The Oil of Gladness

Welcome to Gateway Churches Podcast.

Wherever you're tuning in from, we hope you're encouraged by today's message.

All right, let's do this thing.

If you got a Bible, I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 25 and put a marker in Psalm 45.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

And while you're turning there, let me welcome everybody at all of our campuses, everybody joining online, everybody in a gateway gathering, and of course, let me say welcome and I love you to Gateway Scottsdale and Gateway Timpee.

Love you.

We're gonna be kicking off a series, and I get the incredible privilege and honor of getting to be with you this whole month.

Uh and the series we're going to tackle is entitled Saturated.

Saturated.

You're gonna see why as we read Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 1.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

This is the parable of 10 virgins.

That's what it's called, all right?

So we're gonna read 13 verses, not 7,000 like Tim two weeks ago.

I don't have that gift, all right?

Matthew chapter 25, starting in verse 1.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

This is Jesus speaking, and he says, then, now to get some context, then means in those last days.

Jesus is talking about what it's gonna be like in the last days.

This is not an eschatological series.

I'm just giving you context for this parable.

Jesus says, then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Now, five of them were wise, and five were foolish.

Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them.

But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, watch this, they all, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming.

If that phrase doesn't get you riled up just a little bit, as Pastor Robert said many years ago, your wood is wet.

Behold, the bridegroom is coming.

Go out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

And the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.

But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there should not be enough for us and you.

But go rather to those who sell and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was then shut.

Afterward, the other virgins came back, also saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.

Watch, therefore, Jesus says, For you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Now, I know that the parable of Ten Virgins brings with it a lot of complexity and some complication.

I want you to know, though, I'm not gonna spend the next month breaking down every minute detail of this parable.

Because I studied this parable for a day and a half, and you know one of the things I learned?

There is so much disagreement between theologians on what this means.

The point of the parable is readiness.

Be ready, and I get that.

But I want to use the parable of ten virgins as a springboard to launch into a conversation about something else, I believe, Jesus is pointing at by telling this parable.

It's this that in these days, the bride, the church, is more in need of oil than ever before.

So, we're gonna spend a month together going through four different types of oil in scripture that I believe the church needs more of in these days.

Week one, here's the title of the message: The oil of gladness.

And I'm not even gonna read you a scripture on the oil of gladness until halfway through the message.

But I want to define this word gladness, or your translation as we get into these verses, may use the word joy.

They're interchangeable in scripture.

Let me let me give you a two-word definition for the biblical word joy or gladness.

Unspeakable delight.

Not a feeling, a happiness, a pleasure, a delight so deep and rich that you can't even find words to describe it.

Unspeakable delight.

And let me just say, I think the church is running a little low on the oil of gladness in the day in which we live.

And I'm gonna prove it to you.

What percentage of the time during meet and greet, when you turn around to greet somebody and you say, Hey, how's it going?

you get in turn the spirit of Eeyore.

Fine.

Great to be here.

How about before service in the lobby or after service in the lobby?

You ask somebody, hey, how's it going?

And they say, I just got knocked down nine times this week, but brother, by God, I'm gonna try and get up one more time.

It's as though we've convinced ourselves that as followers of Jesus Christ, there is extra credit for being miserable.

Let me just say something.

And if you'd like to take notes, I hope you enjoy one-liners because I'm addicted to them.

One of my heroes in scripture is Solomon, so there's gonna be a lot of one-liners, alright?

You don't have to write them down.

I'll just know you don't love me if you don't write them down or God's word.

So I better see you write down every once in a while, okay?

Here's the one-liner, you ready?

Watch this.

The absence of gladness in the life of a believer is evidence something is off in the life of that believer.

This is how serious this topic is.

And I can prove this to you with a lot of scriptures, but I'm gonna do it with just one.

Luke chapter 2, verse 10.

Luke 2:10

The news.

Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.

Joy so great, it will be an invitation to all people.

Okay, what is the good news that brings such great joy to all people?

Verse 11, for there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Help me understand.

When we have news like that, how we could ever look like Eeyore in the house of the Lord.

The God who saves is the God who came to save.

And because of this, I am saved.

So when you ask me, Preston, how's it going?

I dare not measure on what merely happened throughout my day.

