Discerning the Will of God for My Life

praise the Lord everybody very good Monday evening to you thank you for your attentiveness yesterday both Services I never felt like I had to struggle for your focus and um I believe I'm speaking to a congregation that loves the word of God and I'm grateful for the ears that you have the ears you have been trained to have um it it can be very disconcerting to spend your whole life learning things to teach through your experiences and studies but then find all of it falling on deaf ears there's hardly anything more disheartening and I'm so grateful whenever I come across a congregation that loves scripture would you open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 1. and we'll read this entire Psalm it's six verses all right let's begin reading blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the

way of sinners nor sitteth in the seed of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth fruit in his season his Leaf also shall not wither whatsoever he doeth shall prosper the ungodly are not so but are like the chaff which the wind driveeth away therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment I sometimes feel like when I come across that line right there I'm hearing the foreshadowing an echo in Paul's letter to the Ephesians and in that great day having done all to stand the young Godly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous for the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of

then Godly Shall Perish I would like to teach on the Discerning the will of God for my life more simply knowing the will of God for my life right father in the name of Jesus I pray you would help me to teach to teach well according to your word Faithfully harmony with your spirit in Jesus name help us to hear amen amen thank you for standing you can be seated Lord bless you this is a Bible it can save your life it will teach you it will rebuke you it'll correct you but it'll comfort you this is a Bible it will give you hope it will give you hope like a friend when you despair it will chastise you like a mother when you're going off track it contains the lives of men and women who've lived every kind of life and walked every kind

of Road and they've asked all of the important questions and found all of the important answers it was collected over a period of more than a thousand years it has many writers and one author the holy spirit of God and if you ever think it is outdated I just want you to remember that all the sins we thought were modern all the crimes we thought were new the Bible had them typed and filed way back in eight A.D 62. long long time ago it's anticipated everything it has it has withstood many cataclysms many catastrophes it has outlasted the pyramids it has outlasted the wonders of the world it has outlasted every King in every Kingdom every Dynasty everything every human ever thought would last forever it has outlasted it this is a Bible and it can save your life I'm teaching about the Bible I

before I teach something from the Bible I want to teach about the Bible I want to say a few words in preparation about the affections about the way human beings are wired you are essentially what you love you can't really rise any higher as a human being than that which you love if you love something that is lowly and unworthy you can never rise above that um your talents in life are of direct reflection or maybe better they are a revelation of your loves love prioritizes and shuffles time and makes way for the center what you regard as the center what you have an affection for and it marginalizes pushes to the outside everything that you don't love so in a way your talent is a direct manifestation of what you love your affections determine your outcomes in life your relationships to other people oil

in its Nature by its very nature rises above water there's no natural scenario in which oil freely sits beneath the water there's no scenario in which metal floats on top of water no scenario in which water freely seeks anything other than the lowest point and the path of least resistance water's composition prohibits it from doing otherwise a thing becomes what it is and I'm using this as an analogy to speak of what the human being is and how its outcomes are determined your outcomes in life are going to be determined by what you love what you prioritize it can't be any other way what you love is your nature it's your nature desire not knowledge determines destiny your character the ancient Greek philosopher said ultimately is your fate in life desire is what makes God good it's what makes the sinner sin our future is

made out of the materials of our heart you could take a teenager teenager that has in one particular setting found all of the worst kind of friends and the parent might say all right we are going to switch environments we're going to go to a different School we're going to go to a different Church we're going to go to a different youth group Etc et cetera Etc and maybe that's going to change everything but it won't be very long until the parent finds out that the the teenager once again is finding finding the lowest common denominator even there um if they have that in their nature in one place they will have that in their nature in another place now of course there can be intervention there can be exceptions to this kind of rule and there's always hope that things can change but as

long as the nature as long as the Love Remains lowly as long as the as long as your affections are set upon worldly things there's no hope because the affections determine outcomes you could take on the other side though somebody who's in in a difficult circumstance but they have a love for the things of God and wherever they end up going they're going to end up rising to the top you could take Joseph and you could put him in a loving family with at least a loving mother and father and he does well but you could take him to a prison and he ends up rising to the top of the prison he ends up Rising as a servant to the top of the servant list and then he ends up rising to the top of Egypt wherever you put him he rises to the

