Finding Our Pleasant Place

Well, we're in a series called Open Heart, Open Heaven, and we're learning that our hearts determine our direction in life. Proverbs says that to guard our heart above all else, for it determines the course of our life.

Our hearts have to be tended to. They have to be managed well in life, don't they? They're like a garden that can grow both seeds and weeds. The thing that grows the fastest in my garden, I can tell you, are not seeds, they're weeds, right? And they have to be pulled. They have to be taken out so that the seeds of God's life, His Word, can continue to grow a life of blessing, can continue to cause us to flourish in our hearts and in our life.

Our hearts really do determine how much of heaven we're going to see on our earth, in our life, our family, and our future. And I believe you're here today because you want heaven open over your head. Amen.

Thank you for staying hungry for God. Turn to somebody and say, "Hungry, my friend." Yes, stay hungry for God.

Pastor Jim preached last week a really helpful message. He talked about not letting confusion be the conclusion of our story. Not letting confusion. Life can have some pretty good drama. How many of you figured that out yet? Friday can have some pretty good drama.

So anytime we sense confusion trying to come in, settle in, and we will. We can be still and we can let God establish His peace again on the throne of our heart. He's called the God of peace. Amen. And He'll always help us get back to that place of peace in our lives.

So today we're going to talk about finding our pleasant place. Bless you. Finding our pleasant place out of Psalm 16. It's one of my favorite songs, one God has spoken to me through in my life.

And if you don't get anything else out of today, this is what I want to ring out loud and clear. This is the big idea of all the 4,000 words that I speak today. And it's this: your little life matters in a big way, a huge way, an eternal way.

We could think out of 8 billion plus people on the earth, "Is my life really that important? Is it really that significant?" Yes. A million times, yes. And that's why we wanna live in our sweet spot as David talks about.

Psalm 16 was written by King David, and he starts out this Psalm with a plea in verse one, "Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge."

We know David as a shepherd boy, we know him as a king, but he was also a fugitive. David spent 10 years running from his enemy. His own father-in-law wanted to kill him. Now how many of you say your in-laws aren't that bad? They're not trying to kill you, right?

David's word. Verse 2 says, "I say to the Lord, you are my Lord." He makes it personal. Lord means the one in supreme authority. "You are my Lord. Apart from you, I have no good thing."

"I save the holy people who are in the land." That's you. "They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight."

He says, "Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood or sacrifices to such gods or take up their names on my lips."

So we can see from those initial verses that first of all David found a safe place in God. He found a refuge in God. He needed it all throughout his life. He never didn't need a safe place to run to.

Secondly, David knew God personally. He was not just Lord. Yahweh is that first Lord, Adonai is the second. He wasn't just the proper Yahweh, but he was Adonai. He was the personal God to him.

Then David was grateful for people of faith, the ones that were with God and with him. Amen. That's what he was talking about, the holy. Turn to somebody and say, "You're one of those holy people."

Then here's where I want to start and here's where I want to stay for the message. In verse five, it says, he said, "Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup. You make my lot secure." One version says, "Lord, you've assigned me my portion and my cup. You've made my lot secure."

Before we were ever born, God had an assignment for our life. He has a book about our life. He's got pages and chapters that he has down for us to fulfill while we're here.

Psalm 139 says, "Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

None of us are here by accident. We're here on purpose. We're here to fulfill God's purpose. Your mother may have told you you were an accident, right? Maybe she told you we're a surprise, but how many of you know we weren't to God? None of us were a surprise. None of us were an accident in God's sight.

And sometimes, you know, we need to be reminded of this. We can get so caught up in the day-to-day stuff of life. It's good to just kind of step back at times and see the bigger picture, see where we fit in.

A lot of us have heard of the book Purpose Driven Life. How many of you ever, if you haven't read that book, it's a great book. It was written by Pastor Rick Warren. You know that book sold over 60 million copies. That's big. Most books don't sell near, near, near that many.

Why did he sell? Because inside of us, we know that we were made for something bigger than ourselves, right? Bible says that God put eternity in the hearts of men. We're here for eternal purposes.

And the first sentence in this book is so good. You know what it is? Just 4 words. "It's not about you." It's not about you. Turn to somebody and say, "It's not about you."

