Godly Pleasure or Counterfeit Pleasure

I'm so excited to share with you the third message in our series, Open Heart, Open Heaven. As Pastor Jim said last week, his first two messages were strong. Everybody say strong. And he said this one was gonna be sweet and it was gonna be about birds. So after service, one lady came up, Ms. Leslie, she said, Pastor, if it's sweet and if it's about birds, it's gonna be a tweet message. I thought that was kind of cute. Hey, if I sound a little different today, it's because I got braces this week. Me and a bunch of other 16-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds, 12-year-olds, they did tell me that there was an 82-year-old that was getting braces too, so I didn't feel so bad. But I did forget two things, how sore they make your teeth and all the food you can't eat when you have braces. So I'm eating a lot of yogurt and ice cream for the next two years, right? I'll share with you, Jim. I keep telling myself though I can do this. So pray for me. Hey, thank you for investing in your spiritual life. Thank you for having a heart to grow in God, having your family established in the truth of God's word. There's nothing more important, right? Because life happens to all of us, doesn't it? It happens and we need an unshakable foundation in our life. I love how we're watching the generations come together in church. I love as I look across, I see families. I see moms and dads. I see grown kids, now grandkids coming together and serving God in his house. It's such a beautiful sight. You know, over and over in the scriptures, God said he called himself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Three generations. Loving God and living for God. And it's not just physical parents or children. How many of you know we have spiritual children? We have moms and dads in the faith. I tell you, God gives each of us just what we need to grow a great life in God. There's a lady that is a friend of mine. She comes, she's a single lady, came to the church a few years ago, well several years ago now. She rededicated her life to the Lord and she's been coming and serving faithfully, but not long ago her grown son and his son were baptized. water baptized. And she is so excited about what God is doing in their family. How many know that took a lot of work and a lot of prayer, but they got dunked. Amen. And so what an awesome thing to watch what God does in families when one person, one person, maybe one couple will come and make a decision to walk with God. It reminds me of that scripture in Matthew's gospel that talks about how God's kingdom in our life, it starts like a little mustard seed. It's the tiniest of all seeds. And The Bible says after a time it becomes larger than anything else in the garden. Aren't you glad that what God does in our life can be bigger than anything else, amen? Bigger than what the enemy's done, bigger than our past, bigger than our failures. And it goes on to say that this tree is so big that the birds of the earth can come and find shade in this there. That's saying that God's work in our life can create a refuge, a safe place for others to find rest in God. See, God is using your life, Faith Family, to bring that kind of blessing to your world. So Faith Family, keep growing a great life in God. Turn to somebody and say, Keep growing. Keep growing. Well, we're gonna look at Psalm 84 today and we're gonna talk about the blessing that comes from being a fully devoted follower of God. You know, one of the words used to define blessed A lot in scripture throughout the whole Bible is the word happy. Because of who we know and because of what we know about him, we should be the happiest people on earth. Do we have trouble? Yes. Do we go through difficulty? Yes. But through it all, we have a hope that should keep our hearts happy. Sometimes for all of us, life gets heavy and we have to get our happy back. How many of you have ever had to get your happy back, right? We gotta remind ourselves that we have a God who is more than enough for whatever we face in life. We know, we say it often, if it's not good yet, God's not done yet, right? We know that's true. And Psalm 84 talks, along with 10 other of the Psalms in the book of Psalms, was written by the sons of Korah. And you may remember who Korah was in Numbers chapter 16. He was one of the leaders that rebelled against Moses' leadership, he and two other men. And all three of these men and some of their family members were swallowed up by the earth. The earth literally opened up, if you read it, and came apart and they all went down to their deaths. How many of you know the Bible has some drama in it? Then fire came and destroyed 250 others who were just connected to these guys, who had aligned themselves with them. And that just goes to show you we gotta watch who we hang out with, right? But Korah's sons were not destroyed. Somehow they were spared, they escaped. I'm sure as they watched what happened that day, their fear of the Lord went up a little higher. I'm sure the respect that they had for God and for Moses went to the next level, right? But beyond that, I think they were just happy to be alive, to have escaped that terrible destruction. These sons of Korah became prominent musicians, singers, gatekeepers who led worship for generations. How many of you know when a mother or father messes up, that doesn't stop the plan of God, amen? And they became these prominent people in the house of God. So those are who wrote this Psalm that we're gonna read right now. Let's read verse one and two of 84. