The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: More Desired Than Gold

Episode Date: May 22, 2022

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul… – Psalm 19:7 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight… – Psalm 19:14 The Word of God is a great gift to us. It is a map and a mirror. It is perfect and diagnoses our disease of sin. Jesus is the cure.

1122. Hey, great, great to see you. I am your brother from the mountains of Western North Carolina. He said, I didn't know I had a brother, and you do. You have them brother up there. And we are, it's great to be here. I was, as Jobi said, was met some of you. It's saturated. And just a couple things about that. We love this church. All right, about seven or eight years ago, Jobi and I actually met. We met down the road at a Tim Tebow Golf Tournament. We spent 18 holes really talking about how do we plant churches you guys were the only ones that were really planting churches with compassion international sponsoring kids to rescue them from poverty but doing so to plant an indigenous church there and nobody else is doing that and that's what we wanted to do so over 18

holes when we just talked about that dreamed about that prayed about that and then the next semester what we did up in western north Carolina is we uh you know had our first compassion day and now there's three or four thousand kids that have been sponsored already and churches have been planted And just so you know, a lot of that just came from the generosity of time and friendship from your pastor and your staff. And so, again, sometimes it's easy to not understand what you're a part of. And once you put your hands together and just thank God for them, all right? Because, again, you've got some great leaders. They teach you, but they lead you, and that's rare.

And again, you've got one of the most gifted pastors really in the country, super respected, super gifted. He and Gretchen have become great friends with Lori. and I, our churches have become good friends because we try to emphasize the same things, worship and the gospel and evangelism and all those things. And again, even our worship folks have kind of cross-pollinated together. So again, it is great to be back again. Again, 610 people baptized last weekend. Folks, that's a book of acts kind of stuff. That is probably not that, again, numbers are, you're trying to measure how you're doing, but the bottom line is every name has a number. All right, every name has a story and to see that many people declare the Lordship of

Christ out in the ocean. Again, I haven't heard of that in 20 years in our country, all right? That is, that is book of act stuff. So again, what I would say is this, continue to do what you're doing, continue to give credit to God, which y'all do great. Many give glory to God. You know, God's the one that saves people, and then you just continue to do what you're doing, all right? You don't just rest on your laurels. You're continuing to push forward. So great, great job on that. And I would say this, coming to the beach is always cool. I get to live in a cool place up in the mountains, but you'll get to live in a cool place here at the beach. I mean, it is a, your vibe here in Jackson, Vegas is cool. You got a, man, you got a, you know, you got the,

you got the beach, you got the surf, you got the sunglasses, you got the sun, you got, you got, all that stuff from me. It's just like a cool, there's a cool vibe. The restaurants are great. We've tried that last night and the night before. All this, it's just cool. It's just a cool vibe. But if I is just as a point of discipleship can just point one thing out that's not cool here at the beach, and that's those metal detectors. That is just not cool, all right? That is nerdy. I've seen some of you on the beach. You're walking around, you normally got dress socks like up your knees, and you've got dress shoes on and shorts, and you're just, and you're walking around and you're waiting for that beep to come on and thinking, I've got

buried treasure. Man, that's just nerdy. I'm telling you, if I ever do that, please call me on it, because that's nerdy. But I would say this. You know what's not nerdy is when you hit treasure. That's not nerdy. And I thought, well, I'm going to do a little sermon research on Google. And here's what I found is like two guys on a public beach near Jacksonville recently found 22 Spanish coins, 300 years old.

Sold them for thousands of dollars. That's not nerdy. That's cool. All right, that is very cool. I looked up another one. I got named William Bartlett. There was a shipwreck right off the coast here. they found 350 coins valued at $4.5 million.

That is real, real, real cool. That is very cool. And I'm thinking, all they did is they dug underneath what was not apparent on the surface. They had a little effort and a little work, and they discovered buried treasure. I say all that to say Psalm 19 is saying the same thing. That with a little effort and a little work, there is buried treasure right underneath the surface. And what all of Psalm 19, especially those like verse 7, all the way like verse 12, really going to verse 14. It's all about your relationship with God and your relationship

with the Word of God. It's your relationship with all right understanding you have a God that actually wrote a book and gave us a book. And better than gold. It's saying desire this more than gold because he says it's going to be everything about your spiritual vitality, about your joy, in some cases about your marriage, other cases about your kids, other cases about your church, The question is, how do I get in there? And here's my challenge today, and just pray for me, because here's the challenge of the church, like 1122, a church like ours.

You take the Bible real, real, real seriously. You guys take it real seriously. We take it real seriously. You all lean in, and this is the third service so far, and it's like leaning in, I can see you now. All right, you're leaning in, you got your device out, you got your Bible out, you got your Psalms journal out, you take it real, real seriously.

