All Things Together For Good: Chap. 6 Pt. 1

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January 20, 2022

The Puritan Thomas Watson's book, All Things For Good, walks through Romans 8:28 showing us how all of God's attributes work for our good. This does not mean that difficulties, trials, and affliction will be avoided, but however will work for our benefit. Join us as we go through the second chapter on God's affliction.

All Things Together For Good: Chap. 6 Pt. 2

00:12: Okay, so good evening, I was missing you guys for the last couple weeks, knowing you're in great hands with Pastor Anthony, and he concluded with you
00:24: Chapter 5 of All Things for Good. So this week we are opening up Chapter 6 in Thomas Watson's All Things for Good, and the chapter is titled
00:34: An Exhortation to Love God. So we're going to read through and we'll ask him some questions and get our minds thinking about all of this.
00:48: So he begins, Let me earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to become lovers of God.
00:54: O love the Lord, all you his saints. Psalm 31, 23. There are but few that love
01:01: God. Many give him hypocritical kisses, but few love him. It is not so easy to love
01:08: God as most imagine. The affection of love is natural, but the grace of love is not.
01:14: Men are, by nature, haters of God. The wicked would flee from God.
01:21: They would neither be under his rules nor within his reach. They fear God, but they do not love him.
01:27: All the strengthened men or angels cannot make the heart love God. Ordinances will not do it of themselves, nor will judgments.
01:34: Only the mighty and invincible power of the Spirit of God can infuse love into the soul.
01:41: This being so hard a work, it calls us for the more earnest. All the strengthened men or angels cannot make the heart love
01:48: God. Ordinances will not do it of themselves, nor will judgments. Only the almighty and invincible power of the
01:55: Spirit of God can infuse love into the soul. This being so hard a work, it calls upon us for the more earnest prayer and endeavor after this angelic grace of love to God.
02:06: To excite and inflame our desires after it, I shall prescribe 20 motives for loving God. 20.
02:13: And he says, this is just a brief look. You gotta love our
02:18: Puritan forebearers. So, let's consider that for a moment, the topic at hand.
02:28: An exhortation to love God. He says, become lovers of God. And he's persuading, seeking to earnestly persuade all who bear the name of Christians to love
02:37: God. Why? Why does he need to tell us that? Because we forget.
02:45: We forget. Do we just forget? We do forget, don't we?
02:50: We're forgetful people. And we never forget birthdays or anniversaries or anything like that, right?
03:00: Steve? Love to ourselves, we're not even to love God. True, that's right.
03:06: And that's what he's saying there when he's referencing Romans 1, right? Men are by nature haters of God.
03:12: Left to ourselves, we would not love God. You know, we hear people say, only if God would reveal himself, as if he hasn't revealed himself.
03:22: No, but if he'd come down and talk to us, if he'd do a miracle, if he'd do this, if he'd do that, and they give you any litany of litmus tests, that if God would do this, they would believe if they could only see him.
03:32: And they forget that right there in Genesis, Cain is speaking to God, and he's being disrespectful.
03:39: He has no love for God. He has only hatred and bitterness towards God. So, yes, men left to themselves after the fall.
03:48: We don't love God. We, by nature, hate God. But he's talking to Christians now. He's saying
03:55: Christians, those who bear the name Christian, he is pleading with them to become lovers of God.
04:02: Are Christians able to love God? Yes. Yes.
04:08: All right. Yes. Now, the question is, let's go back for a second.
04:15: When we think of the unregenerate person, and we probably are all clear, but is it possible or impossible for the unregenerate person to love
04:23: God? Impossible. Can they say they love God? Yes. Sure.
04:28: What does he say? Many give him hypocritical kisses. How many people say they love
04:34: God, or they're spiritual, or some other nonsense, but once you start getting into the nitty -gritty of applying his word, all of a sudden, well, that's not the
04:44: God I know and serve, right? Is it easy or difficult for the believer, though?
04:50: So it's impossible for the unregenerate. It's possible for the regenerate, right? Is it easy or difficult for us?
04:57: It depends on where your relationship is. It depends on if you're in the Word. It depends on if you're praying, if you're sitting under the means of grace.
05:07: If you're not, it does become difficult. You become dull. And so, you know, that old saying, if you feel far from God, just move.
05:16: Yeah. So yes and no. Yes. It's your ability to love
05:28: God is going to be more or less depending on how more or less you're involved with God relationally.
05:40: Cameron? Loving God is not always easy, right?
05:47: Like, oftentimes, showing true love to God is going to bring trials and tribulations in your life, right?
05:54: And it's really easy to go back to your carnal self and put those sacrificial things in your life aside, because it's way easier than it is to deal with it.
06:07: What comes along with that, right? Like, we're all called to, we're all capable of it.
06:13: I don't know if it's always easy. It certainly is. A lot of times it is easy, but I don't think it always is. And again, let's look at the two pillars of the commandments, right?