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty. My soul yearns, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Notice how he uses words like yearns, faints, cries out, Those are pretty desperate words, aren't they? They indicate this is not just something I want. I don't wanna just go here. I need, this is something I need. I need to be close to God. Your presence is where my heart and my soul are satisfied, where my body finds the strength to keep going in life. It gives you the feeling that this is a place I gotta get to. I gotta get here. You know, we understand that feeling kind of as people, you know, as we travel or go to another city or state or maybe go overseas like Jim and I do sometimes, we can have the best time, the best time. But after a little while, our hearts start yearning for home, right? All of us had that little spot on the earth that we call home. And for us, as 1595 West Park Avenue, we love our home. Everything is familiar, everything's comfortable. My bed is the best. Home is where our soul is refreshed and our hearts are at peace. It's really true, there's no place like-- Home. But listen, that feeling of being home doesn't compare to the one we find in God. St. Augustine said, You have made us for yourselves, oh Lord, and our hearts are restless until it rests in you. See, God created the world, we know that, and he created us. We were designed for connection with him. And when we don't have it, we know it. We feel it. It's like something's missing on the inside. What we want people to experience, what we all wanna experience when we come through the doors of faith family, more than anything else, is the presence of God. Through worship, through the teaching of God's word, and through fellowship. Scripture says that God is present in the company of the righteous. Not perfect, but righteous, right? Don't you love that when we gather, God shows up. And then because He's with us as believers and in us, right, we have the Holy Spirit, constant communion with Him. Notice they called Him the living God. They saw a living God when they saw what happened when the earth opened up and they fell in. They saw a living God. They knew they were worshiping a living God. Not religion, but a relationship with a God who knows us, who loves us, and can cause us to live at rest in this world. You know birds have a built-in homing instinct. That means they can travel hundreds or thousands of miles to get back home without a GPS. How many of you can't get out of your driveway without a GPS? They somehow know where home is on the inside. That place is familiar, it's warm, it's where they can build their nest. God puts it in the heart of a bird to fly south because south is out there. In the same way, God puts in us a longing to find home because it's out there and when we find it, we know we're there. We know it's where we belong. We can try to satisfy that restlessness, and I know we all have tried to do this in all kinds of ways in our life before we find Jesus. Maybe sometimes after we find Jesus, right? We find it through pleasure, try to find it through pleasure, through people, relationships, through possessions, what we have or what we can gain, or maybe through some kind of temporary relief or fix. But if it's not first found in Him, it's not real rest. It's not the ultimate peace our soul longs for. David said my soul finds rest in God alone. He has become my refuge. Jesus said in me you'll have peace. Peace is a person, peace is Jesus, amen. Many of you remember Pastor PG Vargas, our missionary leader who We've loved and known for a long time, but he has spent his life, given his life to see the unreached of India reached with the gospel. Last time he was here, he told a story, and I'll never forget it. He talked about a young woman that he ministered to. And this woman hasn't slept much at all for years and years. And it has taken such a toll on her life, on her health. She had so much anxiety, she had so much restlessness inside that she could not sleep. India worships about 330 million gods, different gods. And there's so much darkness there. We go to India almost every year and I've never seen as much lostness, I don't know if that's a word, but lostness in the eyes of people like I have in India. Just deep, deep pools of lostness. But Pastor PG shared the gospel with this young woman. It was the first time she had ever heard about Jesus. She opened her heart, she accepted Jesus, she got born again. He said she went home and she