You've also got an amazing, seriously, you have an amazing, you have an amazing communicator as your lead pastor. You really do. I mean, I would say top three exposers of the word in the country right now. Just seriously, he can go through 66 verses and like, man, everyone has got a nugget, all right? Everyone. And it's like, I kind of say that I say this in great love. I mean, it's a mix between, it's like a mix between Larry the cable guy and Charles Spurgeon. I mean, like mixed together. That is an amazing gift. How do you put Spurgeon and Larry together? It's an amazing gift, all right? So,

seriously, you guys get a fine coarse meal every Sunday. I mean, every Sunday, man, Pastor Jobie comes up here, and it's like you're going to a nice restaurant, and man, they do the appetizers right, they do the oysters right, they do everything correct, and you have this amazing meal. But if all you do is eat on Sundays and you don't learn how to feed yourself, you're going to starve and you're going to be unhealthy. And the reason you've got to understand that is a lot of you we're still reluctant to actually get in this book. And there's a variety of reasons why that is. Sometimes, you know, every once in a while you hear somebody say, well, it's just kind

of a boring book. And when you say it's boring, I understand, number one, nobody's ever actually taught you how to study this book because it's a lot of things. Boring is not one of them. All right? Man, it's got like crazy families in there. It's got stories of romance. It's got stories of rescue.

It's the big story of redemption. It's about a God who loves you and say, I mean, it is not boring. Sometimes people will say, well, I just don't have the time, I forget. And that's kind of semi-understandable. We're going to sing a song that at the end that's like make room and it's the prayer. It's like, I don't want to make room for you. All the stuff that crowds you out, I want to make sure that I get to hear the voice of God. But number three, and probably the reason that most people, and just like my church,

there's a lot of people from different backgrounds and maybe you didn't grow up in church or maybe you grew up in a real liturgical place. And they basically kind of gave you the message. It's like, listen, we're the professional. we'll tell you what's in here, and we'll tell you what you need to know from in here, but we're the ones that are the professionals. All right, you guys are like not the professionals, so just kind of sit back and listen.

And if I can hear, if I can just give you one thing, and I can promise you, this is Pastor Jobby's goal as well, is the goal in preaching. It's not just to move you along the discipleship continuum. It is also to whet your appetite to know that, you know what, I can get in there. You can get in here, and God can speak to you. Now, part of the Bible, there's a small part of the Bible,

that is kind of hard to understand. There's a small part. There's a small part that's like algebra. You know, there's a small part. Things like Book of Revelation, that's hard. Book of Daniel, that's hard. Song of Solomon, that's R-rated, but it's also kind of difficult at times to understand.

But most of the Bible is like 2 plus 2 equals 4. That's what it is. The book of John, that's what our church is going through right now. The book of 1 John, the book of Psalms, what you guys are going through right now. Listen to me, loved one. You can understand this. 95% of it, you can just read it and go, what does that mean?

And then what does that mean to me personally? You can. All right, my goal for the next little bit is to try to show you, and that's what Psalm 19 does. It uses five different synonyms for the Bible, for the word. It uses words like precept, words like commandment, words like rules. But then it gives a corresponding benefit. By the time I'm done, I'm going to feel some of you boomers out here, you're going to think, it's like the Ginsu Knife set, those old commercials that are like,

They would keep going. It's like, you get this knife set, but wait, there's more. And they would show you some more stuff. But wait, there's more. And but wait, there's more. That's what this Psalm feels like. So the goal is for you to be able to leave and go, man, I can get in there. And if I've crowded that out of my life, all right, maybe during COVID, it kind of

got crowded out. Maybe you fell into some unhealthy habits. All right, I don't know if you, actually, you guys didn't even have COVID here in Florida. We had it in North Carolina, okay? And here's what happened to North Carolina. And what happened in North Carolina is people got into some very unhealthy habits. You know, sitting at home, you know, watching news all day or getting on their computer or their kids driving them crazy.

And a lot of stuff happened that wasn't healthy. And we're still few. One of our counselors the other day actually told us that, you know what? One of our counselors is two years out, two years out in appointments. Two years out. Two years out. I mean, that emergency has come, gone, and come again by the time two years hits. And so here's what it is.

Let's get into this. There's only like five or six verses we're going to look at. Every one of them, though, talks about God's word in a benefit. And then even at the end, I'm going to tell you, even if you're brand new to Bible study, this is how you jump in here. So here we're Psalm 19, verse 7. Psalm 19 verse 7, the very first part of it. It's like, how do we dig for gold right below the surface?

The law of the Lord is perfect. The law of the Lord, it's perfect reviving the soul. So if you're a note taker, this is like your day. These are more points than I've done in a sermon in a long, long time. So point number one, what does the Bible do? Why should I read my Bible? It restores my soul. It restores my soul.

The word revives there means to bring renewed vitality. It means to restore something that has fallen down back to its original condition. It means to breathe new life into. All those things that were like, you know what, my soul is tired. My soul is over. My soul has fallen over. How do I get back? How do I get back to what I once was?

Your soul is that immaterial part of you, by the way. You have a soul, I have a soul. Your soul is that part that chooses. It's that will. It's that emotions. It's that part that relates to God. And what he's saying is, you know what? You get in this book, and there's this unbelievable way

that God ministers to your soul. And it's not just about rules from the outside. It's about your soul on the inside. And so even if you come in here, it's like when you sing the songs. God begin to minister to your soul. It's been kind of a challenging week for me. And just being in the worship services the last few days,

it is ministered to my soul. I can feel, I can feel my soul being restored as we just sang, as we sang back to God and as we got together into God's word. And some of us, honestly, you didn't come in here strutting. Some of you came in here strutting and God's got a word for you. But a lot of you came in here struggling.