06:26: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That in and of itself is extremely difficult.
06:33: And your neighbor as yourself. It's not separate. They're together, right? So, even if you're not loving your neighbor as yourself, you're going to have a difficult time loving
06:43: God properly, right? Right. Yeah, it was interesting, you know, back in the beginning of 2020, around March, when everything was going
06:50: COVID crazy and it was really on everyone's radar, there was a lot of talk about loving your neighbor as yourself.
06:56: A lot of talk about loving your neighbor as yourself. And the question was, yes, that's good.
07:03: We should love our neighbor as ourselves. But how many people were talking about, like, how do we show love to God in this situation?
07:10: You know, because if you don't love God properly, you can't love your neighbor properly.
07:15: There is a correlation with that. But you both brought up some very interesting things. At first, I thought Jerry was looking at my notes with some of the things he said.
07:25: And then Cameron brought up another part of it. Jerry brought up the correlation of how much are you imbibing the means of grace?
07:34: How much are you getting into the word? Are you in prayer? Are you worship?
07:39: How much are you doing all those things will be a determining factor on how much you love
07:45: God versus how much you don't. If you don't feel like God is close, who moved? And that's something
07:50: Thomas Watson has talked about. And the worst things work for good. He talked about desertion and who moved with desertion.
07:58: We first deserted God. He didn't desert us. But it reminds us of our need and hopefully is the catalyst to bring us back to him.
08:08: But Cameron was talking about loving God and then trials and tribulations come and then we do these sacrificial things we put back on the shelf, which talks about how do we show love for God, right?
08:19: It's one thing to say we love God, but what does Jesus say? If you love me, keep my commandments.
08:28: So we want to show love for God. I mean, you talk about love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
08:34: Love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus says he's the two greatest commandments and all of the law and the prophets hang on these two.
08:41: Love is not just warm, fuzzy feelings. It can be that.
08:47: But true love is shown. It's manifested in works, right? It's coming out through our hands, our fingers, that sort of thing.
08:54: So we can sometimes stop showing the love that we claim to have.
09:00: Aaron? Yeah, no, bringing us back.
09:21: I mean, that's a means of grace to coming into the fellowship. That's where you're going to be encouraged. That's where you're going to be reminded. I just want to encourage everybody because loving
09:29: God, not that love is a process, but loving God is a process. Because the way you love
09:34: God when you first came to the Lord is going to be, you know, different than walking with him five years, 10 years, 15 years.
09:41: Especially when you go through trials and God puts you through that trial to show you that you're going to be more dependent on him.
09:48: All of a sudden you see, you learn to love God more because of the trial that you went through.
09:54: And you never would have got to that point if you didn't start somewhere.
10:00: Right? So the more you know, the more you grow, the more you grow, the more it shows.
10:06: Right? So it's this process of constant feeding, growing, moving forward, feeding, growing, moving forward.
10:13: Amen. You're going right along with that. You know, as we have been going through the prophets, right?
10:18: And the idea of exile and judgment, right? That's a coin, two sides to judgment to the people of God is to bring them back to God, to cause them to love him the way they should be loving him.
10:35: Of course, the other side is the wicked who aren't loving him at all and they're getting their due, you know, what they deserve.
10:43: So the tough times can work in many ways, but they all should be bringing us closer to God and loving him.
10:55: Yeah. I mean, we would hope all things being equal, you know, talk about it in just a little bit, the idea of relationship, right?
11:08: Some people will say, oh, I just saw a pastor talking about that. I was like, oh, I was talking to this, you know, this person or whatever like that about Jesus, about relationship, not religion.
11:17: Like you're a pastor, you should know a little better. But the idea of the relationship does serve the contrast as to the false religions, the false gods, you know, they're serving out of fear.
11:27: They're serving out of, you know, this duty obligation because of the consequences where we do have a loving relationship with the father, right?
11:36: We are his children. He is our father. You know, Jesus is our bridegroom.
11:41: We're the bride. So we do have this very relational aspect, and yet it's the one true religion.
11:49: Did I see your hand? Yeah, there's a comment.
11:55: Okay. But in terms of when you begin a relationship, you know, hopefully over time you grow to love more and more that person you're in a relationship.
12:11: You know, ask two siblings when they're young and they're fighting constantly, how much do you love your brother?
12:17: I'd love to see him move away. But, you know, 10, 15 years later, you know, we have a love, we have a bond, we grow in our relationship.
12:27: You know, I'm saying with a spouse, parent, child, friendships, we grow in our love as the relationship grows.
12:34: We come into relationship with Christ, with God the father, we grow over time, and we grow more and more in love.
12:41: The more we know, the more we go through, we grow in our love. So there is a correlation there.
