thing. You choosing your glory, me choosing my glory, that'll put you in a rut. And I'm not saying you can't get out of it. It may just take you a long, long way down a road, and it might be really, really hard to get out of. Like if God were here, right next to you in your decision, would he look at you when you made that decision and go, I am so honored by that choice you just made? I'm so honored by you deciding to date him. I'm so honored by you deciding not to take that job. I'm so honored by you pushing all the chips across the table and saying,

send me to the ends of the earth. I'm so honored by that. I'm so honored by you deciding to repent to your wife. I'm so honored by that. Now, let me give you some good news. if this seems hard, you're not alone. You're literally not alone. I mean, would anybody, go ahead, raise your hands.

Is this just the easiest thing you've ever heard of? Nope, not one. So join the crowd. It's simple. It's just not easy, but you have literally thousands of people all over this city who want to link up with you and go, you know what, I'll help you. You want to make the God glorifying hard decision? I'll walk with you.

you. I'll support you. I'll do that. Listen, if you don't know what to do, seeking God's glory in the next thing, is itself God glorifying and doing the next thing you should do? Let me say that again. It's a little confusing. If you don't know what to do, you saying, God, I don't know what to do. I just want to do the next God glorifying thing? Hello, that's God glorifying, and that's the next thing you should do. And you can do that. And if it feels like God has gone radio silent on you, you know what I mean? You've been asking, you've been begging, you've been pleading.

It feels like God has gone radio silent on you. His silence does not equal his absence. God promised I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Which means if he's chosen to just be quiet for a second, he hasn't left you. He's still with you, walking with you in every one of these things. And when you choose God's glory, he maximizes your joy.

I'm telling you, I know it, like, I know a bunch of you were thinking, Adam, that's great, but if I choose God's glory, it's going to be a bummer. Like my life is going to be a whole lot less fun. I'm kind of having fun sleeping with her. I'm kind of having fun drinking more of that. And if you tell me to do God's glory and choose God's glory,

I feel like it's going to diminish my joy and my happiness. Listen to Psalm 1611. You, he's talking to God. you make known to me the path of life. In your presence, in the presence of your glory, God, put my eyes on your glory, in your presence, there is fullness of joy. And at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Which means this, when you choose the glory of God, it is not a joy diminishing, pleasure diminishing thing. It is a joy maximized. thing. You get the joy. You get fullness, not partial joy, not a little bit joy. You get fullness of joy and you get pleasures forevermore. And when you don't know what to do, God knows exactly what to do. God knows. And God is faithful, and God is sovereign, and God is for you and God is with you

and God is trustworthy you can trust him you know how you can trust him because he said I'm going to a cross and I'm going to die on a cross and then three days later I'm going to get up

and then guess what he did he went to a cross and he died on a cross and three days later he got up. The man called his shot and then did it. You can trust him. You can trust him in this. I love the prayer in Second Chronicles 20 verse 12. It says, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are fixed on you. Lord, I have no idea, but you know, and you're faithful, and you're trustworthy, and you're sovereign, and you're in control. So, God, I'm fixing my eyes on you. And listen, when you don't live for the glory of God, there's more than enough grace to cover it.

Like when you realize, you know, right, deep down in your heart, you know this isn't the most God glorifying thing to do. And you stiff arm God in that. And you walk away from God where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more, all the more. that this is the original kind of sin that took place in the Bible. You go back to the first few pages in Genesis, and it's God, God had created everything, put Adam and Eve in this paradise. And Adam and Eve, look at God, and they go, God,

I know you just told us the next thing to do, which is just enjoy pleasures forevermore at your right hand. but I think I can run things better than you can. I think I can direct my own life better than I can't, than you can. And when they did that, they stiff-armed the creator of the universe. And they said, I think I know better, and I think I can do better, and I think I can lead myself better, and they walked away from God, they turned their back on God and walked away from God.

And in that moment, sin entered the world and death entered and fractured their relationship. And every time you and I face a decision and we think, I'm going to do what feels better to me than what glorifies you, God. That fundamentally is sin. But the good news of the gospel is that Jesus, who never stiff-armed the Father, who always did exactly what the father asked him to do, he went and paid the penalty for that sin, dying on the cross. He looks out and he says, Father, forgive him.

Forgive him. They just nailed me to a cross. They did, God, they are not looking to you. Forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. they've gone off on their own. And when Jesus died on that cross, he died for the likes of you and me

that decided our way is better than his way. And if you and I would place our trust, repent of that and place our trust in Jesus, for everyone who has done that, you will be saved. You will be restored. And God will leave. you into the next most glorifying thing.

And so if you've never placed your trust in Jesus, today is the day to do that. If you want to be led by God, if you want to be led into the next thing, Paul writes in Romans, that the way you discern God's call and leading in your life is that you are renewed in your mind. And the only way to be renewed

is that you would give your life to Jesus, you would be made a new creation. The old is gone and the new has come. In a minute I'm going to pray and I'm going to give you that opportunity to become a new creation and to have your mind renewed. Maybe you've done that.

Maybe you've given your life to Christ. And the next thing that you need to do this morning is you need to come down here and you need to repent. Because you, you know, functionally, in your mind you believe in God, but functionally, you're living as if God didn't exist. You're living for your glory. And I'm telling you the most God glorifying, the most honoring thing you can do next is to repent of your sin. What could be more honoring to God

than to say, God, I am so sorry. I've been living for me. Turn me around, face me to you, and I want to follow after you. I'm telling you that is the most God-honoring, God-glorifying thing you can do next. And then some of you are staring down decisions. Most of us are staring down decisions. And maybe you need to come get down here and wrestle the question is blank

the most God-glorifying thing I can do next. I know some of you, some of you have been fighting that thing because you feel the call to quit your job and go be a long-term missionary somewhere in the world and your deciding factor has been, what is my mom going to think about it, or my dad going to think about it,

or my bank account going to think about it. And the question you need to ask is, God, is me stopping my job and being sent to the ends of the earth? Is that the most God-glorifying thing you want for me? So let's pray, and then let's respond, and let's honor God. Heavenly Father, Lord, there are those among us right now who for the very first time,

we're bending our knee to you. And we're saying, not my glory, but your glory, Jesus. Make me a new creation. Save me. Make me right with you. Forgive me for living for myself. You know better than I do. Lord, I come to you in faith.

And if that's you right now, would you raise your hand? Right where you are. Raise them way up high. Come on. Amen. And Father, as we sing and pray and respond, would you be honored in all of those things? Would you be glorified in our repentance? Would you be glorified in our wrestling with you? Would you be glorified in us laying down the things that are not honoring to you?

The foot of the cross. We love you. We do this. this for your fame and your glory and your renown alone. In Jesus' name, amen. Do you stand and let's respond?