You came in here, and a lot of things have been challenging for you. You're like, I'm not, maybe it's full of shame, maybe sin's done a number on you, whatever that is, what God wants to do is take his word and begin to renovate your soul because our souls can get in a mess. About this time last year, my wife and I came back

from a conference and we've got, we live on a hill, so in the mountains they kind of, almost everybody has like, a two-story because the houses are built on these hills. So in our case, we have a lower garage and an upper garage. And so my wife parks her Jeep in the upper garage, and I got a pickup truck, and I park it in the lower garage. So we take mine to the airport, we got our truck, and I moved in there.

And as soon as I went into the garage, I was like, something's wrong with my garage. Because, you know, you know your garage, right? And I'm like, this is a lot neater than I left us. So, I mean, shoes were in place, all the tools were hung up. I was like, wow, somebody cleaned up my garage. But what happened is, is I go upstairs, and I'm the least observant person in the room, all right, seriously. But I go upstairs, and I can notice that the floors had buckled a little bit.

I was like, man, I was like, baby, do our floors look different than they were when we left about four or five days ago? She's like, you know what, I was going to say the same thing. And then we kind of went in some of the tile. It kind of started to kind of curl up just a little bit, and I'm like, something is going on here. So I began to pull that thread, and then I went down, got in the back of my truck, and I took a stick and I poked it up into the insulation.

And when I poked it up into the insulation, water came down. And what it showed me is, all right, while we've been gone, Mr. House Sitter had left, had left the sink on for hours, and it had overflowed. And is it overflowed? It went into the subfloor, it went into the wood floors, it went into the insulation, and went into all that stuff.

Now, how? God is good because it's a Greek word, this name, Allstate. And Allstate, Allstate, Allstate, Allstate, Cost to Allstate, It cost Allstate about 80K to renovate our house. But at the end of the renovation, now listen, it was a pain because it took like three months and all the labor shortages and all that study. It took about three months to restore and to renovate it. But when he did, when it was done, man, it was better than new.

Got these new cabinets now, got this new backsplash. I didn't know what back splash was. We got cool back splash. Great countertops, wood floors got redone, insulation got redone. And all of a sudden, it's like, what used to be a mess? what used to be in shambles is now renovated and loved one. That's what God wants to do in your soul through God's word. He wants to take the word of God and apply it where your soul is in shambles,

where your soul is a mess, where your soul has been hurt, where maybe there's been some things God has been telling you through the years, and all of a sudden it's not just about what you did now, it's about who you are. And that guilt that God has been saying, hey, come to me, I've got great news for you, You haven't dealt with that, and all of a sudden the guilt now has become shame. Guilt is about what you did. Shame is about who you are. And God wants to take God's word and the gospel and apply it right where you are.

And one of the things you've got to be careful of, by the way, is when you come to the Bible, you don't just come to it looking for rules or steps primarily. Now, this church teaches the Bible all the time. So whether it be about marriage or parenting or whatever, I listen to your song of Solomon series. Well done. Well done. Well done. All right. So point is this. There's a lot of things that are about those very practical areas. But understand the big picture, the meta-narrative of the Bible. It's for you. It's just not about you. And that's great news. It's really about the fact that there is a God who had a bunch of rebels called us. We rebelled against God. And God and His mercy and his grace provided a substitute. That's the whole Old Testament. It's like, you know what? You don't have what it takes. I'm going to say, to substitute, that's why all the lambs and stuff, we're in the book of John as a church. And so John chapter one, what does he say? John steps out and says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away this sin of the world. And so when you look at the Bible, understand, it's not primarily about

three steps to a better marriage or five steps to better parenting or seven steps to being a better boss. It's about the 10,000 steps Jesus took toward you. And when you and I understand that, all the other stuff begins to take care of itself. It's like, you know what, if Jesus, will do that for me. And that's why we talk at our church we're always talking about this. It's like, we are generous. Why? Because God was generous with us in the gospel. I'm patient with my spouse. Why? Because God was patient with me in the gospel. We serve other people. We serve a church. We serve people. We serve our communities. Why? Because God served us in the gospel. So here's my point, especially as a church that takes the Bible real, real seriously.

Realize this book is a bridge to a destination. It's not an end in itself. It's not an end in itself. Jesus and John 5 said this. He said, you religious leaders, you think by looking in the book, that's where eternal life is, but realize that that whole book is talking about Jesus. And so you guys get blessed because you're in a church that talks about over and over

and over and over again, but realize God wants to take this and change you. And here's a little preacher secret. At least this is who I think of. Almost any week when getting a sermon ready, I think of a guy. and we actually put a name to him at our church.

And his name, we talk about it in worship meetings, and his name is Joe Screwdriver. Now, Joe Screwdriver, and there's some Joe Screwdrivers here are watching online. And Joe Screwdriver, he's just that, he's that normal guy. He's that normal guy, and he likes to maybe work with his hands some. He knows how to change a tire. He's that guy. And somehow or another, he finds himself at our church, or he finds himself at 1122. And initially, when you see Joe, he, he sees his job.

out in the audience, and I can watch from here. When you see Joe out in the audience, here's the way Joe sits. I think he lost a bet with his wife, and that's why he's at church or it's Mother's Day or something. And he's like, you know what, okay, I'll go to church. But he's looking at the worship leaders. He's looking to me like, I dare you to, I dare you to, I dare to do anything that makes me blink. I just dare you.

