How To Live When It Feels Like It Doesn’t Matter

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Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament.

Malachi is a book in the Old Testament that records authentic, gut-wrenching dialogue between God and his people.

Throughout the book, we hear different questions rising from the people, which serve to remind us that we aren't the first ones to win.

Asking a question is the easy part.

It's living with the answer that shapes us from heart.

Some of the questions that rise from the text include: how has God loved us?

What did we do wrong that got us in this place?

Has God given up on us?

If God really loves us, then why are we suffering?

And what do we do now when we don't know what we did in the first place?

From these questions, we will think about topics like love, divorce, money, worship, disobedience, and forgiveness.

Malachi teaches us to appreciate and understand the love of God and the wonder contained therein.

He also points out the uniqueness of God's name and the respect it deserves, the sanctity of the marriage coming, and the call to love God with all our heart.

Religious rituals void of any meaning than simply to check up a box won't meet the relational requirements of divine love.

In the end, when Jesus returns, the righteous and the wicked will be clearly distinguished from one another.

But in the meantime, God is working to turn our hearts back towards one another, both horizontally and vertically.

Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament that gets us ready for the first book of the New Testament.

Well, that's exactly what it does.

So if you got your Bibles, open your Bibles up to the book of Malachi.

Last book of the Old Testament.

I'll be reading in chapter two, starting chapter two, verse 17.

How are we doing this morning?

Let's try that again.

How are we doing this morning?

If you're our guest today, we're going through the book of Malachi, which we typically are preaching through the book of the Bible.

We do Old Testament, then we do New Testament.

We want to have a holistic and biblically balanced worldview and view of God and of ourselves, okay?

And so uh we're going through the book of Malachi, kind of the theme of the book of Malachi is spiritual apathy.

The people looked around, saw what was happening, and in this section here, what really happens is they look around and they see that God is not punishing evildoers like they should.

And so when you think God's not doing what God should be doing, sometimes you take matters into your own hands and you take a hammer and you break into someone's house and you attack them personally.

See what crazy ends you can go to when you think God's not doing what God should be doing.

He's not punishing the evildoers, okay?

And so this is exactly what happens in this section of Malachi.

And so they look around, and now and now, beloved, the Bible gets down into the nooks and crannies where we don't talk about on social media.

Now, now, the issue for these people, not for people like us, but the issue for these people is not that God wasn't punishing the evildoers for doing wrong, he wasn't rewarding them for doing right.

Now, one of those will cut cuts a little deeper than the other.

So when I talk to you today about how to live when it feels like it doesn't matter, how to live when you look around and you think, does it even matter that I'm doing the right thing and no one else seems to care about the right thing?

Uh, not by way of fatalism, okay, but by way of comparison.

If you look around and you compare yourselves to people in the culture around you, you will be nagged by this question the rest of your life, okay?

And so on us to think biblically about the question, how to live when it feels like it doesn't matter.

Uh, from Malachi chapter 2, starting in verse 17, this is what the people said to God.

Malachi 2 · chapter mention

Or God says to them, He says, You have wearied the Lord with your words, but you say, How have we wearied him?

By saying that everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them.

Or by asking, Where is the God of justice?

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.

And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears?

For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old, as in former years.

Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, the adulterers, against those who uh swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

There's four things in the text that kind of inform how we live when it feels like it doesn't matter.

And the first one is simply this you have to keep believing despite what you see.

You have to keep believing despite what you see.

It's right there in verse 17.

He says, You have wearied the Lord with your words.

Uh and you say, How have you wearied him?

And basically, they charge God with wrongdoing because God's allowing evildoers to prosper.

They mockingly come to the conclusion that God must be okay with this, and they accuse God by asking, where is the God of justice?

Uh now, everybody wants to charge God with wrongdoing so they can disqualify him from running the world.

And here's why we want to do that: we charge God with wrongdoing so he can be disqualified from running the world, so we can then run the world.

This is the motive deep in our hearts, okay?

And so if you live long enough, you'll have some of these same thoughts rolled through your head.

Uh so it's important that we don't make the same mistakes they make, okay?

They they wearied God.

Now, now I don't want to just skip over that.

They wearied God.

Can you weary God?

Yes, okay.

If you're a mom in the room, say amen.

Moms, do you love your children?

Say amen.

Mom, how many times in a day can you hear this word?

Mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mom.