12:48: When we're first getting saved, we're still very, very fleshly, generally. Sometimes there's radical transformation, sometimes there's still, but there's always still things that we need to address and to grow in.
13:01: And so we're supposed to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. God changes our nature so he makes it possible for us to love him where before we couldn't.
13:09: You know, he breaks that bondage. We're no longer slaves to sin, we don't have to sin, but we still struggle with it.
13:15: But as we contend with the old man, the flesh being at war with the spirit, you know, brings back to what
13:20: Jerry said, we're the means by which we change those things in us that are opposite and contrary to what they should be.
13:26: So yes, it's possible for us. Is it easy or difficult? It depends.
13:33: It depends on a number of things. And so here, understanding, you know, he says, many give hypocritical kisses, but few love him.
13:42: How many professing believers are there here in America? You know, I mean, who knows what's going on?
13:50: You know, we hear about the, they give statistics of how many Christians are on the road, how many
13:55: Muslims, how many Jews, how many Hindus, whatever. How many Christians are here in America? How many people say they're a believer in the
14:02: Lord Jesus Christ? Does our country look like it reflects? Does anyone know the percentage?
14:10: Has anyone heard the last numbers on it? No? It was a lot.
14:15: It seemed like it was the majority. I mean, we say like we're not a Christian nation anymore, there's such a plurality.
14:20: But there was a good, heavy percentage of people who claimed to be Christians of one sort or another.
14:26: But our country certainly doesn't seem like it's filled with that many true believers. So how many of us are giving hypocritical kisses, but actually few loving him?
14:36: So Thomas Watson, even then as a Puritan, recognizes this issue. And so he's going to give us some things to dwell on to motivate us to love
14:46: God, because we are forgetful people. And we have the Word of God in Psalm 31. Love the
14:52: Lord, all you his saints. We have to realize that when we see things prescribed to us in Scripture, commands given to us, exhortations given to us, why are they given to us?
15:07: For our benefit? Because it's usually the thing that we tend to struggle with, right? I talked about that one
15:12: Sunday about husbands, love your wives, wives respect your husbands. Like, why does he have to say that? That's the hard part.
15:18: That's the part we struggle with. But even here, we have to be reminded, love the Lord. So let's get into the motivations here.
15:27: Without love to God, all our religion is vain. It is not duty, but love to duty, which
15:34: God looks at. It is not how much we do, but how much we love. If a servant does not do his work willingly and out of love, it is not acceptable.
15:46: Duties not mingled with love are as burdensome to God as they are to us.
15:52: David therefore counsels his son Solomon to serve God with a willing mind. To do duty without love is not sacrifice, but penance.
16:00: That's interesting. Thoughts on that?
16:10: No, it's interesting because I was never raised Catholic, which is weird or atypical for Italians.
16:18: But it's so funny because grace is such a foreign concept to us sometimes.
16:26: Where there's just that instinct after you've done something wrong to try to make up for it.
16:32: So as much as it's obviously not heresy, it isn't hard for me to conjecture how it happens sometimes or how that thought process.
16:44: Because you really do look at it on just chores or an outline or a to -do list.
16:54: And it's like, well, I have to do this because God did this for me. This is what I have to do. And we really then deprive ourselves of all kinds of worship.
17:05: Yeah, I mean, how many times if we're offended, do we want someone to make it up to us somehow?
17:12: You got to make that right. Now there's a call for restitution if someone's stolen something or they broke something of yours or whatever.
17:20: There's an obligation to fix that, to make it right. But how much do we want them to make us feel better about what they've done?
17:27: Or do we want to try to make something right if we've wronged someone? Is sorry good enough or do we have to do something that's like penance?
17:36: But the idea of religion in general, all the religious duties that people would ascribe to Christianity.
17:46: Well, you have to go to church. They get confused, Christian and Catholic. Well, you have to go to confession.
17:52: You have to do these various things. And they're not thinking about it so much as this is what you're doing because you want to.
18:00: Well, you have to. It's religious. It's your duty. It's your obligation. The question is, does the
18:07: Lord need our service? Does he need our duty, our religious exercises? I see one shaking his head.
18:15: This is an easy one. These are softballs. He doesn't need us to do anything, right?
18:22: He's God. He's totally complete. Got a hand? Yeah. I guess people serve majesties, you know, and then good majesty and just leaders, willing servants.
18:40: You know, they don't they don't have servants that serve. You know, they don't grumble when they serve.
18:46: How much more kings who is good is all loving and powerful.
18:55: Yeah. Right. I think we're going to talk a little bit more about that as far as what our motivation is in doing that.
19:11: But that's yeah. We're right on here with this. You're serving serving royalty, you know, and looking at it as a privilege and an honor.
19:21: That's that's a that's a prominent position. You know, they're even in, you know,
19:27: Bible times, you know, you have you have servants who actually have almost almost a royal status.