Know, isn't that freeing when you think about it? We don't have to figure it all out. God has already done that for us. He has a blueprint for building a fruitful and fulfilling life.

Ephesians says we are His masterpiece, created for good works which God prepared in advance for us. He's prepared a bunch of good works for us to do while we're here on earth.

We can't do everything, but we can do something really good that's very important and very eternal. God put gifts and abilities in us. He put us in certain families, and we've had certain experiences in life, some good and some not so good. But He takes all of that into consideration and then assigns us, or He puts on our plate what we're to do for Him.

David said, "You've made my lot secure." That word lot means destiny. Everybody say destiny.

Sometimes, you know, we think destiny. Our destiny is this big, mysterious, amazing place that we arrive at one day in our life. And it is sort of, but it's found in a whole bunch of small, ordinary steps that we take each and every day.

Like being a good, a godly spouse, right? Being a godly mom or dad. It's found in teaching that classroom full of rowdy 6th graders and bringing God's presence on the scene.

It's found in working at the plant or Dillard's or maybe Chick-fil-A and being a witness to those around us by how we work and how we live and how we talk. We become the salt and light for others to see and be saved.

Our purpose will always, always, always be connected to advancing God's kingdom in some way. If not, it may be our purpose instead of God's purpose.

Have you ever had a great plan for your life? I think we all have. They say if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans. Jim had a plan for his life. Baseball player, right? But God laughed.

God's plan will always be connected to advancing his kingdom.

I have a friend in this church. I think she's here this morning. As a little girl, her family never went to church or prayed or even talked to God. But she had a friend down the street whose family were Christians. They would take her to church with them.

When she was in their home and around them, she felt something different about their life. And she thought, this is the kind of life, way back then as a little girl, this is the kind of life that I want.

And she came to know the Lord as a result of that family. That's been years ago. She's raised her kids in this church, now her grandchildren, and she's taught the Bible for years and years, served wholeheartedly with God. She's been a pillar in this house, all because of somebody lived their little life in a big way.

They live for God's purposes, right? We never know how our witness will make a difference, how it will impact generations.

Scripture tells us, "Whatever you do," whatever you do, that means anything that we're doing today, "whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. It's working for the Lord, not for human masters. Since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward."

You know, our real boss is God and we're working for Him. That's why when we get frustrated and think, "God, I've had it with this co-worker and I'm about to let him have it," we pray and we stay in life.

"God, I'm tired of saying my pleasure to all these Chick-fil-A customers. They need to be patient." But we pause and we say, "Lord, I'm working for you and this is okay."

How do I know about these feelings? Because I've had them. Still have them, right?

We are here to make heaven happy. We say, "I'm here today, God, on your assignment," right? And that changes everything. Because he's the one that we'll have to give an account to one day, not anyone else, right?

Scripture says this, and I like this, and it's good to read this scripture now. It says, "For we must all," everybody say all, "for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good, good works, or whether bad."

This judgment is for Christians who've already made it to heaven. We're not gonna get thrown out, thank God. But we will be judged for what we've done while in our body.

That scripture is not to scare us, it's to motivate us. It is to get us ready for the big day. How many of you know if you were supposed to take a test, you would wanna know about that test before you got there, right? You'd wanna prepare to take that test.

How many of you wake up in the night and you dream that you missed studying for a test, right? You ever have that? You used to have that. I don't have anymore, but it's not a good dream.

But if we're gonna be tested on something, we need to know it before we get there.

We don't stand before him for anybody else's assignment. That's freeing to know. I'm not going to be up there and give an account for Jim's life, what he did, what was on his plate. He'll not give one for what was on my plate, right?

We'll only get credit for what's on our plate, only for what he put us on this earth to fulfill.

I think it's kind of funny as Jesus was restoring Peter to ministry in John 21. Peter had fallen and denied the Lord three times and he thought he was done. But Jesus said, "You're not done." Amen. You're not done. It's never over till it's over.

He was telling Peter about his future and what he was going to do for him and how he was going to restore him and use him.