Starts at seven in the morning and about 10:30 at night, mom, mom, mom, mom.

And you're just thinking, I can't have one other person say my name today.

If you've ever had that feeling, say amen.

You understand, you notice your husband's ever had that feeling.

Sometimes you want to say to your kids, hey, you got a dad, his name's dad.

Let's try that out.

Ma, ma, ma, ma, mom.

Yes, yes.

And it's not that your parents don't love you, boys and girls.

They do.

It's just like your mom, it's not that your mom doesn't love you, it's just sometimes it's like, I can't have another person need me for the next week.

This is the this is the mental picture you should have.

He says, You have wearied the Lord with your words.

Why?

Because your words are wrong, your words are insulting to a holy God.

You have to keep believing despite what you see.

They wearied God with their words and they failed to see the mistakes that they were making.

Now, according to Peter Adam, who is an Australian theologian, they basically made five mistakes.

Let me tick them off for you.

Number one, they ignored God's word.

They ignored God's word, which meant their lives were getting further and further away from God's will because his will is revealed in his word.

Secondly, they spoke their words to one another, not to God.

They spoke their words to one another, not to God.

They talked about God to one another, but not to God.

They complained about God, but they did not tell God what was on their hearts.

And let me tell you something.

God is, He can take whatever's in you.

If you're angry, if you're if you're frustrated, if you look around and you just think, man, it's it's the world going to hell in a handbasket.

If you're thinking, do I want to, if you're 17, you're thinking, do I want to have kids in this world?

You you you can take that to God because the mistake they made is they talked to one another.

People can empathize with you and agree with you, but look at me, beloved, when you talk to God, God can change you.

The third mistake that they made is they can't they contradicted the character of God.

They contradicted the character of God as revealed in his words and his ways.

You say, What do you mean with this phrase?

They said, All who do evil are good in the sight of the Lord.

In other words, God doesn't have a problem with sin.

Now, their observations led them away from God, not to God, because they relied on their opinion, not on God's self-revelation in Scripture.

Let me say that again because this happens all the time in America these days.

They relied on their opinions, not on God's self-revelation in Scripture, okay?

They should know that God is holy, but He's also patient.

Uh He's holy.

Now, by the way, when you focus on one attribute of God at the expense of all the others, you become imbalanced, okay?

If you just focus on God's holiness, you become a harsh, critical, negative person that everybody else moves away from because when they see you coming, it's like, okay, what's wrong with the world now?

You see, you're misrepresenting God as if all you do is tell people that God is holy.

He's also patient.

Now you say, What do you mean?

Let me bring this down to where we live.

We in the church, we love a verse in the Bible.

It's called 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 9.

2 Peter 3:9

2 Peter 3, 9 says this.

And we love this, and look at me.

You should love this.

This is a great promise to hold on to.

He says the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance.

We love that.

Amen.

Isn't that a great promise?

Amen.

Absolutely.

God is not slow, he's not forgotten if some count slowness, he's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance.

We love that until we have to apply it to our enemies or to the evildoers in our life.

And then we don't like it so much.

We don't want God to be as patient with everybody else as He was with us.

You ever see people and think, man, why don't they get their act together?

Do you remember when you some of you didn't even think about getting your act together?

You loved being a knucklehead.

You remember that?

Some of you like, no, I don't remember that at all.

God does.

Yes.

Yes.

And so you gotta kind of remember.

Here's the fourth mistake they made.

They spread their unbelief to each other and to the community.

They spread their unbelief and to the community.

I say this a lot because it's true.

You become what you tolerate.

You should ask yourself today, what am I tolerating?

What have I tolerated so much that I'm slowly becoming?

Because you will become what you tolerate.

Here's the fifth mistake they made.

They fail to encourage one another to love and trust God.

They fail to encourage one another to love and trust God.

The psalmist talks about hands that hang limp and knees that are bent.

Who do you have in your life that does this for you?

That every time you're with them, they consistently encourage you.

They're not like, you know, destroying out Bible verses, like some just, oh, just just just shut it, okay?

Just Susie, put a cork in it.

No, but their presence is just kind of like a oh man.

The psalmist talks about it in Psalm 34, verse 1.

Psalms 34:1

He says, I will bless the Lord at all times.

His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

What do you boast in these days?