19:34: They only have they have power and authority and, you know, they oversee other people. And they they have a pretty good position considering that they're a servant, you know.
19:42: And so how do they serve and what's their attitudes and do they appreciate it? And how do others who are serving the king of kings, you know, how do we view it?
19:53: But if the Lord doesn't need our service, he like kings need people to run around and do things for them.
19:59: Right. They need a cup there. They need to make sure that that wine is in poison because people are trying to kill them. You can't kill
20:05: God, much as the atheists would love to try to figure out a way. He doesn't need us to test wine.
20:12: He doesn't need us to bring him. He doesn't need one. He doesn't need anything. So what value is our religious service showing up at church, showing up for prayer, giving our money, giving our time?
20:26: If it's not with love, if it's out of just a sense of obligation because we don't want to go to hell or we want to keep a good reputation.
20:36: But if we don't have love, what value is any of those things to God who doesn't need our service?
20:47: None, right? I'm saying there's no answer because it's just obvious, right? There's none. Was there a hand?
20:53: No? Okay. Oh, look at that. We went from none to two.
20:58: I looked down for a second. They were both ladies first. Erica and then Remy. Okay.
21:05: So, I mean, when I look at a servant. Right.
21:17: So how is it not acceptable? I mean, doesn't the master know?
21:25: The master doesn't always know the motivation of a servant in a humanistic way.
21:31: Right. Humanistically speaking, they could be men -pleasers, right? Oh, they're flattering and they're all this and they're all that.
21:39: They could be putting on the front. Yeah, because a servant, most of the time,
21:45: I would expect that it's their duty. They have to do it.
21:51: So that's why they're doing it. So, I mean, just that one sentence.
21:56: If a servant does not do his work willingly and out of love, it is not acceptable. I see that in terms of you're
22:03: God's servants. And, you know, as Christians, we want to serve
22:11: God because we love him. But in another, like comparing it to humanly speaking,
22:20: I wouldn't, I don't know, I wouldn't say that they're really doing it in a lot of societies.
22:26: Well, when he's saying, I mean, keep in mind, if you go back to biblical law, you know, because sometimes we think of slavery, you know, and servanthood like that, where it's the, that was actually condemned by scripture, right?
22:43: What we had here in America was that chattel slavery. That was called man stealing. It was a capital offense. Back under scriptural guidelines, they didn't have credit cards.
22:54: They didn't have welfare offices. If you could not provide for yourself, you would go to someone who could provide for you and you would be a servant to them, you know, and they'd have the, you know, every seven years there should be a release and then they have a year of jubilee.
23:12: And so there were times of release, but a servant can say, I love my master and he takes care of me.
23:18: And so I will commit myself to him forever. And they take the all and they put it through the ear and that's it.
23:24: Now they're, that servant is their servant for life because they love that master.
23:31: And if they're doing it because, well, first of all, he's providing for me, you know, and he's treating me well.
23:38: So we're thinking of it, humanly speaking, like, well, it's just like, you know, the waitress at the restaurant. Well, I don't expect them to be doing it out of love for me bringing the food.
23:46: They're just doing it for a paycheck, right? But if you have a servant who you're providing for them and they're supposed to be working for you, when he says, now,
23:56: I don't know if he's thinking, if a servant does not do his work willingly and out of love, he's just thinking us as servants of God.
24:04: That's the main thing we have to look at because we're a human servant. I'm sorry, human master does require servants to do work, right?
24:13: Otherwise they have a problem on their hands. It's too much to get done. God needs nothing from us. But even a human master, you know, and I was actually thinking about this in terms of relationships.
24:24: If someone you're in a relationship with, a spouse, a child, a family member, if they were doing something for you that you needed them to do, if they were serving you in some way, ministering to you in some way, just doing what family does for one another.
24:39: Now, if they just did it out of cold obligation and there's no love behind it, how are you going to feel, right?
24:47: There's your dinner. I did it, right? But if there's no love, if they're not willing, how acceptable is that service?
24:58: You're like, I'd rather you go. I'll make my own. So there is a sense where we should be doing things.
25:06: I mean, when Paul is given instructions to employees, to servants, he says, do your service as unto the
25:15: Lord, right? And not just unto men, not to just be a man pleaser. So in what we do, we should actually, as Christians and the people of Israel, we are to love, right?
25:26: And we're supposed to love our enemies. We're supposed to love everyone else. So everything we do should be in love.
25:34: And if we're not doing it in love, how acceptable is that work? Or is there something wrong and deficient there?
25:42: Just to touch on that a little bit, too, I think a couple sentences back, you see, it is not duty, but love to duty, which
25:48: God looks at, right? So it's more about the state of your heart in those actions, right?
25:55: The state of the heart of the servant, right? Like you said, a servant who's grumbling is obviously in a different scenario than a servant who loves the family they serve and the blessings that they receive in that service, right?
