Almost True: Week 4

All right, Today, we're gonna start out with a little

pop quiz. The good news is if you get the

answer wrong, it's a graceful place, so don't worry about it.

And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make a statement.

And when I pause, you guys will yell out either

true or false. Okay, And by the way, those are

the only two answers. So here we go. Ready, all right,

God loves you. God loves you and has a wonderful

plan for your life. Because God loves you, you're worthy

of happiness. Since Michigan be to Ohio State, then Ohio

State won the national championship game, one must conclude that

the Michigan Wolverines are the true national champions. As a

senior pastor in a Michigan fan, I want to declare

that one true. I can't go back to Ohio for

another year now, okay, next one. Your life is meant

to be enjoyed, we'll see, all right. You deserve a

life that you enjoy. Therefore, it doesn't matter what you

do as long as you are happy. And this is

why you shouldn't settle for anything less than whatever makes

you happy. A dozen eggs are worth ten dollars by

the end of the week it might be fifteen. So

you might be like, I'm gonna say we're ten dollars

true or false? All right? You know, at first it's

very easy, very very easy. But then it's starting to

get difficult. Why because some of them, the questions I

had or the statements I had, part of it was true,

like Michigan did beatlehose stat that's true, okay. And God

does love you, and God does want you to be happy,

but do you deserve you know? So once we mix

in these words, it gets a little bit more difficult.

And so some things they sound true, they feel true,

they're almost true, but they're not completely true. And today

we're gonna be looking at things like this and we're

gonna be thinking about, especially the theological parts that are

not true. Why. Because they're causing people to walk away

from the relationship with God when they believe these things

and then they don't pan out in their life. And

a lot of people the reason they walk away from

God is because they follow a false gospel. Today we're

gonna call that the happiness gospel. And let me tell

you what the happiness gospel is. Is pervading our culture today.

The happiness gospel is simply this, above all else, God

wants me happy. I deserve happiness. Now that sounds true,

it feels good, it feels true. It's almost true, but

it's not completely true. And the challenge is this that

whenever you believe that your happiness is God, God's highest priority,

it changes your relationship with God. And so instead of

us living what's true and let me define what's true,

here's the gospel truth for us today. The truth is

that we exist to worship Him, to serve him, and

to glorify him. Okay, that's the gospel truth today. All right,

But if we believe that our happiness is God's highest priority,

here's what happens. Instead of us serving God, we start

to believe that God exists to serve us. Instead of

serving God, we start to believe that God exists to

serve us, and all of a sudden, we make God

into like this cosmic coke machine. And it's kind of like,

all right, God, I've done the church thing. I sang

some worship songs, I gave a little bit of money,

I did this, or I did that, And okay, God,

since I've been doing ABC and D I need this

woo and if God does not give me what I

think I need, then I come to a couple of conclusions.

But the first one is God just probably doesn't hear marror.

God is not good or God's not real? Where is God?

Because we think, all right, you know, I'd say God,

give me this, give me this and this. But if

I don't get it, and then we're a little upset.

Because we believe that God's highest priorities is to make

us happen happy, so we think we deserve to be

happy and as God's highest priority, so it sounds true,

but it's not completely true. See, if you believe this

dangerous and prolific lie that we deserve to be happy,

it's God's highest priority for us to be happy, There's

a very good chance that you.

Will walk away from God someday and trust him.

I've been in ministry for twenty five years, and I

have seen people who are in the church for decades,

but they get to a point in their life where

the marriage is struggling, the job is rug, the kids

didn't turn out the way we thought the kids were

going to turn out, and we have all this stuff

and we're like God, I thought this was in place.

I thought this was in place. I did this, I

did this, I did this, I did this. But now

my life's not awesome. What's wrong with you? God? God

doesn't love me. God doesn't care about me. So they

walk away from God. And I've watched people who have

followed Jesus for decades walk away because they were believing

this happiness gospel. And by the way, you've seen some

of your friends do it, your kids, your family members

do this. Let me tell you some of this happiness

theology scar my family for generations. My grandfather, my dad's father,

was called into ministry and he started working at a

church and he was working with the youth and working

with children, and he was preparing to be a senior pastor.