Next time you're at lunch or at dinner and the conversation lulls, or you're on a date, and it's kind of guys, you don't like, uh, I've asked her what she did today, and well, you want to do it, and I don't know what else.

Just pull the pen on this grenade and lob it up on the table.

Hey, what do you boast in these days?

And don't be all formal, like, hey, what do you boast in?

Hey, what do you boast in?

Like if I went to your Instagram page, what would I what would I think you boasted in?

What do you boast in?

My soul makes its boast in the Lord.

Or do you boast about yourself?

He says, let the humble hear and be glad.

And then there's this invitation, oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together.

By the way, he says, let the humble, that's not humble as we think of humble, like, oh, the quiet person over in the corner is humble.

This is free.

Just because you're quiet doesn't mean you're humble.

Some of the most prideful people in the world are quiet.

Okay?

So, so we're not, we're we don't like discernment in that area, but when it says humble right here, let the humble, it refers to the poor, the afflicted, the needy, and the weak.

The people that arms are just hanging limp and their knees are just bent, and they're like, dude, I dropped the transmission three months ago and I'm just I'm dragging it down the road.

I'm barely gonna make it to Christmas, all right?

Those people need to be set next to you in a restaurant, ladies, when you and your girlfriend are talking and they hear you guys blessing the Lord at all times, and his praise is continually in your mouth, and your soul is boasting in the Lord, and they walk by and go, Hey, I wasn't eavesdropping, but thank you.

Thank you so much.

Happen to me in Lufkin, Texas.

I'm meeting with a friend of mine there, and we're just talking, and we start talking about God, the things of God.

The guy walks by and throws a$5 bill on the table and says, Thank you.

And I was like, Oh, excuse me, what?

And he said, I wasn't eavesdropping, but man, that was so encouraging.

I just want to give you something.

My friend looked at me and I said, Happens all the time.

He goes, Are you serious?

I said, No, here, you take that.

I don't want to start living for that.

Uh but yeah, this is what happens when the humble hear people boasting in God, their soul is drawn to this.

And this is important for us to take note of this because one of the causes of spiritual apathy is the insistence that God prove himself to you.

And when he doesn't, you look to yourself, and when you look to yourself, you combine yourself to apathy at best and fatalistic depression at worst.

Think about the mental health, the state of mental health in our country today.

And this is how we got here.

Second thing we see in the text is that God's answer to the problem is often a person.

God's answer to the problem is often a person.

Chapter 3, verse 1.

He says, Behold, I send my messenger and he will prepare the way before me.

You see, the person is so good, God has to send a messenger before him to get you ready for him because you wouldn't just be ready for him by himself.

Because he goes on and says, I'll send my messenger and he'll prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight.

Underline that phrase, the messenger of the covenant.

He says, Behold, his coming, says the Lord of hosts.

But who can who can endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears?

Look at me, beloved.

That's Bible talk for be careful what you ask for.

Where is this God of justice?

Oh, you want the God of justice?

You you think you do, but let me tell you to get you ready for him, I've got to send my messenger.

And so, chapter 3, verse 1 Behold, I send my messenger, and he'll prepare the way before me is a reference to John the Baptist.

The next sentence is a reference to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple.

The messenger of the covenant.

The messenger of the covenant had to underline that.

Why?

Because the people God sends, that he sends them to remind us of himself and his faithfulness.

The messenger of the covenant.

Jesus comes to say, Hey, by the way, God is still faithful to everything he ever said, everything he ever promised.

You don't have to look for a new thing.

You can just live in light of this old thing because God is unchanging.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever.

There's a consistency and a constancy to the nature of God that you will not find in anybody else.

And so you need people in your life who remind you of God's faithfulness.

Now, let me bring that down to where you live, okay?

You say, What do you mean God's answer to the problem is often a person?

Here's what bring it down to where you live.

People are moving into your neighborhood and they're buying a house on your street.

Here's why.

Because you are going to be the answer to their problem.

They're going to be unloading the U-Haul, and you and your kids are going to be in the yard, and your kids are going to look and go, Oh, mom, look, they've got a daughter about my age, and you walk over, and two months later, you and the mom are sitting down to coffee and she's pouring her life out, and she's like, Oh my gosh, we moved here from Illinois.

We don't know anybody.

And out of your mouth, you're going to say, Hey, are you meaningfully connected to a church anywhere?

Because I think you would really enjoy our church.

We have a great children's ministry.