Well, Peter did what we do sometimes. He looked back at John and he said, "Lord," he said, "what about him? What about him? What does he get to do? What does his future look like?"

And I love what Jesus said to him. And he says to all of us, he said, "Peter, what is that to you? You follow me. What is that to you? Follow me."

We don't need to compete. We don't need to compare our assignments. We need to complete them, right? We need to complete what God put us on this earth to do.

We just have a little while. I had a birthday yesterday. I know it gets fewer and fewer days here on this earth. We just have a little while to live here and to do our work.

But how many of you know we have an eternity to celebrate what we do for Jesus? Amen? You could say amen to that.

Then let's look at verse 6. The Bible says, David goes on to say, "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places. Surely I have a delightful inheritance."

God not only gives us a purpose to fulfill, He gives us a place to fulfill those purposes. Boundary lines suggest there's a specific area that's going to be a pleasant place in our life.

King David couldn't just go anywhere and be king. There was an area, there was a place where he was going to have the favor and the grace of God to be king, to serve as king.

God told Abraham, "Go to the land I will show you." Moses said, "The Lord will bless you in the land I'm giving you."

God gives us a space to fulfill purpose and to bless our lives. Just any place is not going to be our pleasant place, right? It's not going to be a sweet spot.

But when we're in the right place, God's place, there's a sweetness to our life. That's what pleasant means. Pleasant means sweet. Everybody say sweet spot.

Not that we don't have battles and problems. David sure did. But there's a knowing in us that we are in the spot that God has chosen for us.

You know our dogs, for a little while they were not helping our witness with our neighbors. We've lived in our home for 31 years and we've had a lot of dogs. And we didn't have rebellious teenagers, we had rebellious dogs. Should have trained them better.

But they like to run around the neighborhood. So we ended up creating a boundary for them so they wouldn't get out. And we put one of those little shock collars on their neck. And we didn't put it up very high at all. We just wanted to give them a little shock around their neck that would remind them of their boundary.

They learned pretty quickly that outside that boundary was not a pleasant place, right? It was not a sweet spot at all, right? Are you with me? Are you mad at me? Because I said I put a shock collar on my. Sorry again. We have to do what we have to do. We live out in the country, right?

They learned. They learned about their sweet spot. Oh goodness.

Listen to what Paul said in his sermon on Mars Hill in Acts. He said this. He said, "God began by making one man. And from him he made all different people who live everywhere in the world." That's me and you.

"He decided exactly when and where they would live."

God not only determined when we'd live in history, but he determined where we'd live. He knew we'd be a Quero gobbler. Any Quero gobblers in the house? No, they were there for service.

How about Golead Tigers? How about Edna Cowboys? How about warriors, titans, all the other ones, right? Here in the wonderful city of Victoria, Texas.

I grew up 2 1/2 hours north of here, and I never once thought about living in this city. Jim grew up in Pittsburgh, and he never thought he'd live in the great state of Texas, right?

He was like Davy Crockett. He wasn't born in Texas, but he got here as fast as he could.

But we didn't have a clue, but God knew. God knew. God had a clue. God knew. He puts us where he wants us to fulfill purpose.

Why does he do this? Because he has something delightful he wants us to inherit. David calls it a delightful inheritance.

He wants our life to bring influence, favor, and eternal fruit, so much so that people look and say only God could give them that kind of life.

Nobody can give us the kind of inheritance that God does, right? The kind that comes from fulfilling his purpose and flourishing in the place he's called us.

I think about Tedrick and Angela Valentine. Talked about him first service. He texted me between services. They're actually on their anniversary trip. But he heard this today.

Some of my favorite people, most faithful members here at Faith Family, they've sown into the lives of children and teenagers for years and years.

But not long ago, they dropped their last two kids off at college. They have three. And he said in his post, and if you post something, it's preaching material. Just let me tell you that, right?

He said in his post, he said, "Our house is empty, but our hearts are full."

And he said, Tedrick grew up and he and Angela here and he was a great football player, but he said he was the guy that grew up under the hill with nothing guaranteed or any kind of future promised him.

But he found Angela and that was his first good thing, right? Then they both went on to college and they came back to Victoria, Texas and they put down some roots, some deep roots.

