Things God Didn't Ask Us To Do(From Our 11-24-24 Worship)
Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/Kcdgo4QZzDs
Transcript:
If I asked you how you're doing today, what's most likely to be the one word that you would use to interply to that? I'm good. You ever wonder where that word even come from? Like some words, we just take them and we apply them. So many things. It's like, we don't even realize what it really means. I mean, we just all kind of use it, but you know, how's your day?
It was good. How was your, how's your week been? It's good. I mean, How was that? How was that meal last night? It was good. I mean, like, it just applies to everything. And you ask somebody, What kind of life do you want to lead? They're probably gonna tell you if you could get him to boil it down into a sentence.
Well, I want to lead a good life. And I asked you this morning, What does that what's that even mean? I asked Google what it meant. And here was the kind of the Summary answer at the top. The good life is a state of happiness and well being that can be defined in many ways. Comfort and luxury living in comfort and luxury with few problems or worries, meaningful activities, relationships, community, virtue, moral goodness, balance, opportunity.
And then at the bottom, the meaning of good can vary from person to person. Many religions also conceived the good life in moral terms as a life according to God's laws. Now, I don't think it's an accident that when you search, what is the good life? The first thing you find is comfort and luxury. And the last thing you find is God.
I mean, if I was to say the phrase good and what work goes after that good and easy. I mean, we don't even think about good and hard, like, anybody want a life that's good and hard? Like, no. No, good and easy just goes together. But, and, and I get why these things are, are in the list. Um, you know, we want things to work out in the way we want them to.
We want things to be, be comfortable and easy. I get that. But, but wanting it to be so is not going to make it so. You look at that list and you say, okay, that may be something to, to aspire to, but how do you lead a good life? How do you lead a good life? I think you find that answer in, in the wisdom book in the Bible.
Get your Bibles with me this morning. Go to Proverbs chapter three. That's where we're going to go. We're not. really going to leave and go anywhere else. Proverbs chapter three. Of course, this is a book of a father writing to the son, writing to his son, you know, basically trying to get him to not make all the same mistakes that he did.
It's a It's a wisdom book. Wisdom gets brought up over and over and over again this trying to get his son to pick up and to appreciate and to hang on to wisdom. Notice what it says here in chapter three. My son do not forget my teachings, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace.
They will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you bind them together around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the side of God and man. Favor and good success in the side of good. God in man. Doesn't that sound like a good life?
That it's not something that you that you won't. But how do you have that good life? Well, I think as we continue on in in Proverbs chapter three, the problems writer here is going to tell us how to do that. But this morning, I kind of want to go with this a little bit different. I usually ask the question how How do you do something?
And how usually entails, here's the steps I need to take. And there's plenty of steps in what we're about to read in Proverbs three. But I don't want to talk about so much this morning, what we should do as what we shouldn't do, because I think this morning, as we read through Proverbs three, I've never really had this stand out to me before, but.
It almost seemed like pairs where here's what you should do, but also here's something that you don't do along with it. And a lot of times the enemy of what we should do is the thing we shouldn't be doing. You know, sometimes it's like you want to, if you want to know how to do something, let me tell you how not to do it right.
And that will help you to do the thing. So I hope that that makes sense where we're going and what we're doing with this lesson this morning, but again, we're going to pick up. In verse five, and we're going to see the first thing that we, the first thing we have to not do if we're going to have a good life is we can't lean.
Proverbs three, five trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Now, if I were to say to you, if you want to have a good life, you need to trust God. Do you think that's a true statement? Well, yeah, Yeah, Doug, that's that's obvious. Okay, you should trust in God. Trusting God.
That's great. But do you know what? The biggest enemy of trusting in God is what is the thing that's going to take me away from trusting God the most trusting me? You see, when I when I trust in myself, what am I doing? I'm taking God out of that position of power, that position of authority. I'm trying to put me in that place.
And how does that work out for you? Generally not real well. Now I want to read you this definition, this word lean. Now we kind of know what lean is, right? You, you walk up to somebody's truck and you're talking to them and you kind of, you kind of lean on the truck, right? And you hope they don't have one of them big metal belt buckles on and put a scratch down the side of your, your vehicle, right?