But what's amazing is, is God begins to take his word, and maybe a few weeks from there, you see Joe going from like this to Joe going to like this. Fast forward a few more weeks, flip a few more pages on the calendar. God's word begins to get into Joe's heart. At some point, Joe is converted to Jesus, and all of a sudden Joe went from this to this to now. Joe's got his Bible out, all right? He's got a big old Bible out.

He's like touchdown Jesus during the worship time. Joe has been changed. Why? Because God's Word, it converts the soul. It restores the soul. And so you're like, where's that? Well, I'll tell you what, it's even, okay, here's a rule at our church.

And I know, here's a rule. If you guys are going to applaud, you've got to go all in, all right? You can't go halfway, correct? So I'm going to give you another chance. I'm going to give you. Well, well done. Well done. I'm going to give you another chance in a few minutes, so husbands pay attention particularly.

All right, 7B, it says this. It doesn't just restore my soul. It says the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. So what else does God's word do? It actually helps my choices. It says it makes wise the simple. The simple doesn't mean he's lacking intellect. It means one who doesn't make good choices. Somehow the discernment gene did not translate into this person. Literally it means an open,

unguarded mind. But let's be true. Let's be honest. All of us are one decision away from stupid, correct? And we're one. And actually we've all made stupid decisions, haven't we? We've all made bad decisions. We've accepted invitations to places we shouldn't have accepted. We shouldn't have We've fallen or gone into temptation that we never should have done that. We've held on to bitterness about people who have hurt us far longer and still allowing them to hurt us still. We've made those bad decisions. And when people say, you know what, it's hard to read the Bible, it's hard to read the Bible.

You know what's hard? What's hard is making bad decisions in your marriage and seeing your kids on the weekend. That's what's hard. You know what's hard? What's hard is like all of a sudden flirting with somebody at the office, finding yourself into an affair, and your whole testimony is gone, that's what's difficult. You know, it's difficult? What's difficult is making terrible money decisions and finding yourself paying for that for a decade.

That's difficult. And so what we want to do is we want to understand, man, when God says don't do something, that's not a killjoy God saying, listen, I don't want you to have fun. No, God is a good God. He's a great father. And when he says, don't do something, he's like, like, listen, be careful. Remember the last time he went down that road that it didn't end up well. And when he says, do something, he's like, man, help yourself to happiness. Help yourself to joy.

Think about the biggest regret you have. Just think about it. The biggest regret you have, some of you it's last night. For some of you, it's last week. For some of you, it's months or years ago. But if you go back to your biggest regret, 100% of the time, you and I either ignored what God was trying to get us to do or didn't even care what God was telling us to do. do. And when you look at this, one of the things Pastor Jobi talks about all the time, it's great because pastors need to repeat five or ten things over and over and over and over and over and over and over again to their people. And one of the things that he says, and I've heard him say a bunch of times, is that the Bible is both a map and a mirror. It's both a map

and a mirror. It is a mirror. Galatius 3 says it's a mirror. It's actually a tutor, a teacher, to show us we don't have what it takes. It's actually to show us all that first part of the Bible, that you don't have what it takes, that you and I have broken every commandment. And what we need is we need somebody to come alongside, keep all of those commandments, and then die in our place. Live the life we were supposed to live, die the death we deserve to die. That's what the whole thing is supposed to say. But you've got to realize it's also a map.

It's a map. Now, if you're like over 40, honestly, you don't know what a real map is, all right? A real map. A real map. Ask your dad. Ask your granddad. all right, ask your uncle, whatever. Once you see a map, a real map, are those kinds they were about that thick.

You'd fold them up. It'd be like a pinfold kind of process. You could never fold it back the same way. You'd put it in your glove box. You'd pull it out. And Dad was like Moses. He could pull that scroll out and he could all of a sudden highlight the role you were going to take. How much easier is that now?

I mean, now you've got a voice. It can be an Australian voice. Man, I'm looking for Morgan Freeman or Billy Graham. Somebody to tell me, okay, you know what? you rerouting you know somebody nice somebody nice reroute rerouting rerouting 95 95 is a bad plan 95 is a bad plan don't take 95 you don't like what happens on 95 there's a wreck on 95 and you'll be stuck on 95 way longer than you want to be so let me give you an alternative route that's what the bible does that's what the bible does it helps my

choices. And that's with your job, your school, your spouse, your money. Look at verse 8. It gets even better. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Number three, it rejoices the heart. I love the fact this dispells the myth that God is not for your joy. One of the things just, I didn't grow up in church, some of you all did. But one of the big things out there is, I've heard preachers say, God doesn't want you to be happy. God wants you to be holy. God doesn't want you to be happy.