I better measure by what happened on that cross.

But I get that some people get confused about joy and happiness.

So let me just briefly juxtapose earthly happiness up against eternal joy.

Happiness can be found in the shallows.

You can get to it pretty easily.

You can buy something, win something.

Happiness is found in the shallows, but joy is only found in the depths.

Happiness comes and goes.

Joy remains.

How about this one?

Happiness is situational, but joy is supernatural.

Not based on anything natural.

That's why it's unspeakable.

Because it's not based on anything natural, anything which I can describe.

Is joy unspeakable?

There's another way to say it.

The oil of gladness cannot be found in any of the presses of this earth.

We were on vacation during June and uh doing some traveling as a family with a trailer.

I think we did like 4,000 miles and 10 or 11 RV parks.

It was the greatest vacation in all of human history since Clark Griswold.

And so we're doing a lot of driving, and the kids were in the backseat, and and one day, uh my oldest son, Tyler, he just says out loud, he's reading something on social media, and he goes, Daddy, did you know that if you were to earn$10,000 a day starting from the first day of construction of the pyramids in Egypt?

$10,000 a day from that day until today, did you know you would only have 15% of Elon Musk's wealth?

And I had two thoughts immediately.

I was like, wow, that's a lot of money.

You know what my second thought was?

And I'm still richer than he is.

And you might be going, Preston, that's the craziest thing I've ever heard anybody say, because if I had to pick between your life and Elon's, I'm picking his all day, every day.

Okay?

Before you jump to that, because I get, but let me help you understand what makes me and many others so rich.

The son of the most high God is my brother.

And the Bible says I am a co-heir.

That the inheritance he gets, I get as a believer in Jesus.

Because the God of the universe is my father.

Who gives this inheritance that lasts forever.

And I have the Spirit of God as a deposit on that inheritance living on the inside of me.

Here's what that means.

This inheritance we've been given as followers of Jesus Christ is an infinitely more joyous portion than the richest or most famous human being could ever possibly possess.

Happiness is only present when the weather is perfect.

But joy sings even louder in the hurricane.

Just ask Paul and Silas.

Crank up that song.

Hurricane gets heavier.

The children of God sing louder.

Scripture says that things are gonna get darker and harder as we draw nearer and nearer to the return of Christ.

True or false?

Okay, don't you understand that this is the divine setup for the family of God?

It is.

Because there, the whole world is gonna be looking in our direction, going, how in the world can you possibly still be singing at a time like this?

Why are you singing with joy when everybody else is cowering in fear?

This is a divine setup.

And here's, I think this will be our answer.

It'll be two part.

First, when you know the light of the world, you just don't get too riled up if it's temporarily dark for a while.

And second, if God before me and us, who in their ever-loving right mind could ever be against me or us?

So I'm just gonna keep singing.

I'm not stopping.

And the darker it gets, the more valuable light is.

The more harsh the morning, the more valuable a commodity, unspeakable joy, is.

Now, gotta say one more thing.

And I don't want to rile anybody up, okay, about this, because I know as it relates to the doctrine of end times, eschatological things, that even in this church there there's disagreement.

Some people see it one way, some people see it another way.

Not trying to start anything, I'm just trying to present a thought.

For those of you who who may say, I'm pre-triot.

Okay?

I promise I'm not trying to start a fight, I'm just trying to present something.

Okay?

And and trust me, what I'm about to say, I'm in alignment with the theology that's been established by the senior pastor of this house.

Okay.

Let me just symmet this to you.

Would it be okay with you if God chose to use you in these days?

As things get darker and harder, would it be okay if God used you to get the attention of someone in your family who does not yet know Jesus?

And as things get worse and worse, they see you just keep singing.

So much so that finally they just say, I don't even get you.

I don't even fully like you.

But I got to have what you've got, and I've got to know who you know.

So introduce me to the light of the world because it's just too dark.

I'm not comfortable anymore.

Listen, here's another way to say it.

I believe God is looking for a people who get excited about things getting darker and harder more than he is looking for a people who keep begging him to get them out of here before it all goes down.

Here's the sweet one-liner.

If that was too strong for one of you, I'm sorry.

I'm not, but I am.