Both are giving back to this community in a really a powerful way. Angela's a pharmacist and Tedrick is the principal of our VISD Success Academy. He's ministering to some of the students that have his very same story. He's an example. He's an encouragement.

Their three kids love God. They're going on to find their purpose and their place in God.

Tedrick and Angela have found their sweet spot, right? And God has helped them inherit a fruitful and a fulfilling life.

Pastor Daniel Grothy says this in his book, The Power of Place: "To the degree that you build others up in your local place is the degree that your roots go down." Amen? That's good. Amen.

Sometimes we have a tendency to think the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence. I can tell you my neighbor's grass, it does. It looks greener than my grass.

Outside of my boundary lines, it looks like a lot more fun. It looks like more success.

But the only reason the grass becomes greener is because of the investment, is because of the time and effort that's put into the grass.

If we'll stay faithful to our grass, to our place, it will become a flourishing place.

I'm not saying God never moves us. He sure does at times in our lives. But He also gives us places in our life to put down some deep, deep roots.

Life and sometimes even the enemy will give us opportunity to leave our sweet spot, to get promoted right out of it, or to get offended and have a door open so that we go.

It takes determination. It takes devotion to fulfill purpose in the place that God has called us.

We never get too old to fulfill purpose. As long as we have breath, we have purpose. Scripture says, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord."

As long as we're breathing, we have a reason to do something for him.

I'm thankful that our senior saints aren't just out rocking on a porch somewhere. They're still pouring into the lives of the next generation. They're still being powerful examples in this house.

Can we give all of our senior saints a good hand? Amen. Such awesome, awesome people.

So how do we go? How do we go through life staying focused and faithful to our purpose and our place?

Because as Pastor Jim says, life is not like this. Life is not an incline, right? Life is more like a roller coaster. And you know, we never know what's coming around the corner. We never know what drops are ahead, do we?

You know, I'd love roller coasters if it wasn't for the drops. I can't do the drops. My stomach stays at the top.

But here's how we stay focused and here's how we stay faithful.

Verse 8, David said, "I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved."

You know, when we set something, we do it intentionally. We set our alarm to wake up in the morning. We set the stove to cook dinner. We set the AC so we don't burn up here in South Texas. We do it on purpose to get a result.

David was intentional about setting the Lord before him his entire life.

He did it when he was chosen as a teenager, out being a shepherd, and when he was chaste in the wilderness. When he sinned, he set the Lord always before him. When he sat on the throne as king of Israel, he set the Lord always before him.

We could say it this way, before means priority, right? God was his first priority and his constant companion.

Notice David said here, "Because he's at my right hand, I will not be moved."

How many of you are left-handed like me? Here we go. Not A left-hander. Why does he say right hand, right? I'm offended.

Right hand and not left. They viewed the right hand in that day as a hand of strength. Most people were right-handed, and it was their strongest hand. It was the one they used to fight with, the one they held a weapon with, because it was strong.

Right hand signified power, authority, and honor.

We know Jesus. Where does he sit? At the right hand of the Father.

Scripture says that God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, far above all rule, authority, power, and dominion in every name that can be named.

I tell you, if we keep God at our right hand, we won't be shaken. Whatever comes our way, we'll find our footing and we'll stand.

I see some of you, and because we've been here so long, I know your stories and I know some of the things that you've been through and some of the things that you've had to face in life.

But the good news is you're still standing. You're still here. Amen.

Jesus has been at your right hand. You've leaned on the one at your right hand and found the wisdom and strength to be unshaken and to stand.

We know he's the one that can work all things together for our good. If we'll do two things, if we'll love him and if we'll stay called according to his purpose. Amen.

Don't quit fulfilling purpose when times get hard. Don't quit fulfilling what God asks you to do when you're in a spiritual battle.

That's the times to stay at it. Amen. To stay loving God and to stay about the purposes of God.

Because we know if it's not good yet, God's not done yet.

Say that with me. Say, "If it's not good yet, God's not done yet."

That would have made a really good scripture, right? Really good scripture.

What are some practical ways we set the Lord before us? I'm going to just give you three. Because if you're like me, I like to take something home with me that I know that I can do. One, two, three, right?