Place your weight on something. Well, let me read to you the. the definition here to have trust and belief in an object to the point of being in jeopardy. If the object of trust fails, they read that one more time, having trust and belief in an object to the point of being in jeopardy. If the object of trust fails, I'll take, I'll mess it up for 9000 Alex.
You see. How many times, how many times are Christians handicapped because they're too busy trusting in themselves and not easy enough trusting in God? You know, we've talked a lot lately about forgiving ourselves, and that's a process, it's a thing to work on, but if I understand that God has forgiven me of my sins, it's And I can't forgive myself because I know what I did and I don't know why I did it and I Then that sound a lot like I'm leaning more on my own understanding That I am leaning on God's understanding.
I Mean at what point am I am I more concerned and busier feeding my own self doubt That I am feeding my faith in God How many times have we prayed? God, please help me. Please help this. Please help this or that. And then the moment I say amen, my eyes open and I go and my mindset immediately turns to okay.
Now, how can I fix it? What do I gotta do? I set my prayer up. I put God on it. But in the meantime, I got I gotta work it out myself. How many times do we make a bigger mess out of it than simply Just trusting God. I'm not saying that we don't ever do anything. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm talking about at the end of the day, who do you trust more?
Do you trust yourself? Or do you trust God? And I can't answer that question for you. I have a hard enough time trying to answer for me. But if I'm gonna lead a good life, if I'm going to trust God, I have to get myself out of that. spot of leadership and authority and power in my life. Because I'm not perfect.
Because I can't see the big picture because I'm not God. And no matter how good I try, no matter what I do, I never will be.
If I'm going to lead a good life, I can't lean on my own understanding. Why did this person do this? Why did they do that? Why did I do this? Why did I do that? Why did they say that to me? I, I don't know why.
At some point, you just gotta strike it up. It's just evil. I don't know why, but I do know God. And which one of those am I gonna lean on? Right? If I'm gonna have a good life, I can't lean on myself. But our next one, Our next one is in verse six. In all ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your past.
Now, if I told you you need to live a good life, you need to acknowledge God and everything you do, would you agree with that? Yeah. But this kind of ties in with the first one. Who is the path straightener outer? If that's a technical term, if you allow me that that redneck ism this morning, who is the official path straightener outer?
Is it me? Or is it God? It's God. God didn't call me to straighten out my path. For me to straighten out my path, I would have to be able to see into the future. And I would have to be able to completely morally understand right from wrong. And I would have to be able to do things that I'm not physically capable of.
If I was required to straighten out my own path. God didn't call me to do that. God's already got the straight path. He already knows what it looks like. He's already paved it. My job is not to be a path straightener outter. My job is in all my ways to acknowledge Him.
Now what does that word acknowledge mean? We know what it means. Somebody comes up to me in the grocery store, you know Susie Greenfield? Yeah, I know Susie. Susie Q. If I acknowledge that that I have basically said that, you know, I'm agreeing and I understand and I know Let's take that concept with God and put it to our ways.
If I'm doing something, if I'm walking away that God would not acknowledge or approve of If I look at that and say, well, I'm over here, I'm over here lost in the weeds and seeing right, and I'm doing what God doesn't want me to do. And I, God doesn't want me to do this, but I acknowledge him. It's not just saying, Hey, I know what's right or wrong.
What if I'm over here lost in the weeds? And I say, this isn't, this isn't right. If I'm going to acknowledge it, what do I got to do? I got to walk away from it. My job is not to make a straight path. God has already laid the straight path out for us. It's just my job to follow what he has given us. That's my job.
I don't have to pave the path. I don't have to invent it. I just have to follow what he has created. And no, I can't always see to the end of it. Psalm 119 105. That word is a lamp into my feet and a and a floodlight to my pathway. That's not what it says. Sometimes we'd love to have a spotlight to me and candle powers light it up.
I don't get that. I get enough to see around my feet and take the next step. How many times is the only thing we need to do is just do the next right thing. Well, I don't know how it's gonna work out. And I don't know. Okay, I don't either. But what's the next right thing? You could know that and if you do that and you get over there, what's the next question is?