top it's it's about his nature his affections Judas on the flip side of people say you are who you hang around yep for 11 of them that was true but there was a twelfth you could not put better company around him you had the very Son of God for your companion for three plus years and still still you took 30 pieces of silver for him affections you see John had it he he he wrote it real clearly he said he loved money yep there it is love can Trump who you're around what you love can Trump the character of everyone you're around this is how Lucifer ends up falling from Heaven what was he ever denied in eternity what was he missing in his nature what was he missing in his creation his surroundings you couldn't make it better and yet he falls like lightning

desires though are usually hidden we don't always know what we love most and life is uh life has a way of finding that out for us there are abysses in your heart that you'll likely never discover the trip from here to there hear to your heart the deepest reaches of your heart can be farther than a voyage from here to the edge of the universe down in the dark deep beneath the recesses of even the imagination lies you might say a stygian pool completely undisturbed never has the slightest Ripple stirred its Shore and lurking in those livid Waters may be a desire you'll never know you had but perhaps one day circumstances will rise and will summon from the depths something you didn't know was in you and cast a long tentacle up through the soul and drive you to act in a way that's

a mystery to everyone around you including yourself but it still has to do with what we love and so this being the case I should mention one other thing sometimes we think that knowledge determines outcomes if you know more if you know the right things you'll do the right things and there is some kind of a case to me be made for that one of the prophets mentioned my people perish for a lack of knowledge knowledge is a great aid but it is an aid in fact knowledge might have more to do with our fall than it has to do with our rise it was Eve's search for knowledge it was her desire for the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil that actually led to her falling if knowledge determined outcomes again why is Lucifer the Prince of Darkness he knows more than we

could ever hope to know again Judas I use him as an example Judas should have been the preeminent Theologian or at least one of the 12 preeminent theologians in human history and yet that was not his outcome has to do with affections if knowledge determined outcomes our University campuses would be camelots and yet they're often the scene of the greatest chaos the deepest depravities known to the Western world knowledge is neutral it's morally neutral you can give good knowledge to a bad person and they will turn that good knowledge into bad knowledge they will use it as a weapon case in point I was in Bible quizzing for just a little while when I was a when I was a child and I remember us learning the book of Hebrews that particular year I think I was eight or so and I never got past

chapter 10. and I really struggled after chapter one with everything I'd sit there at the table and the quiz Master would ask the question and I would be so confused all the time and I had this teammate who was a legend he was not only a legend with his head but he was a legend with his hands man he could hit that buzzer button so fast and then he would say he would interrupt the quiz Master who's asking the question after only two words sometimes John 3. boom now you have to finish the question as I recall and then the right verse amazing smartest human being I've ever known myself personally this guy was something else he was a kid of course man he had all of that knowledge but later on in life when he got into his teens and then into his 20s

something changed the affections turned sour Jesus talked about setting your treasure in heaven seek not things below but things above love the things of God the Apostle John said love not the world neither the things that are in the world for all that is in the world lust of the eye lust of the Flesh and the pride of life and anyone who loves the world has not the love of the father in him it's a very Stern warning love not the world it will ruin you it will take away your future loving the world loving what is temporary makes you temporary loving what is passing makes you passing and uh and and and and my my friend he took all of those scriptures that he had memorized and did they correct him not necessarily at least not at that time instead he started taking that

knowledge that Superior knowledge that he had of scripture the superior knowledge he had of history and everything else and he used it as a weapon in his debates with other apostolics see you can take the highest form of knowledge and use it for destructive purposes depending upon your affections and so I'm proposing here tonight to take the word of God and to allow this word when I say this can save your life it can save your life in in in in one way by changing your affections by setting your affections on things above by setting your affections on things above by giving you God's heart his love to hate what he hates to love what he loves this is the supreme goal in life now on the other side the world is also a religious system the apostolic church is a faith but the world

has its own form of evangelism too it's a kind of rival Faith competing for your worship and your kids Worship it's competing for your attention and most of all it's competing for your desires every day it conditions you it constantly targets your desires cultivating the desires the world is oftentimes very good at securing especially the desires of the young I I should mention there are somewhat benign forms of this evangelism but nevertheless um they can get you carried away the American dream is a form of worldly evangelism do this do this do this do that and live the dream and you can really buy into it a lot of apostolics are buying into it however the world including the American dream as good as it sometimes may be or the aspects that are good in it nevertheless nevertheless there is the danger of an idol