And you know what, he was a very intelligent man,

very charismatic, not in his theology, but in his personality.

He was a very good speaker. He loved to study.

And Grandpa, you know, he was getting his life set up,

but then life started to get hard. His marriage didn't

make him happy. He was really stressed out having three

kids and also trying to do ministry and trying to

work at a still factory.

Pretty difficult, and he found himself unhappy.

And what he couldn't process was how can I follow God?

Be doing these things for God, honoring God, but yet

I'm miserable in my marriage. I'm stressed out all the time.

And then he made a cosmic decision for his life,

and it scarred our family for years.

He made a decision that he deserved happiness. And so

what did he do.

He traded my grandma for another woman.

He traded his kids in for freedom.

He traded the Bible in for a bottle of whiskey

and became a drunk.

He traded the church in for a bar that he

went to pretty much every night for the rest of

his life.

And you know what, I got to know my grandfather

at a very old age, and let me tell you something,

that man was full of regrets. This happiness theology will

eventually lead you to a place of deep, deep regrets.

And it kind of goes like this for so many people.

You know, you think I've done the God thing. I

went to church, I did the prayers, the songs, the offering,

but I'm still broke, I'm still single. I have allows

the marriage I'm in a dead end job. I did

all these things for God and I'm still not happy.

And then what happens? What do you tend to conclude

during this time? Well? Three things. If God wants me

to be happy but I'm not happy, well then number one,

God doesn't care, or two God isn't good good, or

three God.

Is not real.

And if any of these things are true, I'm just

gonna walk away from God.

And tragically, this is what we see happening in the

church on Mass.

So here's what I want to do from God's perspective today.

First of all, I want to remind her by God

is on the throne. Number two, he loves you. He

delights in your happiness. He gives you good gifts as

a father, he wants you to into a life. So

the servant today is not like, oh, Jane's gonna preach

about how God wants me to be miserable today. No, no, no, no,

no no. He delights in your happiness. What you need

to understand is your happiness is not his highest priority.

You know my daughter, Okay, I love her very much,

and here's the thing. I want her to be very happy.

Matter of fact, I want her I have never had

this thought. One time. Boy, I'm really glad she's miserable.

Well that's a lie. Whenever I'm beating her at a

board game, I'm really happy she's visible. But other than that,

I want.

Her to be happy.

What I love her and God loves you, and so

don't make the mistake here today thinking that God doesn't

want you to be happy. No, No, the point is

simply this, It's not his highest priority. Okay. And by

the way, I had to learn this as a parent,

as a parent who loves his child, that their happiness

cannot be my highest priority. The biggest parenting mistake I

ever made, the biggest regret of being a parent, was

my daughter was having a really rough time at school.

And my daughter's a loner, and it was having a

really difficult time at school. And so what I was

doing for a long time.

Maybe over a one to two year period, I worked

out my work schedule where I made sure I was

home when she got home every day, and I would

take her to Starbucks or to a bookstore, our Costco

because she loved free snacks, and.

We would just hang out and I would just.

Make sure that that part of her day was great. Well,

one day, she was having a really, really rough day

and we're at Costco and she'd been asking for a

phone for so long, a smartphone. Now, she was only

about ten years old, but on this particular day, she

had had a really rough day at school, and so

Daddy I just wanted to make her happy, So I

bought her a smartphone because they were on.

Cell at Costco, and it came of a hot dog.

And that's not my sermon. I don't even know where

that came from.

But she's a loner. So that phone became her most

constant companion.

What I did not realize that I was given her

was a portal to evil every single day, YouTube videos

showing her what the world thinks, what's cool, what's accepted,

and even bigger than that, Even bigger than that was

she came across these unrealistic expectations.

For what a woman should look like and be, and

all of a.