God wants you to be holy. And I would just say those are not necessarily mutually exclusive. When you actually look at it, holiness and a walk with God leads to happiness and joy. All right? So when you look at it, husbands, if you are blessed, how many husbands in here are like, if you're married and your husband, how many would say, man, I am blessed to be blessed. married. Some of you all are going to have a cold night tonight. So I'm just saying, let me give you another chance. All right. So your husband in here, how many have fired up that you are married to that

woman? Well done. It's going to go well for you. It will go well for you. So here's what it is. How would you have felt if when you were exchanging your vows years ago, if the preacher had said something like this to your wife for her to repeat her vows to you? If he had said something like do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband to have in a hole from this day forward and then starts to go in and she's repeating all that stuff and then he says something like do you forsake all happiness all dreams of intimacy and all dreams of romance do you forsake that now and it's like you're like hey get time time out coach uh i don't want her to have to forsake those in marrying me i want her to find a lot of that in marrying me here's what you got to understand

loved ones. God wants you to find, just like you's saying, he wants you to find that delight and joy in him. Because he understands he's the only one that actually is going to fulfill all that satisfaction and contentment and joy you are actually looking for. God is not upset that you want to be happy. God is upset and gets upset when you are not trying to find happiness in someone or something other than him. And the reason is that you are not, it is, he loves you. And he knows all that stuff that we tend to chase after. Bottom line, they're just counterfeit. Certainly they have a jolt. Certainly they have a dopamine hit. Certainly they provide a sense. And parents, don't ever tell your kids, oh, sin is not fun.

Sin is not fun. The Bible does not say sin is not fun. Okay. If you say sin is not fun, you're doing it wrong. Because, I mean, there's at least, there is at least an initial hit. Otherwise, correct? I mean, otherwise you're not going to ever, it's not even a temptation. And what your enemy does, though, is your enemy is a bait and switcher. What your enemy does is it puts it in a nice, beautiful package with a ribbon tied around it. Or if you're a fisherman, he puts that nice bait and hides the hook. And the whole thing is, look at that, look at that, look at that, it's amazing. And then you bite on to the hook, and all of a sudden it's too late.

It's too late. Let me give you a quick example. Like, hypothetically, I've got a deer feeder in the corner. corner my property, hypothetically, all right? And so I put corn there all year long, all year long. Pretty soon the deer come out. The deer come out. Pretty soon the bucks get kind of, hey, it's okay, it's okay. It's a safe place. This is an awesome place. Not question, question. Do I have the best interest of those bucks at my heart? No, I do not. I do not. I do not. I do not. Am I, I'm feeding them for my purposes, not theirs. Hypothetically. So here's what I'm saying. When the Bible

says God is a jealous God. I know that throws people. It's like, what kind of God is jealous? I think it was Brad Pitt that said that's the reason he left the faith. It's because what kind of God would be so insecure that he's a jealous God? And the reason is we don't understand jealousy. We think a jealousy is like two seventh grade boys being jealous over the same girl or something. But jealousy and jealous and zealous in the Bible are from the same root word. Zealous, we like zealous. It means enthusiastic. It means enthusiastic love. It's like I'm zealous for that. That's what God is for you. God pursues us. If you're his son or daughter, he will pursue you, even when we run away. What he knows is all that other stuff,

bottom line is it's not going to satisfy. We think it does. So, for example, we live in the countries, you probably just could tell from the deer thing. But also we're on a well. And so because we're on a well, my wife is like super into nutrition and fitness and all. And all that stuff. So she's like, we've got to put a filter on this. So we put a big filter. There's a big filter on the well. And then to even double check, we put another filter on the sink, that farm sink thing that I was telling you about. So, you know, second filter. And then, like, to be triply sure, we actually have this burkey thing that's like another filter. So we have thrice filtered water. So here's what happens. So I've got a German shepherd. All right? His name is

Ranger. He's 95 pounds. Very intelligent dog. Very, if you have a German Shepherd, they're very intelligent. They are scary intelligent. And so it's easy to train him, but what I can't train him in somehow is to stop drinking out of the toilet, even though he's got this three times filtered water. It's like Perrier at this point. It is amazing, but what does he do? He walks into the bathroom and almost in disgust. It's like, who left the lid down? And so he ends up putting his head down into the toilet and honestly takes this massive gulp and then he gets to. And then he gets up with this big smile on his face, like, does it get any better than this? It's like it does get better than that. Bro, I got awesome fresh water right here, and you choose to put your

head in the toilet. Now, we laugh. Of course, like, well, this is a dumb dog. I'm a cat person. It's all right. We got some good churches for you. We'll recommend them in the reception area. But I'm just saying, my point is this, we do the same thing. We chase after stuff thinking that's kind of fully and finally satisfies me. And tell me, does it? It does not. It doesn't. Initial hip? Yes, it does. But loved ones, you've got a God who loves you and wants to you delight in him. And he rejoices in you. So the question is, do you rejoice in him?

Or do you go after these counterfeits? Counterfeits again, or this person or that stuff or this relationship. They're not bad things. But when you make a good thing, a God thing, it ends up being a self-destructive thing because it falls in on itself. That's not the way you were designed. And so what he goes is go back to the word. He rejoices your heart, which by the way, in a couple of chapters, I would assume you guys will see it in Psalm 51. He says, restore to me the joy of my salvation, the joy. God wants to do that to you. If your joy is gone and you're looking at people around here and they're going crazy during the worship and amazing worship, and they're just going

crazy and you're like, man, what are you guys so excited about? Then God wants to restore. He either wants to save you or he wants to restore to you the joy of your salvation. So here's the last one. Shows me truth. Verse 9 says, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true

and they are righteous all together. The biggest battle in the Christian life, the biggest battle, biggest battle in the Christian life, it's not relationships, it's not porn, it's not this, that and other. The biggest battle in the Christian life, in life is whether you are going to listen to lies or are you going to listen to truth.