being set up in the heart called The American Dream or the idol of comfort the idol of Happiness Above All Else the idol of convenience the idol of Fame the FI the idol of wealth the idol of Independence Financial Independence and whatever else what other other whatever other kind of Independence and any Idol no matter how benign if it sets itself up in the heart it is a rival to the true God who alone deserves to sit upon the throne of your heart you might call this Bible an anti-idolatry book that's its goal to smash idols to destroy them systematically hear o Israel the Lord our God is one he will share the throne with no one else he never scoots over to make room for another Idol he never makes room in heaven for another Idol he has it all or he has none

of it and this this will destroy all the idols so the ancient Christians had a had a had a particular habit whenever they would open up the scriptures and they would begin to teach their children they would oftentimes at least in one particular corner of the world feed their children honey give them the taste of honey and then begin to teach scripture because they understood how human beings tend to be wired our our our makeup our constitution our nature is precognitive it's pre-linguistic in other words it doesn't necessarily come through words or thoughts that we can articulate but things that are much more primitive than that something much more Primal than that our affections they the these Christians were they understood that that there that that human beings their children could potentially in fact there was a good chance that every time they tasted something

sweet they might remember scripture or whenever they picked up scripture there was something innately sweet about it they Associated they learned to associate sweetness and goodness with the word of God and whether or not you would follow that kind of practice that's up to you entirely but the principle remains it's really really important that you understand that this is about the affections this is about the affections you can teach your kids all kinds of things but unless you get to the affections you lose the battle if their affections are upon the things of the world but they have a head full of knowledge it won't help them and the world understands this sometimes better than the church understands this constantly going for the affections while we're going for this high level stuff sometimes the world is just content to go right straight to the heart

music entertainment we can talk about how evil those things are how bad those things are and the content of them might be but if we ignore we ignore the method we misunderstand that this is the way human beings are wired and this is sometimes why the world wins gonna continue Hemorrhage young people remember the affections when we're going to church make it a happy thing make it a good thing and celebrate it every single time when you open up scripture learn how to teach it and teach it well as well as you possibly can it's not something you devote you're left over time to there's nothing more valuable than teaching your children well and that often includes in fact 100 of the time teaching well includes targeting the affections targeting the infections we do this really well for Christmas really really well Christmas we have

man we have knocked that one out of the park as a culture the Christian uh Christian culture of the last 500 years or maybe even just the last 200 years something to learn from right here I you walk down you walk down the um the aisles at the mall or do we do we go to malls anymore I don't shopping do we shop anymore except this way if you go into a store in August you might hear Christmas music but certainly by October you're starting to hear Silent Night what in the world I meant Best Buy it's October Holy Night and listen here we are with our cart here's you maybe an atheist walking down the aisle with the cart throwing in technology word of the father now in flesh appearing oh come let us adore him listen to that theology deep that's like that's

like the letter to the Hebrews deep word of the father now in flesh appearing that's even archaic language that's impressive and here he is word of the father wait what am I singing we have completely hijacked the airwaves the radio every corner Christmas trees and lights and angels my goodness what a smashing success and I know lots of people complain and say oh it's you know it's is there Christ in Christmas anymore I know I worry about that too I really do however don't ignore I mean how close is is the is the name of Christ and and the things of God it's just next door to all those things we're doing it's amazing what an Avenue all right but look consider Christmas for a moment why it has been such a great uh a great doctrinal success so to speak candy canes presence people

coming over to visit us a grandma and grandpa that we haven't seen in so many years we've learned we've learned it's our tradition to have great meals and make sure that the kids are happy and then when they turn 20 25 30 35 40 they might stray far away and then one day they're driving down the road and the windshield wipers are going and they're down and there are far far from home and they hear oh come let us adore him and they might find themselves singing and their heart might start walking its way back home um this is a lesson for the church celebrate when you come to church celebrate your friendships in the church celebrate the word of God this is about the affections make sure everything we do we understand the affections dimension and so I come now towards the second and