Sudden, I started to notice these changes in my daughter

as all this evil came into her life, and it

got so bad that eventually we see this as one

of the biggest precursors or her going into clinical depression

that lasted for a few years and It was so

bad that she actually came to me one day and says, Dad,

here's my cell phone.

Don't let me have it back until I asked for it.

And I kid you not, that cell phone stayed in

my bedroom.

Drawer for two years.

Here's the thing.

I was a little confused.

I thought I was supposed to make her happy.

And see, we make that mistake so.

Much in parenting, where we think that our highest priority

is to make our child happy, but it cannot be

then and then we confuse that with God. We think

that God, God, you know, my happiness must be God's

highs priority. And I want to say this again. He

did heights in our happiness, but it's not his highs priority.

And I'm gonna say this very very clearly today. God

wants you to experience happiness, but not at the expense

of holiness. He wants you to be happy, but not

at the expense of holiness. He's a good, good father,

he loves you, he cares about you, but he does

not want you to experience happiness if you have to

forsake holiness. Let's look at this passage right here from Peter.

By the way, Peter knew all about being a mess up,

being someone who you know had really messed up, passed on.

But here's what he says to Christians later on his life.

He's talking to us, and he says, all right, children,

we're not to conform to the evil desires that you

had when we lived in ignorance. In other words, back

in the day before we came to Christ, before we

got the Holy.

Spirit, before we were changed.

Do you remember how we used to live.

We used to be different.

He says, huh, don't go back to those old ways.

We don't live like that anymore. We're a new person.

And he says, but just as he told a God

who called you as holy, so be holy, and all

you do, for it is written, be holy because I

am holy. And so we could say, you know, do

whatever you need to do to make yourself happy, follow

your own desires. But here's the thing, Peter says, that's

what you did before you came to Christ. But now

that you are following Christ, you're exchanging some things, and

you're gonna exchange some of that old behavior, and you're

gonna try to become like Jesus. You're gonna strive to

be holy because God's holy. Notice the verse does I

say you must be happy in everything you do. The

verse says you must be holy in everything you do.

That's the higher calling of Jesus Christ. And by the way,

again he says not to be happy in all you do,

but to be holy.

Now, what does it mean to be holy?

All right? A lot of you probably heard this before,

But holy in the Greek is just translated the Greek

word hagios, and it simply means one to be set apart.

In other words, we've come to Christ. Now we're set apart.

We're different. Okay, we're set apart for the purposes of Christ.

Number two, we are different from the world. We're not

gonna have the same values, the same priorities. We're gonna

be different. And lastly, it means that we're wholly dedicated

to God's purpose. So we're set apart for God's agenda.

We're different than the rest of the world. Why so

that we could serve God's holy purpose. So, if we're

disciples of Christ, we're not gonna be friends with this world.

We're gonna be different. We're gonna be set apart. We're

not better than the world. We're just set apart. We're different.

We are wholly dedicated to God's purpose and the challenge

to the Happiness Gospel. And this is popular as spiritual

circles to believe a couple myths.

Let me share it with you. Two myths today. Number

one the happiness Gospel. Miss number one. We believe if

you believe.

That you know whatever makes me happy, well, that must

be right. You know, if it feels good, I like it,

and then it must be just the way that I am.

It must be right, all right. So that's one problem

if you believe that. Secondly, if you believe the happiness Gospel,

then you also come to this conclusion. Whatever makes me

unhappy must be wrong. And so we have to ask

ourselves what actually makes us happy? Well, I'll tell you.

Comfort makes us happy. Convenience makes us happy, Pleasure makes

us happy, all right? What makes us unhappy? Discomfort inconvenience pain. See,

if your goal is happiness instead of holiness, then we're

going to pursue pleasure and we're gonna avoid pain at

all calls. And here's the problem. Not all pleasure is

good for us, and not all pain is bad for us.

Okay, not all pleasure it's good for us.

