Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / July 23, 2017 | Really? - Go With God, And Life Is Good

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July 23, 2017 | Really? - Go With God, And Life Is Good · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh, that was tepid.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's try it again.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: How are you doing?
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nice, Danny.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: That was good.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: So it's great to see you this morning.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Air conditioning's working.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: You don't realize how that was all in limbo about an hour or two ago.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, we're really happy.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: You're happy.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: So we're in a series, if you're visiting, called Really?
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Well, you saw it up there, Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: But uh, part of the reason uh I embarked on this series, and this morning is the eighth out of 12 weeks in the series.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Part of the reason is to remind us that smart people aren't always accurate.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: We need to remember that whether they're Christians or not, that sometimes smart people can believe and tell us certain, you know, things that aren't quite accurate.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Huh?
0:54
SPEAKER_00: Some of you uh have uh parents, grandparents who were alive in 1949 when this was a pretty hot ad.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: More doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Can I get an aim in from the doctors here?
1:06
SPEAKER_00: So, so no dentists, anybody?
1:10
SPEAKER_00: No, no, but that was actually listen to an old documentary, you know, where this was an ad, and doctors tell us that by 70%, they love camels.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: But you know, you say, um, you say, well, that was then, this is now.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: I was with uh uh scientist last week at the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and he said, you know, the thing about science is we're always saying, well, that was then, that's what we believed then, but this is now.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, we like to think that we're a lot smarter, but but let me remind you, just one year ago, this week, was the um uh one of the national conventions for one of the two political parties.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: There were at that time, one year ago, three candidates running for president.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: And they told us things that millions of Americans believed, which I think one year later we would consider silly.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: One of the candidates said, if you elect me president, everyone will get a free college education.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: Another one said, if you elect me president, I'll make Mexico pray for a brand new border wall between us.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And another one said, if you elect me president, we'll multiply federal giveaways with no tax increase at all.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And a year later we're going, really?
2:26
SPEAKER_00: Did we believe that stuff?
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Not you, not you, okay.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: None of you believe this stuff.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: I believed all three of them.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: So, okay, we're, you know.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: So it's uh we have to remind ourselves that smart people can tell us things that we shouldn't believe.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: And that's true even of smart Christians.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Smart Christians sometimes believe dumb things.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: In our series so far, we've included things like uh smart Christians sometimes believe uh godly homes guarantee godly kids.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: No.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And and and that, what was it a couple weeks ago that Abe uh Abe Maynor uh oh, that the best Christians are the busiest Christians.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: Now, this one today, go with God and life is good.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: I know some of you are looking at me like, but that is true.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: You know, so uh so this is we're gonna dive into the deep end of the pool today and tackle this because I'm gonna try to convince you that go with God and life will be good is a dumb thing and we shouldn't believe it.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: One of the most interesting uh uh, you know, having uh been a pastor for a couple of years, I've had a lot of interesting times.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: One of the ones which, if I ever wrote a book, would definitely be in the top ten, would be the time I went to visit a buddy of mine at a bar.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: He had taken the bar job, taken a bartender job against my recommendation.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh I said to him, What are you doing?
3:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, you got an alcohol problem, and then he says, Yeah, but the bartender, you know, the owner he's gonna let me uh finish off other people's drinks and take sips once in a while myself.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: I said, that's you know.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so he calls me and says, you know, can we talk?
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And so uh he was working, so I drove, so I drove to the bar, and it was late afternoon, and I went in, there were only about a dozen people there, and I always go to bars, just so you know this.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: I love going to bars.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Invite me to your bar any time.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I saw I go in, there are about a dozen people there, and there's nobody sitting at the bar itself.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: He's behind the bar, so I slide onto a bar stool, and it becomes really obvious in his first few words to us as we just uh share our greetings that he's already uh finished off a number of people's drink, shall we say.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: And and and he is he's pretty loose.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: And uh so uh nobody's asking for any help, so he comes around and he sits next to me on another barstool.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I say, hey buddy, what's going on?
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And to my absolute astonishment, he begins to cry.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: A man's man, I've never seen him cry before, he starts crying, and then the crying gets louder, and now I'm embarrassed.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: I can feel people licking, and then he begins to sob.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: Those not just normal sobs, those heaving whacks, whacking sobs, and now all the people in the bar are staring at us.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm going, I'm gonna need to get a job in another town probably after this.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I say, Well, what is it?