final or the the final quarter of this lesson and I want to focus now on scripture's role shaping the affections so how can I have Godly affections David said blessed is the man that walks not on the Council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of Sinners nor sits in the seated scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night if you're first coming to scripture you might not have that Delight there has been a training there has been an affection built in somehow if through the practice the the dwelling upon scripture day and night and and here's the way it works there are three a couple three terms I'd like you to be very familiar with there's Orthodoxy Orthodoxy means correct beliefs and there's orthopraxy which means correct practices and then

there's orthopathy which means correct affections Orthodoxy orthopraxy orthopathy Orthodoxy having the right beliefs is very important hear o Israel the Lord our God is one but again having the right beliefs is not enough for even the devil believes in one God okay then Ortho Orthodoxy or orthopraxy that's correct practices but even the Pharisees had correct practices but it didn't save them at least by themselves orthopathy is having the correct affections affections that have been shaped by the word and the Heart of God so oftentimes we pay attention to the first two make sure we have the right beliefs and make sure we have the right practices and we're done but we haven't got to the most fundamental part of the human being yet that is the correct affections and here's the thing again your affection is determine they're the anchor now we can be up

and we can be down and we have to continue on with the right practices and right beliefs our beliefs should not be subject to our emotions but that doesn't mean we ignore our emotions we should continue to do the right thing and believe the right thing no matter how we feel but don't ignore how you feel because it's a barometer if you forever forever believe and do the right thing but hate doing the right thing something's not right and here's the problem right belief and right practice can only last so long on their own for the soul seeks alignment between those three things it starts with the right affections the right practices and the right beliefs so again the right affections or affections are a barometer they tell us how far we have to go and we've got to work on those affections now it's

a really really strange thing to read in the Bible now it's not so strange because we've maybe become over familiar with it but the first commandment was love the Lord your God with all your heart how strange is that the first commandment is to love how can you command love seems to be something that we either do or we don't it doesn't seem that we have direct control over what we love and yet the very first commandment is to love the Lord our God that speaks directly to the affections the importance of the affections in other words The Ten Commandments the principal commandment is aimed at the affections it starts there um I would highly recommend here's here's the way it works it seems our beliefs focus our practices train our practices direct us so have the right beliefs find out if you don't know

quite what we believe on different things it's good to know find a teacher find your pastor and know these things and know them really really well okay and then practice them and here's what happens if you keep practicing something long enough over and over and over again the the very Act of repetition tends to start changing the affections where your treasure is Jesus said there your heart will be also so if you invest The Treasure of your time into something again and again and again and again eventually your heart's going to move over there your heart's going to move over there so practice over and over and over again repetition is a really important thing here and and sometimes we have this misconception about church I've already heard that sermon you're right you have they're all we only have four sermons there are only four

sermons we preach these are just little variations on those four themes that's it and oh I sang that song last week or we sang that song this morning or how many times we're going to sing that song the point is the repetition not the novelty we're not after originalness we're not after novelty the job up here for the preacher is not to preach new things it's precisely not to do that it is to preach old things over and over and over again and you keep on doing this for the rest of your life again every time you come into the house of God you know we start with prayer and then we have music and we have preaching you know what that's doing it's breaking up the idols on Monday and Tuesday these little gremlins of the devil or the Gremlins of the world if

you will just building with its axes and Hammers and Nails building pediments upon which to erect idols and then we come into church on Wednesday and we pray and we sing a song speaking of the Lord singing his praises communicating in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs making melody in our heart to the Lord we forsake we have not forsaken the assembling of ourselves together and then we hear the preaching of the word of God in which Jesus is the center of it all that is just a hammer knocking out the idol that started every single time and we have to do it again and again and again and I was really really I remember as a younger as a much younger man I was getting really really weary of the of the traditional church service I was I was coming I was hoping man