What's the next right thing? You see a series of next right things that's in alignment with what God said that acknowledges his his him in all your ways. You see how that's gonna lead you down a path that you're supposed to be on. I ain't got to know where it leads. I just got to follow. I don't have to pay the path.
I just got to follow it. Right. I can't worry about making my pathway straight. I'm gonna lead a good life. What's next? Proverbs 37 and eight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Now, if I told you you need to live a good life and to do that, you got to turn away from evil.
Well, yeah, yeah, Doug. I agree with that once again. What's the enemy of that thinking I'm smarter than God is do not be wise. What in your own eyes, you know what? Nearsightedness is I have it when I take my glasses off and I'm trying to read something, text gets bigger. I can actually read print better without my glasses.
But you know what I can't do with my glasses off? I can't see who's coming in that back door back there. Right? When I'm wise in my own eyes, I don't see anything past me. And you know why that's a problem? Because we can justify anything we want to do. You go in the break room at work and the donut box is on the counter and it says you deserve a donut and you think, Boy, donut box, you are right.
I do deserve a donut.
We'll justify anything. We'll justify the rankest of sins if I'm being wise in my own eyes. But if I'm seeking God's wisdom, If I'm not being nearsighted, if I'm not just thinking about today and now, if I'm not just thinking about me, it changes my decision making process, doesn't it? I'm sure there's plenty of times Paul wanted to throw in the towel, and Paul's talking about, you know, I'm not going to eat meat that's going to offend my brother.
I'm sure there's plenty of times Paul wanted to eat the steak. I don't care if you like it or not, I'm going to eat the ribeye or bust, okay? I'm sure he wanted to. But it's not about me. I didn't paint the path. I'm on God's path. If I'm gonna see that path, I've got to look past the end of my nose and I've got to look past the end of myself to see it.
I'm gonna lead a good life. I can't be nearsighted, not spiritually. I guess you could be nearsighted physically and never go get glasses, but I don't tell me when you're going to drive. I don't want to be on the road. But you can't be nearsighted spiritually. Well, number next, we can't be dishonorable.
Proverbs 10. Honor the Lord with your wealth. And when your first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. right? This idea of having the supplies that you need. If I told you that to have a good life, you need to have all the supplies that you need.
Well, yeah, Doug, I know that. But what? What happens if I don't honor the Lord with my wealth and the things that I produce things by the way that he has given me? It's kind of what we talked about in Bible class this morning. It's reading Matthew, Matthew chapter 22. and the master built a vineyard and dug a pit and made a wine press and made everything that they needed to make a vineyard work and gave it to them.
And then when the master come to collect his portion of the fruit, they killed his prophets and then they killed his son. Why? Because it was selfish because they wanted the inheritance for themselves. If I dishonor God with my checkbook, How else will I dishonor God? If I can justify that, what else will I justify?
You see, if I honor God with my wealth and the first fruits of my produce, then I have no problem honoring him in my words and my actions and my thoughts, in my heart, in the way that I treat other people.
Either you want to honor God or you don't. This is just, this is just really a test of it.
Are you going to honor God? or be dishonorable to him. I'm gonna lead a good life. I can't, I can't be dishonorable to him because he's been nothing but gracious to me. Now, number last proverbs three 11 and 12. My son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof for the Lord reproves him who he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.
You understand, we're going to lead a good life. We can't harden our heart towards God when he's trying to correct us and trying to make us better. Being a Christian is a lifelong transformation process. Right, Romans 12, 1 and 2, be transformed by the renewing of your minds. It's 6 when, When he saw that vision of God and he hits the ground and says, Whoa, am I?
For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips. He looked at God and he saw how imperfect he was
and that didn't matter because God cleansed him, corrected him. And Isaiah was a, a mighty part of God's plan. You know, I don't know if you can Maybe sometimes fully get the love of God until you work with Children, right? You ever disciplined a child? You ever get to the point where you got to spike a child and in their minds, what?
Oh, why are you doing it? Because you'd love them. I literally spiked my Children before and looked at him and said, I know you're better than this. I know it. I can see it in you. If I didn't care about you, I'd let you go do whatever.