That's the biggest, that's the ultimate battle. Am I going to listen to lies or am I going to listen to truth? I told you earlier, our church is in the gospel of John. We're only like in chapter three today, back up in the mountains. They're in chapter three. But I know we're going to get to chapter eight and I can't wait because in chapter eight there's one of the most significant verses in the Bible. Don't turn to it, but just listen to John 8. I think it's verse 44. You'll recognize it maybe. It says this. It says, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

You will know the truth, and then the truth will set you free. Now, there are two truths there. Number one is, if he says you have to be set free, the first truth that you might not have thought of is that you can be enslaved to what is not true. If you will know the truth and the truth will set you free, the corresponding truth of that is, if you have bought into lies, they will enslave you. They will, they're not your friend. And the Bible says that your enemy, his native tongue, it says he is a liar.

He's been a liar from the beginning. So the question is, when you're going through life, you're going to have these, you're going to have a lot of lies coming your way and whispering and you're going to have a lot of truth. And the question is which one, which one is going to win out? Here's what I found to be ineffective personally. What I found to be ineffective personally is trying to close out the whisper. in the lies, because the lies will come. Identity lies will come and activity lies will come. Activity lies are usually easier, but if a lie is deception, if a lie is trying to cloak

and dagger, if a lie is bait and switch, here's an activity lie. Kind of go back to the marriage deal or go back. An activity lie is when you start to get these thoughts in your mind that, you know what, man, it's been eight or nine years, we've been married, my marriage is a lot more woe than it is wow like it was before. My wife doesn't, she doesn't compliment me much anymore. And then all of a sudden, amazing. And about that time, when you and your wife are struggling,

it's amazing how all of a sudden someone at work will begin to pay attention to you. And all of a sudden, man, you have somebody at work and they're like going, man, that was an awesome presentation you did. Man, you just killed that thing and liked the way that suits on you. And I like the way you hold yourself in it. Man, what cologne is that? And all of a sudden you're thinking, you know, I deserve to be happy, and I'm not happy in my marriage,

and then just maybe my happiness is found in this person at work. And please hear me on that. I say this with great love. Bro, the reason you think that is true, the reason you think that you would be happier with her, the reason that you think that she thinks so highly of you is because she doesn't know you, bro. She doesn't know you.

She doesn't. She doesn't know you. If she knew you like your wife knows you, she would probably struggle just like your wife does. And so the question is, the question is, the question is, and by the way, so is it truth or is a lie? By the way, statistics even show that, you know what, that second marriage or that third marriage, that ain't going to work. And if it does work, you're less happy in it, at least statistically. And that's why we use a word that we don't even, it just sounds so innocent. That's why you hear a word like, affair, affair, I mean a fair.

I mean, it sounds French, doesn't it? It's like, affair, it's light and airy, and it's, you know, I mean, who doesn't like to go to a fair? I mean, affairs, an escape from reality, right? An affair is like, hey, I'm going to go, I'm going to eat cot candy, and it's going to be a fairest wheel and we're going to win a big bear, and it's an escape from reality. Bro, that's what an affair actually is. It's an escape from reality. It's a bait and switch. It's an initial hit that that's amazing.

And then pretty soon, guess what happens? The hook is the fact that, you know what? Your kids don't look at you the same. Your testimony has been shattered for a long period of time. The gospel of Jesus is like, I'm not sure. It didn't work in his life. How's it going to work in my life? All of a sudden, you see your kids two days a week.

That's the hook. And even more insidious are that. identity lies. The identity lies. Those are the ones that go from our activity and they become a part of who we are. And your pastor, by the way, is great at continually going back to identity. Identity. It means who you are, who you are in Christ. And if you're in Christ, you've got to have some of these things down. Because when the identity lie comes, because you're going to mess up. But the Bible says what? A righteous man, he gets up seven times. If you understand the gospel, when you fall, you go back to probably the verse you guys know the best. Romans 8-1. I am not condemned.

I am not unfit for use because of what Jesus did on the cross, all the condemnation got put on him, and there's none left for me. That's why when you get the whispers, and if you've got daughters, you've got to teach them this particularly. That's why when the lie comes down from the culture that, you know what, if you're not beautiful, you're not lovable. If you don't look like that Instagram model, which, by the way, the Instagram models, they can't even hold up that standard. That's all filter, bro. And what are you got to do? You're not lovable because you're not beautiful. Guess what?

The Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made, and my soul knows it full well. And so you lean into that. And sometimes you've got to shout it. Seriously, you've got to shout that stuff. You've got to make sure that the voice of the gospel is louder than the voice of the enemy. An example would be this.

Years ago, or a number of years ago, I was coaching one of my son's basketball teams. And I realized on Sunday I was hoarse all the time when I was preaching. I'm like, man, I have no voice. I'm starting to sound like a chain smoker. What is going on here? And what I realized is on Saturdays, I was having to yell so loud in those gyms, not at the refs. Well, some at the refs, but mainly I'm trying to yell over the parents.

Because the parents are yelling stuff that's not on the playbook. The parents are like, press, Johnny, press. and we're not in the press. They're like, Johnny, shoot the ball. And Johnny hadn't made a basket for like a year. It's like Johnny do not. The coaches said, don't shoot Johnny. Don't shoot her.