My kids enjoy it.

I think your kids would enjoy it.

And your high school son will enjoy our student ministry.

Why?

Because God's response to the problem is to send a person, not John the Baptist, not always Jesus.

Sometimes it's you.

Which means sometimes your kid plays your daughter plays on a softball team.

And there's another dad who's got a kid on the softball team.

And you guys kind of your kids hang out and get to become friends.

And you kind of have this sense of, hey, there's yeah, there's something.

And you have this responsibility towards him.

Why?

Because sometimes God sends a person in response to the problem.

He didn't send a committee, he didn't send a politician, he didn't send a press release.

Have you seen people try to answer questions in this political day and age?

No one answers questions anymore.

I just want to scream at the TV.

Answer the question.

Well, climate change and transgenderism.

What about the economy?

Climate change and golly.

Now I understand why Elvis used to shoot the TV.

But anyway.

Yes.

You are sometimes the response to people's prayer, and they don't even know it.

So you better get ready for it.

Here's a third thing you see in the text.

God refines to reconcile.

God refines to reconcile.

Now let me pump the brakes here and slow down and go down a little bit.

You down for that?

Say amen.

And God refines to reconcile what he means.

Chapter 3, verse 2.

But who can endure the day of his coming?

Who can stand when he appears?

Now listen carefully.

If you don't understand what's happening, you'll brace for impact instead of lean in for understanding.

What God does is he refines people who are the problem.

He so works in their life that they become changed people.

Now, if you read the Bible, you'll see a trend, and that is this that God values reconciled relationships over empty rituals.

Let me say that again.

God, if you read the Bible, you'll see this trend all through the Bible, okay?

God values reconciled relationships over these empty religious rituals.

Remember in chapter one, God said, Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors so you guys wouldn't come and offer these meaningless sacrifices, like these useless fires on my altar.

Get out of here.

I don't want this.

You're just going through the motions, okay?

You think this is what you're supposed to do.

It's not what you want to do.

So let's just stop doing it.

God refines to reconcile.

Look at verse 3.

He says, He will sit.

Just underline that little word, sit.

He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord.

Verse 3, it says he will.

And then verse 4 starts with then.

And then verse 5 starts with then, because everything after that is predicated on what God is doing.

And what God is doing here, and what he continues to do today is he refines to reconcile.

You say, I don't know.

Why do you have to, why do you have us underline the little word sit?

Because God is with us through our trials.

The refiner of silver and the fuller of cloth.

A fuller was somebody that specialized in getting stains out.

Okay?

It's kind of like a dry cleaner.

But the the refiner of silver and the fuller of cloth couldn't set the process in motion and then walk away and return later when it was finished, like throwing stuff in your washing machine.

And then when it goes ding-ding ding-ding ding-ding-ding and plays a little song, you come get it out and put it in the dryer.

No, no, no.

They had to sit and watch over every step of the process.

They had to be there at every stage and see it through the end.

And so when it's hard for you, and you just think, I cannot take this anymore, God's not well from the clouds watching.

He is sitting, hovering over it, intimately engaged in every aspect of it.

He said, Well, it's painful.

It's painful for silver too.

You the way you purify silver is you melt it down to where it's a liquid.

And then the refiner sits there and he scoops off all the impurities.

It's called dross.

And so, how do you know when you removed all the impurities?

Because the refiner can see his reflection in the purified silver.

It looks like a mirror.

And so, God, beloved, is going to refine you and I until he can see a reflection of himself in us.

No, he's not against you having a relationship, he is against you settling for a boy who will never be a man.

That's what he's doing.

And so, well, I okay, I get that.

What about this other guy?

A fuller is someone who specializes in getting stains out.

And they did this by working in the ash of a plant.

And so they would take this ash that they had extracted from this plant and had this natural, hear this, had this natural properties when it was rubbed and forced into the fabric.

Chemically speaking, the stain had to let go because it lost the capacity to hold on to the fabric anymore.

It's the doctrine of imputation to get stains out.

They put something in that had the capacity to make the stain leave.

It's uh uh Isaiah chapter 1, verse 18, where God says, Come let us reason together.

Isaiah 1:18

Though your sins be as scarlet, I'll wash you as white as snow.

I'll put something in you that the stains can't stay anymore.

That memory that you can't stop beating yourself up for, or that weekend where you're just like, Oh, I hope my parents never find out about that.