I want to hear something I haven't heard before I was I was I was really really starting to get bored and bored as dangerous but the problem was was not really the church it was my expectations it was my assumptions about what the church service was supposed to do oftentimes we do the very same thing over and over and that is the point repetition is our only preparation for eternity because this is about the affections okay so here's the way it works a thought becomes an action and action if it becomes a practice it becomes a habit and when something becomes a habit then we have approached affection because the Habit is comforting thought practice thought practice habit and then we have affections when it's when has reached the heart it has become a necessity We crave it we want it we desire it so

hear the words of David again blessed is the man that walks not in the Council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of Sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night now that does not mean that he is reading day and night there's a difference between something being known and something being top of mind top when it's top of mind that is referring to meditation what scriptures means by the word meditation here when it's top of mind okay so a month or two ago I went over to somebody's house that I went to Bible College with many many years ago and she had a sister and I had forgotten all these 27 or 28 years I had forgotten I'd never thought about her

sister ever since then but I saw a picture on her on her wall of of her her husband and then her sister and all of a sudden all the memories started coming back I remembered her name I remembered a couple of conversations I remember a couple things that a couple of friends that she had that she hung out with I remembered I started remembering things and then it Rose from knowledge to top of Mind see you can have something that's knowledge but it's not really operating it's not really affecting the way you live it's not top of mind that's the difference and so scripture why you need to meditate day and night is you need to not just know this it needs to be top of mind and that requires you to constantly be revisiting it every day there needs to be time in the

word of God every day so that scripture is top of mind don't just say I know it I know what Matthew 5 says no read it make it top of mind his thoughts are higher than our thoughts do you want your thoughts to be elevated see our lives and our flesh we tend to get very competitive we tend to dabble in jealousy and envy we we have we have all kinds of problems dealing with disappointment and lots of anxieties about today and tomorrow and this is circling the drain it's a it's a vicious cycle downwards be driving to work and we're worried about this and we're worried about that and we're disappointed about this and that our thoughts are being drugged down down down and that's a very very bad way to approach your day because there are going to be a lot of challenges

today there are going to be moments today that are going to absolutely challenge your patients the fruit of the spirit that's in you and the gifts of the Spirit and so I would highly recommend this wasn't available when I was younger it's available now amazing there's audio Bible you just download any Bible app and then go to the audio function put on the book of Psalms and listen to it while you're getting ready or while you're driving down the road and watch your thoughts be elevated everything changes when you start really listening to scripture when you stop dwelling upon those things and you start thinking about scripture your horizons change everything is much much more doable because your perspective is now not this narrow Corridor of the present your perspective now is eternity you're now seeing your whole life in the day's Challenge and your

disappointments in the perspective of Eternity so every day every day listen to the word of God take five minutes even so that you can take what is knowledge and lift it and make it top of mind to the point of what scripture would call meditation all right so because of my vocation I deal with a lot of 1920 21 22 year olds and and and I get lots of lots of discussions about the will of God how do I know the will of God should I marry or let's not even get that far should I date Sarah or Sue should I date Joe or Mike um should I am I supposed to be an evangelist a pastor am I supposed to work for a tech company am I supposed to live in Seattle or in Boston am I supposed to be a foreign missionary maybe

to Asia or am I supposed to be a church planter here in the United States man when you're 20. you're you're just old enough now to know that this question the answer to these questions is going to completely change your circumstances in life if you choose Boston that's a completely different life with a different Circle of Friends a different family that you're going to have a different outcome it would seem oh so you're just old enough now to know how many lives are out there for you to live and how significant these decisions are you can be crushed by all the lives you know you're not going to live and so young man young woman knocks on the office door says uh can I talk to you about the will of God for my life all right this is a familiar discussion and so I

get to hear what this young person is thinking his or her decisions are and my question is well what have you done to find out what the will of the Lord is and well the young man will say well come here and talk to you it was one of them all right but what else well I went to a conference in Illinois and I went through a prayer line and I had all kinds of people laying their hands on me and prophesying over me but I still don't know and then I started I started doing some creative stuff like whichever page the Bible opens up to because I wasn't sure and I can't make this decision alone and and then then I said well you know this scripture that I just read was about heaven if the preacher preaches on Heaven tonight I'll know what