Here's the one-liner.

When you possess the oil of gladness, you're not obsessed with trying to escape the sadness.

I got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart.

What?

So you might be thinking, how do I get more of the oil of gladness?

How do I get unspeakable joy?

Glad you asked.

Very simple answer.

It's point number one.

Two words, please God.

Please God.

Gladness is the guaranteed result of knowing God is pleased.

Now, what you're gonna learn is this message really isn't about the oil of gladness, it's actually about the pleasure of God.

One of the things that frustrates me about the enemy is it seems as though he has many convinced that God is an inherently angry God.

I hate this.

Does God get angry?

Yes.

But think about this.

Let's just break this down.

If God gets angry, that means he wasn't angry before whatever happened made him angry.

So you cannot therefore tell me that God is just an angry God.

Now he he gets angry, but he's not angry.

He's not an angry God.

Let me say it this way: God's natural disposition is pleasure, not displeasure.

Show it to you in the scripture, Psalm 16, verse 11.

Psalms 16:11

Speaking of God, you will show me the path of life.

And your presence is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Okay, how can you tell me God is an angry God if pleasures are at his right hand forever?

Forever.

Not anger, pleasures are at his right hand.

The fullness of joy is found in his presence.

Forever.

I'm gonna say it like this: God is a God who absolutely, positively, totally and completely loves being pleased.

He loves it.

Now, some of you might mistakenly draw the conclusion.

Okay, well, if God loves being pleased, then it is therefore the duty and responsibility of every follower of Christ to please God at all times.

Okay.

Go further than that.

Pleasing God isn't a responsibility thing, it's an opportunity of a lifetime thing.

That God would ever choose to be pleased by us.

It's the opportunity of a lifetime.

You might say, God is in my world, he's just hard to please.

I don't think you can back that up scripturally.

My Bible teaches me that God is easy to please.

Inside the heart of every one of his children, God has placed the desire to please them.

That's Philippians 2, verse 13.

Philippians 2:13

For God is working in you.

If you're a believer in Jesus, God is working in you.

Doing what?

Giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

Think about what this means.

I'll personalize it.

God looks in my direction and says, Preston, you're cute, but you're imperfect.

Big time.

But I love you so much.

Oh, I love you so much.

And I love pleasure so much.

Which means I love being pleased by you so much.

Depressed, you're imperfect.

You can't back this up as much as I would like.

So here's what I'm gonna do I'm going to be at work in you, giving you the desire as well as the power to please me all of your days.

You cannot tell me God is hard to please.

He so wants to be pleased by you that he says, if you'll give your life to me, I will go at work on the inside of you, giving you the desire and the power to please me.

God's hard to please.

You're gonna have to change your narrative.

Remember this: the pleasure of God precedes the oil of gladness and the divine processional of God's goodness.

The pleasure of God always comes before the outpouring of the oil of gladness.

So, the big question: how do you experience more of the pleasure of God and therefore more of the oil of gladness?

Flip over to Psalm 45, if you put a marker there, one verse speaking of the Messiah, Jesus.

Psalm 45, we're gonna read it together in verse 7.

It says, Of Jesus, you love righteousness and hate wickedness.

Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you, Jesus, with the oil of gladness more than your companions.

Okay, this is a robust verse.

I don't have enough time to break it all down, but notice that Scripture says that the companions of the Messiah are anointed with the oil of gladness.

You see that?

Okay, and beyond that, Jesus is more anointed with the oil of gladness than anybody else ever will be.

And the Bible tells us why.

Because Jesus perfectly loved righteousness.

Everything he did was perfect, and perfectly hated wickedness.

How do you please God?

There it is.

Love righteousness, hate wickedness.

Point number two, we're gonna start with the latter.

Hate wickedness.

You want to please God?

Hate wickedness.

Why?

Psalm 5 verse 4.

Psalms 5:4

For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness.

If you want to please God, don't take pleasure.

In something he's displeased with.

Hate wickedness.

Amos 5:15 says, hate evil.

Amos 5:15

Proverbs 8.13 says, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil.

Psalm 97 verse 10 says, You who love the Lord should do what with evil?

Psalms 97:10

Hate evil.

Romans 12, verse 9, abore what is evil.