Not all pain as bad for as a matter of fact,

James talks about how God often uses the hard things

for our good. Let's look at this, he says, considerate

pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you come upon troubles,

whenever your car breaks down, whenever you don't get the

job you want, and whenever your marriage is struggling, whenever

your kids are acting up, whenever life seems to be

falling apart a little bit, he says, consider it pure

joy whenever you face these trials. Why because this testing

of your faith, it's gonna produce a perseverance. It's gonna

produce something in you. And if you continue on, let

this perseverance finish its work. A couple of things gonna happen.

One you're gonna be mature in Christ. You're gonna be complete.

In other words, you're gonna become like.

Jesus, and you're not gonna lack anything.

Now here's the thing I believe whole Partly, I believe

for those of us who've been following.

Christ for a while.

That somehow, some way, it is very unwillingly. We don't

realize it's happening, but we start to follow these theologies

and these philosophies about our life, and we'll follow them,

lian by them, but not realize how damaging they are

until the bottom falls out in our life. And let

me tell you how this worked out in my life.

I used to follow what you would call a slingshot theology.

Tell me if if this sounds familiar to slingshot theology,

is simply this. Imagine God holding this sling shot and

I'm like, you know, the stone, hard headed stone that's

in the sling. But as I set out to do

God's will, and you know, if I work really hard

and I'm faithful, it goes back a little bit further.

If I get my education, it goes back a little

bit further. If I get the right mentors, it goes

back a little further. If I read the right books,

it goes back a little further. If I'm holy, it

goes back a little bit further. And all of a sudden,

if I just do every single thing right and I

follow all the right directions and I do everything I can,

one day God is gonna decide to bless my life.

He's gonna release it, and I am gonna go really

far and be successful, and life's gonna be really, really good.

I believe this theology wholeheartedly.

I didn't realize I believe this theology. I would also

maybe called, if you don't like to Worr a slingshot,

I would call it the American dream theology. If I

do everything right, if I make all the right decisions,

if I do this and that and this and that,

and then eventually God is forced to bless my life

and to make me successful and happy and the envy

of all of my high school friends.

All right, So.

I did everything right. I worked for two years on

the church plant. I read every book you can imagine.

I had the best mentors in America.

I raised money.

I went to not one church planting boot camp, I

went to two to make sure I was going to

be doubly successful. I did everything right.

Trust me.

I've looked back for like the last seventeen years, like

what did I.

Not do right?

But then when the church plant was canceled and it

was out of my control because there was a financial

crisis that was out of my control, I felt like,

instead of the swing shot that I had been on

for years and I believed in, I felt like God's

theology was more like a boomerang, like he flung me

out there.

Then I just came back and crashed.

I was embarrassed because I told people I was moving

to Phoenix.

I ended up in Pittsburgh.

I was embarrassed because I had been telling everybody for.

Two years, it's what I'm going to do.

Then it all fell apart, and I walked away from

my hometown, broken and ashamed and embarrassed. But here's the thing.

My happiness is not God's hies priority. And it was

during that time, over the next two years, in brokenness,

that all of a sudden, I finally got what.

I would call a new theology. And it's not a

new theology, but it's the theology that I stayed with

for the last seventeen years. And it was very painful

to get to this theology. But for the last seventeen

years I've lived by this theology. So you guys want

to hear my theology. This is my personal theology. I

say it to myself all the time here. It is

very simple. It took two years for me to get

here here. It is.

My thoughts are not his thoughts, my ways are not

his ways.

He's a good God. He loves me and I'm his child.

That's it. I'm living the rest of my life of that.

And here's what I realized. See, for a long time,

I thought God was my agent. God is my cosmic

agent to make my life great. I heard a lot

of preaching like that. You can get very confused, okay,

And there's a lot of books out there and says

if you do this, you do this, do you do this,

you will be successful. But see, you start to look

at God like he's your agent instead of your father.

And he's a good, good father. So that means that

he cares more about who I become than what I

become successful act, Can I get an amen?

And man, here's the thing about my father.