God says, I will wash you white as snow.

And then as a reason.

Now, it's the sons of Levi that were the problem.

By the way, that's Bible talk for the priest, which is Bible talk for what we call today preachers.

And these are the people that God refines.

He says, I'll refine them like gold and silver in verse 3.

And they will bring offerings, underline these two words, in righteousness.

In righteousness.

Not for righteousness, but in righteousness.

If you do what you do for righteousness, you're just managing people around you's impression of you.

But when you get in righteousness, this is not, I hope this is true.

That's for righteousness.

In righteousness is, I know this to be true.

Not only that, I'm experiencing it.

And not only that, but I am enjoying it.

And if you ever get around somebody who lives in righteousness, you will see a different set of behaviors.

And by the grace of God, it happened for me when I was 24.

Uh I uh was 23, excuse me.

I I had just finished college.

Uh and I was speaking, well, actually, when I was in college, uh, I I didn't want to be in ministry, okay?

I'll just be honest.

I ran from the call to ministry because they were the phoniest people I knew, okay?

And I had a BSU director named Frank Dudley.

He was a nerdy little man that wore khakis and a navy blazer every day and a tie.

I was like, dude, why do you dress up?

He's like, well, new, it's important.

We look professional.

Oh, he was the forerunner that got me ready for Wade Burgess.

Yes.

And so Frank Dudley, by the way, I was a speech communication major in college.

I had an assistantship to go to Purdue, and I was going to teach freshman-level speech and be a sports anchor on Sports Center.

That's what I wanted to do.

And Frank Dudley, people call and go, Hey, can you you got a student come speak at our following retreat?

We got 50 bucks in a bucket of chicken.

And Frank Dudley would say, Oh, I got somebody to be awesome.

God's all over him.

He doesn't know it yet.

And he'd see me in the cafeteria and go, I got one for you.

And I would say, Won't you leave me alone?

Stop telling these people I want to go talk.

I don't.

Yeah, you do.

You're just afraid, Neil.

God's not afraid.

God, I was like, man.

I went to one of these things.

There were 24 kids at the retreat.

24 rednecks from an East Texas town.

Spoke Friday night, Saturday morning, Saturday night, played basketball all day.

I was like, man, y'all got any other friends?

I'm tired of beating y'all.

I beat y'all so much like a drum.

Indians came out of the woods.

They're like, well, you're talking low smack.

It ain't talking smack, it's prophecy.

I'm telling you what's gonna happen, and then I fulfill the prophecy.

Spoke Sunday morning.

I'm walking to my car with my$125 check, by the way.

I wish I hadn't peeked at that when they handed it to me.

I was like, just keep it clear.

You need this more than I do.

And a voice behind me, her name is Maggie Brown, said, Excuse me, Neil.

And I was like, Yeah, and she goes, We don't have a youth pastor in our students.

Are wondering if you'd consider being our youth pastor?

I just kind of looked there like, what?

I don't trust you church people.

I don't want to be around y'all.

I love Jesus.

I just don't like some of you religious people.

And she said, Well, would you would you would you pray about it?

And I said, Oh yeah, I'll pray about it, which is Baptist No.

Two nights later, I'm in my bedroom at my mom's house, and something showed up in that room with me.

I don't know what it was, but I know who it was.

And he said, You're gonna go meet with them.

They're not beneath you, they're above you.

And I didn't understand until I got there and met the pastor, a little skinny man named Kent Pate.

Simple, down to earth.

And he was just like, I'm gonna pray.

God may be leading you here.

We don't know.

And I was like, wait a minute, you're not smitten with this at first glance.

And clear as the bell, the Holy Spirit said, You're gonna come here.

And by the way, 24 at the retreat, that was a record.

Their youth group was 13.

How you know?

Because my first Wednesday night, I walked in, 13 of them were sitting in metal folding chairs.

Like their big question was, can you dunk a basketball?

I dunked on all you fools at the retreat.

What do you mean?

Dunk a basketball.

But I went there and I loved it.

But I knew I went there to be around a man named Kim Pay.

You mean you said, What do you mean by Ken Pei?

In righteousness.

A little tiny church met in a metal building.

Sound familiar?

Our office was a small metal building.

My office was on this side, his office on that side, our secretary was in the middle.

The thing was maybe 30 feet long.

So you could hear every conversation.

I heard the secretary answer the phone and she said, Yeah.