literally slept for weeks. She had so much peace that she couldn't wake up. It's true, no Jesus, no peace. But to know Jesus is to know peace, amen. Scripture says know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us and we are His, we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. We belong to Him, He's home. and if it's there that we find true rest, amen? Then let's look at verse three and four, Even the sparrow has found a home and a swallow, a nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God, blessed are those who dwell in your house, they are ever praising you. Not only do we belong to God, but guess what, we matter to God, why does he say even the sparrow? Because the sparrow is one of the smallest and most ordinary birds of all. They don't have bright, beautiful colors like some of the birds that we see. Most of them are just a plain brown color. And in Jesus' day, sparrows were the cheapest and most common birds sold in the marketplace. Jesus talks about two sparrows being sold for one penny. That's a pretty good deal, right? How many know you can't get anything for a penny these days? Not only are they ordinary, but they are abundant. Sparrows are number two when it comes to the bird population. In other words, there's a whole lot of sparrows in our world. And I think this scripture is reminding us that regardless of how insignificant or overlooked we may feel in life, we matter to God. We are so valuable to him, so much so that we could come to his altar, like the scripture says, and build our home like that little sparrow did. The altar is a place of sacrifice, right? And that's what Jesus did for every one of us. He died so that we could live near the altar, so that we could come close to Him in life. We don't have to be afraid of God, do we? God loves us. God is our Father. It's never been about what we've done, it's about what He's done. Thank God for the forgiveness, thank God for the favor that is at His altar, can we just give God a good hand for that? Such a good God. Such a good God. Jesus said, Are not two sparrows sold for one penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father's care. So don't be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows. If he knows and cares when one of those little sparrows falls, he surely knows and cares about our life too. We matter to God. life he has given us right now, today, on earth, matters to God. It's significant in our world. We don't always feel that way, do we? Sometimes life makes us feel less than. Sometimes because of what we go through and what's happened to us in life, we feel maybe overlooked or insignificant. We all have our own story. I heard Kay Warren, she's the wife of Pastor Rick Warren, who pastored one of the largest and greatest churches in America. It's still going strong. But she said, I grew up knowing I was ordinary. There was nothing very special about my life. I didn't have anything that made me stand out. She said, I knew I was cursed with being ordinary. Well, in God's sight, she wasn't. And that ordinary woman has lived an extraordinary life. She's seen God do things in her ordinary life that are extraordinary, right? We are all extraordinary in God's eyes. And let me just remind you of that through this word picture. I shared this the other day, but what if I took a $100 bill? I had it with me this morning, I did the other day, but I don't have it anymore. And it was crisp and clean and straight from the bank, it looked perfect. Again, I wish I had it. But if I stuck that $100 bill in my pocket and went home, put my clothes in the wash and that came out of the wash and the dryer faded and flimsy, right? Or maybe I'd drop that $100 bill and it got stepped on and marked up and maybe even torn a little bit. The truth is I could still take that $100 bill to Dillard's, to Target, to Walmart, and guess what? It would still be worth $100. Nothing changed the value of that bill. And the same is true with our life. No matter how life has left its mark on us or messed with us, no matter how weak or washed up it has caused us to feel, nothing ever changes our value in God's eyes. Our value is not in who we are, but in whose we are. We belong to Him and because of that, we matter to Him. When Jesus looked over a crowd in Matthew 9, scripture said he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like a sheep without a shepherd. Jesus looked at the crowd, but he saw individuals, he saw mothers, he saw fathers, he saw husbands and wives, children, teenagers, and he cared about them all. Jesus loves people, all people, period, right? And he sees them, he sees you, he sees people others overlook. He saw the woman with the issue of blood in the crowd of people and he healed her. He saw the thief on the cross and he saved him. He saw the little man in the tree and he went home with him and had dinner. Why? Because people matter to Jesus. And because you matter to Jesus. Because we matter, he helps us become who he created us to be. We aren't left like we are. Thank God he restores