You're coming to the bench. And they're like, shoot Johnny, shoot Johnny. And the whole point is I realized I got to shout louder. The voice is coming from the stand. Church of 1122, you have to be able to take some truth and put it right there because the voice the enemy will whisper. You can avoid that. The question is, do you have some truth that you can shout and say, you know what?

This is what God says. and I'm going to believe truth over lies. All right, you got to do that. So how do you do that? How do you do that? Somebody are like, I'm not sure. I'm not sure how to do it. I mean, I don't even have a Bible.

Man, this church would love to give you one. Got a bunch of resources. They do a phenomenal job at discipleship and trying to bring you along on that continuum. But look at the last two verses. Verse 10 and 11. Here's what it says. It actually tells you how.

More to be desired are they than gold? Even much fine gold. and that's great more to be desired are they than gold even fine gold sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb all this is about god's word moreover by them your servant is warned and in keeping them there is great reward the servant there by the way would be david talking about himself i'm i'm being warned by that so let me give you a couple of let me give you a couple of kind of navigational points here the first one is like how do i do this how do it's bruce Number one, desire it.

You're like, I wish I could desire it. I get so fired up when Jobi preaches because he's so fired up about it. You seem fired up about it. My disciple group, they kind of seem fired up about it as well. I just am not there. This actually can be good news for you. The good news is that today at church, you can actually kind of confess that your heart is cold. And you have a merciful, gracious God who, when someone humbles the

himself and says, you know what, I'm bringing my cold heart to you, does not turn them away. The Bible says, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he will exalt you at the proper time. James chapter four says this, God is opposed to the proud, but he pours out grace on the humble. You're like, I want to have some grace today. I wish God would pour out grace on me and my family and my relationship. I wish you would do that. Well, then get as low as you can, as fast as you can.

And it's a guarantee you'll get some grace. And so when you look at this, verse 11, it's great. He goes from talking about God. And if you notice verse 11, it changes. And it says, by them, your servant is warned. Your servant is warned. He's talking to God at this point. And in verse 14, he's not the rock.

He's not the Redeemer. He's my rock. He's my Redeemer. So here's what you need to understand is jump in there. The whole thing, again, it's not the destination is not for you to be able to say, I spent, it's not checkmarked church where you can say, I spent, I got my four times in. The whole thing is for you to get to know Jesus better, for you to understand his love and his grace and his mercy and his purpose and how he can remove the shame and all that's, that's the purpose

for doing it. And by the way, if you're like, that's, that's not where I am, I want to be like that. There's a pastor years ago, got him A.W. Tozer. I love this prayer. I prayed to myself a few times this week. Here's what he says. Oh, God, I have tasted of your goodness. And it is both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more.

I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire, oh God, and this is a great. I want to want you. You ever prayed that prayer? That's where a lot of us are this morning. I want to want you. I want to want you. I don't, but I want to.

I want to have what some of these other people have. I want to be hungry again. I want to want you. I long to be filled with longing. I thirst to be made thirsty or still. Give me the grace to rise up and follow Jesus. So just desire it. Desire to desire it.

Second thing is just read it. And this is kind of simple, but read it. Or if you're like, I'm a listener, then put the Dwell app on or put the app the Church of 1122 app. I think they've got one that actually speaks to you. I mean, that's great, but just read it. The Bible is kind of like superfood, folks. I mean, it's like you got the superfood.

What is it? Like kale and blueberries and fried ochre or whatever. The superfoods is like, this is like really nutritious. That's the superfood of your faith. You're like, I'm not growing much. I'm not growing much. The reason that probably you're not growing much is the fact you've got to get back in here. This is like the superfood for you.

And so here's what I would say. If you are, especially if you're new or if it's been a long time since you've got in God's word, again they got a great just text psalms to 4-4-1122 and i think you get a psalm sent to you every day that is a great way to start it's a great way to get in there i mean i don't know how much easier you can do than just take psalms to 4-4-11-22 and then you get it sent to your phone i mean that's a church that wants to disciple you that's so much better than some of you are like oh i'm fired up i'm going to read this whole thing today all right and so you like you like get in there And you're like, I mean, most of us have done this in a year of the Bible kind of thing.

You know, Genesis start off awesome. You kind of lose a little bit of momentum there, spending so much time with Joseph. Exodus is kind of cool. You didn't know Christian Bale was that way back in those times. And you're like, this is awesome too. But then you die on the vine sometime in Leviticus. And if you make it through there, then Deuteronomy is waiting right there, staring in you in the face.