26:10: It's a different relationship there, even though they're both servants. Right. So, I mean, keep in mind, for this, we're talking about motivation to love
26:20: God. And so we're talking about our religion is in vain if it's if it doesn't have love and our service.
26:27: You know, what is what is true religion? You know, but to visit the orphan, the widow in distress and to keep yourself from evil.
26:34: We're talking about religion. We're serving the king of kings. And so that's the focus. But there is spillover into how we treat each other, how we serve one another.
26:46: And so that's why I didn't just put that off to the side. As far as servants, if they're not doing it with a good attitude, if they're not doing it willingly, how acceptable is it?
26:57: I mean, if anyone here who's been a boss or a supervisor, if you have to deal with an employee who's clearly not willing, well, they'll do what they have to do.
27:06: But you can tell their attitude. Who wants that kind of person there? Who wants to say, like, well, let's look at your evaluation for your job.
27:15: Attitude needs work, you know, or here's your pink slip, you know, take off. But for us, when we're talking about serving
27:25: God, you know, Jesus says, you're not just servants, you're my friends. Servants don't know what their master is doing, but I've told you what
27:32: I'm doing. So we have this. We have a much more complex relationship with our
27:37: Savior. So it is a relation. But as servants, because he doesn't need our service, he is looking at our love.
27:46: If we're not doing it with love, what value is that? I have a follow -up question.
27:53: Zach. You're miserable, but you have a good attitude?
28:10: And like, you know, but you keep a good attitude. Does that count as doing it out of love?
28:15: Like, you're not actually happy. You're, like, really loving, but you're trying. That's a good question. That's actually part of my follow -up question.
28:23: Yeah. So if we're making it, if we're faking it till we make it, that's what
28:33: I was trying to say. You know, we're miserable, we're not willing, we're not happy, but we're really trying on the outside.
28:40: Jerry. It's just a question, are you actually content if you're miserable?
28:46: And what goal do you have? And one of the aspects of our contentment is based on our hope, which is based on our faith.
28:58: And that's also based on our understanding of God's love for us. So we kind of...
29:05: You can be doing a lot of mundane things, or you can have difficult circumstances, and you can be trying to be
29:10: Mr. Sunshine on the outside, but your heart's... But the Lord is looking at your heart. And the question is, do you think the
29:18: Lord wants you to be inwardly miserable and just putting up a charade for the outside?
29:25: And so the question is, if your heart is miserable, why?
29:31: And are you availing yourself of the means of grace that will help you to grow and to change your heart?
29:39: Do you think the Lord wants you to be miserable your whole life? And I'm not preaching like a health, wealth, prosperity, like, oh,
29:45: God just wants me happy. No. God wants you holy. Happiness will follow, right?
29:51: But there's something going on in the heart that needs to be addressed. So Mike and then Maria. I think that's something we all deal with.
30:05: We don't necessarily feel, but we are called to rejoice always.
30:19: You struggle with your emotions, but if your heart is honest before God, if you're doing things because you want to do them, or if you're striving for those emotions,
30:32: I think that's the important thing. Because eventually you will get to a place where you are genuinely happy, but it doesn't always happen.
30:45: So recognizing our responsibilities, but working on the heart to get to the feelings of Maria and then
30:50: Remy. Yeah, I know we have two friends now, but yeah. No, it's true that like sometimes we, even though we are like, they can't, like, grow their own being, like, our heart can't.
31:05: And also sometimes, I don't mean to like to admit it, but we delight in being miserable to an extent because it's egocentrism.
31:15: Like all self -pity is just putting yourself first and letting your world revolve around you.
31:22: Whereas just like when we think of, I'll have some students who, maybe not my students, but I've heard, like,
31:32: APSS, like, or protests that's so, you know, selfish of God, like self -absorbed.
31:38: But, like, we sit there thinking he's making a man, it's glorification for him, it's really for us.
31:45: So that's the best way for us to be is to be focused on him.
31:52: Yeah, and that'll come up later on too. Remy. I was just going to say, I think, you know, it's also a matter of perspective.
32:00: You know, we're not always going to be feeling happy, you know what I mean, or, you know, feeling with our spirits uplifted.
32:07: But, you know, that's why scripture calls us to recall on previous mercies that we've received, and things like that.
32:12: And, you know, we, we Philippians, and Paul talks about rejoicing, he talks about, you know, remembering what
32:18: Christ has done, you know, how he condescended and took on the form of, you know, took on flesh, and, you know, suffered to the point of, you know, going to the cross.
32:27: And then, as well as when we think of the auspiciousness of God, our duty towards him is actually benefiting us, that we get to partake in a relationship with him.
32:37: And we're able to do things that, you know, please him, and, you know, those things bring benefit to us, since God doesn't need any of it.
32:45: So, I just think it's a matter of perspective, and, you know, recalling those previous times where God has been faithful to, you know, prayers that you have asked him for, and things like that, so.