Romans 12:9

Cling to what is good.

Now, if you don't hate wickedness, I think I've devised a test, a way to know.

If you hate wickedness, I I don't know how to tell, but I think I have devised a way to know whether or not you do hate wickedness.

I call it the color test.

If you don't hate wickedness, I know exactly what your favorite color is.

Gray.

Let me spiritually define the color gray.

Gray is where light gets too close to darkness for the wrong reasons.

Gray is where light dances with darkness.

The Bible doesn't say, be careful with wickedness, tolerate wickedness.

No, no, no.

What does the Bible say?

Hate it.

Don't tolerate it.

Here's why we shouldn't just try to tolerate wickedness, because anything you consistently tolerate, you will eventually be tempted by.

Let me say it another way.

Usually what you're tempted by this week is the result of what you tolerated too much last month.

If I were my twin, I'd be running around this stage right now.

If you're someone who hates being tempted, and even more so, you hate falling in temptation.

Don't just try and have some strategy where you occasionally keep your distance with wickedness, and then, you know, I'll do better next time.

No, no, no.

If you hate being tempted and you hate falling in temptation, here's the scriptural strategy.

Hate wickedness.

Hate it.

Now, some of you might be a little riled up going, Preston, hate is a word we don't use in our house.

Okay, well, as it applies to wickedness, it's a word God uses.

So I'm gonna teach my kids to hate wickedness.

Not the wicked.

Hate wickedness.

Now, big question, I'm a romantic at heart.

Why does God hate wickedness?

You ever wondered this?

Oh, because he's a perfect God.

Come on, come on, go deeper than that.

Theology is a romantic thing, not an intellectual thing.

Theology is the study of God.

That means to look in his direction and say, I want to know everything there is to know about you because I'm so obsessed with you.

I want to give you the romantic why behind God's hatred of wickedness.

Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2 says, But your iniquities have separated you from God.

Isaiah 59:2

Let me illustrate.

Half a lifetime ago, in my teens and about to 20, 21 maybe, my greatest acts of wickedness seem to all be connected to lying.

Proverbs chapter 6 says that there are seven things God hates, and one of those things are lips which lie.

Proverbs 6 · chapter mention

And I was a liar liar.

Unfortunately, entirely too good, that lying.

And one day I remember towards the end, if not at the end, of my wrestling match with lying.

I remember the Lord saying, I hate when you lie.

I don't know if you've ever felt like you've heard the Lord say something to you like that so strong.

I just await.

I felt await as a young guy.

Preston, I hate when you lie.

And then I'll never forget, I felt like the Lord said that.

But I want you to understand why.

Son, when you tell me the truth, you look into my eyes.

And every time you lie, you look away from me, down and to the right.

And son, I need you to understand how much I love you.

I despise anything that separates you from me, even if it's just this far.

Preston, I hate lying because I hate distance between us.

How much God hates wickedness is directly proportional to how much he hates any distance between you and him.

We need to hate wickedness.

Not the wicked.

I know there are passages that say God hates the wicked.

I don't have enough time to talk about, I believe there are passages of scripture that address God and his justice and response towards the unregenerately wicked.

But I also think there are passages like Ezekiel 18 where God says, Do you think I take pleasure when the wicked die?

No, I want them to turn to me.

God takes no pleasure in the wicked dying.

But he hates wickedness.

Because wickedness creates distance between us and them.

So maybe you're someone, you've done something wicked, and you felt like you saw a look on God's face that was so angry and hateful, and you thought it was towards you, you're wrong.

It was towards that thing which was done, which caused you to look down and away from his face.

He is so obsessed with you.

He despises anything and everything that creates distance between the two of you.

Then here's point number three, the second half of pleasing God.

We have to love righteousness.

The absence of wickedness does not guarantee the presence of righteousness.

It's one thing to hate wickedness, it's another thing to love righteousness.

The Hebrew word sedek means the right thing.

Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 5, verse 6, the all about discourse.

Matthew 5:6

He says, hey, hey, hey, blessed are those who hunger and thirst, they ache for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Jesus talked about his followers having an overwhelming appetite to love the right thing.

Why?

Why should we have an appetite to love righteousness?

Because he is the righteous one.