It's okay one I fell because he's with me in

the valley, he's with me in the good times, but

he's really close to me when my life falls apart,

and that's okay. And you know what else my father does.

My father comes to me and convicts me and says,

you can't act like that anymore, or you need to

stop that. Don't think of yourself that way. And my

father is always trying to change me. See, my father's

highest priority is not for me to be happy, but

for me to be holy. And let me tell you something.

It's changed my life. See, God often uses that which

is difficult to conform us, what to the image of

his son Jesus, to the image of his son Jesus.

Yet we still live in a culture today where people

believe that God's ultimate goals to make you happy. I

had an unexpected conversation with a local pastor and the

haver stick this week.

And we're talking and what I've.

Learned from him, I heard it from a lot of

other sources, but he's really shifted his church from a

Bible believing whatever the Bible says, that's what we're going

to do church to a church that's very focused on

making people feel good, accepted, high tolerance, it's all about that.

They've made a huge shift.

As a result of that shift, they've lost a lot

of people. As a result of that shift, they're probably

going to lose their building.

And when I asked him, I said, what do you

think that's happening?

And his comment to me was that he blamed all

of this on the Bible believing Christians in our area,

that they were the problem because we have all these

Christians around here, and they don't want to go to

a church that has my theology, and so he preaches

this theology. Really, it's the happiness theology, and the theology

simply goes like this, Jesus Christ went to the cross

to die so that we will be all way more

tolerant of sin, and we'll just accept everybody. We'll just

love everybody. We won't try to change anybody, we won't

convict anybody anything, but we're just gonna love, love, love,

love love. And so therefore.

Therefore he's made this switch. And then he shared with me.

He said, we've often talked.

And I've took this kind of as a funny insult

about moving to our area because he felt like there

would be more like minds over by Broad Ripple in

places like that. And then it hit me, like, man,

you're thinking about changing communities instead of changing a community.

And let me tell you this is the gospel of

our day. It's the happiness gospel. Its God exists to

serve you. And let me tell you what happens if

you believe this gospel that it's all about happiness. God

just wants you to accept yourself be happy with who

you are. Then here's what happens. Over time, you start

to rationalize sin, You start to justify sin. Now, what

if it mean to rationalize sin. We rationalize sin when

our mind makes an excuse.

For what our spirit knows is wrong.

If your mind makes an excuse for what your spirit

knows is wrong, your rationalize the sin. So you say,

I know God's word says this, but it makes me happy,

I feel this way, I want to do it, so

therefore it must be okay. And we see people do

this in our church.

We know that the Bible says that sex.

Is a covenant, let us be enjoyed within the balance

of marriage. But yet Christians will live with each other

and they'll say, you know what, it feels good. We

love each other. It's great for us. By the way,

marriage is just a piece of paper, and so they

rationalize it.

We also see.

People who and again, I don't want I would just

rather punch myself in the face than make someone feel

shame and full of guilt today. But I think sometimes

we just need to say some things in church that

are truth. There are really, really, there are some biblical

reasons to get a divorce, but your spouse not making

you happy is not a biblical reason.

To get a divorce. Okay, I don't want to make

anybody shame.

I'm just telling you there are biblical reasons for a divorce,

but you're not being happy.

The same thing is you don't look and say, you

know what, my spouse isn't satisfying me sexually anymore.

So therefore I need to watch porn. See how we

rationalize our sin, or we take that gossip and we

make it to a prayer request, or we take things

and we just rationalize our sin, so our our mind

makes an excuse for our spirit knows as wrong. Now,

if you're here right now, you're like James, you're really

starting to take me off. James, You're just you stepped

on I don't have any toes left. You stepped on them.

All You're up in my space. I'm not happy about this.