32:55: Yeah, we're called to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, so constantly working on a perspective to make sure it's correctly aligned.
33:03: I think the question that begs to be answered in that condition, why am
33:09: I miserable? Right? You know, you may be being put in a miserable position to bring you to God because you have a straight, or because your relationship isn't where it needs to be.
33:24: Or, let's look at Paul, how many situations was he in that could be considered miserable situations, but what did he do?
33:35: He encountered his own joy. Yeah, just to add on to Jerry, like, why?
33:43: You know, we went through a book not that long ago, here on Wednesday nights with Pastor Jensen, Spiritual Depression, by Martin Lloyd -Jones.
33:51: You know, why are you downcast, oh my soul. And so, there's times where we need to examine, what's going on in my heart?
33:58: Where he talks about, oh, how did they phrase it? Speaking to yourself, but not listening to yourself.
34:07: If you remember how that goes. Because we, listening to ourselves is sort of like our self -pity.
34:13: Like, oh, what was me? Oh, no, no, no. Speak truth to ourselves about who
34:19: God is, and who we are in Him, and all the many benefits we have. Because while the
34:25: Lord's top priority is not our happiness, right, He doesn't want us to be miserable.
34:33: If we're miserable, something is off, and there's a need for correction, and He provides us what we need to be joyful.
34:41: Well, I was just thinking about how, if you were miserable on the inside, but you have a good attitude on the outside, then
34:52: I don't think you can really fake it for, like, the rest of your life.
34:57: No. Essentially, you're going to have to face it, and then that's when you need to take all these different remedies, which, as you guys have mentioned, some of them were in the spiritual depression study, but then, you know, all of them going back to the
35:14: Bible and the truths that are found in the Bible, that would change this topic. But I think oftentimes we can ignore it.
35:20: We can ignore our misery for a time, and be like, okay, I'm just going to put on a happy face.
35:27: I think there are a lot of people who, we just, we don't face our feelings. We just kind of follow them on the inside.
35:36: Yeah. No, it's a good point. A lot of us, we try for a while to try to keep up the front.
35:43: I think Cameron had his hand up, and then Remy. I'm really appreciating this. If you want to talk directly to what Erica said, maybe go to him first, because I think mine might start a different thought process.
35:53: Okay. Yeah, it's kind of interrelated. I was going to say that, you know, maybe there is a virtuous way we can do that, where we don't feel, you know, we're miserable on the inside, but outwardly we put on, you know, our best attitude, because we do that in faith, you know what
36:09: I mean? Maybe our circumstances right now, they seem to be dim, and, you know, there's no way
36:15: I can figure that out, but, you know, we're going to be, I guess it goes back to just being content and trusting
36:21: God that God's in control of all these situations, and he's in control of all these outcomes, and all things work for good, for those who love him and all, according to his purpose.
36:29: And, you know, that, therefore, outwardly, we can, you know, by faith, put on that happy face, so to speak, and then, you know, just continue moving forward.
36:39: Pastor Anthony, and then we'll let Ashley and Cameron figure out. Can I talk about two different categories here?
36:46: Because love is not a feeling, love is a choice. So you can choose to do something and be miserable in it, but doing it for that person, if you're doing it out of love for them, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to like what you're doing.
37:03: Now, from a different, like Pastor Chris was talking, from a different vantage point, when you look at it from the sovereignty of God's perspective, he has you in this place for a reason.
37:16: Like, right after David slung a stone and killed Goliath, you know where he was the next day?
37:23: Shepherding the sheep. Like, he's right back into the thick of it. Right? After Joseph was thrown into the pit and he sold into slavery, and then he interprets the dream, where did he go the next day?
37:36: He's right back in the pit. And these things prepare you for future things.
37:42: It's like, I hate to say the karate kid wax on, wax off. You know what I'm saying? Like, God's preparing you in the midst of this.
37:49: It may not feel good, but you still may be doing it out of love. You know, look,
37:54: I don't go to work because I love it. I go to work because I love my family and I want to provide for them.
38:00: Right? Sometimes I'm miserable at work, but I know that in the midst of that, God's doing something in my life.
38:06: I could be mad at somebody. I could be being ungrateful. There's a lot of different things. So I think love is a choice, and it's not a feeling.
38:14: Sometimes your feelings have to follow what your choice is, and recognize the sovereignty of God in the situation.
38:22: Say, okay, he has me where he wants me, and he's not going anywhere. Ashley? I was going to say,
38:29: I think when we do love people, it should be out of joy. Like, the joy in our hearts doesn't feel as high when we don't.
38:37: Like, I don't know what Jerry said. He said, why are you, like, ask yourself, why are you feeling low?
38:42: Like, where is your source of joy? And, like, I was going to say before, happy days, and you feel miserable in life, that's not healthy.