I'm not saying everything bad that happens in our lives is God disciplining us. But I know sometimes like Joe, but it gets really hard. And we just want to throw up our hands and say, just forget it. This way it's going to be. I just, I'm done. You're going to lead a good life. You can't harden your heart.
So I'm 23 years old. I'll walk through the valley of death. I fear no evil. I'm the only I'm the one who decides whether I'm sitting in or going through. Am I going to give up and quit or am I going to hang on? I'm going to be like Joe. The lord giveth and lord taketh away. Blessed be the lord. Am I going to quit when it gets hard or a little difficult or a little dare I say uncomfortable?
Our definition of good so often times is tied with, with comfort and luxury. Not according to this verse, it's not. You see, we looked at all these things. How to live a good life, and, and I know Thanksgiving is coming up. I know it's on everybody's mind, and it's like, I get it, we should all be thankful all year long, but, but this season, this time of year is when people are thinking about it.
And you think about what a lot of people say when they're talking about, I'm thankful for this, or I'm, they're thankful for the parts of the good life they have. But the thought that struck me, I, I, when we come to this time of season, I try to, I try to challenge myself to think, be thankful for something I haven't really thought of before.
And as I was working this lesson, the thought appeared to me that I am thankful for the things that God hasn't asked me to do. He didn't ask me to make my own pathway. He didn't ask me to lean on my own understanding because I'm a goofball. I messed it up. I figured out something other than that. I've been doing something backwards for about two months now.
Literally turned it around. I'm going to mess it up. God didn't put me in a position to figure all that out. I'm thankful for what he hasn't asked me to do. So if I stop trying to do what he didn't ask me to do, then it ought to help me to do what he has asked me to do. Now, I don't know what's going on this morning.
I don't know what you need. I don't know. Maybe you're struggling. Maybe you're hurting. Maybe you need to become a christian. Maybe you need help staying a christian. I don't know. I know that you have a god that loves you. I know that you're surrounded by loving people who love you and whether it's coming down front or going out back or.
Making a phone call Right after services. I don't know what it is, but if you need help today Don't leave here without it. I'm gonna call and see to it
Transcript:
If I asked you how you're doing today, what's most likely to be the one word that you would use to interply to that? I'm good. You ever wonder where that word even come from? Like some words, we just take them and we apply them. So many things. It's like, we don't even realize what it really means. I mean, we just all kind of use it, but you know, how's your day?
It was good. How was your, how's your week been? It's good. I mean, How was that? How was that meal last night? It was good. I mean, like, it just applies to everything. And you ask somebody, What kind of life do you want to lead? They're probably gonna tell you if you could get him to boil it down into a sentence.
Well, I want to lead a good life. And I asked you this morning, What does that what's that even mean? I asked Google what it meant. And here was the kind of the Summary answer at the top. The good life is a state of happiness and well being that can be defined in many ways. Comfort and luxury living in comfort and luxury with few problems or worries, meaningful activities, relationships, community, virtue, moral goodness, balance, opportunity.
And then at the bottom, the meaning of good can vary from person to person. Many religions also conceived the good life in moral terms as a life according to God's laws. Now, I don't think it's an accident that when you search, what is the good life? The first thing you find is comfort and luxury. And the last thing you find is God.
I mean, if I was to say the phrase good and what work goes after that good and easy. I mean, we don't even think about good and hard, like, anybody want a life that's good and hard? Like, no. No, good and easy just goes together. But, and, and I get why these things are, are in the list. Um, you know, we want things to work out in the way we want them to.
We want things to be, be comfortable and easy. I get that. But, but wanting it to be so is not going to make it so. You look at that list and you say, okay, that may be something to, to aspire to, but how do you lead a good life? How do you lead a good life? I think you find that answer in, in the wisdom book in the Bible.
Get your Bibles with me this morning. Go to Proverbs chapter three. That's where we're going to go. We're not. really going to leave and go anywhere else. Proverbs chapter three. Of course, this is a book of a father writing to the son, writing to his son, you know, basically trying to get him to not make all the same mistakes that he did.
It's a It's a wisdom book. Wisdom gets brought up over and over and over again this trying to get his son to pick up and to appreciate and to hang on to wisdom. Notice what it says here in chapter three. My son do not forget my teachings, but let your heart keep my commandments for length of days and years of life and peace.
