Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / September 9, 2018 | 4 Things . . . About God - God Knows What's Best For You

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September 9, 2018 | 4 Things . . . About God - God Knows What's Best For You · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:01
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever been misunderstood?
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe misrepresented?
0:05
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had someone think they know who you are only to finally meet you and say, you're not at all like I thought you were?
0:12
SPEAKER_01: We've all at different times been labeled.
0:15
SPEAKER_01: We've all had things assumed about us that aren't true.
0:18
SPEAKER_01: And the truth is we do this with God too.
0:21
SPEAKER_01: Millions of us go through life and we think we know all about God.
0:25
SPEAKER_01: We've heard of Jesus.
0:27
SPEAKER_01: We've heard of the Ten Commandments.
0:29
SPEAKER_01: We know most of the rules.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: But do we know who he truly is?
0:34
SPEAKER_01: Do we know what he's really like?
0:52
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful weather, and uh, I am excited about our new sermon series, which is starting this morning.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: It's Four Weeks Law, and it's entitled Four Things I Wish You Knew About God.
1:09
SPEAKER_00: And um so I'm sort of pumped about this because uh you've heard probably A.W.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Tozer's famous statement that what you think about when you think about God is the most important thing about you.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, this series illustrates sort of a corollary to that, which is this what you don't think about or what you don't know about God when you think about God is the single most important thing for you to learn about God because it's stunting your growth and it's stifling and throttling your happiness.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: So I want to talk to you about that today, and we're gonna do four messages about that, and the one I've got, each one of them is gonna start with these words.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: I wish you knew that God.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: And this morning it is, I wish you knew that God knows what's best for you.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: And if I'd had more room, I'd have made the whole title, I wish you knew that God knows better than you what will make you happy.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Right?
2:10
SPEAKER_00: And the text for this morning is one verse, Psalm 1611.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: I want you to say it out loud with me right now.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: In your presence is fullness of joy.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: In your right hand there are pleasures forever.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Try it one more time.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: In your presence is fullness of joy.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: In your right hand, there are pleasures forever.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: So Psalm 1611.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: This sermon actually, I confess, arose out of an interview I was reading in a magazine a couple of weeks ago.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: This interview is a national uh interview uh done by um, it was carried in National Review magazine, and it was done with a guy who wrote a book called The Dignity Revolution, and she was asking him questions about human dignity, which he was all about.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: He said, We really fail to give each other human dignity today, and we'd all go, yeah, that's true.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: And it was just an okay interview until she asked him close to the end this question.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: She said, Is there anything that your book, The Dignity Revolution, would say to the issue of the sex scandals presently in the Catholic and in the Protestant churches?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: I thought that's an interesting question.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: His answer caused me to stop breathing.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: His name, Daniel Darling, and his answer went like this.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: And he's a professor of business at Syracuse University, which made his answer even the more surprising to me.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: He said the biggest lie of the serpent is this idea that we are better masters of our own fates than God is, that we know more than the creator about what is best for our own flourishing.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: Can I read that again?
3:58
SPEAKER_00: Can I tell you, I mean, that stopped me so dead.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: The biggest lie of the serpent, really, is this idea that we are better masters of our own fates than God is, that we know more than the Creator about what is best for our happiness, for our own flourishing.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, you know, I think maybe he's right.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: That maybe in the West today and in America, this is the biggest lie that people believe today, that we know better than God.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: What will make us happy?
4:36
SPEAKER_00: We know better than God what is best for us.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we all do want to be happy, there's no doubt about that.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: There's a story about the journalist, the reporter who saw this guy rocking on his porch, and she walked up to this little old man and she said, I couldn't help noticing how happy you look.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: What's your secret for a long and happy life?
5:04
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Well, I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: I work my way through a case of whiskey each week.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: I eat a donut to start each day and a bowl of ice cream before I go to bed at night, and I never leave this rocking chair on this porch during the day.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Wow, she said, that's amazing.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: How old are you?
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Twenty-six, he said.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: We have no problem with him wanting happiness.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: We all want to be happy, right?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: It's what the philosophers tell us is a part of who we are.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Pascal, the French mathematician and philosopher, said it 400 years ago.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: All men seek happiness.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: This is without exception.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: He's he went on to say they go to war or don't go to war because they're seeking happiness, what they think will make them happy.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: He even said, even when a man hangs himself, he's doing it seeking happiness.