5:20
SPEAKER_00: And he said, basically, you said that if I became a Christian, God would give me a good life, but he hasn't done me any good at all.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: That one took me by surprise.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't the right time for me to slug him and say, I never told you that.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: Where'd you get that?
5:45
SPEAKER_00: I said, What exactly is it that that's the problem?
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And he said, She won't call me back.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: And I knew what it was.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: He was a girl he wanted to enter a relationship with, and she clearly didn't want to enter a relationship with him, and he was calling her and she wouldn't call him back.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I told you that was an interesting story, but it reminded me at the time of how dangerous sometimes expectations can be.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Because when expectations are at a uh are up high, and then those expectations are not met, well, then you become disillusioned.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh, the way psychologists described it, uh, described unmet expectations lead to disappointment and confusion, and that leads to disillusionment, which leads to despondency, and oftentimes, as in this case, leads to anger and leads to bitterness.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: You know what it's like in marriage.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Everybody who gets married, you know, within, who knows, days, weeks, or well, maybe for you it was 10 years, uh, you know, you go, that's uh she's not exactly what I expected.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: He's not exactly what I expected.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Like the, you know, the marriage counselor said to said to her, you know, when she came for help for marriage counseling, he said to her, Yes, but you remember you married him for better or worse.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Yes, but he's so much worse than I took him for.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: And what happens is those expectations are dashed, as Shakespeare would put it.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: Expectation is the root of all heartache.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: And it's bad enough to have unmet expectations of a husband or of a wife, but when your unmet expectations have to do with God, as in my friend's case, can be absolutely devastating, which is why Phil Yancey wrote that book, Disappointment with God, about Christians who expect certain things of God and then are disappointed.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: He actually wrote this as a story about the book of Job.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Remember Job who expected certain things from God, the most righteous man on earth at that day.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Now all of a sudden he's losing all of his children, losing all of his property, all of his wealth, losing his health.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: But you say to me, doesn't God make good life promises?
8:19
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't he sort of in the Bible promise us, if you'll go with me, I'll give you a good life?
8:26
SPEAKER_00: And I'll have to confess to you that the answer is, well, yes.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Especially at the end of Deuteronomy.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to his own people, he's speaking to Israel at the end of the Torah, and he says, The Lord will open the heavens.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: You follow me, and I'll open the storehouse of my bounty to send rain on your land in season and to bless all of the work of your hands.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: You'll lend to many nations, but will borrow from none.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: He goes on and on and on, and you'll never get sick, and I'll take care of you, and your life will be good.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: Your enemies may attack, but they'll all fall dead.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, you go, well, that was okay, maybe that was Israel and you know 1500 BC.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Well, hold it just a second in one of your favorite Psalms, Psalm 37.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't David say, I have been young and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: Really?
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Never?
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Not even once?
9:33
SPEAKER_00: Or Malachi 3.10.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: If you ever spent time in a Baptist church as I did growing up, you know this verse, baby.
9:39
SPEAKER_00: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: Test me, God says, test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: Can I get a TV preacher?
9:56
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: All right.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: Just checking.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: So now let's I I don't mean to make fun.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: I have to, I confess, and I know some of you have told me the same thing, that when you transitioned, when I transitioned, well, Melody and I transitioned from the pry the dollar bill out of our hands, you know, Congdons invented copper wire fighting over a penny.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: We're tight.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: So um, so when it stop it stopped being the pry the$20 out of Jim's hand to put in the plate while he thinks of everything he could buy with that, you know, to becoming a generous giver.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: Life has never been better, and I have to say that God has taken care of us wonderfully, and that's the testimony I hear from everybody.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: However, I don't think any of us are dumb enough to say that every person who has ever tithed or ever given generously to God has reaped a windfall as a result.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And the center passage in the whole Bible on this comes from Proverbs 3.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: We're not 1, 2, 3, 4, or five times, but five times in Proverbs 3, 1 through 10, we have what the NIV titles in its translation as wisdom bestows well-being.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: My son, Proverbs 3, 1, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: For they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Promise that if a son, if a child is obedient, doesn't forget parents' teaching, he, she will live a long life.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: I mean, doesn't it remind you?
11:47
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a Ephesians 6 picks it up in the New Testament, children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: Honor your father and mother, the first commandment with a promise, quote, so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
12:04
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever known of a child who hasn't lived a long life on the earth?
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Verses 3 and 4, let love and kindness never leave you.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Daddy, what will I get if I'm loving and kind?