They will add to you. Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you bind them together around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success in the side of God and man. Favor and good success in the side of good. God in man. Doesn't that sound like a good life?
That it's not something that you that you won't. But how do you have that good life? Well, I think as we continue on in in Proverbs chapter three, the problems writer here is going to tell us how to do that. But this morning, I kind of want to go with this a little bit different. I usually ask the question how How do you do something?
And how usually entails, here's the steps I need to take. And there's plenty of steps in what we're about to read in Proverbs three. But I don't want to talk about so much this morning, what we should do as what we shouldn't do, because I think this morning, as we read through Proverbs three, I've never really had this stand out to me before, but.
It almost seemed like pairs where here's what you should do, but also here's something that you don't do along with it. And a lot of times the enemy of what we should do is the thing we shouldn't be doing. You know, sometimes it's like you want to, if you want to know how to do something, let me tell you how not to do it right.
And that will help you to do the thing. So I hope that that makes sense where we're going and what we're doing with this lesson this morning, but again, we're going to pick up. In verse five, and we're going to see the first thing that we, the first thing we have to not do if we're going to have a good life is we can't lean.
Proverbs three, five trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. Now, if I were to say to you, if you want to have a good life, you need to trust God. Do you think that's a true statement? Well, yeah, Yeah, Doug, that's that's obvious. Okay, you should trust in God. Trusting God.
That's great. But do you know what? The biggest enemy of trusting in God is what is the thing that's going to take me away from trusting God the most trusting me? You see, when I when I trust in myself, what am I doing? I'm taking God out of that position of power, that position of authority. I'm trying to put me in that place.
And how does that work out for you? Generally not real well. Now I want to read you this definition, this word lean. Now we kind of know what lean is, right? You, you walk up to somebody's truck and you're talking to them and you kind of, you kind of lean on the truck, right? And you hope they don't have one of them big metal belt buckles on and put a scratch down the side of your, your vehicle, right?
Place your weight on something. Well, let me read to you the. the definition here to have trust and belief in an object to the point of being in jeopardy. If the object of trust fails, they read that one more time, having trust and belief in an object to the point of being in jeopardy. If the object of trust fails, I'll take, I'll mess it up for 9000 Alex.
You see. How many times, how many times are Christians handicapped because they're too busy trusting in themselves and not easy enough trusting in God? You know, we've talked a lot lately about forgiving ourselves, and that's a process, it's a thing to work on, but if I understand that God has forgiven me of my sins, it's And I can't forgive myself because I know what I did and I don't know why I did it and I Then that sound a lot like I'm leaning more on my own understanding That I am leaning on God's understanding.
I Mean at what point am I am I more concerned and busier feeding my own self doubt That I am feeding my faith in God How many times have we prayed? God, please help me. Please help this. Please help this or that. And then the moment I say amen, my eyes open and I go and my mindset immediately turns to okay.
Now, how can I fix it? What do I gotta do? I set my prayer up. I put God on it. But in the meantime, I got I gotta work it out myself. How many times do we make a bigger mess out of it than simply Just trusting God. I'm not saying that we don't ever do anything. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm talking about at the end of the day, who do you trust more?
Do you trust yourself? Or do you trust God? And I can't answer that question for you. I have a hard enough time trying to answer for me. But if I'm gonna lead a good life, if I'm going to trust God, I have to get myself out of that. spot of leadership and authority and power in my life. Because I'm not perfect.
Because I can't see the big picture because I'm not God. And no matter how good I try, no matter what I do, I never will be.
If I'm going to lead a good life, I can't lean on my own understanding. Why did this person do this? Why did they do that? Why did I do this? Why did I do that? Why did they say that to me? I, I don't know why.
At some point, you just gotta strike it up. It's just evil. I don't know why, but I do know God. And which one of those am I gonna lean on? Right? If I'm gonna have a good life, I can't lean on myself. But our next one, Our next one is in verse six. In all ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your past.