6:01
SPEAKER_00: The Declaration of Independence starts, remember, that we have these inalienable rights, and one is the pursuit of happiness.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: That led, I think, to a movie a dozen years ago starring Will Smith, good movie.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh the word happiness was misspelled, H-A-P-P-Y-N-E-S S, because in that movie I was misspelled by the kid who scrawled it on the side of the daycare center.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: But there is a pursuit of happiness which we all make, and it's natural to us.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: God's not critical of that.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think there are so many books and surveys about happiness that are done.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the surveys about America and how happy we are as versus how other nations are happy shows that about 30, right now, it's 31% of Americans say that they're more happy than not happy, which is a whole lot higher than, say, Denmark, which is down there at 7%.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: And so people write books.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: For instance, one book entitled Gross National Happiness, written by Arthur Brooks, and he was interviewed, he's been interviewed and given talks on TED's and so forth about this.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: And his result, frankly, was a couple of years ago, is just stunning to me because he said in the surveys that I've done of people people in America, he says, I found that you're happier, you're slightly happier if you have these factors: faith, if you're working, if you have a marriage and family, if you're involved in charity, either giving money or donating your time, and freedom.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: And I go, whoa, all of those are biblical values, all of those you can find in the Bible.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, biblical values are related to happiness.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, can I just stop here for a second and say that I am not distinguishing happiness from joy this morning?
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And if you happen to follow, if you've read a devotional book, Oswald Chambers is the one who started it about, I don't know, 80, 90 years ago, saying that happiness was a terrible thing, that it was secular and it was earthly, and joy is the good thing, and it's blah, blah, blah.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: But, oh, sorry, that sounded bad.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: But there's no distinction.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: There's no distinction in the dictionary, no distinction in the Bible.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: And if you hold to that distinction, that's just fine.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: But this morning I'm gonna ignore it.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm gonna talk about happiness and joy as though they're the same thing.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: And I want to share with you this.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: I've come up with five reasons, evidences, or proofs that God knows best.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: In other words, that he knows better than you what would make you happy.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: And the first one is simply this that hard experience has taught us that we don't know best what would make us happy.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: I think this is universal experience.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't long ago that the Atlantic magazine, a writer, wrote an article entitled, Why So Many Smart People Aren't Happy.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Her first sentence was being better educated, richer, or more accomplished doesn't do much to predict whether someone will be happy.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it might mean someone is less likely to be satisfied with life.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: And more recently, a writer for uh um a parenting magazine uh called uh Big City Parents wrote an article in that magazine entitled, I thought finding my dream home would uh make me disappear.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Um so we've had this problem this morning, and it's just fun because I can prove to everybody that I'm a real techie.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Um her article is entitled, I thought finding my dream home would make me happy.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: I was so wrong.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: We think certain things will make us happy, and then we find out, but the Bible predicted that, right?
9:52
SPEAKER_00: It says there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let me interview Adam and Eve for just a second.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve, did you think that eating of the tree and displaying God would make you happy?
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: Why'd you do that?
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, we thought God, you know, didn't really care for what was best for us, and he really was restricting us, and he was kind of, you know, mean, and so we went ahead and ate of it.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: What do you think now?
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think God was probably right, and we were we were wrong, right?
10:23
SPEAKER_00: And on the other hand, you know, uh we had that verse that goes, weeping is, you know, weeping may fill your night, but sometimes joy comes in the morning.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: Am I right about that?
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've we've all been this way.
10:34
SPEAKER_00: We've all been wrong about happiness, starting when we were nine months old, and we believed what would make us happy is riding with mommy on her lap as she drove the car, right?
10:41
SPEAKER_00: And we threw a tantrum if she didn't let us.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Or when we were three years old, and we believed that what would make us happy is playing in the street, and daddy wouldn't let us.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: And then when we're teenagers, we're no smarter about that.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it happened to me, I'm sure it happened to you.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Remember when you fell in love, head over heels in love?
10:59
SPEAKER_00: I mean, so totally in love.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: She was so beautiful, he was so handsome, and all the other girls wanted him, but you snagged him, or all the other guys stared at her, but I mean, she went out with you, and there, I mean, and wow, and you went out at night.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: This is sorry, a lot of this is autobiographical, and went out at night and you stood underneath the stars and you said, Thank you, Lord, thank you, God.
11:21
SPEAKER_00: And you told all your friends you were gonna marry them.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: He even maybe stupidly called your parents long distance and told them this was the one.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: So you were so blissfully happy for a month or two or three, and then and then she walked away from from you at the football game, at the homecoming game, and left with another guy.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
11:45
SPEAKER_00: I do, I remember it so well.