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Answer, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.
12:29
SPEAKER_00: Not just God, but man.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Wow, what a promise.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: And then two of our favorite verses, which we've wrongly associated with guidance, which are really success verses, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: In all your ways, submit to him, acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight, is what it says.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: A line used often in the Old Testament for, let's say, in Isaiah 40, the king is coming to town.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we need to smooth down the hills.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: We need to clean up the road so that his trip into town will be smooth.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: The path will be straight and smooth for him.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: And God will make your path straight and smooth and successful if only you will trust him.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop for a minute.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: I've got four more verses.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: The even numbered verses make these incredible promises.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: Let me stop because I got a hoot a couple weeks ago out of Politico Magazine.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Political Magazine is a left-leaning journal.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: And a Yale professor, this is proof again that smart people can believe dumb things, wrote an article in July the 9th in Politico Magazine entitled Marco Rubio is tweeting the most republican part of the Bible.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: Subtitled, Each Day the Florida Center is quoting a verse from Proverbs.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's true, since May, the mid-May.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Rubio, who's an outspoken Christian, is just, you know, like a lot of people online, he's just tweeting a verse from Proverbs.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: It's the most Republican.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: So Proverbs is Republican.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: And he goes on to explain in this article how awful Proverbs is because it's always telling you that if you work hard and save money and you're disciplined, you know, you'll get rewarded and you'll do better and so forth, which is really Republican.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm going.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay, but how about the verse?
14:24
SPEAKER_00: So how about Proverbs 12 where it says, Don't be cruel to your animals, but be kind to the beasts that God has given you to care for?
14:33
SPEAKER_00: Or how about the verse, you know, that a Proverbs 31 woman is one who stretches out her hands to the poor and needy and meets their food and clothing needs.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: How about the verses that tell you in this book to be merciful and not cruel and kind and compassionate?
14:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, those are Republican verses.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm going, oh, come on, at least if you're a Yale professor, you could open the book for yourself and read a little bit.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm sorry.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: That was extra, had nothing.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: But we return, I'm sorry for you Democrats, we're returning to the most Republican book of the Bible and verses 7 and 8 of Proverbs chapter 3, which says, Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: This will bring, oh my goodness.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: This is a this is just a wonderful massage to a TV preacher.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones, and honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops, then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your bats, bats will, the bats will brim over with new wine as well.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Make your bats very happy.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: And so, so we have verse.
15:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm a little loose today.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: I visited my friend at the bar last night.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: So, Proverbs 3, 1 through 10, 10 verses, right?
15:54
SPEAKER_00: So if you do this, odd numbered verses, then even numbered verses, these five things will happen.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: What are these five things?
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Long life, a good reputation, a smooth path, physical health, and wealth.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: Go with God, and life is good.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: Sounds a whole lot like God wants you to be rich or God wants you well and healthy, doesn't it?
16:23
SPEAKER_00: That's why I think we need to read those verses, but then ask ourselves, does, I mean, let's just be honest, does Proverbs promise too much?
16:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how about Job?
16:34
SPEAKER_00: It's another of the wisdom literature books.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Remember how righteous Job was?
16:40
SPEAKER_00: And then because of we know, he didn't know this deal, this bargain, this gamble made in heaven between Satan and God, where God gives Satan permission to test Job.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: Job loses it all in four blows, two of them human enemies, and two of them what are called acts of God, and he loses it all.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: And his own wife comes to him as he's scratching the boils on top of the antheap and says, curse God and die.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: And he says, to his credit, shall we receive good from God and not ill?
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Job doesn't fit Proverbs 3 at all.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: How about Jesus?
17:24
SPEAKER_00: Did Jesus live a long life?
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Could have a good reputation, have a smooth path, physical health, wealth?
17:33
SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't even have a place to lay his head.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: None of this is true for Jesus.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: And then when you start thinking about the other side of the story in the Bible, you suddenly realize, well, the Bible has at least even more verses that seem to promise adversity than verses that promise prosperity.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Yes, says Paul to Timothy, all those who desire to live godly in Christ shall suffer what?
18:02
SPEAKER_00: Persecution.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: 2 Timothy 3.12.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even the same chapter in Psalms where David said, I've lived a long life, never seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread, he says in the very same paragraph, better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: Hold it, stop right there.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, little that the righteous have?