38:56: Because, you know, there's a lot of people that they seem like they're really happy, and, you know, you look at them, and you're like, wow, this is so joyful, and then they're miserable.
39:06: And then all of a sudden they commit suicide, and everyone's like, whoa, I can't believe that. And, like, everyone's shocked.
39:13: You know? As believers, we obviously shouldn't, you know, shouldn't feel at that point.
39:19: But it's important, I think, to be honest with the people surrounding you, and just be accountable to people.
39:32: That's the smart part. Right. We're called to bear one of those burdens, you know?
39:39: We are a body, you know? If one member of the body is hurting, we're all hurting. And sometimes we're not aware of it until something happens, you know?
39:47: You might have a finger or a toe that's, you know, everything seems fine until you put a little pressure on it.
39:53: All of a sudden, oh, we've got a big problem. And so sometimes people are trying to keep it together, and, you know, you can't do it forever.
40:01: You know? You think of someone like Robin Williams. You know, the guy is just full of energy. He seems to be full of joy. He's like, you know, laugh a minute, and he's being tortured in his mind, you know, with whatever's going on.
40:12: You know, as members of the body of Christ, we have one another to bear one of those burdens, but we have to make the choice to let people in, you know, and to be open with that.
40:30: So, yes, there's resources, you know, the means of grace, fellowship, being under the word, being in prayer.
40:37: You know, there's books out there. There's counseling. And then there's just the body to help in the everyday stuff.
40:44: And so, yes, we should do that. So, me, I kind of like to go where the conversation takes us.
40:50: But Pastor Anthony is right. As far as, like, what we're talking about here, without love to God, our religion is in vain.
41:00: And I want to continue on part of that, but if Cameron has been – Cameron's like, it's over now, forget it.
41:06: Cameron says, I know what he was going to say. I'll say it. No. Just to bring it back, like, even when we feel miserable, it's good to be in the word and reminder where you previously deserved and no longer will be receiving.
41:30: And why that is. And it's because Jesus came and loved us in such a way.
41:37: How could we not but love? Yeah. I mean, we're going to go through this. I mean, 20 motivations.
41:43: So some of you guys have already touched on it, not knowing. But yes, these are things that we'll be discussing more in detail as we go.
41:51: But it's good now, because in case you're not here next week or the week after, depending how we go here,
41:57: I was thinking, oh, maybe we'll get to number nine. We're on number one. I'm pretty sure we're staying on number one, because we're almost done here in time.
42:04: Maria. Yeah. Yes. Now he's revived.
42:36: So, I think a lot of it, I have questions about, and maybe it's too much to unpack right now as part of it, but duties not mingled with love are as burdensome to God as they are to us.
42:48: I mean, I think it's clear like what we're saying, duties without love, they're burdensome to us.
42:54: It's like if you're faking it until you make it, that's a burden on you and you're going to need to come to grips with that somehow.
43:02: I really want to talk about how they're burdensome to God, and maybe it's too much for the weeds, but I'm trying to wrap my head around that thought process and I'm struggling with it.
43:11: I'm kind of like, obviously I think I get what he's trying to say, but that's an odd way to word it.
43:19: Just for the sake of time, I think of Isaiah. What are your new moons and your
43:26: Sabbaths? They are a burden to me because they are doing the religious activity.
43:33: They're bringing their sacrifices, they're bringing their tithes, they're bragging about how much they're giving, and he goes, you make me sick.
43:42: He goes, you open up your arms to pray? I close my eyes, I close my ears, I don't want any of it.
43:47: It's a burden to me. When we do the religious thing, the religious practices of showing up for church, for worship, for prayer, we give our money, we do all these things, but if we don't have love in our heart for God, and we are, as he said in the last paragraph, about just being hypocritical, it's an abomination to God.
44:11: Jesus talks about when we bring our sacrifice, he desires obedience and love and mercy over sacrifice, because if you bring your gift to the altar and you realize that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, go and be reconciled to your brother, then come back.
44:31: We say, we examine ourselves before we take communion, before we take the
44:38: Lord's Supper. Is there unconfessed sin? Is there unrepentant sin? We're going to take the Lord's Supper.
44:43: There's this religious ordinance, right? But our hearts aren't right with God. God is not pleased with it.
44:49: It's a burden to him. That's where my mind goes when he's saying that as far as...
44:56: That makes a lot of sense. I think I was equating the burden, right?
45:03: The burden for us is a different type of burden than it is for God. Yeah, we're miserable doing it, because if we're not doing it out of love, it's just like, oh,
45:09: I've got to go do this thing, right? I've got to show up, I've got to get up early. My only day to sleep in,
45:16: I've got to get up. Now it's a burden to us. And he's like, stay in bed. Because you're not doing him any favors.
45:23: I think it's a burden because... Yeah, being a hypocrite.
45:40: He knows the truth, and the lie is something that he has to deal with.