Now, if I told you you need to live a good life, you need to acknowledge God and everything you do, would you agree with that? Yeah. But this kind of ties in with the first one. Who is the path straightener outer? If that's a technical term, if you allow me that that redneck ism this morning, who is the official path straightener outer?
Is it me? Or is it God? It's God. God didn't call me to straighten out my path. For me to straighten out my path, I would have to be able to see into the future. And I would have to be able to completely morally understand right from wrong. And I would have to be able to do things that I'm not physically capable of.
If I was required to straighten out my own path. God didn't call me to do that. God's already got the straight path. He already knows what it looks like. He's already paved it. My job is not to be a path straightener outter. My job is in all my ways to acknowledge Him.
Now what does that word acknowledge mean? We know what it means. Somebody comes up to me in the grocery store, you know Susie Greenfield? Yeah, I know Susie. Susie Q. If I acknowledge that that I have basically said that, you know, I'm agreeing and I understand and I know Let's take that concept with God and put it to our ways.
If I'm doing something, if I'm walking away that God would not acknowledge or approve of If I look at that and say, well, I'm over here, I'm over here lost in the weeds and seeing right, and I'm doing what God doesn't want me to do. And I, God doesn't want me to do this, but I acknowledge him. It's not just saying, Hey, I know what's right or wrong.
What if I'm over here lost in the weeds? And I say, this isn't, this isn't right. If I'm going to acknowledge it, what do I got to do? I got to walk away from it. My job is not to make a straight path. God has already laid the straight path out for us. It's just my job to follow what he has given us. That's my job.
I don't have to pave the path. I don't have to invent it. I just have to follow what he has created. And no, I can't always see to the end of it. Psalm 119 105. That word is a lamp into my feet and a and a floodlight to my pathway. That's not what it says. Sometimes we'd love to have a spotlight to me and candle powers light it up.
I don't get that. I get enough to see around my feet and take the next step. How many times is the only thing we need to do is just do the next right thing. Well, I don't know how it's gonna work out. And I don't know. Okay, I don't either. But what's the next right thing? You could know that and if you do that and you get over there, what's the next question is?
What's the next right thing? You see a series of next right things that's in alignment with what God said that acknowledges his his him in all your ways. You see how that's gonna lead you down a path that you're supposed to be on. I ain't got to know where it leads. I just got to follow. I don't have to pay the path.
I just got to follow it. Right. I can't worry about making my pathway straight. I'm gonna lead a good life. What's next? Proverbs 37 and eight. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Now, if I told you you need to live a good life and to do that, you got to turn away from evil.
Well, yeah, yeah, Doug. I agree with that once again. What's the enemy of that thinking I'm smarter than God is do not be wise. What in your own eyes, you know what? Nearsightedness is I have it when I take my glasses off and I'm trying to read something, text gets bigger. I can actually read print better without my glasses.
But you know what I can't do with my glasses off? I can't see who's coming in that back door back there. Right? When I'm wise in my own eyes, I don't see anything past me. And you know why that's a problem? Because we can justify anything we want to do. You go in the break room at work and the donut box is on the counter and it says you deserve a donut and you think, Boy, donut box, you are right.
I do deserve a donut.
We'll justify anything. We'll justify the rankest of sins if I'm being wise in my own eyes. But if I'm seeking God's wisdom, If I'm not being nearsighted, if I'm not just thinking about today and now, if I'm not just thinking about me, it changes my decision making process, doesn't it? I'm sure there's plenty of times Paul wanted to throw in the towel, and Paul's talking about, you know, I'm not going to eat meat that's going to offend my brother.
I'm sure there's plenty of times Paul wanted to eat the steak. I don't care if you like it or not, I'm going to eat the ribeye or bust, okay? I'm sure he wanted to. But it's not about me. I didn't paint the path. I'm on God's path. If I'm gonna see that path, I've got to look past the end of my nose and I've got to look past the end of myself to see it.
I'm gonna lead a good life. I can't be nearsighted, not spiritually. I guess you could be nearsighted physically and never go get glasses, but I don't tell me when you're going to drive. I don't want to be on the road. But you can't be nearsighted spiritually. Well, number next, we can't be dishonorable.