11:47
SPEAKER_00: No.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, and so all of a sudden you're absolutely crushed, and that night you went out underneath the stars and you screamed at God and you yelled at God and you said, How could you do this to me?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: My life is over, I'll never be happy again, and so forth, because you were thinking you were gonna get married and all that.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Then you watched her with him with his new girlfriend, and uh, and you go, Whoa, there's some things I didn't see here.
12:11
SPEAKER_00: And then when she gets married within just a couple of months, and then you begin to hear things about this marriage and so forth, then you went out for the third time underneath the night sky, and you said, Thank you, God, for protecting me from what I thought I wanted, and blessing me with what I didn't know I needed, because we just don't know what's best for us.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Hard experience has taught us that.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And the second evidence in my mind that God knows best, that he knows better than we do, standard being pretty low there, then what will make us happy is that God's smarter than us.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he knows so many more details.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: He's like more intelligent, right?
12:49
SPEAKER_00: And he can and he can also see around the corner.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we need we see today with that investment we're thinking of, with that purchase we're thinking of, with that relationship we're starting or whatever.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: We see today, but God sees tomorrow and the next day and next year.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: As heaven is higher than earth, says Isaiah, so am I says God to Isaiah, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I'm smarter.
13:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm smarter than you are.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: I know what's best.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Plus, I can see the future.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Joseph, remember, all those bad things happened to him in life.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Bad, bad, bad, bad.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, good.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: And he says to his brothers, You intended to harm me.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: But God all along intended all for good.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Genesis 50, verse 20, which is why, listen, which is why God can promise you and me that all things work together for good to those who love God, because God is smarter than us and he can see the future.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's the second reason why I believe that we can say God knows best, he knows better than we do.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: What will make us happy?
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And the third reason is that God is father, and father knows best.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: This predates most of you by a long ways.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: Didn't predate me, but we didn't have a TV growing up in my home.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: But there was a show in which a guy named Jim Somebody, uh, Robert Young is actually, was the actor, and more than 200 times, he would come home from his insurance job and take off his suit coat or his sport coat or whatever and slip on his sweater or something more comfortable, and then his three kids would clamber down the stairs and he would be daddy, he would be the father, and he would know best.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, do teenagers think even for a micro second that their parents know best?
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Oh, contraire.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: No.
14:47
SPEAKER_00: But it is interesting that psychology today and parenting magazines and even teen magazines are constantly raising that issue.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Psychology Today's article recently was parent, adolescent, and who knows best.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: And a youth magazine from Dallas, Dallas Youth Magazine, entitled an article, in most cases, parents do know what's best for their children.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna want to go home and have your kids watch this just so you can say, I told you so.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: I do know best.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: But but of course, we don't always know best for our kid.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Parents don't always know best.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: Dad doesn't always know best, but our father in heaven does.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop for a drop a little theology in here.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: If you're talking to somebody, if somebody's talking to you and they don't go to church or whatever, and they say to you, tell me something about God.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: What's the thing I should know about God more than anything else?
15:48
SPEAKER_00: What would you tell them?
15:53
SPEAKER_00: You might say, He's the creator, man.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he is he's the mightiest, he's the creator of the whole universe.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: Stop for a second.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: That's not the most important thing about God or the essence of God or even the heart of God.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: Did you realize that God was God lived for billions of years before he ever became a creator, before he ever made creation?
16:17
SPEAKER_00: That's the problem with telling them, well, God's a ruler or God's a shepherd, because it requires something outside himself.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize, as theology books say, that the single most fundamental ish essence of God is that he is father because he's always been father, son, and holy spirit?