18:29
SPEAKER_00: I thought the righteous were the ones that were the head and not the tail, had all the grub, and the wicked are the ones that are suffering.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Which reminds you, this whole thing of one of our favorite Psalms, Psalm 73, where a godly man says, you know what?
18:48
SPEAKER_00: I lived on the wrong side of the tracks and always looked at the big house on the other end of the road, and I envied that arrogant guy when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: They have no struggles, their bodies are healthy and strong, they're free from the burdens common to man, they're not plagued by human ills.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, how do you fit that with Proverbs 3?
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And then it only gets worse because you get to the faith chapter, Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament, which lists all these godly guys and then says, you know what?
19:20
SPEAKER_00: They were stoned, they were sawed in too, they were put to death by the sword.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, they were destitute, persecuted, and mistreated.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: The world wasn't worthy of them.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Well, they didn't seem to have lived a good life at all.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul himself, when he's sharing about his life, he didn't say he had a three-car garage and a Maserati, and because of his closeness to God, he could live in prosperity.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've worked much harder, 2 Corinthians 11, in prison more frequently, flogged more severely, been exposed to death again and again, five times, received from the Jews the 40 lashes, minus one.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: Three teams, three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, and on and on.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: It seems that if you go with God, life isn't good at all.
20:27
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm really confused.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, is go with God and life will be good, true or not true?
20:36
SPEAKER_00: I've been studying this and wrestling with this.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: This is not the kind of thing, unfortunately, that seminaries want to dive into.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: So they don't teach about it.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: You don't hear about this much.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: But I think it's one of the most practical issues that you and I face.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: It's an issue of expectations.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: What do we expect from God?
20:53
SPEAKER_00: People come back from Paris.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: I throw this in.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Psychological psychologists talk about the Paris syndrome.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: People who've dreamed their whole lives about going to Paris for the beauty and the romance, they get there and they smell the sewers and they see it's not all that much, and they get the Paris syndrome.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Their expectations have crashed.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about if you've got a God syndrome?
21:16
SPEAKER_00: You came into life reading some of those verses and you thought life would be good with God, and then it doesn't work out.
21:24
SPEAKER_00: You lose your job, you lose your spouse, your health goes.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Is go with God and life will be good, true or not.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, the answer that I've come up with studying this, and I'm not kidding, I've studied this and collected material on it for 40 years, and here's my conclusion is first thing I would say is well, yes, ultimately, yes, it is true.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: If you include our future life after death.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, after all, Proverbs puts it this way this book that has all those.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Promises says, though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: What it's trying to say is that righteous people may fall.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: They won't always live on the top of the mountain.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: They won't always be on cruises.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: They may fall.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: They may fall twice, three times, may fall seven times.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: No, they may fall throughout their entire lives.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: They may lose their job.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: They may lose their health.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: They may lose their loved one.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: But they will rise again.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 23, chapter before, explains for sure they will rise again in the next life.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: Don't let your heart envy sinners, Proverbs 23, 17 says, but be zealous for the fear of the Lord all the day, for surely there is a hereafter, and your hope will not be cut off.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, yes.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Life will be good for those who go with God because the promises look to a future that outlasts death.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: So, chapter 24, don't fret because of evildoers, or be envious of the wicked, for the evildoer has no future hope, and the lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: When you look at life with a long-range view, that's what happened.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: That guy in chapter 73, the Psalm 73, the one who was arrogant of the guy at the other end.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm on the other side of the tracks.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: It's not fair.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: His children are winning all the awards.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Quarterback of the football team, perfect health.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: My kids are stunted, not all that intelligent, sickly, might lose my job.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: It's just not fair.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: He's arrogant, and then partway through the psalm, he says, the turning point.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: He says, and then I went into the sanctuary of God, and then I understood.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: He went to church and he suddenly understood something that he hadn't understood before.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: He says, Then I understood their end.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Their end.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: That right now is one thing, but tomorrow is something else, that this life is one thing, but there is a heaven to follow.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I think Jesus said to his disciples, knowing the suffering they were about to go through the night before he died, said, In my father's house are many mansions.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: If it weren't so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: It is true when you look past this life into eternity, going with God means a good life.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: But there's a little stinger in the tail of this, isn't there?