Better thing would be this. It's start off, just start off with the Psalms. That's great. Let me use one illustration to try to drive this home. go to one more. So like two months ago, the rotator cuff and the bicep tore in my arm. And so for seven weeks, they went in there and they said, you have a massive tear. And they said, your biceps hanging by a thread. We fished it out. We put it in place and screws and these overlapping band-aid things and all this kind of stuff. So for seven weeks, they're like, it's passive. All you do is

stretch it. You try to, you know, they kind of break up all that stuff that's getting. in there. But about a week ago, they were like, all right, time to add some strength. It's so embarrassing because because the muscle had been atrophied so bad for eight weeks, it was a sling for six, and then it atrophied and it lost all this strength. They said, and because it can't take much right now, they say, now the max on your left arm is five pounds. So five pounds. So here's the workout routine, just so you know. And it happened the other day, and I'm like, you're kind of looking around. So I'm over there and I'm like feeling good about myself. Self-esteem is high and I'm over there with 35s or 40s pumping this and it's like yeah, getting up, you know, getting it. I'm like,

yeah, that's good. But then I got to go to the other part of the gym and they got these tiny little dumbbells. And did y'all know that those little dumps? You know what color they are? They're pink. They're pink dumbbells. That's terrible. That's terrible for a guy's self-esteem. And I'm over there with these little five-pounders just like, yeah. I mean, look at that. Look at that. Look at that. that stuff. And it's just you look around. And the reason they're telling me to do that is, guess what? Right now, because it's been atrophied, if you do much more, it's going to actually be counterproductive. Not that you can get too much of the Word of God, but what a great place to start. It's like, I'm going to just four times this week. I'm going to get a Psalm. I'm just going to,

I'm going to read it, I'm going to think about what it says. I'm going to think about what God's telling me. I'm going to pray for God to help me to do it, and then I'm going to go out and do it, which actually is the way he ends it. The last verse says, in keeping them, there is great reward. Here's the promise. Now, sometimes God will tell you something that you don't need that exact day. Sometimes what he'll do is he'll tell you something that he knows you're going to need in a week. So understand, you don't go in there going, well, that didn't, I didn't apply that today.

Understand your depositing stuff in an account, in a spiritual account. God knows you're going to have to write a check on that pretty soon, or you're going to have to make withdrawal on that pretty soon. But what you do is you go in there, but you go to it with this one. Here's the part you have to go to it with. When you go to the Bible, and by the way, if you're not a Christ follower, let me step over, if you're not a Christ follower, jump in on this bandwagon anyway. It's the best-selling book of all time.

People in other countries, man, they will try to smuggle pages in. And so realize this is an amazing book, so just jump in. But if you're a Christ follower, you've got to come to this whole idea of saying, as I read God, speak to your servant, tell me what to do, because God will tell you what to do. But come with the heart that says where Jesus and I disagree, he's right and I'm wrong, and by God's grace and his power, I will change. Let me say it again, the Lordship of Christ means, listen, when Jesus and I disagree, which you will at times, which you will at times, if Jesus never disagrees with you, you've probably made a Jesus in your own image.

but the Bible Jesus, the Bible Jesus is going to push. The Bible Jesus is going to challenge. He is going to comfort. And so come to it with saying, you know what, where Jesus and I disagree, he's right. I'm wrong. By God's grace and by his power, I will change. And so here's the idea.

You're coming to it with a posture. I know that people's posture physically doesn't always match our spiritual posture, but oftentimes it does. And the idea of surrender, which is what that verse 11 is saying, it's saying, you know what? He's saying, I'm your servant. I don't call the shots, you call the shots.

That's again, what you and I would call the Lordship of Christ. It's called repentance and faith. Jesus is the master. Jesus is the boss. Where we disagree, he's right, I'm wrong, and God please change me. Because God will tell you something. He'll either give you like a promise to hold on to.

He'll give you a challenge to do. We'll give you an example to obey. you give you a warning to run away from, all those different things. For a lot of us, it just might be the fact that it's been a while since you've gotten in here personally. You're like, well, Jobie tells me that you got to, Jobi's goal is for you to understand God can speak to you. And so today, part of that surrender might be you saying, God, I got to make room for you. I have to make room. All this other stuff has crowded you out.

I can barely hear your voice. And even if you can't say that, God, I desire to desire it. God, I want to want it. I'm thirsty, but I want to be thirstier still. And by the way, I love the fact that you guys have the way you have these prayer benches, just so you know when I was here saturated and I'd never seen. I saw those. It's like, man, boom, we're taking those back to North Carolina.

Not these, but I'm saying we're going to get those back to North Carolina. And you know what? A few months ago, we finished them out and all this stuff. And first time the prayer benches were down there, my people didn't know how to use them, honestly, because they were used to come to the altar and putting their elbows here. And I put prayer benches down there and explained them. and all these people came to the altar, and they're actually, they're putting their elbows on the prayer cushion, and I'm like, okay, we've got to have like a remedial class on how to,

how to come into the altar, so we actually taught that. You guys don't need that. So here's what I would say is, I'm going to pray for you, and there's a promise to keep, there is a promise to hold on to, there's a challenge that God has given you, there's the fact of repentance. I haven't made room for you. I'm going to make room for you. There's surrender to be had. There's somebody you want to pray for. As soon as they get through, we'll go into that song and what a great time just to humble yourself before God because right here when you're on your knees man it's hard to be prideful so let me pray for you five thanks for the thanks for the day this is the day the Lord has made and we got to rejoice and be glad

in it God thanks for the worship of music that we get to be moved emotionally intellectually spiritually thanks for the intentionality that went into everything from the church to move us along in our discipleship journey. God right now is as we respond to your word, help us to respond in humility and rejoice over the fact that you want to pour out grace to the humble. Families that are hurting, marriages that are struggling, habits that don't seem to be able to be kicked. You said, you know what?

Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. Humble yourself. Humble yourself. I'll pour out grace. So I pray, in the next few minutes. as people kneel, as people pray, as people sing, as people cry out that you would pour out grace to hungry people. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.