16:36
SPEAKER_00: So if someone asks you who God is, for all kinds of reasons, the best answer is to say, God is father.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And because God is father and father knows best, God knows better than you what will make you happy, and that's number three.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Number four is God is a happy God.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: We don't think he's happy, we think he's stern or that he's judgmental or he's up there shaking his head all the time, going, Oh, you blew it again last night.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Or, you know, but but 1 Timothy 1, 11, I think it's 11 says, you know, our calls him a most blessed God, meaning a most happy God.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: He is a, he is all about happiness and where he lives as a happy place.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: And he offers you a happy place in the future, a happy future.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: This is who our God is.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just the angels turning cartwheels in heaven over one sinner who repents.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: Listen, friend, if you haven't come to Christ yet and you do come to Christ today or some other time, and you go, yeah, you know, I do believe in you.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm convinced this is, you're the one I want.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: In that moment that you do, there's cartwheels and fireworks in heaven.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I think I mentioned that last week, and God is part and parcel of that celebration.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: He is a happy God who rejoices the moment you trust him.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: And then he offers you this incredibly happy future.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Don't fear, little flock, said Jesus in Luke, for it is your father's, get this, good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: He's looking forward to this.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: He's in Psalm 95.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: We're told Jesus is gonna be anointed with joy more than anyone else in heaven.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be the happiest one in heaven, in heaven.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is why it was, but it was shocking, you know, like 50, 60 years ago in England when C.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: S.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Lewis, a professor at Oxford, you know, in a place, England, where it's stiff upper lip, businessman, and so forth, where God is stern, and you know, the English gentleman, when C.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: S.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Lewis came out with that line, joy.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: Happiness is the serious business of heaven.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: My goodness.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul agreed with that, and he said, Listen, I know how you're hurting.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I know how some of you are just brokenhearted this morning over what someone said to you this last week.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was a doctor, maybe it was a loved one.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: But listen, our light affliction, because it's just for a moment, is laying up for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: And the sadder you are today, especially in his service, the happier you will be on that day, because God is a happy God who promises eternal happiness and says, I go to prepare a happy place for you.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: And if I go and prepare that place, I'm coming back to take you to be with me where I am.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: You may be also.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: So, why do we doubt that he knows what's best for us?
19:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll answer that question right now because the fifth and the most important of these and the last is because our true happiness is, after all, found in God Himself.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: So let me tell you the problem with giving a message like this at Topeka Bible Church, or to people like you who know the Bible or who've been taught the Bible, and that is that you know something that seems to contradict everything I've said, because you know that out of his own lips, repeatedly and constantly in the Bible, there is something that God says that goes something like this: I do everything for my own glory and honor and name and reputation.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: God, why is it that you created me?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 43, I created you for my glory.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: God, why is it that you'll eventually return to the earth and take us home to be with you?
21:02
SPEAKER_00: 2 Thessalonians 1 9, I will return in majesty for my own glory and praise.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: God, when we blow it, why is it that you don't give up on us and give us up?
21:15
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel 12.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: I do not give you up for the sake of my reputation.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: God, why do you bless us?
21:24
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 48 and Ezekiel 30 36.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: I bless you for the sake of my glory, so the nations will know that I am the Lord.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: God, why do you do anything for my own sake?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: For my own sake I act, says the Lord, Isaiah 48 11.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: God, when I go through my day, what should I be thinking about?
21:44
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians 10 31.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or anything you do, do all for the glory of God.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: So the Scripture is crystal clear.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: God is absolutely Self-centered.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: He cares more about his own glory than he cares about anything else from beginning to end, world without end, his number one priority and constant concern is his own glory, his own reputation, his own honor, and his own name.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: Can I be honest with you?
22:21
SPEAKER_00: When God talks this way as he does, I am a little bit embarrassed.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: No, I lied.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm really a lot embarrassed.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: It makes him sound awfully self-centered, not us-centered.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like he loves himself more than he loves us.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Not only, frankly, is it embarrassing, it's just off-putting.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit repulsive or unattractive.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, remember those people in school who were utterly self-centered?
22:48
SPEAKER_00: The girl who spent half of recess in front of the mirror in the bathroom touching herself up so that everybody would think that she was beautiful?
22:57
SPEAKER_00: Remember what it was like when you were around that guy and everything was always about him?
23:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, neither one of them cared a whit what happened to you.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: They didn't care about your happiness.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: They cared only about themselves, not about your feelings.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: And so listen, if God is that like that, if he's constantly seeking his own glory, and frankly, if the Bible says love seeks not its own, and yet God's seeking his own, how can he be at the same time a God of love who really wants what's best for us?
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Here's the question: Is God for himself or is God for us?
23:34
SPEAKER_00: There it is.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: That's the question.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Is God for himself or is God for us?
23:40
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is yes.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: It truly is.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I I just would have to.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: The Bible would say that God is 100% and totally for himself and is at the same time 100% and totally for us.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: So the how can that be that God is both 100% for himself and 100% for us at the same time?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm telling you, the Bible says that God is that way because the only way he can be totally for us is to be totally for himself and totally for staying at the center of the universe.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: So let me turn it around and try to help you by asking you a question, a series of questions.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Is God absolutely perfect in his beauty, in his glory, in his majesty, in his wisdom?