And she came in and wrote, she said, Oh, well, okay, let me give you a name.

And she came into my office and she said, Have you seen Ken?

I said, No, he's not in yet.

I think he's having a call for somebody.

She said, Well, somebody from the Dodge dealership, the Chrysler Dodge dealership back here on the bypass called, and someone walked in there and said, They want to give him a new van.

Just come out and pick whatever you want.

It's paid for.

And I said, I'll give him that message.

And if he doesn't need a new van, I know somebody who does.

And so I couldn't wait.

I heard the door open.

I walked out.

I said, Kent, the Chrysler dealership, the sales manager called.

And somebody said they want to just come pick out whatever you want.

A new van said three little boys.

And he took that and he said, Well, if this is in righteousness, okay?

It's a total, it's a total different experience.

He looked at that and he said, Well, if this is who it I think it is, I'd rather him get his heart right with God than give me a new van.

To which my 23-year-old self said, Won't you take that new van and pray for his heart later?

And I looked over and Kent Pate had tears in his eyes.

And he said, No, I'd rather him get right with God.

You want to be around people that expose you in a very loving way, where you're just like.

And he said, Let's just pray right now.

And I was like, You pray.

Because I was about like I am right now.

I was like, And so I heard him get on the phone and call the dealership.

I started walking back to my office, and I just turned around because I was curious.

And I put my curious ear against the door because the secretary was gone.

And I I heard him say to the guy, Well, I I and the guy said, I can't tell you who it is because he he wanted to be anonymous.

And Ken said, Well, I want to ask if it's this person, if you would just tell me.

Otherwise, I'm not gonna even receive it.

And he said, Is it so and so?

He goes, No, it's not, Pastor Pete, it's not, it's somebody else.

He goes, Okay.

All right, then I'll get my wife and I'll come back out there.

I'll come out there this afternoon.

Rolled up the next day in a brand new van.

I didn't see a brand new van.

Look at me.

I saw a man that lived in righteousness, not for it.

Get out of a brand new van.

And I was just like, You see, God purifies, He He refines us, He, He, He, He so works in us to reconcile us, okay?

These sons of Levi, he refined them like gold and silver, and then they they stopped living for righteousness.

Hey, look at me! Look at me.

I'm giving an offering, I'm dropping coins, ding, ding, ding, listen to me.

And they just lived in righteousness.

Big difference in the two.

Now, people always want to say that the church, all church wants is money.

No, no.

We want what God wants, and that's right relationships with God and your fellow man.

So ask yourself today is there anybody, any relationship in your life that needs reconciliation?

Don't turn to, but in Matthew chapter 5, about verse 21, Jesus is talking, he says, This if you're at the altar presenting your gift, giving your offering, and you remember your brother has aught against you, you leave your gift at the altar and you go and be reconciled.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Why?

Because God values reconciled relationships more than money.

And so again, you have to ask yourself, is there any relationship in my life that needs reconciliation?

The last thing we see is that we need to hold on to the fear of God.

We need to hold on to the fear of God.

Look at verse 5.

He says, Then I will draw near to you for judgment.

I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner.

Who can exploit a widow and the fatherless?

Who commits adultery?

Who swears falsely?

Who turns to sorcery instead of to God?

I'll tell you who people that do not fear God, that's who.

And so when you lose the fear of God, this is the biggest problem.

All these other behaviors arise because they didn't hold on to the fear of God.

We need to hold on to that.

Why?

Because a lack of fear manifests itself in our vertical relationship with God and our horizontal relationships with one another.

Can you imagine being with a guy, young ladies, and he tries to be inappropriate with you?

And all of a sudden he stops and says, You know what?

Please forgive me.

For just a moment, I lost the fear of God, and I wanted to treat you in a way that wasn't in keeping with your identity.

What you're thinking right now, no, that guy didn't go to my school.

Sadly, you're right.

But the fear of God, this would be primary, primary, and all other fears are secondary.

Now, I'm fixing to put a quote on the screen.

I want you to just make a meal out of the next week.

So if you want to get your phone out and take a picture, you're gonna want to remember this, okay?

This is the guy in Portland.

His name is John Mark Comer.

He said this to be fearless means we fear God above all, and all other fears must come under that primary fear.

Then fear becomes a signal for your body to navigate life by rather than a trauma or a tyrant to suppress or repress you.