Proverbs 10. Honor the Lord with your wealth. And when your first fruits of all your produce, then your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine. right? This idea of having the supplies that you need. If I told you that to have a good life, you need to have all the supplies that you need.
Well, yeah, Doug, I know that. But what? What happens if I don't honor the Lord with my wealth and the things that I produce things by the way that he has given me? It's kind of what we talked about in Bible class this morning. It's reading Matthew, Matthew chapter 22. and the master built a vineyard and dug a pit and made a wine press and made everything that they needed to make a vineyard work and gave it to them.
And then when the master come to collect his portion of the fruit, they killed his prophets and then they killed his son. Why? Because it was selfish because they wanted the inheritance for themselves. If I dishonor God with my checkbook, How else will I dishonor God? If I can justify that, what else will I justify?
You see, if I honor God with my wealth and the first fruits of my produce, then I have no problem honoring him in my words and my actions and my thoughts, in my heart, in the way that I treat other people.
Either you want to honor God or you don't. This is just, this is just really a test of it.
Are you going to honor God? or be dishonorable to him. I'm gonna lead a good life. I can't, I can't be dishonorable to him because he's been nothing but gracious to me. Now, number last proverbs three 11 and 12. My son do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary of his reproof for the Lord reproves him who he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.
You understand, we're going to lead a good life. We can't harden our heart towards God when he's trying to correct us and trying to make us better. Being a Christian is a lifelong transformation process. Right, Romans 12, 1 and 2, be transformed by the renewing of your minds. It's 6 when, When he saw that vision of God and he hits the ground and says, Whoa, am I?
For I'm a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips. He looked at God and he saw how imperfect he was
and that didn't matter because God cleansed him, corrected him. And Isaiah was a, a mighty part of God's plan. You know, I don't know if you can Maybe sometimes fully get the love of God until you work with Children, right? You ever disciplined a child? You ever get to the point where you got to spike a child and in their minds, what?
Oh, why are you doing it? Because you'd love them. I literally spiked my Children before and looked at him and said, I know you're better than this. I know it. I can see it in you. If I didn't care about you, I'd let you go do whatever.
I'm not saying everything bad that happens in our lives is God disciplining us. But I know sometimes like Joe, but it gets really hard. And we just want to throw up our hands and say, just forget it. This way it's going to be. I just, I'm done. You're going to lead a good life. You can't harden your heart.
So I'm 23 years old. I'll walk through the valley of death. I fear no evil. I'm the only I'm the one who decides whether I'm sitting in or going through. Am I going to give up and quit or am I going to hang on? I'm going to be like Joe. The lord giveth and lord taketh away. Blessed be the lord. Am I going to quit when it gets hard or a little difficult or a little dare I say uncomfortable?
Our definition of good so often times is tied with, with comfort and luxury. Not according to this verse, it's not. You see, we looked at all these things. How to live a good life, and, and I know Thanksgiving is coming up. I know it's on everybody's mind, and it's like, I get it, we should all be thankful all year long, but, but this season, this time of year is when people are thinking about it.
And you think about what a lot of people say when they're talking about, I'm thankful for this, or I'm, they're thankful for the parts of the good life they have. But the thought that struck me, I, I, when we come to this time of season, I try to, I try to challenge myself to think, be thankful for something I haven't really thought of before.
And as I was working this lesson, the thought appeared to me that I am thankful for the things that God hasn't asked me to do. He didn't ask me to make my own pathway. He didn't ask me to lean on my own understanding because I'm a goofball. I messed it up. I figured out something other than that. I've been doing something backwards for about two months now.
Literally turned it around. I'm going to mess it up. God didn't put me in a position to figure all that out. I'm thankful for what he hasn't asked me to do. So if I stop trying to do what he didn't ask me to do, then it ought to help me to do what he has asked me to do. Now, I don't know what's going on this morning.
I don't know what you need. I don't know. Maybe you're struggling. Maybe you're hurting. Maybe you need to become a christian. Maybe you need help staying a christian. I don't know. I know that you have a god that loves you. I know that you're surrounded by loving people who love you and whether it's coming down front or going out back or.
Making a phone call Right after services. I don't know what it is, but if you need help today Don't leave here without it. I'm gonna call and see to it