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Is he?
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he is.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Is God the most admirable, amazing, incredible being in the whole universe?
24:42
SPEAKER_00: Yes, he is.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Is there anyone else, any one of us, for example, who should usurp his place at the center of the universe?
24:50
SPEAKER_00: No, of course not.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: Then what is the single best gift that God could give us?
24:54
SPEAKER_00: What?
24:55
SPEAKER_00: What is the single best gift?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: What could God give you that would make you more happy and more fulfilled and completely satisfied?
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Think.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Think for a minute.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: If God is the most wonderful thing in the universe, then what's the most wonderful thing that God could give us?
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Himself, exactly.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: There's only one possible answer.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: God loves us perfectly, so he is determined to give us the very best thing there is, the thing that is will make us most happy and most fulfilled, most flourishing, the most satisfied, and therefore he has to give us himself, which is why our theme verse, why David was brilliant when he landed on it and said, In your presence is fullness of joy.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: At your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: And then shortly after that, taste and see that the Lord is good.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: How happy is the man who takes refuge in him.
25:56
SPEAKER_00: Take delight in the Lord, Psalm 37, and he'll give you the desires of your heart.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: And listen, that's why God sent Jesus down to earth.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: God, why did you send Jesus down to earth?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: And he says, so that you might have access to the Father.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Why did you die on the cross?
26:18
SPEAKER_00: Well, I died on the cross, he says, so that I might bring you to God.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: You see, in our short-sightedness and in our confusion, and in my brilliant techie stuff going on right now, we somehow commit the error of thinking that what would make us most happy is to be a rock star.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean that literally, but what would make us most happy is to have at least one person in the world absolutely adore us and for us to be famous and for us to be like those NFL athletes or like the stars and so forth, so that articles were written about us and people looked up to us, and when we looked in the mirror, we would have such great self-esteem and we would have a really big bank account, and we think that that's what would be the best for us.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: We think that's what would make us happy.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: But God knows better.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: He knows that what is really the best for us is not becoming the center of the universe, not becoming adored by everyone else.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: In fact, those things would be a lethal distraction from what actually will completely make us happy and what is the best for us, which is coming to Him and praising Him at the center of the universe.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: It's like if you went to the Grand Canyon and the woman next to you opened her purse and pulled out a mirror and spent the whole time in front of the Grand Canyon touching up her lipstick and doing her face or something.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: You'd go, I mean, really?
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Or if you went out camping, guys, and underneath the night sky and the guy next to you spent the whole time taking selfies?
27:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you go, wow, there's something really wrong here.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: I mean, can I just wow, yeah, I lost it again.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Sam.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So listen, let me ask you a question.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Do you think heaven's gonna be full of mirrors?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: I mean, really, is heaven gonna be full of mirrors so that those of us who really like to primp can look at ourselves all the time?
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Heaven's no.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Heaven is gonna be as full of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea, we are told.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: So then we come to a verse like this.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: We sang a line from this.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, thanks, Amelia and Sam.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: We sang a line from this this morning in one of our songs.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It goes, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Why should we trust the Lord with our happiness decisions and not lean on our own understanding?
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Why?
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Because of all those things I told you, because the God who knows you best knows the best for you.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Remember that this week when you're about to make a happiness decision and you glance up at heaven and God's going, hmm, you think you want that, but you really don't want that.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Don't be like Adam and Eve.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what's best for me, you don't care for me.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: I really, I really know what will make me happy.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: No, listen, believe it.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: This is what I wish for you right now, this morning, more than anything else.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I wish you knew.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: I wish you knew that God knows what's best for you.
29:15
SPEAKER_00: He knows better than you what would make you happy.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: And now we get to sit in front of the Lord in communion and we get to come to him, we get to look at him, we get to see the one who makes us happy even in the moment of gazing upon him.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Join me in a word of prayer.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the table, for this moment in which the Lord Jesus Christ says, There I am.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: See me in the bread, this the broken body when I came for my Father's glory at the same time I came for you.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: See me in the cup.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: This is the blood, the new covenant in my blood, which saves you, but is also inextricably intertwined with the honor and reputation of my Father.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: We so long, Heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ, to come and join you in your place and experience the fullness of joy forevermore.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: And in this moment at the Lord's table, we thank you for a moment when we can look at you even now on earth in Jesus' name.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Amen.