I'm supposed to do oh the preacher didn't preach on Heaven preached on hell but he came up to the altar he came up to the Altar and said well hell's the opposite of heaven and it's related it's very very related I think he preached on heaven so you kind of start warping these prophecies to fit what you really wanted to do maybe they call this fleecing the Lord I suppose and and okay well let me let me suggest something else to you you're focusing upon the unknown will of God for your life and and you you feel that these answers are going to be they're all very external to you and and and you're going through the these external means to find the unknown and hidden will of God but I want you to remember what Moses told the children of Israel in his last

sermon he said don't ever let anybody say to you how shall we find out what the Lord wants and one says shall we go across the sea into some exotic place bring back the will of God and then tell everybody don't ever let anybody say well maybe it's up in the mountains and we can bring it down or maybe it's down in the depths somewhere in other words the word of God is very far away the will of God is unknown it's a mystery give it only to a select few never let anybody say that for the word of God is very near you it is in your heart in other words God has made his will very accessible to you he's made it known and the way he's made his will known for your life is through his word it's through his word this

contains the known will of God for you so pay attention first to the known will of God and make sure you're following the known will of God before you start obsessing over the unknown will of God okay there are a couple of instances where scripture is very explicit about what the will of God is for you and this is for everybody it's Universal make sure you're doing this before you ever try to find out what the hidden will of God is Ephesians or first Thessalonians 4 and 3. for this is the will of God that you be set apart and holy that you abstain from fornication that every one of you should know how to control your own body in a way that's honorable and holy not impassionate lust like the pagans there's one instance how about first Peter 2 15. for it is God's

will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people and live as free people but don't use your freedom as a cover for evil show proper respect to everyone love the house of God and live in the fear of God the known will of God how are you doing with that Ephesians 5 and 15. be careful how you live making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil don't be foolish but understand what the Lord's will is concerning you don't be drunk with wine but filled with the spirit so speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs Micah 6 and 8. he has shown you o man what is good and what is your Lord's will concerning you to act justly and to love Mercy and to walk humbly with your God in another place Paul

says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God concerning you how are you doing with these things solve that obeyed that and I'll tell you what everything else is going to work itself out and wherever you go as David said whatever you do you shall prosper and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper that's the promise in psalm 1. if you Delight in the law of the Lord you meditate upon his word day and night that is it's top of mind you'll be bring forth fruit in your season that means when it's time when it's your time everything's going to work itself out you're going to be like a tree planted by the rivers of water the wind can blow and you can have go through seasons of drought but you're tapped into some deep Source way down beneath everything else you can survive

what no one else can survive and whatever you do you're going to be Pro you're going to prosper whatever you do so pay attention to the explicit and well-known will of God obey it see here's the thing you're going to take that character that heart that has been shaped by the word of the Lord it's been shaped by the word of God you're going to take that into every relationship that you have with people and you're going to have the best possible relationship that you can have with them because your heart has been shaped with the will of the Lord by the will of the Lord the word of the Lord you're going to take that heart that character into every interview you have you're going to end up saying the right things to the right employer and the wrong things to the wrong employer

there are certain things that are just going to be filtered out you're not even going to consider it because it's not in the will of God which has been made explicit in the word of God it's amazing this itself out one in one of the most striking ways in the story of Abraham you remember that moment that he stood with lot and they were trying to decide which one of us shall take the the the desert land and live in which one of us is going to go to the rich Plains now that's a really curious position for Abraham to be in Abraham Abraham has the promise that through him the uh the Gentiles would be saved through his seed that is through his descendants was the hope of the world now he could have thought you know I care I've got too much writing

on this The Whole World's at stake I better make the right decision and you better put me I need to be in the the right place for this promise to thrive in a lot I know that I'm sending you into the desert place to live but it's not because I want to be comfortable but it's because I've been given the promise and I have to safeguard that promise and This Promise needs to flourish in a place that can that can take care of us and nurture us and so it's just such a surprise when I read that text I can almost eat I can almost see the angels baited breath waiting to hear what will be decided and Abraham Abraham you choose you're the older man you have a patriarch of the family you're the wiser man you're the one with the promise you're the

one that needs to make the decision and then surprise of all surprises he turns to the young foolish man and says you pick what I want to reach through the text back 3 000 years and say no it's all at stand oh lot you choose and you know predictably law chose the rich planes the fertile Plains and Abraham had the desert here's the point there's the point wherever you go you follow the word of God it doesn't matter if it's the rich Plains or the desert you're going to be okay you don't have to have this anxiety all the time about every little decision you should pray you should know your Bible but most of all you should be in obedience to scriptures and allow scripture to shape your affections and your affections if they're Godly are going to choose the right thing almost invariably