24:53
SPEAKER_00: If you're not sure that you're on God's team, then you need to pay attention to Daniel's words, chapter 12, verse 2.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Those who have insight, who have wisdom, will shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven, and those who lead the many to righteousness like the stars forever and ever.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Make sure, make sure that you've gone with God, that you've trusted his Son as your Savior.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: This is why you and I love, as one of our favorite verses, Romans 8.18, because it seems to collapse all this teaching into one line.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: I consider that our present sufferings, yes, we do suffer at present, that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: So on one hand, yes, ultimately, if you take the eternity into account, it is true that going with God, life is good.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: But let's talk about today, let's talk about this life.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: And you may be surprised and you need to listen very carefully right now, but I would say occasionally, even now, these promises are true.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: To the extent that a society looks to God as its ruler, to the extent that it is like the society God was speaking to when he made these promises, this theocracy where they honored his principles.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: I would put it this way: the more a society honors God and his word, the more that Christians experience life is good.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: Because that society is following the principles of hard work and discipline and faith.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And in that kind of a society, someone who follows God and honors him will himself prosper and have a good reputation.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: But on the other hand, the less a society honors God and the wisdom principles in his word, the less that those who go with God will experience life as good.
27:19
SPEAKER_00: If you lived in pagan Rome in the first century when Nero was killing Christians, then life was not good if you were known as a Christian.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Same in the Middle East, in many countries in the Middle East today.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: If you live for God in Kansas, the results, the consequences are far different than if you live for Jesus Christ in Saudi Arabia or in Pakistan or North Korea, or you're going to a Coptic Christian church in Egypt, for there is a war on Christians.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: So that's why we would say in certain situations today, these promises can occasionally and generally be true.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: But listen very carefully.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: The bottom line answer to this question is go with God and life will be good true today or not?
28:18
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is in today's world, no.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It is not true.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: And I warn you, I plead with you not to talk to people about Jesus, to urge them to come to Christ and to set up an expectation that reality will dash because God does not want you to be rich.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: If being poor will make you more Christ-like, God does not want you to be healthy if being sick will draw you closer to Him.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: God wants you to become just like His Son.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: And because much of the time today, what He's looking for in us is not prosperity and success, but faith, our verse, our theme verse is probably best more like the verse that Habakkuk gave us at the end of his book.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Though the fig tree does not bud, and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Dumb things smart Christians believe, I submit, includes go with God and life is good.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: I urge you to say instead something like this go with God.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: It will be the best life you could live.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: There will be pain.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: It's not the good life, but it's God's life, eternal life, and it will lead to perfect joy.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Say that with me.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Go with God.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Go with God.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: It will be the best life you could live.
30:48
SPEAKER_00: There will be pain.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: It's not the good life, but it's God's life, eternal life, and it will lead to perfect joy.
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Seven, eight years ago, I got two emails back to back, which were as opposite as you can get.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: One was from a young guy, one was from an older guy.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: They illustrated today's sermon absolutely perfectly.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: Young guy wrote me an email and he said, Jim, I've decided something.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I decided last night that I'm through going to church and praying.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: The more I go to church and pray, the worse my luck gets.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: And he was as good as his word.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: He left the church.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: I haven't seen him since.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Funny thing was, I received an email at almost exactly the same time from an older guy.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: He was uh one of my best friends.
32:02
SPEAKER_00: And he'd just gotten terrible news.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: He'd gotten news from the oncologist that cancer that had been in remission for six, seven, eight years, had just returned, and it had returned with a fury.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: And Ward was sending me an email, he was sending uh something that Tony Snow had written.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Tony Snow, uh who was a radio commentator and a TV uh guy who who was a Christian who had recently gotten cancer himself, written something wonderful, and Ward was copying that to me, and he was sending me some words out of it that expressed his feelings of his heart.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Ward said to me.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: So, Jim, the moment you enter the valley of the shadow of death, you realize, you realize that you live in the hollow of his hand.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: The moment you enter the valley of the shadow of death, you realize that you live in the hollow of his hand.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we've uh jumped into the deep end of the pool today.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: We've uh tackled a topic that uh is rarely raised because it's uh so difficult.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Yet it's practical, and uh we struggle all the time, Heavenly Father, with our expectations of you.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: For my friends, my brothers and sisters here, for young people, for middle-aged people, for older people, for all of us have our desires.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: There are things that we want, things that we expect, things that we hope, that if we follow you, if we if we go with you, that somehow that maybe these things will come true.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Today we uh fling ourselves into your care, Lord, knowing only that when we go through the valley of the shadow, that you will be there with us, that you will never leave us, never forsake us.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: In the person of your son, and in his name we pray.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: You're dismissed.