us, he matures us. I've seen God do that in so many of your lives and it's such a beautiful thing to watch. You know the courts of the Lord during those days were the open place outside the temple. It was the place where everybody gathered to pray, to sing, and to wait before the Lord, but the altar was different. The altar was inside the holy place. It was where the priest went in and offered the sacrifice for the sins and weaknesses of the people. It's the place where people were cleansed to live a holy life. Because we matter to God, we can expect to be cleansed by Him. How many of you bathe your babies? Why do you bathe them? Because you love them, right? You don't want them to stink. Why does He cleanse us? Because He loves us and He knows who we can be. As we live close to Him, we can count on Him to clean us up from the inside out and to help us live a life that glorifies Him. Not only do we have an altar today, but we have the Holy Spirit who's on the inside of us, who empowers us to be a witness to our world. Not just in our talk, but in our walk, how we live. I learned early on living in Victoria 30 something years ago that I couldn't go to Whataburger with four kids and get upset because my hamburger wasn't right. Because I might see that person in church the next Sunday. That may or may not have happened. It did happen. Once we come near him though, we can expect to be changed by him. We don't want to settle for counterfeit godliness that doesn't have the power to bring change. Scripture says in the last days, people will have a form of godliness, but they'll deny its power. See, we don't want a form of godliness. We want the real thing, the real change that comes from knowing Jesus. How many of you ladies have ever bought a knockoff purse? I have, have one now. They're fake. They're not the real Louis, they're not the real Chanel or the real Gucci, right? It's a form of the real. A life that's not changed by God has not yet experienced the real power of God because he loves and values us. He's willing to invest in us daily, to bring out our very best, to help us be the best version of who we are. That's why we want to be like that sparrow and find our home near his altar. Scripture says, and we all who with unveiled faces Contemplate the Lord's glory. We're being transformed into his image with ever increasing glory which comes from the Lord. Amen. How many of you are glad God knows how to change our lives? Amen. Change us for the better. Then let's look at the last verse, the last verse again. Even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow and nest for herself, where she may have her young, a place near your altar, Lord God Almighty, my King and my God. Swallows are those little birds that fly a great distance to get home. Some birds just stay where they are and they build their nests, but not swallows. They fly close to 7,000 miles home to find that safe place to care about their young. They build their nests high and in places where they have something overhead to protect them. These birds know their enemies. They need to be safe from big birds and cats and other animals that can harm them in their young. There's no greater satisfaction in the heart of these little birds than to build their nest and to watch their young grow, to nurture them, and then eventually fly out of the nest. This Psalm is reminding us that living close to God is our safe place. He's the only one that has the power to protect us from the enemy, from sin, and even from ourselves, and to help us build the kind of life that satisfies and sustains us. David said, As for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge. You know, one of the five most basic needs humans have that we have is to feel safe. Everybody say safe. We all wanna feel safe in a world that is so unsafe. A world where the enemy of our soul is constantly at work. We want our families nurtured and protected and safe 'cause nothing is more precious to us than that. Tell you a funny story. I remember when our kids were young and I was homeschooling. I did that for about 11 years. And Jim at that time worked from the house part of the week and he was our principal, right? But he had read in the newspaper that day where some prisoners had escaped from one of the prisons nearby and they could possibly be in the area. So he read that and so we were doing school and he was working in his office and the doorbell rings. And he can see the front door from his office. And I was going to answer the door, you know, just like normal. And he comes out of his office frantic. Everybody say frantic. He's even sweating a little bit. He says, Hammer, get the kids and go lock yourself in the bedroom. He said, I'm gonna get my gun. I thought, Oh Lord. He was protecting us from what he thought was one of those escapees at the door. But when he finally looked close enough, he realized it was the swan man. That's the man who comes around selling food. I used to love to buy food from him, so I didn't have to make dinner that night. He