As a result, we become less afraid and more loving.

Hear that?

As a result of fearing God, you become less afraid and more loving.

Fear is an indicator to our souls that something is seeking primacy in my life that wasn't created to be primary.

Yeah.

Get that last sentence tattooed on your back.

Fear is an indicator to our souls that something is seeking primacy in my life that was not created to be primary.

I love what St.

Francis de Sale says.

He said, We must fear God out of love, not love him out of fear.

We must fear God out of love, not love God out of fear.

The fear of God is a powerful, restraining influence such that once you grasp it, you never want to live without it.

You can feel when it's there, and you can feel when it's dissipating, and you sure enough can feel when it's gone.

The fear of God is what sustains us when we look around at the culture and we're tempted to believe that evildoers are getting away with anything.

And not only that, evildoers aren't being punished.

We're like the people of Malachi's day.

So therefore, God, where's the God of justice?

And it's not that they're not being punished, we're not being rewarded.

Beloved, let me tell you, there are gonna be days in your Christian life where you're just gonna feel that doing the right thing is like peeing your pants in a dark suit.

I get a warm feeling, but nobody notices.

That is going to happen.

Yes.

Yes.

Stop.

Oh, can you believe he said that?

Yeah, yes, yeah.

And I'm not trying to be inappropriate if you're visiting, I'm trying to be honest.

It's on that day you have to ask yourself, is this enough for me?

When you go to college and you join a sorority and you realize these girls are willing to engage in behaviors that I'm not, and therefore, guys don't want to get with me like they want to get with them.

This is lonely, and I'm paying money every month for this.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Welcome to reality.

You gotta hold on to the fear of God, and it's not to be afraid.

It's to be real clear.

It's not to be afraid of it.

It's just to say, you know what?

This is the primary fear in my life.

And anytime I feel fear, this other fear, it's not a fear of God, some other something that's seeking primacy in my life that wasn't created to be primary.

Thank you, God, for giving me this fear of God that clarifies all these lesser fears that come at me.

Because when you lose the fear of God, you're capable of anything.

Me, me, when I lose the fear of God, I'm capable of it.

I'm gonna look around and go, hi God.

I mean, really?

Look around, this country is going to hell in a handbasket, and I'm trying to do it, I'm not just trying, I'm doing the right thing, I'm preaching about the right thing.

Does this matter at all?

Yes, I have those thoughts.

Yes, and then it's not a pity party, it's just and then I'm like, oh, you know what?

You're exactly right, God.

Thank you.

Hold on to the fear of God.

Here's why.

Because when you hold on to the fear of God, the fear of God holds on to you, and you're not afraid.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're informed.

Let's pray together.

You're our guest.

Just relax.

We'd like to teach the Bible and give you some soul space to think about it.

And so I'll voice a prayer.

Some questions come up on the screen.

And uh, when we meet next time for community groups, these are some of the questions we'll process.

So let's think about them now.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you that it finds us and unwinds us, it indicts and it invites, it does all of that, and it never changes the complexity of itself or the simplicity of itself.

It's right there for us to see and to taste and see that you're good.

And so, Lord, I pray if there's any drooping hands or any any any knees that are bent by the just the weight of this world that you would strengthen them, that they would just square themselves up and say, you know what?

I'm gonna be able to tell my children one day, yeah, your mom was lonely in high school.

Are you thinking kidding me?

Yes, I went to college and thought it's gonna be incredible, and it was one of the saddest chapters of my life.

There was a couple semesters now I wanted just to quit, but I didn't because God is faithful, He's never gonna forsake me, and He's not gonna forsake you.

So I'm not talking to you out of some book, I'm talking to you out of your mother's life.

So square yourself up and get your big girl pants on.

Let's get out there.

Holy Spirit, brood over us, work in us now so that we have something to say to the next generation.

Father, we don't want to lose sight of what you're committed to or what we're capable of.

We want to say with the great old hymn that though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet.

So we find ourselves in dark places where our parents can't see us, or our wives can't see us, or our husband can't see us.

Let our first thought be this is the native environment for the gospel.

So let me be the one that sets the kingdom down in this dark place.

Because God didn't light this lamp to put it under a bushel.

He lit this lamp, called me to put me on a lampstand to give light to the whole room.

That's why, Jesus, you said to your followers, you were the light of the world.

What was once your experience is now our privilege, and we don't shirk at that.