when we're sorrowful and feeling low what do we turn to the world has all kinds of answers spend money go shopping get a drink go online check social media write a long post on how no one cares but when asked to do what to do with sorrow psalmist said when my heart is overwhelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I Lord strengthen me by your word when you want to know what kind of life you the kind of life you should live the world has all kinds of suggestions get people's attention bask in the glow of people's attention but here's the thing attention's about it being extreme creating a kind of polarizing personality but the word of God here's what the word of God urges urges Christians to strive to lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and dignity the

word of God strengthens us when we're weak saves us when we're lost cleanses us when we're stained the word of God encourages us when we're discouraged it admonishes us when we're wavering rebukes us when we're straying enlightens us when we're ignorant it heals us when we're wounded revives us when we're dying it preserves us when we when we're tired the word of God was the strength of Abraham the word of God was the Holy song of David it was the calm and the Prophet Elijah it was the fire and the bones of Jeremiah the rock that followed Moses the beautiful vision of Zechariah it was the banquet of Ezekiel and the Apostle John the word of God was the faultless guide that led the wise men directly to the Babe Christ the word of God was the word and hope of the Apostles more real

to them than the world itself it's the joy of the Archangel Gabriel the word of God spoke the universe into existence and when time is over and Heaven and Earth have passed away through all the ages to come the word of God will stand still unchanging and holy this is a Bible and it can save your life love it cherish it know it meditate upon it Delight in it I have so many memories from these important mile markers in my life when I was around 25 or 26 I don't know why that is but I told you yesterday that I worked at Burger King when I was around that age and I worked next to a fairy um the Seattle Bremerton ferry so lots and lots of homeless people who were kicked off the streets in in Seattle would take the ferry and come over

to Bremerton until they get kicked out of there and they tended to hang right around that area where I was working at a Burger King so we never knew from one night to the next what was going to happen transpire we never know who would walk in and it was adventurous all the time one one afternoon a man who had all the appearance of being homeless he carried his whole world on his back but he had one extra thing he had he had a guitar case great big guitar case he carried it on his back along with a great big backpack and he put it all down in the dining room he had a flannel coat on and he came up to the front he came up to the register and I happened to be up there and he said I'd like a coffee and

we did refuel refill free refills and so the tradition is cold you had nowhere to go this might be a good place to go and you can sit in here for hours drink coffee and and they typically when they were in the situation would ask for a lot of creamers but this guy asked for 30. 30 creamers oh he's going to be here too through tomorrow night I think and we didn't have enough in the little refrigerator down there by the register so I went into the walk-in refrigerator and pulled out a whole case of creamers and I counted them out 30. and I slid it across the the counter and he poured them all into his flannel coat he walked over to his table and he put them all on the table then he went and got his coffee a few hours later I

was done working in the back and I came up to the front but I heard the sound of the guitar and there was that man in the flannel shirt walking around from table to table table serenading all the other diners like we were in Venice or something he was singing Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so I haven't heard that song in a long time took me back to my Sunday school years I just listened for a little while the next afternoon we came in again he asked my name and we got on a first name basis and he asked for 30 creamers it's a good song you're playing you stay here as long as you want until close so he stayed he played his songs from time to time he didn't bother anybody everyone liked to see him and

hear what he was doing and then the next night he came in he did the same thing and then the fourth night he did the same thing and this is my last shift of the week and I'm the closing manager and he asked for his creamers but then he said he said Jeremy what do you do for a living well I'm behind the counter of a Burger King that's not what I mean what do you do for a living you remember Moses said Thou shalt not live by that alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God oh my goodness this guy's not just a he's I I was so chastised and I felt a little defensive too I I was I was in my 20s and I I was raised in an Apostolic church so I'm pretty much more religious than

every one of you put together all of you people don't tell me about the Bible I was a Bible quizzer I know the Bible I didn't say any of that but I was pretty defensive you know you're not going to out Christian me that's my basic was my basic attitude and so I started to Rattle off all the offices I said I teach Sunday school I lead Worship in in church and I do whatever needs to be done around the church I'm the assistant pastor youth pastor I tried to trot out this really long list not only to convince him that I was Christian but also to sort of chastise him for asking me he said oh I thought we had a kindred spirit that's wonderful I'm so glad to hear that now Jeremy would you I just want to hear and I'm not testing