wasn't a criminal, he was just selling chicken, just selling pies and bread, and my husband was trying to keep us safe. I know that's a good husband, right? We all need a safe place in life. and our safest place is found in Him. I remember a time in my 30s when I started feeling overwhelmed with life. The church was growing fast and my family was growing. Just had my fourth baby, they were seven and under, six and under, really, at the beginning. And maybe it was Jeffrey, he was the last one born. That might be why, no. But I just felt, I felt inside like I couldn't keep up. And it wasn't a physical thing, I was strong, it was a mental thing, it was in my thoughts. And I felt like I was going down this deep pit and I couldn't get out. I'd always been confident. I had confidence on the inside, but right now at this time I felt so shaken. I felt shallow or I felt like a shell on the inside. I finally told God, you know, you got four kids to raise. And I said, God, help me. I can't do this without you. So I was talking to him one day on the front porch and I said, God, if you don't tell me what's going on with me, I can't do what I'm supposed to do. Please tell me what's going on. And I told him, I said, Lord, I'm gonna fast until you tell me. And so I remember I got up and walked into my bedroom door. I had curlers in my hair, and that's how long ago it was, right? And as soon as I walked through my bedroom door, I heard this voice on the inside say, It's a spirit of fear. It was loud and I couldn't miss it. So the good thing is I didn't have to fast, right? But you know what I did have to do? I had to do battle. I had to fight. So I kept doing what I knew to do. I kept running to God, my safe place. Praying, reading the scriptures, speaking them out of my mouth. It's true when we put God's word in us, when we don't need it, it's there when we do need it. Amen? And it was a battle though. I didn't feel strong. I didn't feel strong at all. I felt weak. I felt unable to do what I was supposed to do. But I tell you what, God is good. It wasn't overnight, but over time, how many know God brought me out of that place? I can say like David, he lifted me out of a horrible pit, and it was horrible, and set my feet on a rock. He gave me a firm place to stand, and he put a new song in my mouth, and he'll do that for any one of us. Amen? He's such a good God. But we have enemies that wanna stop us from being who God has called us to be. Fear, intimidation, condemnation, lust, pride, the devil, demons. That's why it's so important that we build our home, our nest near God. Our foundation out of the rock solid truth of His word. We have enemies that wanna keep us from fulfilling what God put us on this earth to do. Every one of us are here on purpose and with a purpose. To be the spouse, the parent, the boss, the teacher, the friend and family member God has called us to be to bring influence to our world. You are needed in your world. And God is our safe place that protects us from what the power of the enemy wants to steal, kill, and destroy in our lives and in those we love. Proverbs says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous run into it and we are safe. Everybody say safe. Safe. What are some practical ways to stay close to God? One way is to read God's word every day. Not just a devotional. Some people tell me, I'm reading this devotional for my quiet time, that's good. But you gotta read God's word too, because it's only through the word that faith is built in your heart. Devotionals alone won't do it, but the word will. Every day you can put it in your heart and build faith in your heart. Make it a habit, it only takes 15 minutes a day. And I know I'm talking to the choir, I know a lot of you already do that, spend much more time than that in God's word, but only 15 minutes a day. We can all find that time. And when we read God, we hear God, don't we? The Holy Spirit highlights things and talks to us about what we need from God that day. Then make time to pray. Everybody say pray. And listen, start where you are and just talk to God. It's just a conversation. Talk to Him and then listen to. Again, we have prayer guides. We have prayer groups that you can be a part of to help you learn and grow in your prayer life. Then stay connected and in fellowship with your church family. Those are three important things. See, the enemy works in isolation. The enemy works in isolation. He tries to get us off by ourselves. and things grow that shouldn't be growing in isolation. We were created for connection and community and we need other believers to spur us on. We need each other. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. If you don't want hell, if we don't want hell overcoming our home, we gotta stay connected to God's home, amen? We gotta stay connected to God's house. Just like anything else though, we have to prioritize what's important to us. And I know you're here because God's house is important to you I know you're here because you want to grow a great life in God. Amen.