And when we love righteousness, it's one of the ways we're saying, I love you.

This is who you are.

This is what you're like.

And if this is what you're like, I want to be just like you.

1 John chapter 3, verse 7 says, Little children, let no one deceive you.

1 John 3:7

He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous.

Little boys and little girls in their 80s, 90s, 100s, still just little boys and little girls at heart, children of the Most High God, loving righteousness in such a way that they practice righteousness.

And their why is because that's what my dad is like.

Years ago on New Year's Eve, I was having my time with the Lord, and I felt like he said, uh, what would you like to see me do this year?

And I said, Lord, you you've done so much.

I, this year, I want you to help me be more like you than any other year I've ever lived so far.

Six days later, I was thrown one of the biggest curveballs of my life, and was faced with forgiving, something that was really tough.

I wrestled with it all night, heard the voice of the enemy really loudly, yelling and screaming and barking.

I got up early that morning, and I remember stepping out of bed and I said, God, I don't understand what I'm about to say.

But it's as though it never happened.

I choose to forgive.

And I lost it.

This is somebody I love very, very much.

And I mean, I lost it.

And I felt the Lord sarcastically say, Do you remember what you asked me for six days ago?

I said, Yeah.

I asked you to help me be more like you.

He goes, What is it you think I do?

And I mean, I I I lost it.

And he said, I want you to hear something.

Now, never, ever, ever forget these words.

Son, I want you to hear something.

You have never looked more like me than you do right now.

Listen, that's not a story about me.

That's a story of a little boy looking in the direction of his forgiving father and saying, if this is what you're like, if someone hurts me, I'm just gonna try and be like you.

Because I'm obsessed with you.

I don't want to just do the right thing.

I want to love the right thing because you are the right thing.

I'm gonna love righteousness.

God is more and more pleased.

More and more.

I do everything I can to be just a little bit more like Him.

The more you sense the pleasure of God, the more I believe.

You're gonna see the windows of heaven open up and the oil of gladness dumped over you in every area of your life.

And here's what I want you to remember.

Please hear me.

Lock in with me right now, okay?

Hear this.

Our God is so absolutely, positively, totally and completely in love with being pleased that he's made it where you are one of the things he finds the most pleasure in.

I'm gonna show you one more verse to hopefully seal this deal in your heart by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Luke chapter 3, verse 22.

Luke 3:22

This we know is the beginning of Christ's ministry.

He's about to go on the hottest hot streak, the hottest ministerial hot streak in all of human history.

Jesus goes under the water, and he comes up out of the water, and the Father speaks over him.

These words, and I want you to think about all the things the Father could have said of the Son.

These are the words the Father spoke over the Son, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Jesus, and a voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

Do you understand?

Out of all of the things the Father could have said over the Son, Jesus hadn't even done anything in ministry yet.

And the Father speaks out from heaven and says, This is my son, whom I love so much.

And I am so pleased with you.

If you don't remember anything I said, please don't forget this right here.

I think it's entirely possible that too many believers wake up every day laboring to hear the Father say the words, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Rather than waking up every morning of their lives, hearing the words of the Father over them.

This is my little girl.

Oh, sweet baby, I love you so much.

Oh, and I just want you to know before you even start your day, before you even do anything, I'm so pleased with you.

I love you.

And as your daddy, you please me so much.

Can you imagine what life would look like if the church wasn't just trying to earn the favor of God, to do whatever it took to hear a well done, good and faithful servant?

But they started waking up every day living like a child of God, every morning, hearing.

Good morning, son.

Good morning, daughter.

I love you.

And I'm so pleased with you.

I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes.

Holy Spirit, would you in this moment at every campus, in every dorm room, every coffee shop, would you rip open the windows of heaven and pour out the oil of gladness over each one of us?

God, would you give each of us the revelation that your natural disposition is pleasure, not displeasure?

May we live the rest of our days seeing the sweet look on your face every time you look in our direction and every time we sense it.

God, may we be saturated in the oil of gladness as we receive your pleasure.

Christ's mighty name.

Amen.

Thanks for joining us today.

If you'd like to connect with us, text Connect to 71010 or visit gatewaypeople.com.

We hope you have a great week.