you I just want to hear I want to hear somebody else say what John 3 16 says my ears just want to hear it well I know that one that's kind of a low-hanging fruit though you could have asked me something a little more difficult I said for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son and I noticed on sun that he closed his eyes and as I continued on through the verse that whosoever believeth on him I felt as if I was watching a man who had just come to rest for the first time in his life after carrying many burdens it was as if he were being cleansed by some unknown Force should not perish I said but have everlasting life think about the weight and gravity of those words myself those words that had just been casual all

those years before it's all what they really meant and then he opened his eyes and all do you know what that means I mean do you really know what that means Jeremy that changes everything if the God who made the universe loved us if he so loved us that word so do you know how much of the Heaven and Earth is in that heavens and earth can't contain that word so he's so loved he didn't just he didn't just Give a Little Bit of Heaven when he gave us life he he spent everything he gave us more than Heaven could afford he bankrupted heaven in order to reach down and touch us and save us changes everything what could I ever worry about now could I ever fear for a god a god of the universe loved me that much and then he closed his

eyes and said oh going keep going because the best part is coming now read I want to verse 17 verse 17 . oh no oh for God really really loved the world that he believeth and hath not tried to King James my way through it hey there was lightning in his eyes and he said but Jeremy you you you teach young people God's precious children that you don't know John 3 17 those words are written in red didn't know those I was like well you have to treasure every word you have to you have to treasure it you have to cherish it and I'm wondering about that would would you tell me what John 3 17 says I said I I don't I don't remember I just forgotten it you can't forget this for God sent not his son into the world to condemn it

but that the world through him might have life in his name you see what I mean Jeremy ask you what you do for a living do that this is a Bible he said and can save your life I was truly chastised for I was going to be one of those Christians and even one of those Christian ministers I was on my way to being very casual about it my desires and affections were more geared towards the American dream this was not the center and I walked back to the office and repented this is what I'm going to do for a living regardless of whatever else I do this is what I'm going to do for a living for the rest of my life I counted the tills and I cleaned the broiler I I filtered the fryers and I wiped down the counters and then

I it was my turn to go out and clean the dining room some of the employees didn't show up as usual and I had my mop bucket and my mop and I pushed it out there out there to the dining room where I didn't see because it had been hidden by the partition he had pushed all of the chairs and tables together in the center of the dining room and with 120 creamers he wrote a little smiley face and then said spelled out in big letters Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so that's how I know and for the last few decades I commit I can tell you with 100 testimony this is a Bible and it will save your life cherish it love it know it meditate upon it every day every day you have something holding it in

your hand that will last through everything everything every circumstance in life every problem you stand praise God praise God Jesus sing with me Jesus tell us videos see it again would you take your Bible if you have it with you thank you if you use a device open up the Bible app praise God before you leave today come down here to the front with your Bible come down here to the front let's come down to the front here praise God blessed is the man that walks not in the Council of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners sits in the seat of the scornful but his Delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water bringeth forth fruit in his season

and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper pray would you pray that this scripture this holy word of God would become a part of your daily life and pray that you would cherish this she would have devotions that you would have a ready answer from scripture and that your affections would be shaped by this habit that you form of making scripture a part of every day pray with me father in the name of Jesus I pray that there would be a Revival of a love for your word knowledge of scripture is falling out of culture and in many cases it's falling away in the church and I pray that there would be a Revival in The Young and the old Lord that our affections would be set upon these things your teachings in Scripture I pray that fathers would lead their families in loving scripture that mothers

would Faithfully teach the principles of scripture that young men and young women would not consider their education complete without knowing scripture and loving scripture I pray that this would be our true education watch over your people may they have a love for your word Jesus name praise the Lord praise the Lord thank you Jesus Hallelujah would you just talk to the Lord right now just talk the Lord and open your heart and let him talk to you hallelujah thank you Jesus thank you Jesus thank you us to Hallelujah thank you Jesus thank you Jesus