45:46: So I can see how that burden is going to be on him. And so we should come to the truth.
45:56: And serve the spirit of truth. Oh my goodness. I really appreciate this.
46:03: But I've got one more thing I want to say. You're good? Erica and then
46:09: Jerry. Okay, so I was just thinking about how, since God doesn't need our service, he doesn't need anything from us, then basically by doing it, he doesn't need us to do it anyway.
46:25: So it's not doing anything positive for him, and instead it's just a negative for him.
46:33: Jerry. I was just going to say that some of the phraseology we have to realize is from a human perspective.
46:39: Like when we say God is burdened by it. It's not... Yeah, God's not burdened by anything.
46:47: He's not over there going, ah, you know. No, I was coming from it. I am not wrapping my head around it. That's what
46:52: I figured. I mean, the Lord uses anthropomorphism, the anthropopathism to, you know, he's not like, ah, these guys.
47:02: But he's saying, I find no pleasure in you bringing your sacrifice when you're oppressing the fatherless and the widow.
47:10: You're not showing any love to those people. I keep commanding you to love. Go take the bull you're sacrificing to me and go feed that family.
47:19: Stop with the pretense. Have real love. So here's the last question because I want to finish at least with one motivation.
47:29: Praise God. So there's no value in doing religious things if we don't have love, right?
47:38: If love is missing in our service, should we stop doing those things? Yeah, I know.
47:47: Should we stop doing those things? And we've kind of touched on this, the old fake it till you make it. Should we, shouldn't we?
47:57: If I don't feel like going to church on a Sunday morning, should I stay home? I know where you're going with this,
48:03: I think. There's a lot of times we don't feel like praying. Or a lot of times we don't feel like studying the
48:09: Word. But we should put ourselves in a position that we do that and that's for our benefits because we find as we do that, our heart is renewed or revived.
48:19: I think the same thing with worship. We may not want to go to worship for whatever reason.
48:27: We should want to go. But who knows, we're having an off day. Sin is battering us or something.
48:35: And of course we've got to look at that and figure that out. But we still should go because that's sitting under the means of grace.
48:43: That's sitting under the counsel of God. That's sitting under the fellowship of a brother. And this hopefully is going to bring out what's preventing you from desiring to do so.
48:55: That's what I was going to say. The answer isn't to stop doing what you're doing. It's to find what's missing in it.
49:03: Find the love. And the way you find that is by, like Jerry said, exposing yourself to those means of grace.
49:10: That's how God works in us. Being at worship service, things like that. I think the opposite is people may,
49:19: I'm not saying anybody does this, but if you're miserable and you come into church and act like, oh, so happy to be here.
49:27: Like putting on the broad front is not the answer. Yeah, it's not going to help. That's not going to improve your situation.
49:34: It would be far more valuable and worthwhile and beneficial to you. And believe it or not, to the rest of the body if you told them what you were struggling with.
49:45: She disappeared for a second. But Maria said like, oh, what'd she say?
49:54: I lost my thought for a second. She said sometimes we delight in being miserable.
50:02: So if you delight in being miserable and you just want to be miserable and you don't want to change, well then you're not helping anyway.
50:08: But if you're miserable and you don't want to stay miserable, you'd be actually helping not only yourself, but the body to grow as a body to share your burden so that someone else can encourage you.
50:22: Because that's beneficial actually to everyone, believe it or not. Counterintuitive as it might be. I was going to say to bring it back to the fake until you make it analogy.
50:32: And it's really not a one -to -one good one, but the idea is not to continue faking it. The idea is to figure out how to make it right.
50:39: Right. And we need each other for that. We need to lift each other up in prayer. We need to encourage.
50:45: You'd be amazed what a word in season can do for a brother or sister in Christ. And we can't share that if we don't know.
50:56: And so it's good for the body that we share it. So if love is missing in our service, and that was actually
51:03: I guess sort of a loaded question because the answer is if we have no love for God, then don't, you know.
51:12: But if you don't, if your love is waning, you know, if you're struggling with it, if you don't feel the fires of love burning passionately, by all means, that's when you most need to be at church.
51:27: You know, don't get me wrong. Like, oh, I feel great today. I don't have to go to church now. He's still going to go to church. I know how some people like to twist things.
51:33: He said you should be at worship. You should be with the body.
51:40: And when you feel like you don't want to be there, that's when you really need to be there because you need that encouragement.
51:46: But you have to open yourself up to it so that we can grow. So that covers the first motivation.
51:53: Only 19 more. This is great. Pastor Anthony will be like, ask more questions.
52:00: And look what happened. This is great. All right, so praise God. Hopefully that's useful. I'm not going to ask if you have any questions.
52:08: We have to go to prayer. So I'm going to. Actually, good one. She's like, ah, no. All right, we'll close in prayer, and then we'll go to prayer.