So whether it's hanging out with a girlfriend over a glass of red or at the deer leash with my buddies here in a couple weeks, we're still the light of the world.

And though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet.

Establish that in the marrow of our bones and in the matter of our brain, we pray in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

If you're our guest today, I will say thanks for being here.

You're always welcome.

If you have questions about anything you heard, or we can just simply pray with you.

Uh, some of our pastors will be available down front.

We'd love to meet you.

We'd love to hear your name so we can put a name with a face, okay?

We want to help you take your next step in your spiritual journey, uh, or whatever you need.

There's a question, there's a number on the screen.

If you'll just text welcome to that if you're a guest, uh, we'll just have a record of your visit.

We're not gonna show up and announce at your house, okay?

We just want to help you in your spiritual journey, whatever that looks like, okay?

We got other opportunities coming up that'll be very helpful to you in your spiritual journey.

We want to make you aware of those by way of our video announcements.

So let's check those out right now.

Thank you for joining us today.

Here's a few things we want you to know.

If you're new, text welcome to 281-626-5707.

This way we can know you're here and get you connected with the church.

Today is the deadline to register for Preschool Day in the country.

Sign up at grandparkway.org.

Redeeming Heartache is a one-day gathering to discover how to transform shame and hurt from old emotional wounds to true freedom and healing.

The conference will feature the return of Dr.

Dan Allender and Kathy Lorzell.

It will happen here on our campus March 4th.

Get your tickets at theallendercenter.com slash events.

The table is returning on November 13th at 6 30 p.m.

All women are welcome and can register for child care at grandparkway.org.

What are you thankful for?

This is the question we've been asking folks in the lobby.

We'd love for you to come by the gratitude booth and share what you're thankful for and bless others in doing so.

If you have any questions about what you heard today or would like someone to pray for you, find one of our pastors at the front of the stage at the conclusion of our service.

Just a couple things I want to remind you of.

The Redeeming Heartache Conference, that is that's put on by the Allener Center.

Kathy Loisell, who spoke, some of you ladies heard her at the table.

It's a much more in-depth and intensive uh conference.

She reached out to my wife and said, Hey, would you guys be willing to host something like that?

We said, Absolutely.

So restoration, everything is handled through them.

We're just hosting that.

I highly encourage it.

It's not just for women, it's for it's for everybody, men and women.

Uh, I highly encourage you to prioritize that day and register, okay?

Because everybody else from around the city is ready.

It's open to everybody, not just our church, okay?

Secondly, some people ask about the thankfulness booth.

It's right out here, it's out this door, it's against that wall.

Just stop by.

We're not asking you about your Thanksgiving festivities.

We're saying, what are you grateful for?

And here's why we're doing that.

We want to infuse some perspective of gratitude in a culture that can feel so thankless and so jaded and cynical.

And we don't want you here, like my wife was in there in the first service, just looking at the camera, weeping, going, I'm so thankful for my husband.

He's such a good servant and everything.

So, ladies, you can.

No?

No?

Okay.

I didn't see that either.

Uh so uh and the last thing, uh uh uh uh the the the marshals that are here, our missionaries from from uh from France.

We're going on a mission trip, a construction trip in spring.

And we need some of you to know how to build stuff.

That barn that they've got, those kids go to camp, that's what we're gonna be renovating.

And so when you give money to this church, it doesn't just stay just here.

He said in the first service, he said, Man, y'all didn't have this last time I was here.

Look at me.

Just because we built a new sanctuary, we're not gonna stop being missional.

Okay?

So we're going in the spring.

So we need some of you to go.

He's gonna be right at this door.

If you go to the far right of the lobby, right over here, is the missions connection center, big flat screen TV.

We need people that know how to work and enjoy France to go help renovate that barn so kids can hear the gospel.

Okay?

And so we're not gonna stop doing that just as we built this, because God's blessed us and we're gonna give in righteousness, not for righteousness.

Does that make sense?

Say amen.

All right.

That's all I got.

Stand to your feet.

Hold your hands out.

Your God is a God of reconciliation and redemption.

He redeems you so he can reconcile you to himself and others.

Stop living in violation of the gospel.

There's no joy out there.

There's not enough oxygen for you to live on.

Live in righteousness.

Which is big and expansive, juicy, and generous.

This is your native environment.

It's what you were created for.

So get there and stay there.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.