I have a quote for you if you're feeling that

way right now, Tim Keller said this, the sin that

is most destructive in your life right now is the

one you're most defensive about. So if as I'm speaking

to day, it's something stirring up in you, and it's

not conviction, but defensiveness. This is where God wants to

work on you today, my friend. He loves you, he's

a good father, but his highest priority is not your happiness,

it's your holiness. Now here's where the sermon starts to

get special, because once you continue on, you're following Christ

for a while, and you've realized how good he is,

how faithful he is, how loving he is, and his

sovereignty he works all things out. And you know what,

his stanners are not meant to harm us, but to

bless us and to protect us. Here's what we realize

after we follow God for a while, that holiness and

happiness are not opposing values. Holiness and happiness are not

opposing value values at all. See. The problem is that

many people see happiness is found in a want. It's

something we get, it's something we achieve. Happiness is found

in a want. You know what I'm talking about? Those

shoes and then they got nutty.

Oh, let me tell you something.

I still have trauma from this event. In seventh grade,

I saved up forever all my birthday money and extra

job money, and I went the foot locker and dropped

one hundred and forty five dollars on some air Jordan's Okay,

I listen for inflation has three hundred and twenty three dollars.

I looked it up this week.

That's insane. That is insane if I had put that

into Microsoft or in their mind. But anyways, I wouldn't

be here today. Don't kid of kidding, totally kidding, But

I was so excited.

I'm so happy for months on. One of them went

to school next day.

In algebra class, we were moving the desk around and

I was helping lift up a desk, and you know

the bottom of those legs, it could be a little

dirty and a little greasy, landed on my brand new shoe.

I went to the bathroom immediately, clean and clean. But

now they had a stain in the most obvious spot.

I was crushed. My happiness went to sadness like that.

Why because I try to find my happiness in a

what I try to find my happiness. And you guys

know what I'm talking about. You've went after that watch,

you've went out for that outfit, that purse, that car,

that TV, that promotion, whatever it is. We're happy for

a moment. But here's the problem with finding our happiness

and a wat, a w always leads to ac what

else you're gonna get that walk? But I promise you

soon it's gonna be what else. See, because the things

of this world never satisfied. Here's the other reason why

you can't have peace and true happiness when you're chasing

things of this earth. If you're chasing it, you're chasing it.

It's always on your mind. And if something's always on

your mind, you're not gonna have peace. And so it

does not lead to peace.

And here's the problem. We think in this world that

true happiness could be found in a wat. But true

happiness is not found in a What is found in

a who is found in God alone. And let me

give you a powerful example of this in scripture. King

David he had it all. He had it all. He

had the women, the popularity, the power of the wealth.

And then the Bible tells us the story. It says

in the spring, at the time when kings go off

the war, David sent Joe about with the king's men,

with the whole Israelite army. In other words, David was

not where he was supposed to be. They destroyed the

Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. Then

one evening he got up from his bed. He walked

around on the roof of the palace, and from the

roof he saw a woman bathing. I've always thought that

he knew that she bathed. I don't think that he

was just like, oh my god.

I think David went looking. I'm a man. That's a

man's interpretation. I think he went looking.

The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to

find out about her, and the man said she's Bashiev

and the daughter of Iliev, the wife of Uriah the Hittite,

who was one of David's friends. Then David sent messengers

to get her. She came to him and he slept

with her. He engages with this woman, finds out she's

pregnant and says, I gotta hide this sin. So we

concox a plan and he ends up murdering his friend.

You're riah, Okay, he wanted something, he got it.

There's some complications. He solved the complication. Okay, that's what

a lot of us do, right, We solve the complications.

But see something starts stirring in his heart.

David couldn't find joy, David couldn't find happiness, David couldn't

sleep at night.

David became very, very, very miserable. And then David remembered

something that he knew in his early days, that true

joy and happiness is not found in a lot, but

in a who. And so we see David all of

a sudden, in his brokenness. He, in his brokenness, he

says one and declares one of the greatest psalms of repentance.

Ever, let's look at his repentance. He decides to repent.