Number one, practical way by reading the promises of God every day. Not just a devotional or not just every once in a while, but reading the promises of God, the Word of God every day.

Jesus was the word made flesh. He's in his word and he talks to us through his words.

The promises are what build faith in our hearts. Without the word of God, there is no faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God.

But these promises are seeds that grow a great life in God.

I love the scripture, Psalm 126. It says, "He that goes forth weeping, carrying precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing sheaves or fruit with him."

When they sowed seed in those days, they carried that bag of seed across their chest, on their shoulder.

And so I want to ask you today, what's in your bag? What's in your bag?

You know, I think of Jennifer Garner when I say that, "What's in your wallet?" I hear that commercial all the time, what's in your wallet?

What's in your bag? What's in your bag?

Especially if you're weeping today, if you're in a spiritual battle of some time, what's in our bag?

Are we caring and planting in our heart and with our words the precious seed of the Word of God, the promises of God? Amen.

If so, you're guaranteed some great fruit. You're guaranteed to rejoice one day. Not to stay weeping, but to rejoice.

How many of you are thankful for the Word of God? Amen.

Scripture says, Hebrews 12, 4, 12 says God's Word is alive and it's active. They're not normal words. They're words that are full of God's life and full of His power.

It can transform our mind, can transform our marriage, our circumstance, our future.

Turn to somebody and say, "What's in your bag?"

Then prayer. Prayer is another way. We set the Lord always before us. These are just practical steps. Promises, prayer.

Scripture says, "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful," devotion.

Then one tiny little scripture says, "Pray continually." Pray continually.

Prayer is just conversation with God. It's talking to God and letting Him talk to us. It's understanding that He has daily bread for us.

Prayer is what keeps us from temptation. It's what guides us along the way. It's what guards our life.

I like the saying, "A day hymned in prayer is less likely to unravel."

How many of you have ever had a string on your clothes or your kids' clothes and you pulled it and you kept pulling it? You thought it was going to stop and you kept pulling it. Pretty soon a button pops off, right? Or something worse happens, right?

Prayer keeps that from happening. That's a great word picture.

Any one of us can learn to pray well. We can learn to pray powerfully wherever we are today.

Maybe we don't even know how to pray today. We can learn to pray powerfully.

Start where you are. God loves it when you talk to Him. When we talk to Him as a Father, when we talk to Him as a friend.

Scripture says He delights in the prayer of the righteous, not the eloquent, but the righteous. Amen.

Everybody say righteous. Righteous.

Lastly, people.

You know, David talked about how the saints, the people of God were his delight.

We have the opportunity to gather several times during the week right here in the house of God. To be encouraged, to be loved, to be taught, to be prayed over.

There's nothing like the gathering in the presence of God.

Hebrews says this, "Not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day approaching."

He's saying gathering should be our habit, not gathering, right?

The word church actually means an assembly or gathering. It means being together. It's not really church if it's just Jesus and me, right?

Nothing will ever replace the church.

The gathering, rubbing shoulders with people of God who love us, who cheer us on, people who we can learn from, people we can lean on when life gets hard and when we go through battles.

I've been a part of the church all my life. Never remember a time I wasn't. My life is richer because of it. I love God's people. I need God's people.

Scripture says this, "So we are many parts of one body and we all belong to each other."

Without you, we miss something. Without you, we miss something in our body.

Those huge redwood trees that grow in California and Oregon, some are so big that a car can drive through the trunk of those trees. Maybe you've seen them in pictures.

They can withstand any storm or wind without ever being shaken.

What's strange about these huge trees is that they only have roots that are so deep. They don't have deep roots, but you think they should. They should go down really deep, but they don't.

They have roots that are connected. They're connected.

The roots of each of these trees connect like a massive highway system, like 610 in Houston, right? They're just connected.

And they not only hold each other up in strong storms, but they actually share nourishment through the root system.

So without that connection, they're on their own. Without that connection, they're going to go down, right?

We don't want to be on our own. We want the strength of connection that keep us in place and refreshed in God.

If we want to live unshaken in a shaky world, we've got to live connected to Jesus and His body.

Amen? Amen.