Now, what is repent me Re means to turn, repent

means to that which is highest. In other words, he

wanted to return to the higher things of God and

turn away from the lower things of sin. And this

is how he repented. He goes, Have mercy on me,

O God, according to your unfailing love, according to your

great passion, blot out my transgressions, Wash away all of

my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, creating me

a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit

within me. Do not cast me away from your presence

or take your holy spirit from me. Restorted me the

joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit

to sustain me. I hardly had to even look at that,

because I've prayed that prayer a lot. I've prayed that

prayer an awful lot in my life where I said, God,

I've blown it and I am miserable and I cannot

find joy aside from you. See, true joy is not

found in a what is found in a who and

so church.

Here's what I plead with you.

Don't fall a victim to this happiness gospel. It's everywhere

right now. It's live your best life, do what makes

you happy and live your truth. Chase your dreams, follow

your heart. Your happiness is all that matters. As so

many people, what they do is they justify their sins.

And you got a question, as everyone in this culture

is justifying your sins, here's the question, how is it

going in culture? How's it going with this happiness gospel?

With people pursuing happiness? Let me tell you something. We

have more mental health problems that we've ever had in history,

more depression, more anxiety, more loneliness, more self harm, more hopelessness.

Why because you can't self help your way to happiness.

That's why I love Christian counselors. They recognize are you.

We got to work on some stuff.

You got some issues, but you need Jesus. And so

here's a couple of things as we applied today. Number one,

where am I pursuing happiness over holiness?

Number two? What is God calling you to do about it?

I'm gonna put this back up on the screen here

in a couple of minutes for us and pray about

after I close. And I just want to close out

by simply saying this. You know what, I have a

lot of back pain. I broke my back many years

ago on a mission trip. There's a lot of pills

that I could take that would really numb that out

and I would feel really good. I have a mortgage

and a daughter in college. I think I can make

more money outside of ministry. Or maybe I just don't tithe.

Maybe I can cheat on my taxes. You know, I've

been with the same woman for over thirty years, and

she's been with the same man for over thirty years.

The world would tell us that it's time for both

of us to go get a new model. I know

a lot of secrets, and sometimes when I get bored

in conversation, when I'm hanging out with people, I could

spice that conversation up by just sharing some of.

These trusted secrets. Often I will meet people.

Out in the lobby and they'll tell me what type

of church they're looking for, But it's not us, And

there's always that temptation to tell them that it is,

as Seth saying, O, here's who we are. Experience a

lot of loneliness in my life, seasons of loneliness from moving.

Two different times I could have said no to the Lord.

I think that in the meantime I would have been

more happy.

Maybe you know, I'm a man and I'm tempted by porn.

I'm tempted by other women, strip clubs. They appeal to

my sinful nature. Now, if you're thinking, oh my gosh,

you're our pastor, there's no way you have listen.

If you don't think I have a deep sinful nature,

than one, you don't understand who a man is. And

number two, you don't understand what a sinful nature is.

And I think not in this town. I know I

couldn't get away with anything in this town. But you know,

when I travel, I could get away with this stuff.

People talk about me and they hurt me.

And to be a lot easier just to lash back

out at them instead of doing the hard work and

forgiving them and loving them.

I could sell out.

A little bit more and make our church a lot

cooler than we can get more. And if we got

more people, and then here's what the thing, my colleagues

will think more highly of me. See, the world offers

all these shortcuts in every single area of our life,

but none of them are gonna lead to lasting happiness.

And I want to remind you that your father is

a good, good father. He loves you, he delights in

your happiness, but he does.

Not He does not want to forsake you.

Know your holiness and you become like a son for happiness.

And so today will you allow the Holy Spirit to

do a deep work in your heart? I want to

throw those two questions back up. Where am I pursuing

happiness over holiness?

And what is God calling you to do about that?

We're just gonna take a couple of minutes for you

to pray and just talk to God and allow the

Holy Spirit to speak deeply to you.

Let us pray.

God, We come to you now, and we ask you

to speak to us Holy Spirit. This is your time,

your moment, and we open our hearts to you. Now,

allow God to do a work in your life.

M